31.03.12

Lavinia Greenlaw wins Ted Hughes award 2011 for new work in poetry

Article here

A drama documentary by Simon Armitage, an orchestral piece by Christopher Reid set in the first world war, and a sequence of dramatic war poems by Andrew Motion were all in the running for this year's award. Greenlaw's work gave its audience headphones and led them through the bustle of London St Pancras and Manchester Piccadilly train stations, listening to individual narratives. It was felt by judges to "fully capture the spirit" of the Ted Hughes award.

29.03.12

Picture captures a billion stars

Interactive tool allows users to zoom into specific areas
here

Scientists have produced a colossal picture of our Milky Way Galaxy, to reveal the detail of a billion stars.

It is built from thousands of individual images acquired by two UK-developed telescopes operating in Hawaii and in Chile.

Archived data from the project, known as the Vista Data Flow System, will be mined by astronomers to make new discoveries about the local cosmos.

But more simply, it represents a fabulous portrait of the night sky.

27.03.12

Salman Rushdie defends free speech in rousing address in Delhi

The author of The Satanic Verses excoriates Imran Khan for claiming to be 'immeasurably hurt' by the novel, and calls on Indians to defend freedom of expression

Article here

26.03.12

The Hunger Games fails to give teenagers food for thought

article here

22.03.12

My Bloody Valentine reissues confirmed
May 7th

21.03.12

Prometheus trailer
Link here

20.03.12

China's Renewable Energy Boom

Video here

Jonathan Watts reports from the Chinese desert province of Gansu, which is undergoing a stunning transformation. It is becoming the frontline of China's efforts to reinvent its economy with a massive investment in renewable energy, involving the erection of wind turbines at the rate of more than one an hour and experiments with solar energy on a large scale

12.03.12 (iii)

Level artist Mark Ziemak

"Finding the balance between flexibility and direction is an evergreen role-playing dilemma. Give players too little room, and you choke all the significance out of Big Decisions, but the larger your field of action, the harder it is to portray the consequences convincingly" on level design,
article here

12.03.12 (ii)

Artists come together in a Crisis for homeless exhibition

The Crisis Commission at London's Somerset House will feature new works by artists including Gillian Wearing, Antony Gormley and Tracey Emin

Video here
Article here

12.03.12

St Petersburg bans 'homosexual propaganda'

Russian city is fourth to adopt anti-gay legislation as politicians and Orthodox Church push for laws to apply nationwide

Guardian article here

08.03.12 (ii)

David Hockney takes Andrew Marr on a guided tour of his exhibition at the Royal Academy

Video here

"There's no such thing as bad weather in England", John Ruskin

08.03.12

Could tablet computers replace PCs?

Video here

"In the fall of 2013 you will see tablet sales will surpass laptop sales"

07.03.12

Kony 2012

Articles here and here

Kony 2012 video here

The group is in favour of direct military intervention, and their money supports the Ugandan government’s army and various other military forces.

Military intervention may or may not be the right idea, but people supporting KONY 2012 probably don’t realize they’re supporting the Ugandan military who are themselves raping and looting away. If people know this and still support Invisible Children because they feel it’s the best solution based on their knowledge and research, I have no issue with that. But I don’t think most people are in that position, and that’s a problem.

Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services, with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they haven’t had their finances externally audited.

The idea of “stopping Kony”, of course plays into the narrative created by the ‘Kony 2012′ campaign where what actually happens to Kony and the LRA is irrelevant. The unspecific aim of “stopping” him is sufficient. Who, after all, doesn’t want Kony “stopped”? But then what? If Kony is killed or captured, then what? What happens to the other members of the LRA? ‘Kony 2012′ offers no answers here.

In this context, it is worthwhile remembering that massive regional military solutions (Operations Iron Fist and Lightning Thunder most recently), with support from the US, have thus far failed to dismantle or “stop” the LRA. These failures have created serious and legitimate doubts that the ‘LRA question’ is one that can be resolved by military means.



Is awareness good? Yes. But these problems are highly complex, not one-dimensional and, frankly, aren’t of the nature that can be solved by postering, film-making and changing your Facebook profile picture, as hard as that is to swallow. Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on supporting ill-advised violent intervention and movie #12 isn’t helping. Do I have a better answer? No, I don’t, but that doesn’t mean that you should support KONY 2012 just because it’s something. Something isn’t always better than nothing. Sometimes it’s worse.

04.03.12 (iii)

Trentemoller, While the Cold Winter Coming

link

04.03.12 (ii)

The Shangri-Las, I Can Nevet Go home Anymore
Link

04.03.12

Ikea Houses

Boklok homes
http://www.boklok.com/theconcept/Our-Homes/

Ikea and Ideabox

$86,500