Ai Weiwei | Dumbass

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4ACj86DKfWs?rel=0" width="853"></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://entertainment.time.com/2013/05/22/from-chinese-dissident-artist-ai-weiwei-a-profanity-laced-heavy-metal-music-video/"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Time</span></b></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span><b>i Weiweit has released his first heavy-metal single “Dumbass,” a song that is based on his 81-day secret detention in 2011.</b><br /><br />He said in a statement that the accompanying music video is a detailed reconstruction of his prison condition, which he committed to memory because he “had nothing else to do.” (Prison guards would secretly ask him to sing for them as a way to kill time. He belted out decades-old Communist revolutionary tunes, and they were stunned that he knew them, he said.) In the video, Ai tries to show the contrast between the realities of prison and the fantasies of his guards, while reflecting on the struggle to establish basic human rights in China.<br /><br />“Dumbass,” already blocked in the Chinese mainland, is the top song of his six-track debut album Divina Commedia, which is set to be released next month.<br /><br />“I stand up as a dumbass, the whole country acts like a prostitute,” he belts out the lyrics (a very muted translation of the actual Chinese expletive), “Dumbasses are everywhere, forget about forgiveness and tolerance.” <br /><br />Mr. Ai wrote the lyrics and asked a friend, the rocker and contemporary artist Zuoxiao Zuzhou, to handle the music. <br /><br />“I want to show young people here we all can sing,” he said. “It’s our voice.”<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">When you're ready to strike, he mumbles about non-violence.</div><div style="text-align: center;">When you pinch his ear, he says it's no cure for diarrhea.</div><div style="text-align: center;">You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.</div><div style="text-align: center;">You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!</div><div style="text-align: center;">Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass! Oh dumbass, oh such dumbass!</div><div style="text-align: center;">Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala</div><div style="text-align: center;">Lalalalala, lalalalala Lalalalala, lalalalala</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Stand on the frontline like a dumbass, in a country that puts out like a hooker.</div><div style="text-align: center;">The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.</div><div style="text-align: center;">The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Fuck forgiveness, tolerance be damned, to hell with manners, the low-life's invincible.</div><div style="text-align: center;">You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.</div><div style="text-align: center;">You say you're a mother-fucker, he claims he's invincible.</div><div style="text-align: center;">The field is full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.</div><div style="text-align: center;">The field's full of fuckers, dumbasses are everywhere.</div></div>

Ai Weiwei | Dumbass

Time A i Weiweit has released his first heavy-metal single “Dumbass,” a song that is based on his 81-day secret detention in 2011. He said i...

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Petcube | Play With Your Pet From Anywhere

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4LGRKd9EaU0?rel=0" width="853"></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">M</span><b>aybe you have one of those jobs where you are not allowed to bring your pet to work. Or maybe you are just out and about but your pet is at home. You can still interact with your friend using <a href="http://petcube.net/" target="_blank">Petcube</a>.</b></div>

Petcube | Play With Your Pet From Anywhere

M aybe you have one of those jobs where you are not allowed to bring your pet to work. Or maybe you are just out and about but your pet is a...

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Intelligence

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/f-nqhGQeniM?rel=0" width="853"></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.cbs.com/shows/intelligence" target="_blank"><b><span style="font-size: large;">CBS</span></b></a><br /><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span><b>ntelligence</b></i><b> is centered at US Cyber Command, and focuses on a unit that has been created around a former Delta Force turned über-agent in a crime thriller that explores the unlimited possibilities of technology. With a special microchip implanted in his brain, he has become the first super computer with a beating heart.</b></div>

Intelligence

CBS I ntelligence is centered at US Cyber Command, and focuses on a unit that has been created around a former Delta Force turned über-agen...

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Dan Brown’s Consortium | Creating Illusion

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3YB6qvRGcsHvvtoolYrsK_OJ0n7HNWR5nU8-hmaf6HcjZLdhA0lQK1EVFfZpZAHf9qGlfAlHG8uszN9mzXWTreZh8BPejM81cfhmPZsO_iKFgWK7-JgYND7Y0D1w2MvX7Pzrh3_XWuc/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3YB6qvRGcsHvvtoolYrsK_OJ0n7HNWR5nU8-hmaf6HcjZLdhA0lQK1EVFfZpZAHf9qGlfAlHG8uszN9mzXWTreZh8BPejM81cfhmPZsO_iKFgWK7-JgYND7Y0D1w2MvX7Pzrh3_XWuc/s1600/1.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-freemasons-code-dan-brown-reveals-the-message-that-told-him-the-door-to-the-lodge-is-open-8625968.html" target="_blank"><i>The Independent</i></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">D</span><b>an Brown’s <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Inferno-Novel-Robert-Langdon-ebook/dp/B00AXIZ4TQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1369265522&sr=1-1&keywords=inferno" target="_blank">Inferno</a></i> introduces The Consortium, a secret organization pulling strings behind the scenes. Brown says the company is based on real groups.</b><br /><br />“There are a number of organizations like the Consortium. They essentially create alibis for people, or fictional realities. They make it easy to tell a very convincing lie.<br /><br />Whether it’s the Vatican, the White House or Microsoft—they all need to manage public perception and sometimes that involves creating illusion or shaping the truth.” Dan Brown, <i><a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-14/dan-brown-s-harvard-hero-fears-plague-in-inferno-.html" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a></i>, 13 May 2013 <br /><br />Below from <i>Inferno</i>.<br /><br /><blockquote>Available online, businesses with names like the Alibi Company and <a href="http://www.alibinetwork.com/index.jsp" target="_blank">Alibi Network</a> made fortunes all over the world by providing unfaithful spouses with a way to cheat and not get caught. Promising to briefly “stop time” so their clients could slip away from husband, wife, or kids, these organizations were masters at creating illusions—fake business conventions, fake doctor’s appointments even fake weddings—all of which included phony invitations, brochures, plane tickets, hotel confirmation forms, and even special contact numbers that rang at Alibi Company switchboards, where trained professionals pretended to be whatever receptionist or contact the illusion required.<br /><br />The provost, however, had never wasted his time with such petty artifice. He dealt solely with large-scale deception, plying his trade for those who could afford to pay millions of dollars in order to receive the best service.<br /><br />Governments.<br />Major Corporations.<br />The occasional ultrawealthy VIP.<br /><br />To achieve their goals, these clients would have at their disposal all of the Consortium’s assets, personnel, experience, and creativity. Above all, though, they were given deniability—the assurance that whatever illusions was fabricated in support of their deception could never be traced to them.<br /><br />Whether trying to prop up a stock market, justify a war, win an election, or lure a terrorist out of hiding, the world’s power brokers relied on massive disinformation schemes to help shape public perception.<br /><br />It had always been this way.<br /><br />In the sixties, the Russians built an entire fake spy network that dead-dropped bad intel that the British intercepted for years. And more recently, the world had been led to believe that weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq.</blockquote><br />Below: <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6646790" target="_blank"><i>Need an Alibi? One Company's Got You Covered</i></a>, NPR<br /><br /><object data="http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/player.swf" height="24" id="audioplayer553" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="290"> <param name="movie" value="http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/player.swf"><param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=audioplayer553&soundFile=http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/day/2006/12/20061219_day_11.mp3"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="menu" value="false"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></object> <div><a href="http://pd.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/day/2006/12/20061219_day_11.mp3" target="blank">download mp3</a></div><p></p>Speaking of managing public perception, how about this latest Anthony Weiner For Mayor of New York City ad. And at his website, you can read his <a href="http://www.anthonyweiner.com/" target="_blank">64 Ideas to Keep New York the Capital of the Middle Class</a>.<p></p></div><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/x92OWufIWcU?rel=0" width="853"></iframe>

Dan Brown’s Consortium | Creating Illusion

From The Independent D an Brown’s Inferno introduces The Consortium, a secret organization pulling strings behind the scenes. Brown says th...

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NASA | World’s Largest Panoramic Photo

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8nboMGGdXUc?rel=0" width="853"></iframe><br /><br /><div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/LDCMLongSwath/?src=gigapan" target="blank">NASA</a></b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">M</span><b>aybe you’ve used a photostitching program to make a panorama from several of your photographs. Usually this might be a 180 degree to 360 degree view of what you saw at the time. NASA has captured the world’s largest panoramic photo showing a portion of the Earth 6000 miles long by 120 miles wide.</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkGtY9oZVlr8vRrUGQg8WgeCD9Dr0sly3HeS1xN40JoNO_W2IFwdD2ZuATEh6qC16Fj6rE5VPJoS2dgWNS8O2SKobTXlAIUNzvuK_NV0d_hl3x7vhbUY0nOfTwlV74jXcorYpb3hkM6o/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkGtY9oZVlr8vRrUGQg8WgeCD9Dr0sly3HeS1xN40JoNO_W2IFwdD2ZuATEh6qC16Fj6rE5VPJoS2dgWNS8O2SKobTXlAIUNzvuK_NV0d_hl3x7vhbUY0nOfTwlV74jXcorYpb3hkM6o/s640/1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />

NASA | World’s Largest Panoramic Photo

NASA M aybe you’ve used a photostitching program to make a panorama from several of your photographs. Usually this might be a 180 degree to ...

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iON | Every Conversation Is Two Conversations

<div id="posttext" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span><b>ob Dobbs’ private session 208, 23 November 2009. Dr Carolyn Dean asks iON about every conversation being two conversations. </b><br /><br /><object data="http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/player.swf" height="24" id="audioplayer552" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="290"> <param name="movie" value="http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/player.swf"><param name="FlashVars" value="playerID=audioplayer552&soundFile=http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/ion_two_conversations.mp3"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="menu" value="false"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></object> <br /><div><a href="http://halkinnaman.com/ed/audio_rr/ion_two_conversations.mp3" target="blank">download mp3</a></div></div>

iON | Every Conversation Is Two Conversations

B ob Dobbs’ private session 208, 23 November 2009. Dr Carolyn Dean asks iON about every conversation being two conversations. ...

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