Free Range Graphics (makers of 'The Meatrix') have produced another great video about the dangers of PVC (aka Vinyl) in the home.

Did you know that PVC, the material used in shower curtains and kids’ toys, is dangerous to our health and our environment?

Free Range produced the video for the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ). This new movie is part of a national campaign asking Target Stores to phase out the poison plastic and switch to safer, cost effective alternatives, as other retailers have done.

Several members of the DRM Elimination Crew swarmed over San Francisco leaving behind a trail of stickers in the most likely of places.

Get involved! Here are ten things you can do today.

Do you know about the dangers of DRM? Learn more at DefectiveByDesign.org.

Reports of the death of journalism

may have been exaggerated. Keith Olbermann delivered a presentation Wednesday on his MSNBC Program "Countdown" which transcended modern newscasting completely. It was, unambiguously, Murrow-like. I was transfixed, and if you haven't seen it, please click below and prepare to have your socks knocked off with pure unadulterated elocution. Democrats, wake up. This is the voice of the New American Evolution. Here's a great article about it: Richard Greene's HuffPo blog on the masterful message and the masterful messenger. Waaaaay to go Keith, and kudos to MSNBC for backing their man.

Stephen Colbert, host of "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, caused wikipedia chaos the other night when he praised Wikipedia for "wikiality" - the reality that exists if you make something up and enough people agree with you - it becomes reality.

Colbert then dropped some real truthiness about himself on wikipedia LIVE on the show. (confirmed by wikipedia logs)

Colbert went on to edit more articles (such as George Washington didn't have slaves) and then encouraged his audience to find the Wikipedia entry on elephants and create an entry that stated their population had tripled in the last six months.

Leading to the Wikipedia administrator to block Stephen Colbert's account and locking the entry on elephants.

Image from Wikipedia: Rises seen in the use of "truthiness" immediately after Colbert introduced the word on October 17, 2005

I came across this today and really enjoyed it: 95 Theses of Geek Activism. Perhaps it helps that I identify as a hacker in the manner described in the first thesis. Geek Activism is really all about being smart, thinking for yourself and not simply accepting what others say just because they happen to be on TV or run the corporations or government (the differences between these are fading). Read them. Follow the links. You'll learn a little bit more about me - and maybe a little bit more about yourself, too. I'll end with a quote that comes to mind, perhaps because activists are geeks, too (though they may not know it).

Terence McKenna described a fractally eschatonic view of history called the "TimeWave" that posited that history was repeating itself in ever faster cycles, culminating in The Big Event in 2012. That's a separate discussion, but a really cool modern example is the profound symmetry between the Nixon Right's war on John Lennon and his peace advocacy at the height of the Vietnam War.

The US vs. John Lennon Movie is coming to theaters in September, and its timing and message could not be more poignant at this moment in time, where the lessons of history have been so predictably forgotten by warmongers and peaceniks alike. It is frightening and yet strangely empowering to hear Lennon speaking out against the Vietnam War amidst the attacks by the Nixon right waged on John Lennon, all set to this classic soundtrack.

After nine months of development, The Institute of Noetic Sciences has launched "Shift in Action" 1.0, an already thriving online community of like-minded thresholders committed to personal, social and global transformation.

The tireless and amazing CivicActions team engineered the site, with partner HoloCosmos providing architecture, visual design and online marketing. Stephen Dinan, the Institute's Director of Membership and Marketing, was the visionary client and head of a talented team there.

William Greider argues in The Nation this week that the reigning political ideology has died, that the sea change is already upon us for a complete shift of the political landscape -- a chance that will be squandered if Democrats revert to giving in to corporatist expediencies. Progressives need a solid plan now, or else.

See The Future is Now

Some tidbits:

"The economy exists to support society and people, not the other way around. Only government can liberate them from the harsh rule of the marketplace, the demands imposed by capital and corporations that stunt or stymie the full pursuit of life and liberty in this complex industrial society. This very wealthy country has the capacity to insure that all citizens, regardless of status or skills, have the essential needs to pursue secure, self-directed lives. This starts with the right to health, work, livable incomes and open-ended education, and to participate meaningfully in the decisions that govern their lives. The marketplace has no interest in providing these. It is actively destroying them.

Just ran across this news on Negroponte's project to distribute free software and environmentally friendly hardware to the third world.

The goal of the project, unveiled in 2005 by MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte, is to get the PCs into the hands of millions children in countries including India, China, Brazil and Nigeria, as an educational tool.

This project Rocks!

Perhaps edible meat can be grown in a lab - without the animal? A possible solution to the industrial ranch industry.