The Symbolism of "Metropolis" and it's depiction and influence in todays' pop-culture.
0 comments Posted by in.SIGHT at 10:55Fritz Lang’s 1927 movie “Metropolis” is one of those timeless classics that withstand the test of time. Rather than becoming forgotten and obsolete, “Metropolis” is increasingly relevant as many of its predictions are becoming reality. We will look at the underlying occult message of the film and the usage of its imagery in the acts of pop stars such as Lady Gaga, Madonna, Beyonce, Kylie Minogue and others.
Big Brother WILL snoop on your calls and clicks: UK Ministers resurrect plan to log all communications
0 comments Posted by in.SIGHT at 03:54Source: Daily Mail
Hugely controversial ‘Big Brother’ plans to store details of every internet click, email and telephone call that we make are being revived by the Coalition, it emerged last night.
Police, security services and other public bodies would be able to find out which websites a person had visited, and when, where and to whom a text or call was made.Security officials insist that monitoring communications data is vital in the fight against terrorism and serious organised crime.But the plan – which was kicked into the long grass by Labour amid a public outcry – will put the Government on a collision course with civil liberties groups.
They argue it is a ‘snooper’s charter’ which will allow the state to spy on millions of innocent citizens.
So far ministers have insisted they want to provide a ‘correction in favour of liberty’ when it comes to the powers required to protect the public.This is likely to include the scrapping or watering down of a raft of draconian laws introduced by the last government, such as so-called ‘Section 44’ stop and search without suspicion, and spying by Town Hall bureaucrats.But ministers have been persuaded of the case to give the police and security officials enhanced rights to access the public’s communications.
Officials insist many terrorists no longer use traditional methods of communication, hatching plots in internet chatrooms or on social networking sites such as Facebook.They can also speak over the internet, using Skype, and communicate through online computer games.One official said communications data ‘provides evidence in court to secure convictions of those engaged in activities that cause serious harm’.It has played a role in every major Security Service counter-terrorism operation and in 95 per cent of all serious organised crime investigations in recent years, sources said.
Firm plans will be published later this year on how the personal information – which does not include the contents of emails or text messages – should be stored.Crucially, one option that has been ruled out is holding it all on a huge central government database.The most likely scenario is that internet and telephone companies will be expected to store the details themselves. The authorities could then request access to the data as part of investigations.
Source: Daily Mail
You want flies with that? McDonald’s Happy Meal shows no sign of decomposing after SIX MONTHS
Looking almost as fresh as the day it was bought, this McDonald’s Happy Meal is in fact a staggering six months old.Photographed every day for the past half a year by Manhattan artist Sally Davies the kids meal of fries and burger is without a hint of mould or decay.
In a work entitled The Happy Meal Project, Mrs Davies, 54, has charted the seemingly indestructible fast food meals progress as it refuses to yield to the forces of nature.
Fresh: The Happy Meal on the day it was bought by artist Sally Davies in New York
Tasty: Looking a little dry and with an ‘acrylic sheen’, but the burger has no signs of mould – not even on the bun
Sitting on a shelf in her apartment, Sally has watched the Happy Meal with increasing shock and even her dogs have resisted the urge to try and steal a free tasty snack.
‘I bought the meal on April 10 of this year and brought it home with the express intention of leaving it out to see how it fared,’ she said.
‘I chose McDonald’s because it was nearest to my house, but the project could have been about any other of the myriad of fast food joints in New York.
‘The first thing that struck me on day two of the experiment was that it no longer emitted any smell.
‘And then the second point of note was that on the second day, my dogs stopped circling the shelf it was sitting on trying to see what was up there.’
Fast food: Five months into the experiment, and although the burger patty has shrunk a bit it doesn’t look that different to the original
Worrying: More than three months in and the usual effects of time appear to have had no impact
Expecting the food to begin moulding after a few days, Mrs Davies’ surprise turned to shock as the fries and burger still had not shown any signs of decomposition after two weeks.
‘It was then that I realised that something strange might be going on with this food that I had bought,’ she explained.
‘The fries shrivelled slightly as did the burger patty, but the overall appearance of the food did not change as the weeks turned to months.
‘And now, at six months old, the food is plastic to the touch and has an acrylic sheen to it.
‘The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock.’
Tucking in: Mrs Davies bought the Happy Meal and put it on a shelf in her home. She said even her dogs are no longer interested in eating it
Even though she is a vegan, Mrs Davies’ experiment has brought her amusement rather than fear.
‘I don’t really see this experiment as scary, I see it almost as an amusement,’ she said.
‘Although, I would be frightened at seeing this if I was a meat eater. Why hasn’t even the bun become speckled with mould? It is odd.’
When asked if their food was not biodegradable, McDonald’s spokeswoman Danya Proud said: ‘This is nothing more than an outlandish claim and is completely false.’
It comes after Denver grandmother Joann Bruso left a Happy Meal to decay for a year until March to highlight the nutritional dangers of fast food.
Morgan Spurlock also made the film Super Size Me in 2004 charting the changes to his body eating just fast food for 28 days had.
When you live in a city, it's easy to forget that we are surrounded by the greates show in the Universe: The Universe itself. This sky comparison chart is the sad proof of that.
Sadly, missing the awe-inspiring show of all those planets, stars, and galaxies dancing around us is the price humans had to pay for having observed it in the first place:
When our prehistoric ancestors studied the sky after sunset, they observed that some of the stars were not fixed with respect to the constant pattern of the constellations. Instead, five of them moved, slowly forward across the sky, then backward for a few months, then forward again, as if they couldn't quite make up their minds. We call them planets, the Greek word for "wanderers." These planets presented a profound mystery. The earliest explanation was that they were living beings. How else to explain their strange looping behavior. Later they were thought to be gods, and then disembodied astrological influences. But the real solution to this mystery is that the planets are worlds, that the Earth is one of them, and that they all go around the sun according to precise mathematical laws. This discovery has led directly to our modern global civilization.A Personal Voyage — Harmony of the World, by Carl Sagan
Excellent dark sky
Inner city sky
Next time you have a few free days, remember the images above and go to a remote place, far from any town, in a night with no moon. If you have never done this, I can assure you that the experience will deeply affect your perception of the world.
The scenery fades away with every step he takes.
Nothing feels real, but the Glock in his hand.
Nothing feels real, but the Glock in his hand.
Oh if he could hide, or only shed a tear.
If allowed he would run, though he knows no fear.
Seasons may shift, presidents may change.
But no one ever knew how he slips away.
Every job he sought for, he was deemed unfit.
Over something stupid that he did as a kid.
That was then, this is now and he’s got two kids,
Pair of blue eyes and little miss sunshine.
Though the one who brought’em here wouldn’t even give a dime.
Up and disappeared, not worthy of a single line.
None of that would have mattered if the pockets got fatter.
But the kids need to eat, and he still loses sleep.
Plus, in the same face, they seek a mother and a father.
And on the edge of insanity, a scale is in place.
Years of disappointment form a mountain to the left,
And on to the right, two pairs of eyes, staring at his face.
The best part of he’s life is coming home at night.
Not cuz after two jobs he can have some rest.
Because of their smiles and that which then starts racing in his chest.
For that same simple reason he would struggle with no end,
And for the same reason there’s a gun in his hand.
A plan in his mind and a crime justified.
(c) Outspoken Poet
Before Wake Up!, I wasn’t quite sure where I stood with John Legend. His debut found him miscast as a unique type of badboy, gospel-drenched vocals jumping from one girl to the next in an attempt to blur the lines between the then-sputtering neo soul movement and the direction of more mainstream R&B artists like Usher. It left an awfully confused taste in my mouth, as does the arc of his career. Evolver, his most recent album, was another cluster of half-baked attempts at crossover and experimentation. While it sounded remarkably different from Get Lifted, over four years it seemed little had changed with Legend as an artist.
But then I heard the sample of “Again”—appearing on Legend’s Once Again LP that I’d skipped over—on the Roots’ offering earlier this year (How I Got Over) and after listening to that album, I was thrown for a loop. Here, Legend’s voice had risen far beyond merely good to occasionally fantastic, and all but one or two tracks were not just tolerable, they were superb. This discovery occurred just a few weeks ago, around the same time I got my first glimpse at what Legend and the Roots have been collaborating on since Evolver limped into the masses: Wake Up!.
Originally intended as a one off charity benefit type project, the combination quickly grew into an LP that, besides a few minor hiccups, makes a strong case for the collaboration continuing into the future. While all but two tracks here are covers, ?uestlove and James Poyser has done such an excellent job of arranging both the tracklist and the songs themselves that only the most well-versed poli-soul listeners will pick out the originals. The opening one-two punch of “Hard Times” and “Compared to What?” are particularly incendiary, and that hard Stax kind of funk appears once again on “Our Generation”.
The common thread throughout the entire project is revolution and political activism, something the extensive liner notes make blatantly clear. But the song selection is superb enough that the LP works perfectly fine as a straight up funk and soul record. In less capable hands things could get a bit awry, but not only does this band play tight as hell, they each find their moments to showcase individual talents. Legend goes from channeling Eugene McDaniel’s raging, deep soul on “Compared to What?” to harnessing a heretofore seldom heard higher register for the aforementioned reggae jam. Captain Kirk delivers a righteously funky guitar riff for “Hard Times” that adds an extra hundred degrees to the song, and each time Black Thought appears will stir familiar feelings from the Roots’ last few LPs that there is simply not enough of him here.
Owen Biddle, ?uestlove and James Poyser play more complimentary roles on the album, though all three are the spine around which the longer jams—12-minute protest song “I Can’t Write Left Handed” and seven-minute self-empowerment jam “Hang on in There”—unwaveringly cling. The way the band flits between these different motifs and feature players is entertaining, but it’s honestly John Legend that takes the most away from this release. He not only delivers his most focused effort yet, but his most diverse. The way he sings on “Hang on in There” and “Humanity” is just a joy to listen to. The band closes the album with “Shine”, the one Legend-penned original song on the album (Malik Yusef also provides an original spoken word intro to Little Ghetto Boy), and passes their final test by cranking out a song much less mundane than Legend’s previous attempt at world-unifying, “If You’re Out There”.
While it’s simplicity is greatly noticeable alongside these masterworks of soul, “Shine” also feels as fitting a finale to Wake Up! as anything else could be. Again, this is a testament not only to the quality of the musicians or the songs they play, but the way they’ve strung them together like something of a live, in studio performance. This spirit is, above all else, what makes Wake Up! such a success. There is no pretense that this band will equal the songs they’re reviving, though through seemingly unlimited talent they often come as close as possible. Wake Up! is an album explicitly from the heart, worn on its sleeve in a way few artists with such mainstream attention seem willing to match. What could have come off as a mediocre-to-good novelty project has, instead reaches the public coming just short of being a genuine contender for album of the year.
John Legend ft. The Roots - Wake Up Everybody
John Legend ft. The Roots - Wake Up Everybody
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