From Wikinews:

Russia removes two timezones

Monday, March 29, 2010

The Russian government has decided to remove two of its eleven timezones, in the country’s first step towards time reform, first started by president Dmitriy Medvedev in last November.

The affected regions were Chukotka, the easternmost province of Russia were moved back an hour, as were and Samara and Udmurtia, which are now on Moscow time.

It’s not even funny.

Negativland, “Time Zones”, Escape from Noise, 1987:

Miguel Soares, Negativland’s Time Zones from migso on Vimeo.

The Autonomous Komi Republic, which is part of the Russian Federation, is situated in the far northwest of Europe, and spreads up to the Arctic part of the Ural Mountains. It’s crossed by 9 northern parallels. Ten fair-sized European states could be placed on its territory. Besides indigenous residents (that is, the Komi people), there are also Russians, Ukranians, Nenetzes, Tchubashis, and Tartars.

And now, let’s go back into history a little bit. (CLICK)

A boy lying on skins behind our backs was turning the knobs of a small transistor radio.

(“…..making efforts to use radios as vehicles of the psychological warfare. A subversive….”)

And the tent was suddenly filled with an announcer’s voice speaking Komi.

(Jane Jane Jane….)

Then, with music from Moscow, followed by English and French speech.

(“The recording was made at the Moscow Theatre of Musical Miniatures.”)

Now, back to modern times.

YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. AT THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL TIME BUREAU, COMMENCING AT TWENTY-THREE (23) HOURS, FIFTY-NINE (59) MINUTES, SIXTY (60) SECONDS UTC, AN EXTRA SECOND WILL BE INSERTED INTO THE NBS TIME SCALE. THIS ADJUSTMENT IS REQUIRED TO MAINTAIN INTERNATIONALLY COORDINATED UNIVERSAL TIME AS BROADCAST FROM THESE STATIONS, IN CLOSE AGGREEMENT WITH UT1, OR ASTRONOMICAL TIME.

(“WA6ODB….with…a question….”)

“and, uh …”

“Do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union?”

“and about power …”

“d’you kn–”

“we got so much power now …”

“Do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union?”

“we got so much power now, that’s ridiculous.”

“d’you kn– do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union?”

“power, and all that, that’s power, we got so much power, that’s ridiculous.”

“We have–”

“power, power, power, power, power, power now, it’s ridiculous. We got so much power now …”

“Do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union?”

“It’s not even funny.”

“D’you–”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Do you know how many–”

“It’s not even funny.”

“D’you kn–”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Do you know how many–”

“That’s, that’s ridiculous.”

“Do you know how many time–”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s not even funny.”

“D’you–”

“It’s not even funny.”

“D–”

“It’s not even funny.”

“Do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union?”

“It’s not even funny. How many time zones?”

“Yeah. We have, we have four in this country, right?” (Hello?)

“How many time zones?”

“Yeah.” (Hello? Yes.)

“1, 2, 3 …”

“Four in this country, right?”

“Uh, yessir.”

“Mm hm.”

“Uh, four … 1, 2, 3 … yessir.”

“Right.”

“1, 2, 3 … yessir.”

“Mm hm.” (“….radio station, Radio Moscow”)

“Uh, four … time zones?”

“Yeah. We have four in this country, right?”

“Uh, nosir.”

“We have, we have–”

“Uh, yessir.”

“Mm hm.”

“And, uh …”

“Do you know how many time zones they have?”

“Uh, yessir. Uh, four … uh, nosir. I never really studied that up.”

“Eleven.”

“Eleven. It’s not even funny.”

“Eleven.”

“Eleven. That’s, that’s ridiculous.”

“Eleven.”

“Eleven. Well, that’s what we can do. We can go anywhere, because we live here, we–”

“Yeah, but–”

“–anywhere else.”

“But, not only, not only the right of free travel, I’m saying…eleven.”

“Eleven. 1, 2, 3 … yessir.”

“Mm hm. Eleven.”

“Eleven.”

“That’s how big they are.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Eleven.” (What happened to my call?)

“That’s how big they are.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I, I can believe that, I’m a firm believer in that.”

“Alright.”

“1, 2, 3 … uh, four … yessir. 1, 2 … yessir. Yessir.”

“Mm hm.” (….Radio Moscow, 215 2101)

“The Soviet Union’s the whole half side of the world.”

“Yeah.”

“And we’re just a little, one little tenth of the globe.”

“Yeah.”

“They, uh, when you talk about fightin’, we’re a country that, uh, we’re a firm believer on pride, and it’s called help thy neighbor, do not kill, do not, you know, steal, cheat, lie from everybody. That’s why we have to have computers, because man, nobody is perfect. You know.”

“Mm hm.”

“It’s not even funny.”

“D’you–”

“and about power, man, nobody is perfect. You know.”

“So what is your point?”

“Nobody is perfect. You know.”

“So what is your point, Glen?”

“There’s, there’s, there’s two things you don’t talk about, one’s politics, the other one’s religion.”

“D’you–”

“The reason you don’t talk about ‘em is because they combine in each other. You know what I’m saying?”

“Do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union?”

“You know what I’m saying?”

“Don’t you kid yourself. Thanks, Glen, for the uh… well, just thanks for the, the good thoughts.”

THIS CONCLUDES OUR TRANSMISSION TO OCEANIA. HOWEVER, LISTENERS IN EAST ASIA MAY CONTINUE LISTENING ON THE FOLLOWING SHORTWAVE FREQUENCIES: 6110, 7230, 9565, 9760, 15160, AND 15425 KILOHERTZ.

I received a wonderful gift. A t-shirt bearing this famous photograph, taken on 21 August 1968 at Šafárikovo námestie, Bratislava, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, during the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia:

by Ladislav Bielik, 21 August 1968, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia

On the back of the shirt: приглашение

Pictured in the background, the headquarters of Comenius University in Bratislava.

Fuck.

Slayer, War Ensemble.

Propaganda death ensemble
Burial to be
Corpses rotting through the night
In blood laced misery
Scorched earth the policy
The reason for the siege
The pendulum it shaves the blade
The strafing air blood raid

Infiltration push reserves
Encircle the front lines
Supreme art of strategy
Playing on the minds
Bombard till submission
Take all to their graves
Indication of triumph
The numbers that are dead

Sport the war, war support
The sport is war, total war
When victory’s really massacre
The final swing is not a drill
It’s how many people I can kill

Sport the war, war support
The sport is war, total war
When victory’s really survival
The final swing is not a drill
It’s how many people I can kill

Be dead fiend from above
When darkness falls
Descend onto my sights
Your fallen walls
Spearhead break through the lines
Flanked all around
Soldiers of attrition
Forward their ground

Regime prophetic age
Old in its time
Flowing veins run on through
Deep in the Rhine
Center of the web
All battles scored
What is our war crimes
Era forever more

…War

Propaganda war ensemble
Burial to be
Bones shining by the night
In blood laced misery
Campaign of elimination
Twisted psychology
When victory is to survive
And death is defeat

Sport the war, war support
The sport is war, total war
When this end is a slaughter
The final swing is not a drill
It’s how many people I can kill

From the Tehran Times:

Iran busts CIA terror network

Tehran Times Political Desk, May 18, 2008

TEHRAN – The Intelligence Ministry on Saturday released details of the detection and dismantling of a terrorist network affiliated to the United States.

In a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars, Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the Intelligence Ministry announcement said.

The group’s plans were devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and making public places in various cities insecure.

One of the terrorists was killed in the operation, but the rest are in detention, the Intelligence Ministry said, adding that the group’s main objective was to create fear among the people.

The United States Central Intelligence Agency comprehensively supported the terrorist group by arming it, training its members, and sponsoring its inhumane activities in Iran, the Intelligence Ministry stated.

The terrorists had maps, films, pictures, and sketches of important and sensitive sites in various cities in their possession when they were arrested.

They also had a large number of weapons and ammunition and a great deal of highly explosive chemicals and cyanide.

The blast at a religious center in Shiraz last month was carried out by this group, and it also had plans to carry out similar attacks on the Tehran International Book Fair, the Russian Consulate in Gilan Province, oil pipelines in southern Iran, and other targets, the communiqué stated.

Thirteen people were killed and over 190 others wounded in a bombing carried out on April 12 at the Rahpuyan-e Vessal religious center, which is part of the Seyyed-ul-Shohada Mosque complex, located in a residential area of Shiraz.

From the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran:

Bush’s Iran diplomacy is a sham; admits US Defence Secretary

CASMII Press Release

17 May 2008

In a moment of candour, Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary has admitted albeit implicitly that the Bush administration’s diplomacy towards Iran has long been a sham: “If there is going to be a discussion, then they need something, too. We can’t go to a discussion and be completely the demander, with them not feeling that they need anything from us,” he stated in his address to a group of retired American diplomats on May 14.

Lamenting also that the US may have squandered an opportunity to engage with Iran under President Khatami’s government, Gates’ striking assertion echoes the confession of several European diplomats to Asia Times Online on 7th September 2005. For the first time, they admitted that the package offered by the EU-3 in their so-called negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme was “an empty box of chocolate” and that “there is nothing else we can offer.” The diplomats went on to say: “The Americans simply wouldn’t let us.”

In 2004, Gates co-authored the Council of Foreign Relations’ report “Iran: Time for a New Approach,” which rejected that Iran is on the verge of another revolution and called for the United States to reassess its long-standing policy of non-engagement with the current Iranian government. He was later a member of the Iraq study Group, the US Congress’ bipartisan panel, whose report in December 2006 strongly recommended direct dialogue with Iran.

The tacit but honest admission of the insincere nature of the US stance on Iran in Gates’ speech on Wednesday was once again confirmed on the same day by the US response to the Russian Foreign Minister’s statement on how to tackle effectively the conflicts in the Middle East. Sergei Lavrov called on international powers to offer security guarantees for Iran in order to help resolve all problems in the region and the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme.

The White House immediately rejected this call. Spokesman Gordon Johndroe simply retorted: “Security guarantees are not something we are looking at the moment,” exposing yet one more time the administration’s unwillingness to change its failing agenda for regime change and instead pursue a sincere path for peace.

President Bush’s highly inflammatory, threatening and hypocritical rhetoric against Iran in his address to the Israeli Knesset on May 16 provides the strongest evidence yet for his real objective. By making a comparison with the Nazi Germany and warning against appeasement, his speech was designed to destroy peace efforts and justify military action against Iran.

Ironically termed “diplomacy”, the US instigated sanctions against Iran are part of a plan to frustrate meaningful negotiations in order to portray violent aggression as a viable alternative to the public.

The Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) calls on the European Union, Russia and China to resist the Bush Administration’s war drive through the United Nations Security Council.

CASMII echoes the appeals of the international community and leading experts in demanding immediate and unconditional US negotiations with Iran.

For more information or to contact us please visit http://www.campaigniran.org

Blix: West approach to Iran ‘hypocritical’
Wed, 14 May 2008 17:53:20

Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix hammers world powers for their ‘hypocritical’ approach to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear issue.

Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix

In a recent interview with Channel Four News, Blix said the West’s approach to Tehran’s nuclear standoff is in marked contrast to that of North Korea.

“The North Koreans have been offered guarantees against any attacks from outside, the Iranians have not been offered this as far as we know, nor have they been offered diplomatic relations which the North Koreans have been,” said the former IAEA chief.

“When you see talks now with the North Korean and the Iranian, they sit there and are told by the US and other, who retain all these weapons, you should not have all these nuclear weapons, that it is a danger for you, it is not a danger for us, it is for the safety of the world that is very hypocritical,” Blix affirmed.

Iran surrounded by US military assets

Well, duh, Hans. Iran is in a critical strategic position, unlike North Korea. Iran controls substantial oil and natural gas reserves, unlike North Korea. Iran is surrounded on all sides by American military assets, unlike North Korea. And perhaps most importantly, Iran doesn’t share borders with China or Russia, as North Korea does.

Besides, Kim Jong-Il has SHARKS, Hans, or don’t you remember?

Hans Blix meets his sharky doom