The personal blog of filmmaker Dimitri Vorris.
10.21.2012
HOAXERS, TROLLS RUNNING THE DIGITAL HERD
http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2012/10/20/the-hoaxer-the-troll-and-the-running-of-the-digital-herd/
(...) This story seems to me to be almost the inverse of the much more disturbing tale of Violentacrez, the Reddit uber-troll who was outed by Adrian Chen on Gawker last week. Michael Brutsch, as Gawker put it, “The man behind the troll,” created 600 subreddits for obscene and offensive material that he moderated over the course of years. Brutsch generated so much traffic to the nether regions of Reddit that he gained considerable influence on the site and had a collaborative relationship with the (highly unmanaged) management. Reddit even give him an award (a gold-plated Reddit alien bobblehead) for his infamous Jailbait subreddit.
That bobblehead may come back to haunt Reddit. It meant so much to Brutsch to receive it, to be validated by Reddit, that he brought it with him to a shaming interview with CNN and showed it off on camera. (...)
TAI CHI ZERO: LESS STEAM PUNK, MORE STYLISH FIGHT SCENES
"On paper, and in trailer form, Tai Chi Zero seems like a success, but the end result is a mixed bag of frenetic action, humorous asides and a silliness that just won’t quit"'...
http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/reviews/fantastic-fest-tai-chi-zero-rhunt.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FilmSchoolRejects+%28Film+School+Rejects%29
VORIDIS, EX NEONAZI THUG, NOW ND PM, ASKS FOR WIDE-SPREAD FORECLOSURES IN GREECE. CHECK OUT HIS NEONAZI BACKGROUND FROM HAARETZ.
 |
| Voridis (pictured on the right carrying a hatchet), was a Neonazi thug in his youth, destroyed properties, chased down democrats, Jews, and anyone else who used to argue with him. In 2012, thanks to the interim government, he became Minister of Transportation and Public Communications. In less than 60 days he gave a massive 320M euros to the Bobolas Construction Group (Aktor). Still there are lots of money to be made in Greece. |
By SABBY MIONIS
(,,,,) As a Jew and an Israeli, I feel it is my duty and obligation to share with you Voridis’ background and political career. A former leading figure in Greece's neo-Nazi youth group, Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn), Voridis has a long history of Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, including physical threats to Jewish families and leading groups of thugs against immigrants and leftists. Over the last couple of weeks he has smoothed over his thuggish past by describing it as "right-wing activism". As a student at the elite Athens College high school, alma mater of current Prime Minister Papadimos, former Prime Minister Papandreou, Samaras and myself, Voridis formed the fascist student group “Free Students” that painted the walls with swastikas and saluted each other with using the Nazi-era greeting "Heil Hitler."
During school elections, Voridis would violently threaten not only the Jewish students who opposed his fascist group, but also their families. After graduation, Voridis formed a fascist group in the Law School of Athens and became active in neo-Nazi youth groups. In the 1990s, following the footsteps of his mentor, Jean Marie LePen, he formed the National Front, an anti-immigrant party. His party's motto was "Red card for immigrants." A few years ago, he joined LAOS and was elected to parliament. He soon became the darling of the Greek media, due to his extensive family connections, his debating skills and his charisma in front of the cameras.
 |
| Voridis (pictured on the far right), with prime minister Antonis Samaras-Benakis (center). |
Although less charismatic, the second of the two LAOS MPS, Adonis Georgiadis, also has a long history of anti-Semitism. This includes attacking Jews through his television show and being named as a prosecution witness against the leaders of the Greek Jewish community who are on trial for the defamation of Kostas Plevris, a self-proclaimed Nazi and anti-Semite whose book was described by the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece as a "defamatory, anti-Semitic book in which Jews are called 'subhuman' and are directly threatened with annihilation." Plevris himself went on trial for incitement, but was acquitted, and then he sued the leaders of the Jewish community. Plevris is also the father of Thanassis Plevris, another LAOS member of the parliament.
Samaras legitimized a neo-Nazi and an anti-Semite of the worst kind when he invited Voridis to join his party. Letters of protest by Jewish organizations received a lukewarm response from Samaras. Israel has not publicly protested, probably in an attempt not to “rock the boat" of its newly-found friendship with Greece. Perhaps it has done so through private channels.
The co-option of far right-wingers into a Greek government or its opposition is a dangerous precedent. As Israelis and Jews, we need to protest against any kind of neo-Nazi participation in the governments of friendly nations, just as we did when Kurt Waldheim was elected President of Austria, and when the party of Jörg Haider, the long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party, joined the government.
Bearing in mind the storms battering the Greek state and economy, and an underlying current of anti-Semitism that has deep roots in the country, my fear is that a dangerous nationalism is on the rise in Greece. The desire of politicians to appeal to populist conspiracies and racism in the lead up to the general elections in a month’s time and afterward will lead to neo-Nazis holding a balance of power and by then, it will be too late to stop them. The time to stop them is now.
Sabby Mionis was born in Athens and moved to Israel in 2006. Founder of Capital Management Advisors and active in Greek business life, he is a former president of Keren Hayesod (the United Israel Appeal) in Athens and now serves as on the UIA Executive and is co-founder of the Israel Center for Better Childhood.
10.20.2012
MHTΡΟΠΟΛΙΤΗΣ ΠΑΥΛΟΣ: AΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΤΟΙ ΟΙ ΝΕΟΝΑΖΙ ΤΗΣ ΧΡΥΣΗΣ ...ΔΥΣΗΣ, ΟΥΔΕΜΙΑ ΣΧΕΣΗ ΕΧΟΥΝ ΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΛΟΓΟ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ...
Δριμεία επίθεση κατά της Χρυσής Αυγής εξαπέλυσε για άλλη μια φορά ο Μητροπολίτης Σισανίου και Σιατίστης Παύλος ο οποίος χαρακτήρισε το κόμμα «απολίτιστο» και σημείωσε πως καμία σχέση δεν έχει με τον λόγο του Θεού.
Μιλώντας στην «Ημερησία» ο Μητροπολίτης Σιατίστης είπε πως είναι «άλλος ο λόγος του Θεού και άλλος της Χρυσής Αυγής» ενώ δεν δίστασε να χαρακτηρίσει «απολίτιστη» τη συμπεριφορά των βουλευτών της Χρυσής Αυγής στο Κοινοβούλιο.
Επίσης ξεκαθάρισε πως το κόμμα του Νίκου Μιχαλολιάκου δεν έχει σχέση ούτε με τον αρχαίο ελληνικό πολιτισμό ούτε με το Ευαγγέλιο «το οποίο διδάσκει ότι εκ του περισσεύματος της καρδίας λαλεί η γλώσσα και όχι από έναν ξαφνικό θυμό».
«Πρέπει να πάρουμε όλοι σαφή θέση και στάση απέναντι στο φαινόμενο της Χρυσής Αυγής» και ειδικά για τους ανθρώπους της Εκκλησίας τονίζει ότι «οφείλουμε να διδάσκουμε το λόγο του Θεού, ο οποίος δεν έχει καμία σχέση με αυτά που κάνουν τα μέλη της Χρυσής Αυγής».
Πηγή: Σιατίστης Παύλος: «Η Χρυσή Αυγή δεν έχει καμία σχέση με το λόγο του Θεού» | iefimerida.gr http://www.iefimerida.gr/node/72978#ixzz29rxdK3vK
LATSIS PUBLIC BENEFIT FOUNDATION: FREE EBOOKS FROM THE GREEK MUSEUMS CYCLE
The Museums Cycle
Since 1997, the Latsis Group and Eurobank EFG, under the auspices and coordination of the Latsis Foundation, publish annually a volume devoted to a single archaeological museum, aiming to create a series whose scholarly prestige and aesthetic approach would contribute to a deeper knowledge and further understanding of the various aspects of the history of Greek civilisation. More
http://www.latsis-foundation.org/en/92/electronic_library.html
MATT TAIBI: MITT ROMNEY FINALLY LIBERATED FROM TRUTH AND FACTS
...You know those Balsa wood airplanes – not the glider-types but the deluxe models, powered by rubber bands, with little propellers on the nose? I thought of those planes watching Mitt Romney debate Barack Obama the other night.
Romney's journey toward the presidency has been a marvel to behold. Dating back to his first political steps – his race against Ted Kennedy, followed by his assault on the Massachusetts governorship – Romney has been constantly twisting and contorting himself, exchanging position for position, trading pro-choice for anti-choice, flirting with pro-gay rhetoric before shifting swiftly the other way, pioneering state health care reform before bashing virtually the same plan designed on a national scale, claiming the center on everything from guns to global warming before careening right as a presidential candidate.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/finally-liberated-from-facts-mitt-romney-the-pure-bull-artist-takes-flight-20121019#ixzz29pvRKKwP10.19.2012
MAJOR SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH FOR KIDNEY DISEASE FROM DR. CHRISTODOULOS XINARIS AT BERGAMO'S MARIO NEGRI INSITUTE
A kidney-like organ grown from scratch in the lab has been shown to work in animals – an achievement that could be the prelude to growing spare kidneys for someone from their own stem cells.
Donated kidneys are in huge demand worldwide. In the UK alone, there are7200 people on the waiting list – a state of affairs that the new study takes a small step towards ending.
Christodoulos Xinaris of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Bergamo, Italy, and his colleagues extracted cells from the kidneys of mouse embryos as they grew in the mother. The cells formed clumps that could be grown for a week in the lab to become "organoids" containing the fine plumbing of nephrons – the basic functional unit of the kidney. A human kidney can contain over 1 million nephrons.
Chemical broth
Next, Xinaris's team marinated the organoids in a chemical broth called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which makes blood vessels grow. Then they transplanted the organoids onto the kidneys of adult rats.
By injecting the rats with extra VEGF, the researchers encouraged the new tissue to grow its own blood vessels within days. The tissue also developed features called glomeruli, chambers where blood enters the nephrons to be cleansed and filtered.
The researchers then injected the animals with albumin proteins labelled with markers that give out light. They found that the kidney grafts successfully filtered the proteins from the bloodstream, proving that they could crudely perform the main function of real kidneys.
"This is the first kidney tissue in the world totally made from single cells," says Xinaris. "We have functional, viable, vascularised tissue, able to filter blood and absorb large molecules from it. The final aim is to construct human tissues."
"The ability to build functional renal tissue starting from suspensions of single cells represents a considerable step toward the practical goal of engineering renal tissues suitable for transplantation and offers the methodological basis for a number of investigative and therapeutic applications," said Dr. Xinaris. For example, disease-related genes could be introduced into an organoid to help researchers study the mechanisms of complex kidney diseases and to perform a preliminary screening of new drugs to treat them.
Study co-authors include Valentina Benedetti, BiolSciD, Paola Rizzo, BiolSciD, Mauro Abbate, MD, Daniela Corna, Nadia Azzolini, Sara Conti, BSc, Mathieu Unbekand, PhD, Jamie A. Davies, PhD, Marina Morigi PhD, Ariela Benigni, PhD, and Giuseppe Remuzzi, MD.
In Vivo Maturation of Functional Renal Organoids Formed from Embryonic Cell Suspensions
- Christodoulos Xinaris*,
- Valentina Benedetti*,
- Paola Rizzo*,
- Mauro Abbate*,
- Daniela Corna*,
- Nadia Azzollini*,
- Sara Conti*,
- Mathieu Unbekandt†,
- Jamie A. Davies†,
- Marina Morigi*,
- Ariela Benigni*and
- Giuseppe Remuzzi*‡
+Author Affiliations
- Correspondence:
Dr. Christodoulos Xinaris, “Mario Negri” Institute for Pharmacological Research, Centro Anna Maria Astori, Science and Technology Park Kilometro Rosso, Via Stezzano 87, 24126 Bergamo, Italy. Email: christodoulos.xinaris@marionegri.it
- Received for publication May 21, 2012.
- Accepted for publication July 26, 2012.
Abstract
The shortage of transplantable organs provides an impetus to develop tissue-engineered alternatives. Producing tissues similar to immature kidneys from simple suspensions of fully dissociated embryonic renal cells is possible in vitro, but glomeruli do not form in the avascular environment. Here, we constructed renal organoids from single-cell suspensions derived from E11.5 kidneys and then implanted these organoids below the kidney capsule of a living rat host. This implantation resulted in further maturation of kidney tissue, formation of vascularized glomeruli with fully differentiated capillary walls, including the slit diaphragm, and appearance of erythropoietin-producing cells. The implanted tissue exhibited physiologic functions, including tubular reabsorption of macromolecules, that gained access to the tubular lumen on glomerular filtration. The ability to generate vascularized nephrons from single-cell suspensions marks a significant step to the long-term goal of replacing renal function by a tissue-engineered kidney.
- Copyright © 2012 by the American Society of Nephrology
READ ALSO
10.17.2012
OBAMA COMES OUT SWINGING AND WINNING THE VOTE IN TV DEBATE WITH MITT ROMNEY
Mitt Romney continued his defamation of
the Greek nation as a bankrupt country in yesterday's televised
debate with Barrack Obama. Obviously there are no protests from the
American Greek community. American Hellenic organizations had fallen
asleep, or been hypnotized with the 600 B dollars of fraudsters like
Artemis Sorras of END NATIONAL DEBT, much like their Greek
counterparts.
..Back to the debate: Obama didn't blew
it up this time around. Stand his ground. And made even the monoliths
of journalism at Fox TV to recognize the substance of his political
speech and style over the GOP presidential nominee's.
After Mitt Romney's “47%” comments
I seriously doubt there's going to be any hard-working American in
his, her right mind to vote for him. Unless the sugar and junk food
genocide terminated any logic and reason. I am not writing middle
class. American middle class is a species under extinction.
10.16.2012
DER SPIEGEL:CORRUPTION CONTINUES UNCONTROLLED IN GREECE. POLITICIANS AND RICH ARE POCKETING EU AND IMF AID.
(...) For instance, a "G. D." stands at the top of a list with the names of 54,000 Greek citizens who relocated major assets abroad between 2009 and 2011. The list stems from the Greek central bank and is now in the hands of the Finance Ministry.
It is the longest of four lists that are currently circulating in Athens. Each contains the names of people whose financial circumstances -- bank balances and real estate holdings -- do not correspond at all with what they claimed on their tax returns. But hardly anything is being done about it. The Greek reality is sometimes paradoxical: While the governing coalition was busy squabbling with international creditors over how many hundreds of euros can still be trimmed from teachers' and nurses' paychecks, and Athens continued slashing employee pensions, wealthy Greeks moved billions abroad with relative impunity.
The odyssey of the "Lagarde list," as it's known, exemplifies the typically lax attitude toward tax criminals. For many months, it was thought to be lost, but then it resurfaced in early October. Now, the public prosecutor for financial crimes has a copy. It lists 1,991 Greek owners of Swiss bank accounts, and reportedly includes many prominent individuals from the realms of politics, business and culture.
List Goes Missing
The story of this list primarily illustrates the unwillingness of politicians to do anything to improve the situation. In the autumn of 2010, Christine Lagarde, who was still the French finance minister at the time, gave her Greek counterpart Giorgos Papakonstantinou a digitalized list of bank accounts with information on Greek customers at the HSBC Bank in Switzerland. The accounts contained a total of some €1.5 billion. While the French state was using this list to help collect half a billion euros from its own tax offenders, the Greeks showed little interest in attempting a similar initiative (...)
SPIELBERG, GEFFEN, KATZENBERG DONATE 90 MILLION TO RESCUE MPTF
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