wakarahen / ganbaresugi

Bold emphasis mine.

“The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius has granted legal immunity not only to the makers of the two drugs being used to treat swine flu, Tamiflu and Relenza, but also to the swine flu vaccine makers, for damages due to their use against swine flu.

By effectively manipulating the legal system, the Pharmaceutical Industry through their powerful lobbyists have acquired almost complete and total insulation from any liability for their vaccines and adjuvants, which are additives added to generate a stronger immune response.

It is believed that it is these adjuvants which often cause the problems. The last time the government embarked on a major vaccine campaign against a new swine flu was in 1976. Thousands filed claims for side effects such as paralysis caused by the vaccine and a number of people died. I am sure that the researchers know more now than they did last time and no one can say for certain that bad things will happen again or that you will suffer dire consequences if you get vaccinated. But this time you have no legal recourse even though this vaccine involves new factors, which makes it therefore experimental and unpredictable.

By shielding the manufacturers from any responsibility for any harm caused, the pharmaceutical firms have no financial incentive to make the safest product. In fact, they have a negative incentive to test it for safety, because if they are aware of problems, then they could potentially be held liable for willful misconduct.”

“Like so many other posters searching for creative talent, you appear to be either ignorant of payment standards in your own industry. or are purposefully offering substandard compensation. Your rate works out to $.04 per word which is one tenth of the standard rate.
You can gain some insight into industry standards at this website: http://www.writers.ca/whattopay.htm”

Well done.

“Here’s how it works: if you say your favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh, MC Escher or Monet, you will appear as though your taste in art is derived entirely from college posters. This is unacceptable. Conversely, if you list Jeff Koons, Laurie Anderson, Damien Hirst or Basquiat, you’ll look like you are trying too hard but don’t really know what you are talking about. Chances are that white people will assume your art education consists entirely of documentaries, bio pics, and looking up references from Gossip Girl on Wikipedia.

Finally, if you list your favorite artist as a current, bleeding edge visionary who white people have not heard of, they will immediately recognize you as a threat and dislike you.  It is also a certainty that they will call you pretentious behind your back.

Needless to say, it’s complicated. But Banksy is just right. He’s just edgy enough to be outside of the mainstream, but popular enough to be available in coffee table book form at Urban Outfitters. Though if you spot this book on the coffee table of a white person it is strongly recommended that you imply they got the book at a Modern Art Museum gift shop and not at an Urban Outfitters. This will make the evening far more enjoyable for everyone concerned.”

towerofsleep:

This is the funnest thing on the internet right now.

HOLY CRAP! This thing rules.

circumpolarnavigation:

blownspeakers:

Imagine this: Out for a meal in a Vancouver restaurant, you spend $30 to $40 on entrees. But when you order a $45 bottle of B.C. wine, your waiter says: “Sorry, this is Vancouver; you’ll have to buy something cheaper.”

That’s exactly what could happen after Jan. 1, when the city’s new liquor licensing bylaw comes into effect.

An obscure subsection of the bylaw casts a regulatory net — intended to nab restaurants that are all bar and no food — that snares just about every other restaurant with a wine list aspiring to offer more than bulk wines. Under the bylaw, approved by city council Oct. 8 and coming into effect Jan. 1, the food portion of all restaurant receipts must account for at least 50 per cent of all revenues over any eight-hour period.

The city is imposing an annual $3-a-seat tax on all city restaurants, raising money to hire food police who will make sure restaurants comply.

This might have dawned on someone over at the City if any of the yobs on staff ever dined somewhere other than Swiss Chalet for a night out when they were off-shift.

You’ve got to love a city that obsesses about being seen as “World Class” and then goes and makes HILARIOUS laws like this. Smooth, real smooth.

Sitcom eyeroll with head-cocked to the side: Oh, Vancouver!

towerofsleep:

Just happened upon Carl Wilson’s outstanding post on Destroyer’s Your Blues. One of my favourite (tempted to say “best living”) music critics takes apart one of my favourite (tempted to say “best living”) songwriters. Obviously awesome if you are as shamelessly into this sort of thing as I am. Anybody? Anyone? Maybe not. Anyway:

“The idea that this is Dan saying that all life is artifice, mentioned in many reviews, is kindergarten stuff: Destroyer’s assumed that proposition since the first album, We Shall Build Them A Golden Bridge. But in the past the relationship to the artifice was much more rueful and awkward. It’s the joyful embrace, the Cocteau-like adoration of surface - the knowledge that in music, poetry or painting surface is depth, irony is earnestness, text is subtext, embraced without angst - that distinguishes this album from everything he’s done before: All artifice is life.”

Only quoting a part because I can’t quote the whole thing. He calls my favourite Destroyer album, City of Daughters, “inspired but collegiate”. OH OUCH I AM STILL IN COLLEGE.

“Able, willing, ready/ Fuck the Spiral Jetty!/ Tonight we work large!”

Fan. Admirer. Autoreblog.

lvs:

Listened to this Frieze talk the other day. It was definitely worthwhile.

Bookmarked for tomorrow.

Since the 1980s, when buzzwords like ‘semiotics’ were prevalent in the art world, theory has played an important role in the interpretation, and making, of art. Yet, after all these years, has contemporary art really influenced the way philosophers think? And is theory still relevant to today’s artists?

• Simon Critchley (Chair & Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research, New York)
• Robert Storr (Artist, Critic, Curator and Dean of Yale School of Art)
• Barbara Bloom (Artist)
• Chair: Jörg Heiser (Co-editor, frieze)

“If you reverse the peace sign (back of the hand away from you) you get what is known a the ‘V’ sign in England and it does mean f*** you.

It originates from the English archers who used to give it to the French before a battle. The two fingers were used by archers and when the French captured an archer they would cut off those two fingers. Giving the V to them meant ‘I have still got my fingers and I can kill you’”

Huh.

Always wondered about that. Factoid of the day.

Attn Jeff/Charles: Bust out the phat camos and the bucket hats, rollin’ spliffs on a copy of The Face. Is this stuff retro-ironic yet? PARTY LIKE IT’S 1995!

1. Blame; Groove Research (Movin’ Shadow)
2. Cloud Nine; Blissful Ignorance (Tango Remix) (Movin’ Shadow)
3. D’Cruze; Heaven (Suburban Base)
4. Eddie; Intelligent Drummer (One Touch Recordings)
5. DJ Food; Fungle Junk (Ninja Tune)
6. Essence of Aura; Let Love Shine Through (Movin’ Shadow)
7. Tek 9; Slow Down (Nookie Remix) (Reinforced)
8. Jazz Juice; Jazz Juice (Precious Materials)
9. DJ Krush feat. Black Thought & Malik B; Meiso (4Hero Remix) (Mo’Wax)
10. Run Tings & Liftin’ Spirits; Invincible (Suburban Base)
11. The Noise of Art; Rollin’ Deep (Smokey Joe Remix—Chrissy Murderbot Re-Edit) (Suburban Base)
12. Omni Trio; Renegade Snares (Foul Play Remix) (Movin’ Shadow)
13. Red One; Alive & Kicking (Remix) (Liftin’ Spirits)
14. Flynn & Flora; Dream Of You (Independent Dealers)
15. Boogie Times Tribe; My Soul (Roni Size & Krust Remix) (Suburban Base)
16. SDS; Future Feelings (Echo Drop)
17. The Art of Noise; Island (Seiji Remix) (China)
18. Jason Mouse; Better World (Sm:)e)
19. DJ Phantasy; Atmosphere (Alex Reece Remix) (Rogue Trooper)
20. Tek 9; 74 Inches Above Sea Level (SSR)
21. ILS & G-Force; Nocturnal (Echo Drop)
22. Rogue Unit; Dance of the Sarooes (Labello Blanco)
23. Tight Control; Sax Lick 1 (Chrissy Murderbot Edit) (Bear Necessities)
24. Mikey James; The Rhys Project (Suburban Base)
25. A Guy Called Gerald; Life Unfolds His Mystery (Juice Box

From original post:

“Imagine yourself in 1994. The whole jungle thing is kicking off big time, and you love it, but you happen to have this other side—maybe it’s an artsy-fartsy ambient “let’s smoke a bowl and talk about the universe” side, or perhaps it’s a getting-in-touch-with-your-black-roots wannabe-jazz-musician “one of these days I’m gonna learn to play vibes just like Roy Ayers” side, or maybe you’re just one of those pretentious types who thinks ragga is for dummies and this whole jungle thing would be a delight if only there were some intellectuals like you to make it inscrutable to the unwashed masses.

…

This stuff was adored by the critics back in the day (I remember reviews from the jungle section in Urb saying “thank goodness this new Reinforced comp doesn’t have any stinking AMENS in it”), but it’s been pretty much forgotten today.

…

Make no mistake, a bunch of ambient jungle was fucking awful. It sounds like an advertisement for body lotion that you might see on Lifetime, or like the music they play in Pottery Barn. ….”

Whoa.

So much for leaving the house and enjoying the sun today. Can there be such a thing as too much music? Thank you, internets.

Interesting history/analysis of “mass-media niche journalism”.