Integral Thought

Trafigura and Carter-Ruck backed down shortly before the 2pm High Court hearing and lifted the gagging order; it must have been obvious it was going to be overturned even to them. The overwhelming response from the blogosphere and Twitter must have been a very nasty surprise for them!

Kudos also to the Spectator, which was the only other media outlet to report on the story. And a big thumbs-down to the BBC and Channel 4 who refused to report on it even when directly asked. Even now that reporting restrictions have been lifted, there is NO mention of it on the BBC website. Shame on you, BBC.

It has been revealed that Trafigura were indeed trying to cover up the injunction against reporting in the British press of the Minton report, on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura. In several incidents, Trafigura dumped thousands of tons of sulphurous coker naptha mixed with caustic soda off Côte d’Ivoire in 2006, with full knowledge as detailed in internal emails that doing so would likely cause thousands of injuries and deaths. The chemical waste came from a ship called Probo Koala and in August 2006 truckload after truckload of it was illegally fly-tipped at 15 locations around Abidjan, the biggest city in Ivory Coast. This led to 16 deaths and 31000 injured.

Trafigura can now thank Carter-Ruck for having ensured that by trying to gag the British press, pretty much the whole world now knows exactly what Trafigura did.

[Edit to add] The BBC finally reported on the lifting of the gag nearly three hours afterwards with a very mealymouthed piece.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1216556.html"; you may comment either there or here.

London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients (who include individuals or global corporations), have actually gagged the Guardian newspaper from reporting Parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights. It's apparently about the question highlighted in red, which has already been on Newsnight(take a good look at the picture Trafigura are responsible for). The blogger Guido Fawkes also covers it.

Please repost this and spread this widely. Carter-Ruck may have gagged the Guardian (for now), but they cannot silence every voice in the blogosphere.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1216387.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Apparently in the US, the 11th October is National Coming Out Day. Here in the UK it's now the early hours of Monday the 12th, but over on the other side of the Atlantic it's still the 11th.

I don't think I've ever been particularly secretive about my (lack of) sexuality, but nor have I felt the need to particularly push it in people's faces; but then again lack of sexuality isn't seen as threatening as being differently sexual. So, in solidarity with those whose sexuality has made them the targets of small-minded bigots, I am hereby coming out.

Hi, my name's Arkady, and I'm an asexual, polyamorous pan-romantic. I am somewhat genderflexible, though I've finally adjusted to being reasonably tolerant of my physically female body.

And I firmly look forward to the day when the phrase "coming out" is rendered obselete, when no-one ever has to fear again the reactions of others based on one's personal preference of gender and/or numbers of partners; when sexuality and gender are no longer political but purely personal matters and all are truly equal.

Sadly, I don't think it will happen in my lifetime. But I can hope for it within the lifetimes of my children.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1216056.html"; you may comment either there or here.

The following is an open letter (I'm not sure by whom, but it's been reposted by rozk amongst others, which is good enough for me); please read and repost.

London trans activists call for boycott of sham demo on October 17th

We are a group of trans activists who wish to make known our concerns about a demo, claiming to support the depathologisation of trans people, in London on 17th of October. The facebook group for the demo can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=147494409183

The description of the event reads:

"Being transgendered is not a mental illness. We are simply part of the diversity of humanity. Gender Identity Disorder is therefore not a valid diagnosis. Homosexuality we removed as a mental health diagnosis diagnosis in 1987. For us to achieve true liberation and recognition we need to throw off this unjust stigma. We are not ill, just different"

A large number of people were invited by the demo organiser, a non-trans man by the name of Dennis Hambridge, and some of us were initially concerned by the rationale for the demo. In particular, we were worried that campaigning for the removal of Gender Identity Disorder as a medical diagnosis without proposing an alternative mechanism by which transsexual people would be able to access medical transition resources was premature and dangerous, especially in a climate where NHS primary care trusts need only a minimal excuse to deny funding for our hormonal and surgical procedures. We do not support the labelling of our gender identities as disordered, and realise that our relationship with the medical community is far from ideal, but do not wish to support a movement which may give the impression that we seek complete divorce from the medical community.

These concerns were put to the Facebook group by a number of trans activists. Rather than address them, Mr Hambridge entrenched his position, making claims that gender dysphoria was an artefact of society and the medical community, and that removal of any form of classification of gender dysphoria by the WHO was "non-negotiable".

In moves more reminiscent of the actions of transphobic radical feminists than supposed allies of trans people, Mr Hambridge started deleting some of the comments from those trans people who were concerned about our future access to hormones and surgery. Subsequently he banned a number of those trans people from the group, silencing them in that space.

To reiterate - Mr Hambridge, who is organising a demo which is allegedly supporting the rights of transsexual people is using his position as a group organiser to silence and shut out the voices of the very people he claims to support.

In light of Mr Hambridge's intransigence and refusal to listen to the voices of actual transsexual people, we are calling on all activists who support the concept of transsexual people having a say in our own medical care to boycott this demo. We further call on Mr Hambridge, who is not trans himself, to stop claiming to speak on our behalf when he is ignoring our protestations and silencing our voices, and to call off his demo.

Please spread this open letter widely.

The tl;dr version basically is thus: Non-trans man decides to have a demo in support of trans issues - and bans trans people from talking about it on his Facebook group because he thinks he knows what transpeople need better than they do.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1215817.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Barack Obama has won the Nobel Prize for Peace after less than a year as President of the US.

Rather impressive.

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1215707.html"; you may comment either there or here.

Patrick Swayze has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57.

:-(

Originally posted at "http://arkady.dreamwidth.org/1214968.html"; you may comment either there or here.

EA Games is encouraging attendees at ComicCon to commit sexual assault on its employees in exchange for prizes. Competitors are asked to submit photographic evidence of themselves committing "acts of lust" with the EA booth babes in order to win prizes including a dinner date with the molested girl.

Should you wish to express your opinion of their campaign, there are some names and addresses (publicly available, I'm not breaching anyone's confidentiality here):

Katy McNeill
UK Publicist - EA SPORTS
01483 463341
kmcneill@ea.com

Simon Smith-Wright
UK PR Director
ssmithwright@europe.ea.com

Shaun White
Senior UK PR Manager - EA SPORTS
01483 463333
swhite@europe.ea.com

Amy Wright
PR Manager - The Sims
01483 463335
amywright@europe.ea.com

Jonathan Goddard
Senior UK PR Manager - EA Games Label
01483 463340
jgoddard@ea.com

Marisa Kitchen
UK PR Coordinator
01483 463720
mkitchen@ea.com

Jodie Van Hibb
UK Publicist - EA Play Label
01483 463321
jvanhibb@europe.ea.com

Sophie Orlando
UK Publicist - EA Games Label
01483 463342
sorlando@ea.com

Kirsty Plaistowe
PR Coordinator
01483463015
kplaistowe@ea.com

Please do pass this on to spread awareness.

I suspect everyone who wanted one has already got a DW account by now, but I have 5 codes going spare. Comments screened; leave your email address below if you want a code.

How's this for a sick and twisted idea: Take a dead animal. Skin it, and stuff the hide with kapok. Then sell it as a taxidermy plushie.

This girl is doing exactly that.

She's a 16-year-old who claims to have a taxidermy license, and seems to think it's all a great idea - enough to boast a long list of the animals she can stuff, including endangered species such as wolves. In this post she claims that the fox pelts come from fur farms where the animals are killed specifically for taxidermists like her to stuff - and yet she also claims to be trying to raise money for a dog shelter.

She's sadly not the only one; she has taken inspiration from this woman.

Unfortunately, deviantArt doesn't ban such creations from dA, as they consider taxidermy to be a legitimate form of art; they don't even require WIP (Work In Progress) pictures to be filtered for offensive or disturbing content. So, photos of nude dolls or a mother breastfeeding her baby have to be put under a mature filter - but progress pictures of a dead fox with pins in its face in the process of being turned into a stuffed toy don't.

What's wrong with this picture??

When does art cross the line from homage into theft and deception?

That question has recently elicited an explosion of condemnation from the world of Asian Ball-Jointed Doll aficionados world-wide thanks the the actions of vector "artist", Mijn Schatje (real name Marie Blanco Hendrickx). Schatje has made a name for herself over the past few years as a successful artist who makes a living based off the images she creates. Prints of her work retail for $1700 each, she's made deals with Sony Playstation and Fornarina Clothing, and large-scale statues have been created based on her pictures.

However, what she has not disclosed to these clients and the buyers of her work is that every image in her work is stolen. The beautiful, delicate, elfin wide-eyed "child-like women" in her pictures for which she has drawn so much admiration from the art world are, in fact, traced directly from photographs of dolls; to be precise, BJDs. She has taken images from both owners and companies alike and used them as the basis for her artwork, which is sold in galleries and as iPod skins. This is unfair to the creators of the dolls, for one. These people are responsible for the sculpting, delicate painting, and painstaking photography of these labour-intensive creations. Unlike characters such as Barbie, these dolls are usually made by small teams of artists who work long hours to ensure they make a living. By taking advantage of their photography without permission or credit, Schatje profits from the artwork of others without offering anything in return.

Owner photographs are also significant. These dolls are expensive and designed to be customised; owners can (and do) spend hundreds, even thousands, of dollars on one doll, not to mention countless hours to alter and eventually photograph these moveable resin sculptures. Mijn Schatje has taken these photos largely without communication to the photographers. When she has done so, she has often asked to "draw" the dolls in question - not incorporate the photos themselves, as the comparison shots indicate. In one case, she requested permission to use a photo as a reference no less than 14 months after she had already used the photo in question for an image that had already been sold to Sony for a Playstation advert; it later transpired that she had stolen no fewer than 7 images from this ne photographer alone.

It is important to differentiate "reference" images and "stolen" images. The overlays show that Schatje did not create images based on specific photos (which in and of itself might be problematic), but actually used these photos directly in her work. Under the vector-based overpainting of her finished pieces, there is someone else's property. This owner - with few exceptions - remains unnamed, and certainly unpaid. Several doll companies have already revealed their dismay that their works are being treated in such a manner, as well as private purchasers of these items.

It is not merely the dolls that have been traced, however; careful investigation by various people on the doll forum Den of Angels revealed that the majority of even the minor images in her work are traced; she has re-used several images repeatedly - sketchwork swallows and a pair of deer are taken from Dover clip art, a lotus blossom stolen from a New Age site, a tiger and a magnolia blossom taken from stock photography, several images stolen from Lisa Frank including hot-air balloons and a pink shoe, and a jellyfish used in her banner image which has been stolen from Scott Thom or Gilbert Williams. She has also made use of a Totoro image from Studio Gibli; it is in the background but instantly recognisable as Totoro. She has not requested permission from Studio Gibli or Disney (who own Totoro rights in the US) for the use of this image.

Lowbrow Art Gallery Kochxbos in Amsterdam is exhibiting/selling all of Mijn Schatje's works at the moment, but having received a large number of emails from concerned BJD fans have stated that they are looking into the allegations.

For further details together with images of the original photos stolen and overlays showing how she has used others' work and claimed it as her own, please see http://www.radiotrash.org/mijn/.

If you get a message on Facebook from someone on your contacts list entitled "Hello", inviting you to "check out areps.at", do NOT go to the web page in question; it will take you to a page that looks like a Facebook login page. If you have gone to this page and entered your details, go and change your Facebook password immediately. It is a phishing scam. Please pass on this message and alert other Facebook users.

I'm quite surprised by some of the people who have been taken in by this one; three people on my f-list have been caught by it.

ETA: There is further information about this scam now online here; Facebook seem to have gotten on top of things fairly quickly, but apparently another one has already sprung up - this time directing people to bests.at, another scam site.

Reposting in an effort to try and spread the word to as many people as possible. Please feel free to repost and spread the word!

Little Hen Rescue's biggest ever appeal.....10,000 hens to be rehomed by the end of June. Can you help?

Hello lovely people,

I needed to get your attention - and quick!!
Little Hen Rescue are about to attempt the unbelievable.......by trying to rehome 10,000 hens in less than 2 months....

Yes, 10,000 hens in 2 months.....
As some of you may know, we have been working hard to empty a Norfolk battery farm for the last 9 months or so. This is the farm that got LHR started and where Mel's Phillis came from.
The girls in these barns have been in quite a frightful state and we have given thousands of them the chance of a new life.

However, this farm is now closing and going into something different (not livestock) BUT there is approximately 10,000 girls left in there. The farmer has the slaughterman booked for the 29th June. Any girls not rescued by then will go to slaughter, with no if's or buts and no second chances.

So.........Here's your opportunity to help! We need co-ordinators, volunteers, fundraisers, poster putter-uppers and the like, so PLEASE, PLEASE do what you can to help.
If you live far from Norwich, then maybe you could help with some admin? Maybe you could raise the awareness in your area? Maybe you could spend some time answering queries from potential re-homers. Whatever you can do, please, let me know.
We have to cast our net far and wide now, to rehome to different areas. We desperately need co-ordinators in Northants, Peterborough, Surrey, Kent, and the surrounding areas.

Please you lovely lot, this is your chance to help rehome some of these beautiful girls. I really do believe that we can pull together and get these girls out.

Em
Little Hen Rescue
littlehenrescue@googlemail.com

Further details are available on the website, where you can also donate to help their efforts.

Total number of confirmed deaths: 100
Total number confirmed infected: 1600
Population of Mexico City: In excess of 100 million.

So that's a lower mortality rate than Ebola or Marburg, and the odds are pretty good for not getting it.

As originally noted by warren_ellis (observations below are my own):

Reuters:

Tests have confirmed that eight New York City schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus, likely swine flu, city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said on Saturday.

BBC:

A new flu virus suspected of killing at least 60 people in Mexico has the potential to become a pandemic, the World Health Organization’s chief says.

On the ground:

I work as a resident doctor in one of the biggest hospitals in Mexico City and sadly, the situation is far from ’under control’… two of my partners who worked in this hospital (interns) were killed by this new virus in less than six days even though they were vaccinated as all of us were. The official number of deaths is 20, nevertheless, the true number of victims are more than 200…

The problem with this kind of reporting is that it's impossible to get a true picture of the situation. Currently the death-toll officially stands at 68, but that doesn't tell us what the mortality rate is. How many more people have had this virus and not died? How many are affected overall? And what percentage of the population in the affected areas do these figures represent? At the moment we just don't know what the infection and mortality rates are.

It is weird that all the deaths so far have been otherwise-healthy adults though, rather than children or the elderly as might be expected. But there's just too much unknown about this whole situation, and the reports in the media aren't clarifying the situation any - just muddying the waters and contributing to the panic. Sensationalism rules the day as per usual.

An interesting theory has been put forward by tehdely (a former Bantown troll) concerning the whole #amazonfail mess - to wit: that Amazon has been the butt of a subtle and unpleasant trolling.

As a basic summation for anyone who hasn't been following the shitstorm that blew up over on Twitter over the holiday weekend, Amazon suddenly started to blacklist any books with LGBT content from appearing in best-seller lists or search results - in fact, anything that had been tagged as "adult". Complaints received a stock response from Amazon:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

tehdely has theorised that Amazon must have some kind of automatic procedure in place that flags an item as "adult" only after receiving a certain number of complaints about it - you can still find sex toys in search listings, for instance, but of one particular book by Stephen Fry you'll only get the hardback version - because unlike the paperback version, it hasn't been tagged as "gay". So someone - or a group of someones - has been going through tags and using Amazon's own procedures against it, on a major holiday when the customer service department will be operating a skeletal staff (hence the stock response to all the complaints received thanks to #amazonfail). So you end up with a lot of annoyed authors and a very angrily vocal LGBT crowd Tweeting and blogging about it, resulting in a massive PR embarassment for Amazon.

Obviously this has highlighted a definite procedural fail in Amazon's systems - they should not have been so easy to game, after all. But it does beg the question of just who it was who gamed the tagging system? Presumably we are meant to leap to the conclusion that it was religious fundamentalists, particularly as the top results now on a search on "homosexuality" are all Christian books on how to give up being gay. I suspect however that the real culprits are anonymous internet trolls, who no doubt are sitting back and laughing as once again, religious fundametalists and the LGBT movement are at each other's throats with Amazon unwittingly caught up in the middle, "all for teh LULZ!!"

Oh, looky-looky; hatemongerers Westboro Baptist Church have decided to target one of our local neighbourhoods! A primary school, to be precise - despite Fred Phelps and his odious offspring being denied entrance to the UK to protest a staging of "The Laramie Project" in Basingstoke, they seem to be undeterred and have now targeted George Tomlinson Primary School in Leytonstone for promoting tolerance towards homosexuality. According to their official press release (pdf), they plan to picket the school from 2pm-3pm on Friday 27th March.

Phelps and his daughter are still banned from the UK, to the best of my knowledge, so somehow I doubt their planned demo is likely to get very far; the Basingstoke demo attracted one lone demonstrator who was heckled and booed by counter-protesters until he slunk off with his tail between his legs. It's doubtful whether this latest planned demo will be any better, but I shall be keeping my eye on developments and may well take a wander over to Leytonstone next Friday in time for 2pm.

Anyone who would like to join me would be more than welcome. ;-)

This is an excellent explanation of why the whole London Underground network goes down on days like today, written by a Bakerloo driver.

Buses:
At present there are no buses operating an and around London at all; the bus service across the capitol has been cancelled completely by TfL due to adverse and dangerous driving conditions.

Trams: There are no tram services in operation today.

Tube services:
BAKERLOO LINE: Suspended between Queens Park and Harrow and Wealdstone with severe delays on the rest of the line due to adverse weather conditions.
CENTRAL LINE: Severe delays are occurring due to adverse weather conditions.
CIRCLE LINE: Suspended.
DISTRICT LINE: Suspended between Edgware Road and Wimbledon, Earls Court and Kensington Olympia, Earls Court and Richmond, Earls Court and Ealing Broadway due to adverse weather conditions. Minor delays are occurring on the remaining operational line due to the adverse weather conditions.
HAMMERSMITH & CITY LINE: Suspended.
JUBILEE LINE: Suspended between Waterloo and Stanmore with severe delays on the rest of the line due to adverse weather conditions.
METROPOLITAN LINE: Suspended between Harrow on the Hill and Amersham/Chesham due to adverse weather conditions. Minor delays to rest of line.
NORTHERN LINE: Suspended between Finchley Central and High Barnet due to adverse weather conditions.
PICCADILLY LINE: Suspended between Acton Town and Rayners Lane with minor delays on the rest of the line due to adverse weather conditions.
VICTORIA LINE: Good service operating normally.
WATERLOO & CITY: Suspended.

Train services:
All services are currently suspended until further notice on Southeastern Trains and there is no service on Gatwick Express. Southern and First Great Western are running reduced services.

Note that tube services are likely to deteriorate as the day progresses due to drivers and station staff failing to make it in for their shifts later in the day.

Have a look in your purse or wallet. Got a few 20p pieces in there?

Take a closer look. Find any that don't have a date on them? Then you're very lucky - because that 20p piece is worth a small fortune.

It appears that in 2008, the Royal Mint mistakenly issued a number of 20p pieces without the date on. They rectified the mistake, but not before a few of the dateless 20p pieces had already entered circulation. They are perfectly legal tender, but they are worth far more than 20p to collectors, who are paying silly prices for them on eBay.

So check your purses, wallets and piggybanks - you could be one of the very lucky ones! I've checked my own purse but no luck - I'll be checking my change in the shops later very carefully though!

(Many thanks to my sister lyssa_moonshade for the heads-up!)

For some unknown reason, the BBC is refusing to broadcast The DEC Appeal For Gaza. So it falls to the blogosphere to get the news out. Please consider donating to the cause, and pass on the URL to others.

[Follow-up] The BBC has explained its decision here, mentioning that it has been a UK-wide media blackout and that it "wanted to avoid compromising public confidence in its impartiality". Given that the BBC were not exactly impartial over the Darfur appeal, it makes you wonder just whom they're trying to appear impartial to? Certainly not the UK....