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Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink

2009-04-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink• Newspaper to be available only on messaging service

• Experts say any story can be told in 140 characters
Comments (236) Rio Palof The Guardian, Wednesday 1 April 2009 Article history
Printing presses will fall silent in brave new Twitter-based future.

Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication.

The move, described as "epochal" by media commentators, will see all Guardian content tailored to fit the format of Twitter's brief text messages, known as "tweets", which are limited to 140 characters each. Boosted by the involvement of celebrity "twitterers", such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Stephen Fry, Twitter's profile has surged in recent months, attracting more than 5m users who send, read and reply to tweets via the web or their mobile phones.

As a Twitter-only publication, the Guardian will be able to harness the unprecedented newsgathering power of the service, demonstrated recently when a passenger on a plane that crashed outside Denver was able to send real-time updates on the story as it developed, as did those witnessing an emergency landing on New York's Hudson River. It has also radically democratised news publishing, enabling anyone with an internet connection to tell the world when they are feeling sad, or thinking about having a cup of tea.

"[Celebrated Guardian editor] CP Scott would have warmly endorsed this - his well-known observation 'Comment is free but facts are sacred' is only 36 characters long," a spokesman said in a tweet that was itself only 135 characters long.

A mammoth project is also under way to rewrite the whole of the newspaper's archive, stretching back to 1821, in the form of tweets. Major stories already completed include "1832 Reform Act gives voting rights to one in five adult males yay!!!"; "OMG Hitler invades Poland, allies declare war see tinyurl.com/b5x6e for more"; and "JFK assassin8d @ Dallas, def. heard second gunshot from grassy knoll WTF?"

Sceptics have expressed concerns that 140 characters may be insufficient to capture the full breadth of meaningful human activity, but social media experts say the spread of Twitter encourages brevity, and that it ought to be possible to convey the gist of any message in a tweet.

For example, Martin Luther King's legendary 1963 speech on the steps of the Lincoln memorial appears in the Guardian's Twitterised archive as "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by", eliminating the waffle and bluster of the original.

At a time of unprecedented challenge for all print media, many publications have rushed to embrace social networking technologies. Most now offer Twitter feeds of major breaking news headlines, while the Daily Mail recently pioneered an iPhone application providing users with a one-click facility for reporting suspicious behaviour by migrants or gays. "In the new media environment, readers want short and punchy coverage, while the interactive possibilities of Twitter promise to transform th," the online media guru Jeff Jarvis said in a tweet yesterday, before reaching his 140-character limit, which includes spaces. According to subsequent reports, he is thinking about going to the theatre tonight, but it is raining :(.

A unique collaboration between The Guardian and Twitter will also see the launch of Gutter, an experimental service designed to filter noteworthy liberal opinion from the cacophony of Twitter updates. Gutter members will be able to use the service to comment on liberal blogs around the web via a new tool, specially developed with the blogging platform WordPress, entitled GutterPress.

Currently, 17.8% of all Twitter traffic in the United Kingdom consists of status updates from Stephen Fry, whose reliably jolly tone, whether trapped in a lift or eating a scrumptious tart, has won him thousands of fans. A further 11% is made up of his 363,000 followers replying "@stephenfry LOL!", "@stephenfry EXACTLY the same thing happened to me", and "@stephenfry Meanwhile, I am making myself an omelette! Delicious!"

According to unconfirmed rumours, Jim Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, will next month announce plans for a new system of telepathy-based social networking that is expected to render Twitter obsolete within weeks.

From the archive
Highlights from the Guardian's Twitterised news archive

1927
OMG first successful transatlantic air flight wow, pretty cool! Boring day
otherwise *sigh*

1940
W Churchill giving speech NOW - "we shall fight on the beaches ... we shall never surrender" check YouTube later for the rest

1961
Listening 2 new band "The Beatles"

1989
Berlin Wall falls! Majority view of Twitterers = it's a historic moment! What do you think??? Have your say

1997
RT@mohammedalfayed: FYI NeilHamilton, Harrods boss offering £££ 4 questions in House of Commons! Check it out

Can we build a world with open source?

2009-03-06T07:25:00.000-08:00

Victor Keegan The Guardian, Thursday 5 March 2009

Vinay Gupta is a Scottish-Indian engineer who designs low-cost homes for poor parts of the world or disaster zones, and then makes them freely available on the internet so others can do the building. His flagship is the Hexayurt shelter system, which costs around $200 (£142). It uses common building materials, including insulation boards - which, he claims, are a third of the cost of a tent. The business plan is to cut the price of essential goods and services to the point where the poor can afford them. Gupta is just one example of a global movement that offers an alternative to the scandalous tales of banking avarice that have saturated the world's media.

We are often told that the best things in life are free, but few have ever tried to build it into a business model. Yet it is curious that while financial capitalism is in global meltdown, a completely different kind of entrepreneurial activity - call it commune-ism - is rising, from an admittedly low base. This is the act of doing things for the common good, for nothing - either from altruistic motives or because you expect to get compensated by using the product of someone else's free endeavours. Until recently, this kind of activity - known generically as "open source" - has been confined to software through such brilliant communal projects as Wikipedia, the Firefox browser (which now has 21.5% of the global market) or the Linux operating system. Interestingly, such products don't appear in the figures for gross domestic product (GDP) - at least, not until they are used in something that can be bought, such as a low-cost Linux computer. It is unrecorded wealth and if the movement grows we will have to look afresh at how we measure the wealth of nations.

Open source was given a boost last week when the UK government dropped its hitherto shameful neglect to give an endorsement for public services to use open source rather than proprietary software where it delivers best value for money. Whether this is just an empty gesture to take the wind out of the sails of the Conservatives - who have made capital out of claims that £600m could be saved by using open source in public projects - remains to be seen, but it is a step in the right direction. Open source is on a roll and the interesting thing is that it is now expanding into hardware. The global recession, coinciding with an unprecedented expansion of social networks ought to give it a big boost and turn the new model into a global force. If you fancy an open source mobile phone try Openmoko.com. Want to be part of an open source project building a different kind of car? Look at theoscarproject.org. Other interesting initiatives include openfarmtech.org where they are developing open source ecology including building eco-villages or akvo.org, specialising in sanitation. Wired magazine recently reported on the progress of Arduino, the Italian firm that makes a successful open source circuit board. There was a plan for an open source house via the Flickr photo site but there hasn't been much activity recently.

Open source hardware doesn't have the same power as software if only because the final product, as opposed to the designs, can't be replicated for no extra cost as software can. It has a different kind of potential as it can use networks to liberate the creative energies of frustrated employees or jobless people all over the world in order to build products people actually want that reflect local realities, including availability of materials. It is a paradigm that fits a networked age in which the actual manufacture of goods is outsourced. If governments of the world are worried about where new products and jobs will come from when the recession eventually ends, then they could do a lot worse than to encourage the building of products by the people for the people.

Antony Gormley's plinth project live over 100 days

2009-03-02T05:55:00.000-08:00

Artist Antony Gormley's new project, in which a different group of 100 people stand on Trafalgar Square's empty fourth plinth for an hour at a time, live around the clock this summer.

The project, called One & Other, will take place over 100 days from 6 July, and will see 2,400 people from all over the UK standing on the fourth plinth for an hour each.

Sky Arts will broadcast the action live as well as screening a weekly programme from the plinth. Viewers will also be able to follow the project on a special website, www.oneandother.co.uk, which will include a 24-hour web-cam and give users the opportunity to vote for their favourite moments.

This is the first project this year to come out of Sky Arts's collaboration with creative producer Artichoke, which aims to bring "public art to life on air, online and on the streets".

Previous shows have included La Machine, a 50ft mechanical spider that paraded through Liverpool last autumn, and The Sultan's Elephant, seen on the streets of London in 2006.
"What really excites us about One & Other is the immediacy that this project will bring to our programming," said John Cassy, channel manager for Sky Arts.

"The fact is, none of us know what's going to happen on the plinth – that's the vision that Antony had, and that's what's so thrilling.

"The Fourth Plinth has become, over the years, a part of our national identity – and we're hoping that through the website and our programmes, we can offer everyone across the UK a chance to become involved, in whichever way they choose."

Gormley added: "The idea is very simple. Through putting a person on to the plinth, the body becomes a metaphor, a symbol.

"The work will allow us to reflect on the diversity, vulnerability and particularity of the individual in contemporary society. It's about people coming together to do something extraordinary and unpredictable."

Sky Arts, which now has three digital TV channels, recently doubled its output to 36 hours every day of the week.

Recent programmes have included Songbook, a series on songwriters; and Brush with Fame, which sees reformed art forger John Myatt paint celebrities such as John Cleese and Robin Gibb in the style of world famous artists.

The despair of Darfur

2009-02-24T06:31:00.001-08:00

Five years after the peak of the violence in the Darfur region of western Sudan, some 2.7 million people remain scattered in camps and dependent on an international community that has no clear idea what to do with them, no sure way of protecting them, and no practical plan for a solution.

"We have created an open-ended, ongoing $3bn peacekeeping and humanitarian process that chiefly serves to maintain the miserable status quo, this stasis of misery. There is no end in sight. Under the status quo now prevailing, there is a certain level of violence that has become normal, large parts of the countryside remain depopulated, pro-government and rebel groups work as bandits, for and against each other, Unamid [the UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur] is ineffective, carjacking and robbery has become a regional industry, and millions are stuck in the camps. People say it can't go on indefinitely like this. But unless something radical changes, it will."

Belfast museum faces legal battle over Darwin exhibition

2009-02-24T06:24:00.000-08:00

DUP assembly member Mervyn Storey calls for creationist display to challenge evolution theory
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 February 2009 12.18 GMT

The Ulster Museum in Belfast faces a legal challenge unless it stages a creationist exhibition as a counter to its forthcoming series on Charles Darwin, a Democratic Unionist member of the Northern Ireland assembly warned today. Forty-eight hours after the DUP's Northern Ireland environment minister, Sammy Wilson, railed against the idea that climate change is man-made, his party colleague Mervyn Storey has threatened legal action against the museum over its promotion of Darwin's theory of evolution.

The North Antrim DUP assembly member called this morning for an "alternative exhibition" promoting creationism to be staged alongside one planned for the Ulster Museum in Belfast this year. Storey, a born-again Christian advocate of creationism and so-called intelligent design, said that as the museum in Belfast's university district was publicly funded it should be subject to the province's equality legislation.

Speaking to the Guardian at Stormont, he said: "In the past, when I have written to the museum about necessity to show the public an alternative to Darwin's theory (and let's stress it is still only a theory), they have been quite dismissive. "They could be subject to a legal challenge under equality legislation within Northern Ireland if they chose to ignore alternative views that many people here in the Province believe in," he said.

He also described Charles Darwin as a "racist" over his description of aboriginal peoples in his other classic tome The Descent of Man. "In this politically correct society we live in today, if Darwin expressed those views about other peoples of the world now he would not be put on any pedestal." Asked if humans evolved from monkeys, Storey said: "Certainly not, and there are plenty of other people in this society who don't believe it either."

The chairman of the education committee at the Northern Ireland Assembly said: "I am not against the museum or anywhere else promoting Darwin's theory, but I think it would be in the public's interest to give them an alternative theory as well. "We are currently because of the anniversary being bombarded with Darwin's theory but there are others in the scientific world who question that thesis and their voices should be heard in publicly funded institutions like the museum."

Storey confirmed he has written to the National Trust complaining about information on display around Ireland's most famous landmark, the Giant's Causeway in his North Antrim constituency. The DUP assembly member said he had objected to notices informing the public that the rock formation was about 550m years old. Storey believes in the literal truth of the Bible and that the earth was created only several thousand years before Christ's birth.
The former school teacher is also campaigning to have creationism and intelligent design theory taught in Northern Ireland's schools. However the Sinn Fein education minister, Catriona Ruane, insisted they would not form any part of the schools' curriculum.

The backbone of the DUP – the largest party in the Stormont assembly – is made up of evangelical Christians, many of whom have been members of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian church. It has left the more secular wing of the party to have to deal with maverick statements from the DUP evangelicals.

Last year Iris Robinson, a DUP MP and wife of Northern Ireland's first minister, caused controversy when she condemned homosexuality as an "abomination" that could be "cured" with psychiatry. Her remarks are the subject of a police investigation after complaints that the comments allegedly incited hatred against the local gay community.

Earlier this month, Wilson used his powers to ban a government-paid climate change TV advertisement. Wilson, a climate-change sceptic, claimed the ad was "insidious New Labour propaganda."

A Million Farewells

2009-02-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Han Solo's famous quote from Star Wars, which was revived to pleasingly self referential effect in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, is a saying familiar to men of a certain age who like to reach into a bag of popular culture quotes and pull out an appropriate phase when the situation requires it.

There is something comfortable about falling back into the arms of some carefully, cleverly chosen words of wisdom that have already been tried and tested.

These particular words came to mind as I seriously thought to myself I was about to bid farewell to my mortal coil as I stood in the rain shooting a scene on the edge of a cliff in Tintagel in Cornwall a few years ago. I as both producer and actor needed to be in a pivotal scene where I had to strangle the director who was also acting. We figured it could not get any more spectacular than being precariously perched on the lip of a sheer 30 meter drop onto jagged rocks below with the waves crashing against the cliff walls.

Thankfully our incredibly obliging DOP and Soundman agreed to try and get as close as possible to capture the event while attempting not to slip on the wet moss covered rocks and fall to their certain death, taking us with them in the process.

We got the shot, we did not die and we all have postponed our farewell for many years to come.

Spike Milligan famously wanted the phase, "I told you I was ill", carved on his tombstone as his farewell.

We at ditto would like to put a piece together for our event on May 16th which includes the farewells of everyone at ditto as well as the extended ditto family so please add a comment, add your farewell. Be brave!

...and to get the ball rolling here are a few...

Don't be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. ~Richard Bach

Man's feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell. ~Jean Paul Richter

Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need to know of hell. ~Emily Dickinson

Why does it take a minute to say hello and forever to say goodbye? ~Author Unknown

Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos. ~Charles M. Schulz

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard. ~Carol Sobieski

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of his hand. ~Irish Blessing

You and I will meet again

When we're least expecting it

One day in some far off place

I will recognize your face

I won't say goodbye my friend

For you and I will meet again

~Tom Petty

Alicia Bastos said... "Martin Luther King"

2009-02-06T04:53:00.000-08:00

Love the themes, good balance!I would like to suggest one of my idols Martin Luther King speeches.I have a dream, is probably the most popular, but if you have time to read some of the other such as Loving your enemies or Eulogy for the Martyred Children which I will show you a little extract ( Despair?):"Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. (Mmm) It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. (Yeah)

Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah) But if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, (Yeah. Well) and that God is able (Yeah) to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace. (Mmm)And so today, you do not walk alone. You gave to this world wonderful children. (Mmm) They didn’t live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. (Well) Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality. (Yeah) And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died. (Yeah) They did not die in the dives and dens of Birmingham, (Well) nor did they die discussing and listening to filthy jokes. (Yeah)

They died between the sacred walls of the church of God (Yeah) and they were discussing the eternal meaning (Yes) of love. This stands out as a beautiful, beautiful thing for all generations. (Yes) Shakespeare had Horatio to say some beautiful words as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet. And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare (Well): Good night, sweet princesses. (Mmm) Good night, those who symbolize a new day. (Yeah) And may the flight of angels (That’s right) take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you." I would love to know more about the new logistics information, is the hub will become a crazy interactive experience???Up for the meeting next thursday!

Lords: rise of CCTV is threat to freedom

2009-02-06T03:35:00.000-08:00

World's most pervasive surveillance undermines basic liberties, say peersAlan Travis, home affairs editor The Guardian, Friday 6 February 2009

Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV, says report published today. The steady expansion of the "surveillance society" risks undermining fundamental freedoms including the right to privacy, according to a House of Lords report published today.

The peers say Britain has constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world in the name of combating terrorism and crime and improving administrative efficiency.

Alan Travis on a Lords report warning that CCTV is a threat to freedom Link to this audio The report, Surveillance: Citizens and the State, by the Lords' constitution committee, says Britain leads the world in the use of CCTV, with an estimated 4m cameras, and in building a national DNA database, with more than 7% of the population already logged compared with 0.5% in the America.

The cross-party committee which includes Lord Woolf, a former lord chief justice, and two former attorneys general, Lord Morris and Lord Lyell, warns that "pervasive and routine" electronic surveillance and the collection and processing of personal information is almost taken for granted.

Although many surveillance practices and data collection processes are unknown to most people, the expansion in their use represents "one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of the second world war", the report says. The committee warns that the national DNA database could be used for "malign purposes", challenges whether CCTV cuts crime and questions whether local authorities should be allowed to use surveillance powers at all.

The peers say privacy is an "essential prerequisite to the exercise of individual freedom" and the growing use of surveillance and data collection needs to be regulated by executive and legislative restraint at all times.

Lord Goodlad, the former Tory chief whip and committee chairman, said there could be no justification for this gradual but incessant creep towards every detail about an individual being recorded and pored over by the state.

"The huge rise in surveillance and data collection by the state and other organisations risks undermining the long-standing traditions of privacy and individual freedom which are vital for democracy," he said. "If the public are to trust that information about them is not being improperly used there should be much more openness about what data is collected, by whom and how it is used."

The constitution committee makes more than 40 recommendations to protect individual privacy, including the deletion of all profiles from the national DNA database except for those of convicted criminals and a call for the mandatory encryption of personal data held by public and private organisations that are legally obliged to hold it.

But the report is silent on proposals from Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, for a "superdatabase" tracking everybody's emails, calls, texts and internet use and from Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to lower barriers on the widespread sharing of personal data across the public sector.

But the peers are critical of whether local authorities should continue to exercise their surveillance powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. They say examples of local councils using covert surveillance operations to stop fly tipping, reducing dog fouling, and investigate fraudulent school place applications led them to question how they acquired such powers. Ministers should examine whether local authorities, rather than the police, are the appropriate bodies to mount surveillance operations, the peers say. If they are, then their use should be confined to crime investigations that carry a minimum two-year prison sentence.
The peers say individuals targeted by such operations should be informed when it is completed, as long as no investigation is prejudiced.

REMINDER - ditto&digit tonight 6pm start!!

2009-02-05T06:13:00.000-08:00

Deadline for text submissions - Thursday 5th February

2009-02-02T01:24:00.000-08:00

Hi All

Hope you all had a good weekend. Lots of snow up here in Suffolk. Hope everybody gets some valuable snowman time.

Just a quick update on some of the planning. Phillip posted the themes that we have finalised on:

Creation
Love
Joy
Despair
Destruction
Farewell

We have been running the blog for text submissions last week and we will continue to run this week - the deadline for text submissions is this coming Thursday 5th (there are a bunch of presentations and talks planned at ditto@digit). The final selection will be Friday 6th. This gives us time to work through the 'briefs' which the artists will then be working off.

Thank you so much to all who have contributed so far - if you haven't please get your thinking hats on and get blogging over the next couple of days. You can put your submissions here, on the dittotv Facebook wall or email me at mike@ditto.tv

Wrap up warm!

Mike

Proposed Piece for Ditto

2009-02-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

I'd like to propose this passage from Slaughterhouse Five for War...

'Billy turned on the television. He came slightly unstuck in time, saw the late movie backwards, then forwards again. It was a movie about American bombers in the Second World War and the gallant men who flew them. Seen backwards by Billy, the story went like this:

American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks.

The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.

When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody again.

The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby, Billy Pilgrim supposed. That wasn't in the movie. Billy was extrapolating. Everybody turned into a baby, and all humanity, without exception, conspired biologically to produce two perfect people named Adam and Eve, he supposed.'

Ditto - The next step.

2009-01-29T13:22:00.000-08:00

After much deliberation we finally have the sub contexts for 'the human condition'.

These being the following six themes.

Creation
Love
Joy
Despair
Destruction
Farewell

The next step is for us to select written pieces to represent these headings, so everyone is invited to respond to this blog by adding passages of written word which you feel are relevant to the headings, and please state which heading you feel the piece relates to.

Hopefully there's enough scope there to inspire, without having to crowbar stuff in.

Looking forward to your suggestions.

Phillip

ditto@digit Thursday 5th February 6pm

2009-01-29T06:09:00.000-08:00

Our good friends at digit have kindly offered to host a ditto@digit session at their studio on Thursday 5th February from 6pm. Address:

6 Corbet Place

Hanbury St

off Commercial St

All ditto friends, artists and contributors welcome. Bring 4 beers and 1 great idea. A great opportunity for us to share ideas and inspiration. We plan to run through the project, the emerging briefs and how we are progressing.

See you next week. Many thanks to Daljit & Andy and all the team at digit - a very cool and funky space, and very much appreciated. The plan is to host the session every two weeks during the project run. So very kind of them indeed...

ditto.

Way To Blue Give a Helping Hand

2009-01-29T06:05:00.000-08:00

Way To Blue www.waytoblue.com guru's of digital PR have offered a tremendous hand of help to ditto and will assist in all of our press, marketing and PR associated with the project. Many, many thanks to Olly, Jazmin, Adam, Louise and all the team at WTB.

Do it together!

Email Signature for Ditto

2009-01-28T06:13:00.001-08:00

...forever does not exist...

ditto: a place where the good people gather to 'do it together'. Share experiences, share ideas and do good things. Welcome.

We are Public & Collaborated:
www.ditto.tv
www.dittotv.blogspot.com

ditto@Short Circuit Electronica Festival
Saturday 16th May, The Roundhouse, London

dittotv Group added to Facebook - what next? The Digital thread

2009-01-28T01:10:00.000-08:00

Morning all, hope you are well. We added dittotv group to my Facebook page last night. If you do not have a Facebook account go create and come and join the group. We can share ideas and inspiration on ditto, will use the group as a quick blast way to keep everybody updated on progress.

Many thanks to Cian who is taking the lead on all the infrastructure, web-sites, email accounts and social network links - great work and really appreciated by all. We should have everyone on ditto email in the next day. Any suggestions on the digital aspects of the program please post comments here. We are lining up bebo, myspace etc - so any thoughts, suggestions, comments, blog away here...

Mike

Attenborough reveals creationist hate mail for not crediting God

2009-01-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

Sir David Attenborough has revealed that he receives hate mail from viewers for failing to credit God in his documentaries. In an interview with this week's Radio Times about his latest documentary, on Charles Darwin and natural selection, the broadcaster said: "They tell me to burn in hell and good riddance."

Telling the magazine that he was asked why he did not give "credit" to God, Attenborough added: "They always mean beautiful things like hummingbirds. I always reply by saying that I think of a little child in east Africa with a worm burrowing through his eyeball. The worm cannot live in any other way, except by burrowing through eyeballs. I find that hard to reconcile with the notion of a divine and benevolent creator."

Attenborough went further in his opposition to creationism, saying it was "terrible" when it was taught alongside evolution as an alternative perspective. "It's like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five ... Evolution is not a theory; it is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066."
Attenborough, who attended the Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester in the 1930s, said he was astonished at manifestations of Christian faith.

"It never really occurred to me to believe in God - and I had nothing to rebel against, my parents told me nothing whatsoever. But I do remember looking at my headmaster delivering a sermon, a classicist, extremely clever ... and thinking, he can't really believe all that, can he? How incredible!"

In 2002, Attenborough joined an effort by clerics and scientists to oppose the inclusion of creationism in the curriculum of state-funded independent schools receiving private sponsorship, such as the Emmanuel Schools Foundation.

ditto: permanently temporary

2009-01-27T01:51:00.000-08:00

• In the Spring of 2009 The Roundhouse will host ‘Short Circuit’ a celebration of electronica and have invited ‘ditto’ to join the program

• Ditto is the bringing together of storytellers from around the world – writers, visual and sonic to inspire and influence the composition of new work, and the selection of classic pieces of electronica and dance music to accompany film and narrative art

• During March & April visual and sonic artists will collaborate via the internet and interpret selected pieces of writing and poetry

• The collaborative process will form a chronicle and archive of ditto and the event on May 16th will be live web cast

• But drawing on the dance culture heritage of coming together for a one-time shared experience with no record of the event itself: It is permanently temporary