The Big Brother nightmare of George Orwell's 1984 has become a reality - in the shadow of the author's former London home.
It may have taken a little longer than he predicted, but Orwell's vision of a society where cameras and computers spy on every person's movements is now here.
According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2 million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people in the country - and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily.
Use of spy cameras in modern-day Britain is now a chilling mirror image of Orwell's fictional world, created in the post-war Forties in a fourth-floor flat overlooking Canonbury Square in Islington, North London.
On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.
The message is reminiscent of a 1949 poster to mark the launch of Orwell's 1984: 'Big Brother is Watching You'.
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) produced a report highlighting the astonishing numbers of CCTV cameras in the country and warned how such 'Big Brother tactics' could eventually put lives at risk.
The RAE report warned any security system was 'vulnerable to abuse, including bribery of staff and computer hackers gaining access to it'. One of the report's authors, Professor Nigel Gilbert, claimed the numbers of CCTV cameras now being used is so vast that further installations should be stopped until the need for them is proven.
One fear is a nationwide standard for CCTV cameras which would make it possible for all information gathered by individual cameras to be shared - and accessed by anyone with the means to do so.
The RAE report follows a warning by the Government's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas that excessive use of CCTV and other information-gathering was 'creating a climate of suspicion'.
(read more)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Big Brother Is Watching You
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
"Fur"
Photograph of Diane Arbus by Allan Arbus
(a film test), c. 1949
Diane Arbus (March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists, circus performers) or else of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid... that she would be known simply as the photographer of freaks"; however, that term has been used repeatedly to describe her.
In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale. Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972-1979. In 2003-2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of a another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations. In 2006, the motion picture Fur, starring Nicole Kidman as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.
Although some of Arbus's photographs have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, Arbus's work has provoked controversy; for example, Norman Mailer was quoted in 1971 as saying "Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child."
Arbus experienced "depressive episodes" during her life similar to those experienced by her mother, and the episodes may have been worsened by symptoms of hepatitis. Arbus wrote in 1968 "I go up and down a lot," and her ex-husband noted that she had "violent changes of mood." On July 26, 1971, while living at Westbeth Artists Community in New York City, Arbus took her own life by ingesting barbiturates and slashing her wrists with a razor. Marvin Israel found her body in the bathtub two days later; she was 48 years old.
(read more) (photographs) (movie trailer)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
2+2=?
Natural History
E.B. White
The spider, dropping down from twig,
Unfolds a plan of her devising,
A thin premeditated rig
To use in rising.
And all that journey down through space,
In cool descent and loyal hearted,
She spins a ladder to the place
From where she started.
Thus I, gone forth as spiders do
In spider's web a truth discerning,
Attach one silken thread to you
For my returning.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Mama's little baby
Put on the skillet,
Slip on the lid,
Mama's gonna make
A little short'nin' bread.
That ain't all
She's gonna do,
Mama's gonna make
A little coffee, too.
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.
Three little children,
Lyin' in bed
Two were sick
And the other 'most dead
Sent for the doctor
And the doctor said,
"Give those children some
Short'nin' bread."
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.
When those children,
Sick in bed,
Heard that talk
About short'nin' bread,
Popped up well
To dance and sing,
Skipped around and cut
The pigeon wing.
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.
Slip to the kitchen,
Slip up the led,
Filled my pockets full of
Short'nin' bread;
Stole the skillet,
Stole the led,
Stole the gal makin'
Short'nin' bread.
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.
Caught me with the skillet,
Caught me with the led,
Caught me with the gal makin'
Short'nin' bread;
Paid six dollars for the skillet,
Six dollars for the led,
Spent six months in jail eatin'
Short'nin' bread.
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.
(video clip)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
status report
Mother and father dead from suicide...
Youngest brother dead from AIDS...
Other brother diagnosed with lung cancer...
Sister undergoing emergency spinal surgery...
Hey...could be worse.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Secret Tape
CALVIN: I got to get home and get to bed or get some nerve pills or see the doctor or something. I can't stand it. I'm about to go half crazy.
CHARLIE: I tell you, when we through, I'll get you something to settle you down so you can get some damn sleep.
CALVIN: I can't sleep yet like it is. I'm just damn near crazy.
CHARLIE: Well, Calvin, when they brought you out-when they brought me out of that thing, goddamn it I like to never in hell got you straightened out.
His voice rising, Calvin said, "My damn arms, my arms, I remember they just froze up and I couldn't move. Just like I stepped on a damn rattlesnake." [sic]
"They didn't do me that way", sighed Charlie.
Now both men were talking as if to themselves.
CALVIN: I passed out. I expect I never passed out in my whole life.
CHARLIE: I've never seen nothin' like that before in my life. You can't make people believe-
CALVIN: I don't want to keep sittin' here. I want to see a doctor-
CHARLIE: They better wake up and start believin'... they better start believin'.
CALVIN: You see how that damn door come right up?
CHARLIE: I don't know how it opened, son. I don't know.
CALVIN: It just laid up and just like that those son' bitches-just like that they come out.
CHARLIE: I know. You can't believe it. You can't make people believe it-
CALVIN: I paralyzed right then. I couldn't move-
CHARLIE: They won't believe it. They gonna believe it one of these days. Might be too late. I knew all along they was people from other worlds up there. I knew all along. I never thought it would happen to me.
CALVIN: You know yourself I don't drink
CHARLIE: I know that, son. When I get to the house I'm gonna get me another drink, make me sleep. Look, what we sittin' around for. I gotta go tell Blanche... what we waitin' for?
CALVIN (panicky): I gotta go to the house. I'm gettin' sick. I gotta get out of here.
Then Charlie got up and left the room, and Calvin was alone.
CALVIN: It's hard to believe . . . Oh God, it's awful... I know there's a god up there...
His words, as he prayed, became inaudible.
(read more) (nicap.org)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Operation Northwoods: aka "9/11"
Operation Northwoods, or Northwoods, was a false-flag plan that originated within the United States government in 1962. The plan called for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or other operatives to commit genuine acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and elsewhere. These acts of terrorism were to be blamed on Cuba in order to create public support for a war against that nation, which the US had recently labled as communist under Fidel Castro. One part of the Operation Northwoods plan was to "develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington."
Operation Northwoods included proposals for hijackings and bombings followed by the introduction of phony evidence that would implicate the Cuban government. The plan stated:
"The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances from a rash and irresponsible government of Cuba and to develop an international image of a Cuban threat to peace in the Western Hemisphere."
Several other proposals were included within the Operation Northwoods plan, including real or simulated actions against various U.S. military and civilian targets. The plan was drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, signed by Chairman Lyman Lemnitzer and sent to the Secretary of Defense. Although part of the U.S. government's Cuban Project anti-communist initiative, Operation Northwoods was never officially accepted and the proposals included in the plan were never executed.
Journalist James Bamford summarized Operation Northwoods in his April 24, 2001 book Body of Secrets:
Operation Northwoods, which had the written approval of the Chairman and every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called for innocent people to be shot on American streets; for boats carrying refugees fleeing Cuba to be sunk on the high seas; for a wave of violent terrorism to be launched in Washington, D.C., Miami, and elsewhere. People would be framed for bombings they did not commit; planes would be hijacked. Using phony evidence, all of it would be blamed on Castro, thus giving Lemnitzer and his cabal the excuse, as well as the public and international backing, they needed to launch their war. (read more) (watch video)
Friday, September 10, 2010
Give...and ye shall receive
(say this and become powerful)
"I want to help you...
you just tell me what you need...
and I'll be happy to do it"
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Christian Love ?
The "Rev." Terry Jones displays the height of "Christian Hypocricy".
The "Reverend", head of the Dove World Outreach Church in Gainesville, Fla., plans to burn copies of the Qur'an, the Muslim holy book, on September 11.
Having forgotten, or never known of, the admonitions contained within the Bible against violence, hate and revenge perhaps the "Reverend" can recall the nazi book burnings that led inevitably to the burning of humans, or the cautionary tale from "Fahrenheit 451". But that would require reading.
Heinrich Heine, a German poet in the 19th Century said this now infamous quote, "Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people".
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Open Letter to President Barack Obama
Application of this worldview by your administration has now become quite evident. I refer here to the use of robot military drones to attack suspected terrorist positions with deadly force anywhere in the world that is deemed necessary regardless of national sovereignty or national borders often causing the deaths of innocent civilians. These attacks have been launched against peoples in Pakistan, Somalia, Tunisia and Afghanistan. In addition, you have apparently approved of extrajudicial killing of even American citizens abroad who are suspected of terrorist activity.
This is the behavior of a rogue nation – these acts are justified by a right of power without the requirement of the rule of law. This is not only morally reprehensible, but it also sets a precedent that other sovereignties can emulate whenever they feel justified by what they believe are national security interests.
The further escalation of the war in Afghanistan will, in my judgment, ultimately damage your presidency, for there is no real winning or losing in this conflict. Furthermore, the continued use of American military power In Afghanistan, our extraordinarily large military budget that overshadows the rest of the world, our extensive bases throughout the world are striking examples of our will towards empire and the destabilizing effect it has on the prospects for world peace.
I urge you, Mr. President to reconsider your foreign policy priorities and incorporate the same humanitarian and compassionate principles that you have utilized so effectively within the framework of your domestic agenda.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Age of Inception
Kerry: this is what I meant by a cohort effect when trying to understand differences of opinion. I'll post Dr Henry Jenkins reply next. It’s way brilliant..!
Friday, September 3, 2010
woman
Working memory
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
The Garden Of Earthly Delights
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516)
The triptych is painted in oil and comprises a square middle panel flanked by two rectangular wings that can close over the center as shutters. These outer wings, when folded shut, display a grisaille painting of the earth during the Creation. The three scenes of the inner triptych are probably (but not necessarily) intended to be read chronologically from left to right. The left panel depicts God presenting Adam to Eve, while the central panel is a broad panorama of sexually engaged nude figures, fantastical animals, oversized fruit and hybrid stone formations. The right panel is a hellscape and portrays the torments of damnation.
Art historians and critics frequently interpret the painting as a didactic warning on the perils of life's temptations. However the intricacy of its symbolism, particularly that of the central panel, has led to a wide range of scholarly interpretations over the centuries. 20th-century art historians are divided as to whether the triptych's central panel is a moral warning or a panorama of paradise lost. American writer Peter S. Beagle describes it as an "erotic derangement that turns us all into voyeurs, a place filled with the intoxicating air of perfect liberty". (read more)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Be Here Now
My eyes are on fire
My hair is on fire
My skin is on fire
The sky is on fire
The world is on fire
Be The Miracle