WSFII - World Summit on Free Information Infrastructures - London 2005
“bringing together people from all over working on projects such as free wireless networking, free of copyright mapping and open hardware. It is also part of a larger season of events based around alternative approaches to knowledge production and access and timed to coincide with the UK’s hosting of a pan-European Creative Economy conference”
interesting programme - check it out here -
where is it - Limehouse Town Hall
Yes creative hubs are the new big thing. why is this happening all of a sudden you may ask.
Launched in 2004 by the London Development Agency (LDA) [ which is mayor ken's economic development agency]- “Creative London exists to promote and grow the amazing diversity, depth, quality and energy of the creative industries in London”.
One of their aims is to - “Build the infrastructure and support needed to help the sector grow at grass roots levels”
now part of this new ten year plan is the establishment of ten “Creative Hubs” - centres to be set up across London providing flexible workspace, training, mentoring, exhibition, showcasing, marketing and networking facilities.
They’ve planned hubs so far across East London, Deptford/Greenwich, Islington/Hackney/Tower Hamlets, Haringey/Wood Green, Camden/Kings Cross, Notting Hill/North Kensington, Ealing/Acton/White City, Brixton/Elephant and Castle, Croydon and the Lower Lea Valley.
Creative London also has the backing of the CBI, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and several high profile industry figures including Terence Conran, John Sorrell, the London Design Festival Chairman and Christopher Frayling, the Arts Council Chairman.
There’s also ” £50million of seed capital to help new businesses establish themselves” and for these Hubs. I guess the question for us lot is to figure out how to tap into this - either through money ( which is unlikely- no doubt its earmarked for ‘their hubs’) or just through the wider recognition this stuff generates. which is always useful.
the city fringe partnership has been commissioned to do some research on the creative hub concept for the city fringe area. for those of you who may be interested you can read the consultants report here.
Creative Spaces Project - what’s this? –apparently this is a three-year joint initiative between London and Toronto to:
(i). identify international best practice in establishing creative spaces and stimulating the creative industries; (ii). improve the delivery of creative industries’ strategies; and (iii). maximise the role of the sector in the competitiveness of both cities.
well it all sounds interesting - we’ll have to keep our eyes open.
dear me. well perhaps the rest of us ought to have t-shirts that say “proud we”re not part of a nation addicted to murder”. ( referring to a t-shirt ad displayed on the LGF blog) i daresay if they can say silly stereotyped predujiced- everyone in a group is monolithic- hence group-focused and no focus on individuality- type things.. ( so much for land of the free - ha ha) well maybe someone might say something about them. since they”ve deemed that”s what they think nations and patriotism and group-ism and all that stuff entails - they can”t complain now can they.
what a shame i dont like to sink so low. it could be so much fun - and so ssssatisfying
but if i were to, it seems to me if a bunch of martians came down, or plutonians - or whoever- they might think that the species homo sapiens is addicted to murder. goodness, you only have to pick up a military history book up or sth - or a history book period - to figure this one out. and how anyone who belongs to a nation which prides itself on being a military superpower can go about calling others murderers with a straight face is downright amusing.
ha ha.
the most ironic thing i think is - given all this brouhaha started ( e.g. on the LGF blog ) post 9-11 - well actually its quite easy for empathetic types like myself to see how people can feel that frustration and take it out that way. ( despite the obvious stupidity inherent in these things) well surely what the LGF” ers ought then be able to understand is how violence distorts the rationality of people”s minds. whether they be some blogger out in the US or some psycho out there in the middle east or wherever the hell. ( now usually this sort of logical pointing out results in sneeers of “apologising for murderers”) . Sorry guys, im just an interested observer in human psychology and sociology and social causation.
( the t-shirts are : infidel tees - conservative tees for the Not So Conservative. with a bloody flag on it - choice between an american flag or a british flag. the company line runs sth like this - Why should liberals have all the fun at the expense of good conservatives? We have a great sense of humor that comes from the lighter places in the heart)
jesus..i can”t believe the state of mindless blind nationalisms about today. its so sickening it makes me want to throw up. people are so ready to go to war its disgusting and shocking not least because when they are the precious fuckers who get injured ( well usually the bods inciting war take very good care not to be anywhere near the front line) they make such a bloody big hypocritical fuss. why is this not obvious to everyone????
im going to see the british museum exhibition “Forgotten Empire: the world of Ancient Persia” - should be fascinating. its all about the Achaemenid Great Kings from 550–330 BC, and they’ve got loans from the National Museum of Iran, the Persepolis Museum and the Louvre. unfortunately i managed to miss what i’m sure must have been a wonderful documentary depicting a CGI recreation of the palace at Persepolis - last friday evening. ( see now that’s what a great friday is all about..)
ah well. however there are a lot of other yummy things on offer - including the Iran Lecture Series : one that interests me in particular is ‘the art of Achaemenid Persia’ on the 6th october, also the ‘ Sasanian Heritage‘ on the 1st Dec.
insolent: audacious, unrestrained by convention or propriety.
now im interested in writings/thought that display this quality. i must say i myself have been referred to in the past as insolent ; why i’ve been kicked off sites for allegedly ‘demonstrating insolence’ -now i considered this a compliment; and it suits my purpose - as i find it exposes fascist tendencies in people.
always good to watch out for the fascistas amongst us.
a quote from michel houellebecq:
“It is in our relations with other people that we gain a sense of ourselves; it’s that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable.â€Â
this situation in iraq is getting more and more ridiculous by the minute. back in 2003 when they said - oh no we’ll invade and it will be quick- if anyone said that it was nonsense and patently untrue,( which loads of people did!) they were simply regarded as a bunch of silly lefties, not as people talking good hard sense. actually i do know lots of people who were anti-war not necessarily cos they have first-hand experience of the chaos of war, but had the requisite imagination. Now I personally do have this experience and I could and did point out that once you’ve entered into a violent situation its a muddy business to say the least and pretty damn difficult to get out of. ( and not even considering the long-term consequences - we can talk about that some other time)
Anyway, everyone said so. But now look - the situation’s gone from worse to even more worse and no-one can see an end in sight. sound familiar?
and why is there no end in sight? well to start off with, it was pretty pathetic - “we will weed out ‘insurgents’ “. excuse me - but how the fuck where the army/occupying authority ( british or american or whoever else) going to know who was an insurgent and who wasn’t? given the fact that they’ve already had to admit their lack of cultural sophistication and that their “intelligence was pretty thin on the ground”. certainly not unless they’d made a darned good effort; and its not like a bunch of soldiers are the clearest thinkers in the world. ( sorry - but you know its true - cos if you were - you’d never have joined an army - duh! ha ha)
and now after the latest incident with having to blast 2 soldiers out of a prison in Basra- its suddenly “oh we’re going to have to stick around just a bit longer to weed out the dodgy types in the police”.. Again - how are they going to know who’s who??
there really seems no end in sight if they are going to insist on keeping this sort of thing up. “Iraq for the Iraqis” they said, but its such a funny statement - really its ” Iraq for the Iraqis we haven’t weeded out and killed” . which by this stage isnt looking like too many people will be left to enjoy this “democratic state” .. that they’ve worked so lovingly to build..
so there appears to have been a nursery rhyme competition - run by the kids channel Nickelodeon Junior- and guess who’s the star ( or villain!) of the winning entry -
don’t hold your breath: this is how the rhyme goes:
Baker Tony’s Pizza
Baker Tony baked a pizza
very round and thin
He said he added olives
but he never put them in
The stuff that he had grated
and sprinkled on to please
was only yellow sawdust
although he called it cheese
The rich tomato topping
was nothing more than dye
so Baker Tony’s pizza
made all the children cry
By Angela Martin
ooh id like to see him try and escape posterity with this one- aint gonna happen now..
—–
{ i did think the runner-up was quite catchy as well: check this one out:} /
Computer Virus - by Miriam Collins
“My computer caught a virus
So I tucked it up in bed
and I gave it lots of medicine
but now my PC’s dead!”
well that didn’t take very long did it? they had to put it back in - starting this monday:
- amusing extract:
“Within a few hours of the launch of the new Berliner Guardian on Monday, every email queue and phone line into the Guardian was buzzing with indignation. Charlie Ping, the Guardian’s customer relations manager, reported that said relations were distinctly strained. Most people loved the new Guardian but … Doonesbury! Where the hell was it? By the end of Monday the call centre fielding feedback had received 500 calls or emails about the strip. Back in Farringdon Road the letters queue was filling up: of the 300 mails received, around half wanted to know where Doonesbury was. “Major redesign of the Guardian?” wrote Si Butler, “Yeah, OK, whatever. But where’s Garry Trudeau?”
the Guardian is out in the berliner format now, like Le Monde. for those in the world who arent up in newspaper sizes ( my gawd..) take a look at this wonderful wikipedia article. * yes perhaps i should rename this blog to something like Useless Trivia *
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