Dead sea turtles and other wildlife are washing up on beaches near spring break vacationers along the Gulf coast and in growing numbers. Is this related to the BP oil leak of last year? Almost certainly. These dead wildlife “. . . . are part of a growing number of dead fish, animals and birds [that] Mississippi residents have photographed washing in with the tides in recent weeks. . . . . “ The Obama administration has also issued a gag order on data over the recent spike of dead dolphins, which are at 10 times the usual rate. It’s obvious this is not being caused by normal or natural causes, and the dead wildlife are being treated as evidence in a possible criminal case against BP. But isn’t the EPA itself partially culpable for the use of the dispersants in the Gulf in 2010? The EPA allowed BP to dump billions of gallons of dispersants into our ocean waters off the Gulf coast. There was no testing at the time to see if those enormous amounts of chemicals introduced into animal habitat would have a negative impact on wildlife, and now it seems that we know the answer. How could [...]

Enjoy.

• How to Write a Manifesto (Thanks Boing Boing)

• The Gastronomer: What if one futurist had made his ideas more delicious? (The Washington Post)

• New York Times review of the new Museum of the 20th Century in Milan

• Mimmo Paladino’s The City Rises (La città che sale) -  a salt and bronze horse installation and homage to Boccioni, opens in Milan March 31st to make the 150th anniversary of Italian unification

• Milan and Reggio Calabria in discussion about an Ancient Bronze exchange for work by Boccioni

• Malevich, Tatiln, Rodchenko discuss Futurism

• Missed this tv show Res – Personaggi on Rai Storia March 29th including a segment on Boccioni

• A note on the 1926 visit by Marinetti to Buenos Aires (in spanish)

• Review of Luciano Chessa’s intonarumori performance in Berlin

• Tour of Balla’s street, via Margutta, Rome

• Show review of my favorite restaurant ever: Lacerba

• Fun 6-degrees game using Marinetti + Futurism

• The Antipasti Mermaids -  “21st century futurist performers and thinkers”

• Side-by-side, Pictures of works by Dada artists Raoul Hausmann and Italian Futurist Fortuna Depero

Attraverso l’arte del ’900 italiano: dal Futurismo all’Informale
Opere della Collezione De Donno

March 12 – May 8, 2011
Fondazione Malvina Menegaz, Castelbasso
Curated by Francesco Poli
Catalog

Il progetto espositivo, a cura di Francesco Poli e realizzato in collaborazione con l’Associazione Culturale Viaindustriae di Foligno, si propone come una narrazione chiara e corretta delle fasi fondamentali degli sviluppi dell’arte italiana del Novecento.

Questa mostra tratterà il primo periodo dell’arte del Novecento, che va dall’inizio del secolo fino alla svolta cruciale della fine degli anni ’50. attraverso le opere di Medardo Rosso, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Enrico Prampolini, Fortunato Depero, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Ardengo Soffici, Mario Mafai (da aggiungere), Giorgio Morandi, Mario Sironi, Alberto Magnelli, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, Afro, Piero Manzoni.

In occasione della mostra la sezione didattica si presenta con una veste tutta nuova: il progetto “UNO, DU2, TR3, ..tocca a te!” propone visite guidate, percorsi educativi per le scuole ed eventi speciali.

Press release

From Women Against Military Madness: Malalai Joya, a former Afghanistan parliament member, is scheduled to speak in Minneapolis on April 1st. She is currently being denied a visa to come into the United States for her book tour and speaking engagements. This will be the second WAMM program that Big Brother has pulled visa’s for. The program will go on as planned, via Skype if necessary. In the meantime, we are doing everything possible to get our government to allow her to come. We like to believe that freedom of speech is still in operation in this country, but we need your help to make it so. Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota has already signed on in support of McDermott’s letter below. Also below are listed some things that you can do to help. ACTION ALERT: Four Things YOU Can Do About Malalai Joya’s Visa Denial The U.S. Embassy this week denied famed Afghan women’s rights activist Malalai Joya a visa to the United States for an extensive speaking tour that was to kick off on Saturday March 19th. Americans are being denied the right to hear from an on-the-ground activist how the war is affecting ordinary Afghans, especially women. [...]

Wyoming is a beautiful state.  Or, it used to be.  Republican energy policies have turned parts of it into scenes like this.  Now Democrats are doing the same thing.  Is there anyone left in American who will stand up to the fossil fuel industries that seem determined to destroy the very land of this country? The article quoted below blames everything on Ken Salazar, but these are Obama’s energy and environmental policies.  The headlines read, “Salazar opens up 750 million tons of coal to mining leases in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin” . . . . “The four coal leases next to existing strip mines in the Powder River Basin — the largest coal-producing region in the United States — total 758 million tons and will take between 10 and 20 years to mine.”  These are the policies of the Obama administration, not Ken Salazar, who is not the President. (Do people really think Ken Salazar has the power to do something like this without Obama’s direction and approval?) Burning all this coal, after the land is destroyed obtaining it, will doom us to a certain future of ever-increasing higher temperatures associated with climate change. This is the same as dooming [...]

Attacks on EPA Threaten Health of American Families According to their press release:   The Clean Air Act will have saved Americans roughly $2 trillion by 2020 and prevented as many as 230,000 premature American deaths in that year alone due to asthma, heart disease, and other illnesses caused by air pollution, according to a new report released today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report comes as the EPA and Administrator Lisa Jackson faces increasing attack from the oil and coal industries and their allies for the agency’s role in protecting Americans from air and water pollution.  The report focuses on the future up to 2020.  And also from the report, this is just one of many benefits of the Clean Air Act: “Based on the scenarios analyzed in this study, the costs of public and private efforts to meet 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment requirements rise throughout the 1990 to 2020 period of the study, and are expected to reach an annual value of about $65 billion by 2020.1″ Statement of Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune: “Every single American benefits from clean air. The Clean Air Act has saved millions of Americans from heart attacks, asthma, [...]

With the start of yet another war in the Middle East, this video is even more important than when it was made (February 2011). American Presidents, Democrat or Republican, are devoted to war. The only way these wars of opportunity and profit will end is when the soldiers say no and stop participating. Congress is not even involved anymore. “They merely have to sell the war.” Can you imagine going to jail for not wanting to kill people? It’s happening right now in our military. The only good reason for war is direct self-defense. Soldiers have to stop being willing to kill and be killed for no good reason. Last Saturday, March 19th, 113 people were arrested outside the White House, protesting the wars we are engaged in and the treatment of Bradley Manning. “The protesters were arrested af­ter ignor­ing or­ders to move away from the gates of the White House. The demonstrators cheered loudly as Daniel Ellsberg, the for­mer military an­a­lyst who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon’s secret history of the Vietnam War that was lat­er pub­lished in major newspapers, was arrested and led away by po­lice. The demonstration merged var­ied causes, including protesters de­manding a U.S. military with­draw­al [...]

It’s possible there is another oil leak in the Gulf, though it’s already being denied.  What we know for sure is that oil drilling in the Gulf remains dangerous to human and wildlife health.  A separately-reported  4-6 hour oil leak did happen last week during the plugging of an oil well — something authorities seem to believe is OK. “The Wall Street Journal and several other sources are reporting that the Coast Guard is investigating a 100-mile sheen of a substance that may be oil floating on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Reports began to come in on Saturday morning of a rainbow slick that began off the coast of Grand Isle, Louisiana and extended far out to sea. Crews have been have been sent to the area to assess the situation, which is unfolding about twenty miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon, the well that exploded last April and set in motion a disastrous chain of events whose full impact has yet to be measured. A report from Business Insider released after 10:00pm EDT on Saturday indicated that the well involved might be the Matterhorn Seastar, but other sources state that it is too early [...]

Another year, another random war. Soon after we all were told that the U.S. is flat broke and can’t even afford heating assistance for the poor, the U.S. gets involved in yet another expensive war. How many millions is this costing the U.S. and all the countries involved (most if not all who claim to be having severe financial problems) and how many lives will be lost? We always seem to have money for bombers and bombs, as though those things take precedence over everything else. This time around, I also noticed that most media anchors and even the reporters were heavily pushing for a war to start. CNN International was the worst perpetrator of a constant push for war before the bombing began. (Of course, they stand to profit from their coverage of a new war, since many people are “bored” with the old ones.) Shock and Awe 2: US, France and Britain Pound Libya   France fired the first shots in the new war with Libya, but the Obama Administration was close behind, with US warships firing upwards of 120 Tomahawk missiles at targets inside Libya. The strikes came largely overnight, and exactly what they hit is largely [...]

With their insistence (like in the video below) on ending the use of nuclear power, some Democrats are unwittingly dooming us to a future of deadly coal use.  Coal plants belch toxic clouds of chemicals, mercury and CO2 into the air and cause serious public health concerns.   Rep. Markey (who is usually right on other environmental issues) should know better than to argue against nuclear power, because he knows the threat of climate change. No one is going to give up using coal unless there is a replacement that can immediately replace it with the same amount of power generation.   Coal usage is greatly exacerbating climate change, and the only thing that can replace coal in the foreseeable future is nuclear power. But Rep. Markey has another viewpoint. From Think Progress: The nuclear disaster in Japan continues to deepen the sense of devastation from one of the worst tsunamis in history. Despite a long history of concern over the safety of the Fukushima Daiichi plant, nuclear power boosters like Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) now claim the ongoing meltdown is something “no one has ever really anticipated outside of science fiction movies.” Fueled by intense lobbying from the nuclear industry, [...]

Screening at the FIFA Festival (The International Festival of Films on Art)
March 23 + 25, 2011
Montreal

Futurism: An Art/Life Movement

Based on exhaustive research in cooperation with his family, this docudrama portrays the revolutionary views of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944), the leading advocate of Futurism.

Futurism is an intellectual and artistic movement. Created in Italy in 1909, Futurism advocates for a new aesthetic based on progress, machines and speed.

The narrative voice of Marinetti himself conveys the language of this movement, which sought to encompass all forms of creativity.

The film combines historical re-enactments, drama and action, interviews with Italian and international scholars and critics, 3D computer graphics and archival footage. Don’t miss this film. The future is now.

Luca Verdone / Italy, France / 2010 / Colour / 52 min / Italian with English subtitles

A bill requiring the Department of Natural Resources to commercially log trees in two southeastern Minnesota state parks, which officials say would be unprecedented, has sparked the debate and galvanized park supporters. The bill will be voted on next week in the full Minnesota House. (Read the story here.) In Minnesota, the Republicans might not run the governor’s office, but they have taken over the state legislature. They are busy trying to pollute what is left of our environment with more dirty energy and now with logging our state parks.  The MN Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, is not exactly protecting the environment either.  He has signed a law allowing destructive mining in the “Iron Range” — which is good for jobs, but bad for the environment.  This new law (and others) according to the article in the Star Tribune: “. . . . . exempts the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board from complying with the same environmental rules that apply to the rest of state government.. . . . This is hardly the only attempt to grant special exemptions from environmental laws to favored industries or projects. In recent weeks alone, at least three such bills have been introduced [...]

Afraid to Watch the News, Millions Turn to Fox “NEWS” — The Channel Offers Welcome Break from Reality, Psychologists Say NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – With unprecedented crises engulfing the world, millions of television viewers are finding the news too stressful to watch – and are turning to the Fox News Channel instead. “Things are so bad in the world right now, many people are afraid to watch the news,” says psychologist Davis Logsdon, who studies the relationship between news consumption and stress at the University of Minnesota.  “For them, Fox News represents a welcome break from reality.” Tracy Klugian, 37, a systems analyst from Lansing, Michigan, said that he was flipping the channels to find “anything but news” and found himself watching Fox for the first time. “They had this guy on – something Beck I think his name was – and he was just going on and on, making stuff up,” he said.  “I was like, this is the kind of mindless junk I need right now.” Mr. Klugian says he now records the program and watches it every day when he gets home for work: “For one hour at least, I know that I can kick [...]

Dennis Kucinich speaking at Workers’ Rights Rally in Madison, WI.  Today, a judge blocked the union busting bill from Governor Scott Walker. Wisconsin Judge Temporarily Blocks Gov. Walker’s Union-Busting Bill Various sources are reporting that Dane County, Wisconsin, Judge Maryann Sumi has granted a restraining order temporarily blocking the publication of the union-busting law that was rammed through the Wisconsin state legislature recently. The blog WisPolitics: Sumi said she was given no evidence to show why the conference committee could not have given a 24-hour notice for its meeting last week or why a timely notice was not provided. Sumi said some may ask how a bill can be stopped in its tracks by a “minor” issue like failure to properly notice a meeting. “My response is it’s not minor; it’s not a minor detail,” she said, adding it is of utmost importance that nothing that happens in government occur in secret.

Some scientists are now saying that the nuclear risk from Japan is being overblown. In the United States, the corporate news media is exacerbating the problem by suggesting that radiation clouds might reach the western U.S. shores.  Not true. American media is focusing on the nuclear plants and not on the clean-up and help necessary from the massive destruction caused by the tsunami. They even tested airplanes from Japan for radiation and of course, the radiation tests all came up positive.  All airplanes test positive for radiation, and they always have.  What will also test positive for radiation are buildings, granite, marble, rocks, and even our human bodies. Background radiation is emitted by many things on earth, including people, and you are probably exposed to more radiation during a dental X-Ray and while flying than anyone will be from the dispersed radiation carried on the wind from Japan. (Cosmic radiation while flying always occurs). The amount found on planes from Japan so far is normal. . . . . being near the nuclear sites in Japan is another story, however.  Still, most people have little to worry about if they are 50 miles from the ruined nuclear plants.  That won’t [...]

Governor Synder of Michigan now has the power to take over cities and towns in Michigan, drive out the elected officials, and put a corporation in charge. This is, by some definitions, the meaning of “fascism”. All the governor needs is an “emergency” situation — as determined by himself. Rachel Maddow explains in this video. As a commenter stated: One egomaniac on a power trip could single-handedly de-democratize the whole state of Michigan. What does it say about this governor that he has the cajones to actually suggest this? Where is the counterpush by the people of Michigan?” My question is, given all that is happening in Wisconsin too, is: where is the mainstream media coverage on this and on the enormous protests in Wisconsin, which are ongoing?

Highly respected State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley was fired after publicly questioning  the treatment of Bradley Manning, the incarcerated Army soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military reports and sensitive diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.  Apparently if you disagree with Obama and Hillary Clinton these days, you are fired, no matter how well respected or qualified for your job. (Is this why Energy Secretary Steven Chu is not speaking out these days?) **From Politico: “The chain of events that led to Crowley’s exit was set in motion Thursday when Crowley appeared at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology seminar and called the Pentagon’s handling of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is detained at the brig at Quantico, “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” Crowley’s public criticism angered some at the Pentagon and others across the administration because it put him directly at odds with Defense Department officials who have spent weeks trying to defend Manning’s treatment. The soldier is being detained under near-constant lockdown, and he filed a formal complaint about being forced to strip each night at bedtime. The State spokesman’s predicament may have worsened further Friday afternoon, when ABC’s Jake Tapper asked Obama during a White House press conference [...]

An ongoing fight in Congress to limit EPA’s role in regulating greenhouse gases is obscuring the importance of these long-overdue rules to public health. From Solve Climate. “Mercury Pollution at the Top of the List Two months ago, the advocacy organization Environment America published a report that called for strong EPA action on mercury in the forthcoming standards. Coal plants in the U.S. emitted over 130,000 pounds of mercury in 2009. Once mercury exits the flue, it becomes airborne and can travel for hundreds of miles. Precipitation deposits the mercury in water, where it builds up in fish. Every single state has set fish advisories due to mercury levels in waterways, the report says. This week the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to release new standards for coal- and oil-fired power plants that will limit the emissions of 84 different “air toxics,” including mercury, benzene, hydrogen chloride and radioactive material. According to EPA, American coal plants produce 386,000 tons of hazardous air pollutants per year. The toxins they release — hazardous chemicals that can lead to disease, brain damage and premature death — affect every part of the human body. Arsenic, chromium and nickel cause cancer; lead damages the nervous [...]

Coal can’t really be  “cleaned up” though many companies are busy telling us that it’s possible.  Even if CO2 is sequestered underground, eventually the CO2 will probably escape, so all the expense will be for nothing, over time.  And if it escapes, there is no point in doing it. Carbon capture is very, very expensive.  The best thing to do would be to stop using coal, considering all the hundreds of people around the world that die from it each year.  Carbon Capture projects are up, even though coal causes hundreds of deaths per year just from mining operations, not including the toxins and mercury it spews into the atmosphere. “The number of projects for capturing greenhouse gases from power plants and factories edged up in 2010 despite soaring costs and slow progress in U.N.-led efforts to slow climate change, a study showed on Tuesday. The focus of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects also shifted more to the United States from Europe even though U.S. President Barack Obama has failed to persuade the Senate to legislate caps on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it said. The Global CCS Institute said 234 CCS projects were active or planned worldwide at the [...]

Incredibly, the Republicans in the U.S. Senate are again on record trying to block rules that would protect and defend Americans’  health and future by blocking environmental rules.  It’s hard to imagine how Republicans could care less about human life and health when they repeatedly try to block things that keep us healthy and just as importantly, ensure the health of future generations.  In addition, regulating greenhouse gases is imperative if future generations want to live a life that is healthy and productive.  There is no longer any question that greenhouse gases are causing climate change and eventually this will lead to enormous quality of life issues in the U.S. and all around the world, as food and water shortages spread.  This is already happening in many countries.  For the Republicans to stick their head in the sand about this scientific issue and pretend they know more than scientists about climate change is unconscionable and honestly, puzzling*. The Clean Air Act has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court and for Republicans to try to block that is nothing short of anti-government and shows a deep disregard for U.S. law. Naturally, the anti-science amendments have been coming from the Senate’s [...]