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This a multi-media fusion of computer-generated 3D animations and audio, based on MIDI music which is processed to simultaneously drive the audio and the on-screen visualization. As we hear the sounds, generated with software synthesizers, we see each virtual instrument in the act of producing them from beginning to end.
Enjoy!
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The participating cities are: Boston, Chicago, Jonesborough, Tenn., Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Commentator:
"I am marching in memory of Rabha al-Hamzawi, Iraqi, female, civilian, Muslim Women's Rights activist, member of Manar Women's Association, killed on 24 June 2007 near the Jamaliya orchards in Balad. IBC database file #k6772."
: Climate change - Global warming; Greenhouse gas emissions; Sea level rise
: Conservation - Invasive species; Species extinction; Habitat destruction
: Energy - Energy conservation; Petroleum dependence
: Genetic engineering - Genetic Pollution; Genetic Erosion
: Agriculture - Intensive farming; Overgrazing; Irrigation; Monoculture
: Soil - Soil conservation; Soil erosion; Soil contamination; Herbicides; Pesticides; Soil salination
: Land degradation - Desertification; Crop decimation; Famine
: Overpopulation - Urban sprawl; Increased longevity
: Air Pollution - Acid rain; Air Quality Index; Atmospheric dispersion modeling; Chlorofluorocarbon; Global dimming; Haze; Ozone depletion; Particulates; Smog
: Water Pollution - Marine pollution; Ocean acidification; Oil spill; Surface runoff; Thermal pollution; Wastewater; Waterborne diseases; Drinking water quality
: Depletion of natural resources and non-renewables - Overfishing; Deforestation; Depletion of fossil fuels; Over-consumption
: Waste - Waste types; Waste management; Waste collection; Toxicity; Contamination; Waste treatment technologies
It is easy for us to forget about how much garbage we produce because once a week the truck comes along, sweeps up that trash and whisks it away to a landfill out of sight and smell.
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UPDATE: A Message from human rights activist and poet Ana Elsner on March 12, 2012:
It is now 5 years later. The year 2012. German Filmmaker Valentin Thurn has made his documentary TASTE THE WASTE calling attention to the issue of worldwide food waste and the problem with its disposal. Precisely one of the issues that Al Gore raised these many years ago...
HAVE WE LEARNED ANYTHING in these five years? Have we taken any steps to protect the environment and the billions of people that share this planet? The sad answer is: Clearly NOT! The same old problems still persist, have even escalated and gotten worse on a global level.
How stinging an indictment this is for our so called 'civilized society' that acts as irresponsibly as ever. When will we wake up and rally to the rescue of our abused planet earth? Perhaps not until it is too late...
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At the Supermarket Checkout:
"We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."Gore plans to donate his share of the $1.5 million that accompanies the prize to the non-profit Alliance for Climate Protection.
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In 1942,
Dorothea Lange (1895-1965), prominent American photographer and photojournalist, was hired by the War Relocation Authority of the U.S. government to document the evacuation and relocation of Pacific coast Japanese Americans.
Executive Order 9066, authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt, sent 120,000 civilians of Japanese ancestry to various detention and concentration camps with armed guards and barbed wire.
This was an immediate and drastic response to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Strong sentiments of prejudice and dehumanization of "Japs" in the general population were fueled by anti-Japanese propaganda during World War II.
These hateful sentiments were extended indiscriminately toward the enemy forces along the South Pacific battle lines as well as, unjustifiably, toward the peaceful and loyal citizenry of Japanese Americans at home in the U.S.
When justice fails
Up and down the West Coast, Japanese Americans, from doctors to shopkeepers, to farmers right down to school children and babies were summoned. The majority did not even speak Japanese, only English. All pledged their loyalty to the United States, their homeland, but to no avail:
Entire communities of Japanese American families were rounded up and herded into horse stalls at the Tanforan Assembly Center in Northern California. There they were inventoried and tagged and held for up to six months at what had been a racetrack before being transported to more permanent camps in the deserts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico and other remote locations, such as North Dakota and Arkansas. One of the first things the prisoners did was form baseball leagues to pass the time while in captivity.
Dorothea Lange's photographs vividly denounce this cruel, hysterical and racist policy. Her lens captured the quiet dignity of the forgotten men, women and children even as their lives were tossed into turmoil and deprivation.
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Over 90% of Dorothea Lange's documentary photos were suppressed and never published until much later.
Although she did not live to know it, 23 years after her death her photographs would help remind a nation of its tragic wrongdoings and might have contributed, in some small measure, to the passing of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, a United States federal law that granted reparations to Japanese-Americans who had been interned by the United States government during World War II.
Beginning in 1990, the government paid reparations to surviving internees.
[Read an interview with Dorothea Lange]
[See also: Discrimination]
[Related Abu Ghraib]
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Mustapha Tirkaa is a young and dynamic star of Arabic Chaabi (popular) music also known as Chaâbi, Sha-bii, or Sha'bii. Chaabi comes in numerous varieties which are descended from the multifarious forms of Moroccan and Algerian folk music. These songs are characterized by a swift rhythmic beat accompanied by syncopated clapping. Lately, a new generation of vocal artists and bands is experimenting with incorporating western elements such as rap and hip-hop.
There has never been a just one, never an honorable one on the part of the instigators of war. I can see a million years ahead, and this rule will never change. The handful in power, as usual, will shout for the war. The pulpit will warily and cautiously object at first; the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, "It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it." Then the handful will shout louder.
A few fair men will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity.
And now the whole nation, pulpit and all, will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open.
Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is being attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.
CAN you look him in the eye
can YOU look him in the eye
can you LOOK him in the eye
can you look HIM in the eye
can you look him IN the eye
can you look him in THE eye
can you look him in the EYE
CAN you re member his mess age
can YOU re member his mess age
can you RE member his mess age
can you re MEMBER his mess age
can you re member HIS mess age
can you re member his MESS age
can you re member his mess AGE
Commentary
The anger and condemnation in the kid's voice is entirely justified. We were not the first to pollute and damage our planet. That process started along with the industrial revolution. We are, however, the first to have scientifically researched and assessed the devastating scope and consequence of global warming. Despite this knowledge we have failed take crucial countermeasures.
Our guilt is that of denial, inertia, lack of responsibility and near-criminal neglect. We have sold out to the instant gratification of consumerism, no matter the cost, and to the mind-numbing falsehoods of a morally bankrupt leadership.
Time has come to face up to the undeniable reality of climate change and to join in taking effective steps to halt and maybe even reverse it. The ways and means to accomplish this objective are already at our disposal waiting to be enacted and applied.
Not only do we owe this to our kids, we owe it to ourselves.
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The U.S. Navy has long been pushing to conduct training exercises off the coast of Southern California using high-powered sonar. This particular stretch of coastline is an important habitat for orca and humpback whales and other marine mammals. Applying this invasive military technology in the waters of this coastal region poses a significant threat to the resident marine life.
"There is evidence that very loud noise from anti-submarine warfare sonar may hurt whales and lead to their beaching. On numerous occasions whales have been stranded shortly after military sonar was active in the area, suggesting a link."
(Found on Wikipedia)
"The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales. But it also has an interest in national defense. We are currently engaged in war, in two countries."
This ruling allows the Navy to use high-powered sonar in 11 planned training exercises.
The World of Music Mourns
A Reflection about a Man
and his Voice
By Ana Elsner
Luciano Pavarotti (October 12, 1935 – September 6, 2007), the world-famous Italian tenor, was one of the most charismatic, talented and celebrated vocal artists of opera stage and concert stage alike. Born in Modena, Italy, Pavarotti studied voice and gave unpaid recitals for several years before embarking on a professional singing career that proved to be of stellar proportions. In 1961 he made his opera debut as Rodolfo in 'La Boheme' in the footlights of a small regional Italian opera house.
Soon he debuted at the most distinguished opera houses of Europe and eventually became a beloved regular in the international world of opera and concert, garnering the affections of thousands of devoted fans.
His perfect pitch and the unique brilliance and deeply resonant beauty of his voice, reaching far into the upper register, earned him the title of "King of the High Cs" and made him one of the most successful recording stars.
"I think an important quality that I have is that if you turn on the radio and hear somebody sing, you know it’s me. You don’t confuse my voice with another voice."
"I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent."
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"B-people find it easy to stay awake at night, preferring to go to bed at around 1am or 2am, but have difficulty waking in the morning, not feeling fully awake until after 10am," explains Kring.
"A-people are the opposite, they love the mornings and immediately crank into full gear but then collapse at about 10pm."
Researchers believe that 10-20% of people are extreme owls, 10-15% are extreme larks and the remaining 80% fall in between and the rest of the population are something in between.
According to professor Angela Clow from the University of Westminster in London, research showed that over 10 weeks early risers were more likely to suffer from aches, colds and headaches. Meanwhile, a Southampton University study found that those who burned the midnight oil and slept-in the following day were no less healthy than the early risers.:
Das Leben der Anderen
Dieser gründlich recherchierte Film von Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck erzählt von der Verlorenheit des Individuums im erbarmungslosen System der Kontrolle und Überwachung. Ost-Berlin, November 1984, fünf Jahre vor der Öffnung der Berliner Mauer. Hier spielt das Drama über Verhörspezialist Stasi-Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), der im Verlauf seiner Spitzelei an sich selbst zu zweifeln beginnt. Dieser Zweifel an seinem Auftrag und an der Staatsmacht der DDR schlechthin wächst, bis er ihn letztendlich in hoch riskante Tat umsetzt.
Ein eindringliches, spannendes Drama um Liebe, Leidenschaft und Mut, und um die ewige Faszination der Freiheit, das in 2006 mit einem Oscar ausgezeichnet wurde.
Der Schauspieler Ulrich Mühe starb am 22. Juli 2007 in Walbeck, Sachsen-Anhalt, an Magenkrebs.
Sein letzter großer Erfolg war die Hauptrolle in dem Oscar-prämierten Film "Das Leben der Anderen".
The outstanding actor who portrayed the main character, Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, in the oscar winning German thriller/drama "The Lives of Others" died in July from cancer of the stomach.
German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck debuts with his feature The Lives of Others, which earned an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.::Have you seen this film? Post your review under "Comments"::
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Добры́ня Ники́тич
Dobrynya Nikitich,
Medieval Russian Knight
and Dragonslayer
The theme that Palekh artist Dmitry Bonokin has chosen for this miniature painting is the ancient Russian bylina (Russian oral tradition, folk legend) "Dobrynya and The Dragon". This bylina tells how the mighty bogatyr (Russian knight) Dobrynya Nikitich killed the evil Dragon for devastating Russian land and for kidnapping the niece of Prince Vladimir.
In the middle of the composition is the heroic figure of Dobrynya, of the noble warrior class, sitting on his faithful steed and trumpeting his horn to announce his victory. Just under Dobrynya's figure, the artist depicts the body of the dead Dragon.
To the right we see Prince Vladimir and different citizens of Kiev triumphing and saluting their hero, while on the left girls are laundering clothes in the Puchai River (according to ancient legend, the citizens of Kiev were baptized in the waters of this river).
In the upper left corner of the composition the artist writes in gold paint this excerpt from the folk tale:
"Wherever you were brought from, each of you go in your own direction, and the Dragon will not touch you, the evil Dragon has been killed!"In the upper right corner of the composition there is another quote in gold letters from this bylina:
"The blood of the Dragon flew from the east down to the west, never more will the Russian and Christian people be imprisoned, for the Dragon was killed!"
"To possess your soul in patience, with all the skin and some of the flesh burnt off your face and hands, is a job for a boy compared with the pains of a man who has lived pretty long in the exhilarating world that drugs or strong waters seem to create and is trying to live now in the first bald desolation created by knocking them off."
- Charles Edward Montague (1867-1928), British Author, Journalist and critic
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Where is the wisdom
we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge
we have lost in information?
- Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), poet, dramatist and literary critic
Lesen ohne Liebe, Wissen ohne Ehrfurcht, Bildung ohne Herz, das sind die schlimmsten Sünden gegen den Geist.
- Hermann Hesse, deutsch-schweizerischer Lyriker, Essayist, Erzähler und Kritiker (1877-1962)
Reading without love, knowledge without tribute, education without heart, those are the worst sins against the mind.
- Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss poet, essayist, novelist and critic
(Translation by Ana Elsner)
Published in many languages, Hesse is best known for his works:
Siddhartha, an allegorical novel about the search for enlightenment, first published in 1922,
Steppenwolf, a demonstration of the duality of human nature, pub. 1928,
and The Glass Bead Game (Das Glasperlenspiel), a futuristic novel, describing how people construct, deconstruct, signify, encode and program their perception of reality, pub. 1943.
"The above quote of Hesse reminds me of his novel Unter dem Rad, where the protaganist's spirit is crushed by the rigid educational system of the day.
Hesse's short stories called Märchen deal with the artist's struggle to create great art. They are told in painstakingly beautiful detail and sometimes with humor and irony.
Hesse is one of the greatest psychological novelists since Dostoyevsky. He was a manic-depressive who was not afraid to delve into the depths of his soul. One can clearly see the influence that Jungian psychology had on his work.
In his novel Narcissus and Goldmund, the two protagonists embody the two necessary components of the creative spirit: logic/abstract thought balanced with intuition/emotion. Narcissus, the ascetic monk, is of the Father world coming to terms with the processes of individuation through his intellect. Goldmund, the woodcarving icon artist, is of the Mother world feeling his way through life in the quest for discovering his true Self. This novel is literally steeped in Jungian archetypes and dream symbols on just about every page.
Applying the Riso-Hudson enneagram personality theory, Narcissus represents the five (the Thinker) and Goldmund the four (the Artist) on the scale of personality types. It is no surprise that Hesse, himself, was a four with a five wing."
Vincent Russo, Composer, Orchestrator and Conductor
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According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau report, nearly one in ten of the nation’s 3,141 counties has a resident population that is made up of more than 50 percent of so-called 'minorities' when sorted by (age,) sex, race and country-of-origin. This demographic brings the total number of minority-turned-majority counties to 303. The most recent counties added to this statistic are Denver County, Colo., and East Baton Rouge Parish, La.
So, now what? Hadn’t the U.S. Homeland Security Department better put up fences around each of these 303 counties in order to control the spread of this 'alarming' trend? (Heaven help us...!)
"Luckily," America's wealth, resources, corporations and polticians are still owned and controlled by 2% of the white male population (hello...!). Imagine what these new upstart majorities would do if they ever took over, a prospect unfathomable to the rich ruling class which considers itself omnipotent and uncontestable.
In some areas, minorities and others who were equally marginalized have gained a foothold in the new political power structure.
While it took hundreds of years before Blacks in America made the slightest political impact, they now have an opportunity to vote into office a candidate from their own ethnic background.
American women finally gained the right to vote in the 1920's. It is only now that they are in a position to support one of their own for president.
The question is, whether or not these formerly unempowered segments of the population will assert themselves at the ballot box in large enough numbers to cut the as yet unbroken chain of white male dominance in the White House.
I Sit and Look Out
I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world,
and upon all oppression and shame;
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done;
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children,
dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate;
I see the wife misused by her husband -
I see the treacherous seducer of young women;
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love,
attempted to be hid -
I see these sights on the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny -
I see martyrs and prisoners;
I observe a famine at sea - I observe the sailors
casting lots who shall be kill’d,
to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations
cast by arrogant persons upon laborers,
the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these -
All the meanness and agony without end,
I, sitting,
look out upon,
see, hear, and am silent.
-Walt Whitman, (1819-1892),
American humanist, poet, journalist, editor, teacher, and clerk at the U.S. Department of the Interior
Visit the world of Ana Elsner, a contemporary poet who was inspired by Walt Whitman
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Sadly, since Sassoon's time in WWI many more wars have been unleashed on mankind right up to the current U.S. war with Iraq.Stalin personality cult adapted to post-election parody in the US in 2005
This 'Official Inaugural Cover' envelope is an acerbic spoof about the narrow election of Washington State Governor Christine "Chris" Gregoire who won by a mere 133 votes and only after two recounts and several court challenges at that. The Stalin image and quote "It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes" is employed here in a sadonic way as a post-election jab, most likely attributable to her right-wing Republican opponents.
The cancellation stamp spells 'Olympia, USSR' in cyrillic letters with the date mark of 12.01.05, the Russian/European version for January 12, 2005, the day of Gregoire's inauguration. On the postage stamp itself is a montage of Stalin flanked by Lenin and Gregoire with the caption "Democratic People's Republic Of King County" and "All Hail The Selection Of Commissar Gregoire" and with a 'Provisional Postage' value of 37 Kopeks.
Joseph Stalin (Иосиф Сталин), 1878-1953, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee, turned dictator, initiated an unprecedented campaign of lethal propaganda, political repression, persecution and executions which cost the lives of millions of Russians.
Stalin, much like Hitler, created a personality cult around both himself and Vladimir Lenin, who was the first head of Bolshevik Russia.
[Related: 'The Solution' by Bertolt Brecht]
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...The City Square (in Leipzig) looks a little like the square I was in with the 69th. We were at the near end and a Kraut ran across the far end. We all shot at him, but I don't know whether he got out. It was almost dark.
Some time after that, Dan Carey and I captured one. I just recall Carey talking with the guy in his high school German. The Kraut seemed to be a decent guy so we treated him well.
I have a picture of a few guys from our squad sitting on a curb waiting for orders to move out. Carey was the one who liberated a camera and took the photos I have. He had a German print copies for some of us.
He's also the guy who shot his rifle right next to my ear and left me with the ringing I still have after all these years.
Carey really was some piece of cake as was a guy he used to pal around. (I think the guys name was Rowe.) Once they went kind of crazy and went into a German home and ripped it apart for no reason whatsoever. The only German Rowe knew was, "Guten tag. Fraulein. Haben sie Kinda?" (For John: Ich weiss. "Kinda" hat Recht nicht. When he saw a Fraulein, he would ask her that stupid question, looking straight at the woman and rubbing his hands together. (That wasn't in Leipzig.) ...
One other thing I remember in Leipzig was being in a large cellar
with booze all over the place. Don't remember how or why I was in there.
[Military humor: How to prepare for Deployment]
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Engineering Consent - Bernays postulated: "If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?" He went on to prove his point in the most skillful and amoral of ways.
Not surprisingly, one of his biggest fans was Hitler's propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels.
[Click to see more film footage at AMALGAMATED PERSPECTIVES]
[Related: The Corporation]
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It's that time again in American politics: The candidates are atwitter, the campaigns are abuzz and the debates abound. Even if you are a diligent voter and make an effort to follow all the hype, you will soon find yourself buried under an avalanche of (mis)information.
It is a common strategy, employed by campaign managers everywhere, to comingle political issues with popular culture in order to attract even the most a-political of citizens.
Many like to think that our personal lives, our family concerns, our health issues, our financial matters, our social contacts, our recreational activities, our private pursuits, our religious affiliations, our choice of entertainment exist in a separate sphere from our town halls, our state houses, our courts, our Congress and our president.
This widespread misconception is being exploited by skilled campaign strategists who wrap their message inside more popular and innocuous slogans and images so it will penetrate down to "where we live".
The question: - How do we separate fact from fabrication?Here are some examples of what might, or should, be of importance to you, your future and the future of your children and grandchildren:
The answer: - Focus on the issues that matter to you, and examine each candidate's stand on them.
* Assault Weapons Ban
* Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling
* Iraq War
* US Patriot Act
* Universal Healthcare
* Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change
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Find the needle in the Google haystack
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