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Thursday 31 May 2012

In today's global economy, innovation is the engine of economic growth.

Kong Cho Ha, 2006

Sunday 27 May 2012

It is amazing to me the degree of inequality that exists without people really getting upset

Warren Buffett
Thousands more unemployed people will be forced to work for free or lose their benefits under controversial plans to be announced by the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, as the government is warned its drive to get people back into work appears to be floundering.

The scheme, under which the jobless are obliged to accept an unpaid work placement for a month to keep their benefits, will be "significantly extended" within the next two weeks, according to Whitehall sources.


[...]

The number of people claiming housing benefit has also shot past the five million mark for the first time, with more than 90% of new claimants since the 2010 general election being those in low-paid, part-time work.

here.

Class war is fought downwards.

Everything else is defensive action.

Thursday 24 May 2012

London 2012 Games: wise and true.

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Before the end of Time will be the end of History. Before the end of History will be the end of Art.

Hegel

Tuesday 22 May 2012

"Translating the printemps érable is a volunteer collective attempting to balance the English media's extremely poor coverage of the student conflict in Québec by translating media that has been published in French into English. These are amateur translations; we have done our best to translate these pieces fairly and coherently, but the final texts may still leave something to be desired."

Visit them here.

(via.)

Sunday 20 May 2012

The world's quite simple really

Friday 18 May 2012

Thursday 17 May 2012

Tuesday 15 May 2012

(yes i am very late to this party)

"Slackk loves house music’s rhythm and grime’s sonics"

September, 2010: Tom Lea writes

Wiley’s ‘Ice Rink’ is pretty hard to describe if you’re not actually Wiley. Those sounds are embedded deep in the consciousness of anyone who ever liked grime, but I couldn’t tell you what they are for the life of me, and Wiley would probably tell you to stay out of it.

Maybe Slackk can. Following the lead of many grime producers, he’s turned to the self-facilitating Bandcamp website to release his new single, an uncompromising refix of ‘Ice Rink’. Wiley’s original fired off those harsh sounds in all directions, but Slackk narrows the track’s focus, taking one of the best tracks ever designed for the cipher and re-jigging it for the dancefloor. It’s a simple change, but the results will knock out a club where it stands.



Sunday 13 May 2012

Q. 
What are the biggest assumptions and misconceptions about dance music that a person writing about it must challenge or at least consider?

"That it's not real music. That it takes no skill. That the musicians are untalented. That it is somehow worth less than other forms of music. That you have to be high to like it. That it's just drug music. That's it's going to be over and dead within a few years. That it's gay music. That it's shallow. That it's just disco for the year 2001 (and we all know "disco sucks")."


Tricia Romano


"That dance music is mindless, that dance fans are not listening closely--a dancer is "listening" with every sinew and muscle and nerve ending in his/her body."


Simon Reynolds


I like dance very much. Dance is an extraordinary thing


Matisse

Saturday 12 May 2012

Rather than take steps to correct the humanitarian crisis created by Alabama’s anti-immigrant law, the state legislature appears poised to pass another law as ill conceived as its predecessor.

Time is running out for the state that passed the nation’s toughest anti-immigrant law. This is the last week of the legislature’s regular session and, astonishingly, the effort to reform the state’s anti-immigrant law – and repair the damage it has done – is being led by the very people responsible for the disaster that is HB 56...Other state legislatures have come to see the Alabama debacle as a cautionary tale of what not to do.


[...]

This so-called “reform” bill is nothing more than window dressing – apparently aimed at appeasing the state’s business leaders even though the majority of small businesses and the state’s farmers will continue to suffer. And, in some areas, the bill actually makes the original law much worse.

SPLC here: the full piece is shocking.

Friday 11 May 2012

The Sewer Rats.

Oliver Craner, marvellous as ever.