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Thursday Top 5

Worst. Day. At. Work. Ever.



“He’s doing it all wrong!”
Holy shit.



Um, uh oh. Uh oh! UH OH!
I’m not sure if this guy is the most dedicated or the most stupid radio announcer ever.



Repower America
Al Gore is advocating a U.S. goal of 100% carbon-free electricity in 10 years (New York Times Op-Ed: “The Climate for Change”). So am I. If you agree, sign the petition, or write a letter to the editor.



Kevin Rose interviews Al Gore for Digg Dialogg
Gore takes questions from the Digg users on subjects ranging from marijuana legalization/regulation to Net Neutrality whether he would accept a position in the Obama cabinet or heading the EPA.

Labels: animals, censorship, distractions, environment, humor, Internet, politics, Thursday top 5, videos

Posted by espd at 8:52 PM |  2 comments
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Battle In Seattle

Next month will see the debut of an independent film about the 1999 demonstrations against the WTO in Seattle. The movie looks like it will be pretty good, not the average Hollywood tale in which the “terrorists” all have foreign accents. Independent director Stuart Townsend has taken pains to present the story from many points of view, including lead characters from amongst the protesters, the media, the police, and the general Seattle citizenry who got caught up in something they didn’t understand.

While the the film’s official site features the normal marketing pieces about the cast, et al, it also features three very personal and extremely interesting short clips in which Townsend talks about his impetus to write and make this movie. Even more interestingly, the site features a great deal of information about the issues the demonstrators were trying to bring to light (see screenshot below).



There’s even a separate site, Who Controls the World?, which acts as sort of a historical archive of the 1999 protests, featuring short video interviews with protest organizers and participants, a day-by-day timeline, participant memories, and much more about the pitfalls of globalization.

The film opens September 19 in San Francisco and a few other cities. For a higher quality version of the trailer, go to Apple.com. IMDB entry for Battle in Seattle.

Labels: activism, censorship, environment, film, legal issues, politics

Posted by espd at 7:16 PM |  0 comments
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The Corruptibles

Take action against the Broadcast Flag, Audio Flag, and Analog Hole.

Labels: activism, censorship, Internet, tech, videos

Posted by espd at 11:28 PM |  0 comments
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Is your cable company blocking your Internet?

SF Weekly featured a cover story last week about Comcast blocking subscribers who are using peer-to-peer programs like BitTorrent.



Regardless of the potential for copyright abuses by P2P, BitTorrent and digital advocacy groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) make the valid point that Comcast, as the nation's second-largest internet service provider, has a duopoly on bandwidth and therefore a stranglehold on a public utility that shouldn't be subject to the whims of a single corporation.

This is core to the recent concerns raised about so-called "net neutrality," and SF Weekly's piece is a good primer. The EFF also has some additional information on Comcast's abuses of their subscribers.

Labels: activism, censorship, copyright, Internet, tech

Posted by espd at 10:51 PM |  0 comments
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