Distributed Protest
Posted 4:40 PM

Came up with a concept for forming a impacting protest without having to get a permit. It's called a distributed protest. It benefits from being nonviolent and powerful and newsworthy, while only requiring a small number of people. I added a density calculator to make it easier for organizers to plan.

Labels: politics

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Take back democracy
Posted 1:36 PM

More and more people are clamoring to fix the democratic system in the US. Whether it's Democrats buying electorate votes, Republicans blocking blacks from voting, we're all sick of it.

Here are some of the most important issues: IRV voting, audible voting, and anonymous internet voting confirmation are among some of the technologies that are poised to patch up the democracy in our country.

On the other side of the problem, campaign finance reform is becoming a hot issue. The average American may not know what "soft money" is, but he knows it sounds shady. And it is. Before you vote in 2004, make suer you know what you're voting for by checking out who paid them to run for office. Sites like OpenSecrets have carefully documented the influence that special-interest groups have over candidates.

Even our President used to support these sorts of changes: "Initiative and referendum make government more responsive to its citizens, neutralize the power of the special interests and stimulate public involvement in state issues." - George W. Bush

Do your part, and urge your Congressman to support the The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act. Just by clicking, you can sign a online petition, or even send them a letter.

Labels: politics

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Best antispam tool!
Posted 4:23 PM

After a frustrating distributed mailbomb that I was hard-pressed to find a pattern in, I decided to get a Bayesian spam filter to clean up the mess. I read about many of them and experimented several, including Spam Bully and some others. Most of them were very bad, crashed, or were incapable of learning about this complex mailbomb. By far and away K9 was the best. It works, it doesn't screw up, it learns very fast, and has a 99.5% accuracy after a few days of training. The training process is simple, and the program is free. The developer, Robin Keir, is busy a lot, so if you have any questions, feel free to post them or email me.

Note: this doesn't work on a Yahoo or Hotmail account.

Please download it, install it, and get your email back under control. Why do I care? Because the Internet only works if everyone likes it. Which is probably the same reason why Robin wrote it.
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We have blocked the cure for diabetes
Posted 11:35 PM

Stem cells apparently have the ability to regenerate pancretic damage and cure diabetes. It's likely that cloned embryonic stem cells may have to be used for full regeneration and healing. Research into this technology has been blocked.

"The commercial sector will do their thing, which is in secrecy. They will go only in those directions that can make money and leave unexplored or undone those things which don't have markets. That's really what I forecast. " - Paul Berg

Should our administrtion be allowed to block life-giving research? Shold the military and the corporations own our bodies? Voice your support to publicly fund this important research area. 80% of the major research is done by universities. Cures for diseases are too important to trust entirely to corporations. It's never too late to start caring.
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Mini Donation
Posted 10:41 PM

Just put $5 toward a MoveON fund to produce and publish an advertisement about the Bush administration. I really the name "MoveON". I also like the idea of contributing to a short political film.
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Conclusion
Posted 2:57 PM

The war on drugs is the war on the fouth-dimensional eye.
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Democracy 2.0
Posted 1:58 PM

Elections are, more often, won by the candidate who can get his face in front of the most voters. Through the history of our democracy elections have been consistently skewed towards the politicians that have had the most finances for larger media campaigns.

Now, couple this with corporate unaccountability. I own a corporation.... I benefit from the "corporate shield." However these laws promote corruption. On a small scale they allow me to run up debt, and bankrupt my corporation without consequence. On a larger scale, it allows corporate leaders to participate in child labor exploitation, pollution and callous disregard for human life.

The combined system we have now is a that of a series of unaccountable corporations influencing elections, and quite possibly, running our country.

And the result of the system is increasing terrorism, instability, disease, destruction of values, and a privileged upper class that rules over an increasingly mislead population.

The solution is Democracy 2.0

Labels: politics

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Lounge Chair Tent Cot
Posted 2:29 PM

I was looking to buy a lounge chair and was going to settle for a teak one with a hunter green cushion. It's $150. I think that's a lot for lawn furniture that's just going to go bad in the weather. You can get "weatherproof wicker" for like $1000. But that's nuts too. I was hoping to find, like, a $50 one. Then I found this. There's something about this geeky multiuse thing that I really like, but it's still too expensive. Sometimes shopping online works, sometimes it doesn't.
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Bush Documentary
Posted 5:02 PM

4 Part Windows Media files showing Greg Palast's documentary on the history of the Bush family fortune. Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Labels: politics

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MDMA Enlightenment Party
Posted 3:06 PM

OK, I went to a great party last night. I probably came on a bit too strong, but whatever, I was high. It was a classic New York loft party - the way it's supposed to be. Huge loft in a condemned building, excellent volunteer DJ, talking trash, talking sex, talking philosophy, shutting up and dancing, shutting up and spacing to X.

Afterwards, I sat on the street and had a conversation with a vagrant father and son duo who have a dysfunctional relationship and live in $10 hotels. I listened to their song ideas, and asked about their life together. Then some punk kid sat down and started insulting everyone. I liked it at first, I mean... he was being "punk guy", confrontational, and forcing us to accelerate our conversation. But then a fight almost broke out. Since I was seeing everything in a positive way, it was very easy for me to diffuse it.

Then I wrote down some thoughts about beauty and enlightenment.

Enlightenment is a path that begins by looking at your internal voices, your thoughts. During this process, there is a sensation of looking inward. However, you cannot do this with your eyes, instead you do it with a metaphorical third eye.

The concept of a third eye dominates many religions. It's a fluid concept, not accurately captured on paper. But I did sense the analogy, and I now understand it in a way that I never have. Not coincidentally, I am reading a novel about the fourth dimension by Rudy Rucker, an amazing author. This novel, by inspiring the reader to consider a 4th dimension, also inspires the concept of a dynamic viewpoint.

You can keep changing your 3-dimensional perspective, and never see the truth. But with a 4-dimensional perspective, you can see it. However, we are 3 dimensional beings! To achieve an enlightening perspective, we can create this 4th dimensional viewpoint, which sees all things. The way to create it, or at least an approximation of it, is to constantly shift ones being. You are a continuous being, like a river is continuous. But also like a river, the water in one spot is never the same. You are consistent and powerful, yet defined by a rapid flow of ever-changingness. By being conscious of this flow, you create a new vector, and the path this vector takes is a path through a 4th dimension.

This doesn't, exactly, capture it... but it comes close to one of the revelations I experienced.

Also, here's a link to a MDMA test kit. Although I have never done it, I've seen that it's pretty good stuff, and has brought people insights into themselves in very positive ways. The problem is that half of what you get on the street is laced with speed. You absolutely need a kit if you're buying!

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Pictures of Broken Democracy
Posted 3:35 PM

On one of our fave sites, whatreallyhappened.com, there's a link to some protest pics (who's that handsome devil?). It's funny that the Bush fundraiser protests, which spanned several city blocks and took place in several cities, were never mentioned once on any broadcast news sources. What's up? I guess protesting doesn't make the news any more. And why should it? It doesn't have any effect. Bush is just going to steal the election in 2004 again.

Our fucking Democracy is so broken we can't trust the results, and people don't know what Federalism even is, let alone understand why it's essential. Maybe we need an armed revolt next time around? I mean what dick started allowing *corporations* to buy *politicians*... isn't that the rule of the few over the many? Isn't that the kind of crap that we gunned down the British for in the first place?

If Bush wins in 2004, I'm moving out of the country. It's not safe here with a loose cannon as President. Can you believe he called other foreign leaders an "Axis of Evil". And then he said "Bring it on!". The guy's BEGGING for people to bomb us. He knows him and his rich friends will be safe while 18-year olds putting their way though college fight to defend his right to get rich.

"No taxation without representation". My vote wasn't counted, the electorate is outdated, my politicians are 0wn3d....and without Federalism my rights will never be represented so therefore I *definitely* shouldn't have to pay taxes. So that's it. I'm not paying taxes any more. Hey, "Bring it on".

Labels: politics

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Talk to Destruction
Posted 5:22 PM

I went to the Talk to Me party on Saturday. I talked.... a LOT. For those of you who like to talk, or hear people talk, it was simply gab, gab, gossip gossip for 6 hours or more. Eventually Bill and Liz left, but many others stayed and talked 'til God knows when. It was filmed by a few news crews, made it onto NY1, and was in a few papers. Probably 600 or more people came and went.

Also, for those few of you who haven't seen it yet, go to Google and search for "weapons of mass destruction", then click "I'm feeling lucky". The first result is hilarious.
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Shocking Second Round of GOP Voting Fraud
Posted 11:34 AM

After cooking the books in Florida, good ol' Jeb and Kathy have had the balls to finanace an electronic voting system and have already used it to modify the results of elections. If you see one of these machines, DO NOT USE IT, instead, cast your vote with an absentee/paper ballot.

Can anyone stop them? We need a broad effort to understand the code, crack it, and prove how it's being used to screw with elections. I'm downloading the source code, cracking some passwords and compiling some of the projects. It's both an effort to understand it better, and a way to safeguard the original.

Several sites hosting this code were unexpectedly terminated by their providers because of "copyright law". Since I own an ISP, I'm going to see how hard they push, and fill you all in on what happens.

Labels: politics

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Bush employs WWF-style diplomacy
Posted 11:56 AM

When asked about the deaths of U.S. soldiers, and the worsening situation In Iraq, Bush responded, "Bring them on". The U.S. seems to think it's OK to ration food, suppress the news, and give absolute authority to soldiers (kids with machine guns).... as long as it's "us" not "them" who rules with terror in the Middle East.

Clearly Bush could give a crap about the lives lost, or the international anger caused by his words and his cowboy attitude. By modeling his words after the WWF, he demonstrates that all he really cares about is his whether his undereducated audience (poor, brainwashed Americans) votes for him in 2004.

When I asked a pro-Bush frat boy at my office about the comparison, he responded "War is like a wrestling match, and Bush needs to show that he won't back down".

Yep, it's all to easy for him to sit in the Whitehouse, politicking to win votes tainted by the blood of U.S. soldiers.

Labels: politics

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