#kc debate

[thegeekyninja-blog]

"If we can aid people into coming into the world, why can't we aid them in exiting the world?"

Jack Kevorkian

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Wikipedia joins blackout protest at US anti-piracy moves

Wikipedia has taken its English-language site offline as part of protests against proposed anti-piracy laws in the US.

Users attempting to access the site see a black screen and a political statement: "Imagine a world without free knowledge.

The user-generated news site Reddit and the blog Boing Boing are also taking part in the "blackout".

However, Twitter has declined to join the shutdown.

Wikipedia, which attracts millions of hits every day, is opposed to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) being debated by Congress.

The legislation would allow the Justice Department and content owners to seek court orders requiring search engines to block results associated with piracy.

The site's founder, Jimmy Wales, told the BBC: "Proponents of Sopa have characterised the opposition as being people who want to enable piracy or defend piracy".

"But that's not really the point. The point is the bill is so over broad and so badly written that it's going to impact all kinds of things that, you know, don't have anything to do with stopping piracy."

The message replacing the normal Wikipedia front page on the internet says: "For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopaedia in human history. Right now, the US Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia."

The site was still available on mobile phones, however.

Google.com also joined the protest, blacking out its logo and linking to an online petition urging Congress to not censor the web.

Veto hint

It is an unprecedented protest, says the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Washington. Analysts say it is the first major test for the young and disorganised internet industry against powerful media interests with many lobbyists in Washington.

Sopa's supporters in the House of Representatives say the legislation is designed to stop revenue flowing to "rogue websites". A similar bill, Pipa, is making its way through the US Senate.

On Saturday the White House issued a statement that appeared to side with critics of the legislation.

It said: "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet."

Despite the hint of a presidential veto, Wikipedia said that the English site's administrators had decided to stage its first ever public protest because the bills "would be devastating to the free and open web".

It added: "We don't think Sopa is going away, and Pipa is still quite active. Moreover, Sopa and Pipa are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we're seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms."

However, when asked whether Twitter would join the blackout, its chief executive, Dick Costolo, tweeted: "Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish."

In a Twitter conversation with Wikipedia's founder Jimmy Wales, Mr Costolo later clarified that his comment was not meant to be read as a "value judgement" about other organisations involvement in the action.

The anti-piracy legislation still has high-profile supporters including News Corporation's chairman, Rupert Murdoch. Over the weekend he tweeted: "So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery."

He later added: "Seems like universal anger with Potus [President of the United States] from all sorts of normal supporters... Whole entertainment industry employs 2.2 million [on] average salary $65,000. Good jobs and expanding foreign earnings. Made in America, too!"

Sites taking part in the shutdown went offline for 24 hours from midnight Eastern Standard Time (05:00 GMT) on Wednesday.

[thegeekyninja-blog]

George Lucas says Hollywood won't support black films‎

Director George Lucas says it took 20 years to get his latest film made, "because it's an all-black movie".

Speaking on The Daily Show, Lucas said he had to self-fund Red Tails, the true story of a group of African-American pilots who fought in World War II.

He claimed major film studios would not back the movie because "there's no major white roles in it at all".

"I showed it to all of them and they said, 'No. We don't know how to market a movie like this,'" he said.

"They don't believe there's any foreign market for it, and that's 60% of their profit," he added.

Lucas co-wrote and produced Red Tails, which which was directed by Anthony Hemingway.

It features several well-known names - including Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding Jr, Terence Howard and R&B star Ne-Yo - and shows how the pilots were segregated and kept on the ground for most of the war, until they were called up to fight for their country.

The real-life airmen featured in the drama were given a Congressional Gold Medal by then-President George Bush in 2007.

'Invisible' audience

Lucas put $58 million (37.8 million) of his own money into the movie. It will be released by his company Lucasfilm, and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.

He is putting a further $35 million (£22.8 million) towards the distribution costs, said trade paper The Hollywood Reporter.

"It's a reasonably expensive movie," Lucas told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. "Normally black movies, say Tyler Perry movies or something, they're very low budget.

"Even then, the [Hollywood studios] won't really release his movies, it goes to one of the lower, not major distributors.

"This [film] costs more than what those movies make," Lucas added.

Director and actor Perry, whose movies include Why Did I Get Married and the Madea series, is one of the most profitable film-makers in the US.

However, he retains the rights to all his work - which plays almost exclusively to black audiences - and has previously stated that his fans are "invisible" to the Hollywood mainstream.

Lucas's comments echo those of Spike Lee, who criticised the lack of black faces in Hollywood war movies in 2008.

Speaking about Clint Eastwood's movies Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, Lee said: "He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one black soldier in both of those films".

"I know it was pointed out to him and that he could have changed it. It's not like he didn't know."

Eastwood later justified his choice of actors on Flags Of Our Fathers, saying that the African-American troops who did take part in the battle of Iwo Jima were not involved in the key incident in the film - where US marines raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

The veteran actor argued that if he had deliberately "put an African-American actor in there, people would go: 'This guy's lost his mind'".

Lucas insisted that Red Tails was nothing like preceding war films, including 1989's Glory which, although it starred Denzel Washington, featured "a lot of white officers running these guys into cannon fire".

If his film does well at the box office, Lucas said he had a prequel and sequel planned.

[thegeekyninja-blog]

Should unfinished works be left untouched?

A new adaptation of Charles Dickens' unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, was given an ending. But should unfinished works be left untouched, asks Sarah Barclay.

It's infuriating that of all the works he could have left unfinished, Dickens managed to die in the middle of a murder mystery.

This week the BBC attempted to solve The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Writer Gwyneth Hughes not only adapted Dickens's half-written novel into a new television drama but also gave it an ending of her own.

"I read the book and thought it was brilliant," Hughes says. "But when you're watching a drama, the only question that matters is how is it all going to turn out. To use Alfred Hitchcock's phrase, it's what keeps your bum glued to the seat."

Hughes's inspiration was the writings of Dickens' daughter Katie. She advised remembering what her father was best at - his strange and fantastic insights into the human heart.

"I felt emboldened by this to go where the characters took me, and hope that people who love the book - even if they don't like what I've done with the mystery - [would] still love Dickens's characters."

There's a long list of great authors who have left work unfinished, often because of illness or death. Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, to name but a few. An industry has grown up around them, of so-called "continuators" - writers eager to finish the stories that they began.

There have been a number of continuations of Austen's Sanditon, including efforts by Juliette Shapiro and Reginald Hill, author of the Dalziel and Pascoe series. Austen had only got 11 chapters in when she stopped, enough to establish the characters, but leaving the continuators plenty of room for manoeuvre.

But why would a writer choose to finish the work of another author, rather than create original work? Surely that leads to pastiche?

It's dangerous territory, suggests Prof John Mullan, who is currently writing a book on Austen. "What we expect when we read the work of Austen, or Dickens, or Laurence Sterne, is a particular voice, and that's terribly difficult to bring off."

It's a risky strategy for an author, but perhaps it speaks to a profound need in all of us. The literary critic Frank Kermode wrote in his book Sense of an Ending about our deep-rooted need to be rewarded with conclusions.

John Sutherland, emeritus professor at University College London, agrees. "Kermode famously observed that when we hear a clock go tick tick tick, what we hear is tick tock tick tock, because we like beginnings and endings. We're hardwired, like lemmings going over a cliff."

But do we have the right to finish the work of others? Leonardo Da Vinci, who observed that "works of art are never finished, only abandoned", only painted 15 canvases in his lifetime, four of which remain unfinished.

It was a tradition in Renaissance times to let apprentices complete paintings started by a master. In modern times, we have a different understanding of creative ownership.

Critic Mark Lawson believes that completing the work of others only serves to muddy our understanding of the arc of their work. In the case of Ernest Hemingway, he resents the publishing of cobbled together scraps and notebooks masquerading as previously unpublished new work.

"This is a form of literary necrophilia which completely alters the shape of an artist's life," Lawson suggests.

On the other hand, you have the case of Franz Kafka. Had his friend Max Brod not ignored instructions to burn the manuscripts of his unfinished novels, and not organised and published them, we would be denied The Trial, arguably one of the 20th Century's most influential works.

It's thought Kafka had nearly completed the trial but it's not known how much Brod edited or re-organised his work before publication.

Literary necrophilia is a term that could also describe the phenomenon of extending a writer's body of work after their death. It's become a lucrative business. Recently Sherlock Holmes and James Bond have both been reincarnated to die another day.

Established authors like Sebastian Faulks and Jeffrey Deaver have written new novels about 007. Along with the very successful film franchise, which itself has grossed a staggering £5bn, the Ian Fleming estate perhaps hopes new works will both please fans and keep interest alive in the original Bond novels.

Over three million copies were sold worldwide in the last five years.

Successful franchises like Sherlock and Bond are testament to our passion for the worlds they unlock, and the characters they unleash. The fact is, some of the characters brought to life in the work of great novelists become like friends from whom we can't bear to part. Dickens would surely have understood this.

Continuators aren't usually hoping to provide a definitive version or ending. Indeed, Hughes hopes that in finishing the Mystery of Edwin Drood, she has not put a full stop on the whole business.

"I hope there'll be a national debate about whether we've done this right. I hope people will enjoy Drood for what it is, one of many possible endings.

"Why are we fascinated with the unfinished masterpieces that some of our greatest authors and artists have left behind, and why do we feel the need to finish them?"

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US military identifies all four 'urinating' Marines

All four US Marines seen in a video apparently urinating on dead Afghans have been identified by American military investigators, US media say.

Two of the men have already been interviewed by the US Navy's criminal investigation branch.

The Marine Corps has also appointed Lt Gen Thomas Waldhauser, a three-star general, to decide what, if any, disciplinary action is to be taken.

It is understood the troops served in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US media reported that the unit belonged to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, but that two of the men and the battalion's commander had moved on to other assignments before the video became public.

The names of the men, who are thought to be Marine snipers, have not been released.

The battalion has had a range of deployments, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and fighting wildfires in the US state of Idaho.

Marine General John Allen, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, called for the facts of the case to be established quickly.

He said: "These actions are in direct opposition to everything the military stands for. Such acts in no way reflect the high moral standards and values we expect of our armed forces on a daily basis."

'Savage act'

Lt Gen Waldhauser will appoint another officer to lead the Marine Corps' internal investigation into the incident.

In addition, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service is undertaking its own probe of the matter.

Lt Gen Waldhauser is responsible for deciding on the course of action after both investigations have been completed.

Correspondents say that, if authentic, the actions in the video could amount to a violation of the First Geneva Convention, which calls for the dead to be treated with dignity.

It could also constitute a breach of the US Uniform Code of Military Justice, for discrediting the armed forces.

The video, which was posted online, appears to show the troops standing over the bodies of several Afghans, at least one of whom is covered in blood.

A man's voice is heard saying: "Have a great day, buddy."

The clip has been called "disgusting" and "inhuman" by both US and Afghan officials.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed her "dismay" at the images, while Afghan President Hamid Karzai requested the "most severe punishment" for those responsible.

In an address to military personnel at Fort Bliss, Texas, on Thursday, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said the video could even jeopardise the prospects for US-Afghan peace talks.

The Taliban have indicated that while they condemn the video, its release would not affect the political process.

Fears that widespread outrage in Afghanistan would boil over into protests immediately after Friday prayers proved unfounded.

But one Kabul resident, 20-year-old construction worker Waheedullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, told AFP news agency: "This is an absolutely savage act and condemnable in any religion."

It is not clear who released the footage, which first appeared on YouTube and has not been verified.

The US has about 20,000 Marines in Afghanistan, based mostly in the provinces of Kandahar and Helmand. In total, about 90,000 US troops are on the ground in Afghanistan.

[thegeekyninja-blog]

Hello err'body. I'm doing Harvey Milk for one of the people who inspire me the most, and found this article on him. I thought it was fairly well written (sparing the lack of paragraphing). Thought you guys may want to give it a read as well!

[gayatridabesteva-blog]

A Cocoa crisis?? Well,I know the the demand goes ^ the price goes ^ as well,but this still comes as a shock too me,after all,it is chocolate. Everyday,We hear about inflation and that the cost of living is becoming too high but is this what our future is going to be in 20 years time?That chocolate will become as expensive and rare as caviar??? If this is the case then We are in deep trouble.

[thegeekyninja-blog]

Lingering stigma helps AIDS epidemic ravage US South

The American South has been quietly ravaged by HIV/Aids, even as the rest of the US has made great advances in treatment and prevention. As Michael Maher reports, the conservative region's reluctance to speak publicly about the epidemic has hampered its ability to fight it.

About this time every year, the Reverend Patricia Starr runs a Christmas drive for HIV-positive children in the small town of Clover in the state of South Carolina.

A few years ago, she recalls, one boy asked her for a telescope so he could look up to heaven, where he expected to be soon.

Four months after receiving the Christmas gift he was dead, another HIV/Aids victim for Clover's graveyards.

''The cemeteries keep getting larger,'' says Ms Starr. ''They keep pushing the woods back and making more graves.''

In the American South, HIV/Aids remains a silent epidemic.

'Going downhill'

In no other part of the US are the death rates from the disease as high. Poverty, religion, culture and neglect have all played their role in keeping it this way.

And it's the South's African-American population which has suffered most.

The graveyards of Clover, a town with a population of about 5,100, tell of the toll that HIV/Aids has exacted.

Not one of the headstones bears a reference to the disease.

In the past, poignant markers were sometimes left on the graves of those taken by the smallpox or influenza epidemics.

Aids victims' graves in the South bear no such inscriptions.

In a plot on the fringes of Clover, Ms Starr's sister, brother and niece are buried alongside one another. They and five other members of her extended family died of Aids.

As she walks among the headstones, she points to others who have died the same way but whose families dare not acknowledge it.

Such is the stigma attached to HIV/Aids in the South.

''I think we're still going downhill. Until we open our eyes and really talk about it, it's not going to get better,'' says Ms Starr, a Pentecostal preacher who has taken to handing out condoms at her church.

An epidemic ignored

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) underline Ms Starr's fears:

Death rates for Americans living with HIV are highest in the South

Eight of the 10 states with the highest percentage of African-Americans with Aids are in the South

In all those states, the majority of people who have Aids are African-American

Six of the 10 states with the highest percentage of women with Aids are in the South

When the world's attention turned to the scourge of Aids in sub-Saharan Africa, the disease was still spreading in the states of the Old Confederacy, says Andrew Skerritt, author of Ashamed to Die: Silence, Denial, and the Aids Epidemic in the South.

"I was in South Africa last year," Mr Skerritt says. "You see a lot of banners about Aids and these banners were in your face.

"They didn't mince words. In the years of going to Clover I've never seen a billboard addressing Aids.

"To me that is telling. You see billboards about strip clubs on the highways. You never see a billboard about Aids."

Mr Skerritt argues the innate conservatism of the region known as the Bible Belt, combined with poverty and lack of education among African-Americans, have hampered efforts to rein in the epidemic.

He says Ms Starr is "one in a million", pointing out that most pastors would never promote condom use because they see it as "giving people a licence to have sex".

He also contrasts the vigour and success of campaigns in the rest of the US with the South's reluctance to act.

In New York City, for example, the gay community loudly and defiantly demanded a public prevention effort as early as the 1980s.

'God's curse'

He says: "Even as other regions in America devised programmes to stem the flow of Aids, Southerners remained bound by denial.

"A conspiracy of hypocrisy, shame, false morality, cowardice and political opportunism conspired to keep Aids, 'God's curse on homosexuals', off the public policy list of priorities."

For the health workers on the frontline of the epidemic, it's an unending struggle to obtain funding and to encourage those at risk to come forward for testing.

At the Catawba Care clinic, which treats about 450 HIV-positive patients from Clover and surrounding districts, director of preventative services Monica Adamian says that local and state authorities have at last begun to take the epidemic seriously.

But the battle against the disease's stigma has been far less successful, she says.

"People are embarrassed to just walk through the door because they don't want someone else to see them," she says.

"They're scared that they're going to be shunned by everyone if they come up infected."