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.
NEW YORK CITY, 19 Nov 2010 —
MYFOXNY.COM – Some might say there is a ‘war on cars’ going on in New York City.
Continue reading »
Jan 122011
Tired of bad news?
YES! Magazine reframes the biggest problems of our time in terms of their solutions. Online and in print, we outline a path forward with in-depth analysis, tools for citizen engagement, and stories about real people working for a better world.
Powerful Ideas, Practical Actions
Today’s world is not the one we want—climate change, financial collapse, poverty, and war leave many feeling overwhelmed and hopeless.
YES! Magazine empowers people with the vision and tools to create a healthy planet and vibrant communities.
Your parents probably are more likely to talk nice about family, while you’re probably more likely to cuss about music or sex. And that’s why you’re more likely to be popular on Facebook, according to one read of Facebook’s recent statistical correlation of user comments and number of friends.
Sure, it doesn’t address the full meme lifecycle (“Payload -> Circulation -> Direction -> Vector -> Hook -> Payoff” [1]), but it’s a clever distraction meme-within-a-meme.
Continue reading »
Oct 192010
We’ve probably all heard about this already, but it’s certainly apt, so here it is. Facebook apps (such as Farmville) have been giving (inadvertently or not) non-anonymous personal information to advertisers, a violation of Facebook’s privacy policy. So basically, you could have chosen the most restrictive privacy settings on Facebook, but if you used Farmville (or if one of your “friends” used Farmville) or one of the other offending apps, your info (your Facebook ID) could have been leaked. I think it’s kind of vague right now as to exactly what was leaked and why it happened, but any way you slice it, privacy was violated; and that’s another strike for Mr. Zuckerberg, the first being the leaked ims from 2004. Good thing none of us would be caught dead using as passe a piece of software as Facebook. Right? Metaphor: Facebook is to the year 2010, as AOL was to the year 2001.
Oct 152010
William Gibson’s last three novels (starting with Pattern Recognition back in 2003) are essential reading, in my opinion, for anybody who’s into New Media these days. They’re all set in the modern day, though the characters are decidedly sci-fi– hackers, marketing execs (hackers of a sort), graphic designers, fashion designers, filmmakers, and so on–generally controllers and creators of information.
So, on one level these books (and I sincerely recommend you start with Pattern Recognition) serve as commentary on our jacked-in, post 9/11, etc., society, but on quite another, more immediate–and I think gratifying–level Gibson just uses these themes as an occasion to produce some incredibly focused, almost morbidly precise writing. The density of his prose can be a little daunting at first, but once you get into the swing of things it’s quite good. A little vacuous at times, definitely show-offish at others, but on the whole simply delightful.
A bit like wine-tasting perhaps–the kind where you have to spit out the wine after a few seconds. It’s ridiculously good sometimes–the prose seems almost calibrated to induce a kind of lyrical hypersensitivity in the reader–but on the whole it lacks heart, and leaves one feeling not a little empty.
Reviews:
P.S. If you’re into fashion, Gibson’s descriptions are basically candy. Finely textured, gunmetal-black candy.
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
New in the “They Can Do That?” Department: Your Facebook friends can add you to groups without your approval, and the only way to make sure that never happens is to *have no friends*. Oh, and the FBI can bug your car without a warrant. While it’s in your driveway.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/10/08/1358232/Lighthearted-Facebook-Friends-Could-Make-You-Join-NAMBLA-Group?from=rss via Byline mykos writes “The Facebook groups feature is causing bit of a stir with its users. TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington was allegedly added to a group about NAMBLA, and in turn, he added Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It’s all in good (albeit tasteless) fun, except when a harmless joke goes awry and you find yourself being detained by customs when a friend decided to drag you into a mock terrorist group. Facebook representatives are aware of the matter, but are dismissive of it. A Facebook spokeswoman said, ‘If you have a friend that is adding you to Groups you do not want to belong to, or they are behaving in a way that bothers you, you can tell them to stop doing it, block them or remove them as a friend — and they will no longer EVER have the ability to add you to any Group.’ In somewhat related news, guillotines ensure you won’t have dandruff on your shoulders anymore.”
Did I mention the guy with his car bugged was a college student? The FBI was pretty keen to get it back, too.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/10/08/1413240/College-Student-Finds-GPS-On-Car-FBI-Retrieve?from=rss via Byline mngdih writes with this excerpt from Wired: “A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online. The post prompted wide speculation about whether the device was real, whether the young Arab-American was being targeted in a terrorism investigation and what the authorities would do. It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back … His discovery comes in the wake of a recent ruling by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals saying it’s legal for law enforcement to secretly place a tracking device on a suspect’s car without getting a warrant, even if the car is parked in a private driveway. … ‘We have all the information we needed,’ they told him. ‘You don’t need to call your lawyer. Don’t worry, you’re boring.’”
Sep 192010
The new rules for technology that every kid should learn. They’re surprisingly cautionary (“Every new technology will bite back”), coming from former Wired editor Kevin Kelly. Could he be returning to his Whole Earth Catalog roots? (via Bill Kuykendall)
Aug 102010
Anil Dash of dashes.com offers up this provocative companion to NMDNet’s subheading,
Continue reading »
I never thought of Twitter’s randomness as an asset, but in this writer’s response I can see a valuable antidote to Facebook’s inbred circles. Following strangers becomes a form of human channel surfing.
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/1SbUhWYbwC4/ via Byline Over at Gizmodo, Joel Johnson makes a convincing argument for adding random strangers to your twitter feed.
Read on to see how Johnson correlates hearing a diversity of viewpoints with creativity.
I never thought of Twitter’s randomness as an asset, but in this writer’s response I can see a valuable antidote to Facebook’s inbred circles. Following strangers becomes a form of human channel surfing.
http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/1SbUhWYbwC4/ via Byline Over at Gizmodo, Joel Johnson makes a convincing argument for adding random strangers to your twitter feed.
Read on to see how Johnson correlates hearing a diversity of viewpoints with creativity.
People are hungry for a privacy-respecting social network. So hungry that four college kids announce they are going to make an open version of Facebook, and pocket $100,000 in donations in the first two weeks.
Read on to find out why so many are steamed up about Facebook and what they intend to do about it.
From a Slashdot review:
“The Laidoff Ninja” is an extremely valuable resource on dealing with the mental stress and anguish that may come from being laid off. It presents creative and novel ways of finding jobs by leveraging social media. The book is a tool in itself that can help the reader survive and prepare for the battle that is a job-search, and do it in a highly effective way.
http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/SPxXwexqmuQ/The-Laidoff-Ninja
From a Slashdot review:
“The Laidoff Ninja” is an extremely valuable resource on dealing with the mental stress and anguish that may come from being laid off. It presents creative and novel ways of finding jobs by leveraging social media. The book is a tool in itself that can help the reader survive and prepare for the battle that is a job-search, and do it in a highly effective way.
http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/SPxXwexqmuQ/The-Laidoff-Ninja
This Slashdot comment sums it up:
this is finally a thing that really made me thinking of just closing my Facebook account. Not just opt-out from the new features again and again, since they just seem to always be more and more privacy intrusive.
This doesn’t use any kind of login button but shares the data automatically to a website when you visit it, so they instantly know who you are along with other data. IP data is still anonymous enough (from the view point of website operator – they don’t know who you are without going through police with a valid reason), but now the third party website owners have your name and other details without you never giving them those.
And just wait until every website will start to require you to use this. A good path for throwing all the anonymous cowards off the net and to get everyone comment and visit websites under their real name.
This Slashdot comment sums it up:
this is finally a thing that really made me thinking of just closing my Facebook account. Not just opt-out from the new features again and again, since they just seem to always be more and more privacy intrusive.
This doesn’t use any kind of login button but shares the data automatically to a website when you visit it, so they instantly know who you are along with other data. IP data is still anonymous enough (from the view point of website operator – they don’t know who you are without going through police with a valid reason), but now the third party website owners have your name and other details without you never giving them those.
And just wait until every website will start to require you to use this. A good path for throwing all the anonymous cowards off the net and to get everyone comment and visit websites under their real name.