[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]
#best news this week
EU bans three bee-killer pesticides: a light of hope for bees and agriculture – “Europe took a significant step in the right direction this Monday as a majority of EU member states voted for a partial ban of three bee-killer pesticides. After the fierce lobbying by the powerful pesticide industry, the vote was a vindication. The bee-killer companies have lost this battle; and the bees have won – for now! This is a success that environmentalists, beekeepers and the considerable amount of European citizens that got involved in the related campaigns can be proud of.” Switzerland has adopted the same ban since.
But. Let us not forget, pesticides are but one of many factors that threaten the bees:
Honey Bee Die-Off Caused by Multiple Factors Including Pesticides – "A federal study released today attributes the massive die-off in American honey bee colonies to a combination of factors, including pesticides, poor diet, parasites and a lack of genetic diversity."
Honey constituents up-regulate detoxification and immunity genes in the western honey bee Apis mellifera – "The widespread apicultural use of honey substitutes, including high-fructose corn syrup, may thus compromise the ability of honey bees to cope with pesticides and pathogens and contribute to colony losses."
#watch and
Two Monkeys Were Paid Unequally: Excerpt from Frans de Waal’s TED Talk – "What happens when you pay two monkeys unequally? Watch what happens."
DJ Koze – “Nices Wölkchen feat. Apparat” – "DJ Koze has a strange encounter in the woods."
Beastie Boys on Being Stupid – "There’s a way we talk and it includes profanity. We never figured we’d be arrested for it."
REGGIE WATTS – Misogynist Serenade – "The incredible @ReggieWatts weaves an epic song from the suggestion, "Misogynist Serenade." "
#learn
DroneShield – "Are you worried about drones coming to America? DroneShield is a small device that alerts you to nearby drones. Join us and help protect your privacy!"
Jello Biafra And The Guantanamo School Of Medicine – White People And The Damage Done – “It’s the long-awaited anti-austerity blast-a-thon with the teeth, venom, and one-of-a-kind music of Jello Biafra & the Guantanamo School of Medicine!”
Shell Game: CreativeCommons release – "The internet gave me Shell Game. I want to give them something back. Today is May Day. The day of workers, immigrants, beautiful young girls, and rebellion. I’m releasing all the art from SHELL GAME on Creative Commons. Share. Remix. Make art. Wheatpaste the world."
Guantanamo Attorney Found Dead in Apparent Suicide – "Andy P. Hart, 38, a federal public defender in Toledo, Ohio, apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Hart left behind a suicide note and a thumb drive, believed to contain his case files. It is unknown where Hart died, what the suicide note said"
Why It’s Still Kicking Off Everywhere – "And for me that is: scorn for the charade played out in the workplace, for discipline, hierarchy, targets achieved, the cheap business suit, the insincere smile, the dead language of corporate communications. And solidarity with one another – large parts of humanity signalling across borders and cultures their belief that a kinder, more human system is possible; and that it will be born out of the chaotic, ironic, playful qualities of human life – not by pitting one cruel hierarchy against another. "
Migration – "This body of work was created as a response to the increasing issues of urban sprawl and deforestation that are destroying wild spaces and displacing animals from their natural habitats. My images show a series of animals navigating through the ruins of industrial society in search of their missing homes. www.nick-pedersen.com"
Pirate Party wins 3 seats in Icelandic parliament for its best result worldwide – "On Saturday, Iceland held national parliamentary elections and the newly-formed Pirate Party of Iceland won 5.1 percent of the vote. This earned the party three seats in parliament, making the new Píratar the most successful Pirate Party in any national legislative body around the globe."
Watch Aaron Swartz Get Interviewed Months Before His Suicide – "the last extensive interview with Aaron Swartz, the 26-year-old programmer and activist who committed suicide in January, months before his federal hacking trial was to get underway."
Why does no news site think big? | David Bauer – "Everyone seems to assume that responsive is all about making your site work well on small screens. Sure enough, that’s important. Yet there’s no particular reason for your site to stop being responsive once it has grown to 1024 or so pixels wide. Look around your office and you’re very likely to see a lot of screens that are a lot wider."
Announcing the official Commons app for iOS and Android – "Love taking photos on your smartphone? Now you don’t need to wait to get home to upload your high quality educational photos to Wikimedia Commons, the free image repository used by Wikipedia and many other projects."
Boards of Canada – Tomorrows Harvest – “Warp Records https://bleep.com/boards-of-canada-tomorrows-harvest” And this fan boy just came.
Datamoshing the Land of Ooo – An interview with David O’Reilly "It’s a back and forth between what works for the story and what’s interesting visually; you can’t structure a narrative around a bunch of interesting visual ideas and vice versa. The world being deleted allowed for a lot of visual corruption of things so that seemed to fit.
DJ Food | I love vinyl and record shops but… – "Entering a record shop is like walking into a huge exhibition of the best and worst music design and packaging from the last half a century. The difference being that the filtering of the collection is up to each shop, a democratic selection based on local tastes and trends, not a predestined selection committee, omitting pieces that the curator deemed unworthy."
Helmet cameras highlight divisions between cyclists and drivers – "Road-rage rider says devices should be used for safety, not online sensationalism" And the video in question is here: FP07KJN Road Rage Assault on Cyclist
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