Nonwrestler Blog

6x Population of New Zealand = Number of People Currently Slaves

Someone linked me to an interesting interview with a Benjamin Skinner, who has researched slavery for the past 4 years and concluded there are more slaves today than at any other time in human history.

About 27 million people.

Scary.

Labels: life

Posted at 9:42 AM  0 Comments Links to this post

Chain emails annoy me, generally.

(Haha, I hope this makes sense - try an anagram dictionary if you get lost :) )

I have seen smoe dmub eailms taht say taht you can raed wdors eailsy if the fsrit and lsat leertts are kpet in the rghit pacle.

It's carp.

If you sartt to make wdors legnor and legnor you fnid tehy qcikluy bcemoe naer ibilmopsse to ceehmnoprd whiotut a sacfgiiinnt ieemnnstvt of time and eengry.

Wdors lkie "uaddeinnnrstg", "legghhiitwt" and "eaacdiontul" are vrey cmmoon, but hrad to raed lkie tihs.

Aslo, any time you taegnrrsss sablllye badeinorus wehn raaegirrnng leertts, tghins get rcdiillosuuy hrad to wrok out. For ealmpxe, "eailms" and "leertts" are not as esay to raed as "dmub", rghit?

Aaddiillnoty, the dman eailm geivs you smoe rlues! It's knid of esay wehn yuo hvae scuh a big hnit as the fsrit leertt.

Fnialyl, ehre's a senteenc weher teh irfst adn lats ltetser era ont in hte rtigh aplce. Ahrd to aerd, but maeyb oyu acn stlli reda it? Hsort owrsd, ont mvode too far.

So all we can raelly say is taht we can raed wdors wehn tehy are colse to rghit. Wow. Oh boy. Not eacltxy rcekot scceine.

Labels: life

Posted at 4:39 PM  0 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #71: Röyksopp - Happy Up Here (Holy Fuck Remix)

Although they can't stomach writing out the remixing band's name, Spinner do allow you to download the MP3 for free.

Echoing distorted fx I guess come from a guitar, but it's all a sort of punk dub blur. A live rhythm section of bass and drums lay down a pretty heavy groove, with the drums doing a semi-military, rolling thing. Lots of snare drums all over the show. Big, sparkly keyboard lines are presumably what's left of the original... and are complemented nicely by synths than plunge out of the sky towards the ground.

Sort of modern day, more party-friendly take on Liquid Liquid or someone.

Röyksopp are a duo from Norway, probably best known for their tunes with MR FANTASTICALLY AWESOME, I mean, Erlend Øye.

The Canadian band Holy Fuck are known for doing the gestures of electronica in a live band format, so dunno how they went about this remix.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 6:00 PM  0 Comments Links to this post

A plant that eats rats

If you're on Facebook and can't see the pic View Original Post
I don't know if I should find this picture amusing, but the rat looks kind of embarrassed more than anything.

Sticky.

The pic comes from The Daily Telegraph, which has a story about this newly-classified plant.

Labels: misc time-wasting

Posted at 3:20 PM  0 Comments Links to this post

Pilger critique of Obama re: Imperialism

This Youtube clip is a pretty interesting half hour.
If you're reading this via Facebook click "View Original Post" down the bottom of this note to see it on my blog.


Pilger makes lots of people grumpy - particularly in Australia I met plenty of journalists who say he's known for misconstruing stuff wilfully - but there's nothing he says here that I know to be wrong.

Labels: politics, youtube

Posted at 7:35 AM  0 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #70: Lomov - Sammelbecken Ost

This is another one from a net label that has folded, but which The Internet Archive keeps alive.

The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. Bluh bluh bluh. No wait, I mean, this is another spacey ambioso number. Ridiculously deep bass synth and twitchy sonar pings shift about in stereo space. Everything is drenched in reverbs or echoes or both. Sounds are muffled right down and slowly resurface. No percussion, but it's not really drone-based either. The use of the bending synth bassline in particular makes me think of sparse chugging electronic stuff from the late 70s and early 80s, and in a good way.

I've been meaning to post something from this guy since forever. Lomov is a prolific German producer, who happens to only release his stuff for free. He's done lots of good releases and it's interesting to check out contemporary electronic stuff by someone who started producing when he was 40. I kind of thrashed his music to death a few years back, but still come back and dip into it from time to time and come across some great moments. This release, Unterflurhydrant, is probably the deepest and most static / minimal. Try Free Port if you like the territory but want something with a bit more energy.

He is also one of the two bods that run Stadtgruen, the net label that released this particular compilation.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 6:00 PM  1 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #69: Débruit - Pointy

XLR8R once again prove to be the best place to pick up 3-legged hip-hop grooves. Lurch, lurch...

Chords that go waaaaap like 'The Message' or Datsun Stereo (heh), a sparse has hell slow-mo drum beat, strange chopped up horns that sound like they're coming in from out of space. Things sound reversed when they're not. When the bass comes in and refuses to sit still it's ... choice!

Débruit is a French producer and DJ. I keep thinking I'm sick of the kind of shit he's peddling. Tis very "now". But really it's just the old Sturgeon's Law thang. One thing in Débruit's favour is he's got some pretty straightahead grooves too, so it's not all fiddly fiddly, it's just a weird kind of club music. Check out 'Congo Whoomp' on his myspace above... Crazy madness.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 6:00 PM  0 Comments Links to this post

Weekly mp3 #68: Eric Delay - Kindheitsraum (Martin Schulte Remix)

This was released by the now defunct Green Rat net label, but can still be downloaded thanks to the Internet Archive.

Ambient techno, I s'pose. A couple of drum machine kick drums, a fluttering drawn out tone and flutes looping about to form chords. Layers of noise suggest a crowd talking around a swimming pool, but with you at the bottom of the pool. Or somesuch.

The EP has the producers remixing each other. Martin Schulte is an alias of a guy from Russia - seems everyone making techno wants to sound German, ja? Marat Shibaev sounds way more exotic to me. Meanwhile, Eric Delay is apparently from Quebec, Canada, and also born in Ulyanovsk, Russia. His Myspace also says his music is made by "Erik and fictitious friends". So, frankly, who knows what's going on? Gets the big shrug from me.

Labels: music, weekly mp3

Posted at 6:00 PM  0 Comments Links to this post