The Space Station

The ‘tubes are buzzing this AM with Kanye’s two-hour Twitterized heart-dump. Pure and honest this is a real MAN don’t for get. Iv been a west fan from day one,and I know whats it like. thank you Yeezy  for being the bigger man. You push all the lil guys to do much more then we think we can do.Its the fight that keeps us driven and fighting for the dream. Don’t let the haters, the pain, or the lonelyness stop you.

I love Twitter.

I’ve always been at the mercy of the press, but no more… The media tried to demonize me. They wanted y’all to believe I was a monster in real life so you guys wouldn’t listen or buy my music anymore. I feel like they were waiting for the opportunity to go in all the way on me, and when it came, they beat me to a pulp. Even now a lot of articles start their first two paragraphs about how much of an asshole I am.

I accept the idea (ideal) that perception is reality. When I say perception is reality I mean whatever you think is the truth is your truth. Some people’s truth is Kanye is racist—It’s not my truth, but I do believe it’s my Karma… walk with me…

With the help of strong will, a lack of empathy, a li’l alcohol, and extremely distasteful and bad timing, I became George Bush over night. How deep is the scar? I bled hard. Cancelled [a] tour with the number one pop star in the world. Closed the doors of my clothing office. Had to let employees go.

For the first time, I felt the impact of my brash actions. People booed when I would go to concerts and the performer mentioned my name. Remember in Anchor Man when Ron Burgandy cursed on air, and the entire city turned on him? But this wasn’t a joke. This was and is my real life.

There are people who don’t dislike me… they absolutely hate me! I was chilling with this white girl, having a conversation, and she cut me off and said, ‘Hold up—I thought you didn’t like us.’ That’s when you realize perception is reality.

I’ve been straying from this subject on Twitter but I have to give it to you guys raw now. If you Google “asshole,” my face may very well pop up 2 pages into the search. Some people say, ‘Why worry about the haters?’ This is bigger than just the concept of haters. I have a mission in life to bring truth and beauty through my music and the visuals that anchor around it.

The media has successfully diminished the “receptive” audience of (3rd person) KANYE WEST. Taking a 15 second blip, the media have successfully painted the image of the ANGRY BLACK MAN, The King Kong theory. I’m the guy who, at one point, could perform the Justin Timberlake on stage and everyone would be sooo happy that I was there.

People tweeted that they wish I was dead… No listen. They wanted me to die, people. I carry that. I smile and take pictures through that. I wear my scars. It’s almost like I have to wear a suit to juxtapose my image. And I won’t lie: It works.

I wrote a song for Taylor Swift that’s so beautiful, and I want her to have it. If she won’t take it then I’ll perform it for her. She had nothing to do with my issues with award shows. She had no idea what hit her. She’s just a li’l girl with dreams like the rest of us. She deserves the apology more than anyone. Thank you Biz Stone and Evan Williams for creating a platform where we can communicate directly. We’re both artists, and the media and managers are trying to get between us. Everyone wants to capitalize off this in some way. I’m ready to get out of my own way. The ego is overdone… like hoodies.

I know there are family members friends and fans that have literally fought for me. There are people who have named their kids after me—can you imagine that next day in school. Even though I don’t have kids, I am responsible for those who love and represent me and what they have to deal with on a day to day, defending “The American Psycho.”

I watched Justin Timberlake at the Grammies lose every televised award including album of the year, which the Dixie Chicks won. I would have run on stage for Justin that night because Sexy Back (in my mind) was that important, that impactful to our culture.

It’s not about race, America. No one in our position ever stands up and says anything anymore. I have given my awards to other groups multiple times on national TV; they never showed that this past year, during the massacre of Kanye.

Who’s seen the play Wicked? I’ve seen it 4 times! Other than loving the music acting and costumes… it’s my story! The Wicked Witch of the West basically is so convicted to tell her truth [that] when she does it, she is outcast by society and turned wicked.

With new-found humility, who am I to run on stage? I would never ever again in a million years do that. Sorry to let you down. It is distasteful to cut people off as a general rule. What’s the point of dressing tastefully if I’m going to act the complete opposite? Yes I was that guy. A 32 year old child. When I woke up from the crazy nightmare I looked in the mirror and said GROW UP KANYE. I take the responsibility for my actions. I am not a bad person. Even in that moment I was only trying to do good.

But people don’t always need my help. Beyonce didn’t need that. MTV didn’t need that. And Taylor and her family, friends, and fans definitely didn’t want or need that.

These aren’t regular tweets… this is stream of consciousness… I want you guys to know and feel where my head is at… It feels like the movie Heat, when you wanted Deniro to make it… You want the bad guy to make it.

These tweets have no manager, no publicist, no grammar checking [ed: they do now.]… this is raw. Humanity and Empathy are two of the four principles at facebook. Those were the two principles I was missing on that evening.

Why are there so many tweets? Well, this isn’t a simple subject. There are layers to this beyond me running on stage. You’ve got the top layer: Kanye’s rude! (If I speak in 3rd person it’s because I’m quoting people; sometimes I forget to put [in] the quotations. You know my grammar.) You’ve got a layer of order… this is how things are supposed to go, this is how it’s always been. etc; you’ve got a layer of-what is [it], reality? You really want this guy to die over an award show? Wooooooow… You’ve got the Media play… Who benefitted off of the moment? MTV? JAY LENO? BEYONCE? ALL FORMS OF MEDIA? TAYLOR? KANYE WEST? Who gained? Who lost?

Walk with me people… let’s break this down for real now. I might get in trouble again. WHO BENEFITED, FOR REAL, PEOPLE? A year later where do we stand?

There’s a layer of ‘hey Kanye said what I was thinking.’ There’s a layer of… Entertainment: We are entertainers and this is only TV, not the War. Why was it made into such a race issue? Taylor loves rap music… I love country music. TAYLOR LOVES RAP MUSIC… I LOVE COUNTRY MUSIC. When I write songs like Heartless, I always say “is this melody good enough to be a country song or a broadway song?”

I’ve hurt, I’ve bled, I’ve learned. I only want to do good. I am passionate. I am human. I am real.

I wish I could meet every hater. I wish I could talk to every hater face to face, and change their opinion of me, one conversation at a time. I wish they all knew how much I really cared about music and pop culture and art and people’s feelings. I wish they could accept that I’ve grown and only want to do good for the world. I want to help as many people as I can. I want to help starting with the music and ending with the smile. I want to win their hearts back so I can continue to bring my take on culture to the masses with a clean opinion.

It starts with this: I’m sorry Taylor.

Nothing was added without brackets. I’m pretty sure I only took out one tweet, and only changed words when they were misspelled or misused (ie, there instead of their). Oh, and I deleted a shit-ton of ellipses. Because Kanye, you may be hip-hop royalty, but you have no idea how to use a set of periods.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just decided that it was legal for the police to put a GPS tracking device on your car, sitting in your driveway, on your property. Here’s how to protect yourself.

Matt’s post about the decision explains in depth about the ruling. To quickly summarize, the supreme court had said before that police can look through things that anyone in the public could come across, meaning, your driveway is freely accessible to the public, hence, the cops can look through it. The 9th circuit court now says that cops can shove a GPS locator onto your car, because the area is publicly accessible and you have no reasonable expectation of privacy there. Then said cops can use the GPS track you. Without a warrant.

ow do you stop this without combing over the underside—or perhaps even inside—of your car and finding the GPS tracker? With technology.

Your first bet is probably to find out if someone is tracking you or not. You can turn here for cellphone and bug device detectors. But these aren’t 100%, so if you’re really paranoid and want to hide your location, you’ll want to just go ahead and stop the trackers anyway.

The first type is a GPS jammer, which is technically illegal to buy and use in the US, so keep that in mind. These types of GPS jammers plug into the cigarette lighter in your car, and will “prohibit GPS signal” up to 10 meters. Ten meters isn’t too far, but it isn’t super close either, so cars next to you might get some GPS interference as you drive down the road.

Imagine a public eye scanner that can identify 50 people per minute, in motion. Now imagine that the government install these scanner systems all across an entire city. Or don’t imagine it, because it’s already happening, right now. The City of Leon, Mexico, is doing exactly that, installing real time iris scanners from biometrics R&D firm Global Rainmakers Inc. These scanners don’t require people to stop and put their eyes in front of a camera.

There are different kinds of machines being installed across Leon, from large scanners—capable of identifying 50 people per minute in motion— to smaller ones—like the EyeSwipe in the video above—that range from 15 to 30 people per minute. These devices are being installed in public places, like train and bus stations, and connected to a database that will track people across the city.

City officials and proponents of the system are hoping that public retinal scans will stop crime and fraud. According to Jeff Carter, CDO of Global Rainmakers:

If you’ve been convicted of a crime, in essence, this will act as a digital scarlet letter. If you’re a known shoplifter, for example, you won’t be able to go into a store without being flagged. Certainly for others, boarding a plane will be impossible.

The retinal scanning of Leon’s one million population has started already with its convicted criminals. Citizens with no criminal records have been offered the opportunity to “voluntarily” scan their eyes. This, however, is just the beginning. According to Carter, everyone in the planet should be connected to the iris tracking system in 10 years:

In the future, whether it’s entering your home, opening your car, entering your workspace, getting a pharmacy prescription refilled, or having your medical records pulled up, everything will come off that unique key that is your iris. Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected within the next 10 years.

Hip hop changed my life, I grew up in the struggles of the U.S.!! To see hip hop give life to the mother land like it did for me in the states touches my soul. To be taken from Africa then brought to the states to be slaves, to breaking free & creating hip hop and having that be one of the things that helps free our brothers & sisters from the pain and war back in Africa shows me that hip hop was God send!!

BOUNCING CATS film trailer from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

South Korea has been working on deploying armed sentry robots along the border with North Korea since at least as far back as 2006, and it looks like it’s still keeping at it. While complete details are a bit light, they country apparently put a pair of new sentry robots in place in the Demilitarized Zone last month,

The sentry robots  pack both a machine gun and a grenade launcher to ward off intruders. Those would of course be controlled by humans, but the robots apparently use heat and motion sensors to do all the monitoring on their own, and simply alert a command center if they spots a trespasser. Of course, they are still just in the testing phase, and the military says it’s waiting to see how things work out before it begins a more widespread deployment.

VIA engadget

I love this show and was so happy to find out that they had made it into a movie. but then i find out that all the cast members had been changed to white kids. I didn’t  know how to feel and was wondering if i was the only one the felt this way so I looked around on the net to see what i could find..

From Splinter End

By openly preferring Caucasian actors over Asian actors in an open casting call, Paramount demonstrated their innate racist assumptions – that a no name White actor was more capable of increasing box office numbers and (perhaps) “acting” than an equivalent Asian actor regardless of the Eastern-based characters in the series. Additionally, by casting Asian actors as secondary or supporting characters, Paramount clearly wished to create an “authentically diverse” universe, one that is distinctly Eastern and non-Western in its roots.

This purports my conceit that Paramount blatantly reinforces racism at the institutional level, driven by innately racist assumptions and an ethnocentric desire to bundle Eastern culture – rich in history and human stories – into a big old Yellowface bowtie. Make it as pretty and shiny and “Asian-y” as you want – in the end, this movie is racist and a disrespectful slap in the face of the Eastern heritage it so wishes to profit off of. The studios underlying assumption about marketability and acting capability of White over Asian actors is insulting, and to claim that their production is “diverse” because they cast Asians as secondary and supporting characters ignores the bigger issue at hand – the starring, main Asian characters are portrayed by White actors instead of Asian actors.

From Boston.com

Movie critics delivered a withering verdict on his new film, “The Last Airbender,’’ heaping words like “laughable,’’ “flat,’’ and “fiasco’’ on the director’s latest effort to deliver on the promise he showed with 1999’s “The Sixth Sense.’’ But even before the reviews came in, Shyamalan was on the defensive, caught in the crossfire of a debate over ethnicity and authenticity that has implications beyond the fate of any individual movie.

Now comes “The Last Airbender,’’ which raises a number of questions, including a simple, heartfelt one posed by Tak Toyoshima, the Japanese-American creator and illustrator of “Secret Asian Man’’ comics and the creative director of the Weekly Dig. “The hero that saves the day, why couldn’t he be an Asian kid?’’ said Toyoshima, 39, of Dorchester. “There are plenty of Asian actors out there who could do the same thing.’’

Israel launched an “Ofeq 9″ satellite on Tuesday, an advanced remote sensing satellite that likely is capable of high resolution surveillance to monitor Iran’s nuclear program. The satellite was launched on Israel’s Shavit launch vehicle.

The Israel Defense Ministry gave no public details on the satellite, only releasing this statement following the launch: “A few minutes ago the State of Israel launched the Ofek-9 (Horizon-9) satellite from the Palmachim base (Israel’s Air Force test range). The results of the launch are being examined by the technical team.”

The beautiful and crystalline Blue Marble is now the Stained Blue Marble, created using NASA’s most spectacular view of Earth and one of the scenarios for the spreading of BP’s oil, as simulated by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

While the NCAR says that their computer simulation shows one of the potential scenarios for the oilpocalypse spread—applying sea currents and typical weather on a neutral dye, not on actual oil—I couldn’t resist overlaying it over the complete image of the Earth. Seeing what could be the extension of this catastrophe in relation to our entire home planet—only 132 days after the start of the deadly flood—gives the whole disaster a complete new dimension.

And while nobody should expect to see an sticky sea of black goo reaching Coney Island, Martha’s Vineyard, or Iceland any time soon, the fact is that the oil will eventually reach those places. It may be in imperceptible deadly bubbles to be eaten by Atlantic fish, in long viscous floating fingers, or thick blankets of oil. Whatever it is, it will get there. But then again, we humans keeps spilling crap all across the planet, right? So, who cares?

via GIZMODO

Prepaid cellphones have long been used by unsavory criminal types, which is understandable! They’re anonymous, inexpensive, and did I mention anonymous already? But now that we know the alleged Times Square bomber one, regulators have gotten out their regulatin’ stick.

A new bill was introduced yesterday by senators Chuck Schumer and John Cornyn that would require prepaid cellphone purchasers to show ID at the time of sale. Their information would then be registered with phone companies, permitting law enforcement to keep tabs on them in case of malfeasance.

Some states have already implemented this measure, but the potential terrorism-related uses—in addition to those pre-existing insider trading and drug-related uses—caught the federal government’s interest. As it should! If this had been around eight years ago, maybe McNulty wouldn’t have been driven to drink so.

SCHUMER, CORNYN: PREPAID CELL PHONES HELP TERRORISTS LIKE TIMES SQUARE BOMBER EVADE DETECTION; SENATORS PROPOSE FIRST-EVER FEDERAL LAW TO REQUIRE PHONE COMPANIES TO KEEP RECORDS OF BUYERS’ IDENTITIES

Unlike Regular Cell Phones or Landlines, Prepaid Phones Can Be Activated Without a Contract or Credit Check; Phone Companies Have No Idea Who User Is, and Neither Does Law Enforcement

Long Relied On By Gangs and Drug Kingpins, Hard-To-Trace Devices Are Staple For Terrorists, Too; 9/11 Hijackers Used Prepaid Phones To Carry Out Their Plots In Secret

Shahzad Was Caught Thanks To Random Break, But Usually Prepaid Phones Are Dead End For Authorities

WASHINGTON, DC-U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and John Cornyn (R-TX) announced first-of-its-kind federal legislation Wednesday that would help stop terrorists like the Times Square bomber from keeping their identities hidden from law enforcement by using prepaid cell phones to plot and coordinate their attacks. Under the new proposal, buyers of prepaid cell phones would be required to present identification at the point of sale, and phone companies would have to keep the buyers’ information on file as they already do with users of landline phones and subscription-based cell phones.

“This proposal is overdue because for years, terrorists, drug kingpins and gang members have stayed one step ahead of the law by using prepaid phones that are hard to trace. We caught a break in catching the Times Square terrorist, but usually a prepaid cell phone is a dead end for law enforcement. There’s no reason why it should still be this easy for terror plotters to cover their tracks,” Schumer said.

Its time to Celebrate ESLI’s end-of-the-year festival, planned by-youth for-youth!  The SF Youth Unity Eco-Fest is a free, public outdoor festival celebrating high school youth involvement in the green movement. Djln has been working hard for months with her team of student’s and ESLI educators to bring you one of the years coolest free events to kick of the summer. live performers, DJ’s, live art, resource fair, vendors, and the ESLI Showcase of this year’s ESLI student-led service projects! The only way to change this world ever growing enviromental issues is to be aware of the impact we have on the people & the world around you.. come out and show some love!!

This Saturday May 22, 2010 12-5pm DOLORES PARK, San Francisco

For more info, contact: info@eslisf.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
OR VISIT US ON FACEBOOK!

This teeny little robot is the size of a toy truck – just 50 square inches. It’d be cute, almost, if it wasn’t armed with “dozens” of eight-inch rockets.

The world’s militaries have been gun-shy about letting armed robots roam around the battlefield; they’re always a danger the machines will malfunction and ruin some pesky human’s day. But Rafael, Israel’s state-owned arms-maker, is betting that its miniature Pincher robot might be allowed into warzones as a tool for neutralizing roadside bombs.

According to Defense News’ Barbara Opall-Rome each of the Pincher’s micro-munitions is ” a self-contained micro rocket with safety ignition, motor, warhead and safety fuse.” The “pyrophoric warhead combusts once ignited to burn upon target penetration,” which supposedly “eliminat[es] collateral damage often caused by traditional explosive systems.”

“Instead of detona­tion, where the speed of the shockwave is ul­trasonic, we developed a special material that causes deflagration, where the speed of the shockwave is subsonic and does not cause sig­nificant damage,” Rafael’s Ram Fabian tells Opall-Rome.

The Pincher has a range of 100 feet, maybe. An onboard camera looks for bombs, and helps remote operators aim the pencil-missiles.

It’s not Israel’s first attempt at a tiny killer robot. In 2007, the Elbit corporation unveiled its 18-inch VIPeR (“Versatile, Intelligent, Portable Robot”), equipped with a “9 mm mini-Uzi.” The machine never made much of a splash.

But rafael has high hopes for the Pincher. The Israel-focused military site Defense Update even suggests the ‘bot could be “used indoors to seek targets, locate and deactivate IEDs.” Just make sure some kid doesn’t pick it up and put it in his toybox afterward.

In the snowy Swiss Alps, behind a three and a half ton door that could withstand a nuclear attack and beyond a maze of passageways, scientists are depositing a capsule containing everything future generations will need to decipher our data.

The facility is the Swiss Fort Knox (really, that’s what it’s called) and the researchers are those of Planets, a project funded partially by the European Union with the aim of ensuring “long-term access to our digital cultural and scientific assets.” As one of the project’s leaders noted, Einstein’s paper notes are still readable today; Stephen Hawking’s digital ones, seven decades on, might not be.

Today, four years after their project began, the Planets team deposited a capsule deep into the heart of the Swiss Fort Knox compound, containing punch-cards, microfilm, floppy discs, audio tapes, CDs, DVDs, USB and Blu Ray media. They wanted to give the researchers of the future everything they might need to reconstruct our media and salvage our histories, regardless of how different their technological landscape looks.

“Troopers are among the hardest hit by the economic turndown. The unemployment rate among all troopers rose to 8.8% in October, according to government “figures”, well above the galaxy unemployment rate of 5.2%.

The cancellation of the Constellation program compounds an already bleak picture for the Kennedy Space Center and those who work there. 7,000 shuttle workers are expected to lose their jobs by the time the shuttle program comes to an end by late 2010 or early 2011. So far, NASA has not provided an estimate of how many government and contractor jobs will be lost as Constellation — the program that would have sent astronauts back to the Moon — will be slashed. But it could be a hard blow to KSC and communities surrounding the space center. “This is a big deal and it is going to affect us,” said Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana about the cancellation at a press conference earlier this week. Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach talked about the “shock” and “uncertainty” that many at KSC are feeling.

A super interesting read about our scam-y relationship to the natural world, compared to a Ponzi/pyramid scheme.  Yeah, we’re all Madoffs.  I read it as an Utne Reader article, but was first published at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

We Are All Madoffs

Our relationship to the natural world is a Ponzi scheme

by David P. Barash, from The Chronicle of Higher Education

Everybody hates Bernard Madoff, and for good reason. He bilked thousands of people out of billions, perhaps tens of billions, of dollars, destroyed numerous people’s life savings, and ruined the future prospects of many of those who had trusted him, all the while living in ostentatious, and, it is now painfully clear, despicable luxury.

He did all this via what might be the largest Ponzi scheme in history. There is no question that Madoff was a perpetrator and not himself a victim: He was (and presumably still is) highly intelligent and sophisticated in the ways of the financial world. He knew precisely what he was doing, and did it nonetheless. In addition to celebrating his prison sentence, disinterested observers and victims alike therefore found themselves wondering aloud: What was he thinking? Why didn’t he consider his responsibility to his clients, to their future, and even to his own?

As pleasurable as it is to cast stones at genuine villains, let’s pause, since as they say, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Because the horrifying reality is that in our fundamental relationship to the natural world—which is, after all, the fundamental relationship for everyone—we are all Madoffs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to everyone who helped make Monday’s march and Bank of America action a success! (See some of our press coverage at: San Francisco Chronicle, KTVU, ABC, and IndyBay). Other powerful November 30 actions took place across the US, Canada and internationally. Check the reports here.

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Can you join us this Monday, the first day of the historic international climate change negotiations in Copenhagen? At this critical moment, join us in exposing Chevron, one of the world’s worst climate criminals, and telling them “our climate is not your business!” With U.S. obstruction of the international climate change negotiations, we need to push back corporations like Chevron – which continues to lobby against real solutions to climate change while investing in ever-dirtier sources of crude oil.

The California Air Resources Board this past week made public the list of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the state. The single largest California emitter last year was the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, which emitted 4.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gases. Fourth was the Chevron refinery in El Segundo, near Los Angeles.

We especially need people who are willing to risk arrest to make the action effective and to send a clear message the world is waiting to hear; that people in the US support climate justice and real solutions. If you’re considering nonviolent civil disobedience on December 7th, send an email to mcjbay@gmail.com, attend the meeting from 4-7pm on December 6th (details below) and attend the non-violent direct action training on December 6th if you are new to civil disobedience or if you want to get more oriented. Even if you can’t risk arrest, we need you to demonstrate your support for the action and for climate justice solutions.

Mobilization for Climate Justice West

Art in Action, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Bay Localize, Communities for a Better Environment, CommuniTree, Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity, Forest Ethics, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Global Exchange, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Greenpeace, Grind for the Green, Headrush, International Rivers, Justice in Nigeria Now!, Richmond Progressive Alliance, Rising Tide Bay Area, The Ruckus Society, West County Toxics Coalition, Youth in Focus, 350.org

http://rethinkafghanistan.com/