K D.

The World of Music, Arts and Dance

The first WOMAD festival ran in the UK in 1982. Supported by Peter Gabriel (ex Genesis), the aim was to bring together the best musicians, artists and performers from all around the world. It was an idea that worked beautifully, and now WOMAD festivals take place all over the world, mixing western 'pop', rock and folk music with ethnic, traditional and cutting edge material from a huge range of performers and a huge range of cultures.

In the UK the 3 day WOMAD festival takes place every year at the end of July at Charlton Park in Wiltshire in 2011 it will have 9 stages, a world food fair, global arts and craft, a steam fair, camp grounds, kids events, health and well-being
Lots of fun for all the family. Lots of good music from all around the world.

Around the world WOMAD have run over 160 festivals in 27 countries.

In 2011 they have already run festivals in Abu Dhabi, New Zealand, Australia, Gran Canary, and Sicily. Still to come are Spain, and England.

Who's hot in Mali? What gets your feet tapping from Cuba? Listen to new artists from USA, Japan, New Zealand, UK

If you can't make a festival, see the list of artists on the website then check them out on YouTube some great new sounds. Enjoy!

http://womad.org

Should any books be banned? American Library Association

This worthy group of librarians, committed to the concepts of free speech, access to libraries and against the censorship of books, frequently get hauled into the news when political or religious groups try to ban certain books in public libraries.

The annual lists they compile of these attempts to ban or restrict the rights of access of Americans to legally published literature are very interesting.

Books challenged or banned in 2010

1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality, religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Reasons: Offensive language, racism, sex education, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Reasons: Insensitivity, offensive language, racism, sexually explicit

4. Crank by Ellen Hopkins
Reasons: Drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

6. Lush by Natasha Friend
Reasons: Drugs, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

7. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones
Reasons: Sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

8. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Reasons: Drugs, inaccurate, offensive language, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint

9. Revolutionary Voices: A Multicultural Queer Youth Anthology edited by Amy Sonnie
Reasons: Homosexuality, sexually explicit

10. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, violence

For the full list see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek/ideasandresources/free_downloads/2010banned.pdf

From a European view, I accept that there are books that I would not like to see displayed in a primary school – but the idea of banning any book that is legally published and breaks no criminal law from ALL libraries absolutely horrifies me.

That is the sort of action of the worst religious bigots, Nazis and Communists. Banning books isn't much different to burning books – I see images of Germany in the 1930s with bonfires of books being fed by strutting brown-shirted thugs...

Until I saw these articles I had little idea that in America, land of the free, with a constitution that protects freedom of speech, that such an assault on intellectual freedom was even possible outside of a few eccentric religious communities.

Over the years the ALA lists actually pinpoint some of the best writing in the English language – see the historic list of banned classics below:

1. The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye, by J. D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses, by James Joyce
7. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
8. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
9.1984, by George Orwell
11. Lolita, by Vladmir Nabokov
12. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
15. Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
16. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
17. Animal Farm, by George Orwell
18. The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
19. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner
20. A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway
23. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
24. Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison
25. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
26. Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
27. Native Son, by Richard Wright
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
29. Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
30. For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway
33. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
36. Go Tell it on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
38. All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren
40. The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
45. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair
48. Lady Chatterley's Lover, by D. H. Lawrence
49. A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess
50. The Awakening, by Kate Chopin
53. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
55. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
57. Sophie's Choice, by William Styron
64. Sons and Lovers, by D. H. Lawrence
66. Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut
67. A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
73. Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
74. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
75. Women in Love, by D. H. Lawrence
80. The Naked and the Dead, by Norman Mailer
84. Tropic of Cancer, by Henry Miller
88. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
97. Rabbit, Run, by John Updike

For the full list see:

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/index.cfm

Well done to the ALA for maintaining the fight against censorship!

Maybe we should give these book lists to our children – and suggest that they DO read the books on the list and discuss why some people want them banned. They should decide for themselves if they are distasteful – and understand that in a free society we trust them to read, think, discuss and come to their own conclusions…

http://www.ala.org

Tried and tested recipes from top chefs. Good food!

Looking for inspiration in the kitchen? This website brings together a selection of articles, videos and recipes from a selection of world class chefs – Antonio Carluccio, Mary Berry, Ainsley Harriot, Ken Hom, Madhur Jaffrey, Annabel Karmel and Rick Stein.

The website www.mykitchentable.co.uk hope that visitors will be tempted to buy some of their cookbooks, but if you just want a trawl around some mouth-watering recipes from some great cooks, it's well worth a visit. Pictures are good and tempting.

Lots of videos – from simple techniques to more complex stuff.

The Thai New Year recipes are yummy. Recommended!

Lies and crooks behind the news, politics and business

Crooks and Liars digs up embarrassing 'mistakes' 'misspokes (sic Hilary Clinton)' and downright lies from top politicians and business people. It is biased to American news stories but not exclusively. Anyway, the American stories are usually funny enough to warrant a peek at the site. Crooks and Liars also asks some of the tougher questions that quite a few main stream journalists conveniently forget to bring forward.

http://crooksandliars.com/

Three stars.

Check out the credit card fraud article!

Why I'm recommending it is they have put up an article about an American credit card thief and scammer who was caught then did a deal to work for the U S Secret Service fighting against his former associates.

Link to the article:

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/secrets-former-credit-card-thief-dan-defelippi-1282.php

If you or your family use credit cards it's worth a read.

Creditcards.com is a credit card comparison site if you need a credit card it's worth a look, but if you're in the UK I'd also go to moneysavingexpert.com for a second opinion. Maybe someone could recommend the best US consumer finance comparison site?

BE CAREFUL another reviewer (Sarah P) says this site passed on her address to spammers. It might be wise not to put in personal details.

If you are looking for credit card comparisons, skim the site for information and then go direct to the best provider and ask for the same deal.

Dubious Online Fashion Clothing - BE CAREFUL!

http://www.efashionclothing.com

Thought I'd wait for a couple of days after the removal of all those fake positive reviews, and give the site owner some time for all those 'minor problems' on this website to be sorted out. Surely that will take just a day or two?
Checked it out today (12th April).

Verisign Secured Logo STILL UP, STILL FAKE
PayPal Verified Logo STILL UP, STILL FAKE
Street Address NOTHING
'Live Support' OFFLINE (Please leave a message, blah, blah blah)
Contact telephone? NONE

If anyone wants to try and find them, this is some of their background info:

Registration Service Provided By: TMDHOSTING
Contact: *******635

Domain Name: EFASHIONCLOTHING.COM

Registrant:
eFashionClothing.Com
Moolchand Tanwar ()
146 Grace Street Apt No 5
Jersey City
New Jersey, *******
US
Tel. *******983

Creation Date: 17-Jun-2010
Expiration Date: 17-Jun-2014

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.tmdhosting610.com
ns2.tmdhosting610.com

Administrative Contact:
eFashionClothing.Com
Moolchand Tanwar ()
146 Grace Street Apt No 5
Jersey City
New Jersey, *******
US
Tel. *******983

Technical Contact:
eFashionClothing.Com
Moolchand Tanwar ()
146 Grace Street Apt No 5
Jersey City
New Jersey, *******
US
Tel. *******983

Billing Contact:
eFashionClothing.Com
Moolchand Tanwar ()
146 Grace Street Apt No 5
Jersey City
New Jersey, *******
US
Tel. *******983

There is an email contact: *******@gmail.com

Meanwhile, my personal opinion is that you'd have to be crazy to send any money to these guys a wise old farmer said ' If it smells like sh*t, looks like sh*t, and sticks to your boot like sh*t, well boy, chances are it's sh*t.' Agreed.

After seeing all the active complaints on SJ - I have just checked out this website. It is "Closed for Maintenance". Well done everyone! It seems that under a deluge of complaints on SJ you've helped shut down a scammer. Just hope those of you who've lost money manage to get some or all of it back. Good luck.

Blue Flag Best Cleanest Safest Beaches

What has England got 66 of, Ireland 74 and France 319? Spain's got 520 and Greece 412. Poor old New Zealand only has 4 (which I find hard to believe) and the USA has none! Answer – Blue Flag approved beaches.

Well, maybe the Americans won't let in the inspectors – as Blue Flag was started in 1987 in Europe, and the Europeans go in for all sorts of dubious behaviour, topless sunbathing, naturist beaches… They even have national health programmes to look after all their citizens – how weird is that?

But guys, surely an organisation that tests and flags beaches for safety, cleanliness, absence of industrial waste, effluent, chemicals etc., is a good thing? No? Oh well…

Anyway, if you are looking for a good beach in Europe, South Africa, Canada, Caribbean, South America – one that is clean and where the water is safe and clean – check out Blue Flag – they will give you all the information that you need.

http://www.blueflag.org

Happy holidays!

P.S. They also rate marinas - presumably not for swimming in.

Modernist Cuisine - The Ultimate Cookbook. A mere $625 or UK£395 will buy you 6 volumes and 2,438 pages of everything you ever wanted to know about cooking.

When I first saw this reviewed, I thought it was an April Fool joke. It isn't. It's as serious about food as you can get.

An extract of the review from 'The Independent' says:

'Two of its authors, Chris Young and Maxime Bilet, are young alumni of The Fat Duck. (Heston Blumenthal's restaurant) But the main mover and shaker behind the project is Nathan Myhrvold, a bearded inventor and polymath about whom techies and foodies speak with hushed and awestruck amazement. He was the first "chief technology officer" at Microsoft, who graduated to "chief gastronomic officer" at Zagat Surveys, publishers of the famous guidebooks. A Microsoft multi-billionaire, 18-carat wiggy genius (he worked with Stephen Hawking on quantum theories of gravity while doing postgraduate work at Cambridge), he has visited the world's top restaurants and, magpie-like, picked up all manner of secrets from their cutting-edge chefs. So, having harvested the world's expertise about food, he has been busily turning it into "modernist" cooking and publishing the result in a boringly titled but gargantuanly promoted chef d'oeuvre.'

So now you know. For the full review, see:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/a-feast-for-the-eyes-inside-the-worldrsquos-most-incredible-cookbook-*******.html

Check out the website http://modernistcuisine.com/

Order online if you have the interest and the cash – but you might not get a copy – apparently, supplies are limited.

Not being a Microsoft multi-billionaire I might wait for the second-hand paperback version on Amazon, but it does sound like it would be interesting to leaf through…

The photos and explanations of techniques and cooking processes are said to be fantastic. At that price, they should be!

Steampunk workshop - Victorian Technology Married to the 21st Century

For those crazies who love the technology mix between Philip Pullman's books, Jules Verne, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Who, Mad Max and the modern world.

Of course airships should be powered by steam engines. Computers should be made of brass, leather and wood. Machines should have glowing valves and beautifully engineered mechanical links… The designs are just more fun!

One day I will get a bespoke steampunk computer – meanwhile, I will just look at the projects on sites like http://steampunkworkshop.com/ and enjoy their inventiveness.

You don't have to smoke a Meerschaum pipe, wear a deerstalker or aviator hat and goggles to enjoy the website – but it might help.

Steam Punk Computer - Help Build Charles Babbage's 'Difference Engine'

Plan 28 is the plan to create the original 'steam powered computer' – Charles Babbage's concept 'Difference Engine.'

A first attempt at fund raising for the project didn't reach the target by the end of January 2011. The organiser of the project, John Graham-Cumming has gone back to the drawing board and is now trying to figure out how to turn the interest of the roughly 4,000 people who had pledged support onto a longer term project. He is also scouting for more funds.

On the plus side, Doran Swade (what a great name), curator of computing at the Science Museum in London and a world expert on Babbage has come on board. They are now hoping to complete the project by 2021.

Anyone interested can sign up for newsletters. And if you want to contribute in cash or time or publicity, they'll welcome you with open arms.

Steam Punk Lives! http://plan28.org/

Saucy, cheeky, rude postcards. Traditional British seaside postcards.

Before package holidays to Spain were invented and when British workers used to get one week's holiday a year, or maybe a 'works outing', they and their families would head for the nearest seaside resort, paddle in the sea, eat ice cream, shellfish, fish and chips, play games and generally have as much fun as they could cram in to a few short days. To prove what a good time they were having they would scandalise friends and family by sending saucy postcards, usually with fairly blatant double entendres...

Originals of these postcards are now quite valuable and much sought after by collectors.

One of the biggest producers was Bamforth Postcards.

Their website http://www.bamforthpostcards.co.uk will show you some samples, but if you go to Google Images and search for 'Bamforth Postcards' you'll get a better selection. How rude!

High quality kitchen and home gizmos and gadgets. Good service. Great shops.

If you love cooking you'll love Lakeland. It's still a family run business, built up over the last 50 years. Their shops and their online catalogue are full of clever kitchen and home gadgets – and are (nearly always) top quality stuff.

They are nice people to do business with, and do their best to help you. As a keen cook I have a problem going into one of their 51 UK shops and NOT buying anything. My wife tries to steer me away. How many knife sharpeners / roasting trivets / storage jars / easy peelers / etc., do we need?

For online orders going offshore from the UK you'll get the 20% VAT deducted – but shipping will cost £10 + for EU, £20 + for non EU countries + so it will all probably balance out. http://www.lakeland.co.uk

Good stuff.

British Waterways Leisure Website – Rivers, Canals, Lakes, Reservoirs.

Sailing, narrow boats, motor cruisers, kayaks, rowing, fishing, swimming, walking, cycling, drawing, painting, geography, history, architecture – millions of people relax every year by Britain's waterways. If the weather is kind, sunbathing and family picnics, if it's chilly – walk to a local pub and eat great food with a local beer in front of a roaring fire…

With a large network of canals built up in the 18th and 19th centuries, few people in the UK live far from a British Waterway. Canals and navigable rivers make their way through our largest cities.

These are wonderful leisure resources and the British Waterways Board (http://www.waterscape.com) exists both to supervise and manage our waterways, but also to help British citizens and visitors to get the most from our fantastic waterways all year around. (Try a week on a cozy centrally heated narrow boat in winter - wonderful!) Maps, activities, events, contacts, advice - loads of information – recommended.

International Anti Internet Fraud Group - Four Stars

Good forums, good news feeds, good advice pages – very interesting. Also has an international team, working with different languages, attacking internet fraud and scammers around the world. They look like good people... Worth checking out.

http://www.fraudwatchers.org

Techy Blog / Newsletter from Europe – What's Hot in the Tech World

Tech Crunch Europe is a European focused blog / newsletter on tech matters from the European view. There are sister blogs covering just France and just Japan. In Aug 2009 it was named one of the top ten blogs out of the UK. Lots of other prizes and kudos scattered around. Interesting and keeps me in touch with what is going on. Any techies out there will probably get even more out of it! (I just drive the car - I don't want to know how to fix the engine…) Cool. http://eu.techcrunch.com/

Qatar English Newspaper - Great Links to World Newspapers

'The Peninsula' is one of two main English language daily papers in Qatar, an Emirate on the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. Qatar, blessed with huge resources of natural gas, punches far above its weight in the Middle East. It maintains a feisty independence of view, and is much more liberal in its outlook than Saudi Arabia – needless to say, the Saudis mainly regard Qataris as upstart pains in the rear – and in general, Qataris are quite pleased to be recognised as pushing the envelope in the region.

During the current turmoil in the Arab world, Qatar has so far been quite peaceful. This can probably be explained by having a tiny population, all of which benefits very generously from the national income. Workers are mainly imported from the Indian sub-continent and other Arab countries, and if they start to make trouble, they will simply be sent home…Most don't want that, as salaries and conditions are pretty good in Qatar.

The newspaper website http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com is worth a look if you are interested in views from Qatar.

However, the page I have bookmarked is below:

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/publication.html

On this page 'The Peninsula' has very kindly assembled links to virtually every major newspaper from nearly every country in the world. Click on the country, scan the selection, click on the paper of your choice – very useful for news junkies!

Scambuster Weekly Newsletter Free!

Set up by two dedicated American anti-scammers, Audri and Jim Lanford, www.scambusters.org issues a weekly newsletter on internet fraud and other scams targeting modern consumers. At the time of writing (March 2011) they are on issue number 140. Subscription is FREE. It is more general information and advice than Site Jabber, which obviously focuses on individual websites. However, I think most Site Jabber readers would be interested.

Scambuster.org gives links to various news stories on consumer fraud, rundowns on how frauds are set up, updates and advice on common scams and frauds.
The website is pretty well laid out and the links are clear and easy to find.
Run by a very small team, it is funded by click through ads, special offers and donations - can't blame them for that – it's expensive to run a big site and even a small team costs money to work full time. (Site Jabber has a cleaner, better designed website in my opinion – but does not have the clutter of ads as it has external funding.)

Scambusters have been featured in a whole host of media. (See http://www.scambusters.org/press.html)

Like Site Jabber, Scambusters shows how just a team of a few good people can help make a difference in the fight against internet crime and other frauds. Kudos.

Four stars.

Prezi - Business, Student, Academic Presentations Online

Need to do a business or academic presentation? Want something that is better and easier to navigate around than boring old PowerPoint? That has lots of extra features – zooming, drawing, etc?

The Prezi Online presentation system knocks the socks off PowerPoint. Dreamed up by some clever Hungarians, Prezi takes business and student presentation up a league – and it is pretty easy to learn. And it's FREE. Microsoft must be very pissed off. Very, very clever. 4 stars! www.prezi.com

I wondered how to explain it, went to Wikipedia and can't really come up with a better description so here is theirs:

"Prezi is a web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides. Text, images, videos and other presentation objects are placed on the infinite canvas and grouped together in frames. The canvas allows users to create non-linear presentations, where users can zoom in and out of a visual map.[1] A path through different objects and frames can be defined, representing the order of the information to be presented. The presentation can be developed in a browser window, then downloaded so that an Internet connection is not needed when showing the presentation.

Prezi uses the freemium model. Customers who use the free Prezi Public license must publish their work on the Prezi site. Customers who pay for a Prezi Enjoy or Prezi Pro license can create and share private Prezis. Prezi also offers a special education license for students and educators."

Thank you Wiki - nice write up! Thank you Prezi - great system!

Used car SCAM TRADER WARNING!

Another very smelly site from the very bad fish factory on the Isle of Man
Clone site of autousedcars.com and autoparks.co.uk (look at the reviews on Site Jabber)

Same bunch of crooks, scammers and scumbags.

Read the warning from the Isle of Man Government below:

UPDATE FROM ISLE OF MAN GOVERNMENT

http://www.gov.im/fsc/ViewNews.gov?page=lib/news/fsc/bogusinternetcar1.xml

Update: Bogus Internet Car Sales - F. S. C Public Warnings

This notice is issued by the Financial Supervision Commission ("the Commission") in accordance with the powers conferred upon it under Section 30 of the Financial Services Act 2008.

autoparks.co.uk Autoparks Plc

ioofmausedcar.com IoofmaUsedCar Plc

cars-direct-inc.com CarsDirect Plc

iomusedcars.com IomUsedCars Plc

swift-usedcars.com Swift-UsedCars Plc

autousedcar.co.uk AutoUsedCar Plc

The Commission has become aware of the above listed websites and companies.

All of the sites purport to offer motor vehicles for sale. Text and pictures used on these websites appear to have been copied, without authority, from the websites of genuine car dealing companies.

Within the text of the above listed websites, there is the suggestion that they represent companies located in the Isle of Man using addresses in Castlemona Avenue, Prospect Terrace, Kingswood Grove in Douglas, the Isle of Man Business Park in Braddan, Isle of Man and AutoUsedCar PLC, Hills Meadow Industrial, Douglas. Whilst these are genuine addresses in the Isle of Man, there is no trace of companies by these names operating from there.

No companies by these names are incorporated in the Isle of Man.

It should be noted that there are a large number of what appear to be false testimonies extolling the virtues of the above named entities listed on the internet. Care should be taken with the validity and worth of these postings.

Under the circumstances the Commission feels that any approach relating to the above websites may be an attempt at persuading the viewer to part with money for non existing motor vehicles,

OR

Is an attempt at gaining personal data from the recipient in order to steal their identity see explanatory notice issued by the Commission at:

http://www.fsc.gov.im/ViewNews.gov?menuid=*******&page=lib/news/fsc/identitytheft.xml

Also see information issued by the Isle of Man Office of the Data Protection Supervisor at:
http://www.gov.im/lib/news/odps/yourinformationy.xml

Under all the circumstances the Commission would discourage people from having any contact with the above named entities.

Any persons who are already involved in dealings with the purported entities and have concerns should contact the Enforcement Division on +44 1624 ******* or by email to *******@gov.im.

Any persons who have paid out funds to the above purported entities or supplied personal or financial details to them should consider contacting their local police fraud unit without delay.

Updated 3 March 2011 from Warning NDR/002/2011 to include details of additional subjects: swift-usedcars.com Swift-UsedCars PLC and autousedcar.co.uk AutoUsedCar PLC

Please Note: The crooks behind this website have issued threats against Site Jabber contributors. These threats and all details of the correspondence have been passed onto the police and trading standards authorities.

THIS IS NOT A LEGITIMATE BUSINESS DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY OR ANY OF THE OTHER COMPANIES LISTED IN THE ISLE OF MAN GOVERNMENT WARNING!