SOUR / MIRROR North Brother Island: Abandoned New York leper colony Snowbound: The window has fallen out of the wall in this science classroom in the school (left) while tiles cling to a long-abandoned bathtub (right), one of two in the western wing of the tuberculosis pavilion Misplaced: The altarpiece from the chapel was moved to a maintenance building before the island was abandoned where it still sits on a table Mary Mallon (above, right) was the most infamous patient at North Brother Island where she spent nearly three decades of her life. Despite being healthy, she was a carrier of the typhoid virus – and is believed to have been responsible for 43 infections and three deaths. ‘Typhoid’ Mary, an Irish immigrant who emigrated to the U.S. in 1884, worked as a cook from 1900 to 1907. She was first identified as a carrier by medical researcher George Soper, who concluded she was responsible for a spate of infections linked to where she lived and worked. But she refused to listen to him. It was soon a home to six lepers.
Sorry about that! Canada reverses metered Internet decision Oops! Terrified by a critical mass of enraged broadband consumers, Canada's government is telling its telecom regulator to rescind its approval of metered or "usage based" billing, or else. Industry Minister Tony Clement is now insisting that Canada's Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has to undo the ruling. Most Canadian newspapers are getting the same message from the top. The CRTC "should be under no illusion—the Prime Minister and Minister of Industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself," a member of Canada's conservative government told the Toronto Star on Wednesday. "Frankly, a decision like this is clearly not in the best interest of consumers," the unnamed senior official added. Back to the drawing board The CRTC approved usage-based billing late last year, allowing Bell Canada to charge smaller competitive ISPs by the gigabyte, a move which made it hard for those ISPs to offer flat-rate service any longer.
vj.tv | vjs, visuals, mash-ups, and more… Jake Reilly's 'Amish Project:' 90 Days Without a Cell Phone, Email and Social Media Could you live without daily electronic conveniences—Twitter, Facebook, email, texting and more—for 90 days? Jake P. Reilly, a 24-year-old copywriting student at the Chicago Portfolio School, did just that. From October to December, he unplugged from social media, email, texts, and cell phones because he felt that we spend more quality time with gadgets and keyboards than we do with the people we really care about. During his social experiment, he found that some people he counted among his close friends really weren't that close after all. I spoke with Reilly over the phone this weekend about his 90-day project, what he learned from living without electronic leashes and how it changed his life. You say you spent three months completely cut-off from the virtual world. Reilly: I called Verizon and suspended service for my cell phone. Did you ever cheat and check to see what messages came in? Reilly: I never went back on any of the social stuff. Reilly: It was pretty bad. Reilly: Ha!
Wikileaks' Julian Assange 'would be denied justice' 7 February 2011Last updated at 12:32 ET Julian Assange: "A black box applied to my life with the word rape on it is now being opened" There is a risk of "denial of justice" if Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is tried for rape in Sweden, his lawyer has told a UK extradition hearing. Geoffrey Robertson QC also said his client could face the death penalty if then sent to the US on charges relating to the whistleblowing website. But prosecutors rejected suggestions the Swedish legal system did not have safeguards against such a "violation". Mr Assange, 39, denies claims of sexual assault against two women. At Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in London, Mr Assange's lawyers accused the prosecutor in Sweden attempting to extradite Mr Assange of having a "biased view" against men. They said he was "willing and able" to co-operate with Swedish authorities, so no arrest warrant was needed. 'Trial by media' In a document released by Mr Assange's defence team, his lawyers argued: Analysis
Download Bergensbanen in HD Friday November 27th, over 1,2 million Norwegians watched parts of «Bergensbanen» on NRK2. The longest documentary ever? At least the longest we have made, almost 7 1/2 hours, showing every minute of the scenic train ride between Bergen on the Norwegian west coast, crossing the mountains to the capital of Oslo. Bergensbanen is 100 years in 2009, and the documentary was a wild idea from NRK staff that came through, and was, surprisingly, a big success. On Twitter, this became the thing to talk about in Norway. Over 1 000 tweets with #bergensbanen were posted, and even more when we ran the program again two days later. Norwegian version – see «Bergensbanen – klar for avgang» Now we want to give the material to our viewers, the whole thing, for download. Bittorrent The original file was 165 GB, too much for most people to download. Download the torrentfile here. Update: The original HD-file is now out We have published a HUGE 246 GB file. Creative Commons You are free to… Commercial use Summary
waldosia The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a compendium of invented words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language—to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a word for. The author's mission is to capture the aches, demons, vibes, joys and urges that roam the wilderness of the psychological interior. Each sorrow is bagged, tagged and tranquilized, then released gently back into the subconscious. ▸ visit the facebook page to hear the backstory behind each word ▸ follow on twitter (@obscuresorrows) for whatever reason ▸ send me a tumblr message describing emotions you need words for ▸ send me an email via obscuresorrows@gmail.com JOHN KOENIG is a designer and commercial director who lives in St. He is currently writing a book version of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows. Copyright © 2013 John Koenig.
Julian Assange and the Computer Conspiracy; “To destroy this invisible government” (en Español) (auf Deutsch) (in het nederlands) “To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us, and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not. Firstly we must understand what aspect of government or neocorporatist behavior we wish to change or remove. The piece of writing (via) which that quote introduces is intellectually substantial, but not all that difficult to read, so you might as well take a look at it yourself. He begins by positing that conspiracy and authoritarianism go hand in hand, arguing that since authoritarianism produces resistance to itself — to the extent that its authoritarianism becomes generally known — it can only continue to exist and function by preventing its intentions (the authorship of its authority?) How can we reduce the ability of a conspiracy to act?
Specialten DVD Magazine Belief Systems By Kanta Jacob Katz Ph.D Guest Writer for Wake Up World Our belief systems are thoughts that have become our habits that determine what we think, what we feel and how we react to life. They influence every fiber of our being. In our everyday life when we talk about “beliefs” we usually refer to the values we adopt consciously in our life, to our social, political and religious ‘beliefs’ according to which we act and behave. However, here we are talking about something of a wider perspective: about convictions that we have embraced regarding the world and ourselves in general of which we are not always aware. What does all that mean to us? Where does it all come from? Let’s look at these two words together and their meaning, to get a picture of how they interact in our life. The definition of ‘belief’ is: (1) A thought or feeling that something exists or is true, without proof. (2) A vague or specific idea on which some confidence is placed. (3) A religious doctrine that is proclaimed as true.