Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Obama holds fundraiser with American Indians
President Barack Obama, raising money for his campaign among tribal leaders, said Friday he wants American Indians to be "full partners" in the economy. Obama met with 70 to 75 supporters from Native American tribes. Democratic officials said the fundraiser would benefit the Obama Victory Fund, a joint committee of the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
AP: Officials look for payoff in Native Mob sweep
Members of the Native Mob gang have shot rivals in Minneapolis, sold drugs in Duluth, and thrown boiling water in a person's face in Crow Wing County. Authorities say they've also assaulted an informant on the White Earth Indian Reservation and shot up houses from Cass Lake to Mille Lacs. This week's federal indictment of 24 suspected Native Mob members will disrupt the activity of one of Minnesota's most violent gangs and could bring some communities a reprieve from violence, authorities said. But it likely won't dismantle the organization -- which is highly structured, active in prison, and wields power from the Twin Cities to reservations throughout Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
ICT: BIA’s Impact on Indian Education Is an Education in Bad Education
The forerunner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was created by the U.S. federal government in 1824 to handle all matters relating to American Indians.
From its inception, the ultimate goal of what ultimately became the BIA was not to protect Indians, but to assimilate them into white society. One major tool of that assimilation was education.
Rosebud students combat stereotypes
They’re powerful words routinely used to stereotype people living on American Indian reservations: poor, violent, alcoholic and obese. Students at one high school on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Rosebud Sioux tribe, have one response: We’re more than that. Behind the attention-grabbing headlines and pictures of reservation life, there’s a rich culture and sense of pride that often goes unnoticed, students from Todd County High School in Mission said.
Ex-Guatemalan military leader Efrain Rios Montt is to be tried for genocide and crimes against humanity. Gen Rios Montt, 85, was in power from 1982-1983, when some of the country's worst civil war atrocities occurred. Whole villages of indigenous Mayans were massacred as part of government efforts to defeat left-wing rebels. Gen Rios Montt, who has denied ordering massacres, refused to comment in court. But a judge ruled he had a case to answer, placing him under house arrest.
AP: Sitka artist using bulletproof material for work
Local artist Teri Rofkar is going boldly into the future with new artwork that features modern materials and a political edge.Rofkar was one of two dozen artists or art groups in the U.S. to receive the grant, and the first Alaskan chosen in the history of the program. The grant is worth about $90,000 over two years in funding and other assistance.
Green energy boom blows trouble into Mexico
The Isthmus of Tehuantapec, Mexico's narrowest point, is a powerful wind tunnel of air currents whipping through the mountains that separate the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The wind is "sacred" in this village, says indigenous Huave fisherman Donaciano Victoria. This isolated region of the state of Oaxaca is one of the world's most continuously windy spots. And because wind is a valuable commodity in a world seeking alternative energy, a "wind rush" – reminiscent of the gold and oil rushes of other eras – has swept into the isthmus.
Okla. tribes seek federal ruling in water lawsuit
Two Oklahoma-based American Indian tribes filed court documents Thursday saying the state’s plan to ask a state court to determine the tribes’ water rights won’t resolve their federal lawsuit. The Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations filed a federal lawsuit in August to stop the Oklahoma Water Resources Board from selling its water storage rights to Sardis Lake in southeastern Oklahoma to the Oklahoma City Water Utility Trust without first reaching an agreement with the tribe.
Polar Bears Starving
Dear Friends,
Polar bears' survival depends on us slowing global warming--which is melting the ice they depend on to hunt for food. But, right now polluters are attacking the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to reduce the carbon dioxide that is threatening the livelihood of this beloved species.In the last week, over 9,000 people like you took action to protect polar bears, but we can't stop there.Polar bears need you to speak up for their future--please take action today! -SuePolar Bears Starving
Protect their Ice from Corporate Polluters
Dear Friends, We are running out of time to make a difference for the future of polar bears in the Hudson Bay--who are starving as rising global temperatures fueled by carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants melts their icy habitat. Yesterday, President Obama described a "new energy future" in his State of the Union Address. Polar bears are depending on us to ensure that it is a clean energy future.Polar bears are starving--take action to protect them today.There is still hope for polar bears, but only if we greatly cut the carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants--starting now. With coal-fired power plants being the largest source of carbon pollution in the U.S., by reducing the pollution they emit, we can make a substantial impact in the fight for polar bears.But, even as polar bears go hungry from the impacts of climate change, greedy corporate polluters are fighting to keep dumping unlimited carbon pollution into our airDon't let corporate pollution starve polar bears to extinction--send this message today.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is acting now to limit carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, but the EPA is coming under attack and needs to hear your support for stopping the unlimited pollution that threatens the future of polar bears. Polar bears do have hope of surviving into the next century if we act now to reduce one of the greatest emitters of the carbon pollution that is melting their ice.Help create a better future for polar bears--send a message to the EPA today.Thanks for all you do for wildlife! Sincerely,Sue Brown Executive Director, NWF Action Fund info@nwa.org Twitter: @wildlifeaction Join us on Facebook | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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NAKED, BLOODY IMPERIALISM - WE CAME, WE SAW, HE DIED
Gaddafi's death - who pulled the trigger?
(Reuters) - Disturbing images of a blood-stained and shaken Muammar Gaddafi being dragged around by angry fighters quickly circulated around the world after the Libyan dictator's dramatic death near his home town of Sirte.
The exact circumstances of his demise are still unclear with conflicting accounts of his death. But the footage of the last chaotic moments of Gaddafi's life offered some clues into what happened.
Gaddafi was still alive when he was captured near Sirte. In the video, filmed by a bystander in the crowd and later aired on television, Gaddafi is shown dazed and wounded being dragged off a vehicle's bonnet and pulled to the ground by his hair.
"Keep him alive, keep him alive!" someone shouts. Gaddafi then goes out of view and gunshots ring out.
"They captured him alive and while he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," one senior source in the NTC told Reuters. "He might have been resisting."
In what appeared to contradict the events depicted in the video, Libya's ruling National Transitional Council said Gaddafi was killed when a gunfight broke out after his capture between his supporters and government fighters. He died from a bullet wound to the head, the prime minister said.
The NTC said no order had been given to kill him.
Gaddafi called the rebels who rose up against his 42 years of one-man rule "rats," but in the end it appeared that it was he who was captured cowering in a drainage pipe full of rubbish and filth.
"He called us rats, but look where we found him," said Ahmed Al Sahati, a 27-year-old government fighter, standing next to two stinking drainage pipes under a six-lane highway near Sirte.
On the ground, government fighters described scenes of carnage as they told stories of Gaddafi's final hours.
Shortly before dawn prayers, Gaddafi, surrounded by a few dozen loyal bodyguards and accompanied by the head of his now non-existent army Abu Bakr Younis Jabr, broke out of the two-month siege of Sirte and made a break for the west.
They did not get far.
France said its aircraft struck military vehicles belonging to Gaddafi forces near Sirte at about 8:30 a.m. (0630 GMT), but said it was unsure whether the strikes had killed Gaddafi. A NATO official said the convoy was hit either by a French plane or a U.S. Predator drone.
Two miles west of Sirte, 15 pick-up trucks mounted with machine guns lay burned out, smashed and smoldering next to an electricity substation 20 meters from the main road.
They had clearly been hit by a force far beyond anything the motley army the former rebels has assembled during eight months of revolt to overthrow the once feared leader.
There was no bomb crater, indicating the strike may have been carried out by a jet fighter.
Inside the trucks still in their seats sat the charred skeletal remains of drivers and passengers killed instantly by the strike. Other bodies lay mutilated and contorted strewn across the grass. Some 50 bodies in all.
Mansour Daou, leader of Gaddafi's personal bodyguards, was with the former strongman shortly before his end. He told al Arabiya television that after the air strike the survivors had "split into groups and each group went its own way."
"I was with Gaddafi and Abu Bakr Younis Jabr and about four volunteer soldiers." Daou said he had not witnessed his leader's death because he had fallen unconscious after being wounded in the back by a shell explosion.
"MY MASTER IS HERE"
Fighters on the ground said Gaddafi and a handful of his men appeared to have run through a stand of trees and taken refuge in the two drainage pipes.
"At first we fired at them with anti-aircraft guns, but it was no use," said Salem Bakeer, while being feted by his comrades near the road. "Then we went in on foot.
"One of Gaddafi's men came out waving his rifle in the air and shouting surrender, but as soon as he saw my face he started shooting at me," he told Reuters.
"Then I think Gaddafi must have told them to stop. 'My master is here, my master is here', he said, 'Muammar Gaddafi is here and he is wounded'," said Bakeer.
"We went in and brought Gaddafi out. He was saying 'what's wrong? What's wrong? What's going on?'. Then we took him and put him in the car," Bakeer said.
At the time of his capture, Gaddafi was already wounded with gunshots to his leg and to his back, Bakeer said.
Other government fighters who said they took part in Gaddafi's capture, separately confirmed Bakeer's version of events, though one said the man who ruled Libya for 42 years was shot and wounded at the last minute by one of his own men.
"One of Muammar Gaddafi's guards shot him in the chest," said Omran Jouma Shawan.
There were also other versions of events. NTC official Abdel Majid Mlegta told Reuters Gaddafi had been finally cornered in a compound in Sirte after hours of fighting, and wounded in a gun battle with NTC forces.
He said Gaddafi kept repeating "What is the matter? What's going on? What do you want?" and resisted as NTC fighters seized him. He added that Gaddafi died of his wounds as he was being transported in an ambulance.
"He was bleeding from his stomach. It took a long time to transport him. He bled to death (in the ambulance)," he said.
Another NTC official, speaking to Reuters anonymously, gave a violent account of Gaddafi's death: "They (NTC fighters) beat him very harshly and then they killed him. This is a war."
Some video footage showed what appeared to be Gaddafi's lifeless body being loaded into an ambulance in Sirte.
One of the fighters who said he took part in the capture brandished a heavily engraved golden pistol he said he had taken from Gaddafi.
Fallen electricity cables partially covered the entrance to the pipes and the bodies of three men, apparently Gaddafi bodyguards lay at the entrance to one end, one in shorts probably due to a bandaged wound on his leg.
Four more bodies lay at the other end of the pipes. All black men, one had his brains blown out, another man had been decapitated, his dreadlocked head lying beside his torso.
Army chief Jabr was also captured alive, Bakeer said. NTC officials later announced he was dead.
Joyous government fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouted "Allahu Akbar" and posed for pictures. Others wrote graffiti on the concrete parapets of the highway. One said simply: "Gaddafi was captured here."
(Additional reporting by Rania El Gamal in Sirte and Samia Nakhoul in Amman; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Maria Golovnina and Matthew Jones)
THE FLAGRANT HYPOCRISY OF THE LIBYA INTERVENTION
GADAFI AND MANDELA - BROTHER LEADERS
LIBYANS BACK GADAFFI IN TRIPOLI'S GREEN SQUARE
HERE WE GO AGAIN - THE LIBYAN INTERVENTION
FIVE MYTHS OF THE LIBYAN INTERVENTION
30-five-myths-of-libyan-intervention/
LIBYA INTERVENTION DRIVEN BY OIL INTEREST
LIBYAN OIL WAR - IS IT THAT SIMPLE?
http://www.salon.com/2011/03/21/the_libyan_oil_war_connection/
This is the job I've always wanted to do ! - "the culture of music"
The Ethnomusicologist is one who researches music, musicians, instruments, and music producing processes. He or she looks deeply into
Even though there is a great deal of travel in this position, these individuals also conduct research traditionally within libraries and museums. Overall, the position is one of low-stress, and incredibly enjoyable for anyone who enjoys their work. With that said, to be successful, one should have a passion for travel and should enjoy communicating with the world's many cultures. They need to be accustomed to spending a lot of time away from home, as they could be spending months and maybe even years with certain cultures.
Resulting benefits of such travel and research include becoming a part of new cultures, and then teaching students or museum goers about the culture of music. One of the most enjoyable aspects for many is the opportunity to see the world from many different angles.
Salaries
Salaries depend on a number of factors including experience, educational background, and the particular position with which they are employed. All things considered, they can earn between $30,000 and $91,000. Usually those who work in museums are paid the most, relatively.
Employment
Ethnomusicologists can find work in a number of different settings like universities, libraries, and museums, along within the Recording Industry Association of America. There is currently a growing interest in the field, which may make it easier to obtain an entry-level position.
Advancement
It's common for many Ethnomusicologists to move into traditional teaching roles after they've had some time and experience in the field. One can advance their career by taking on more advanced, in-depth experiences with cultures in areas not previously researched.
Education and Training
To get started in this position, one should have a bachelor's degree. But, to earn more and obtain more advanced positions, a graduate degree should be obtained. Study areas include sociology, anthropology, psychology or other cultural study areas.
Experience, Skills, and Personality
Because of the fact that most of their time is spent in the field, Ethnomusicologists must have superior research skills, while remaining objective and analytical. They need to know how to take detailed notes, and they should be good at deductive reasoning. Also, they should be good writers, with the ability to translate their notes into detailed reports once research has taken place.
Unions and Associations
Ethnomusicologists may belong to the Society for Ethnomusicology, which is dedicated to the study of all forms of music from the perspectives of social science.
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This is what I have been for 50 years:
Music Copyist
A music copyist produces the various parts or individual music lines for instruments from a music score, in preparation for a performance or recording session. This work is done by using computer music notation applications. The two roles of the computer-based copyist – the production of parts and of scores – are invariably combined, as it is fairly straightforward to extract parts from the score in music notation applications. The music copyist needs to have a strong understanding of music notation as developed by music publishers over the last century.
There is also an editing component to this job whereby mistakes are detected if they are missed by composers when writing the score. As freelancers, music copyists need to have good skills in small business management, professional networking and self-promotion. Copyists learn a lot about arranging and composition in the course of their work, so these career opportunities are also available to them.
This would be something I do (even includes one of my other passions regarding Native Americans):
About the job
http://us.music-jobs.com/current/music-copyist-job-24337718
Hi, I am looking for a copyist to take the transcription for an 8 movement concerto called Tribal Music Suite (TMS).
Here's what I'm looking for: someone to take the transcription for the strings from the recording one track at a time and put all parts into score format as well as individual parts. All in Adobe, computer generated plus a disc containing the written work from the software program ie Finale, etc (for future editing and changes). Woodwinds & horns have written parts but need to be edited as per the recording.
Solo violin
1st violins sometimes same as solo violin
2nd violins
violas (part is written out by hand but not on recording)
cellos (this part has been finished)
dbl basses (arco + pizz)
trombones (3)
tympani
snare drum
triangle
gong
cymble swells
chimes
pow wow drum and singers (listed in score but not to be transcribed)
wind effect (listed in score but not to be transcribed)
string pads (synth)
penny whistle
flutes (2) (already arranged/transcribed but needs editing from recording)
Clarinet (1) (already arranged/transcribed but needs editing from recording)I will overnight a package of the 1st movement to you (no emails or mp3s) plus 1/2 of the estimated fee in check form. You can email me back the Adobe version of the parts and when complete I will send you the balance for the 1st movement and if all has worked well then it's on to the next movement. A completed score and individual parts?Please let me know if you can help. If you think the project is too big for you or expensive for me don't write me back as that is a clear indication of lack of interest.
Unfortunately it has been taken!!
==========
Recently I have been this:
http://www.careersinmusic.com/recording-artist-website-content-producer.aspx
RECORDING ARTIST WEBSITE CONTENT PRODUCER
$25,000 to $75,000+
Website Content Manager, Website Content Editor
Writes and maintains content on website, retains a following through various methods, gathers fan base.
In order to keep fans informed and interested in artists and their websites, most artists, their management companies, or labels retain Website Content Producers, who are responsible for creating and maintaining site content. To begin the process, these individuals are expected to develop and carry out a strategic online content plan. These plans must be fresh and innovative in order to keep fans returning to the site. This is important because websites give artists a presence on the web, allowing fans to find general information, along with timely news, concert dates, and new album offerings. These sites also give artists a simple way to sell or promote their albums and other merchandise including t-shirts and more.
As mentioned, Website Content Producers are responsible for maintaining the content of the site, ensuring content is informative, user friendly, and exciting. To accomplish this, individuals need to research and write engaging stories and articles on a variety of subjects. Content might be about the artist, the music industry in general, or other subjects.
Aside from an exciting homepage that contains breaking news and timely information, other pages on the site might include biographies, artist profiles, feature stories, interviews, tour news, discographies, lyrics of songs, forums, photos, videos and more. Also, the Website Content Producer may develop blogs, webcasts, chats, podcasts and more in order to keep the site relevant and exciting. These outlets help to get fans involved and connected to the act. The Website Content Producer must also find ways to develop mailing lists of fans by utilizing “contact us” forms, surveys, sweepstakes, or fan clubs. These lists are used to get news out quickly, and to inform fans about concert dates and new album availability.
Some sites are extremely large and developed, sometimes requiring more than one Content Producer. In such a situation, one may be a Senior or Executive Website Content Producer who oversees the entire site and the other may develop and monitor blogs and so on.
In addition, Website Content Producers are responsible for overseeing staff copywriters, photographers, and graphic artists. The Content Producer might also need to find a freelancer to produce stories, and is responsible for getting all stories, editing them when necessary, and giving them to the webmaster to put online.
鄭秀文 Sammi Cheng 愛
Listen:
MuseScore
@musescore
Free & open source music notation software for Windows, Mac & Linux
MuseScore (free music notation software)
MuseScore
@musescore
Free & open source music notation software for Windows, Mac & Linux
Drain the Mediterranean
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Dear Friends:
A few days ago, when I heard about Newt Gingrich’s plan/idea/hallucination to make the Moon the 51st State, I wondered what else he has in mind for the country we all love. (I mean America. And, for liberal Democrats, North Korea. Or at least that’s what Newt would say.)
Newt conducted a whirlwind campaign tour around my State of Florida this week. (Better late than never. No, actually, better never.) At the Space Coast, Newt explained what he wants NASA to do. I started to think through what other great plans/ideas/hallucinations that Newt might have in mind for the rest of us. A sort of a Contract With The Universe. Based on Newt’s lunar lunacy, here is what I think that we may see from Newt Gingrich, 45th President of the United States:
(1) Gingrich will direct the Army Corps of Engineers to drain the Mediterranean Sea. Gingrich will then lay claim to all of the land underneath it. And then he will put the screws to Crete. (Warning to Newt: this may hurt you with your key Tea Party constituent group, the Cretins.)
(2) Gingrich will create jobs in the construction industry by getting bids on a project to make the Washington Monument three times as large, and kind of smoother. Then he will rename it the “Washington Monument to Newt’s Greatness.”
(3) In order to qualify for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Gingrich will make infants change their own diapers. You know, to show them the value of work.
(4) Gingrich will order the Pentagon’s DARPA weapons lab to erect a giant 10-gigawatt humidifier, and a giant 10-gigawatt dehumidifier. Turn them loose on each other. Let’s settle this, once and for all. (By the way, Steven Wright thought of this first.)
(5) Gingrich will command the Department of Energy to dig a hole deep down into the Earth’s crust, and fill it with soufflé. Think of how proud we will all feel, watch the world’s first geothermal soufflé rise. And rise. And rise.
(6) Gingrich will have the U.S. Postal Service deliver the mail by drone airplane. Just bomb the mailboxes. First with the mail, and then . . . .
(7) Gingrich will instruct NOAA to conduct a valid scientific test to see whether prayer can change the direction of hurricanes as they approach the shore. A double-blind test, so the hurricane doesn’t know.
(8) Gingrich will mandate that the National Institutes of Health develop a neurological examination to determine whether Newt Gingrich really is more intelligent than every other human being combined.
(9) Gingrich will compel all the tree-hugging liberals who work at the National Endowment for the Arts to translate the internet into Klingon. Including the porn. No, especially the porn.
(10) Gingrich will proclaim a Constitutional Amendment mandating that Newt Gingrich (a/k/a the “Great Leader”) be President of the Earth-Moon Alliance for life, and twenty years beyond that. Just work out the details.
You think I’m kidding. Well, don’t cling to that conclusion. Here are some actual things that Newt really said, and I’m not making any of them up:
“I have enormous personal ambition. I want to shift the entire planet. And I’m doing it. I am now a famous person. I represent real power.”
“Gingrich - Primary mission, Advocate of civilization, Definer of civilization, Teacher of the rules of civilization, Leader of the civilizing forces.”
Gingrich on Gingrich: “The most serious, systematic revolutionary of modern times.”
Newt Gingrich decides who lives and dies. When a reporter asked Gingrich what to do about the homeless a few days after the police shot a homeless man in front of the White House, Gingrich said: “Give the park police more ammo.”
And Newt Gingrich determines what is true and false. As he said a few weeks ago: “Any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood.”
Why is such an obvious megalomaniac considered to be a serious candidate for President? I don’t know. You would have to ask the Tea Party that question.
As for me, I have rather more modest ambitions than Newt does. I would like to try to help the 24 million Americans who can’t find full-time work. The 50 million Americans who can’t see a doctor when they are sick. The 47 million Americans who need government assistance to feed themselves. And the 40 million Americans who live in homes where the mortgage is more than the value of the home.
Let’s keep our eye on the ball, please.
Are you with me?
Courage,
Alan Grayson
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