...there is growing evidence that the UK's political parties are a weak link in the chain connecting civil society to political decision-making. The three main parties certainly cannot claim to constitute mass membership organisations, embedded in and reflective of civil society. As figure 3 shows, the estimated membership of all three main parties has fallen substantially since the mid-1960s. Whereas they could once claim to have over 3 million members between them, the combined membership of the three main parties now amounts to a little over 400,000.

And:

The decline in turnout and party membership highlighted above suggest some serious grounds for concern - pointing to clear evidence of disengagement from the formal processes of representative democracy.

Source: http://www.democraticaudit.com/key-indicators-of-uk-democracy

Former UK Ambassador Craig Murray comments:

There is one constituent of a genuine democracy that the report does not seek to measure, but which I think could usefully be quantified by political scientists. That is the degree of real choice being offered by the political parties. I am sure that this has very substantially declined as well. There is no real choice on offer nowadays between the various neo-con parties. The differences on the timing and depth of cuts in public services, on continued privatisation of health services, on Trident nuclear weapons, on Afghanistan, on the money men who control the politicians, are miniscule. Only in Scotland do voters have a genuine choice of a different direction, and they take it.

This is a direct consequence of the other trends the Democratic Audit does measure. They show that the parties are more than ever, and constantly more, not avenues for popular participation but the domain of a political class and controlled by a wealthy “elite”. It is no wonder that they all have the same programme of promoting the interests of that elite.

Source: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/07/29431/

Also:

Democracy in the UK has become almost meaningless. A monopoly of effective news flow by a deeply corrupt corporate media has crystallised the major party structures as the only real choices in the consciousness of the vast majority of voters. Those major parties have been so bought up by those same corporate interests that there is no genuine choice of policy on offer. If you were against the handing of untold billions of your money to the bankers, or the interminable and pointless Afghan War, you were one of a very large percentage of the population but had no mainstream party which respected, let alone represented, your view.

Source: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/07/the-impossibility-of-rest/

Cheers A

"July 4, 2012: Ode to the Higgs Boson (assuming they actually found it)

..This year the 4th took on more worth than one nation's past defiance,

..It took its place among those dates that swell the chest of Science,

..While in the U.S. crowds will cheer the fireworks' zags & zigs,

..The physics-minded of the world are cheering long-sought Higgs!

..

..Now many folk just find it strange – this fuss about a boson

..(As if it were a high school crush just glimpsed without her clothes on!),

..But all of those who've been seduced by Nature's deep design

..Have seen her drop another veil and prove her form sublime.

..

..So mark the day how ere you will, abstract or pragmatical,

..Truth and joy take many forms – some are, some aren't mathematical,

..But don't begrudge the science types exulting this July

..The world around us plays a game first watched in their mind's eye."

I have no idea if this person made this up on the spot, or whether it’s a variation of something from before – it’s pretty damned good though, don’t you think?

Forrest Gump. The movie is legitimately great, but isn't remotely like the book. Part of what makes a good adaptation is how close they stay to the original source material. The novel Forrest Gump is basically a pure wacky comedy with little to no drama or pathos or the heart of the movie. Stick to the source material or GTFO! :P

The biggest offender is Jurassic Park. Hands down, the worst adaptations of ALL TIME. Massive changes from the book to screen. Biggest change was in the book, the lawyer character was one of the good guys, while in the movie he was the typical sleazy lawyer. I guess, in a movie with DINOSAURS, having a lawyer that's actually a hero was too fantastical for Spielberg. This was officially when I started to turn away from Spielberg.

Other bad adaptations: Any Tom Clancy novel, minus Hunt for Red October. Most Steven King books, with the exception of Shawshank Redemption and Misery.

Now some good adaptations. First Tarantino's Jackie Brown. Despite changing the main characters race from white to black, and adding his own spin on the dialogue, it's a very mature adaptation for such a young director. Especially when you compare it to Steven Soderbergs adaptation of another novel from the same author released in the same year with one of the same actors playing the same role in a unique cross studio crossover. You almost never see the same actor from one studio's film play the same character in another studio's film, even a cameo, but since it was in the book, Tarantino said go for it, and did it free.

And the best adaptation to date...Sin City. Rodriquez's main weakness has been his writing. When you do as many jobs as he does, something has to suffer, and in his case, it's his writing. So when you start with something that's already well written and you decide to film it AS WRITTEN...that's as good as it gets. The dialogue in the movie is nearly word for word from the comic. The comic panels are storyboards for the film with many looking almost exactly the same. He even shot all the comics in full and then released the full edit later. The more faithful you are to the source material, the better a movie you will make, and this is as faithful as it could possibly get.

From Metropolitan:

From Barcelona:

Subtext and Ants....truer words have never been spoken. ^_^ Metropolitan is available on Netflix Instant and Amazon Prime Instant, if you have that in your area, definitively check it out.

I've been googling, but can't find the answer, If I want to have the same field of view as an 18mm lens on a Super35 camera to a GH-2 m43 frame, what would be the conversion factor?

m43 is a 2x crop to a full frame.

Thanks

Low latitud high contrast over saturated colors ( only thing i see why people like it, fuji film made study about this in 90´s) chromatic aberration barril distortion high grain size low resolution bad interpretation of reality ( the other issue i see why people like it )

So the same thing can be done digitally.

If we had a sensor with those characteristics right now, nobody would buy such a camera, but, is it film then what atract the attention of this hipsters, or the share vision of this "art" emultion.

LOMOGRAPHY...fans...or mad people?

Please share your comments.

Thanks.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/98046378/Push-Daisies-Style-Manual

HONG KONG — As the Chinese economy continues to sputter, prominent corporate executives in China and Western economists say there is evidence that local and provincial officials are falsifying economic statistics to disguise the true depth of the troubles.

China Data Show Drops in Exports and Prices (June 22, 2012) Record-setting mountains of excess coal have accumulated at the country’s biggest storage areas because power plants are burning less coal in the face of tumbling electricity demand. But local and provincial government officials have forced plant managers not to report to Beijing the full extent of the slowdown, power sector executives said.

Electricity production and consumption have been considered a telltale sign of a wide variety of economic activity. They are widely viewed by foreign investors and even some Chinese officials as the gold standard for measuring what is really happening in the country’s economy, because the gathering and reporting of data in China is not considered as reliable as it is in many countries.

Indeed, officials in some cities and provinces are also overstating economic output, corporate revenue, corporate profits and tax receipts, the corporate executives and economists said. The officials do so by urging businesses to keep separate sets of books, showing improving business results and tax payments that do not exist.

The executives and economists roughly estimated that the effect of the inaccurate statistics was to falsely inflate a variety of economic indicators by 1 or 2 percentage points. That may be enough to make very bad economic news look merely bad. The executives and economists requested anonymity for fear of jeopardizing their relationship with the Chinese authorities, on whom they depend for data and business deals.

The National Bureau of Statistics, the government agency in Beijing that compiles most of the country’s economic statistics, denied that economic data had been overstated.“This is not rooted in evidence,” an agency spokeswoman said.

Some still express confidence in the official statistics. Mark Mobius, the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group, cited the reported electricity figures when he expressed skepticism that the Chinese economy had real difficulties. “I don’t think the economic activity is that bad — just look at the electricity production,” he said.

But an economist with ties to the agency said that officials had begun making inquiries after detecting signs that electricity numbers may have been overstated.

Questions about the quality and accuracy of Chinese economic data are longstanding, but the concerns now being raised are unusual. This year is the first time since 1989 that a sharp economic slowdown has coincided with the once-a-decade changeover in the country’s top leadership.

Officials at all levels of government are under pressure to report good economic results to Beijing as they wait for promotions, demotions and transfers to cascade down from Beijing. So narrower and seemingly more obscure measures of economic activity are being falsified, according to the executives and economists.

“The government officials don’t want to see the negative,” so they tell power managers to report usage declines as zero change, said a chief executive in the power sector.

Another top corporate executive in China with access to electricity grid data from two provinces in east-central China that are centers of heavy industry, Shandong and Jiangsu, said that electricity consumption in both provinces had dropped more than 10 percent in May from a year earlier. Electricity consumption has also fallen in parts of western China. Yet, the economist with ties to the statistical agency said that cities and provinces across the country had reported flat or only slightly rising electricity consumption.

Rohan Kendall, senior analyst for Asian coal at Wood Mackenzie, the global energy consulting firm, said coal stockpiled at Qinhuangdao port reached 9.5 million tons this month, as coal arrives on trains faster than needed by power plants in southern China. That surpasses the previous record of 9.3 million tons, set in November 2008, near the bottom of the global financial downturn.

The next three largest coal storage areas in China — in Tianjin, Caofeidian and Lianyungang — are also at record levels, an executive in China said.

A video recently posted to the Internet depicting an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Syria has garnered a great deal of attention. A Syrian militant group called the Hawks Brigade of the Levant claimed the attack, which targeted a Syrian government armored troop bus as it traveled along a road near a rebel stronghold in the Idlib governorate. According to the group, the attack depicted in the video employed a type of IED called an explosively formed penetrator (EFP). Though the video was shot from a fairly long distance away, it does appear that the IED punched a substantial and focused hole through the armored bus -- precisely the type of effect that would be expected if an EFP were employed against such a target.

Studying the IED technology employed by a militant group is an important way to determine the group's logistics situation and trajectory. It can also be a way to discern if a group is receiving outside training and logistical assistance.

Read More: Are Syria's Rebels Getting Foreign Support?

The ongoing unrest, violence and security crackdowns in Syria have been the subject of major international attention since February. Our current assessment is that the government and opposition forces have reached a stalemate in which the government cannot quell the unrest and the opposition cannot bring down the regime without outside intervention.

In the Dec. 8 Security Weekly, we discussed the covert intelligence war being waged by the United States, Israel and other U.S. allies against Iran. Their efforts are directed not only against Tehran's nuclear program but also against Iran's ability to establish an arc of influence that stretches through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. To that end, the United States and its allies are trying to limit Iran's influence in Iraq and to constrain Hezbollah in Lebanon. But apparently they are also exploring ways to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al Assad, a longtime ally of Iran whose position is in danger due to the current unrest in the country. In fact, a U.S. State Department official recently characterized the al Assad regime as a "dead man walking."

We therefore would like to examine more closely the potential external efforts required to topple the Syrian regime. In doing so, we will examine the types of tools that are available to external forces seeking to overthrow governments and where those tools fit within the force continuum, an array of activities ranging from clandestine, deniable activities to all-out invasion. We will also discuss some of the indicators that can be used by outside observers seeking to understand any efforts taken against the Syrian regime.

Read More: The Syria Crisis: Assessing Foreign Intervention

Little things differ, like when a crew member has a contract that stipulates 5 days on and two days off.... which they then proceed to totally ignore.

We have stated many times that Russia is not a defender of the current regime in Damascus and has no political, economic or other reasons for becoming one. We have never been a major trade and economic partner of that country, the government of which has communicated mostly with the capitals of Western European countries. It is no less clear to us than to others that the main responsibility for the crisis that has swept over the country lies with the Syrian government, that has failed to take the course of reform in due time or draw conclusions from the deep changes unfolding in international relations. This is all true. Yet, there are other facts as well. Syria is a multi-confessional state: in addition to Sunni and Shia Muslims there are Alawites, Orthodox and other Christian confessions, Druzes, and Kurds. Over the last few decades of the secular rule of the Ba’ath party, freedom of conscience has been practiced in Syria, and religious minorities fear that if the regime is broken down this tradition may be interrupted.

http://www.voltairenet.org/On-the-Right-Side-of-History

http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2011/12/08/tepco-fukushima-radiation-isnt-our-problem/

http://www.themilitant.com/2012/7613/761301.html

"100% of U.S. Jobs Added Since 2010 Have Been Self-Employment, Contractor, or Other Jobs Without Unemployment Insurance Benefits"

Since 2010, the economy has added 3.23 million jobs according to the BLS. Of those 3.23 million jobs, 3.33 million (slightly greater than 100%) have been self-employment, contractor, family-business jobs, or other jobs with insufficient wages and therefore ineligible to collect unemployment insurance.

Since 2009 the numbers look much worse. In that timeframe the economy added 2.36 million jobs according to the BLS. Of those 2.36 million jobs, 5.91 million (250%) were self-employment or jobs otherwise not covered by unemployment insurance benefits.

globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/100-of-jobs-added-since-2010-have-been.html

This demo reel shows how it can be done.

Feel free to delete this thread if it's too off-topic for here, but on Friday night my camera was stolen in Somerville, MA along with my lenses and backpack. If you see anything fitting this description, please let me know, I'm happy to provide a reward for anything leading to it (but I'm not too hopeful).

edit: In the end it was recovered. Thanks everyone.

Shot with 5D and GH2 as "B" camera.

Not my work, but I liked the style.

We used my Panasonic AF100 for the above-water shots and the GH2 with Cake 2.0 for the underwater shots, with Voigtlander f0.95 25mm. Directed by James Delgatto.

What impresses me is the commitment by the camera guy to just keep shooting, no matter what happens. If you're impatient, some of the real fun starts at the 3 minute mark.

The phrase that the reporter keeps repeating translates to something like:

"One just doesn't do this. One doesn't behave like this. No, enough. This is no way to act..."

Delightfully understated.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=d23_1338908197

As we all know, a strong story is the foundation of a great movie. This story is like nothing you've ever seen before.