stuff

Some lovely snow reporting over at thejournal.ie also including the eviction notice served on the Irish Government by performance artist Will St Ledger

… stay warm tonight east coast, we’ll bask in our low 40Fs on the left coast.

With all the negativity about the beloved isle of Eire I just thought I’d post two positive videos.  Sure they are full of corporate stylings, but they still make me feel positive about the future.

FontLeRoi sez:

Bula bos a Holbrook for throwing a ray of sunshine into the gray day. I was fascinated to learn that Botox was made in Westport Co. Mayo and now is being used to treat people who suffer from chronic migraines, hardly the original vanity application it was designed for, so good on yee Westport!

Another scary, poorly written, reactionary piece of international legislation in the digital era.

Newspapers reported that the draft agreement would empower security officials at airports and other international borders to conduct random ex officio searches of laptops, MP3 players, and cellular phones for illegally downloaded or “ripped” music and movies. Travellers with infringing content would be subject to a fine and may have their devices confiscated or destroyed.

In March 2010 a leaked draft negotiation text showed that the European Commission has proposed language in ACTA to require criminal penalties for “inciting, aiding and abetting” certain offenses, including “at least in cases of wilful trademark counterfeiting and copyright or related rights piracy on a commercial scale.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

Ah Willie O’Dea what are you goin’ to do for me, are you goin’ to give me some hash are you the Minister for Gee? I swear on my tash, it’s dacent hash

So here on the left coast there’s a fierce madness about Halloween. With very few of the natives comprehending the depth of Samhain and instead relying on what the Irish brought over to the states back in the day. Shite like “Jack O’ Lanterns” which is fine, but really Halloween is far from the bonfires and bangers of my youth. Nowadays its razorblades in apples and sexy/saucy/naughty _insert profession name here_ costumes.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that except the fact that:
” The Gaels believed that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin on Samhain; because so many animals and plants were dying, it thus allowed the dead to reach back through the veil that separated them from the living.”

Watch it!

Happy Halloween

Something from the vaults of LCEC and Holbrook Media. Originally “broadcast” on public access Channel 27 San Francisco, circa 1996/97.

Featuring as yet to be released tunes (shhhhh)

This graphic is by way of introduction to the kind of stuff you’ll find on a great tumblr site called The Geek Hideout all the way from  Auss-trail-ee-aahh I guess there are more coasts than just the left one and the east one?

Here’s an interesting podcast I listened to with Terry Gross interviewing Jane Mayer about the Koch (pronounced ‘coke’ and no relation to former New York mayor Ed Koch) brothers. Apparently they have been funding various politically motivated organisations for decades. They run the second largest privately held firm in the United States (Koch Industries) which produces, amongst many other things, Brawny paper towels. Hence the photo.  Their father (Fred Koch) made his money in crude oil refining and spent some time in the Soviet Union when Stalin was in power.  David Koch was a vice-presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party in the 1980 general election.   He co-owns Koch Industries with his brother Charles.  The company apparently has annual revenues of $98 billion and includes Georgia-Pacific and the Lycra product made by a subsidiary company called Invista.  You can read the original article in The New Yorker here.

Brawny paper towels