The raid is liveblogged when one of Bin Laden’s neighbors complains about the noisy helicopters on Twitter, while Bin Laden’s compound gets 3 of 5 stars on Google Maps. Also in the news: weaponized dogs and a tale of two seals.
Anonymous video artists have projected onto the Maine State House the mural by artist Judy Taylor originally installed to commemorate Maine’s labor history. The mural’s removal by Maine’s new governor Paul LePage has provoked outcries of censorship from artists and educators.
Over the past month, new media scholars have spilled a lot of digital ink arguing whether the Internet actually fostered the 2011 revolution in Egypt, Tunisia, and other Middle East countries–or whether it simply created a dependency that governments can shut down to stymie protesters. Here’s a “Middle East Internet Scorecard” showing where and when governments have cut off their citizens’ access to the net.
How hard would it be for, say, President Beck to shut down Google, Facebook, and the like in the US of A? Read this Middle East censorship roundup to find out what Egyptians, Libyans, and the rest of us can do to safeguard access to a global electronic network.
If the Yes Men were the “Da Men,” they would have been locked up long ago. I hope Plutser-Sarno has a better travel agent than Julian Assange.
Aleksei Plutser-Sarno has been on the run since Russian law enforcement has been working to shut down Voina, the radical Russian art collective he belongs to….
For three years, Voina, which means war, has been playing cat-and-mouse with Russian law enforcement, staging street actions that ranged from the obscure (throwing live cats at McDonald’s cashiers) to the monumental (a 210-foot penis painted on a St. Petersburg drawbridge, so that it rose up pointing at the offices of the F.S.B., the security service).
Last September, Voina launched its most audacious project: “Palace Revolution,” which involved running up to parked police cars and flipping them over — a commentary, the group explained, on police corruption…
But Voina did not need art-world connections — YouTube, LiveJournal and Twitter gave it access to young Russians who shared the group’s sense of humor and rage at the police. Its plans got bigger, riskier. Before painting the penis on the bridge last June, the group practiced for a month before concluding that nine people could do the job in 30 seconds. As it turned out, guards barreled after them and they had only 23 seconds.
The image stood for a few hours before the authorities scrubbed it off; by then it had exploded onto the Internet. It was, Mr. Plutser-Sarno said, Voina’s most perfect act.
Jan 122011
Ever wonder how our failing economy is staying afloat?
China is lending US gov’t money…because we gave that money to our failing banks who have used that money to pay lobbyists to stop the government from regulating their actions. Puzzled? Check out common sense economist Richard Wolff as he explains Why the Economic Crisis Deepens
Oct 152010
Hello,
My name is Dennis St. Pierre, I am an MFA student in the Intermedia Program here at the University of Maine.
I am announcing a new light hearted, humorous and informative voice opposed to the Tea Party Movement. Everything is explained below in a press release I wrote.
We are still adding content on a daily basis to our site, especially the intelligence, (aren’t we all) and there are lot’s of products that are not in our online store yet.
Hopefully everything will be completed soon. None the less, it is time to announce.
So please visit our site, purchase goods in our effort to stand up to the Tea Baggers and fight for our country while at the same time raising money and awareness for important causes. Help us go viral and spread the call.
Any advice, feedback, links to great information and content you think would be appropriate to add to our site, would be greatly appreciated.
I hope life finds you all well. I wish you all great happiness.
Dennis St.Pierre
Hello Everyone,
I am Dennis St. Pierre, an ordinary worker, a student, an artist and most important a citizen! I am a Perturbed Passionate Patriotic Pacifist (say that 4 x fast) who is tired of the high jacking of our Democratic Republic by the Tea Party and feel it’s time to do something about it. So I and some Friends, have created the NOT TEA (yes naughty) Party. We have decided to fight back using humor, intelligence and common sense.
Like most of you, we have little time to go to meetings and assemblies, coffee party’s etc. We are so busy just staying afloat. But that doesn’t mean we have nothing to say and the time to speak up is passing us by.
By not voicing our opposition, by remaining silent and complacent, we are allowing a possible takeover of our government and ultimately our country. This is the work of the ultra wealthy and the extremely misinformed in the guise of “Patriots”, who call themselves the “Tea Party”.
It is through simple acts of defiance that we can defeat this opposition. We all know the power of marketing; we all know how powerful a few words can be. We all can defeat this rhetoric filled and misinformed group and take our country back.
How? We fight back without malice, but instead armed with humor, common sense and strong intelligence as our weapons, We take simple actions like that of wearing a T-shirt, placing a bumper sticker on our car, placing a sign on our lawn to be our voice when we don’t feel like direct confrontation. We take time to gain knowledge by reading and debate. Suddenly, you gain strength, armed with the knowledge of being one of many. Suddenly you feel strong enough to stand up and confront the bullies directly.
We believe as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. believed that it is through many little acts of non violence and intelligent defiance that true power prevails. These acts include the use of Humor, Knowledge and Good Will.
That being said; we are attempting to give you the means to defeat this takeover. We have created a website www.notteacompany.com or www.notteaparty.com . It is being updated constantly with News, A Library, Links, Cartoons, Humorous Videos, a place to exchange knowledge, as well as a Mercantile where you can buy products to voice your displeasure of the Tea Party. Products with humorous double entendre rally cries! “I’m NOT TEA”, “Sooooo NOT TEA”, “NOT TEA & NICE”, “It’s Nice 2 B Naugh-Tea” and many others that support the “NOT TEA PARTY” idea. We will soon have “Wicked Not Tea Coffee” as well. 15% of all profits go to NON PROFITS.
So, I hope you will go to our website and our store and become part of a “Wicked Not Tea Party”. So laugh, be informed and perform acts of Good Will all while being NOT TEA!!!
Sincerely,
Dennis St. Pierre
The NOT TEA COMPANY
For more info please contact me via email at notteacompany@yahoo.com
“Remember…… try to be good and if that’s impossible, Be reeeaaalllly bad and tell me how good it was!!!! 
”
“Imagine” john lennon
350.org has launched a glocal event–locally engaged, globally networked–to send a message to our political leaders that we want to work for positive life-affirming goals for our communities and families.
You can see two local Orono events as well as nearby events on the map
Still Water Permaculture Guild launched their own event described below:
EVENT
9 October 2010 – 10:00am – 2:00pm
Learn sheet mulching techniques for both Apple Orchard guilds, and raised beds.
Oct 132010
Hey all,
I’m writing from San Francisco, my home these days. San Francisco is at the forefront of an amazing urban gardening movement, and it is very exciting! I’ve been working very closely with one urban farm in particular, called Hayes Valley Farm. It’s a 2.3 acre food forest rising from a freeway that collapsed during the ’89 earthquake. I hold the title of Lead Researcher on the Biodiversity Team. Most recently for 350.org’s 10-10-10 global day of action to prevent climate change, we began an effort to research and steward what edible and medicinal plants do well in the multiple microclimates within the city. We gave away 150 permaculture kits to initiate healthy ecosystems in folks’ backyards, front yards, planter pots, or vertical wall gardens (we get creative in the city). Our ultimate question is “how many people can you feed on how little urban land?” I like to think it is possible to have sustainable cities, but I wonder too if they stay cities or become something new…. This teeters on an artistic and pedagogical piece I recently did for Mary Walling Blackburn’s Radical Citizenship: the Tutorials, called Root, City, Thorn.
Anyway, I’m also very involved in thinking about the human organizational models that encourage healthy ecosystems and healthy people. We are facing some very juicy challenges on the farm and are seeking answers from lots of different sources. To this end, and in the spirit of exchanging insight, I’ve just launched an email list called Chapter Fourteen. I hope all you UMaine alumns involved in permaculture and/or participatory models of communication will join this list and share what you’ve learned from your own communities, as well as stories about where you’re stuck.
Please join! http://lists.beforebefore.net/listinfo.cgi/chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net Beginning on the new moon November 5th we’ll have roughly 2 week discussions around the topic a moderator initiates. Please let me know if you’re interested in facilitating a discussion, and I’ll sign you up!
Thanks Jon for getting NMDnet going!
xoxo
Defenders of realism in violent RPG videogames sometimes argue that the ability to play different roles helps stimulate understanding of cross-cultural conflicts and historical context, or even inspire empathy. So what happens when US military play the Taliban side in Medal of Honor? And how is that different from soldiers who act out the role of the “enemy” in Army-initiated training exercises?
http://games.slashdot.org/story/10/09/02/213220/GameStop-Pulls-emMedal-of-Honorem-From-Military-Bases?from=rss via Byline donniebaseball23 writes “EA’s Medal of Honor reboot doesn’t ship until October 12, but it’s already seen a fair amount of controversy thanks to the publisher’s decision to allow people to play as Taliban in multiplayer. The controversy just got escalated another notch, reports IndustryGamers, as the world’s biggest games retailer GameStop has decided it won’t sell the title at its stores located on US military bases. The new Medal of Honor won’t be advertised at these stores either. GameStop noted that they came to this decision ‘out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform.’”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Apr 072010
The FCC’s about to rule on Net Neutrality, and they’re collecting public feedback until Friday. If you feel as I do, sign the Save the Internet petition.
Why should you care? Well, would you mind if someone switched your search engine from Google to Yahoo? Do you care whether movies streamed to your neighborhood will arrive slower than emails streamed into rich neighborhoods? Do you want the Internet’s innovators to be a few companies in the middle with control over the routers, or everyday folks with a laptop on the end nodes?
I’m hot and bothered about this because the principle of net neutrality has guided the Internet since its infancy, and there is no question in my mind that it is the single biggest reason for the phenomenal growth of creative, scientific, and economic activity online.
To allow Internet Service Providers to negotiate faster access for companies like Barnes & Nobles or Yahoo would be like allowing the Federal Highway Administration to charge BMW drivers smaller tolls in return for kickbacks. Thankfully, our country’s roads were built in a vehicle-neutral way, and as a result they have been flexible enough to serve horse carriages, Model Ts, and Priuses. To charge higher rates for some forms of traffic and not others would be to stifle technological innovations of the future.
Save the world, get a scholarship.
Wired discovers permaculture!
“Haiti was an ecological disaster before the earthquake. Deforestation and topsoil loss have made farming on the island difficult. One organization suggests that permaculture techniques could restore productivity to the land and rural residents”
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/vNxIahkEaLE/a-permaculture-strategy-for
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Wired discovers permaculture!
“Haiti was an ecological disaster before the earthquake. Deforestation and topsoil loss have made farming on the island difficult. One organization suggests that permaculture techniques could restore productivity to the land and rural residents”
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/vNxIahkEaLE/a-permaculture-strategy-for
A new grant for socially conscious photographers could make a dream documentary project a reality for one lucky applicant.
A new grant for socially conscious photographers could make a dream documentary project a reality for one lucky applicant.
Bookmark this category
A new grant for socially conscious photographers could make a dream documentary project a reality for one lucky applicant.
Dec 082009
I suppose it was only a matter of time before an industry of carpetbaggers would be knocking on the door of DIY political bloggers. Now, for the politician who wants his own blog so he can show he’s a “man of the people”: political themes for WordPress blogs (think stars-and-stripes banners and pictures of people shaking hands).
Ghostwriter not included. (via Craig Dietrich)
