Florida confirms cyber attack on voting systems - IT News from V3.co.uk
▻http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2255621/florida-confirms-cyber-attack-on-voting-systems
The attack, which was spotted and thwarted by security protections in the system, rapidly applied for some 2,500 absentee ballots. Administrators only caught the attack when the registration system reported an anomaly in the traffic patterns.
Enorme...
« Pope Candidate Axed Over Trashy Facebook Photos » (The New Yorker)
▻http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/03/pope-candidate-axed-over-trashy-facebook-photos.html
VATICAN CITY (The Borowitz Report)—The brave new world of social media torpedoed the chances of a leading papal candidate today, as a Dutch cardinal struggled to explain newly surfaced Facebook photos showing him on a 2007 spring-break romp in Tampa.
Cardinal Bonifacius Steuer had been on the shortlist to replace Benedict XVI as Pope, but his fellow cardinals abandoned him after the startling emergence of the photos, which chronicle Steuer on a seventy-two-hour nonstop-party rampage in Florida.
In the Facebook photo album, which Cardinal Steuer labeled “Tampa Phun,” the Dutchman appears at a dizzying array of frat parties and strip clubs, throwing gang signs at the camera and steadily drinking from two Old Milwaukees mounted on a beer hat.
#humour #christianisme #Vatican #papapile #spring-break #facebook
Tu as vu le billet précédent du même auteur ?
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/120945
Sinkhole that engulfed Florida is filled up, more are sure to follow
▻http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/05/sinkhole-florida-law/1965743
experts say they expect to see more sinkhole sightings throughout the state in the coming years.
Urban sprawl, well-water drilling and fluctuating weather patterns all lead to sinkhole collapses and could bring more of the phenomenon to populated areas, said Jonathan Arthur, Florida’s state geologist.
#urbanisation #eau #géologie, mais est-ce lié au #fracking ?
Reviens Philou, on a les mêmes à la maison !
Estrées 23/12/2012
▻http://picardie.france3.fr/2012/12/23/la-pluie-diluvienne-d-hier-samedi-22-decembre-provoque-un-effondrem
(avec reportage France 3 inside)
Place de l’Alma, 8/11/1915
(et un petit Gogol Images sur « fontis » (je sais, un fontis, il y a une carrière en dessous…))
Et pour faire écho à la première réplique du reportage (pas bien mise en valeur) et aux travaux du métro
Vous êtes venue admirer mon trou ?
on ressort un vieux classique de Dranem (1906)
►http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWcTygNI-YE
Le recensement du BRGM
▻http://www.bdmvt.net
▻http://www.bdmvt.net/images/mvt_2012.gif
Ceci dit, c’est plutôt calme en ce moment : la dernière mise à jour est de juin 2012, il y a 8 mois…
Gouffre… budgétaire ?
U.S. Republican, Democrat introduce bill to make Israel ’major strategic ally’
Daily Newspaper
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-republican-democrat-introduce-bill-to-make-israel-major-strategic-ally.
A Republican and a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation that would make Israel a “major strategic ally,” a one-of-a-kind designation.
The bill, introduced Monday by U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, and Ted Deutch, a Democratic from Florida, is timed for the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, and 13,000 activists are expected to lobby for it and for Iran-related bills on Tuesday.
The “major strategic ally” bill codifies a number of existing facets of the relationship, including annual defense assistance and cooperation on missile defense, energy research and cyber security.
It also calls for Israel to join the program that waives pre-arranged visas for select nationals entering the United States.
The Iran-related bills AIPAC activists will champion would tighten sanctions aimed at forcing that country to suspend its suspected nuclear weapons program and would call for the president to support Israel should it feel “compelled” to strike Iran. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful.
• Mike Brodie’s New Photo Book Documents Raw Moments Between His Freighthopping Friends
▻http://www.featureshoot.com/2013/02/mike-brodies-new-photo-book-documents-raw-moments-between-his-freighth
I first came across Mike Brodie’s photographs many years ago hanging somewhat precariously on the wall of Sluggo’s, a vegan/punk rock bar in my hometown of Pensacola, Florida. The images stuck in my mind and many times over the next couple of years I would search for them, to no avail.
Obama Golfed With Oil Men As Climate Protesters Descended On White House
▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/20/obama-climate-protest_n_2719338.html
WASHINGTON — On the same weekend that 40,000 people gathered on the Mall in Washington to protest construction of the Keystone Pipeline — to its critics, a monument to carbon-based folly — President Obama was golfing in Florida with a pair of Texans who are key oil, gas and pipeline players.
Obama has not shied away from supporting domestic drilling, especially for relatively clean natural gas, but in his most recent State of the Union speech he stressed the urgency of addressing climate change by weaning the country and the world from dependence on carbon-based fuels.
“We can choose to believe that Superstorm Sandy and the most severe drought in decades and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence,” Obama said in the speech, last week. “Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science — and act before it’s too late.”
But on his first “guys weekend" away since he was reelected, the president chose to spend his free time with Jim Crane and Milton Carroll, leading figures in the Texas oil and gas industry, along with other men who run companies that deal in the same kinds of carbon-based services that Keystone would enlarge.
Florida reform school abuse scandal widens with discovery of more graves
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/11/florida-reform-school-abuse-graves
It means the enormity of the outrage, in which survivors have told gruesome stories of regular beatings, rapes and even murders by staff members, is much greater than reported by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2010, when the agency announced the presence of 31 grave sites.
MasterAdrian’s Weblog
►http://masteradrian.com
Why Americans Should Never Be Allowed To Travel :-) e
The following are actual stories provided by travel agents:
I had someone ask for an aisle seats so that his or her hair wouldn’t get messed up by being near the window.
A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, “Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?”
I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with “I’m not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts. “Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, “Capecod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa.” Her response … click.
A man called, furious about a Florida package we did. I asked what was wrong with the vacation in Orlando. He said he was expecting an ocean-view room. I tried to explain that is not possible, since Orlando is in the middle of the state. He replied, “Don’t lie to me. I looked on the map and Florida is a very thin state.”
I got a call from a man who asked, “Is it possible to see England from Canada?” I said, “No.” He said “But they look so close on the map.”
Another man called and asked if he could rent a car in Dallas. When I pulled up the reservation, I noticed he had a 1-hour lay over in Dallas. When I asked him why he wanted to rent a car, he said, “I heard Dallas was a big airport, and I need a car to drive between the gates to save time.”
A nice lady just called. She needed to know how it was possible that her flight from Detroit left at 8:20am and got into Chicago at 8:33am. I tried to explain that Michigan was an hour ahead of llinois, but she could not understand the concept of time zones. Finally I told her the plane went very fast, and she bought that!
A woman called and asked, “Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know who’s luggage belongs to who?” I said, “No, why do you ask?” She replied, “Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I’m overweight, is there any connection?” After putting her on hold for a minute while I “looked into it” (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.
I just got off the phone with a man who asked, “How do I know which plane to get on?” I asked him what exactly he meant, which he replied, “I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them.”
A woman called and said, “I need to fly to Pepsi-cola on one of those computer planes.” I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, “Yeah, whatever.”
A businessman called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. “Oh no I don’t, I’ve been to China many times and never had to have one of those.” I double checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, “Look, I’ve been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express.”
A woman called to make reservations, “I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York” The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent: “Are you sure that’s the name of the town?” “Yes, what flights do you have?” replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, “I’m sorry, ma’am, I’ve looked up every airport code in the country and can’t find a Hippopotamus anywhere.” The customer retorted, “Oh don’t be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!” The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, “You don’t mean Buffalo, do you?” “That’s it! I knew it was a big animal!”
Florida Election Officials Miss Tally Deadline in House Race
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 18, 2012
FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — Election officials missed a deadline on Sunday to report results of a two-day recount in Representative Allen B. West’s bid to remain in Congress, apparently sealing unofficial results giving the victory to his Democratic opponent, Patrick Murphy.
St. Lucie County did not meet a noon cutoff to finish processing 37,379 ballots that were cast early in the 18th Congressional District race, but it eventually released the results, which showed Mr. Murphy gaining votes in the recount. Regardless, under Florida law, previously submitted results favoring Mr. Murphy will be certified unless an emergency exemption is granted by the state.
“It puts an end to it as far as we’re concerned,” said Eric Johnson, an adviser to the Murphy campaign. “It puts an end to it as far as the state’s concerned.”
Mr. West’s campaign showed no immediate sign of conceding.
“At this time, in our view, the race is still undecided,” said the West campaign manager, Tim Edson.
Mr. West, a Republican, can still seek to formally contest the election, a difficult legal remedy. His aides gave no indication whether they would pursue such action. Dejected supporters of the congressman claimed that there was fraud, loudly chanting “Count our votes!” before election officials. Mr. Murphy’s supporters held signs reading “Respect the Results: Concede Now” and “Patrick Won!”
A recount of three days of early-voting ballots was conducted in St. Lucie County last week, narrowing Mr. Murphy’s margin a bit. The county’s canvassing board ultimately agreed to retabulate all eight days of ballots after discovering several errors and Mr. West’s supporters made a relentless push for a fuller recount. The campaign hoped Mr. Murphy’s margin of victory would decrease enough to force a machine recount of all ballots across the entire three-county district.
The race was the country’s most closely watched House races. The two sides raised nearly $21 million as of Oct. 17, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, and “super PACs” spent about $6.6 million more.
Mr. West, 51, is a first-term Tea Party favorite and one of two black Republicans in the House. He has made a string of headline-grabbing statements, from calling a majority of Congressional Democrats communists to saying President Obama, Representative Nancy Pelosi and others should “get the hell out of the United States.”
Mr. Murphy, 29, who has been proclaiming victory since the wee hours of election night, is a political newcomer who portrayed Mr. West as an extremist who has done little in Washington than stoke partisan fires.
A version of this article appeared in print on November 19, 2012, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Florida Election Officials Miss Tally Deadline in House Race.
Designer’s incredible concept car based on science fiction movies… and a Chevrolet « MasterAdrian’s Weblog
►http://masteradrian.com/2012/11/13/designers-incredible-concept-car-based-on-science-fiction-movies-and-a
Designer’s incredible concept car based on science fiction movies… and a Chevrolet
November 13, 2012
Prepare for hyper-drive! Designer’s incredible concept car based on science fiction movies… and a Chevrolet
Created by car designer Michael Vetter at The Car Factory in Florida
The concept car costs £75,000
It has a windscreen five-feet high and gullwing windows which open by remote control
By Alex Ward
PUBLISHED: 09:38 EST, 8 November 2012 | UPDATED: 14:33 EST, 8 November 2012
This incredible ‘Extra Terrestrial Vehicle’ is a sci-if fan’s ultimate toy but the concept car will set a buyer back £75,000, the same pricetag as a Porsche 911.This futuristic creation by car designer Michael Vetter, or Kit Car Mike as he is known, is based on a run-of-the-mill Chevrolet but is unlike any other car on the road.
Looking more like the car driven by Tom Cruise in Minority Report than anything seen in sci-if blockbuster E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, the supercharged engine is a concept car still sure to impress die-hard sci-if fans.
Sci-fan fantasy: The ’Extra Terrestrial Vehicle’ is a sci-fi fan’s ultimate toy but will cost £75,000Sci-fan fantasy: The ‘Extra Terrestrial Vehicle’ is a sci-if fan’s ultimate toy but will cost £75,000
Created by car designer Michael Vetter, or Kit Car Mike as he is known, is based on a run-of-the-mill ChevroletConcept car: Created by car designer Michael Vetter, or Kit Car Mike as he is known, is based on a run-of-the-mill Chevrolet
With a windscreen five feet high and gullwing windows which open by remote control, the futuristic car makes the famous De Lorean, from the Back To The Future films, look outdated.
Kit Car Mike, who runs The Car Factory in Florida, America, has made seven ETVs and one model is on display at the London Motor Museum in Middlesex.
Set to impress: The car has a windscreen five feet high and gullwing windows which open automatically by remote controlSet to impress: The car has a windscreen five feet high and gullwing windows which open automatically by remote control
Kit Car Mike said that he gets ’five times as many people photographing it than if I was in a supercar’Unlike anything on the road: Kit Car Mike said that he gets ‘five times as many people photographing it than if I was in a supercar’
He said: ‘This ETV is built for the person that has had every kind of car and is still looking for something different.
‘I have built more than 100 custom cars and this is the best of the best in terms of looks and reliability.
‘I was unprepared for the initial response I would get while driving it but I would say I get five times as many people photographing it than if I was in a supercar.
Only seven ETVs have been made and one is one display at the London Motor Museum in MiddlesexRare: Only seven ETVs have been made and one is one display at the London Motor Museum in Middlesex
The car is powered by a two litre supercharged engine which sends 270bhp to the front wheels through a five-speed gearboxSupercharged sci-if: The car is powered by a two litre supercharged engine which sends 270bhp to the front wheels through a five-speed gearbox
‘If you think a Bugatti Veyron gets a lot of attention, be prepared for something of a different flavour as this brings in so much positive energy.’
The Car Factory website says of ETVs: ‘ We offer to build any style of futuristic or concept car in a high quality manner where you will be able to drive the car every day if you like.’
It is powered by a two litre supercharged engine which sends 270bhp to the front wheels through a five-speed gearbox.
There are also two cameras inside making it easier to park this awkwardly-shaped car.
Cruise’s car: The ETV looks similar to the car Tom Cruise drove in Minority Report, a concept car by LexusCruise’s car: The ETV looks similar to the car Tom Cruise drove in Minority Report, a concept car by Lexus
Old school sci-fi: The ETV makes favourite sci-fi car the De Lorean, from the Back To The Future films, look a little outdatedOld school sci-if: The ETV makes favourite sci-if car the De Lorean, from the Back To The Future films, look a little outdated
This Weekend In Gay History FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2 « MasterAdrian’s Weblog
►http://masteradrian.com/2012/11/02/this-weekend-in-gay-history-friday-november-2
This Weekend In Gay History
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2012
1868 - WASSILY SAPELLNIKOFF, Russian pianist, born (d: 1941); Sapelnikov, who became one of the foremost Russian pianists of his day, knew a good thing when he saw it. His teacher was the renowned composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, twenty-eight years his senior, who was known to enjoy performing duets with his students. Natural talent notwithstanding, young Sapelnikov made his way to the composer’s bed and to instant patronage.
1906 – on this date LUCHINO VISCONTI, the Italian director and Duke of Modrone was born (d. 1976). The Italian theater and cinema director and writer was best known for films such as The Leopard (1963). It was not until his 1969 film, The Damned, that Visconti received a nomination for an Academy Award, for “Best Screenplay”. He did not win. The film, one of Visconti’s best-known works, is about a German industrialist family that slowly begins to disintegrate during World War II. The decadence and lavish beauty were archetypes of Visconti’s aesthetic. Visconti’s final film wasThe Innocent (1976), which has the recurring theme of infidelity and betrayal.
Visconti made no secret of his sexuality. His last partner was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in The Damned. Berger also appeared in Visconti’s Ludwig in 1972 andConversation Piece in 1974 along with Burt Lancaster. Other lovers included Franco Zeffirelli.
1916 – on this date JOHN LYON BURNSIDE, inventor and Gay American activist was born (d: 2008). John, or as he was known in Faerie circles “n’John” for his longterm relationship with Harry Hay – as in “Harry n’John”, was the inventor of the Teleidoscope and the Symmetricon, and was the partner of Mattachine and Radical Faerie founder, Harry Hay for 39 years.
Burnside was sent to an orphanage while still a child because he was caught in sexual play with another little boy. He served briefly in the Navy, and settled in Los Angeles in the 1940s. He married, but had no children. Burnside met Harry in 1962 at ONE Incorporated. They fell in love and became life partners. They formed a group in the early 1960s called the Circle of Loving Companions that promoted Gay rights and Gay love. In 1966 they were major planners of one of the first Gay parades, a protest against exclusion of Gays in the military, held in Los Angeles. In 1967, they appeared as a couple on the Joe Pyne television show. In the late 1970s, they were instrumental in founding the Radical Faeries.
John died of brain cancer in San Francisco, where he had been tended to by members of the Circle of Loving Companions that had taken care of Harry in his final days.
1942 – on this date CASEY DONOVAN, the American Gay porno star, was born John Calvin Culver (d: 1987). In 1971, Cal played a supporting role in a low budget sexploitation thriller film, Ginger. This in turn led to an offer to appear in Casey, a Gay porn film in which Cal played the title role, a Gay man who is visited by his fairy godmother Wanda (Cal playing a dual role in drag), and is granted a series of wishes which make him sexually irresistible to other men. Cal later took the character’s name, Casey, and that of the popular singer (Donovan) to create the pseudonym under which he would appear in all his other erotic roles.
Cal first appeared as Casey Donovan in Boys in the Sand, directed by Wakefield Poole, in 1972. The film was an instant success, with even big name mainstream celebrities going to the premiere. Today the film is considered one of the great classics of male erotic cinema, although stricter obscenity guidelines in some states forced a change of the title to Men in the Sand. He was also the star of Score (1972), The Back Row, with George Payne, LA Tool & Die, with Bob Blount and Richard Locke, The Other Side of Aspen, with Al Parker and Dick Fisk, Boys in the Sand II, and Inevitable Love, with Jon King and Jamie Wingo. He also featured in a number of heterosexual porn films, notably The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1975).
Outside his adult film career, Casey Donovan had a successful off-Broadway run in the play Tubstrip, written and directed by director Jerry Douglas. He had an intimate relationship with actor/writer Tom Tryon. He also tried, unsuccessfully, to run a bed and breakfast, Casa Donovan, in Key West. By 1985, Casey had contracted HIV. He worked with many HIV/AIDS charities and counseled his fans to practice safe sex and get tested for HIV. He performed in a safe sex film for the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, although he himself lived in denial that he had the syndrome, even as his health got worse. Donovan died from an AIDS-related pulmonary infection in Inverness, Florida, aged 43.
1948 - today’s the birthday of fantastic Gay rights advocate and activist MANDY CARTER.
Worked with War Resister’s League, beginning c. 1969; North Carolina Lesbian and Gay Pride marches, served on planning committees, 1986-91; March on Washington for Lesbians and Gays, national steering committee, 1987, 1993; Rhythm Fest (musical festival for southern women), coproducer; North Carolina Senate Vote ’90 and North Carolina Mobilization ’96 (initiatives to defeat N.C. senator Jesse Helms), director; Our Own Place (a lesbian center), founding member; UMOJA (black gay and lesbian organization), founding member; Stonewall 25, executive committee; Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum, board of governors; Human Rights Campaign Fund, board of directors; member-at-large of the Democratic National Committee, serving on both the DNC Gay and Lesbian Caucus and DNC Black Caucus; member of the boards of the International Federation of Black Prides, the National Stonewall Democratic Federation, the Triangle Foundation, Equal Partners in Faith and Ladyslipper Music.
Her latest work is in spearheading a commemoration of this year’s birth centennial of Civil Rights hero Bayard Rustin.
1960 – on this date Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley’s Lovercase
1961 – K.D. LANG, Canadian musician, born; Lang won the Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her 1989 album, Absolute Torch and Twang. The single “Full Moon of Love” that stemmed from that album became a modest hit in the United States in the summer of 1989 and a number 1 hit on the RPM Country chart in Canada. Her cover of Cole Porter’s “So In Love” appears on the Red Hot + Blue compilation album and video from 1990, a benefit for AIDS research and relief.
The album Ingénue in 1992, a set of adult contemporary pop songs that showed comparatively little country influence, contained her most popular song, “Constant Craving”. That song brought her multi-million sales, much critical acclaim, and the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Another top ten single from the record was “Miss Chatelaine”. The salsa-inspired track was ironic; Chatelaine is a Canadian women’s magazine which once chose Lang as its “Woman of the Year”, and the song’s video depicted Lang in an exaggeratedly feminine manner, surrounded by bright pastel colours and a profusion of bubbles reminiscent of a performance on the Lawrence Welk show.
Lang contributed much of the music towards Gus Van Sant’s soundtrack of the film Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), and also did a cover of “Skylark” for the 1997 film adaptation of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She also performed “Surrender” for the closing titles of the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, having previously worked with Bond composer David Arnold on his album Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project.
In addition to her well-known musical talents, k.d. lang, who came out as a Lesbian in a 1992 article in The Advocate, has actively championed Gay rights causes. She has performed and supported many causes over the years, including HIV/AIDS care and research. In 1996, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. She performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” live at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Previously, she had performed at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Lang possesses the vocal range of a mezzo-soprano.
1975 - on this date PIER PAOLO PASOLINI, Italian film director, died (b. 1922); Pasolini distinguished himself as a philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure. He demonstrated a unique and extraordinary cultural versatility, in the process becoming a highly controversial figure. Though openly Gay from the very start of his career (thanks to a sex scandal that sent him packing from his provincial hometown to live and work in Rome), Pasolini rarely dealt with homosexuality in his movies. The subject is featured prominently in Teorema (1968), where Terence Stamp’s mysterious God-like visitor seduces the son of an upper-middle-class family; passingly in Arabian Nights (1974), in an idyll between a king and a commoner that ends in death; and, most darkly of all, in Salò (1975), his infamous rendition of the Marquis de Sade’s compendium of sexual horrors, The 120 Days of Sodom.
2006 - on this date former megachurch pastor, counselor to American Presidents (George W. Bush) and president of the National Association of Evangelicals TED “I Am Not a Homosexual” HAGGARD stepped down amid sex allegations.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2012
1500 - on this date the Italian goldsmith, sculptor, painter, soldier and musician BENVENUTO CELLINI was born (d. 1571). Cellini may be best remembered for his autobiography (translated by the Victorian Uranian scholar John Addington Symonds). Cellini was a superb goldsmith and sculptor, whose artistic creations, like his “Perseus Holding the Head of Medusa” brought him acclaim and the patronage of popes and cardinals. He worked for the Vatican Mint under Popes Leo X, Clement VII and Paul III. During Cellini’s long life, these friendships were of great value, protecting him in many misadventures with the law. Cellini was constantly hounded by authorities on complaints of sexual misconduct and stealing from his clients. Three times he was accused of murder, and in 1557 he received a four year prison sentence for sodomy, which was commuted to be served under house arrest, so the artist would be able to continue his work on a sculpture of the Crucifixion. A great saying of his is worth remembering and noting here: “Men who want to do things in their own way had better make a world in their own way, because in this world things are not done like this.”
1933 - On this date the English actor JEREMY BRETT was born (d. 1995). Although Brett appeared in many different roles during his 40-year career, he is now best remembered for his performance as Sherlock Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series of Granada Television films made between 1984 and 1994. These were adapted by John Hawkesworth and other writers from the original stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even though he reportedly feared being typecast, Brett appeared in 41 episodes of the Granada series, alongside David Burke and, latterly, Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. After taking on the demanding role, Brett made few other acting appearances, and he is now widely considered to be the definitive Holmes of his era, just as Basil Rathbone was during the 1940s.
Brett was briefly considered by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli for the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service after Sean Connery quit the series in 1967, but the role went to Australian George Lazenby instead. Lazenby lasted a whole film. So much for that selection. A second audition for the role of 007 for Live and Let Die was also unsuccessful, and Roger Moore won the coveted part. One can wonder what would’ve happened if…
Brett was intensely private about his personal life. In 1958 he married his first wife, the actress Anna Massey (daughter of Raymond Massey), but they divorced in 1962 after she claimed he left her for another man. Brett was then married to Joan Sullivan Wilson from 1976 until her death from cancer in 1985. Brett also enjoyed a close relationship with the actor Gary Bond [Bond died exactly one month after Brett’s death].
Brett died in 1995 at his home in Clapham, London, from heart failure. His heart valves had been scarred by rheumatic fever contracted as a child. Mel Gussow wrote in a New York Times obituary that “Mr. Brett was regarded as the quintessential Holmes: breathtakingly analytical, given to outrageous disguises and the blackest moods and relentless in his enthusiasm for solving the most intricate crimes.” One of Brett’s dearest possessions on the set was his 77-page “Baker Street File” on everything from Holmes’ mannerisms to his eating and drinking habits. Brett once explained that “some actors are becomers — they try to become their characters. When it works, the actor is like a sponge, squeezing himself dry to remove his own personality, then absorbing the character’s like a liquid.”
1939 - the four time Tony-winning playright TERRANCE McNALLY was born on this date. Born in St. Petersburg, Florida and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, McNally moved to New York City in 1956 to attend Columbia University. In his early years in New York, he was a protégé and lover of the noted playwright Edward Albee. He would become truly successful with works such as his off-Broadway play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.
His many brilliant plays include Lips Together, Teeth Apart, Kiss of the Spider Woman (based on the novel by Manuel Puig), Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class, and the controversial Corpus Christi. In March 2010, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC presented three of McNally’s plays that focus on his works involving opera. The pieces included a new play, Golden Age, Master Class(starring Tyne Daly), and The Lisbon Traviata starring Malcolm Gets and John Glover.
He has been a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild since 1970 and has served as vice-president since 1981. McNally was partnered to Thomas Kirdahy following a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2003, and they subsequently married in Washington, D.C. in 2010
2006 - on this date “Doogie Howser” and “How I Met Your Mother” star NEIL PATRICK HARRIS came out as a “content Gay man.” His career has simply soared!
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2012
1896 - the influential BBC arts editor J.R. ACKERLEY was born on this date. Openly Gay at a dangerous time for open homosexuality in Great Britain. Born in London, Ackerley was educated at Rossall School, a public and preparatory school in Fleetwood, Lancashire. While at this school he discovered he was attracted to other boys. His striking good looks earned him the nickname “Girlie” but he was not sexually active, or only very intermittently, as a schoolboy.
Failing his entrance examinations for Cambridge University, Ackerley applied for a commission in the Army, and as World War I was in full swing, he was accepted immediately as a Second Lieutenant and assigned to the 8th Battalion of the East Surrey Regiment, part of the 18th Division, then stationed in East Anglia. In June 1915 he was sent over to France. The following summer he was wounded at the Battle of the Somme on July 1, 1916. He was shot in the arm and an explosion caused shards of a whiskey bottle in his bag to be imbedded in his side. He lay wounded in a shell-hole for six hours but was eventually rescued by British troops and sent home for a period of sick-leave. He soon volunteered to go back to the front. He had been promoted to captain by now and so, in December 1916, when his older brother Peter arrived in France, Ackerley was his superior officer. Reportedly the cheerful and kind-hearted Peter was not resentful and saluted his brother “gladly and conscientiously.” In February, 1917, Peter was wounded in action on a dangerous assignment, heading into No man’s land from a dangerous ditch (where Ackerley said goodbye to him) ominously called the “Boom Ravine.” Though Peter managed to get back to the British lines, Ackerley never saw him again. In May 1917 Ackerley led an attack in the Arras region where he was again wounded, this time in the buttock and thigh. Again he was obliged to wait for help in a shell-hole, but this time the Germans arrived first and he was taken prisoner. Being an officer, his internment camp was located in neutral Switzerland and was rather comfortable. Here he began his play, The Prisoners of War, which deals with the cabin fever of captivity and the frustrated longings he experienced for another English prisoner. He was not repatriated to England until after the war ended.
On August 7, 1918, two months before the end of hostilities, Peter Ackerly was killed in battle. His brother’s death haunted Ackerley his entire life. Ackerley suffered from survivor’s guilt and thought his father might have preferred his death to his brother’s. One result of Peter’s death was that Roger and Netta got married in 1919, reportedly because Peter had died “a bastard.”
After the war Ackerley returned to England and attended Cambridge. Scant evidence remains from this time in his life as Ackerley wrote little about it. He moved to London and continued to write and enjoy the cosmopolitan delights of the capital. He met E. M. Forster and other literary bright lights, but was lonely despite a plethora of sexual partners. With his play having trouble finding a producer, and feeling generally adrift and distant from his family, Ackerley turned to Forster for guidance. Forster got him a position as secretary to a Maharaja he knew from writing A Passage to India. Ackerley spent about five months in India, still under British rule, and met a number of Anglo-Indians for whom he developed a strong distaste. The recollections of this time are the basis for his comic memoir Hindoo Holiday. The Maharaja was also a homosexual, and His Majesty’s obsessions and dalliances, along with Ackerley’s observations about Anglo-Indians, account for much of the humor of the work.
Back in England, Prisoners of War was finally produced to some acclaim. Its run began at The Three Hundred Club on July 5, 1925, then transferred to The Playhouse on August 31. Ackerley capitalized on his success, carousing with London’s theatrical crowd, and through Cambridge friends met the actor John Gielgud, and other rising stars of the stage. In 1928, Ackerley joined the staff of the BBC, then only a year old, in the “Talks” Department, where prominent personalities gave lectures over the radio. Eventually he moved on to edit the BBC’s magazine The Listener, where he worked from 1935 to 1959, discovering and promoting many young writers, including Philip Larkin, W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Christopher Isherwood.
Ackerley worked hard to plumb the depths of his sexuality in his writings. He was openly Gay, at least after his parents’ deaths, and belonged to a circle of notable literary homosexuals that railed against the homophobia that kept Gay men in the closet or exposed openly Gay men to persecution. While he never found the “Ideal Friend” he wrote of so often, he had a number of long-term relationships. Ackerley was a “twank,” a term used by sailors and guardsmen to describe a man who paid for their sexual services, and he describes in detail the ritual of picking up and entertaining a young guardsman, sailor or laborer. My Father and Myself serves as a guide to the understanding of the sexuality of a Gay man of Ackerley’s generation. W. H. Auden, in his review of My Father and Myself, speculates that Ackerley enjoyed the “brotherly” sexual act of mutual masturbation rather than penetration. (Ackerley described himself as “quite impenetrable.”)
His sister Nancy found him dead in his bed on the morning of June 4, 1967. Ackerley’s biographer Peter Parker gives the cause of death as coronary thrombosis.
Toward the end of his life, Ackerley sold 1075 letters that Forster had sent him since 1922, receiving some £6000, “a sum of money which will enable Nancy and me to drink ourselves carelessly into our graves,” as he put it. Ackerley did not live long enough to enjoy the money from these letters, but the sum, plus the royalties from Ackerley’s existing works and several published posthumously, allowed Nancy to live on in relative comfort until her death in 1979. The annual J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography was endowed by funds from Nancy, starting in 1982
Read him.
1918 – on this date the English poet and soldier WILFRED OWEN died (b. 1893). One of the leading poets of the First World War, Owen’s shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and sat in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written earlier by war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Some of his best-known works—most of which were published posthumously—include “Dulce et Decorum Est,” “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility” and “Strange Meeting”. His preface intended for a book of poems to be published in 1919 contains numerous well-known phrases, especially “War, and the pity of War”, and “the Poetry is in the pity”.
He was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre a week before the war ended. Ironically, the telegram from the War Office announcing his death was delivered to his mother’s home as her town’s church bells were ringing in celebration of the Armistice when the war ended.
Robert Graves and Sacheverell Sitwell (who also personally knew him) have stated Owen was homosexual, and homoeroticism is a central element in much of Owen’s poetry. Through Sassoon, Owen was introduced to a sophisticated homosexual literary circle which included Oscar Wilde’s friend Robbie Ross, writer and poet Osbert Sitwell, and Scottish writer C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, the translator of Proust. This contact broadened Owen’s outlook, and increased his confidence in incorporating homoerotic elements into his work. Historians have debated whether Owen had an affair with Scott-Moncrieff in May 1918; Scott-Moncrieff had dedicated various works to a “Mr W.O.”, but Owen never responded. The account of Owen’s sexual development has been somewhat obscured because his brother, Harold Owen, removed what he considered discreditable passages in Owen’s letters and diaries after the death of their mother. Owen also requested that his mother burn a sack of his personal papers in the event of his death, which she did.
1946 – ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, American photographer was born on this date (d. 1989); Known for large-scale, highly stylized black & white portraits, photos of flowers and male nudes, the frank, erotic nature of some of the work of his middle period triggered a more general controversy about the public funding of artworks. He attended (but did not graduate from) Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he majored in graphic arts.
Mapplethorpe took his first photographs soon thereafter, using a Polaroid camera. In the mid-1970s, he acquired a large-format press camera and began taking photographs of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, including artists, composers, socialites, but it wasn’t until he met porn star Benjamin Green that he truly became inspired to push the envelope of sexuality and photographing the human body. Mapplethorpe was once quoted as saying, “Of all the men and women that I had the pleasure of photographing, Ben Green was the apple of my eye, my unicorn if you will. I could shoot him for hours and hours and no matter the position, each print captured the complete essence of human perfection” (New York Times). It was this relationship that inspired him during the 1980s, to refine his photographs with an emphasis on formal beauty. He concentrated on statuesque male and female nudes, delicate flower still lifes, and formal portraits of artists and celebrities.
Longtime lovers (and sexual adventurer) with curator, Sam Wagstaff, of the Wadsworth Atheneum of Art in Hartford Connecticut, the two cut an erotic and artistic swath through the New York glitterati and art scene in the 1970s and 80s the likes of which have rarely been seen before or since. Wagstaff was Mapplethorpe’s senior by precisely 25 years, having been born on exactly the same day in 1921. Both Mr. Wagstaff and Mr. Mapplethorpe died of AIDS, Mr. Wagstaff in 1987 and Mr. Mapplethorpe in 1989.
1961 - today’s the birthday of JON ROBIN BAITZ, the American playwright, screenwriter, television producer and actor. Perhaps most recently well known as the creator and executive producer of the ABC drama Brothers & Sisters, which premiered in September 2006 and ran for five seasons, ending in May 2011.
Baitz was raised in Brazil and South Africa before the family returned to California, where he attended Beverly Hills High School. After graduation, he worked as a bookstore clerk and assistant to two producers, and the experiences became the basis for his first play, a one-acter entitled Mizlansky/Zilinsky. He drew on his own background for his first two-act play, The Film Society, about the staff of a prep school in South Africa. Its 1987 success in L.A. led to an off-Broadway production with Nathan Lane the following year, which earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding New Play. This was followed by The End of the Day starring Roger Rees, and the Substance of Fire with Ron Rifkin and Sarah Jessica Parker.
In 1991, Baitz wrote and directed the two-character play Three Hotels, based on his parents, for a presentation of PBS’s “American Playhouse”, then reworked the material for the stage, earning another Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding New Play for his efforts. In 1993, he co-scripted (with Howard A. Rodman) The Frightening Frammis, which was directed by Tom Cruise and aired as an episode of the Showtime anthology series Fallen Angels. Two years later, Henry Jaglom cast him as a gay playwright who achieves success at an early age – a character inspired by Baitz himself – in the film Last Summer in the Hamptons; the following year he appeared as Michelle Pfeiffer’s business associate in the screen comedy One Fine Day. In 1996, he was one of the three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for his semi-autobiographical play A Fair Country.
Subsequent stage works include Mizlansky/Zilinsky or “Schmucks”, a revised version of Mizlansky/Zilinsky directed by Baitz’s then-life partner JOE MANTELLO (1998), a new adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (at L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse with Annette Bening in 1999, then at Long Island’s Bay Street Theater with Kate Burton in 2000, followed by a Broadway production with the same star the following year), Ten Unknowns (2001), starring Donald Sutherland and Juliana Margulies and The Paris Letter (2005) with Ron Rifkin and John Glover. His screenplays include the adaptation of his own Substance of Fire (1996), with Tony Goldwyn and Timothy Hutton joining original cast members Rifkin and Parker, and People I Know (2003), which starred Al Pacino.
Baitz was the New School for Drama’s’s artist in residence for the 2009-2010 school year. Recent plays include Other Desert Cities, which opened at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater in New York on January 13, 2011, starring Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin and Stacy Keach. As of 2011 Baitz is reportedly set to pen the stage adaptation of film producer Robert Evans’ memoirs, The Kid Stays in the Picture and its sequel, The Fat Lady Sang, with award-winning Sir Richard Eyre set to direct.
2001 - on this date the openly Lesbian comedienne ELLEN DEGENERES hosted the Emmy Awards-TV show. It was the first awards show after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. DeGeneres received several standing ovations for her performance that evening which included the line: “We’re told to go on living our lives as usual, because to do otherwise is to let the terrorists win, and really, what would upset the Taliban more than a Gay woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?”
2008 – on this date California’s PROPOSITION 8 passes, representing the first ever elimination of an existing right to marry for LGBT couples in the United States. The vote and the proposition is winding its way through the courts still four years later.
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Two defenders of American imperialism
Obama-Romney foreign policy debate
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/pers-o22.shtml
22 October 2012
In the final debate of the US presidential election, to be held Monday night in Boca Raton, Florida, President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney can be expected to tout their contrasting “visions” on US foreign policy. However, on the fundamental issues of concern to the American corporate and financial elite, the two candidates are entirely united.
They will both declare themselves defenders of “democracy” and “freedom,” even as American money and weapons prop up dictatorships like the Saudi monarchy, the kleptocratic rulers of Congo and other resource-rich African states, and military-backed regimes from Honduras to Egypt. They accept unquestioningly the necessity to use military force and political subversion to safeguard the economic and strategic interests of the American financial aristocracy anywhere in world.
TSA harassment sends rape victim to emergency room — RT
►https://rt.com/usa/news/tsa-rape-room-wife-179
What would have likely been a routine flight out of a Florida airport this weekend ended with a woman being sent to the emergency room after TSA agents insisted on groping a traumatized rape victim in a security pat-down that put her in the hospital.
A user of the online Web forum FlyerTalk.com writes that his wife was admitted to the ER for treatment after agents with the Transportation Security Administration cited an “anomaly” in her bra as a reason to subject her to an intrusive closed-door screening on Sunday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The woman, described by her husband as the victim of brutal rape, was reportedly being transferred to a psychiatric ward for further treatment after what the man says was a “horrific experience.”
DNC chair: ‘I bring my love of Israel to work every day’ and our platform is more pro-Israel than GOP’s
►http://mondoweiss.net/2012/09/dnc-chair-i-bring-my-love-of-israel-to-work-every-day-and-our-platform-i
►http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SfiArE4xmjs
Here’s what happened. On Tuesday, we adopted a 100 percent strongly pro-Israel platform that I was so proud to support. I’m told that I’m the first Jewish woman to represent Florida in Congress. I bring my love of Israel to work with me every single day. I was proud of our platform already. In fact it has stronger language than even the republican platform on preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.
C’est vrai qu’un pistolet à eau c’est beaucoup plus dangereux qu’un flingue à balles réelles...
Water Guns Banned, Handguns Allowed at GOP Convention
►http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/water-guns-banned-handguns-allowed-at-gop-convention
In the politically-charged and likely protest-filled streets of Tampa, Fla., during the Republican National Convention in August, water guns will be strictly prohibited. Concealed handguns, on the other hand, will be perfectly legal.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said this week that banning handguns from downtown Tampa during the convention, as the city’s Mayor Bob Buckhorn requested, “would surely violate the Second Amendment.”
Florida at the forefront as states plan fresh assault on voting rights
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/26/florida-assault-voting-rights
Voting rights groups are struggling to hold back a tide of new laws that are likely to make it harder for millions of Americans to vote in the presidential election in November and could distort the outcome of the race for the White House.
Human corpses harvested in multimillion-dollar trade
►http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/human-corpses-harvested-in-multimilliondollar-trade-20120717-2278v.html
The seized documents suggested that the remains of dead Ukrainians were destined for a factory in Germany belonging to the subsidiary of a US medical products company, Florida-based RTI Biologics.
Space X launches Falcon 9
►http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/05/space-x-launches-dragon-9.html
This morning, the first commercial space launch to the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was launched by SpaceX, and will carry the company’s Dragon capsule, containing some 460 kilos of supplies, to the space station crew.
The killing of Trayvon Martin and racial politics in America
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/apr2012/pers-a05.shtml
The killing of Trayvon Martin and racial politics in America
5 April 2012
The killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida on February 26 has sparked opposition and protests throughout the country. There is widespread popular outrage over the senseless shooting of an unarmed young man, and the fact that his killer, George Zimmerman, has not been arrested or charged with any crime.
The background to the killing of Martin is the promotion of law-and-order vigilantism and the passage of reactionary legislation like Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Police and prosecutors have cited this law in justifying their refusal to take action against Zimmerman.
Harry Crews dies at 76; Southern writer with darkly comic vision
►http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-harry-crews-20120401,0,1537312.story
►http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-03/69145767.jpg
Harry Crews, a rough-hewn Southerner who drew a keen following with novels that describe a Hieronymus Bosch landscape of grotesques — characters who are tossed into rattlesnake pits, walk on their hands, croon lullabies to a skull and literally eat a car — died Wednesday in Gainesville, Fla. He was 76.
Zut zut zut ! C’est ma chérie qui va être triste.
En dehors de sa poésie et de ses romans noirs hallucinés, il faut lire son autobiographie, « Des Mules et des hommes », ça existe en poche, pour savoir vraiment ce que c’est d’être un gamin fauché du sud, hallucinante misère.
Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Lydia Lunch (LA LL) et Sadie Mae avaient fait un groupe et un album ensemble en l’appelant Harry Crews.
Meurtre raciste de Trayvon Martin aux Etats-Unis
►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/tray-m29.shtml
More troubling facts emerge in the Trayvon Martin shooting
By James Brewer
29 March 2012
The brutal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida has generated outrage within wide layers of the population in the US. Demonstrations have taken place in dozens of cities, and the incident has become a means for thousands to express their protest against many aspects of American life.
Meanwhile, Florida authorities have seen to it that material aimed at discrediting Martin in the eyes of the public has been leaked to the media. New facts have also emerged about the family background of the gunman in the episode, 28-year-old neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, which shed possible light on the refusal of the authorities to proceed against him.
Voir aussi un entretien avec ses parents de ►http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/vide-m29.shtml
He had a gun, and Trayvon had Skittles
“Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager, was shot and killed in a gated community in Florida late last month by a white neighborhood watch captain, according to police. But the watch captain, George Zimmerman — a 26-year-old college student who has admitted to police that he shot the young man — still walks free. And Martin’s family is pleading for answers and demanding justice.”
►http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/family-of-trayvon-martin-_n_1332756.html#s766198
America at Work : Your Photos - In Focus - The Atlantic
►http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/02/america-at-work-your-photos/100253
As a follow-up to my photo collection published in The Atlantic’s January 2012 issue (and online), I put out a call for reader photographs with the theme of “America at Work.” The response was fantastic. People sent in images from Guam to Massachusetts, and from Florida to California. The photos depict a wide range of jobs, giving a glimpse of what it means to be employed in 21st century America.
US firm must return Spain shipwreck treasure
►http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/02/20122186547857739.html
A US federal judge has ruled that a Florida-based company that found sunken treasure from a 19th century warship must return 594,000 silver and gold coins to the Spanish government by next week.
The 17 tonnes of coins and other items are valued at more than $500m, making it the biggest sunken treasure recovery in history.
►http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1ui05_salut-l-ami-adieu-le-tresor_news
USA / the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education.
►http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik
The accelerating rate of incarceration over the past few decades is just as startling as the number of people jailed: in 1980, there were about two hundred and twenty people incarcerated for every hundred thousand Americans; by 2010, the number had more than tripled, to seven hundred and thirty-one. No other country even approaches that. In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education. Ours is, bottom to top, a “carceral state,” in the flat verdict of Conrad Black, the former conservative press lord and newly minted reformer, who right now finds himself imprisoned in Florida, thereby adding a new twist to an old joke: *A conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged; a liberal is a conservative who’s been indicted; and a passionate prison reformer is a conservative who’s in one.
*