When Two Cyborgs Met

Neil Harbisson, and pioneer of implants, Professor Kevin Warwick met at the 2045: A Futurist's Symposium in the UK in October 2013:

Neil Harbisson and Kevin Warwick*

Hear Neil's TED Talk I listen to colour: 
http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_harbisson_i_listen_to_color.html




Read about Professor Warwick at the 2009 World Science Festival: on 'Battlestar Galactica: Cyborgs on the Horizon':

"....the story of how he became the “World’s First Cyborg” yet left a deep impression. (A microchip embedded in a nerve in his wrist transmitted perceptible pulses to directly to his brain, based on signals sent via the Internet across the Atlantic ocean.)"

More here:

http://blog.ted.com/2009/06/15/world_science_f_1/


*Photo courtesy of Mariana Viada / Cyborg Foundation

International Women's Day 2013

On International Women's Day 2013 hear Kakenya Ntaiya speak at TED agreeing to female circumcision if she could go to school:

More on IWD here: http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp#.UTp10qKvaSo

Below, pictures from last month's One Billion Rising in Parliament Square, London, 14 February 2013.

Ruby Wax, 1 Billion Rising, Feb 2013

Jon Snow head & shoulders above the rest!

1 Billion and Rising

Today, Thursday 14 February 2013 saw worldwide gatherings for 1 Billion and Rising to end violence, including (dis) honour killings, rape, against women the world over.

Why they rose:

"ONE IN THREE WOMEN ON THE PLANET WILL BE RAPED OR BEATEN IN HER LIFETIME.*

ONE BILLION WOMEN VIOLATED IS AN ATROCITY

 ONE BILLION WOMEN DANCING IS A REVOLUTION"

From here: http://www.onebillionrising.org/pages/about-one-billion-rising


News of today's 1 Billion and Rising event in Parliament Square in  the Guardian here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2013/feb/14/one-billion-rising-celebrities-london-video


Pictures from Parliament Square (from Demotix.com):

Yvette Cooper & Thandie Newton

Ruby Wax 

DJango and DJango Unchained

Quentin Tarantino's use of the Luis Bacalov Django 1966 composition, featuring Rocky Roberts' Elvis-style vocals from the  Franco Nero starrer in his latest cinematic feast DJango Unchained is pure genius! [Loved his Kill Bill Vol 1 use of *Santa Esmeralda's I'm just a soul whose intentions are good, oh Lord please don't let me be misunderstood]'.

Trailer for DJango 1966:

Details for the tune:

Song from spaghetti western film Django (1966)
Directed by Sergio Corbucci

Starring Franco Nero
Music composed by Luis Bacalov
Song performed by Rocky Roberts (see image right)

From here:

http://youtu.be/lNUpbYwj57k

End of DJango 1966:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHZ2lbJYNz4



DJango Unchained 2012 trailer:








Quentin Tarantino interview on UK Channel 4 News 
Channel 4 news' Krishnan Guru-Murthy provocative interview with Quentin Tarantino

"KGM: Let me ask you about violence. You said, you know, everyone knows you make violent movies, you like violent movies. Why do you like making violent movies?
QT: Erm... I don't know. It's like asking Judd Apatow: "Why do you like making comedies?"
KGM: You just get a kick out of it? Or you just enjoy it? Or...
QT: It's... It's... It's a... I think... I think it's good cinema. I consider it good cinema. You know, it's... You sit there in a movie theatre when these cathartic, violent scenes happen... I'm talking about the cathartic violence scenes.
(...)
..Then there's the cathartic violence of Django paying back blood for blood.
KGM: Is that why you think people like watching violent movies -- people who are not violent people or twisted people in any way, but why it's OK to go into a movie and enjoy the violence?

QT: Yeah, well, it's a movie. It's a fantasy. It's a fantasy -- it's not real life. It's a fantasy. You go and you watch. You know, you watch a kung-fu movie and one guy takes on 100 people in a restaurant. That's fun!"

Make up your own mind, about whether movie producers should be held responsibility for violence, rather than the perpetrators, and view the full Guru-Murthy & Tarantino's interview here:

http://www.channel4.com/news/quentin-tarantino-im-shutting-your-butt-down 



From Ian Jack's article in the Guardian:

"To chastise the director for fictions and anachronisms may be to miss the point. We know Tarantino's interest doesn't so much lie in history as in the history of films; not so much in the time depicted as in previous depictions of the time. Spaghetti westerns, blaxploitation movies, John Wayne: all get their salute as the two men change the purpose of their travels from the hunt for profitable criminals to the finding and freeing of Django's wife, who is still enslaved on a Mississippi plantation owned by the capricious Mr Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio). And yet Tarantino, to judge by his promotional interviews, wants it both ways: to create a preposterous entertainment and at the same time to have it taken seriously as a rewarding study of American slavery."

Read more here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/25/bloody-mayhem-tarantino-django-seriously


I loved the movie and hope it wins the 5 Oscars it's nominated* for (including "Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen" for Tarantino).

*Addendum: Congratulations to  DJango Unchained team, the film won 2 Oscars in 2013: Quentin Tarantino for Original Screenplay, and Christoph Waltz for Supporting Actor.



That *Santa Esmeralda tune:

Snow sculptures: Dalek by Steve Battle and Deborah Cooper

UK snow in January 2013 has seen some fabulous snow sculptures; Steve Battle and Deborah Cooper's snow dalek is the best by far!

Image from Steve Battle's website here:
http://battle-bot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/snowbot-dalek.html