Ornamism 2
posted by russell higgs at
Saturday, March 22, 2008
22.3.08
8.3.08
Being Online all day Teaches me how to Share Things and Be Natural.
posted by russell higgs at
Saturday, March 08, 2008
18.1.08
Chess champion Bobby Fischer dies
Icelandic TV and radio announced today that chess playing genius Bobby Fischer has died at the age of 64,
Information on the cause of death has not yet been released.
During his life Fischer was accused of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism (despite being born in the US and being of Jewish descent). He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005.
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 2001 attacks on America, Bobby Fischer was a rare western voice speaking off-message. Live on Filipino radio he said.......
"This is all wonderful news, I applaud the act. The US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them, for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them. Nobody gave a shit. Now it's coming back to the US. Fuck the US. I want to see the US wiped out. Death to the US."
archive....
Chess Boxing
http://site.wcbo.org/
the ultimate challenge for both the body and the mind
Information on the cause of death has not yet been released.
During his life Fischer was accused of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism (despite being born in the US and being of Jewish descent). He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005.
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 2001 attacks on America, Bobby Fischer was a rare western voice speaking off-message. Live on Filipino radio he said.......
"This is all wonderful news, I applaud the act. The US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians, just slaughtering them, for years. Robbing them and slaughtering them. Nobody gave a shit. Now it's coming back to the US. Fuck the US. I want to see the US wiped out. Death to the US."
archive....
Chess Boxing
http://site.wcbo.org/
the ultimate challenge for both the body and the mind
posted by russell higgs at
Friday, January 18, 2008
7.12.07
11.9.07
3.9.07
Jamie Whyte on "Drugs"
".........The real question is not whether drug use has costs. Every activity has. The question is whether these costs exceed the benefits of drug use. It is easy to show that they do not, but we should first recognise what the main benefit is. This should be obvious but, for some reason, nobody involved in “the drugs debate” ever mentions it. The main benefit of taking drugs is that it is pleasurable. In fact, it can be incredibly pleasurable. That is why people do it."
"And also why it is good for them. Drug users are simply people for whom the pleasure outweighs the risk of death, illness, addiction and all the rest. In other words, they are people for whom the benefits of drug use exceed the costs. They wouldn’t be drug users otherwise. The same is not true of everyone. Some value health more and pleasure less. For them, drug taking would deliver a net loss. Fine: these people would not take drugs even if they were legal."
".........legislators systematically discount the benefits of drugs. It is not enough that people value something. To count it as a benefit, our betters in Westminster must deem it worthwhile. And they do not consider getting high to be worthwhile."
"It is not concern for our welfare that explains the illegality of drug use. It is bigotry."
(Jamie Whyte January 2, 2006 in the Times)
plus a report from march 2007:
Illegal drugs can be harmless, report says
a wide-ranging two-year study of Britain's drug laws concluded today that "The evidence suggests that a majority of people who use drugs are able to use them without harming themselves or others. They are able, in that sense, to 'manage' their drug use ... The harmless use of illegal drugs is thus possible, indeed common,"
Describing the Misuse of Drugs Act as unwieldy and inflexible, the report says: "It sends people to prison who should not be there. It forces people into treatment who do not need it"
"Drugs policy should, like our policy on alcohol and tobacco, seek to regulate use and prevent harm rather than to prohibit use altogether,"
"And also why it is good for them. Drug users are simply people for whom the pleasure outweighs the risk of death, illness, addiction and all the rest. In other words, they are people for whom the benefits of drug use exceed the costs. They wouldn’t be drug users otherwise. The same is not true of everyone. Some value health more and pleasure less. For them, drug taking would deliver a net loss. Fine: these people would not take drugs even if they were legal."
".........legislators systematically discount the benefits of drugs. It is not enough that people value something. To count it as a benefit, our betters in Westminster must deem it worthwhile. And they do not consider getting high to be worthwhile."
"It is not concern for our welfare that explains the illegality of drug use. It is bigotry."
(Jamie Whyte January 2, 2006 in the Times)
plus a report from march 2007:
Illegal drugs can be harmless, report says
a wide-ranging two-year study of Britain's drug laws concluded today that "The evidence suggests that a majority of people who use drugs are able to use them without harming themselves or others. They are able, in that sense, to 'manage' their drug use ... The harmless use of illegal drugs is thus possible, indeed common,"
Describing the Misuse of Drugs Act as unwieldy and inflexible, the report says: "It sends people to prison who should not be there. It forces people into treatment who do not need it"
"Drugs policy should, like our policy on alcohol and tobacco, seek to regulate use and prevent harm rather than to prohibit use altogether,"
posted by russell higgs at
Monday, September 03, 2007
1.9.07
PR and BLOGS
A PR man says.....
"Our job is to get even "challenging" people like you to write, say and/or do what our clients and companies want -- of your own volition -- and not even realize that you're doing it. If you are telling us that you only want information from people whose views you like and trust, then we'll just reach you through them and you'll never be the wiser."
(a comment on Tom Coates' "This is not a brothel..." over on flickr)
and an extract from a post by Tom Coates on the subject...
"you'd be surprised the pressure that you can receive to deform what you write to serve other people's best interests. And it needs to be said, quite apart from my own personal irritation with these people, they are actively trying every day to commandeer the conversations that you are having out there by fair means or foul to serve their needs more effectively. They do it by offering perks, holding or withholding access to people or things and by making people feel privileged by giving them gifts or treats."
"Our job is to get even "challenging" people like you to write, say and/or do what our clients and companies want -- of your own volition -- and not even realize that you're doing it. If you are telling us that you only want information from people whose views you like and trust, then we'll just reach you through them and you'll never be the wiser."
(a comment on Tom Coates' "This is not a brothel..." over on flickr)
and an extract from a post by Tom Coates on the subject...
"you'd be surprised the pressure that you can receive to deform what you write to serve other people's best interests. And it needs to be said, quite apart from my own personal irritation with these people, they are actively trying every day to commandeer the conversations that you are having out there by fair means or foul to serve their needs more effectively. They do it by offering perks, holding or withholding access to people or things and by making people feel privileged by giving them gifts or treats."
posted by russell higgs at
Saturday, September 01, 2007
GERMAN GOVERNMENT'S TROJAN SPYWARE
A bbc report says that the "German government plans to spy on Terror Suspects by deploying malicious e-mails."
"The e-mails would contain Trojans - software that secretly installs itself on suspects' computers, allowing agents to search the hard drives."
"The measure would form part of a new anti-terrorism bill."
What next, Trojans that plant evidence?
"The e-mails would contain Trojans - software that secretly installs itself on suspects' computers, allowing agents to search the hard drives."
"The measure would form part of a new anti-terrorism bill."
What next, Trojans that plant evidence?
posted by russell higgs at
Saturday, September 01, 2007
31.8.07
Terrorists, Victims and Society
there is no "psychology of the terrorist,"
there is only the psychology of the Human that plays out in a multitude of ways.
..."Terrorists, Victims and Society" edited by Andrew Silke
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
... originally posted Family Of Breath 2 aug 2005 ...
there is only the psychology of the Human that plays out in a multitude of ways.
..."Terrorists, Victims and Society" edited by Andrew Silke
amazon.co.uk
amazon.com
... originally posted Family Of Breath 2 aug 2005 ...
posted by russell higgs at
Friday, August 31, 2007
MANY
In 2004 the bbc told us that there's a tribe living in a remote part of Brazil's Amazon rainforest which has no words for numbers beyond two.
The Piraha use "one" to mean one or roughly one, two means two, while any larger number is just "many".
... originally posted Family Of Breath 22 aug 2004 ...
The Piraha use "one" to mean one or roughly one, two means two, while any larger number is just "many".
... originally posted Family Of Breath 22 aug 2004 ...
posted by russell higgs at
Friday, August 31, 2007
Disappearing Languages
"Of the 6,000 languages still on Earth, 90 percent could be gone by 2100."
"Languages are becoming extinct at twice the rate of endangered mammals and four times the rate of endangered birds."
Disappearing Languages
...originally posted Family Of Breath 6 aug 2004 ...
"Languages are becoming extinct at twice the rate of endangered mammals and four times the rate of endangered birds."
Disappearing Languages
...originally posted Family Of Breath 6 aug 2004 ...
posted by russell higgs at
Friday, August 31, 2007
Notes and thoughts re Huxley's Brave New World
"when the 5th marquess of lansdowne wrote to the times suggesting that the 1st world war should be concluded with a compromise, as most wars of the 18th century had been, the editor refused to print it."
(....Aldous Huxley, in his 1946 revised foreword to Brave new world)
ilya ehrenburg said "dadaism has more to do with the battle of the somme, with uprisings and putsches....than with what we usually consider art."
Folowing the war, in the 1920s and 30s, it was taken for granted that art has a social content and that artists ought to work for social change. Dada, in essence, was revolt against war. None of those artists could bring themselves to work for the rebuilding of a society that had proven itself so morally bankrupt and they rejected all accepted values because those values had all succumbed to rabid militarism.
"O brave new world that has such people in it."
Round pegs in Square holes tend to have dangerous thoughts about the social system and to infect others with their discontents.
THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS
THE PROBLEM OF MAKING PEOPLE LOVE THEIR SERVITUDE.
"A really efficient state would be one in which the all powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of Slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. Ensuring that enough people love it is the task assigned to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors, and schoolteachers."
(...Aldous Huxley, in his 1946 revised foreword to Brave new world)
And.....
Great is the truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.
Embedded Journalism
The US defence department's chief spokesperson, Victoria Clarke, has said the Pentagon was very happy with the outcome of the "embedding" of some 700 journalists with US military units during the war in Iraq. During a conference on 17 June 2003 on news coverage during the war, she said people appreciated the embedding and would like to do it again. She added that more journalists should be brought into this process next time, especially foreign journalists.
( via reporters without borders )
and how many journalists and camera people etc have the americans killed so far?
plus....
the perpetuation of militarism:
The masses as cannon fodder
and the importance of families to produce more cannon fodder and to colonise empty or conquered territories.
...originally posted Family Of Breath 12 aug 2003 ...
(....Aldous Huxley, in his 1946 revised foreword to Brave new world)
ilya ehrenburg said "dadaism has more to do with the battle of the somme, with uprisings and putsches....than with what we usually consider art."
Folowing the war, in the 1920s and 30s, it was taken for granted that art has a social content and that artists ought to work for social change. Dada, in essence, was revolt against war. None of those artists could bring themselves to work for the rebuilding of a society that had proven itself so morally bankrupt and they rejected all accepted values because those values had all succumbed to rabid militarism.
"O brave new world that has such people in it."
Round pegs in Square holes tend to have dangerous thoughts about the social system and to infect others with their discontents.
THE PROBLEM OF HAPPINESS
THE PROBLEM OF MAKING PEOPLE LOVE THEIR SERVITUDE.
"A really efficient state would be one in which the all powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of Slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. Ensuring that enough people love it is the task assigned to ministries of propaganda, newspaper editors, and schoolteachers."
(...Aldous Huxley, in his 1946 revised foreword to Brave new world)
And.....
Great is the truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth.
Embedded Journalism
The US defence department's chief spokesperson, Victoria Clarke, has said the Pentagon was very happy with the outcome of the "embedding" of some 700 journalists with US military units during the war in Iraq. During a conference on 17 June 2003 on news coverage during the war, she said people appreciated the embedding and would like to do it again. She added that more journalists should be brought into this process next time, especially foreign journalists.
( via reporters without borders )
and how many journalists and camera people etc have the americans killed so far?
plus....
the perpetuation of militarism:
The masses as cannon fodder
and the importance of families to produce more cannon fodder and to colonise empty or conquered territories.
...originally posted Family Of Breath 12 aug 2003 ...
posted by russell higgs at
Friday, August 31, 2007
Which Book
which book
A site that recommends books (fiction and poetry published since 1995) based on you choosing from a sliding scale of descriptions such as from.....
"safe to disturbing",
"beautiful to disgusting",
"optimistic to bleak", etc.
It then produces a list of books that match your criteria with short reader critiques for you to choose from
... originally posted Family Of Breath 8 Aug 2003 ...
A site that recommends books (fiction and poetry published since 1995) based on you choosing from a sliding scale of descriptions such as from.....
"safe to disturbing",
"beautiful to disgusting",
"optimistic to bleak", etc.
It then produces a list of books that match your criteria with short reader critiques for you to choose from
... originally posted Family Of Breath 8 Aug 2003 ...
posted by russell higgs at
Friday, August 31, 2007
29.8.07
PHOTO FRIDAY
photofriday.com
a different challenge theme every friday
...originally posted Family Of Breath 3 aug 2003...
a different challenge theme every friday
...originally posted Family Of Breath 3 aug 2003...
posted by russell higgs at
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
ATTENTION TO DETAIL
doorknobs and handles
every door or drawer knob, handle, or latch he touched from the time he awoke on Thursday, June 3rd until he went to bed on Friday, June 4th.
eat22
11mar2001-11mar2002 Ellie Harrison documents everything she eats.
golberg family (1976 - present)
Diego Golberg and family sit down on June 17 for a family ritual.
...originally posted Family Of Breath 3 aug 2003...
every door or drawer knob, handle, or latch he touched from the time he awoke on Thursday, June 3rd until he went to bed on Friday, June 4th.
eat22
11mar2001-11mar2002 Ellie Harrison documents everything she eats.
golberg family (1976 - present)
Diego Golberg and family sit down on June 17 for a family ritual.
...originally posted Family Of Breath 3 aug 2003...
posted by russell higgs at
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
ROMAN OPALKA'S TIME
Roman Opalka has painted "time" exclusively since 1965. Not using symbols as clocks or calendar dates, he paints a sequence of numbers to represent the passing of time.
The canvas size, height and style of digits never changes. He records the numbers as he counts in Polish, his mother tongue, and photographs his face at the end of each day’s painting session. The number paintings, photos, sound and texts are all elements Opalka uses for his installations on time. The name of this art work is: OPALKA 1965/ 1-oo
Spending more than half of his life on this single oeuvre. It will be completed only when he dies.
...originally posted Family Of Breath 2 aug 2003...
The canvas size, height and style of digits never changes. He records the numbers as he counts in Polish, his mother tongue, and photographs his face at the end of each day’s painting session. The number paintings, photos, sound and texts are all elements Opalka uses for his installations on time. The name of this art work is: OPALKA 1965/ 1-oo
Spending more than half of his life on this single oeuvre. It will be completed only when he dies.
...originally posted Family Of Breath 2 aug 2003...
posted by russell higgs at
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
HOLLYWOOD JESUS
hollywoodjesus.com
"POP CULTURE FROM A SPIRITUAL POINT OF VIEW"
...originally posted Family Of Breath 1st aug 2003...
"POP CULTURE FROM A SPIRITUAL POINT OF VIEW"
...originally posted Family Of Breath 1st aug 2003...
posted by russell higgs at
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
REMOVE "God" FROM THE PLEDGE
the american Constitution forbids government from endorsing religious views.
But in 1954 - fueled by the Cold War and blinded by McCarthyism - after sixty-two secular years, the american pledge of allegiance was changed. Religion was injected into the Pledge, and "under God" was interlarded into that promise which had previously embraced all Americans.
"The Pledge should be a unifying experience for every american citizen. Placing a religious ideal into its midst is not right, and serves no purpose except to alter a purely patriotic tradition into one that satisfies the religious bent of the majority. That is exactly what the First Amendment was written to preclude."
http://www.restorethepledge.com/
...originally posted Family Of Breath 1st aug 2003...
But in 1954 - fueled by the Cold War and blinded by McCarthyism - after sixty-two secular years, the american pledge of allegiance was changed. Religion was injected into the Pledge, and "under God" was interlarded into that promise which had previously embraced all Americans.
"The Pledge should be a unifying experience for every american citizen. Placing a religious ideal into its midst is not right, and serves no purpose except to alter a purely patriotic tradition into one that satisfies the religious bent of the majority. That is exactly what the First Amendment was written to preclude."
http://www.restorethepledge.com/
...originally posted Family Of Breath 1st aug 2003...
posted by russell higgs at
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
BEYOND GAY MARRIAGE
"We must overcome the tyranny of the natural and build human institutions that serve human needs."
...originally posted Family Of Breath 1st aug 2003...
...originally posted Family Of Breath 1st aug 2003...
posted by russell higgs at
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
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