All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

5 Things You Don’t Know About Linda Ronstadt | Dame Magazine

In the 1970s, Linda Ronstadt was selling out arenas and pumping out platinum albums like a pro. By the end of the decade she was the highest paid woman in rock. Of course, at the time, she was one of the only solo female acts in rock, and while she praises Billie Holiday for paving her way, Ronstadt set the stage for many to come. On look at this live rendition of “You’re No Good” on The Midnight Special and you’ll see why.

 

1) She lost her voice to Parkinson’s Disease.

In 2013 she revealed, in an AARP interview with DAME contrib Alanna Nash, that she sadly “can’t sing a note.”

via 5 Things You Don’t Know About Linda Ronstadt | Dame Magazine.

What Clegg, Miliband, Farage and Cameron taste like: the synaesthesia vote – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian

Who tastes of toffee and ink? Who’s like Lucozade – and who’s the inside of a frankfurter? James Wannerton from Blackpool has a rare condition called lexical-gustatory synaesthesia, which means he can taste words and sounds. For the General Election, he has teamed up with artist Sam Cornwell to show how each political leader tastes. ‘Liberal Democrats are exactly like rubber bands, with a drizzle of yoghurt,’ explained Wannerton, whose experiences are involuntary and in no way reflect his political allegiances. ‘I realise I’m not eating this stuff,’ he said. ‘But it feels like it. I can feel the texture. Every sound, every word, one taste after another. It’s like eating all day, even when I dream.’

via What Clegg, Miliband, Farage and Cameron taste like: the synaesthesia vote – in pictures | Art and design | The Guardian.

UKIP′s Farage battles for his future in South Thanet | Europe | DW.DE | 06.05.2015

Heading towards town, a UKIP poster declares “only one party can control our borders.” But it’s the rather rude graffiti defacing Farage’s image – including a toothbrush Hitler moustache – that truly catches the eye. Some houses carry party or candidate endorsements in their windows, but the majority do not. On show, for the most part, is the color purple, and Conservative blue.

via UKIP′s Farage battles for his future in South Thanet | Europe | DW.DE | 06.05.2015.

Leftist Party’s Win in Alberta May Affect Future of Oil Sands – NYTimes.com

With an economy dominated by the oil industry and a conservative, free-market political tradition, Alberta has long been cast as the Texas of Canada. But on Tuesday, not only did the province’s voters put the Progressive Conservative Party out of power after 43 years, they elected a government from the far left of Canada’s mainstream political spectrum.

The unexpected rise of the New Democratic Party, which was partly founded by labor unions, may have implications for Alberta’s oil sands, which, many critics say, enjoyed a light regulatory touch under Conservative governments. And with a federal election coming this year, the result will not be welcomed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative whose party’s power base is in Alberta, along with his own parliamentary constituency.

via Leftist Party’s Win in Alberta May Affect Future of Oil Sands – NYTimes.com.

Robert Reich: Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

What we should have learned by now about trickle-down economics is that nothing trickles down.

If the Trans Pacific Partnership is enacted, big corporations, Wall Street, and their top executives and shareholders will make out like bandits. Who will the bandits be stealing from? The rest of us.

via Robert Reich: Trans Pacific Trickle-Down Economics – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics.

Ukip candidate suspended for threatening to ‘put a bullet in’ Tory rival | Politics | The Guardian

In the footage, Blay is heard to express his frustration with suggestions that Jayawardena has a bright political career ahead of him and especially at the possibility that he could rise to be Britain’s first prime minister of Asian descent.

Election 2015 interactive: who is ahead in the polls where you live?

Read more

“If he is, I will personally put a bullet between his eyes,” says Blay. “If this lad turns up to be our prime minister, I will personally put a bullet in him. That’s how strong I feel about it.

via Ukip candidate suspended for threatening to ‘put a bullet in’ Tory rival | Politics | The Guardian.

Copenhagen man revives Viking ‘forest’ language – The Local

“Often Norwegians, Danes and Swedes can understand each others’ languages and dialects. But Elfdalian can’t be understood by any Scandinavians apart from the ones that grow up with it, and that is why we consider it a separate language,” Yair Sapir, a linguistics expert who lives in Copenhagen and teaches at Lund University in Sweden

via Copenhagen man revives Viking ‘forest’ language – The Local.