You ask, What makes it worth defending? and the only answer I can give is this: Freedom to write, freedom to read, freedom to own material that you believe is worth defending means you're going to have to stand up for stuff you don't believe is worth defending, even stuff you find actively distasteful, because laws are big blunt instruments that do not differentiate between what you like and what you don't, because prosecutors are humans and bear grudges and fight for re-election, because one person's obscenity is another person's art.

Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.

It's a long article but well argued.

keep to the Fen Causeway

I've had a number of requests to put my exhibition online, plus I have been thinking for a while about putting together my own website to point people at and to promote my work.

Any recommendations for how best to do this in a way that won't cost the earth?  It would need to be capable of holding essays alongside the photos, as well as the usual 'albums' of photos and possibly with a facility to order prints.


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He still has time to totally screw up the country, but right now: Coolest. President. Ever.

Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

I'll have to keep my eye on this one.

Here's the translation (courtesy Google):

The prosecutor calls for a wide range of people to face unconditional imprisonment for the so-called millionaires cocaine case. According to the prosecution there may be seven men in the ring, including four suspected of a felony drug offense.

Most of the men suspected area very wealthy. They own homes, among other places,in  Eira Helsinki and Espoo West Endissä. Several of them have been in custody the investigation.

The case main suspect is barely 50.  The man was a few years ago,  among the 200 richest in Finland. For him the prosecutor calls for the three years of unconditional imprisonment. For the supply of substances, the prosecutor called for the suspected Estonian to receive a three and a half year sentence.

Apparently the cocaine ring had five rules, according to which the cocaine could not be picked up, or  talked about, and could not be taken away or resold. Moreover, the substance had to be used by either all or else none at all could use it.

Helsinki District Court to give verdict in the case 12th December.

Not my scene, so I doubt if I know them, but there has been a bit more coke about in the last couple of years because young wannabe celebrities have had the money for it. They and the financial whizzes are the only ones who have been using it, according to my info.

There's a former Finnish media-celebrity, now MP, who has been on an extended sick leave for months, who could be a victim.

You can't be me, I'm taken

Courtesy of the City University of New York, IndyMedia/Ireland, and Progressive Independent comes news  of public education over the www -- Reading Marx's Capital with David Harvey, audio lectures.

There's theory, and there's ethics. Which is pretty much the same deliberative space preceding action.

In practice, you may be better prepared to make wiser investment decisions.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Or rather - it does, obviously, because there are binaries out there. But I'm buggered if I can work out which obscure collection of config and make file settings, compilers, linkers, repository tools and other dependencies are needed to make it happen - the Simple Build tools listed on the FF site certainly don't do the job.

And I am, in any case, on SuPo's books as a dangerous subversive. <he wrote in exasperation at the lack of acknowledgement for his contributions to Finnish culture>

But I think I must warn you, if you think you are going to jump the queue and shake the hand of the Prez before me, that the combined effects of a thousand people giving off 8 watts of heat each, in a building for which AC means opening doors, and bathed in the tungsten heat/light of the media kleig lights, it gets very very hot. 'Sweating like pigs' is not a noble description, but it is accurate.

This being so, we now have the disturbing news that several prominent guests will be going 'commando'.

Chairman of the Centre Party: "I won't be using drawers'

He is not alone. Several other prominent politicians have announced their intentions to travel and dance light. We'll have to rename it the Feast of St Knickerless, close as it is to the Yule festivities.

My prediction: the after parties that fill the night spots of Helsinki after the Palace do, will be full of challenges to demonstrate underwear status. And you think I'm joking?

You can't be me, I'm taken

I mention in the introduction how the series came about and the power of the internet and blogs like this one in developing communities and new narratives.

The book is available for order online (although full colour is not cheap) and there is a preview of the first few pages if you want to take a peek.  All photos are my own (apart from two small ones of me).  Email me if you'd like the link to the book since it is published under my own name, which I prefer not to directly reveal through ET.

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then here's a clip from a friend from the old San Francisco days, be careful, like today's times, it gets dark before it wakes up.

And here's who's on my mind, my son


Skennah Kowa

you are the media you consume.