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News Just In From The Whitehouse
Oct. 20th, 2010 09:21 amIt appears there's a bit of unrest amongst Whitehouse staff. Here's an interview with one of the President's closest aides:
(Direct Link)
(Direct Link)
A Ramble Through The Stars
Aug. 11th, 2010 10:49 pmI've been told I should witter more. Not being one to turn down an opportunity to make people regret saying things like that to me, I shall ramble on some more...
So, the solar system is kind of big. 30,000,000 pixels to be precise.
...or at least it is when represented by French artist licoti, a tour of whose fairly amazing artwork is shown in the video below.
(Direct Link)
The full 18Mb image
So, the solar system is kind of big. 30,000,000 pixels to be precise.
...or at least it is when represented by French artist licoti, a tour of whose fairly amazing artwork is shown in the video below.
(Direct Link)
The full 18Mb image
So just caught up on last nights Question Time. For those of you that missed it, it's available on iplayer at the moment:
(Direct link)
The slagging match at the begining was a bit pointless. Throwing quotes at him and him denying them isn't going to convince anyone that's BNP policy unless they know he's already said them, in which case they either agree with the sentiment expressed or they don't.
The BNP have some horrendous views, but if you throw quotes at anyone that the vast majority disagree with, and they couldn't possibly justify to the people, in front of the very people they are trying to convince of their policies, then of course they are going to try and wriggle out of these things.
Unless the government make hugely monumental cock up to completely alienate the people against all the main parties, the BNP are unlikely to gain a majority in the government, so the chances of any of their most extreme policies getting implemented are minimal.
However, they do have more moderate policies that are winning over voters. These are the ones to address. When these came up later in the show, Nick opened up and not only expressed these views, but also gave insight into the underlying abhorrant reasoning behind them. That is where the true agenda of the BNP is shown off to the nation, not through a personal attack on their representative.
He has every right to hold his views and every right to express them. It is the duty of opposing politicians to expose the holes within these policies not within the person. Whatever he believes he is a human being and he deserves be treated with common courtesy regardless of whether he shows this to others in return.
No matter how extreme his views, he does have some valid points to raise. People voted for him because they believe he represents their views, so he needs to be allowed to represent them. Many of these people aren't going to believe in all the policies the BNP puts forward. Who believes in all the policies of the party they vote for? It must be a very small minority of people. If the majority of the views the BNP put forward turn out not to be what the people voted for and against what these people believe they'll question why they voted for him. However, there will be some of them that do express what the people voted for.
There are issues with people feeling that immigrants are coming into the country and threatening their way of life. There are people who find homosexual activities repulsive. Homophobia exists. These are issues that need to be raised and the BNP are quite right to raise them. Many people feel threatened by these things because they threaten the values they have been brought up to believe in and so want them brought up for discussion for that very reason.
What makes the BNP abhorrent is what they want to do about these issue, shutting them out of harms way instead of bringing them forward to help people come to terms with them. It's through debating these issues that the true nature of these policies come forward and you see exactly how anti-equality the BNP really are.
We don't fear being equal. We fear being less important than those around us and things that challenge our position in society to make us that way. To show the true nature of the BNP, you need to show how they want to make huge numbers of the people in this country into lesser citizens by promoting inequality.
I must admit I was feeling quite sorry for Griffin by the end. No matter how extreme his views are they are still as valid as anyone elses and he had to sit there and put these forwards to a room full of negative feeling towards him. It can't have been easy for him no matter how used to it he is and it was interesting to see how much he seemed to be shaking towards the end.
He and the people who voted for him, have these views for a reason. You can't just dismiss them. They need to be debated so that the issues they raise can be looked at under a more rational light. You don't gain equality by putting one persons views in higher regards than another. Equality requires all these views to be discussed on equal grounds. Only then can everyone feel that their views have been represented in the resulting solution.
There are too many of us who want to see equality for the BNP to get their way, but this equality can only be truely equal if it gives the views of all individuals including those in the BNP fair consideration.
(Direct link)
The slagging match at the begining was a bit pointless. Throwing quotes at him and him denying them isn't going to convince anyone that's BNP policy unless they know he's already said them, in which case they either agree with the sentiment expressed or they don't.
The BNP have some horrendous views, but if you throw quotes at anyone that the vast majority disagree with, and they couldn't possibly justify to the people, in front of the very people they are trying to convince of their policies, then of course they are going to try and wriggle out of these things.
Unless the government make hugely monumental cock up to completely alienate the people against all the main parties, the BNP are unlikely to gain a majority in the government, so the chances of any of their most extreme policies getting implemented are minimal.
However, they do have more moderate policies that are winning over voters. These are the ones to address. When these came up later in the show, Nick opened up and not only expressed these views, but also gave insight into the underlying abhorrant reasoning behind them. That is where the true agenda of the BNP is shown off to the nation, not through a personal attack on their representative.
He has every right to hold his views and every right to express them. It is the duty of opposing politicians to expose the holes within these policies not within the person. Whatever he believes he is a human being and he deserves be treated with common courtesy regardless of whether he shows this to others in return.
No matter how extreme his views, he does have some valid points to raise. People voted for him because they believe he represents their views, so he needs to be allowed to represent them. Many of these people aren't going to believe in all the policies the BNP puts forward. Who believes in all the policies of the party they vote for? It must be a very small minority of people. If the majority of the views the BNP put forward turn out not to be what the people voted for and against what these people believe they'll question why they voted for him. However, there will be some of them that do express what the people voted for.
There are issues with people feeling that immigrants are coming into the country and threatening their way of life. There are people who find homosexual activities repulsive. Homophobia exists. These are issues that need to be raised and the BNP are quite right to raise them. Many people feel threatened by these things because they threaten the values they have been brought up to believe in and so want them brought up for discussion for that very reason.
What makes the BNP abhorrent is what they want to do about these issue, shutting them out of harms way instead of bringing them forward to help people come to terms with them. It's through debating these issues that the true nature of these policies come forward and you see exactly how anti-equality the BNP really are.
We don't fear being equal. We fear being less important than those around us and things that challenge our position in society to make us that way. To show the true nature of the BNP, you need to show how they want to make huge numbers of the people in this country into lesser citizens by promoting inequality.
I must admit I was feeling quite sorry for Griffin by the end. No matter how extreme his views are they are still as valid as anyone elses and he had to sit there and put these forwards to a room full of negative feeling towards him. It can't have been easy for him no matter how used to it he is and it was interesting to see how much he seemed to be shaking towards the end.
He and the people who voted for him, have these views for a reason. You can't just dismiss them. They need to be debated so that the issues they raise can be looked at under a more rational light. You don't gain equality by putting one persons views in higher regards than another. Equality requires all these views to be discussed on equal grounds. Only then can everyone feel that their views have been represented in the resulting solution.
There are too many of us who want to see equality for the BNP to get their way, but this equality can only be truely equal if it gives the views of all individuals including those in the BNP fair consideration.
Pumpkin Synthesis
Oct. 18th, 2009 07:56 pm
So, the next CD in the pile is the Smashing Pumpkins' Adore from 1998.The Smashing Pumpkins somehow missed my radar when I was a teenager other than for a general awareness that the band existed. It wasn't until university that I actually really listened to any of their music through this album and it's predecessor Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Even then, although I found it interesting, I never really got into it.
Several years later, I found this copy in a local record shop for £2, so picked it up and gave it another listen... and another... and another and it keeps growing on me.
It was around this time that music fashion appeared to turn back towards synthesisers under the influence of bands such as Aphex Twin and there were several grungy rock bands trying out more synthesised styles to varying degrees of success. The Pumpkins with their art rock sound naturally seem to have the blend these bands were trying for without any effort. In some ways it takes the arena dance rock of the likes of Depeche Mode and angst-ridden playfulness of bands like the Cure and does the unthinkable and attempts to add even more drama to it. Somehow it works, seemlessly moving between orchestral synthesisers, heavy rock guitars and more acoustic stuff.
Adore came out after the dismissal of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin from the band which was taken as an opportunity to update the bands style. It's quite a while since I last heard Melon Collie, so how much of a change it represents I cannot say, but it certainly shows heavy leanings toward drum machines alongside it's multitude of studio drummers.
One of the things that makes this album so interesting, is the huge variety of styles of the tracks. Whatever you could say about the band, you couldn't accuse them of having only one sound on this album.
Of all the tracks the one that really stands out to me is Pug, which wonderfully melts between orchestral synthesisers and rocking guitar making strong use of both the acoustic drum kit and electric drum machine.
The first single from the album Ava Adore also demonstrates the sound quite well and the video also shows off the dramatic eccentricity of the band, so here it is:
(Direct Link)
There are a multitude of artists promoting themselves through the internet on the likes of facebook and twitter, but
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
billycorgan is the first one I've heard of on LJ.Social Consumption of Alcohol
Oct. 18th, 2009 01:29 pmI enjoy the occasional alcoholic drink and there are times when I have a few too many, but in general I don't enjoy being drunk.
As with many teenagers who start to become able to purchase alcohol (whether legally or not), I went through the whole drink vast quantities to prove how much I could hold my drink when I was younger. The upshot of which was generally, however much you can take, you drink far more than this, end up losing most of your inhibitions, being very ill, spending far too much and not remembering any of it in the morning making it a utter waste of time.
Saw this advert at the cinema recently, which seems to cover the point quite well:
(Direct Link)
As I've grown up, I've opted to drink less, but move towards spending a bit more for something that actually tastes nice. Whereas, my aim as a teenager was to get drunk, now it's just to enjoy the drink. If I drink too much then it's because I've not being paying attention to how much I've drunk rather than because I've been deliberately aiming to drink that much and even then I don't get near the states I got into as a teenager.
However, even as a grown adult you still get into situations where peer pressure is pushing you to drink more than you really want.
Recently I ended up the pub with some friends, I had a pint and socialised for a bit, but not feeling like I wanted a second I wandered off for a bit, returning about 2 hours later. By that time they'd had a few more pints and were quite merry, which is obviously up to them if they want to.
From what I gathered when I got back, there had been a few of them buying drinks for another member of the group. Nothing wrong with that in itself as it's just friendly. However, what they'd been doing was buying doubles without telling her, which has been bothering me since I found out. If someone chooses to get drunk that's one thing, but if others around them are actively seeking to make them drunk then that's going against their free will.
You hear many horror stories of people who have had things like Rohipnol placed in their drink. While I'm fairly sure that no one here was trying to take advantage in that way, placing extra alcohol in someones drink is still the same abuse of someone's free will even if the result is more socially acceptable.
For all I know they could have all been perfectly happy with the situation. I didn't really stick around very long afterwards to find out.
To me, being drunk isn't a fun state to be in, so actively seeking to get someone else drunk is just seeking to make a fool out of them. How can that possibly be a good thing?
As with many teenagers who start to become able to purchase alcohol (whether legally or not), I went through the whole drink vast quantities to prove how much I could hold my drink when I was younger. The upshot of which was generally, however much you can take, you drink far more than this, end up losing most of your inhibitions, being very ill, spending far too much and not remembering any of it in the morning making it a utter waste of time.
Saw this advert at the cinema recently, which seems to cover the point quite well:
(Direct Link)
As I've grown up, I've opted to drink less, but move towards spending a bit more for something that actually tastes nice. Whereas, my aim as a teenager was to get drunk, now it's just to enjoy the drink. If I drink too much then it's because I've not being paying attention to how much I've drunk rather than because I've been deliberately aiming to drink that much and even then I don't get near the states I got into as a teenager.
However, even as a grown adult you still get into situations where peer pressure is pushing you to drink more than you really want.
Recently I ended up the pub with some friends, I had a pint and socialised for a bit, but not feeling like I wanted a second I wandered off for a bit, returning about 2 hours later. By that time they'd had a few more pints and were quite merry, which is obviously up to them if they want to.
From what I gathered when I got back, there had been a few of them buying drinks for another member of the group. Nothing wrong with that in itself as it's just friendly. However, what they'd been doing was buying doubles without telling her, which has been bothering me since I found out. If someone chooses to get drunk that's one thing, but if others around them are actively seeking to make them drunk then that's going against their free will.
You hear many horror stories of people who have had things like Rohipnol placed in their drink. While I'm fairly sure that no one here was trying to take advantage in that way, placing extra alcohol in someones drink is still the same abuse of someone's free will even if the result is more socially acceptable.
For all I know they could have all been perfectly happy with the situation. I didn't really stick around very long afterwards to find out.
To me, being drunk isn't a fun state to be in, so actively seeking to get someone else drunk is just seeking to make a fool out of them. How can that possibly be a good thing?
In recorded music, when producing a cover version, it seems utterly pointless unless you do something different enough to bring something new to the original.
This certainly seems to fit that criteria, as I'm fairly certain Shakespeare didn't have this in mind when he wrote the speech:
(Direct Link)
The Metal Shakespear Company's rendition of the famous speech from Act III Scene I of Hamlet otherwise known as "To Bleed Or Not To Bleed" (viaprettyarbitrary).
Given how much overacting you can get away with in heavy metal, it's like giving them free rein to go bananas with it and they seem more than happy to oblige.
What's more, apparently, there's a whole album of it!
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
This certainly seems to fit that criteria, as I'm fairly certain Shakespeare didn't have this in mind when he wrote the speech:
(Direct Link)
The Metal Shakespear Company's rendition of the famous speech from Act III Scene I of Hamlet otherwise known as "To Bleed Or Not To Bleed" (via
prettyarbitrary).Given how much overacting you can get away with in heavy metal, it's like giving them free rein to go bananas with it and they seem more than happy to oblige.
What's more, apparently, there's a whole album of it!
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
Political Sunburn
Oct. 10th, 2009 04:23 pm
Haven't posted about an album for a while, so have a bit of a pile of CDs next to the computer now.Continuing on the recent theme of albums that were big when I was a teenager, the next in the pile is Skunk Anansie's debut Paranoid & Sunburnt. The album is basically political hard rock with a funk edge to it. It's this edge that gives it the real interest and sets Skunk Anansie apart from other groups performing metal protest songs.
It helps that Skin's vocal style seems ideally suited to this, being able to pull off soulful melodies as in "100 Ways To Be A Good Girl" and more punchy agressive stuff as in "All In The Name Of Pity" and "Little Baby Swastikkka". Although it does make her absolutely terrifying.
Not a band for subtly though and the messages of all their tracks are rammed down your throat from the opening of each track right through to the end, kicking out violently at politics and religion. Most of the tracks are a interesting listen whether you share their sentiment or not though.
Highlights of the album include the singles "Selling Jesus" and "Weak" as well as "100 Ways to be A Good Girl" and "It Takes Blood & Guts to be this Cool, but I'm Still Just a Cliche".
You don't actually get to see music videos when listening to CDs of albums, but as "I Can Dream" has such a cool one with bendy wavy mirrory effects, I'm going to share it with you anyway:
(direct link)
All in all, Paranoid & Sunburnt doesn't seem to hold together as well as Stoosh or Post-Orgasmic Chill, but it certainly shows the direction Skunk Anansie were heading in.
A Glimpse of Gogs at Wallingford
Sep. 18th, 2009 05:25 pm(Direct link)
Yay! I like it when random videos of us appear on youtube, especially when they're of dances that seem to have gone well :-)
It's always odd seeing yourself on film. I'd never noticed how similar my hat was to the ears of a spaniel before and those shoe laces really are scarily pink.
Clash of Cultures
Sep. 13th, 2009 08:20 pmThis is clearly what I'm missing by not having a TV.
How To Simulate a Thunderstorm
Sep. 3rd, 2009 12:42 amThe introduction to this is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen
A human thunderstorm, excellent!
It then dissolves into an acapella version of Toto's "Africa", which is ok if you like that sort of thing, but nowhere near as interesting as those first couple of minutes.
(viamud_faerie)
A human thunderstorm, excellent!
It then dissolves into an acapella version of Toto's "Africa", which is ok if you like that sort of thing, but nowhere near as interesting as those first couple of minutes.
(via
mud_faerie)Continuing The Contemporary Folk Theme
Aug. 20th, 2009 11:13 pm...but from a modern perspective, this cropped up on the Gogs mailing list today:
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It's a tune we dance to, but not generally played quite like that.
It's a tune we dance to, but not generally played quite like that.
Origami for Bicycles
Aug. 5th, 2009 01:14 pmThe idea of folding bicycles is quite cool really, but I've never seen one that has normal sized (26") wheels and folds up like this before:
This is the contortionist designed by Robert Hargrave at the Royal College of Art.
There's a video of it in action here:
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(via![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
inhabitat)
This is the contortionist designed by Robert Hargrave at the Royal College of Art.
There's a video of it in action here:
(via
inhabitat)DIY Mellotrons
Jul. 3rd, 2009 06:02 pmOoooooooo....
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(viasapphorlando in ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
progrock)
and even better Mike Walter's Melloman
*wonders off in search of old walkmans*
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(via
sapphorlando in progrock)and even better Mike Walter's Melloman
*wonders off in search of old walkmans*
