London 2012 organisers wanted Keith Moon to play at Olympics ceremony

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17 April 2012
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The London 2012 opening ceremony is going to be called Isles of Wonder, but there can be no wonderment more wonderful than the fact that Olympics organisers wanted Keith Moon to perform.

Moon has been dead for 34 years.

The band’s manager, Bill Curbishley, told the Sunday Times he had been approached to see if Moon would be available to play with the surviving members this summer.

I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who’s anthemic line ‘I hope I die before I get old’, came the excellent reply.

If they have a round table, some glasses and candles, we might contact him — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Laurie Penny on Journalism

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17 April 2012
4 min read
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In Business
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I thought I got into journalism to tell truths and right wrongs and occasionally get into parties I wouldn’t normally be cool enough to go to. Right now though, with a few exceptions, professional journalism is rarely seen as an exercise in holding power to account. Justly or unjustly, the media, especially but not exclusively the mainstream, corporate-controlled press, has come to be seen as the enemy of the voiceless rather than their champion. Justly or unjustly, few people believe what they read in the papers or watch on the news any more, because belief has long ceased to be quite as important as complicity when it comes to the Daily Mail, the Daily Post or News International. On the streets of Athens and Madrid as well as during the London riots of August 2011, journalists have been threatened and attacked by desperate young people making havoc in the streets. Why? Not because these young people don’t want to be seen, but because they don’t want to be seen through the half-closed eyes of privilege.

Journalists are losing any case we ever had for special pleading. For the younger generation of digital natives, there is no particular reason to be deferential towards anyone who happens to be at a protest with a phone that can get the internet and an audience of thousands: it’ll be you and a hundred others, and unless the police have given you special privileges to write precisely what they want and nothing else, your press pass is less and less likely to keep you safe from arrest. As more and more ordinary men, women and children without degrees in journalism acquire the skills and technology to broadcast text and video, the media has become another cultural territory which is gradually being re-occupied. Those on the ground do not have to wait for the BBC and MSNBC to turn up with cameras: they make the news and the reporters follow. They have grown up in a world of branding and they know how to create a craze and set the agenda. They occupy the media. And the media is starting to worry — via redwolf.newsvine.com

New internet technology out of this world

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17 April 2012
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An Australian-based scientist is hoping a trip into space will help him unlock the secret to creating the next generation of glass fibre for transferring data at up to 1,000 times current rates.

Dr Martin Castillo, the technical director of phenomena and microgravity research at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), has been trying for years to transform the special form of glass into usable fibres.

But he says he has been frustrated at every turn — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Oris Tubbataha Regulator

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17 April 2012
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A new dive watch from Oris is the Tubbataha Regulator. Being a regulator, the emphasis is placed on the minutes — thus on this watch the large, central-set hand which indicates the minutes; the hours and minutes are clearly indicated on the sub dials. The model name refers to the Tubbataha Reefs National Park in the Philippines, home to some of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world, and a percentage of every Oris Tubbataha Limited Edition model sold is donated towards the conservation of the reef and its astonishing diversity of marine life — via Perpetuelle

Toyota sacks hundreds in Altona clean-out

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16 April 2012
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Extra security was called to Toyota’s plant at Altona west of Melbourne today as the company began sacking 350 of what it says are its worst-performing workers.

The carmaker foreshadowed the cuts in January, blaming the high Australian dollar for falling export sales.

Over the past three months it has assessed more than 3,000 workers at the plant, testing them on workplace behaviour and skills.

The 350 people with the lowest ratings are being forced to leave either today or tomorrow — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Obituary: Michael ‘Flathead’ Blanchard

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16 April 2012
2 min read
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In Weird
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A Celebration of the life of Michael Flathead Blanchard will be held on 14 April, 3.00pm 8160 Rosemary St, Commerce City. Weary of reading obituaries noting someone’s courageous battle with death, Mike wanted it known that he died as a result of being stubborn, refusing to follow doctors’ orders and raising hell for more than six decades. He enjoyed booze, guns, cars and younger women until the day he died.

Mike was born July 1944 in Colorado to Clyde and Ethel Blanchard. A community activist, he is noted for saving the Dr Justina Ford house from demolition and defending those who could not defend themselves. He was a Republican delegate, life member of the NRA, founder and President of the Dead Cats MC. He loved music.

Mike was preceded in death by Clyde and Ethel Blanchard, survived by his beloved sons Mike and Chopper, former wife Jane Transue, brother Stephen Blanchard (Susan), Uncle Don and Aunt Cynthia Blanchard(his favorite); Uncle Dill and Aunt Dot, cousins and nephews, Baba Yaga can kiss his butt. So many of his childhood friends that weren’t killed in Vietnam went on to become criminals, prostitutes and/or Democrats. He asks that you stop by and re-tell the stories he can no longer tell. As the Celebration will contain Adult material we respectfully ask that no children under 18 attend — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Unique greenhouse could spur outback growth

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16 April 2012
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A group of international scientists working in outback South Australia has devised a crop production system which does not rely on diminishing fresh water supplies.

There is an incongruous sight in the parched outback; a state-of-the-art greenhouse powered by the sun and reliant only on salt water as a basis for irrigation.

Philipp Saumweber, of Sundrop Farms, has assembled a team of water and engineering experts outside Port Augusta.

This set-up is unique. Nobody has done what we’re doing before and to our knowledge nobody has done something even similar, he said.

What we were really looking for when we built this team is people who had a passion for changing the way agriculture is done.

Rather than lamenting about all the problems in agriculture and the water scarcity and the energy security issues, we wanted a team that was passionate about solving problems — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Brazilian police swoop on ‘cannibal’ cult

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16 April 2012
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Brazilian police have arrested a man and two women on suspicion of having murdered and eaten at least two women in what was described as a purification ritual.

The three defendants formed a sect called Cartel that wanted to purify the world and reduce the population, police spokesman Democrito Honorato, from the north-eastern Brazilian town of Guaranhuns, said.

The three defendants, Jorge and Elizabeth Pires da Silveira, both 51, and Bruna da Silva, 25, intended to kill three women per year, police said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Doomsday condos in old missile silos

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16 April 2012
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Real estate developer Larry Hall is converting Cold War missile silos in Kansas into condos for preppers who are getting ready for total and complete societal breakdown due to natural disaster, terrorism, economic collapse, pandemic, or a good ol’ fashioned apocalypse. Several buyers have already paid $7 million for their luxury shelters inside the shaft of the silo — via Boing Boing

BMW R100 Cafe Racer / Frank McGoldrick

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15 April 2012
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Frank McGoldrick is one of those people who seem to have a talent for everything they turn their hand to. An accomplished welder and fabricator, he graduated to designing and building bars, shops and restaurants throughout the UK. After selling his business five years ago, Frank moved to the French Alps and was finally able to return to his childhood passion—motorcycles. Finally getting some time on his hands, he decided to build his own motorcycle, with a style and individuality that most major manufacturers seem to neglect, he says.

After scouring eBay Frank found a 1977 BMW R 100/7 in the UK. It was low mileage, but had been stored outside on a busy London street with no cover. It was a rusty dirt ball of a bike, he says. But with a new battery and a quick service it seemed to run ok. It was simply a case of getting it back to France, an 800-mile journey. Two days later the BMW was in Frank’s mountain workshop. As the first snow of the winter settled outside, he readied his grinder for some serious work — via Bike EXIF

Death of a data haven: cypherpunks, WikiLeaks, and the world’s smallest nation

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15 April 2012
2 min read
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In History, Politics, Technology
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A few weeks ago, Fox News breathlessly reported that the embattled WikiLeaks operation was looking to start a new life under on the sea. WikiLeaks, the article speculated, might try to escape its legal troubles by putting its servers on Sealand, a World War II anti-aircraft platform seven miles off the English coast in the North Sea, a place that calls itself an independent nation. It sounds perfect for WikiLeaks: a friendly, legally unassailable host with an anything-goes attitude.

But readers with a memory of the early 2000s might be wondering, Didn’t someone already try this? How did that work out? Good questions. From 2000 to 2008, a company called HavenCo did indeed offer no-questions-asked colocation on Sealand — and it didn’t end well.

HavenCo’s failure — and make no mistake about it, HavenCo did fail — shows how hard it is to get out from under government’s thumb. HavenCo built it, but no one came. For a host of reasons, ranging from its physical vulnerability to the fact that The Man doesn’t care where you store your data if he can get his hands on you, Sealand was never able to offer the kind of immunity from law that digital rebels sought. And, paradoxically, by seeking to avoid government, HavenCo made itself exquisitely vulnerable to one government in particular: Sealand’s. It found that out the hard way in 2003 when Sealand nationalised the company — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Classic 2612/1421639 / Aviator

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15 April 2012
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This is the Aviator Classic 2612/1421639. The 2612 designates the movement in use, which is a mechanical (manual wind) movement with 18 jewels. The most intriguing bit of this movement is the alarm complication. You do have a separate crown to use for winding and setting the alarm time, so you don’t need to be concerned that using the alarm will shorten the life on the power reserve (which is a respectable 42 hours) — via Wrist Watch Review

Looper

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15 April 2012
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In the futuristic action thriller Looper, time travel will be invented — but it will be illegal and only available on the black market. When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a looper — a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) — is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good… until the day the mob decides to close the loop, sending back Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination. The film is written and directed by Rian Johnson and also stars Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, and Jeff Daniels. Ram Bergman and James D Stern produce

US Unhappy With Australians Storing Data On Australian Shores

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14 April 2012
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In Politics, Technology
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The United States’ global trade representative has strongly criticised a perceived preference on the part of large Australian organisations for hosting their data on-shore in Australia, claiming it created a significant trade barrier for US technology firms. A number of US companies had expressed concerns that various departments in the Australian Government, namely the Department of Defence had been sending negative messages about cloud providers based outside the country, implying that hosting data overseas, including in the United States, by definition entails greater risk and unduly exposes consumers to their data being scrutinised by foreign governments. Recently, Acting Victorian Privacy Commissioner Anthony Bendall highlighted some of the privacy concerns with cloud computing, particularly in its use by the local government. He said the main problems were the lack of control over stored data and privacy, in overseas cloud service providers — via Slashdot

Baby Cthulhu Hairclips / GothAndGeekery

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14 April 2012
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In Craft, Entertainment, Wildlife
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Evil squids have never been this cute. Each clip has a polymer clay hand painted baby Cthulhu with mint green foam wings. This listing is for the set of two clips. Baby Cthulhu is 2.2 cm tall (a little under an inch) and has a wingspan of 5.5 cm (a little over 2 inches). They are mounted on black glossy hair clips — via Etsy

Bad Rain Quilt / Ferret

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14 April 2012
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Well that’s it. It is off the frame. I didn’t realise while I was working quite how big it is. When Cy described it as a Bad Rain: A Double-Page Bedspread he was quite right. The picture doesn’t show all of it because it more than covers our king size bed. Of course it wouldn’t actually be any good as a bedspread, it’s too fragile and too heavy, but size wise it looks the part — via Ferret Fabricates

Jaws Film Restoration

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14 April 2012
21 second read
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Academy Award Winner Steven Spielberg’s iconic summer classic comes to Blu-ray for the first time ever on 14 August, digitally remastered and fully restored in honour of Universal’s 100th Anniversary Celebration

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