Thursday, December 16, 2004

AP Wire | 12/09/2004 | Zapatista Rebel Leader Writes Crime Story: "Zapatista Rebel Leader Writes Crime Story

MEXICO CITY - Only two weeks ago, a Mexican novelist got a clandestine message from Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos. The proposal: Let's write a crime story together."

LISA J. ADAMS Associated Press

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Wired 11.11: It's Wake-Up Time: "It's Wake-Up Time

Kiss your pillow good-bye. A new breed of drugs promises to do for drowsiness what Prozac did for depression."

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

Heraclitus Fragements etext: "It is not meet to act and speak like men asleep."

Friday, November 12, 2004


Guy Fawkes Posted by Hello

Cliffe Bonfire Society parade Posted by Hello

More Bonfire pics Posted by Hello

Sunday, November 07, 2004


Some fireworks Posted by Hello

Cliffe bonfire Posted by Hello

Cliffe's procession Posted by Hello

Burning barrels Posted by Hello

The parade along High Street Posted by Hello

Just got back from Lewes where they have a big bonfire night celebration. Here's a few photos... Posted by Hello

Saturday, October 30, 2004

Cocaine Blunts & Hip Hop Tapes Rare hip hop downloads - catch them while you can. Be sure to check out the links to other music blogs for plenty of other types of music.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Greco-Buddhism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: OK, so I'm placing too much reliance on simply blogging links to wikipedia or wired but this is an interesting article to me. The links between ancient greek philosophy and Buddhism are genuine and represent an alliance of like thought crossing and mingling - "Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Gr�co-Buddhism, is the cultural syncretism between the culture of Classical Greece and Buddhism, which developed over a period of close to 800 years in Central Asia in the area corresponding to modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE. Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic (and, possibly, conceptual) development of Buddhism, and in particular Mahayana Buddhism, before it was adopted by Central and Northeastern Asia from the 1st century CE, ultimately spreading to China, Korea and Japan."

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

UK Indymedia - UK Indymedia: "On Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace ordering them to hand over Indymedia web servers to the requesting agency. Rackspace, which provides hosting services for more that 20 Indymedia sites at its London facility, complied and turned over the requested servers, effectively removing those sites from the internet.

Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia. Talking to Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that 'they cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order.' ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the concerned parties on what is happening.

It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside the US jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.

It is ironic that that this happens now, just days before Indymedia is due to participate in the European Forum on Communications Rights being held alongside the European Social Forum and several other days of discussions about electronic civil liberties and community media. For more information on these events see www.efcr2004.net"

Monday, October 11, 2004

Went to Liverpool last Saturday to see Femi Kuti live at the Liverpool Philharmonic. I don't know why music like this is continuously forced into venues that are really inappropriate. Femi's music is to be danced to yet it ends up in a concert hall where everyone is forced to sit down and people who want to dance are told to sit down or herded into corners with bouncers continuously glaring at them. But the concert was really very good with a lot of new songs from his album (released in the UK today) as well as classics like Beng Beng Beng and an encore of his father's Water No Get Enemy. The energy of everyone involved was high and the performance as polished and professional as any. Didn't really like the support act very much as it was earnest but lacked the power and fun of Femi.
I managed to convince Soo to blag me a poster which was free if you bought a CD, which was very nice of her, as we already have the CD that was on sale. Seemed a shame that the new one wasn't available yet.
I forgot to take my camera along so no photos either...

Friday, October 08, 2004

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Wired News: Engineering God in a Petri Dish: "SAN FRANCISCO -- On a steep, narrow street above Chinatown works Jonathon Keats, a tweed-suited, bow-tied 32-year-old who, with assistance from a phalanx of scientists, is genetically engineering God in his apartment. "

Monday, September 27, 2004

Philip K. Dick - Exegesis Philip K Dick has long been one of my favourite writers; I continued reading his books long after I thought I had finished with science fiction and continue to read them even now - not least because he was so prolific it's hard to run out.
The page on philipkdick.com has scans from his journal kepts at the time of his breakdown in 1974 as well as a lot of other content of interest to anyone who loves PKD's writing.
Poems of Du Fu - Online translations, with Chinese, English and French, of one of China's greatest classical poets. Translations of other poets and works of philosophy also available.

Saturday, September 18, 2004

Federated States of Micronesia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The island of Yap is notable for its stone money, large disks usually of calcite, up to 4 m (12 ft) in diameter, with a hole in the middle. The islanders know who owns which piece, but do not necessarily move them when ownership changes. There are five major types: Mmbul, Gaw, Ray, Yar, and Reng, this last being only 0.3 m (1 ft) in diameter. Their value is based on both size and history, many of them having been brought from other islands, as far as New Guinea, but most coming in ancient times from Palau. Approximately 6,500 of them are scattered around the island."

Friday, September 17, 2004

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Aristotle This is a searchable database of British MPs that, as well as giving information about who your MP is, can tell you how your MP has voted on bills and amendments in the House of Commons.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

BBC NEWS | Technology | Flower power turns up the volume: "Called Ka-on, which means 'flower sound' in Japanese, the gadget consists of a doughnut-shaped magnet and coil at the base of a vase."

Sunday, September 12, 2004

Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament SWITCH OFF
STAR WARS
Crucial National Demo
Sat. Sept 25th, from noon
@ Fylingdales
With Thom Yorke, Caroline Lucas & Kate Hudson
plus an exhibition, march, food and more.
George Bush is due to announce the start of Star Wars this Autumn. Join CND at this national demonstration at the UK's only official Star Wars base to say NO to Star Wars and NO to space weapons. With music, exhibition, a march, speakers and more.

Friday, September 10, 2004

Shakespeare in quarto: view the British Library's digital copies online: "On this site you will find the British Library?s 93 copies of the 21 plays by Shakespeare printed in quarto before the theatres were closed in 1642."

Sunday, August 29, 2004

BBC - Radio 3 - WOMAD 2004 Everything broadcast by Radio 3 at Womad 2004 is available to listen to here - all free. An excellent few hours of listening.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

THE THIRD MAN: "``You know what the fellow said: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love--they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.''"

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Surviving the Singularity
With super human intelligence in charge of technological progress, progress itself becomes much more rapid and involves the creation of still more intelligent "beings" on an ever shortening time scale.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Whither China? Essay about a famous document from the Cultural Revolution in China denouncing the Red Bourgoisie.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

New Scientist Guide to the Quantum World:

"Quantum wormholes could carry people

All around us are tiny doors that lead to the rest of the Universe. Predicted by Einstein's equations, these quantum wormholes offer a faster-than-light short cut to the rest of the cosmos - at least in principle. Now physicists believe they could open these doors wide enough to allow someone to travel through."

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Prion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Not all prions are dangerous; in fact, prion-like proteins are found naturally in many (perhaps all) plants and animals. Because of this, scientists reasoned that such proteins could give some sort of evolutionary advantage to their host. This was suggested to be the case in a type of fungus (Podospora anserina). Genetically compatible colonies of this fungus can merge together and share cellular contents such as nutrients and cytoplasm. A natural system of protective 'incompatibility' proteins exists to prevent promiscuous sharing between unrelated colonies. One such protein, called HET-S, adopts a prion-like form in order to function properly. The prion form of HET-S spreads rapidly throughout the cellular network of a colony and can convert the non-prion form of the protein to a prion state after compatible colonies have merged. However, when an incompatible colony tries to merge with a prion-containing colony, the prion causes the 'invader' cells to die, insuring that only related colonies obtain the benefit of sharing resources."

Monday, August 09, 2004

Monday, August 02, 2004

Quantum Teleportation article by Anton Zeilinger

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

GRANT-MORRISON.COM
Grant Morrison is a comic book writer and magician (what is it about writing comics and magic?). He has done some great work over the past few years and I'm currently reading his Sea Guy, a tale about a semi-retired hero and his talking tuna sidekick. The site looks like it could do with a little updating here and there but has some interesting stuff on it beyond the usual blah blah blah.

Monday, July 26, 2004


Amparanoia Posted by Hello
Went to the womad festival in Reading this last weekend. A weekend of various music from around the world. Was a lot of fun and the weather was mostly great, especially as recently it has been very cold and rainy in England recently. A few stand out acts were Amparanoia from Spain, a US/Puerto Rican band called Radio Mundial who sounded like latin music mixed with a generous slice of prog rock, Tinariwen with an afro-electric blues sound, Senor Coconut... the list goes on. The only real down points for me were David Byrne (not very good) and missing Daby Toure because the time was changed.

Drummers of Burundi Posted by Hello

Papier mache artists in residence, the Mora Brothers from Cuba Posted by Hello

Flags at Womad Posted by Hello

Zap Mama Posted by Hello

Sunday, July 18, 2004


Aggie, me and ghazala Posted by Hello

Andy, ants and paddi Posted by Hello

Tanya's birthday party - Tanya and Aggie Posted by Hello

Saturday, July 17, 2004

Education Leeds We finally got the new website up, tested and mostly working, and thd dns changed yesterday.

Sunday, July 11, 2004

Fylfot Books | Writings | Cup-and-Ring Art (1): "They are known by a variety of names, and each has its own myth and identity. In the Scottish lowlands they are known as Brownie Stones; in northern Scotland they are called Gruagach Stones (in some districts they later became known as Knocking Stones); in the Grampians they were called Fairies' Footprints; in the northern counties of England, Dobie or Dobbie Stones; in Yorkshire, Cat troughs; in Scandinavia, Elf-mills; in Australia, Tjuringa stones;"

More carvings, Ilkley Moor. Some of the patterns are more sophisticated, like this one near the Cow and Calf rocks. Posted by Hello

Cup marked rock, Ilkley Moor. These carvings are prehistoric and the type is found all over Europe, although their purpose is unknown. Posted by Hello

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Wired News: Building a Better Mozilla
Fellow Mozilla users might find this article interesting - Information on all the little tools that are out there to improve the experience.

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

How to Make a Complete Map of Every Thought you Think: This is a man who spent a couple of months writing down every thought he had. You can read more on the BBC News site too.

Sunday, July 04, 2004

RADIOCHANGO :: Music and Revolution :: La Onda Zapatista: "# A spreading and promoting portal of Mestiza music, with detailed dossiers on several groups, an agenda with the best selection of music and a web-radio.
# A spreading portal of social political news (The Conscience) where well known characters contribute.
# A virtual community, where people all around the world can share their experiences thanks to the forums and chat."
A good website to lose yourself in for a while.

Saturday, July 03, 2004

The Beat: Issue #1
A new online magazine for writers and poets influenced by the Beats. Haven't had much chance to properly check it out yet, but it looks good.

Friday, July 02, 2004

1. The Search for the Bull:

"In the pasture of this world, I endlessly push aside the tall grasses in search of the bull.
Following unnamed rivers, lost upon the interpenetrating paths of distant mountains,
My strength failing and my vitality exhausted, I cannot find the bull.
I only hear the locusts chirring through the forest at night."
THE RABBITS ARE COMING
or Bunny's gonna get ya

An old woman stands by a road, waiting to cross as she leans lightly on her wheeled shopping bag for support. Traffic is constant, hissing farts of cars an ugly decoherent wall. Quietly, in the distance, a faint drumming begins, getting louder, throbbing, feeling like a tortuous growl in the bowel. People stop, cars stop and windows wind
down. There is a scream from the far end of the road, the crest of a hill, a man ragged and cut staggers with punch drunk walk, breath gulping in rasping sighs. His eyes flicker upwards to the sky in supplication, begging for strength to speak.
"The rabbits are coming," he says, falling to the ground. The panic spreads amongst the listeners with an instant of thought, shouts, "The bunnies are here," "Rabbits!" and cars hit panicked reverse, people run, the street clears. The old woman looks around at all this and shrugs; she crosses the road.

Thursday, July 01, 2004


Forest in Glen Brittle Posted by Hello

Overlooking Glen Brittle towards the Cuillin Hills Posted by Hello

Remains of a broch on Skye Posted by Hello

Seals in water Posted by Hello

Old Man of Storr Posted by Hello

Seal near Dunvegan castle Posted by Hello