[1] It’s no secret that Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is one profane work of art, but have you ever wondered exactly how profane? YouTube user TheCussingChannel has, and they’ve put together a supercut of every curse word in the film — and nothing else. You’ll find no lingering over elegant lines of dialogue or gorgeous camerawork here, but you will hear just about every bad word you can think… Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : /Film Discovery Date : 14/06/2011 20:33 Number of articles : 5
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Controversial leader to meet President Hu Jintao despite being subject of war crimes warrants The Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, will visit China this month despite facing two international arrest warrants for war crimes. A foreign ministry spokesman said the allies would discuss Darfur, next month’s secession of south Sudan, and an expansion in co-operation. The announcement comes a week after the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, told the UN security council that genocide and crimes against humanity continued unabated in Darfur because Bashir had learned to defy the council’s authority . Moreno Ocampo said the crimes included air attacks on civilians and the direct killing of members of the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Bashir denies all the allegations and does not recognise the ICC’s authority. China is a permanent member of the security council, which urged its members to support the findings of the ICC when it referred Sudan to the court. However, China is not obliged to execute the ICC warrants because it has never signed up to the body. China has previously warned that the charges against Bashir could lead to greater instability in the region. Bashir visited Chad and Kenya last year without being arrested even though both countries recognise the ICC. The African Union had urged its members not to execute the warrants. Bashir will meet President Hu Jintao of China and other senior leaders during his 27-30 June visit. Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: “The two countries, accepting the new situation, will discuss how to advance and consolidate our traditional friendship, expand and deepen comprehensive co-operation and exchange views on the north-south peace process and Darfur issue. “Bilateral trade is rising. Sudan has already become China’s third-largest trade partner in Africa with co-operation in each sphere consistently developing.” Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said: “The Chinese government loves to claim it is a friend of the African people. If that is the case they have no business welcoming someone who has done tremendous harm to precisely those people. “The fact that at a time when some of the atrocities in Sudan were at their peak, it was not only the principal supplier of arms but the principal purchaser of Sudanese oil means it has questions to answer about its own complicity. It ought to be more concerned about pressing for justice than helping Bashir evade precisely that.” After coming under sustained pressure in the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, China sent peacekeepers to Darfur and appointed a special representative to the region. The Khartoum government will lose about a third of the country’s territory and up to three quarters of its oil reserves when the south secedes on 9 July. A UN humanitarian report said on Thursday that fighting between the northern Sudanese army and armed groups aligned with south Sudan had led to dozens of deaths and opened up a new front. China has called for a peaceful resolution to the clashes along the internal border. In April Bashir told the Guardian that he accepted full personal responsibility for the conflict in Darfur but accused the ICC of “double standards” and conducting “a campaign of lies” . He said Britain and other western countries were pursuing a politically motivated vendetta against him with the aim of forcing regime change in Sudan. Sudan Africa China Omar al-Bashir Human rights International criminal court Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Controversial leader to meet President Hu Jintao despite being subject of war crimes warrants The Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, will visit China this month despite facing two international arrest warrants for war crimes. A foreign ministry spokesman said the allies would discuss Darfur, next month’s secession of south Sudan, and an expansion in co-operation. The announcement comes a week after the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, told the UN security council that genocide and crimes against humanity continued unabated in Darfur because Bashir had learned to defy the council’s authority . Moreno Ocampo said the crimes included air attacks on civilians and the direct killing of members of the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Bashir denies all the allegations and does not recognise the ICC’s authority. China is a permanent member of the security council, which urged its members to support the findings of the ICC when it referred Sudan to the court. However, China is not obliged to execute the ICC warrants because it has never signed up to the body. China has previously warned that the charges against Bashir could lead to greater instability in the region. Bashir visited Chad and Kenya last year without being arrested even though both countries recognise the ICC. The African Union had urged its members not to execute the warrants. Bashir will meet President Hu Jintao of China and other senior leaders during his 27-30 June visit. Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: “The two countries, accepting the new situation, will discuss how to advance and consolidate our traditional friendship, expand and deepen comprehensive co-operation and exchange views on the north-south peace process and Darfur issue. “Bilateral trade is rising. Sudan has already become China’s third-largest trade partner in Africa with co-operation in each sphere consistently developing.” Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch, said: “The Chinese government loves to claim it is a friend of the African people. If that is the case they have no business welcoming someone who has done tremendous harm to precisely those people. “The fact that at a time when some of the atrocities in Sudan were at their peak, it was not only the principal supplier of arms but the principal purchaser of Sudanese oil means it has questions to answer about its own complicity. It ought to be more concerned about pressing for justice than helping Bashir evade precisely that.” After coming under sustained pressure in the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, China sent peacekeepers to Darfur and appointed a special representative to the region. The Khartoum government will lose about a third of the country’s territory and up to three quarters of its oil reserves when the south secedes on 9 July. A UN humanitarian report said on Thursday that fighting between the northern Sudanese army and armed groups aligned with south Sudan had led to dozens of deaths and opened up a new front. China has called for a peaceful resolution to the clashes along the internal border. In April Bashir told the Guardian that he accepted full personal responsibility for the conflict in Darfur but accused the ICC of “double standards” and conducting “a campaign of lies” . He said Britain and other western countries were pursuing a politically motivated vendetta against him with the aim of forcing regime change in Sudan. Sudan Africa China Omar al-Bashir Human rights International criminal court Tania Branigan guardian.co.uk
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Alicia Keys is joined by celebrity guests including Mark Ronson, Beth Ditto, Tinie Tempah and Paloma Faith at the Keep a Child Alive Black Ball in London. (June 16)
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Alicia Keys is joined by celebrity guests including Mark Ronson, Beth Ditto, Tinie Tempah and Paloma Faith at the Keep a Child Alive Black Ball in London. (June 16)
Continue reading …Former CIA Admits They Sought Information To Discredit Juan Cole For Bashing Bush
June 16, 2011 No CommentFrom March 2009, Laura Flanders interviews Juan Cole, who is about as supportive of Pres. Obama’s foreign policy as he was of Pres. Bush. Hope the CIA is not still on the case. Some times it’s not paranoia… they are genuinely after you : C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him. Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war. In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful. I don’t think this surprises anyone if they remember a systematic campaign of attack the Bush administration applied to anyone who criticized them: Joe Wilson, Scott Ritter, Don Siegelman, the list is long and distinguished. Though to use the CIA in this kind of personal, petty vendetta is a new twist and shows that there is no law, no ethic, no constitutional limitation of power they weren’t willing to violate to pursue their agenda.
Continue reading …Former CIA Admits They Sought Information To Discredit Juan Cole For Bashing Bush
June 16, 2011 No CommentFrom March 2009, Laura Flanders interviews Juan Cole, who is about as supportive of Pres. Obama’s foreign policy as he was of Pres. Bush. Hope the CIA is not still on the case. Some times it’s not paranoia… they are genuinely after you : C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him. Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war. In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful. I don’t think this surprises anyone if they remember a systematic campaign of attack the Bush administration applied to anyone who criticized them: Joe Wilson, Scott Ritter, Don Siegelman, the list is long and distinguished. Though to use the CIA in this kind of personal, petty vendetta is a new twist and shows that there is no law, no ethic, no constitutional limitation of power they weren’t willing to violate to pursue their agenda.
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When oil tycoon J. Paul Getty died in 1976, he left his boutique Malibu museum nearly his entire $700 million dollar personal fortune–transforming it overnight into the world’s wealthiest art institution. Over the next two decades, the Getty used that fortune to build a world-class collection of ancient art by buying aggressively from an art market awash in recently looted objects. Those acquisitions sowed the seeds for an international scandal that, like sexual abuse in the Catholic Church or steroid use in Major League Baseball, forever changed the way we think about a cherished institution. In the end, American museums were forced to return looted antiquities worth more than half a billion dollars. No museum paid a higher price than the Getty, which gave up 40 of its most prized pieces of ancient art — including its iconic cult statue of Aphrodite. “The international scandal followed our series of investigative exposes in the Los Angeles Times. Now we’ve uncovered its roots in our new book, “Chasing Aphrodite: The Hunt for Looted Antiquities at the World’s Richest Museum.”
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When you enter an Apple Store, you probably don’t realize just how meticulously engineered your entire experience is, from walk-in, to check-out. A new report from The Wall Street Journal reveals just how much planning goes into shaping your time in the store, from what employees are and aren’t allowed to say, to the kind of cable used to keep the laptops locked to the tables. Some of the more surprising details: — Apple’s sales per square foot are now $4,406 — higher than luxury jewelry retailer Tiffany’s and Co. — More people visit Apple Stores in a quarter than visit the four biggest Disney theme parks. — In-store technicians are asked to deal with emotional customers by using “simple reassurances” that they are listening, like, “Uh-huh” and “I understand.” — Employees at the Genius Bar are asked to say “as it turns out” instead of “unfortunately,” for a more positive spin on their bad news. — Genius appointments are routinely triple booked, so that they are extremely busy much of the time. — Employees are forbidden from correcting customer mispronunciations, because it would make them feel “patronized.” — Apple’s retail philosophy is described by the acronym A.P.P.L.E. — “Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome,” “Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs,” “Present a solution for the customer to take home today,” “Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns,” and “End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.” — Employees who are six minutes late three times in six months may be fired. — So many people on Apple’s first retail team came from Gap that people joked that they were working at “Gapple.” — While Geniuses make up to $30 an hour, other employees make $9 to $15 an hour, and few employees move up into corporate positions. — New employees are made to shadow more experienced co-workers and are forbidden to talk to customers until they’re ready–which takes a few weeks, or more. — Steve Jobs is deeply invested in the details of the store, down to the kind of security cables holding devices down.
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