Category Archives: Politics

Art, Health, Politics, Tech

Algae Power

Algae Balloons
A different approach to powering your home, than my previous nuclear battery one, over at Geoff Manaugh’sBLDGBLOG. Growing algae in balloons, in a way that makes it produce mucho H2. Some beautiful renderings of the project (it’s an urban design project in Iceland), and some commentary from Geoff about how depressing it is that we go to these lengths to, basically, just keep on doing what we’re already doing, instead of trying to change the fundamentals of our society.
Growing algae to produce power is an interesting concept, but really it’s useless without designing communities that use less energy. People just don’t seem to believe in frugality any more, and that’s what we need to return to.
And, no I’m not a hippy, preaching back to the land, and such, because, damnit, I love my tech, and my Schtufff, but with 6 billion people (is that right) on this planet, we really need to figure something out, don’t we?

Art, Politics

Rhizomatic #1

Rhizomatic#1 is about a squatted art and community space that took place in Brighton in January 2001. It was organised by an anarchist … all » collective called SPOR, which developed from the original Spiral Tribe founders with a focus of providing active spaces of freedom within local communities, based on the thought that “without somewhere to be free then freedom is nothing more than an abstract idea”. They base their activities on a method of action that draws inspiration from Hakim Bey’s concept of ‘temporary autonomous zones’ and from a Deleuzian notion of the rhizome which they put into action. They consciously organise a network that does not attempt to maintain a permanent political presence but which rather appears at indeterminate intervals, inspired by the mushroom which fruits intermittently on the basis on an ongoing mycelium. Their experiments inspire and spread this network of ideas, people, connections and actions.

Directed by Matt Lee the film was made by Indifference Productions and Weigh In, Way Out Productions, independent film-makers active in Brighton, UK.

About 23 minutes long. Enjoy

General, Music, Politics

Not enough time in the day–or the real reason no one’s buying CDs nowadays

Music CD, I’m just not that into you

In the four years from 2001 to 2005, overall time spent on these pursuits rose to 3,482 hours per person from 3,356 hours, about a 4% increase. But that didn’t benefit all forms of entertainment equally. Here’s a table I’ve created from the MPAA report showing the change in hours per person spent by activity:

Cable and satellite TV +125
Consumer Internet +52
Home video +29
Broadcast and satellite radio +26
Wireless content +15
Video games +12

Consumer books 0

Movies (at the theater) -1
Consumer magazines -3
Daily newspapers -14
Recorded music -50
Broadcast TV -65

There’s more, but the idea is that, since we only have so much money, and/or time, we spend both on what gives us more pleasure per unit.
I’m glad to see that book reading hasn’t declined (although it would be nice if it had increased), which puts a lie to the idea that we are less literate the more we’re online.

Politics

Make it Two

One Citizen’s Bill of Impeachment
by STUART MARKOFF

A DECLARATION OF DIVORCE FROM, AND IMPEACHMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THESE UNITED STATES CURRENTLY IN POWER AS OF THIS OCTOBER, 2006 IN THE TWO HUNDREDTH AND TWENTY FIFTH YEAR OF THE PROMULGATION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

When in the course of the history of this Republic, survivor of Rebellion, of the Great Depression, and of many wars, an Executive violates its contract with its citizens to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, and fails to so uphold and defend its basic principles, putting the nation itself in jeopardy, and subverting its very purposes, then the citizens must exercise their right to reject such governance not only by the power of the vote but by petitioning the Legislative to institute proceedings of Impeachment against the Executive to reclaim the balance of the three branches as invisioned by the Authors and enshrined in the words of the Constitution itself.

To that end, We draw up this bill of high crimes and misdemeanors not only multitimes manifest but continuing, to the great harm, and maiming of this Republic, whereby we urge that the current President, Vice-President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and Secretary of the Interior be impeached, removed from office, and rendered subject to prosecution for crimes against both the domestic and international order at trials by a jury of their peers, the ordinary citizens of the United States of America.

Wherefore, we list the wrongs inflicted upon us:

  1. Waging war by lies, distortions, and a secret agenda;
  2. Basing domestic policy on various grandiose usurpations of both the Legislative and Judicial functions;
  3. Suspending basic rights as enumerated in the Bill of Rights and in Common Law;
  4. Refusing to carry out the express intent of legislation by invoking the expediency of sign-off statements;
  5. Misusing the Armed Forces, and subjecting troops to retaliatory punishment by an Enemy;
  6. Creating new enemies, and destroying American prestige with aggressive, hegemonic, and destabilizing policies;
  7. Subverting the freedom of the press with paid propaganda disguised as open journalism;
  8. And in general, exercising an Incompetence so willful that its consequences may take generations to repair.

THEREFORE DO WE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SEPARATE OURSELVES FROM OBEDIENCE TO SUCH UNLAWFUL AUTHORITY, EXCEPT AS CONTINGENT UPON SUCH TIME AS THEIR IMPEACHMENT, REMOVAL, AND TRIAL, in the trust we still have in the wisdom of the Founders and in the courage of the Legislative and the Judiciary to document and to pass judgment, and to rectify the CRIMINAL wrongs enumerated.

Herewith we pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor:

Stuart L. Markoff, Baltimore, MD

Keith Perkins, Bucksport, ME

Politics

Military Commissions (Torture) Act Destined to Become Law

From http://www.bordc.org/threats/s3930.php

Rogue Regime Rides Roughshod over Human Rights

Military Commissions Bill (S. 3930)

The Senate voted 65-34 in favor of S. 3930 on Thursday evening, September 28. Vote on the measure followed the defeat of five amendments. The Senate bill will go to the House for a final vote, to replace a nearly identical bill, H.R. 6166, which the House approved Wednesday by a vote of 253 -168. The House is certain to approve the Senate bill in order to avoid the need for a House-Senate conference.

In the Senate, only 34 Senators voted against the White House-crafted Military Commissions bill that

  • re-establishes President Bush’s military tribunals, which were rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional,
  • legalizes U.S. war crimes committed before December 30, 2005,
  • disallows any person harmed by the U.S., in violation of the Geneva Conventions, from filing a claim in U.S. court,
  • strips legal residents of the U.S. of their right to challenge their detention in court if they’re accused of being enemy combatants,
  • abolishes the right of Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention, which in effect pre-judges all of them as guilty,
  • approves the CIA program that allows waterboarding and other forms of torture,
  • and names any individual, including citizens, as an unlawful enemy combatant if they provide material support to those engaged in hostilities against the U.S.

What’s next Generalissimo Bush–Dictator for life?! Why not, he, and his cronies are already wiping their asses with the constitution.

Get your Enemy Combatant T-shirts here