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Google Expands Usenet Archive to 20 Years
Paul Boutin writes "The Ghost of Usenet Postings Past has returned to haunt many more of us: Google just announced the expansion of their Usenet archive back to May 3, 1981."Check out the past on Groups.google.com
Check out adequacy.org!
Alliance critic angered by ejaculating artist
By BILL GRAVELAND-- The Canadian Press
CALGARY (CP) -- A meat dress, rotting rabbits and now a masturbating Mexican has the Canadian Alliance heritage critic angry and appalled.
"This is the most obscene, vile display of the squandering of public money but it's more than that. It's an affront to any decent citizen," said Jim Abbott, MP for Kootenay-Columbia.
Abbott is angry that the Banff Centre, one of Canada's most prestigious cultural institutions, has provided about $1,300 to Mexican performance artist Israel Mora.
Mora ejaculates into glass vials as part of an international artist exchange agreement. The seven glass vials, which he says represent seven members of his family, are placed in a cooler, which has been strung up between two trees at the Banff Centre.
The artist has also been wheeling the cooler around the streets of Banff on a small cart.
The Banff Centre receives about 22 per cent of its annual $42 million budget from Ottawa. But Abbott, who initially refused to believe the story, said the amount of the grant in this case isn't important.
"The act is an act of obscenity. The whole concept of that is just totally obscene and one thin dime of public money going to something like this would be 10 cents too much," said Abbott, who said he intends to raise the issue with Heritage Minister Sheila Copps.
It's not the first time that public funding of the arts has raised the ire of the public.
Ten years ago the controversial "flesh dress" made up of 23-kilograms of flank steak was hanging in the National Gallery.
Montreal artist Jana Sterbak painstakingly fitted and stitched the steak on a live model and displayed it on a plastic mannequin.
In 1999, a $15,000 grant from the Canada Council funded suspending the carcasses of 12 dead rabbits in the St. Norbert woods by Winnipeg artist-photographer Diana Thorneycroft. The animals were infested by maggots and allowed to rot. Thorneycroft said she was "celebrating the gloriousness of putrefaction."
But Abbott said Mora's work is worse.
"The hanging meat was just plain stupid," said Abbott.
"This is vile. This is reprehensible. I mean what possible redeeming social value there could be would be beyond the grasp of any reasonable person."
Connie MacDonald, communications director for the Banff Centre, said she had received no complaints about Mora's project.
"I don't believe it is unusual in the arts world, especially in terms of contemporary art which I understand for the average person is often very challenging and difficult to understand.
"When I think about contemporary art I think that by definition it is meant to explore current issues facing society. It is about creating dialogue -- it's about asking difficult questions and it is often about very serious topics, whether it's poverty, violence or sexuality."
Mora was unavailable for comment.
Abbott isn't sure if the federal government can keep a closer eye on what kind of money goes to funding the arts but said he would have thought the people who run the Banff Centre would have had better sense.
"I would have presumed that the Banff Centre would be a centre that had some discretion," he said.
ugh, stupid thing saying i posted within the last 20 seconds, what bs. *sigh*
Got a referral to evaluate a tard for institutionalization the other day. The family scenario was just lovely. The person being referred was a tard, but could talk and wipe his own ass. Living with him at home was his mother and "uncle". Mom was also a tard, but couldn't speak much and obviously could not wipe her own ass. The uncle was an alleged family member who had been taking care of the two for about 20 years. It was obvious that uncle was getting some benefit from this, as the son-tard kept referring to how much his uncle charged for fixing meals, cleaning the house, buying groceries, etc. Whenever such statements were made, the uncle would just go "Ssshh" and then shake his head and say, "The boy jus' ain' in his right min'." Anyway, we had gone through the IQ evaluations and were discussion behavior problems. Uncle had indicated that son-tard could get hostile and aggressive, particularly towards mom-tard. This went on for a few minutes, and then I asked if there was anything else. The uncle replied, "Oh yeah, the boy fucks his momma." The uncle described that, whenever son-tard got the chance, it was time to have a go at momma. It was clear that uncle knew a lot about the situation, as he described basic fucking, as well as anal and oral. When asked if he did anything about this, he replied, "Well, his momma don' seem ta min' an' I gotta go to work." All of this was discussed by uncle in a "hurry up I want to go home and drink" tone of voice.
Any Australians here?
Wanna chat?
Is it? It certainly has some competition!
Video for Online Dating Profiles
And let's not forget the only occurrence of "WIPO Troll." Guess he doesn't post to Usenet.
sorry Mr AC, but theres an errant moderator
/. wont be archived somewhere? this is the very stuff that *should* be saved, because it gives people in the future a look at how things were by the general popular and not generalized or watered down"
"just because you expected it never to happen doesnt mean it shouldnt or wont happen. how do you know that in 5 years time all our posts on
My sweet Jesus, I'm so screwed. Google will be getting a long "delete my posts" request from me.
What?? no caps???
AlL iN CaPs
Hugonz