Check this... very cool concept.
SingAlong by Singha w/ Loveboat Radio au Baron à Cannes
Friday, 6 August 2010
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
EU Commissioner for Innovation earmarks 6bn EUR to support SME innovation!
See the video announcement below... good news for innovative SMEs in a period of still shaky and uncertain economic recovery.
Will you be at ninjatunexx bash in October?
Just got tickets for Ninja Tune label's 20yr bash in London, still can't believe the lineup - Coldcut, Bonobo, Roots Manuva, King Cannibal... the list just goes on!
More info after the link, see promo teaser below.
More info after the link, see promo teaser below.
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
The Cove, Japan bashing and the dolphin's worldwide plight
This film "The Cove"... watched the trailer and here is my response:
FACTS
Taiji Town dolphin catch / yr in 2010 = 2,000 dolphins
(source: Guardian)
1950s - 1990s: dolphins killed worldwide = 25,000,000 est.
1950s - 1990s: dolphins killed by US (Eastern Pacific only) = 4,500,000 (20% worldwide kill)
1950s - 1990s: dolphins killed by Taiji Town = 100,000 (2% US kill)
(source: US government)
* Today and every year, French & UK Fishermen kill 1 Taiji Town worth of dolphins in the English Channel (2004 data) - no Oscar-winning film on this one as of yet
* Today and every year, 150 Taiji Towns worth of dolphins, porpoises and whales are killed worldwide (2004 data) - no Oscar-winning film here either
(source: Greenpeace)
CONCLUSION
By focusing on the strange and barbaric killings of a tiny minority of dolphins (since when is Japan a big dolphin breeding ground?), an attempt is made to portray Japan and the Japanese as alternately ignorant of the dolphins' plight, lacking in the moral fibre to stop this happening in their own country, and apologists for ill treatment of animals generally, which is defamatory and discriminatory.
If you're going to make a film on a fishing village representing only 2% of Eastern Pacific Ocean US dolphin kills over the last 50yrs, let's see the Oscar-winning film on the remaining 100%. By all means make films about the plight of mammals worldwide, just leave the cheap Japan bashing out of it.
SUPPORTING DATA
Taiji Town dolphin catch / yr in 2010 = 2,000 dolphins
(source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/dolphin-hunt-village-defence)
* Total dolphin killed in the UK Channel in 2004 = 1,900 dolphins -> 1 Taiji Town /yr killed by French and UK fishermen
* Total porpoise, dolphin and whale population killed worldwide in 2004 = 300,000 dolphins -> 150 Taiji Towns / yr killed by fishermen worldwide
(source: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/dolphin-killing-trawlers-stopp/)
In the late 1950s, [US] fishermen discovered that yellowfin tuna in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP) aggregated beneath schools of dolphin stocks. Since that discovery, the predominant fishing method in the ETP has been to encircle schools of dolphins with a fishing net to capture tuna concentrated below. Hundreds of thousands of dolphins died in the early years of this fishery.
It became significant in the 1950s when tuna fishermen began to exploit the unique relationship that existed between the tuna and the dolphin. In this zone, the tuna schools swam below the surface swimming dolphin. The fishermen took advantage of this by developing the purse-seine net fishing method. They also used the dolphins to track, chase, and encircle the tuna. Fishermen sealed off any escape routes, catching both the dolphins and the tuna in their nets and many dolphins were killed or injured in this process. While some suffocated due to flipper rostrum (beak), and fluke entanglement, others were crushed by the weight of the tuna or by passing through the power blocks during net retrieval.
Total dolphins killed by US fishing (in 1960s, in Eastern Pacific Ocean only) = 300,000 dolphins -> 150 Taiji Towns /yr killed by US fishermen
(sources: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/ia/intlagree/aidcp.htm, http://www1.american.edu/ted/TUNA.HTM)
International Fisheries Law (valid for US and Central America only)
In the fall of 1992, the nations participating in the ETP tuna fishery convened at the annual meeting of the IATTC and signed the La Jolla Agreement, which placed voluntary limits on the maximum number of dolphins that could be incidentally killed annually in the fishery, lowering the maximum each year over seven years, with a goal of eliminating dolphin mortality in the fishery.
* Country quota of US dolphins killable / yr (in 1993) = 19,500 -> 10 Taiji Towns / yr killable by US fishermen
* Country quota of US dolphins killable / yr (in 1999) = <5,000 -> 3 Taiji Towns / yr killable by US fishermen
(source: http://www.temple.edu/lawschool/drwiltext/docs/The%20La%20Jolla%20Agreement.pdf)
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Great Okinawa restaurant tucked away in downtown Kowloon!
Was walking down Hong Kong's Kowloon area this evening and found this Okinawa restaurant "En Okinawa" tucked away on the 1st floor... amazing I even noticed it.
Great atmosphere and even better food, run by two Okinawans Tomohide and Rika just arrived from Okinawa a couple of months ago - had a great chat about everything Okinawan, even tried a 60-degree alcohol fiery Awamori with a bottle sheathed in its own tressed grasses cover. A little too fiery for me, so tried another 42-degree Awamori on the rocks which was just great! Couple more pictures below.
If you're in Hong Kong and want some great Okinawan, go here. You won't be disappointed. For more info, pictures and reservations, click here.
Monday, 17 May 2010
Liberal Democrat support in the press nowhere to be seen... need a new media strategy
With 6 Liberals in the new UK coalition government, you'd think there was at least some support for them in the press but alas not. I have been rather bemused at the coverage for candidates during and in the aftermath of the UK's general election: Mirror resolutely Labour (so no change there), Times/Telegraph/DailyMail (all resolutely Conservative so no change, but now paint the Liberals in a neutral/good light as per current party diktat), but the only two newspapers that came out in favour of the Liberals during the campaign (Guardian) and openly endorsed their candidacy (Independent) are now actively undermining them.
On the night of the election, when the Conservative count was outstripping the Liberal count, suddenly the Guardian flipped and started talking up the benefits of a Conservative government (huh? I thought, but thought it was just a blip simply reporting on the parliamentary numbers). During the campaign, even though the Independent only proferred its support in the last week of the election (why so late?), a certain John Retoul was raving negative about the Liberals on the paper's blog pages. You'd think this was common dissent on an otherwise Liberal-leaning paper, again, fair enough.
One week post-election and to my bafflement, the Guardian and Independent have moved resolutely into anti-Liberal, pro-Conservative territory. The Guardian has wheeled out Polly Toynbee the eternal Labour supporter commentator (what? they just lost) and delivers editorials on how Labour could do better next time, general comment is generally dismissive of Liberal efforts (although Mark Pack delivers somewhat guardedly positive comments but never gets to the website's top page), and Conservative developments are reported neutrally. On the Independent, John Rentoul openly undermines Nick Clegg and his party "file under childish, silly and moderately funny", old-Tory-leather-boot Bruce Anderson does the same "the average Liberal constituency activist is an angry fanatic, with shallow, thoughtless opinions, utterly unscrupulous on the doorstep, ready to spread any smear and tell any lie" and Labour is given the odd soapbox in the comment section to talk about "listening and reconnecting". Wow. With friends like this, as they say, who needs enemies?
A major priority of the Liberals should be to create an overwhelming media channel into the echo-friendly blogosphere because when the going gets tough, the Blue/Red press shouting match will drown out your message and you'll lose the ability to shape opinion to your benefit (or at least get your ideas through to people untainted by rival party propaganda). Better start soon while you're ahead!
On the night of the election, when the Conservative count was outstripping the Liberal count, suddenly the Guardian flipped and started talking up the benefits of a Conservative government (huh? I thought, but thought it was just a blip simply reporting on the parliamentary numbers). During the campaign, even though the Independent only proferred its support in the last week of the election (why so late?), a certain John Retoul was raving negative about the Liberals on the paper's blog pages. You'd think this was common dissent on an otherwise Liberal-leaning paper, again, fair enough.
One week post-election and to my bafflement, the Guardian and Independent have moved resolutely into anti-Liberal, pro-Conservative territory. The Guardian has wheeled out Polly Toynbee the eternal Labour supporter commentator (what? they just lost) and delivers editorials on how Labour could do better next time, general comment is generally dismissive of Liberal efforts (although Mark Pack delivers somewhat guardedly positive comments but never gets to the website's top page), and Conservative developments are reported neutrally. On the Independent, John Rentoul openly undermines Nick Clegg and his party "file under childish, silly and moderately funny", old-Tory-leather-boot Bruce Anderson does the same "the average Liberal constituency activist is an angry fanatic, with shallow, thoughtless opinions, utterly unscrupulous on the doorstep, ready to spread any smear and tell any lie" and Labour is given the odd soapbox in the comment section to talk about "listening and reconnecting". Wow. With friends like this, as they say, who needs enemies?
A major priority of the Liberals should be to create an overwhelming media channel into the echo-friendly blogosphere because when the going gets tough, the Blue/Red press shouting match will drown out your message and you'll lose the ability to shape opinion to your benefit (or at least get your ideas through to people untainted by rival party propaganda). Better start soon while you're ahead!
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