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Attention: Returning to 'Old School' ~@~
(imo) Internet has become too dangerous for novice users and I'm tired of dealing with (other people's) cracked accounts.
No 'free' Email Accepted after
June 30, 2014
(Absolutely No Exceptions)
Personal, Non-free, Email will be accepted.
(For the moment)
Everyone else use USPS Mail or Telephone for contact.
Attention Unsuspecting Socnet Lab Rats
Do the following articles reveal something similar to
Nazi human experimentation on Jews?
Facebook reveals news feed
experiment to control emotionsProtests over secret study involving 689,000 users in which friends' postings were moved to influence moods
Poll: Facebook's secret mood experiment: have you lost trust in the social network?
Robert Booth, The Guardian, Sunday 29 June 2014, Article Source
Activists and politicians called Facebook's experiment 'scandalous', 'spooky' and 'disturbing'.
Photograph: Dado Ruvic/ReutersIt already knows whether you are single or dating, the first school you went to and whether you like or loathe Justin Bieber. But now Facebook, the world's biggest social networking site, is facing a storm of protest after it revealed it had discovered how to make users feel happier or sadder with a few computer key strokes.
It has published details of a vast experiment in which it manipulated information posted on 689,000 users' home pages and found it could make people feel more positive or negative through a process of "emotional contagion".
In a study with academics from Cornell and the University of California, Facebook filtered users' news feeds – the flow of comments, videos, pictures and web links posted by other people in their social network. One test reduced users' exposure to their friends' "positive emotional content", resulting in fewer positive posts of their own. Another test reduced exposure to "negative emotional content" and the opposite happened.
The study concluded: "Emotions expressed by friends, via online social networks, influence our own moods, constituting, to our knowledge, the first experimental evidence for massive-scale emotional contagion via social networks."
Lawyers, internet activists and politicians said this weekend that the mass experiment in emotional manipulation was "scandalous", "spooky" and "disturbing".
On Sunday evening, a senior British MP called for a parliamentary investigation into how Facebook and other social networks manipulated emotional and psychological responses of users by editing information supplied to them.
Jim Sheridan, a member of the Commons media select committee, said the experiment was intrusive. "This is extraordinarily powerful stuff and if there is not already legislation on this, then there should be to protect people," he said. "They are manipulating material from people's personal lives and I am worried about the ability of Facebook and others to manipulate people's thoughts in politics or other areas. If people are being thought-controlled in this kind of way there needs to be protection and they at least need to know about it."
A Facebook spokeswoman said the research, published this month in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the US, was carried out "to improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible".
She said: "A big part of this is understanding how people respond to different types of content, whether it's positive or negative in tone, news from friends, or information from pages they follow."
But other commentators voiced fears that the process could be used for political purposes in the runup to elections or to encourage people to stay on the site by feeding them happy thoughts and so boosting advertising revenues.
In a series of Twitter posts, Clay Johnson, the co-founder of Blue State Digital, the firm that built and managed Barack Obama's online campaign for the presidency in 2008, said: "The Facebook 'transmission of anger' experiment is terrifying."
He asked: "Could the CIA incite revolution in Sudan by pressuring Facebook to promote discontent? Should that be legal? Could Mark Zuckerberg swing an election by promoting Upworthy [a website aggregating viral content] posts two weeks beforehand? Should that be legal?"
It was claimed that Facebook may have breached ethical and legal guidelines by not informing its users they were being manipulated in the experiment, which was carried out in 2012.
The study said altering the news feeds was "consistent with Facebook's data use policy, to which all users agree prior to creating an account on Facebook, constituting informed consent for this research".
But Susan Fiske, the Princeton academic who edited the study, said she was concerned. "People are supposed to be told they are going to be participants in research and then agree to it and have the option not to agree to it without penalty."
James Grimmelmann, professor of law at Maryland University, said Facebook had failed to gain "informed consent" as defined by the US federal policy for the protection of human subjects, which demands explanation of the purposes of the research and the expected duration of the subject's participation, a description of any reasonably foreseeable risks and a statement that participation is voluntary. "This study is a scandal because it brought Facebook's troubling practices into a realm – academia – where we still have standards of treating people with dignity and serving the common good," he said on his blog.
It is not new for internet firms to use algorithms to select content to show to users and Jacob Silverman, author of Terms of Service: Social Media, Surveillance, and the Price of Constant Connection, told Wire magazine on Sunday the internet was already "a vast collection of market research studies; we're the subjects".
"What's disturbing about how Facebook went about this, though, is that they essentially manipulated the sentiments of hundreds of thousands of users without asking permission," he said. "Facebook cares most about two things: engagement and advertising. If Facebook, say, decides that filtering out negative posts helps keep people happy and clicking, there's little reason to think that they won't do just that. As long as the platform remains such an important gatekeeper – and their algorithms utterly opaque – we should be wary about the amount of power and trust we delegate to it."
Robert Blackie, director of digital at Ogilvy One marketing agency, said the way internet companies filtered information they showed users was fundamental to their business models, which made them reluctant to be open about it.
"To guarantee continued public acceptance they will have to discuss this more openly in the future," he said. "There will have to be either independent reviewers of what they do or government regulation. If they don't get the value exchange right then people will be reluctant to use their services, which is potentially a big business problem."
Facebook emotion study breached
ethical guidelines, researchers sayLack of 'informed consent' means that Facebook experiment on nearly 700,000 news feeds broke rules on tests on human subjects, say scientists
Poll: Facebook's secret mood experiment: have you lost trust in the social network?
Charles Arthur, theguardian.com, Monday 30 June 2014 04.51 EDT, Article Source
The results found that users' emotions were reinforced by what they saw - what the
researchers called 'emotional contagion'. Photograph: PAResearchers have roundly condemned Facebook's experiment in which it manipulated nearly 700,000 users' news feeds to see whether it would affect their emotions, saying it breaches ethical guidelines for "informed consent".
James Grimmelmann, professor of law at the University of Maryland, points in an extensive blog post that "Facebook didn't give users informed consent" to allow them to decide whether to take part in the study, under US human subjects research.
"The study harmed participants," because it changed their mood, Grimmelmann comments, adding "This is bad, even for Facebook."
But one of the researchers, Adam Kramer, posted a lengthy defence on Facebook, saying it was carried out "because we care about the emotional impact of Facebook and the people that use our product." He said that he and his colleagues "felt that it was important to investigate the common worry that seeing friends post positive content leads to people feeling negative or left out."
The experiment hid certain elements from 689,003 peoples' news feed – about 0.04% of users, or 1 in 2,500 – over the course of one week in 2012. The experiment hid "a small percentage" of emotional words from peoples' news feeds, without their knowledge, to test what effect that had on the statuses or "Likes" that they then posted or reacted to.
The results found that, contrary to expectation, peoples' emotions were reinforced by what they saw - what the researchers called "emotional contagion".
But the study has come in for severe criticism because unlike the advertising that Facebook shows - which arguably aims to alter peoples' behaviour by making them buy products or services from those advertisers - the changes to the news feeds were made without users' knowledge or explicit consent.
Max Masnick, a researcher with a doctorate in epidemiology who says of his work that "I do human-subjects research every day", says that the structure of the experiment means there was no informed consent - a key element of any studies on humans.
"As a researcher, you don’t get an ethical free pass because a user checked a box next to a link to a website’s terms of use. The researcher is responsible for making sure all participants are properly consented. In many cases, study staff will verbally go through lengthy consent forms with potential participants, point by point. Researchers will even quiz participants after presenting the informed consent information to make sure they really understand.
"Based on the information in the PNAS paper, I don’t think these researchers met this ethical obligation."
Kramer does not address the topic of informed consent in his blog post. But he says that "my co-authors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused. In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety."
In Memory of Bobby Womack
Bobby Womack poses for a 1975 portrait. Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesBobby Womack dies aged 70 ~ Soul great who worked with musicians from Sam Cooke to Damon Albarn has died after career spanning nearly six decades
Bobby Womack ~ in pictures The great soul singer Robert Dwayne 'Bobby' Womack was born on 4 March 1944 and died on 27 June 2014. He started his career in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group The Womack Brothers, which was to become the Valentinos. He then went on to enjoy a long solo career from 1967 to 2014. Here we look back at his life [Click to view pictures]
Whatever Happened to the Times ~ Bobby Womack ~ http://vimeo.com/43972928
It's All Over Now ~ Bobby Womack ~ http://vimeo.com/87780947• Bobby Womack ~ six great performances
• 'A talent undimmed to the end' ~ appreciation by Alexis Petridis
• Stars pay tribute to the great Bobby Womack
• Bobby Womack ~ a life in pictures
It's All Over Now ~ Rolling Stones ~ http://vimeo.com/82451449
Dahbud Mensch ~ is SANITY the PLAYGROUND of the unIMAGINATIVE ?
'Illegal Spying Below':
blimp flies over NSA data centre in surveillance protestStunt used to draw attention to new website rating members of Congress on their approach to data collection
Reuters in Salt Lake City, theguardian.com, Friday 27 June 2014 22.18 EDT, Article Source
The Greenpeace blimp flies over the NSA data centre in Utah in a protest against mass surveillance. Photograph: GreenpeaceActivists flew a blimp emblazoned with the words "Illegal Spying Below" over the National Security Agency's data centre in Utah on Friday in protest against the US government's mass surveillance programmes.
The one-hour flight was carried out by the environmental group Greenpeace, digital rights activists the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a conservative political organisation, the Tenth Amendment Centre.
The 41 metre (135ft) blimp, owned by Greenpeace, was adorned with a sign that read "NSA Illegal Spying Below".
In an email to Reuters the agency declined to comment. But a spokesman did note there was no restricted airspace over the data centre, housed on the grounds of the Utah National Guard's Camp Williams in Bluffdale, 23 miles (37km) south of Salt Lake City.
The NSA says the facility provides the government with intelligence and warnings about cyber security threats. It is thought to be the agency's largest data storage centre.
The blimp protest coincided with the launch of an online campaign that rates members of Congress on actions the activists say either further or stop data collection efforts by the NSA.
Greenpeace said the report cards on the site standagainstspying.org were created by analysing NSA reform bills in Congress and weighting proposals on the degree to which they would end mass data collection.
"Our right to privacy is not a partisan issue. It's a human rights issue," said Michael Boldin, founder of Tenth Amendment Centre, which advocates for decentralised government.
"This coalition gives great hope for the future because it shows that people across the political spectrum can set aside differences to work together."
World Cup Jam ~ DJ Schmolli ~ http://vimeo.com/97244641
Revolution ~ DJ Schmolli ~ http://vimeo.com/90103164
Vikings On Dark Horses ~ DJ Schmolli ~ http://vimeo.com/98726260
Dahbud Mensch ~ is SANITY the PLAYGROUND of the unIMAGINATIVE ?
WE BLAME THE ARC OF EXTREMISM! say Bush and Blair
Steve Bell on Bush and Blair's legacy in the Middle East, The Guardian, Cartoon SourceThe duo who having lied to obtain the key opened Pandora's box! Proud of themselves in the knowledge that they will be held unaccountable to a Court of law. Public opinion on the other hand will be far less forgiving! ~ daffers56 ~ Click: FU, Court, Telecrime, Voted4, Rethinking, PatAct, $$$, Stupid, and Cow
Rainbow Puddle ~ Stellar Light Shows
Senator McCain “chillin’” with ISIS Leaders in Syria
Before Their Rampage Through Iraq
Senator McCain “chillin’” with ISIS Leaders in SyriaGreat job Senator McCain! Yes we know you are for arming pretty much any group around the world and for getting U.S. Armed Forces entangled in any conflict worldwide but this is a little much even for you. Talk about backing the wrong horse! These are some of the people you called “moderates” when you were in Syria. They don’t seem so moderate as they are machine gunning people to death in drive bys.
[McCain] "Manchurian Candidate" traitor or mentally unstable from Vietnam POW days
[McCain] was favorite of liberal Democrats says Rush Limbaugh
[McCain] abandoned veterans on POW/MIA and Agent Orange
[McCain] came home from Vietnam and forgot US Veterans
[McCain] fathered a black child out of wedlock
[McCain's] wife Cindy was a drug addict
[McCain] was a homosexual
... and then:
Hawk loves Chickenhawk?
Ride the Fence ~ The Coup ~ by Haik Hoisington ~ http://vimeo.com/96720722
Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation-SF Newsletter
COME ENJOY AND BE PART OF THE
ASIFA-SF 3rd ANNUAL SPRING SHOWSUNDAY, JUNE 22, 1:30 PM
At the Randall Jr. Museum's Theatre
free, public invited, lots of free parking
TENTATIVE PROGRAMOde to Joy, a tribute to Joy Batchelor (Halas and Batchelor, UK)
PERSONAL & COMMERCIAL WORK BY INDEPENDENT ANIMATORS:Corrie Francis Parks, Hatch (made for a community movement to create a better world)
Dhvani Desai, Chakravyuh, The Vicious Circle, produced for the govt. of India. It informs people about a recently established legal way to escape a vicious cycle of corruption and non governance. Luke Jaeger, Fishwife, a bittersweet work that evokes parenthood's complex emotional landscape Javier Saldena, Coal 101, produced by the Sierra Club
Joanna Priestly, Split Ends
John R. Dilworth, The Fog of Courage
Mark Kausler, Some Other Cat
A special short tribute to Max Hattler from the UK:
Collision (2005), AANAATT (2008), A Very Large Increase in the Size, Amount, or Importance of Something Over a Very Short Period of Time (2013).
Rebecca Ruige-Xu, Anatomy of a Poem, Syracuse University
Remi Vandenitte (Belgium), Betty's Blue with voice work by Nancy Phelps
Ricci Carrasquillo, Parkas Indoors a music video for Upstairs Downstairs
Signe Bauman, trailer for her soon to be released feature Rocks in my Pockets
and Tarzan, a 3 minute short featuring music by Joe Cartoon
Steve Segal, Outside the Box, 4 minutes of an unconventional work-in-progress
Tony Claars' On & Off and Lost & Found
Tristian Goik, Spanish Chocolate
Tsvika Oren (from Tel Aviv, Israel), A.B 1, a one minute CG short
Willie Williams, Silent Voices
Additional films are expected
SHORTS BY COLLEGE STUDENTJimmy Love Juice by professer Dave Yee and his students at San Jose State University
Command Performance by Lee Bicker and Still Life! by Youyou Li, De Anza
Class President by Tim DuBay and Mark Pedruco, SF State University
Silent Voices by Jeeyoon Ng from USC
Additional student workexpected
Late entriesIt isn't too late to enter work. There are no forms to fill out and no entry fee. Just send us a DVD by June 16. Please limit your entry to less than 10 minutes so all works submitted can be shown. All works must be a movie (not a sata file) that will play on a standard DVD deck. You do not have to be an ASIFA member to enter, but you ar! e invited to join if interested. details at www.asifa-sf.org)
Mail work to: Karl Cohen, 478 Frederick, SF, CA 94117 karlcohen@earthlink.net
You can be a judge!The audience's vote helps determines who will get the prizes: A small cash grand prize and certificate awards will be given (best in show, best student, independent and professional works, second prizes, honorable mentions, etc. Last year we also presented jury awards for the funniest film, the best experimental work and the best educational work.
How to find the museumThe Randall Jr. Museum is at the top of Corona Heights, right in the geographic center of the city, but it is sometimes hard for newcomers to find;
www.randallmuseum.org
for a map and instructions on how to find it by car, Muni and on foot
If in doubt, call (415) 554-9600 for assistance. 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, CA 94114.
Dahbud Mensch ~ is SANITY the PLAYGROUND of the unIMAGINATIVE ?
Proving Politicians Are Lying Duck Pluckers?
During 2008 the Democratic-led Congress voted to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, terminate all pending lawsuits against them, and vest whole new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President. The vote in favor of the new FISA bill was 69-28. Barack Obama joined every Senate Republican (and every House Republican other than one) by voting in favor of it.
Click To Read More Congress Telecom Bullshit
Or Illegal Patriot Act Read by Nobody!NONE OF THE ABOVE
should be a choice on Voter Ballots!
Fisa court grants extension of licence
for bulk collection of US phone recordsReauthorisation is fifth since the Guardian revealed existence of Section 215 telephony metadata program in June last year
Dan Roberts in Washington, theguardian.com, Friday 20 June 2014 20.18 EDT, Article Source
The Fisa court has granted a 90-day extension of the licence that allows the NSA to collect metadata.
Photograph: Patrick Semansky/APUS intelligence agencies have made a fifth attempt to extend their bulk collection of American telephone records – more than a year after the controversial practice was first revealed by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Despite repeated calls from Congress and President Obama for the mass gathering of private US phone records to be banned, a court has approved the request in secret, allowing the NSA to continue collecting metadata until 12 September 2014.
In a joint statement released late on Friday afternoon, the justice department and director of national intelligence, James Clapper, said it was necessary to continue seeking such legal extensions because the Congressional reform process supported by Obama was not yet complete.
"Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the Section 215 telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program," said the joint statement.
The 90-day blanket licence granted by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or Fisa court, is the fifth such extension that has been requested, and granted, since the Guardian first revealed the existence of the Section 215 program on 5 June 2013.
Similar 90-day reauthorisations were subsequently declassified by the administration on 19 July 2013, 11 October 2013, 3 January 2014 and 11 April 2014. Yet in March, Obama reacted to growing criticism of the NSA's domestic surveillance acitivities by calling for an end to bulk collection under Section 215 and suggesting that records be retained instead by telephone companies, and only be available for specific searches following court requests.
In May, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the USA Freedom Act, which sought to enshrine this ban in law, although civil liberties campaigners claimed it was significantly watered down after pressure on legislators by government regulators.
In a statement explaining the latest renewal request on Friday, the justice department and office of the director of national intelligence said that they still support the legislation and would work with Congress to try to clarify the language before it is voted on by the Senate.
"Overall, the bill's significant reforms would provide the public greater confidence in our programs and the checks and balances in the system, while ensuring our intelligence and law enforcement professionals have the authorities they need to protect the Nation," the statement said.
"The administration strongly supports the USA Freedom Act. We urge the Senate to swiftly consider it, and remain ready to work with Congress to clarify that the bill prohibits bulk collection as noted above, as necessary."
Remembering George Carlin
Paul Krassner, June 27, 2008 08:50 AM, Article Source
Visual Speech ~ George Carlin ~ Dirty Words ~ http://vimeo.com/11467412
In December 1962, when Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity at the Gate of Horn in Chicago, the police broke open his candy bars, looking for dope. They checked the IDs of audience members, including George Carlin, who told the cops, "I don't believe in IDs." Then they arrested him for disorderly conduct, dragged him along by the seat of his pants and hoisted him into the police wagon.
"What are you doing here?" Lenny asked.
"I didn't want to show them my ID."
"You schmuck," said Lenny.
Lenny and Carlin had similar points of view -- for example, they were both outspoken about the decriminalization of drugs -- and they were both self-educated, but their working styles were different. Lenny didn't write his material, it evolved on stage, whereas Carlin did write all his routines and then memorized 'em. Although both were unbelievers as far as religion was concerned, Lenny came from a Jewish background, and Carlin came from an Irish Catholic background.
Susie Bright, who first heard Carlin when she was in 7th grade, recalls playing his Class Clown album for her mother, "a woman whose first twenty years were entirely dominated by the Irish Catholic Church -- and it was a comic exorcism for her. She peed in her pants! She was cured in one LP [long-playing vinyl record]!"
Carlin was a generous friend, and such a sweet man. When I performed in Los Angeles, he sent a limousine to pick me up at the airport, and I stayed at his home. More recently, when I opened for him at the Warner-Grand Theater in San Pedro, California, we were hanging around in his dressing room, where he was nibbling from a vegetable plate. I watched as he continued to be genuinely gracious with every fan who stopped by. If they wanted his autograph, he would gladly sign his name. If they wanted to be photographed with him, he would assume the pose. If they wanted to have a little chat, he indulged them with congeniality.
"You really show respect for everybody," I observed.
"Well," he responded, "that's just the way I would want to be treated."
As a performer, Carlin was uncompromising, knowing that his audience trusted him not to be afraid of offending them. Who else would have posed this rhetorical question: "Why are there no recreational drugs in suppository form?" I was pleased to inform him that teenage girls have been experimenting with tampons dipped in vodka as a way of getting intoxicated without their parents detecting booze on their breath.
Carlin provided an introduction to one of my books, Murder At the Conspiracy Convention. Referring to the 1960s, he wrote:
As America entered the Magic Decade, I was leading a double life. I had been a rule-bender and law-breaker since first grade. A highly developed disregard for authority got me kicked out of three schools, the altar boys, the choir, summer camp, the Boy Scouts and the Air Force. I didn't trust the police or the government, and I didn't like bosses of any kind. I had become a pot smoker at 13 (1950), an unheard-of act in an old-fashioned Irish neighorhood. It managed to get me through my teens....
My affection for pot continued and my disregard for standard values increased, but they lagged behind my need to succeed. The Playboy Club, Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan and the Copacabana were all part of a path I found uncomfortable but necessary during the early 1960s. But as the decade churned along and the country changed, I did too. Despite working in 'establishment' settings, as a veteran malcontent I found myself hanging out in coffee houses and folk clubs with others who were out-of-step people who fell somewhere between beatnik and hippie. Hair got longer, clothes got stranger, music got better. It became more of a strain for me to work for straight audiences. I took acid and mescaline. My sense of being on the outside intensified. I changed.
All through this period I was sustained and motivated by The Realist, Paul Krassner's incredible magazine of satire, revolution and just plain disrespect. It arrived every month, and with it, a fresh supply of inspiration. I can't overstate how important it was to me at the time. It allowed me to see that others who disagreed with the American consensus were busy expressing those feelings and using risky humor to do so. Paul's own writing, in particular, seemed daring and adventurous to me; it took big chances and made important arguments in relentlessly funny ways. I felt, down deep, that maybe I had some of that in me, too; that maybe I could be using my skills to better express my beliefs. The Realist was the inspiration that kept pushing me to the next level; there was no way I could continue reading it and remain the same.
You can imagine how incredibly honored I felt.
Carlin once told an audience of children how to be a class clown as a way of attracting attention. "I didn't start out with fake heart attacks in the aisle," he explained. Ah, if only that's what he was doing this time. But a reporter did once ask him how he wanted to die.
"I'd like to explode spontaneously in someone's living room," he replied. "That, to me, is the way to go out."
And, through his CDs, DVDs and books, George Carlin does indeed continue to explode spontaneously in living rooms across the country.
Originally posted on Arthur.com.
George Carlin mix ~ http://vimeo.com/21162532
La Ilusión de Elección ~ George Carlin ~ http://vimeo.com/95204337
Baby ~ Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti ~ http://vimeo.com/47748996
Michael Stickrod ~ Art Exhibitions / Screenings
helper presents: Michael Stickrod
Karl~Craft
June 28 ~ July 27, 2014
OPENING RECEPTION
JUNE 28, 7 ~ 10PM495 Rogers Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11225
www.helperprojects.com
Karl (Old Norse), n., 1. A man.
DNA (informal), That part of a person's character that has a genetic origin.
Karl~Craft (personal), Visual home brew.
Karl~Craft is not shy to celebrate the genetic origins of character. Not only does Michael Stickrod share the name Karl with his father Richard and son Oskar but also the art of Karl~Craft. helper invites you to experience these individual expressions of distinct genetic origin.
Michael K. Stickrod (b. 1978) has exhibited his work in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Marseilles, Oslo, Copenhagen, Zurich, Brussels, Milan and Berlin. In 2008 he was awarded an Altoids Award and participated in an exhibition at the New Museum in New York. Richard K. Stickrod (b. 1940) is retired and makes art in his workshop in Columbus, Ohio. Karl Oskar Stickrod (b. 2007)
helper is located at 495 Rogers Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Trains: Q/B to Prospect Park, 2/5 to Sterling. helper is open Friday and Saturday 12 ~ 5PM. For appointments: contact@helperprojects.com
Dahbud Mensch ~ is SANITY the PLAYGROUND of the unIMAGINATIVE ?
Attention: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, & Google users who refused to pay attention to previous warnings:
ALL YOUR DATA ARE BELONG TO US
Mass surveillance of social media is
permitted by law, says top UK officialCharles Farr's statement marks first time government has commented on how it exploits the UK's legal framework to operate mass interception
• Read Farr's statement in full
Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent, theguardian.com, Tuesday 17 June 2014 07.11 EDT, Article Source
Social media count as 'external communications', according to Farr, and so can be indiscriminately monitored.
Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PAMass surveillance of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and even Google searches, is permissible because these are "external communications", according to the government's most senior security official.
In the first detailed justification of the UK's online interception policy, Charles Farr, director general of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, has defended the way in which it sidesteps the need for individual search warrants.
The policy's rationale has been published as part of the government's defence against a case being brought by Privacy International, Liberty, Amnesty International and other civil rights groups before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), which deals with complaints against the intelligence services.
The claims have been brought in the wake of revelations from the US whistleblower Edward Snowden about mass surveillance under the Tempora programme by the UK monitoring agency GCHQ and the US National Security Agency (NSA). Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), the interception of any domestic communications requires an individual warrant – a legal safeguard that previously was thought to extend to all users.
In a 48-page explanation, Farr sets out the history of the monitoring of online communications. He says: "Any regime that … only permitted interception in relation to specific persons or premises, would not have allowed adequate levels of intelligence information to be obtained and would not have met the undoubted requirements of intelligence for the protection of national security."
Farr's statement, published on Tuesday by Privacy International and other human rights organisations, is the first time the government has commented on how it exploits the UK's legal framework to operate its mass interception programme.
Under section 8(1) of RIPA, internal communications between British residents within the UK may only be monitored pursuant to a specific warrant. These specific warrants should only be granted where there is some reason to suspect the person in question of unlawful activity. "External communications", however, may be monitored indiscriminately under a general warrant according to section 8 (4).
Eric King, deputy director of Privacy International, said: "Intelligence agencies cannot be considered accountable to parliament and to the public they serve when their actions are obfuscated through secret interpretations of byzantine laws.
"Moreover, the suggestion that violations of the right to privacy are meaningless if the violator subsequently forgets about it not only offends the fundamental, inalienable nature of human rights, but patronises the British people, who will not accept such a meagre excuse for the loss of their civil liberties."
James Welch, legal director of Liberty, said: "The security services consider that they're entitled to read, listen and analyse all our communications on Facebook, Google and other US-based platforms. If there was any remaining doubt that our snooping laws need a radical overhaul, there can be no longer. The agencies now operate in a legal and ethical vacuum; why the deafening silence from our elected representatives?"
Michael Bochenek, senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International, said: "British citizens will be alarmed to see their government justifying industrial-scale intrusion into their communications. The public should demand an end to this wholesale violation of their right to privacy."
Turn It Off, Tune It Out, Re-learn to Go Outside & Play.
Internet (1991~2013): A virus forced into prostitution by
greedy corporations & used as a tool to Divide & Conquer.
Notes from ~@~
Going to bed early is social death – but it won't stop me
Some of us are born larks, not owls – but try explaining that to a bunch of drunk friends at a late-night party
• Richard Wiseman: Log off before you nod off
Nell Frizzell, The Guardian, Friday 13 June 2014, Article Source
'Scientists have long argued that circadian rhythms are partly determined by our genes.' Photograph: AlamyIn your 20s it's more acceptable to leave a party because you want to eat a kebab rather than because you want to go to bed. In fact, it's better to be leaving a party to steal your neighbour's Amazon deliveries than to admit to being too tired to stay out. Because going to bed early is our last great social taboo. I should know. I do it all the time.
This week, the University of Oxford and the online CBT programme Sleepio launched the Great British Sleep survey, the largest ever study of the nation's slumber. The findings will be used to aid research into sleep science and to raise awareness about the importance of what Edgar Allen Poe called "those little slices of death". And it is indeed a form of social death to go to bed before midnight when you're young.
Which is mad. As Prof Russell Foster, head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute at the University of Oxford, said: "Sleep is the single most important health behaviour we have. It affects everything from our day-to-day functioning to our long-term physical and mental health." In short, too many late nights is terrible for you.
And yet, staying up all night to get lucky is still considered the epitome of cool. Never mind the fact that neuroscientists like Dr Louis Ptacek at the University of California have long argued that circadian rhythms are, to some extent at least, determined by our genes. Through his study of familial advanced sleep phase syndrome Ptacek discovered a gene that appears to override the effects of daylight on sleep patterns. His research also pointed towards the thousands of nerve cells in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, a region in the hypothalamus, that controls when we get tired and when we wake up. Thanks to our brain chemistry and hormonal makeup some of us are simply born larks, not owls.
Meet a fellow lark and you have a friend for years. They will not only understand your sneaking off, they will admire and aspire to it. They will want to go swimming before work, have dinner when you're hungry, understand your love of pyjamas and respect you when you say you're going home.
However, as anyone who has ever met the rolled eyes, disparaging grimaces and patronising tuts of unsympathetic friends can tell you, wanting to go to bed before closing time is all too often a one-way ticket to condescension, cancelled invitations and pariahdom. I, for example, appear to have inherited my mother's primary school teacher circadian rhythm. I am ready for bed at 9pm and wide awake by 5.30am. Which would be great were I a school teacher. Except I'm not.
And so we lie. We stifle yawns, drink thick coffee and pretend that we wouldn't really rather be in bed at all. Because while you can admit to not drinking, not smoking, not eating meat and to taking all your holidays in British caravan parks without risking anything worse than genuine interest and admiration, admit that you're leaving a party so you can be in bed by 10pm and you will be ridiculed, if not shunned.
Getting an early night may be the oldest code in the book for having sex. But, believe me, in your 20s there is nothing remotely sexy about wanting to go to bed before the witching hour. And that's just fine. Because, frankly, I'd rather wake up happy, bright-eyed and clear-headed. To have time to run through marshes with rabbits, to eat breakfast, to water my flowers and to read the paper before slipping off, refreshed, to work.
I love mornings. I don't miss midnight.
Dahbud Mensch ~ is SANITY the PLAYGROUND of the unIMAGINATIVE ?
According to June 17, 2014 News,
Politicians Attacked Iraq to
ESTABLISH TERRORISM; NOT PREVENT ITJust like Politicians Supported Israel's Attack On US Military that Murdered 34 and Wounded 171 !!!
WHAT? ME? IN DENIAL?! ~ TRAGICALLY WE ONLY EVER GOT AS FAR AS THE EUPHRATES!!
The Angel of Peace ~ Martin Rowson on Tony Blair, Iraq and Syria ~ The Guardian ~ Source
When History Repeats... Do We Notice?CBS News has learned that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq - even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks. ~ Plans For Iraq Began On 9/11
Lies, Lies, Lies - BlackMustache.comSimply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.
Dick Cheney - August 26, 2002Every day Saddam remains in power with chemical weapons, biological weapons, and the development of nuclear weapons is a day of danger for the United States.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-CT - September 4, 2002If we wait for the danger to become clear, it could be too late.
Sen. Joseph Biden D-Del. - September 4, 2002Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.
George W. Bush - September 12, 2002If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.
Ari Fleischer - December 2, 2002We know for a fact that there are weapons there.
Ari Fleischer - January 9, 2003Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
George W. Bush - January 28, 2003We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.
Colin Powell - February 5, 2003Iraq both poses a continuing threat to the national security of the United States and international peace and security in the Persian Gulf region and remains in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations by, among other things, continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability, actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability, and supporting and harboring terrorist organizations.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY - February 5, 2003We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.
George Bush - February 8, 2003So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? I think our judgment has to be clearly not.
Colin Powell - March 8, 2003Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.
George Bush - March 18, 2003We are asked to accept Saddam decided to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd.
Tony Blair, Prime Minister - March 18, 2003Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.
Ari Fleisher - March 21, 2003There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.
Gen. Tommy Franks - March 22, 2003One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.
Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark - March 22, 2003I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.
Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board - March 23, 2003We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad.
Donald Rumsfeld - March 30, 2003Saddam's removal is necessary to eradicate the threat from his weapons of mass destruction
Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary - April 2, 2003Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.
Neocon scholar Robert Kagan - April 9, 2003I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found.
Ari Fleischer - April 10, 2003We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.
George Bush - April 24, 2003There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld - April 25, 2003Before people crow about the absence of weapons of mass destruction, I suggest they wait a bit.
Tony Blair - April 28, 2003We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.
George Bush - May 3, 2003I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he had weapons of mass destruction.
Colin Powell - May 4, 2003I never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld - May 4, 2003I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program.
George W. Bush - May 6, 2003U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction.
Condoleeza Rice - May 12, 2003I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne - May 13, 2003Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.
Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps - May 21, 2003Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.
Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff - May 26, 2003They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld - May 27, 2003For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.
Paul Wolfowitz - May 28, 2003Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere ... nope, no weapons over there ... maybe under here? ~ George W. Bush, War Criminal, 24 March 2004
If you harm children,
you are a terrorist!
G. Wanker Bush, War Criminal Baby KillerPoliticians Idea of a Liberated Child?
Click to view terrorists who voted for Iraq WarIt was widely known before the Iraq war over
50% of the Iraqi population
were children under the age of 15,
and the war began with this act of sheer cowardice, by a Republican,
War Criminal Bush Administration with Democrat Support.
Bohemian Rhapsody ~ http://vimeo.com/12182490
It's A Long Way To The Top ~ AC/DC ~ http://vimeo.com/80199956
Conga ~ Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine ~ http://vimeo.com/19656432
Hoy ~ Gloria Estefan ~ http://vimeo.com/41037674
Keith Lampe ~ Co-Founder of YIPPIE and Progressive Activist Groups
Leaving the USS Liberty Crew Behind
Exclusive: Justifying the swap of Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bergdahl, President Obama cited a principle of never leaving U.S. soldiers behind, but that rule was violated in the shabby treatment of the USS Liberty crew, attacked 47 years ago by Israeli warplanes, writes ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
• Read more at local link on: Remembering the USS Liberty
By Ray McGovern, June 8, 2014, Article Source
On June 8, 1967, Israeli leaders learned they could deliberately attack a U.S. Navy ship and try to send it, together with its entire crew, to the bottom of the Mediterranean – with impunity. Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, a state-of-the-art intelligence collection platform sailing in international waters off the Sinai, killing 34 of the 294 crew members and wounding more than 170.
On the 47th anniversary of that unprovoked attack let’s be clear about what happened: Israeli messages intercepted on June 8, 1967, leave no doubt that sinking the USS Liberty was the mission assigned to the attacking Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats as the Six-Day War raged in the Middle East. Let me repeat: there is no doubt – none – that the mission of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was to destroy the USS Liberty and kill its entire crew.
Referring last week to the controversy of the swap of five Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bode Bergdahl, President Barack Obama claimed, “The U.S. has always had a pretty sacred rule: We don’t leave our men or women in uniform behind.” The only exception, he might have added, is when Israeli forces shoot them up; then mum’s the word.
Mr. President, try explaining that “pretty sacred rule” to the USS Liberty survivors. I know them well enough to sense the hollow echo that Obama’s claim will leave in their ears – and in the ears of the families of those who did not survive.
The crew of the USS Liberty has been “left behind,” in a figurative as well as a physical sense. There is no way to retrieve the bodies of those washed out to sea through the large hole made by the Israeli torpedo that hit the Liberty amidships, killing 26 of the crew.
There is a way, however, to stop throwing salt in the survivors’ wounds, as every U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson has done in acquiescing to the false narrative that it was all a terrible case of mistaken identity and confusion by Israeli command and control. That salt burns – especially on anniversaries of the tragedy, raising troubling questions about the power of the Israel Lobby and the Israeli government over U.S. politicians.
In apparent fear of the Israel Lobby and not wanting to offend the Israeli government, U.S. officials including the Navy have refused to come clean on what happened 47 years ago. The mainstream U.S. media has been a willing partner in this failure to face the facts and demand accountability.
No Accident
Here, for example, is the text of an intercepted Israeli conversation, just one of many pieces of hard, unambiguous evidence that the Israeli attack was not a mistake:
Israeli pilot to ground control: “This is an American ship. Do you still want us to attack?”
Ground control: “Yes, follow orders.” …
Israeli pilot: “But, sir, it’s an American ship – I can see the flag!”
Ground control: “Never mind; hit it!”
The Israelis would have been able to glory in reporting “mission accomplished, ship sunk, all crew killed” save for the bravery and surefootedness of then-23 year-old Navy seaman Terry Halbardier, whose actions spelled the difference between the murder of 34 of the crew and the intended massacre of all 294.
Halbardier skated across the Liberty’s slippery deck while it was being strafed in order to connect a communications cable and enable the Liberty to send out an SOS. The Israelis intercepted that message and, out of fear of how the U.S. Sixth Fleet would respond, immediately broke off the attack, returned to their bases, and sent an “oops” message to Washington confessing to their unfortunate “mistake.”
As things turned out, the Israelis didn’t need to be so concerned. When President Johnson learned that the USS America and USS Saratoga had launched warplanes to do battle with the forces attacking the Liberty, he told Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to call Sixth Fleet commander Rear Admiral Lawrence Geiss and tell him to order the warplanes to return immediately to their carriers.
According to J.Q. “Tony” Hart, a chief petty officer who monitored these conversations from a U.S. Navy communications relay station in Morocco, Geiss shot back that one of his ships was under attack. Tellingly, McNamara responded: “President Johnson is not going to go to war or embarrass an American ally over a few sailors.”
Getting Away With Murder
For the Israelis, the tight U-turn by the U.S. warplanes over the Mediterranean was proof positive that the Israeli government can literally get away with murder, including killing U.S. servicemen, and that Official Washington and its servile media could be counted upon to cover up the deliberate nature of the attack.
John Crewdson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Chicago Tribune, asked McNamara about this many years later. McNamara’s answer is worth reading carefully; he said he had “absolutely no recollection of what I did that day,” except that “I have a memory that I didn’t know at the time what was going on.”
Crewsdon has written the most detailed and accurate account of the Israeli attack on the Liberty; it appeared in the Chicago Tribune, and also in the Baltimore Sun, on Oct. 2, 2007. Read it and you’ll understand why Crewdson got no Pulitzer for his investigative reporting on the Liberty. Instead, the Tribune laid him off in November 2008 after 24 years.
Several of the Liberty survivors have become friends of mine. I have listened to their stories, as Crewdson did. When June 8 comes around each year I remember them. And on special occasions, as when Terry Halbardier was finally awarded the Silver Star for his bravery, I write about them.
The mainstream U.S. media has avoided the USS Liberty case like the plague. I just checked the Washington Post and – surprise, surprise – it has missed the opportunity for the 46th consecutive year, to mention the Liberty anniversary.
On the few occasions when the mainstream U.S. media outlets are forced to address what happened, they blithely ignore the incredibly rich array of hard evidence and still put out the false narrative of the “mistaken” Israeli attack on the Liberty.
And they attempt to conflate fact with speculation, asking why Israel would deliberately attack a ship of the U.S. Navy. Why Tel Aviv wanted the Liberty and its entire crew on the bottom of the Mediterranean remains a matter of speculation, but there are plausible theories including Israel’s determination to keep the details of its war plans secret from everyone, including the U.S. government.
But there is no doubt that destroying the Liberty and its crew was the mission assigned to Israel’s warplanes and torpedo boats. One Navy Admiral with a conscience, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (and before that Chief of Naval Operations) Thomas Moorer, has “broken ranks,” so to speak. Moorer helped lead an independent, blue-ribbon commission to investigate what happened to the Liberty.
The following are among the commission’s findings made public in October 2003:
-That the attack, by a U.S. ally, was a “deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill its entire crew”
-That the attack included the machine-gunning of stretcher-bearers and life rafts
-That “the White House deliberately prevented the U.S. Navy from coming to the defense of the [ship] … never before in naval history has a rescue mission been cancelled when an American ship was under attack”
-That surviving crew members were later threatened with “court-martial, imprisonment, or worse” if they talked to anyone about what had happened to them; and were “abandoned by their own government.”
Doing Justice
Will the USS Liberty survivors ever enjoy the opportunity to know and to tell the real story with all its evil cruelties? Or will silence continue to reign? In a different context, Russian dissident author Alexandr Solzhenitzyn wrote this warning about what silence about evil does to the foundations of justice:
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
President Obama, the crew of the USS Liberty has been “left behind” for way too many years. Do the right thing by them. Face down those who warn that you cannot risk Israel’s displeasure. And add more substance to your rhetoric about our “pretty sacred rule” that we do not leave anybody wearing the American uniform behind.
Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He served as an Army infantry and intelligence officer and then as a CIA analyst for the next 27 years.
Notes from ~@~
How meditation brought me back from burnout
Exhausted and suffering from anxiety, Shona Mitchell rejected medication for mindfulness. Here she explains how it changed her life and her health
• The "third dimension" explained: redefining success
• 10 minutes to a better work/life balance
Shona Mitchell, Guardian Professional, Monday 9 June 2014 02.42 EDT, Article Source
10 minutes of mindfulness a day can reduce stress and help you manage anxiety.
Photograph: Beyond Fotomedia GmbH/AlamyI spent yesterday morning at an event in central London surrounded by over 100 entrepreneurs, leaders and investors.
A sea of slick hair, smooth faces, and crisp tailoring; they spoke of thriving businesses, relentless networking regimes and daily acrobatics juggling parenthood with staying fit and healthy.
They were some of the most successful people in their field. And they had two things in common. They were all women, and they all felt guilty.
Their shared drive towards career success mirrored an internal trend that was alarmingly clear: deep and utter panic in the face of a never completed to-do list, and a crippling sense of shame at simply being who they were. Not just some of the time. But most of the time. And it goes way beyond working women in the city.
A 2010 survey by Stylist magazine found that more than 96% of women feel guilty at least once a day, while for almost half, the feeling arose up to four times a day.
Why all the guilt?
Women open their one-day-old eyes to a society that still requires (and in many cultures demands) that they aspire to be slim and attractive , accomplished homemakers and obedient wives.
At the same time, we also hear that finally we have a free run at the top, and we should go for it, as fast as we can just in case someone decides to pull the glass ceiling across again.
I’m in no way suggesting this is purely a female issue. Men have the very same inner critic. But it’s women that seem to be sharing it the loudest. Or at the very least, are very active in coming out to say they’ve had enough and would like to find a way to release them from this daily mental grind. And quite frankly, who can blame them?
While we work to make the world a more equal place, there’s no magic recipe for resolving all the conflicting notions of success we’re loaded with – but we can make some small changes that reduce their impact. Meditation and mindfulness have had a significant wave of interest from the working world in the past 3 years. And for very good reason.
This simple and easy technique has been scientifically proven to reduce stress levels, significantly improve cognitive skills in as little as four days and improve sleep. Mindfulness has also been shown to reduce feelings of shame and increase self-compassion.
Burnout
And if you’re more into chat than science, I can tell you over the garden fence that it works. Just over 3 years ago I was signed off work with classic burn out symptoms, the result of feeling driven by a constant feeling of guilt into working relentless hours and becoming impossibly productive in work and out.
Wanting to try an alternative to the doctor’s offer of medication to treat my newfound friend, anxiety, I started meditating. It worked, quickly and with no nasty side effects.
3 years on and I’ve gone from total collapse to running the operations of one of the most exciting and rapidly growing digital wellbeing companies in the world today: Headspace. I work hard - start-ups are crazy - but I feel happy, healthy and, more importantly, my inner guilt creature has become the exception rather than the rule.
How meditation works
So how does meditation work, and why is it so useful in freeing us from the shackles of worry? It helps in a number of ways. When you are forever on the go, you can easily disconnect from the fact that you’re ready to drop, your neck is crippled with tension or you haven’t breathed deeper than your upper chest for over 24 hours. Meditation provides an opportunity for you to check in with your body.
It also provides a framework within which you can practice observing your thoughts and emotions rather than trying to tackle them. This gives you a new perspective on a very busy mind and far more space to make more rational decisions and reduce procrastination.
If you haven’t ever tried it, give it a go. I’d recommend doing it before you sit down to write your to-do list, rather than putting it at No.1. (I doubt you have brushing your teeth in Evernote and I’d encourage you to see 10 minutes of meditation in much the same way).
It’s very easy. You need yourself, a place when you feel comfortable enough to close your eyes (at home, on the bus, at your desk), and 10 minutes. The simplest way to practice for a beginner is with a guided programme. Headspace’s free Take10 series is designed for just that .
So while we await the gradual evolution of strong, happy, healthy female role models in business, politics and the media, why not try taking 10 minutes out of your day to take the edge off the bickering inside your head, and make space for doing more of what you do best? Like becoming the next strong, happy, healthy female role model.
Shona Mitchell is the managing director of Headspace
4chan starts a business
Estimated 3-hour Planetary Kp-index
Jefferson Statehood Project
Click for Free 8.5x11 Jefferson
Poster Blank [Right Click to Save]
Dahbud Mensch ~ is SANITY the PLAYGROUND of the unIMAGINATIVE ?
Republicans and Democrats are Lying Hypocrites
Who Support Selective Terrorism Against U.S. Military
Republican War Criminal Cheney's true feelings about US Veterans?
Political Bi-Partisan UnityPoliticians continually bullshit the American people about supporting U.S. Veterans; especially Republicon & Democrap draft dodging chickenhawk pussies, who should take this advice from one of their own.
For Example: 1/3 of the homeless, not so long ago, were Vietnam veterans, the Bush Administration's cowardly treatment of US troops, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calling Vietnam veterans stupid for not finding a way to go AWOL like Bush [Bush Administration cuts $1.5 billion from military family housing, support millionaires instead of military veterans, under funded veterans' health care by $2 billion, proposed ending health care benefits for 173,000 veterans, forced more than 200,000 veterans to wait for health care because of budget cuts, opposed plan to give National Guard and Reserve Members access to health insurance, cut $172 million allotted for educating the children of military personnel, and denied tax cuts to military families increase in child tax credit (source)], or Republican, draft dodging POS "I HAD OTHER PRIORITIES IN THE '60s THAN MILITARY SERVICE!" (Still a Dick) Cheney, etc.
Remembering June 8, 1967
Israel Attacks USS Liberty In International Waters;
Wounding 171 and Murdering 34 US Naval Personnel
Cover Up: Attack on the USS Liberty ~ http://vimeo.com/15441774On June 8, 1967 Israel attacked the USS Liberty with aircraft and torpedo boats, killing 34 young men and wounding 171. The attack in international waters followed over nine hours of close surveillance. Israeli pilots circled the ship at low level 13 times on eight different occasions before attacking. Radio operators in Spain, Lebanon, Germany and aboard the ship itself all heard the pilots reporting to their headquarters that this was an American ship. They attacked anyway. And when the ship failed to sink, the Israeli government concocted an elaborate story to cover the crime. [click to continue reading]
NONE OF THE ABOVE
should be a choice on Voter Ballots
Steven Leech ~ Writer/Poet/D.J. + The Legends of Wilmington Jazz writes:
Dreamstreets 26 will be broadcast on WVUD.org every Wednesday at 5pm (edt) ~ 2pm (pdt) during the summer.
Many Delaware authors and poets from the past have interacted with such literary luminaries as Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Hart Crane, Edmund Wilson, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others, and have been published by some of America's most notable publishing houses. Yet, this history of Delaware's literary past is a kind of a secret history of Delaware's cultural legacy. Dreamstreets 26 will reveal this secret history as well as suggest why and how it has been obfuscated.
Dreamstreets 26 with Even Steven,
Wednesdays, 5 pm East ~ 2 pm West, Listen Live
Boptime with Even Steven,
Saturdays, 6 am East ~ 3 am West, Listen Live
Rock Of Ages ~ DJ Schmolli ~ http://vimeo.com/44298418
Paul Krassner ~ The Realist/Writer/Comic/Investigative Satirist writes:
FYI ~ Starting on May 29th, CNN begins a weekly 11-part series on The ‘60s, continuing every Thursday at 9 pm ET/PT.
I was interviewed for the final one, “Sex, Drugs, and Rock’n’Roll,” which will be broadcast on August 7th. I have no idea what they’ll cherrypick from whatever I said. –pk
Karl Cohen ~ Association International du Film d'Animation-SF Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE:
ASIFA-SF 3rd ANNUAL SPRING SHOW, SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 1:30 PM, At the Randall Jr. Museum's Theatre, free, public invited, lots of free parking The flyer (last item in this issue) lists most of the films being show - work from several parts of the world!
MY WONDERFUL EVENING WITH MARC DAVIS, ONE OF WALT DISNEY'S NINE OLD MEN by Karl Cohen
INTERNATIONAL TRICKFILM FESTIVAL 22 -- 27 April, 2014 Stuttgart, Germany and FMX Conference on Animation, Effects, Games, and Technology 22 -- 25 April, 2014 Stuttgart. By Nancy Denny-Phelps
Plus lots of news, local events, links, a low cost animation workshop for teens in Oakland, etc.Two late items: not in the printed issue - Northern Calif. filmmakers are holding a rally in front of the Fairmont Hotel, Sat. June 14 from 10 to noon to show support for expanding the Calif. Film and TV Tax Credit Program (AB 1839)
and
A member who lives in Berkeley tells us, "Here is a fun screening, a quartley event by Moby Theobald at Berkeley Community Media. His animation (stop-motion, cut-out, etc) is amazing and his shows are ridiculously funny and presented live at the BCM studio on Martin Luther King in Berkeley. A cosmic trip satirizing the great and not so great Sci-Fi films of our youth. with stop-motion and live-action, a music video, live in studio monologues and a Grannymated Spit-toon, this one has something to disturb everyone! Come early for Soylent Green and Soma cakes!" Friday, June 13at 7:00pm, 2239 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley.
Marliese's Corner ~ San Francisco Events
Email, Telephone, & Internet
Unfortunately, most email is getting rerouted to spam bins and there is nothing that can be done about it.
Telephone and internet connections have been mostly down (unavailable) for about four months and there is nothing (at the moment) that can be done about it.
If there is something important that needs to be relayed try the phone and if there is no service, use the post office or send a telegram to the PO box.
Eventually, all will be fixed, == but not immediately.
~@~
The Great Bell Chant (The End of Suffering) ~ http://vimeo.com/6518109
One Day ~ Matisyahu ~ http://vimeo.com/11520225
Remembering the United State Cafe
Freedom of expression and freedom of speech aren't really important unless they're heard...It's hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war. And there's nothing more scary than watching ignorance in action. So I dedicated this Emmy to all the people who feel compelled to speak out and not afraid to speak to power and won't shut up and refuse to be silenced. ~ Tom Smothers
A Question Of Honour ~ Sarah Brightman ~ http://vimeo.com/20989311
It's time to say Good Bye ~ Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman ~ http://vimeo.com/26547299
Closing Argument
Alan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretapping's, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.
This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America. Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarrassed?
*Alan sits down abruptly in the witness chair next to the judge*
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. That's a chair for witnesses only.
Alan: Really long speeches make me so tired sometimes.
Judge Robert Sanders: Please get out of the chair.
Alan: Actually, I'm sick and tired.
Judge Robert Sanders: Get out of the chair!
Alan: And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled un American.
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Evidentially, it's speech time.
Alan: And speech in this country is free, you hack! Free for me, free for you. Free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say "Stick it"!
U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shapiro: Objection!
Alan: I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!
Judge Robert Sanders: Mr. Shore. Unless you have anything new and fresh to say, please sit down. You've breached the decorum of my courtroom with all this hooting.
Alan: Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29 year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."
I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights - we have to live up to that. We simply must. That's all Melissa Hughes was trying to say. She was speaking for you. I would ask you now to go back to that room and speak for her. ~ Boston Legal ~ Stick It ~ Season 2 ~ Episode 19 ~ [Video at link] ~ Written by David E. Kelley & Janet Leahy ~ Directed by Adam Arkin.
Nobody Should Have That Much Power
Until there is a solution for this, Nobody will continue to bring Peace to Our Times, feed the hungry, care for the sick, bake apple pie better than Mom, and believes NONE of the ABOVE should be a choice on Voter Ballots.
American Dream ~ George Carlin/L.I.L.T ~ http://vimeo.com/72719973
Oh, I hope that I see you again I never even caught your name As you looked through my window pane ~~ So I'm writing this message today I'm thinking that you'll have a way Of hearing the notes in my tune ~~ Where are you going? Where have you been? I can imagine other worlds you have seen ~~ Beautiful faces and music so serene ~~ So I do hope I see you again My universal citizen You went as quickly as you came ~~ You know the power Your love is right You have good reason To stay out of sight ~~ But break our illusions and help us Be the light ~ Mike Pinder
Without love in the dream, it will never come true. ~ Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. ~ John Lennon
Turn It Off, Tune It Out, Re-learn to Go Outside & Play.
Internet (1991~2013): A virus forced into prostitution by
greedy corporations & used as a tool to Divide & Conquer.
The man whispered, "God, speak to me" and a meadowlark sang. But the man did not hear.
So the man yelled "God, speak to me" and the thunder rolled across the sky. But the man did not listen.
The man looked around and said, "God let me see you" and a star shined brightly. But the man did not notice.
And the man shouted, "God show me a miracle" and a life was born. But the man did not know.
So the man cried out in despair, "Touch me God, and let me know you are there"
Whereupon God reached down and touched the man. But the man brushed the butterfly away and walked on.
Don't miss out on a blessing because it isn't packaged the way you expect.
