Globally Relevant

They say the difference between a dialect and a language is that a language has a standing army and navy.

I say the difference between a country and a land is that a country is on a map.

Read this fun article.

Study Break

I was studying for my exam in the History of the Sixties, and came across this article about the Weathermen and their public relations. The author illustrates a paradox -how to achieve publicity from the underground- which I believe has a very modern and relevant application.

We cannot hide in the mythical underground anymore because there are simply too many of us. The anonymity present in communities, the mass swirlings of information on the web, in dialogs, or on the earth – they all seem to drown out, or at least equalize each other voice.

You know what, I just read what I’ve written, and I think I’ll leave it at that before I go any further. Also, I should probably get back to work.

Guantanamo Bay Prisoner kills himself

This is running on the AP. It’s amazing what has happened at Guantanamo Bay. First, it was Spanish ruled, then we wrested it during the Spanish-American war (with an indefinite lease). Early American torture techniques moved to this new space of exception, where people have no legal rights, no contact, and live only the most basic life.

It’s so strange that some prisoners at this base have tried to go on hunger strikes, but they are force fed. They are not even allowed to shape their own existence. And now one has apparently killed himself. I’m not sure what this will do besides fuel the fire of those already criticizing America’s practice of torture, which is terror.

One Hour No Power – Can it work?

I’m going to encourage this as much as I can, because I think that each electron saved is, well, an electron saved:

http://www.onehournopower.com/

Quite a simple, straight-forward idea (and presentation). Use no electricity on Sunday July 1st from noon till one. A worthy cause. Everyone turns off their own lights, homeowners and businesses alike.

To me, it is akin to the recent fascination with “user-driven content”.  Aren’t most of our economic operations already user, or human driven? The coordination of our electrical (-and other resource) consumption is driven by distributions of supply, demand and transport.

One Hour No Power aims to knock at one of these three pillars of resource consumption – demand. Pragmatically, the ability to make your own choices is the greatest freedom you retain. Can we, through individual/group action send a message to the higher-ups through programs like this?