Here is a short documentary on the practice of mountain-top removal that is currently going on in West Virginia and parts of Kentucky. Pretty fucked up shit.
BTW, what was the name of that site with all the documentaries?
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Incidents between North and South Korea
Infiltrations and incursions
Since the division of Korea, there have been numerous instances of infiltration and incursions across the border largely by North Korean agents, although the North Korean government never acknowledges direct responsibility for any of these incidents. A total of 3,693 armed North Korean agents have infiltrated into South Korea between 1954 to 1992, with 20% of these occurring between 1967 and 1968.[9] Some instances include:
Land border incidents
17 January 1968: 31 North Korean commandos crossed the border disguised as South Korean soldiers in an attempt to assassinate President Park Chung Hee at The Blue House. The failed mission resulted in 29 commandos killed, one committed suicide, and the last captured. Two South Korean policemen and five civilians were killed by the commandos. Other reports indicated as many as 68 South Koreans killed and 66 wounded, including about 24 civilians. Three Americans were killed and another three wounded in an attempt to prevent the commandos from escaping back via the DMZ.[10]
October 1968: 130 North Korean commandos entered the Ulchin and Samcheok areas in Gangwon-do. Eventually 110 of them were killed, 7 were captured and 13 escaped.
March 1969: Six North Korean infiltrators crossed the border near Chumunjin, Gangwon-do and killed a South Korean policeman on guard duty.
October 1969: North Korean infiltrators killed four United States soldiers near the southern boundary of the DMZ.
April 1970: Three North Korean infiltrators were killed and five South Korean soldiers wounded at an encounter in Kumchon, Gyeonggi-do.
November 1974: The first of what would be a series of North Korean infiltration tunnels under the DMZ was discovered.
March 1975: The second North Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered.
June 1976: Three North Korean infiltrators and six South Korean soldiers were killed in the eastern sector south of the DMZ. Another six South Korean soldiers were injured.
18 August 1976: The Axe Murder Incident resulted in the death of two U.S. soldiers and injuries to another four U.S. soldiers and five South Korean soldiers. The incident may not be technically considered an "infiltration" however, as it took place in a neutral zone of the Joint Security Area.
October 1978: The third North Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered.
October 1979: Three North Korean agents attempting to infiltrate the eastern sector of the DMZ were intercepted, killing one of the agents.
March 1980: Three North Korean infiltrators were killed attempting to enter the south across the estuary of the Han River.
March 1981: Three North Korean infiltrators spotted at Kumhwa, Gangwon-do, one was killed.
July 1981: Three North Korean infiltrators were killed in the upper stream of Imjin River.
May 1982: Two North Korean infiltrators were spotted on the east coast, one was killed.
March 1990: The fourth North Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered, in what may be a total of 17 tunnels in all.
May 1992: Three North Korean infiltrators dressed in South Korean uniforms were killed at Cheorwon, Gangwon-do. Three South Koreans were also wounded.
October 1995: Two North Korean infiltrators were intercepted at Imjin River. One was killed, the other escaped.
April 1996: Several hundred North Korean armed troops entered the Joint Security Area and elsewhere on three occasions in violation of the Korean armistice agreement.
May 1996: Seven North Korean soldiers crossed the DMZ but withdrew when fired upon by South Korean troops.
April 1997: Five North Korean soldiers cross the military demarcation line's Cheorwon sector and fired at South Korean positions.
July 1997: Fourteen North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line, causing a 23-minute exchange of heavy gunfire.
May 2006 - Two North Korean soldiers enter the DMZ and cross into South Korea. They return after South fires warning shots.
October 2006 - South Korea fires warning shots after North Korean soldiers cross briefly into their side of the border.
Incidents in other areas
June 1969: North Korean agent reached Huksan Island, resulting in 15 killed.
August 1975: Two North Korean infiltrators intercepted at Gochang County, Jeollabuk-do kills one infiltrator, two South Korean soldiers and wounds another two South Korean soldiers.
November 1978: Three North Korean agents killed two South Korean civilians in Hongseong, one civilian in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do and another civilian at Osan, Gyeonggi-do.
November 1980: Three North Korean infiltrators and one South Korean civilian were killed at Whenggando, Jeollanam-do. Six others were wounded.
December 1980: Three North Korean infiltrators and two South Korean soldiers were killed off the southern coast of Gyeongsangnam-do. Two other South Korean soldiers were wounded.
September 1984: A North Korean infiltrator killed two civilians and wounded another at Daegu before committing suicide.
October 1995: Two North Korean infiltrators were intercepted at Buyeo County. One was killed, the other captured.
17 September 1996: 26 North Korean military personnel landed on the east coast near Jeongdongjin, 20 kilometres south of Gangneung, Gangwon-do from a disabled North Korean submarine. Out of these, 11 were killed by North Korean commandos from the submarine presumably in a bid to save the rest. 13 were killed by South Korean soldiers as they tried to make their way back over the DMZ over the next 49 days, one was captured and one escaped. 13 South Korean soldiers and 4 civilians were killed,[11] and five others wounded, including an off-duty ROK soldier strangled by the escaping infiltrators. North Korea threatened to retaliate over the incident, and in October 1996, a South Korean diplomat, Choi Duk Keun, was found poisoned in Vladivostok by a substance similar to that carried on the submarine. By 29 December, however, the North issued an official statement expressing "deep regret" over the submarine incident, although it did not issue a direct apology. In return, the South Korean government returned the cremated remains of the infiltrators to the North via Panmunjom on 30 December. The beached submarine remains at Jeongdongjin, where it has since been turned into an outdoor exhibit. Investigations in the South over the intrusion resulted in twenty ROK officers and soldiers punished for "negligence of duty" and the dismissal of a lieutenant general and a major general. A taxi driver who first spotted the intruders and alerted the authorities was given a hefty reward.[12]
[edit]Maritime incidents
June 1981: A North Korean spy boat was sunk off Seosan, Chungcheongnam-do, with nine agents killed and one captured.
October 1985: A North Korean spy ship was sunk by the South Korean navy off the coast of Busan.
May 1996: Five North Korean naval patrol craft entered South Korean waters in the west coast and withdrew after a four-hour confrontation with Southern forces. Another incident in June 1996 saw three North Korean naval patrol crafts intruding for three-hours in the same area.
June 1997: Three North Korean patrol boats entered South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea, firing at South Korean patrol boats.
22 June 1998: A North Korean midget submarine was found caught in South Korean fishing nets in South Korean waters. All nine submarine crew were found dead in an apparent group suicide. North Korea blasted the South for causing the death of the crew and demanded the return of the bodies and submarine on 27 June. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung asked for the North to "admit responsibility and take reasonable measures" in response.
July 1998: A dead North Korean frogman was found with paraphernalia on a beach south of the DMZ.
November 1998: A North Korean spy boat entered South Korean waters near Ganghwa Island but escaped upon detection.
December 1998: A North Korean semisubmersible boat was sunk near Busan after an exchange with the South Korean navy. A North Korean frogman's body was found near the site.
June 1999: A nine-day confrontation was sparked when several North Korean ships intruded into disputed waters near the Northern Limit Line on the Yellow Sea. A firefight erupted on 15 June 1999, sinking a North Korean torpedo boat and damaging five others. Two South Korean vessels were lightly damaged. North Korea issues a warning that violent exchanges would continue if the disputed waters were to continue being intruded by South Korea or the United States.
9 April 2001: North Korean patrol boats entered South Korean waters briefly over the Northern Limit Line but retreated when challenged by the South Korean Navy. Similar incidents were reported on February 5, March 3 and April 10. 12 maritime intrusions were reported in total in 2001.
5 January 2002: North Korean patrol boats continue to infiltrate into South Korean waters, with another craft spotted off Yonpyong Island in the Yellow Sea.
29 June 2002: North Korean patrol boats crossed the Northern Limit Line and fired at a South Korean patrol boat, provoking a firefight which killed four South Korean military personnel and an unknown number of North Koreans.
11 November 2009: North Korean Patrol ship is set on fire after attacking a South Korean ship in the Yellow Sea. Newspaper article on the incident
Air incidents
19 February 2003: A North Korean fighter jet entered South Korean airspace over the Yellow Sea, the first since 1983. Six South Korean fighter planes responded, and the North Korean plane retreated after two minutes.
From Wiki
someone posted on the sa forums "This shit happens all the time. Let me know when Seoul is ablaze then I'll care."
Since the division of Korea, there have been numerous instances of infiltration and incursions across the border largely by North Korean agents, although the North Korean government never acknowledges direct responsibility for any of these incidents. A total of 3,693 armed North Korean agents have infiltrated into South Korea between 1954 to 1992, with 20% of these occurring between 1967 and 1968.[9] Some instances include:
Land border incidents
17 January 1968: 31 North Korean commandos crossed the border disguised as South Korean soldiers in an attempt to assassinate President Park Chung Hee at The Blue House. The failed mission resulted in 29 commandos killed, one committed suicide, and the last captured. Two South Korean policemen and five civilians were killed by the commandos. Other reports indicated as many as 68 South Koreans killed and 66 wounded, including about 24 civilians. Three Americans were killed and another three wounded in an attempt to prevent the commandos from escaping back via the DMZ.[10]
October 1968: 130 North Korean commandos entered the Ulchin and Samcheok areas in Gangwon-do. Eventually 110 of them were killed, 7 were captured and 13 escaped.
March 1969: Six North Korean infiltrators crossed the border near Chumunjin, Gangwon-do and killed a South Korean policeman on guard duty.
October 1969: North Korean infiltrators killed four United States soldiers near the southern boundary of the DMZ.
April 1970: Three North Korean infiltrators were killed and five South Korean soldiers wounded at an encounter in Kumchon, Gyeonggi-do.
November 1974: The first of what would be a series of North Korean infiltration tunnels under the DMZ was discovered.
March 1975: The second North Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered.
June 1976: Three North Korean infiltrators and six South Korean soldiers were killed in the eastern sector south of the DMZ. Another six South Korean soldiers were injured.
18 August 1976: The Axe Murder Incident resulted in the death of two U.S. soldiers and injuries to another four U.S. soldiers and five South Korean soldiers. The incident may not be technically considered an "infiltration" however, as it took place in a neutral zone of the Joint Security Area.
October 1978: The third North Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered.
October 1979: Three North Korean agents attempting to infiltrate the eastern sector of the DMZ were intercepted, killing one of the agents.
March 1980: Three North Korean infiltrators were killed attempting to enter the south across the estuary of the Han River.
March 1981: Three North Korean infiltrators spotted at Kumhwa, Gangwon-do, one was killed.
July 1981: Three North Korean infiltrators were killed in the upper stream of Imjin River.
May 1982: Two North Korean infiltrators were spotted on the east coast, one was killed.
March 1990: The fourth North Korean infiltration tunnel was discovered, in what may be a total of 17 tunnels in all.
May 1992: Three North Korean infiltrators dressed in South Korean uniforms were killed at Cheorwon, Gangwon-do. Three South Koreans were also wounded.
October 1995: Two North Korean infiltrators were intercepted at Imjin River. One was killed, the other escaped.
April 1996: Several hundred North Korean armed troops entered the Joint Security Area and elsewhere on three occasions in violation of the Korean armistice agreement.
May 1996: Seven North Korean soldiers crossed the DMZ but withdrew when fired upon by South Korean troops.
April 1997: Five North Korean soldiers cross the military demarcation line's Cheorwon sector and fired at South Korean positions.
July 1997: Fourteen North Korean soldiers crossed the military demarcation line, causing a 23-minute exchange of heavy gunfire.
May 2006 - Two North Korean soldiers enter the DMZ and cross into South Korea. They return after South fires warning shots.
October 2006 - South Korea fires warning shots after North Korean soldiers cross briefly into their side of the border.
Incidents in other areas
June 1969: North Korean agent reached Huksan Island, resulting in 15 killed.
August 1975: Two North Korean infiltrators intercepted at Gochang County, Jeollabuk-do kills one infiltrator, two South Korean soldiers and wounds another two South Korean soldiers.
November 1978: Three North Korean agents killed two South Korean civilians in Hongseong, one civilian in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do and another civilian at Osan, Gyeonggi-do.
November 1980: Three North Korean infiltrators and one South Korean civilian were killed at Whenggando, Jeollanam-do. Six others were wounded.
December 1980: Three North Korean infiltrators and two South Korean soldiers were killed off the southern coast of Gyeongsangnam-do. Two other South Korean soldiers were wounded.
September 1984: A North Korean infiltrator killed two civilians and wounded another at Daegu before committing suicide.
October 1995: Two North Korean infiltrators were intercepted at Buyeo County. One was killed, the other captured.
17 September 1996: 26 North Korean military personnel landed on the east coast near Jeongdongjin, 20 kilometres south of Gangneung, Gangwon-do from a disabled North Korean submarine. Out of these, 11 were killed by North Korean commandos from the submarine presumably in a bid to save the rest. 13 were killed by South Korean soldiers as they tried to make their way back over the DMZ over the next 49 days, one was captured and one escaped. 13 South Korean soldiers and 4 civilians were killed,[11] and five others wounded, including an off-duty ROK soldier strangled by the escaping infiltrators. North Korea threatened to retaliate over the incident, and in October 1996, a South Korean diplomat, Choi Duk Keun, was found poisoned in Vladivostok by a substance similar to that carried on the submarine. By 29 December, however, the North issued an official statement expressing "deep regret" over the submarine incident, although it did not issue a direct apology. In return, the South Korean government returned the cremated remains of the infiltrators to the North via Panmunjom on 30 December. The beached submarine remains at Jeongdongjin, where it has since been turned into an outdoor exhibit. Investigations in the South over the intrusion resulted in twenty ROK officers and soldiers punished for "negligence of duty" and the dismissal of a lieutenant general and a major general. A taxi driver who first spotted the intruders and alerted the authorities was given a hefty reward.[12]
[edit]Maritime incidents
June 1981: A North Korean spy boat was sunk off Seosan, Chungcheongnam-do, with nine agents killed and one captured.
October 1985: A North Korean spy ship was sunk by the South Korean navy off the coast of Busan.
May 1996: Five North Korean naval patrol craft entered South Korean waters in the west coast and withdrew after a four-hour confrontation with Southern forces. Another incident in June 1996 saw three North Korean naval patrol crafts intruding for three-hours in the same area.
June 1997: Three North Korean patrol boats entered South Korean waters in the Yellow Sea, firing at South Korean patrol boats.
22 June 1998: A North Korean midget submarine was found caught in South Korean fishing nets in South Korean waters. All nine submarine crew were found dead in an apparent group suicide. North Korea blasted the South for causing the death of the crew and demanded the return of the bodies and submarine on 27 June. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung asked for the North to "admit responsibility and take reasonable measures" in response.
July 1998: A dead North Korean frogman was found with paraphernalia on a beach south of the DMZ.
November 1998: A North Korean spy boat entered South Korean waters near Ganghwa Island but escaped upon detection.
December 1998: A North Korean semisubmersible boat was sunk near Busan after an exchange with the South Korean navy. A North Korean frogman's body was found near the site.
June 1999: A nine-day confrontation was sparked when several North Korean ships intruded into disputed waters near the Northern Limit Line on the Yellow Sea. A firefight erupted on 15 June 1999, sinking a North Korean torpedo boat and damaging five others. Two South Korean vessels were lightly damaged. North Korea issues a warning that violent exchanges would continue if the disputed waters were to continue being intruded by South Korea or the United States.
9 April 2001: North Korean patrol boats entered South Korean waters briefly over the Northern Limit Line but retreated when challenged by the South Korean Navy. Similar incidents were reported on February 5, March 3 and April 10. 12 maritime intrusions were reported in total in 2001.
5 January 2002: North Korean patrol boats continue to infiltrate into South Korean waters, with another craft spotted off Yonpyong Island in the Yellow Sea.
29 June 2002: North Korean patrol boats crossed the Northern Limit Line and fired at a South Korean patrol boat, provoking a firefight which killed four South Korean military personnel and an unknown number of North Koreans.
11 November 2009: North Korean Patrol ship is set on fire after attacking a South Korean ship in the Yellow Sea. Newspaper article on the incident
Air incidents
19 February 2003: A North Korean fighter jet entered South Korean airspace over the Yellow Sea, the first since 1983. Six South Korean fighter planes responded, and the North Korean plane retreated after two minutes.
From Wiki
someone posted on the sa forums "This shit happens all the time. Let me know when Seoul is ablaze then I'll care."
Friday, March 26, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave
John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave.
Spread over it the bloodstained flag of his song,
For the sun to bleach, the wind and the birds to tear,
The snow to cover over with a pure fleece
And the New England cloud to work upon
With the grey absolution of its slow, most lilac-smelling rain,
Until there is nothing there
That ever knew a master or a slave
Or, brooding on the symbol of a wrong,
Threw down the irons in the field of peace.
John Brown is dead, he will not come again,
A stray ghost-walker with a ghostly gun.
Let the strong metal rust
In the enclosing dust
And the consuming coal
That was the furious soul
And still like iron groans,
Anointed with the earth,
Grow colder than the stones
While the white roots of grass and little weeds
Suck the last hollow wildfire from the singing bones.
Bury the South together with this man,
Bury the bygone South.
Bury the minstrel with the honey-mouth,
Bury the broadsword virtues of the clan,
Bury the unmachined, the planters’ pride,
The courtesy and the bitter arrogance,
The pistol-hearted horsemen who could ride
Like jolly centaurs under the hot stars.
Bury the whip, bury the branding-bars,
Bury the unjust thing
That some tamed into mercy, being wise,
But could not starve the tiger from its eyes
Or make it feed where beasts of mercy feed.
Bury the fiddle-music and the dance,
The sick magnolias of the false romance
And all the chivalry that went to seed
Before its ripening.
And with these things, bury the purple dream
Of the America we have not been,
The tropic empire, seeking the warm sea,
The last foray of aristocracy
Based not on dollars or initiative
Or any blood for what that blood was worth
But on a certain code, a manner of birth,
A certain manner of knowing how to live,
The pastoral rebellion of the earth
Against machines, against the Age of Steam,
The Hamiltonian extremes against the Franklin mean,
The genius of the land
Against the metal hand,
The great, slave-driven bark,
Full-oared upon the dark,
With gilded figurehead,
With fetters for the crew
And spices for the few,
The passion that is dead,
The pomp we never knew,
Bury this, too.
Bury this destiny unmanifest,
This system broken underneath the test,
Beside John Brown and though he knows his enemy is there,
He is too full of sleep at last to care.
He was a stone, this man who lies so still,
A stone flung from a sling against a wall,
A sacrificial instrument of kill,
A cold prayer hardened to a musket-ball:
And yet, he knew the uses of a hill,
And he must have his justice, after all.
He was a lover of certain pastoral things,
He had the shepherd’s gift.
When he walked at peace, when he drank from the waterspring
His eyes would lift
To see God, robed in a glory, but sometimes, too,
Merely the sky,
Untroubled by wrath or angels, vacant and blue;
Vacant and high.
He knew not only doom but the shape of the land,
Reaping and sowing.
He could take a lump of any earth in his hand
And feel the growing.
He was a farmer, he didn’t think much of towns,
The wheels, the vastness.
He liked the wide fields, the yellows, the lonely browns,
The black ewe’s fastness.
Out of his body grows revolving steel,
Out of his body grows the spinning wheel
Made up of wheels, the new, mechanic birth,
No longer bound by toil
To the unsparing soil
Or the old furrow-line,
The great, metallic beast
Expanding West and East,
His heart a spinning coil,
His juices burning oil,
His body serpentine.
Out of John Brown’s strong sinews the tall skyscrapers grow,
Out of his heart the chanting buildings rise,
Rivet and girder, motor and dynamo,
Pillar of smoke by day and fire by night,
The steel-faced cities reaching at the skies,
The whole enormous and rotating cage
Hung with hard jewels of electric light,
Smoky with sorrow, black with splendor, dyed
Whiter than damask for a crystal bride
With metal suns, the engine-handed Age,
The genie we have raised to rule the earth,
Obsequious to our will
But servant-master still,
The tireless serf already half a god—
Touch the familiar sod
Once, then gaze at the air
And see the portent there,
With eyes for once washed clear
Of worship and of fear:
There is its hunger, there its living thirst,
There is the beating of the tremendous heart
You cannot read for omens.
Stand apart
From the loud crowd and look upon the flame
Alone and steadfast, without praise or blame.
This is the monster and the sleeping queen
And both have roots struck deep in your own mind,
This is reality that you have seen,
This is reality that made you blind.
So, when the crowd gives tongue
And prophets, old or young,
Bawl out their strange despair
Or fall in worship there,
Let them applaud the image or condemn
But keep your distance and your soul from them.
And, if the heart within your breast must burst
Like a cracked crucible and pour its steel
White-hot before the white heat of the wheel,
Strive to recast once more
That attar of the ore
In the strong mold of pain
Till it is whole again,
And while the prophets shudder or adore
Before the flame, hoping it will give ear,
If you at last must have a word to say,
Say neither, in their way,
“It is a deadly magic and accursed,”
Nor “It is blest,” but only “It is here.”
BY STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT
Spread over it the bloodstained flag of his song,
For the sun to bleach, the wind and the birds to tear,
The snow to cover over with a pure fleece
And the New England cloud to work upon
With the grey absolution of its slow, most lilac-smelling rain,
Until there is nothing there
That ever knew a master or a slave
Or, brooding on the symbol of a wrong,
Threw down the irons in the field of peace.
John Brown is dead, he will not come again,
A stray ghost-walker with a ghostly gun.
Let the strong metal rust
In the enclosing dust
And the consuming coal
That was the furious soul
And still like iron groans,
Anointed with the earth,
Grow colder than the stones
While the white roots of grass and little weeds
Suck the last hollow wildfire from the singing bones.
Bury the South together with this man,
Bury the bygone South.
Bury the minstrel with the honey-mouth,
Bury the broadsword virtues of the clan,
Bury the unmachined, the planters’ pride,
The courtesy and the bitter arrogance,
The pistol-hearted horsemen who could ride
Like jolly centaurs under the hot stars.
Bury the whip, bury the branding-bars,
Bury the unjust thing
That some tamed into mercy, being wise,
But could not starve the tiger from its eyes
Or make it feed where beasts of mercy feed.
Bury the fiddle-music and the dance,
The sick magnolias of the false romance
And all the chivalry that went to seed
Before its ripening.
And with these things, bury the purple dream
Of the America we have not been,
The tropic empire, seeking the warm sea,
The last foray of aristocracy
Based not on dollars or initiative
Or any blood for what that blood was worth
But on a certain code, a manner of birth,
A certain manner of knowing how to live,
The pastoral rebellion of the earth
Against machines, against the Age of Steam,
The Hamiltonian extremes against the Franklin mean,
The genius of the land
Against the metal hand,
The great, slave-driven bark,
Full-oared upon the dark,
With gilded figurehead,
With fetters for the crew
And spices for the few,
The passion that is dead,
The pomp we never knew,
Bury this, too.
Bury this destiny unmanifest,
This system broken underneath the test,
Beside John Brown and though he knows his enemy is there,
He is too full of sleep at last to care.
He was a stone, this man who lies so still,
A stone flung from a sling against a wall,
A sacrificial instrument of kill,
A cold prayer hardened to a musket-ball:
And yet, he knew the uses of a hill,
And he must have his justice, after all.
He was a lover of certain pastoral things,
He had the shepherd’s gift.
When he walked at peace, when he drank from the waterspring
His eyes would lift
To see God, robed in a glory, but sometimes, too,
Merely the sky,
Untroubled by wrath or angels, vacant and blue;
Vacant and high.
He knew not only doom but the shape of the land,
Reaping and sowing.
He could take a lump of any earth in his hand
And feel the growing.
He was a farmer, he didn’t think much of towns,
The wheels, the vastness.
He liked the wide fields, the yellows, the lonely browns,
The black ewe’s fastness.
Out of his body grows revolving steel,
Out of his body grows the spinning wheel
Made up of wheels, the new, mechanic birth,
No longer bound by toil
To the unsparing soil
Or the old furrow-line,
The great, metallic beast
Expanding West and East,
His heart a spinning coil,
His juices burning oil,
His body serpentine.
Out of John Brown’s strong sinews the tall skyscrapers grow,
Out of his heart the chanting buildings rise,
Rivet and girder, motor and dynamo,
Pillar of smoke by day and fire by night,
The steel-faced cities reaching at the skies,
The whole enormous and rotating cage
Hung with hard jewels of electric light,
Smoky with sorrow, black with splendor, dyed
Whiter than damask for a crystal bride
With metal suns, the engine-handed Age,
The genie we have raised to rule the earth,
Obsequious to our will
But servant-master still,
The tireless serf already half a god—
Touch the familiar sod
Once, then gaze at the air
And see the portent there,
With eyes for once washed clear
Of worship and of fear:
There is its hunger, there its living thirst,
There is the beating of the tremendous heart
You cannot read for omens.
Stand apart
From the loud crowd and look upon the flame
Alone and steadfast, without praise or blame.
This is the monster and the sleeping queen
And both have roots struck deep in your own mind,
This is reality that you have seen,
This is reality that made you blind.
So, when the crowd gives tongue
And prophets, old or young,
Bawl out their strange despair
Or fall in worship there,
Let them applaud the image or condemn
But keep your distance and your soul from them.
And, if the heart within your breast must burst
Like a cracked crucible and pour its steel
White-hot before the white heat of the wheel,
Strive to recast once more
That attar of the ore
In the strong mold of pain
Till it is whole again,
And while the prophets shudder or adore
Before the flame, hoping it will give ear,
If you at last must have a word to say,
Say neither, in their way,
“It is a deadly magic and accursed,”
Nor “It is blest,” but only “It is here.”
BY STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
Song of the Lincoln Batallion
The Lincoln Batallion was a group of 500 American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War who fought for the Republicans. This is a German song for them modeled after Jarama Valley.
In dem Tal dort am Rio Jarama
In dem Tal dort am Rio Jarama
Schlugen wir unsre blutigste Schlacht.
Doch wir haben, auf Tod und Verderben
Die Faschisten zum Stehen gebracht.
Zeigt uns wie man mit alten Gewehren
Einen Panzer-Angriff heil übersteht!
Zeigt uns wie man in offner Feldschlacht
Einem Tiefflieger-Angriff entgeht.
Ja, wir haben die Stellung verlassen;
Denn es half auch kein: Oh, Herr – mon Dieu!
Kameraden der Inter-Brigaden
Unsern Toten ein letztes Adieu!
Eines Teges da stehn Campesinos
Als Sieger auf spanischem Feld!
Und das tal dort am Rio Jarama
Wird gehören dem Mann, der’s bestellt!
Here is the English version
There’s a Valley in Spain called Jarama,
It’s a place that we all know so well,
It is there that we gave of our manhood,
And so many of our brave comrades fell.
We are proud of the British Battalion,[4]
And the stand for Madrid that they made,
For they fought like true sons of the soil.
As part of the Fifteenth Brigade[5].
With the rest of the international column,
In the stand for the freedom of Spain
We swore in the valley of Jarama
That fascism never will reign.
Now we’ve left that dark valley of sorrow
And its memories of regret,
So before we continue this reunion
Let us stand to our glorious dead.
In dem Tal dort am Rio Jarama
In dem Tal dort am Rio Jarama
Schlugen wir unsre blutigste Schlacht.
Doch wir haben, auf Tod und Verderben
Die Faschisten zum Stehen gebracht.
Zeigt uns wie man mit alten Gewehren
Einen Panzer-Angriff heil übersteht!
Zeigt uns wie man in offner Feldschlacht
Einem Tiefflieger-Angriff entgeht.
Ja, wir haben die Stellung verlassen;
Denn es half auch kein: Oh, Herr – mon Dieu!
Kameraden der Inter-Brigaden
Unsern Toten ein letztes Adieu!
Eines Teges da stehn Campesinos
Als Sieger auf spanischem Feld!
Und das tal dort am Rio Jarama
Wird gehören dem Mann, der’s bestellt!
Here is the English version
There’s a Valley in Spain called Jarama,
It’s a place that we all know so well,
It is there that we gave of our manhood,
And so many of our brave comrades fell.
We are proud of the British Battalion,[4]
And the stand for Madrid that they made,
For they fought like true sons of the soil.
As part of the Fifteenth Brigade[5].
With the rest of the international column,
In the stand for the freedom of Spain
We swore in the valley of Jarama
That fascism never will reign.
Now we’ve left that dark valley of sorrow
And its memories of regret,
So before we continue this reunion
Let us stand to our glorious dead.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Speculators don't fuck with the market
Form the Something Awful forums comes a great compilation of speculation fuckery helping bring down Greece.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3275425
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d63b5c30-...144feabdc0.html
The regulatory fallout from the Greek financial crisis grew yesterday as authorities on both sides of the Atlantic said they were examining trades in the euro and the market in sovereign credit default swaps.
European Commission officials said they would use a meeting as early as tomorrow with banks and regulators to discuss regulation of the market for sovereign credit default swaps, which have become a political lightning rod in Europe. as a result of the Greek financial crisis.
Officials said the meeting was related to an existing review of the over-the-counter derivatives market, which is expected to lead to legislation this year designed to improve transparency.
But European calls for much tighter scrutiny of sovereign credit default swaps (CDS), which insure a government bond against default, have multiplied in the wake of the sell-off in Greek markets in January.
The antitrust division of the US Department of Justice is also taking a closer look at hedge fund trading against the euro. The DoJ last week informed SAC Capital Advisors, Greenlight Capital, Paulson & Co and Soros Fund Management that it had "opened an investigation into agreements among various hedge funds that trade euro contracts", according to a person familiar with the matter.
A letter sent to the companies by the DoJ asked each not to destroy trading records and e-mails related to the trades.
The DoJ routinely sends letters as a preliminary step in its investigations. The letter was sent on the same day that an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal that described how some hedge funds had discussed big euro bets at an "ideas dinner".
A person familiar with the probe said the department was seeking to understand whether such discussions constituted collusion, or whether individuals were simply ruminating on the markets. The DoJ declined to comment.
A Soros spokesman said: "It has become commonplace to direct attention toward George Soros whenever currency markets are in the news. We are aware of recent reports in the media regarding euro investments and the governmental interest those articles appear to have prompted.
"Any suggestion of wrongdoing by Soros Fund Management LLC implied in those articles is without merit. We intend to co-operate fully with any governmental requests."
SAC, Greenlight and Paulson declined to comment.
In Europe, Michel Barnier, the EU's internal market commissioner who has responsibility for financial regulation, has said he wants to understand the CDS market better.
Greek politicians have blamed "speculators" for sparking the sell-off as they bought CDS, driving up the cost to insure the country's debt to record highs. This, in turn, hit broader sentiment, undermining stocks and bond markets, they claimed.
Since then, politicians and regulators have raised the prospect of a ban on so-called naked shorting - or investors using CDS to make bets about sovereign defaults without owning an underlying bond.
Greece is still fucked though because it's being attacked by the fraud agencies
quote:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...ype=usDollarRpt
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Greece must implement its austerity plan perfectly or face the prospect of a rating cut, Moody's senior analyst Sarah Carlsson told Reuters Insider TV on Thursday.
"Anything short of a perfect implementation would result in some form of rating action," Carlsson said. "The magnitude of that action (would be) proportionate to the kind of shortfall we're seeing."
Carlsson said Moody's has Greece rated A2 with a negative outlook.
"One way we judge (the rating is appropriate) is whether Greece can achieve a deficit reduction to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2010," she added.
"We want to see concrete evidence of implementation... The austerity plan provides certainty for 2010. But what is going to happen in 2011 and beyond is what we want to know."
Carlsson said that "the strike action we have seen this morning (in Greece) is just a sign of how ambitious the government's plans are."
Greece needs to refinance about 20 billion euros of debt maturing in April and May, and officials previously said its funding needs were met until mid-March.
if for some reason you needed (more) evidence that the credit rating agencies are seriously just highly organized fraud, there you go
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...=googlenews_wsj
ATHENS—The Greek government expects the economy to contract for two years after the adoption of a tough austerity program that will substantially cut consumer spending, two people familiar with the government's thinking said Thursday.
"The real problems start now" said one of those people, who asked not to be identified. "The measures will have a big impact on how Greeks spend. As it stands now, the government expects two years of recession. It will revise the 0.3% decline in GDP forecast for this year to at least a drop of 1.5% but it could be worse."
"The government also expects unemployment to hit 11% this year from an estimated 9.9% in 2009," the person said.
He didn't specify when this year's GDP would be revised. The finance ministry expects the economy to grow 1.5% in 2011, but the person said this could also be revised to a contraction of 0.5%.
Some economists have said that the intense pressure from the European Union on Greece to cut its yawning budget deficit—now at 12.7% of GDP or more than four times the 3%-of-GDP euro-zone limit—might strike the wrong balance between maintaining fiscal strength and propping up demand in tough times.
Last month, Joseph Stiglitz warned against what he called "deficit fetishism" at a press conference in Athens.
Without measures to stimulate the economy, such as development funds and other means to increase liquidity, the deficit reduction could slow growth, said Mr. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics.
"If you have less success [stimulating the economy through other means], then I start getting worried," he said. Slower growth could in turn lead to lower tax revenues and end up increasing the budget deficit.
On the other hand, all members of the euro zone commit to keeping its deficits and debt within certain limits to avoid imbalances across the euro zone. Greece announced Wednesday a €4.8 billion austerity package which includes cuts in civil servants salaries, hikes in the value added tax, fuel, tobacco and alcohol prices, lower entitlements for state employees, higher taxes for luxury items and expensive houses and a freeze in pensions.
The measures are in addition to a similar austerity package outlined in January which the government expects to bring in between €8 billion and €10 billion. The measures aim to cut the budget deficit by four percentage points to 8.7% this year.
"The expectation is that disposable incomes will fall by at least 7% this year and consumer spending by 3.5% and this is optimistic," a second person said. "This government is facing the most difficult economic environment in Greece's modern history."
Consumer spending accounts for about 75% of Greece's GDP.
"The harsh cutbacks in public spending are imperative, however the measures deployed by the government are questionable in respect to the targeted results. The fiscal measures will bring a steep fall in consumer spending which could erase all the benefits from slashing our budget deficit" said Constantinos Mihalos, president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry which represents 102,000 businesses.
they are apparently pretending to court the IMF so the other EU countries will lend them money though.
really though, the CDS/naked shorting thing being at least curbed is fantastic because i was kind of worried that economies were just going to get vaporized one by one and nobody was going to do anything about it
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3275425
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d63b5c30-...144feabdc0.html
The regulatory fallout from the Greek financial crisis grew yesterday as authorities on both sides of the Atlantic said they were examining trades in the euro and the market in sovereign credit default swaps.
European Commission officials said they would use a meeting as early as tomorrow with banks and regulators to discuss regulation of the market for sovereign credit default swaps, which have become a political lightning rod in Europe. as a result of the Greek financial crisis.
Officials said the meeting was related to an existing review of the over-the-counter derivatives market, which is expected to lead to legislation this year designed to improve transparency.
But European calls for much tighter scrutiny of sovereign credit default swaps (CDS), which insure a government bond against default, have multiplied in the wake of the sell-off in Greek markets in January.
The antitrust division of the US Department of Justice is also taking a closer look at hedge fund trading against the euro. The DoJ last week informed SAC Capital Advisors, Greenlight Capital, Paulson & Co and Soros Fund Management that it had "opened an investigation into agreements among various hedge funds that trade euro contracts", according to a person familiar with the matter.
A letter sent to the companies by the DoJ asked each not to destroy trading records and e-mails related to the trades.
The DoJ routinely sends letters as a preliminary step in its investigations. The letter was sent on the same day that an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal that described how some hedge funds had discussed big euro bets at an "ideas dinner".
A person familiar with the probe said the department was seeking to understand whether such discussions constituted collusion, or whether individuals were simply ruminating on the markets. The DoJ declined to comment.
A Soros spokesman said: "It has become commonplace to direct attention toward George Soros whenever currency markets are in the news. We are aware of recent reports in the media regarding euro investments and the governmental interest those articles appear to have prompted.
"Any suggestion of wrongdoing by Soros Fund Management LLC implied in those articles is without merit. We intend to co-operate fully with any governmental requests."
SAC, Greenlight and Paulson declined to comment.
In Europe, Michel Barnier, the EU's internal market commissioner who has responsibility for financial regulation, has said he wants to understand the CDS market better.
Greek politicians have blamed "speculators" for sparking the sell-off as they bought CDS, driving up the cost to insure the country's debt to record highs. This, in turn, hit broader sentiment, undermining stocks and bond markets, they claimed.
Since then, politicians and regulators have raised the prospect of a ban on so-called naked shorting - or investors using CDS to make bets about sovereign defaults without owning an underlying bond.
Greece is still fucked though because it's being attacked by the fraud agencies
quote:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS...ype=usDollarRpt
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Greece must implement its austerity plan perfectly or face the prospect of a rating cut, Moody's senior analyst Sarah Carlsson told Reuters Insider TV on Thursday.
"Anything short of a perfect implementation would result in some form of rating action," Carlsson said. "The magnitude of that action (would be) proportionate to the kind of shortfall we're seeing."
Carlsson said Moody's has Greece rated A2 with a negative outlook.
"One way we judge (the rating is appropriate) is whether Greece can achieve a deficit reduction to 8.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2010," she added.
"We want to see concrete evidence of implementation... The austerity plan provides certainty for 2010. But what is going to happen in 2011 and beyond is what we want to know."
Carlsson said that "the strike action we have seen this morning (in Greece) is just a sign of how ambitious the government's plans are."
Greece needs to refinance about 20 billion euros of debt maturing in April and May, and officials previously said its funding needs were met until mid-March.
if for some reason you needed (more) evidence that the credit rating agencies are seriously just highly organized fraud, there you go
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...=googlenews_wsj
ATHENS—The Greek government expects the economy to contract for two years after the adoption of a tough austerity program that will substantially cut consumer spending, two people familiar with the government's thinking said Thursday.
"The real problems start now" said one of those people, who asked not to be identified. "The measures will have a big impact on how Greeks spend. As it stands now, the government expects two years of recession. It will revise the 0.3% decline in GDP forecast for this year to at least a drop of 1.5% but it could be worse."
"The government also expects unemployment to hit 11% this year from an estimated 9.9% in 2009," the person said.
He didn't specify when this year's GDP would be revised. The finance ministry expects the economy to grow 1.5% in 2011, but the person said this could also be revised to a contraction of 0.5%.
Some economists have said that the intense pressure from the European Union on Greece to cut its yawning budget deficit—now at 12.7% of GDP or more than four times the 3%-of-GDP euro-zone limit—might strike the wrong balance between maintaining fiscal strength and propping up demand in tough times.
Last month, Joseph Stiglitz warned against what he called "deficit fetishism" at a press conference in Athens.
Without measures to stimulate the economy, such as development funds and other means to increase liquidity, the deficit reduction could slow growth, said Mr. Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University and winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics.
"If you have less success [stimulating the economy through other means], then I start getting worried," he said. Slower growth could in turn lead to lower tax revenues and end up increasing the budget deficit.
On the other hand, all members of the euro zone commit to keeping its deficits and debt within certain limits to avoid imbalances across the euro zone. Greece announced Wednesday a €4.8 billion austerity package which includes cuts in civil servants salaries, hikes in the value added tax, fuel, tobacco and alcohol prices, lower entitlements for state employees, higher taxes for luxury items and expensive houses and a freeze in pensions.
The measures are in addition to a similar austerity package outlined in January which the government expects to bring in between €8 billion and €10 billion. The measures aim to cut the budget deficit by four percentage points to 8.7% this year.
"The expectation is that disposable incomes will fall by at least 7% this year and consumer spending by 3.5% and this is optimistic," a second person said. "This government is facing the most difficult economic environment in Greece's modern history."
Consumer spending accounts for about 75% of Greece's GDP.
"The harsh cutbacks in public spending are imperative, however the measures deployed by the government are questionable in respect to the targeted results. The fiscal measures will bring a steep fall in consumer spending which could erase all the benefits from slashing our budget deficit" said Constantinos Mihalos, president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry which represents 102,000 businesses.
they are apparently pretending to court the IMF so the other EU countries will lend them money though.
really though, the CDS/naked shorting thing being at least curbed is fantastic because i was kind of worried that economies were just going to get vaporized one by one and nobody was going to do anything about it
We Shall See
Once upon a time in a village in far away China, a boy got a horse as a gift on his 14th birthday. All the villagers said, “Wow, that’s great.”
But the Zen master said, “We shall see.”
Some months later as the young boy rode up the hill, he fell down and broke his leg. All the villagers said, “That’s terrible.”
“We shall see,” smiled the Zen master.
A few years later all the young men in the village had to go to war. But because the young boy had bent his leg, he couldn’t go. All the villagers said, “This fellow is lucky.”
“We shall see,” replied the Zen master.
But the Zen master said, “We shall see.”
Some months later as the young boy rode up the hill, he fell down and broke his leg. All the villagers said, “That’s terrible.”
“We shall see,” smiled the Zen master.
A few years later all the young men in the village had to go to war. But because the young boy had bent his leg, he couldn’t go. All the villagers said, “This fellow is lucky.”
“We shall see,” replied the Zen master.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Continuing my argument with grosse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_bivalence
Read that first
It is my belief that all things follow this principle. There is an almost infinite stratification in all layers of all things. For example the earth is populated by a large number of different animals. The earth is one thing but can be stratified along the lines of species, genus, family, environment or any other number of things you can divide the population of the earth into. In each species almost infinite stratification can be achieved by taking every quality of that species and changing every possible value to the limits of what leave that species itself.
The principle of bivalence is in dualistic opposition with the principle of contravalence. All things are true or false. Even if there are a bunch of different layers for something to be false or true in, doesn't mean the whole is one way or the other necessarily.
I'm not sure I've figured out how to work a brain.
Read that first
It is my belief that all things follow this principle. There is an almost infinite stratification in all layers of all things. For example the earth is populated by a large number of different animals. The earth is one thing but can be stratified along the lines of species, genus, family, environment or any other number of things you can divide the population of the earth into. In each species almost infinite stratification can be achieved by taking every quality of that species and changing every possible value to the limits of what leave that species itself.
The principle of bivalence is in dualistic opposition with the principle of contravalence. All things are true or false. Even if there are a bunch of different layers for something to be false or true in, doesn't mean the whole is one way or the other necessarily.
I'm not sure I've figured out how to work a brain.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)