Speculations circle as to why the London riots have become so big, but the answer is quite obvious.

Most of the people who will be writing, speaking and pontificating about the disorder this weekend have absolutely no idea what it is like to grow up in a community where there are no jobs, no space to live or move, and the police are on the streets stopping-and-searching you as you come home from school. The people who do will be waking up this week in the sure and certain knowledge that after decades of being ignored and marginalised and harassed by the police, after months of not seeing any conceivable hope of a better future confiscated, they are finally on the news. In one NBC report, a young man in Tottenham was asked if rioting really achieved anything:

"Yes," said the young man. "You wouldn't be talking to me now if we didn't riot, would you?

Two months ago we marched to Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? Not a word in the press. Last night, a bit of rioting and looting and look around you."

Eavesdropping from among the onlookers, I looked around. A dozen TV crews and newspaper reporters interviewing the young men everywhere.

There are communities all over the country that nobody paid attention to unless there had recently been a riot or a murdered child. Well, they're paying attention now.

Airbrushed make-up ads banned for ‘misleading’

Well, that is interesting. I have to say I am all for it.

Swinson said it was "shocking" that the ASA was not allowed to see the pre-production pictures of Roberts due to contractual agreements with the actor. "It shows just how ridiculous things have become when there is such fear over an unairbrushed photo that even the advertising regulator isn't permitted to see it," she added.

In the case of both the Roberts and Turlington ads the ASA said it was not provided with enough information to evaluate what impact the digital enhancements had on the final image.

"On the basis of the evidence we had received we could not conclude that the ad image accurately illustrated what effect the product could achieve, and that the image had not been exaggerated by digital post-production techniques," the ASA said.

"Pictures of flawless skin and super-slim bodies are all around, but they don't reflect reality," said Swinson. "Excessive airbrushing and digital manipulation techniques have become the norm, but both Christy Turlington and Julia Roberts are naturally beautiful women who don't need retouching to look great. This ban sends a powerful message to advertisers – let's get back to reality."

Beauty retouching is in a fairly unrealistic place, hopefully this will temper some of the crazier Art Directors out there.

Drag-and-drop on applet broken in Safari 5.1

So with the new Safari upgrade Apple broke Java on all browsers. This affects how the Danklife Client Area works as it breaks drag and drop functionality. If you run into this problem as well just hold down Command & Shift and you can drag the applet out of you browser window and then it will work.

I have just upgraded to Safari 5.1 and I notice that drag-and-drop from the Finder to my Java applet does not work anymore (as it is already the case with Firefox 4 and Google Chrome). Now Safari 5.1 acts as Google Chrome : instead of handling drag-and-drop, it displays the dropped file in a new window.

My applet worked fine before upgrading Safari. I have also tested on Safari 5.1 on the Windows platform : drag-and-drop works perfectly.

This is very annoying because, until now, Safari was the only browser on Mac OS X that allowed drag-and-drop on an applet (if I except Firefox 3.6 - which is not the last version of Mozilla browser - and maybe less known browser...). Does anybody know if there is a workaround ?

Unfortunately this is a known issue with Plugin2, which has become the default applet plug-in for all browsers on Snow Leopard and Lion as of yesterday. We have not found NPAPI to have sufficient facilities for us to replicate Java's external drag-and-drop services, and are looking for other technical avenues to pursue.

As a workaround, you can detach the applet from the web page by holding down Cmd-Shift and dragging. The detached applet should respond correctly any DnD operations.

So there you go. You will have a floating Java window that looks like it's own Application.

The Chart That Should Accompany All Discussions of the Debt Ceiling

Via NYT:

The first graph shows the difference between budget projections and budget reality. In 2001, President George W. Bush inherited a surplus, with projections by the Congressional Budget Office for ever-increasing surpluses, assuming continuation of the good economy and President Bill Clinton’s policies. But every year starting in 2002, the budget fell into deficit. In January 2009, just before President Obama took office, the budget office projected a $1.2 trillion deficit for 2009 and deficits in subsequent years, based on continuing Mr. Bush’s policies and the effects of recession. Mr. Obama’s policies in 2009 and 2010, including the stimulus package, added to the deficits in those years but are largely temporary.

Thanks Nathan!

Onion Study

[gallery link="file" columns="1"]  

A red onion left over from the weekend BBQ grabbed my attention just now.  Two Dedo lights used.

New Photo Gallery

So I configured up a new photogallery page which you can see under the Pages section just to your right. Or just click here to see it. I broke it down to a few projects and general themes. Fairly robust little plug in for WordPress. I'll have to work on the layout when I have more time.

Enjoy!

Red Fang

Was hanging out at the new bigger Revival Drum Shop talking drums and this fella comes strolling in for new heads and what have you. Asked him what band he was in a he said Red Fang.

A wee bit of google later and holy shit.

That is one way to get funds....

Consider the life of a Michigan prisoner. They get three square meals a day. Access to free health care. Internet. Cable television. Access to a library. A weight room. Computer lab. They can earn a degree. A roof over their heads. Clothing. Everything we just listed we DO NOT provide to our school children. This is why I’m proposing to make my school a prison. The State of Michigan spends annually somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 per prisoner, yet we are struggling to provide schools with $7,000 per student. I guess we need to treat our students like they are prisoners, with equal funding.

 

Get yer Mornin' Funk on.

Jimmy McGriff - The Bird Wave - 1970 [Soul-Jazz]

Hooo boy, that is some damn fine funk right there. If this don't get you moving, check your pulse.