Last week we spent a very nice week in Berlin, we had a fantastic time despite the super cold weather. We went to Berlin for the transmediale, but of course we were also on the look out for great hotels and vegetarian food. These are my notes:

Great

Hotel Mani
Torstrasse 136 10119 Berlin – Reservations +49 (0) 30 530 280 80

brandnew design hotel. great location, close to U-bahn Rosenthaler Platz and in walking distance to the trainstation. the rooms are small, but very sexy, with dark hardwood floors. free wifi. how idiotic to point this out, but the room had a really great shower. on the sixth floor we had this great view over the roofs of Berlin:

St. Oberholz
Rosenthaler Straße 72a 10119 Berlin – Öffnungszeiten Mo-Fr: 08:00-24:00 Sa-So: 09:00-24:00

just a few steps from our hotel, so we went there a lot. one of many such cafes in Berlin with free wifi, great coffee, croissants. they even provide electric outlets for the laptop armada that spends their days and evenings here.

Dada’s Falafel
Linienstraße 132 10115 Berlin-Mitte – Telefon: +49-30-27596927

ok. here I go. BEST! HUMMUS! EVER! and who would have thought that it would find it in Berlin. they add a little bit of mango-orange paste and some chili-paste, very exiting. the pitta they serve is not too great. but the falafel and the haloumi are also very nice. fresh leaf mint tea. we ate there 3! times.

Cookies Cream
55 Behrenstraße 10117 Berlin, Germany – Tue. – Sat. 7pm Tel: +(0)30 2749-2940

this restaurant tries a little too hard, but still manages to serve very interesting, creative vegetarian food. the location is fantastic, hidden in a back alley downtown. some nice ideas and combinations, but on the whole not even close to the best vegetarian restaurants i ever visited.

Kopps
Linienstraße 94 10115 Berlin – Tel 030 432 097 75

this vegan restaurant was right around the corner from us, yet we never ate dinner there. the breakfast was great though and the menu looked very good. we should have eaten dinner here instead of chasing down a mexican… (see bellow)

Not so great

Galao

this portugese cafe close to our hotel has a good reputation, maybe because it was sunday, but they didn’t have the pastel de nata, and the coffee was not too good either.

Dolores Burrito

these guys have quite a claim on their website, burritos as good as in the mission in san francisco. naturally we had to try it out. but sadly they do not even get close. the terrible, soggy burrito made me cry.

Las Marias Bonita

since the first mexican was such a fail, we thought we tried another one. yeh, stupid huh. this one was a little less attrocious than dolores, but still total crap.

Alpenstück

german through and through, home-baked bread, quality. it sounded pretty good on paper. but when you ask the guy if the have chai tea and he gives you that arrogant, superior smile, you start to question their intention somewhat.

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Skyrim Intervention – “When Greg’s family and friends finally have enough of him missing out on real life, they must take drastic measures to convince him to stop, but will he listen?”

Super Mario for Piano and Tap dabce – “My friend and Astoria neighbor Alex MacDonald stopped by to lend his awesome tap dance skills to a stride piano version of the “Super Mario World” theme song.”

Flying People in New York City – “Three human shaped RC planes were flown around New York City to create the illusion of people flying. Lots of fun.”

Untitled on Vimeo – Femen protests WEF in Davos

Radar (Rémi Gaillard) – “Dangerously funny videos created and produced by Rémi GAILLARD…”

#learn

Valentine’s Day Egg in the Basket – toad in a hole

Simply brilliant. Bake an Egg in an Avocado. – A must-cook

Stream Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die in full – What’s all the fuss about? Does it suck or not? Stream the new Lana Del Rey album to make up your own mind.

Survival Research Laboratories: banned in San Francisco – “SRL was recently banned from performing in San Francisco by the SF fire dept. In December 2011, Somarts, a local gallery venue,/arts support organization in the city asked SRL to participate in I am Crime, a show of artists who had been arrested for activities related to their work.”

Aram Bartholls Darth Anonymous-Mask – “Aram Bartholl hat mit der Anonymous-Maske experimentiert, ein paar Formen gebaut und daraus eine Guy Darth-Maske gebastelt: How To Vacuum Form”

david shrigley: brain activity at hayward gallery, london – “southbank centre’s hayward gallery, london, UK, 1st to may 13th, 2012″ great art, wish i was in london

Raising Chickens for Dummies – “It did the best job of anticipating our questions for a low-rent minimal approach. For instance, we had no desire to be cleaning chicken-shit every week, and we opted for deep bedding in the coop, a tip suggested by the book.”

Solid Steel Radio Show 27/1/2012 Part 3 + 4 – Pepe Deluxe by Ninja Tune – “In hour 2 it’s the return of Pepe Deluxe with a mix celebrating the release of his highly anticipated ‘Queen of the wave’ album, out on the 30th January. It’s a concept album,with the usual Pepe elements of late 60′s vinyl influenced sound, plus weird instruments and equipment, including The Great Stalacpipe Organ (the largest instrument in the world).”

Fresh Impressions on Brandmarks (from my 5-year-old) – “A fun Sunday project with my daughter on brand logos.” interesting which ones she knows…

Occupy Oakland Move-In Day – Fantastic photos from the occupy oakland move-in day protests

The Flaming Lips ‘Now I Understand’ featuring Apple’s Siri on vocals – “The loose narrative begins with Siri not understanding the moon, the stars, and the sun… but with the power of Erykah Badu’s singing, and her pointing out stars and sun, Siri learns to understand.”

Graphic novelist Craig Thompson on the making of Habibi – “It took the graphic novelist Craig Thompson seven years to complete Habibi, his epic exploration of child slavery and sexual awakening in an imaginary Middle-Eastern kingdom. Here he charts its creation from first thoughts to finished pages”

anselm kiefer: il mistero delle cattedrali – fantastic new work by anselm kiefer, il mistero delle cattedrali. especially that bike just blew my mind

Street Art At Its Best: Duchamp Was Here – clever

A.D.D. comic book: Exclusive essay and excerpt by author Douglas Rushkoff – “But, to me anyway, something never felt right about this line of reasoning. Even if playing video games and answering txt messages shortens the attention span, what if it broadens the attention range? What if the downsides of an A.D.D. approach to life were actually offset by some other, still unidentified advantage? Or in computer programmer’s parlance, what if A.D.D. weren’t a bug, but a feature?”

#lang:de

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[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Adblock AFK – swedish activists removing adverts in the subway

Sticky Rice’s Sushi in Space – “Six months of planning and testing went into this project as a lot of variables were at play: -60F in space, FAA regulations, overheating or freezing batteries, GPS issues, stabilization, and how to make the damn sushi stay together in high winds.” six months, really?

TRANSPORT – Reggie Watts / Noah Kalina, fantastic images over a mellow Reggie Watts track.

Texting While Walking by Casey Neistat – “i made this movie for the New York Times http://nyti.ms/zCjMEA as part of their OpDoc series”

CASSETTE: A Documentary Film about the Cassette Tape. by Zack Taylor and Seth Smoot – “We’ll look at all parts of popular culture influenced by the cassette, including hip-hop and B-Boy culture, indie rock, home recording, and beyond.”

ooh aah – the when harry met sally fake orgasm scene with bonus bits

Yosemite HD
“The two of us became friends through Vimeo and explored a shared interest in timelapsing Yosemite National Park over an extended period of time.”

#learn

The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart Moshing at a 1982 Dead Kennedys Show – “Here’s a photo taken by Irish Willis Peele of a young Jon Stewart (center) moshing at a Dead Kennedys and Front Line punk show at the Casablanca club in Richmond, Virginia. When the photo was snapped in July 1982, he was a student at William & Mary and went by his given name, Jon Leibowitz.” post-punks rule.

The Swap-O-Matic – “The Swap-o-matic is a vending machine which playfully tries to remind us that reusing and recycling can be just as fun as buying something new. The machine allows users to donate and receive items, instantly and for free!” i want to make one for bern.

Chinese artist Zhang Huan created the torsos of Jesus and Buddha – “Chinese artist Zhang Huan created the torsos of two of the most prominent religious figures in the world using the ashes from temple incense in Shanghai.”

MPAA Wins the Oscar Screener Battle, but Loses the War – “For the last 10 years, I’ve tracked the online distribution of Oscar-nominated films, going back to 2003. Using a number of sources (see below for methodology), I’ve compiled a massive spreadsheet, now updated to include 310 films. This year, for the first time, I’m calling it: The MPAA is winning the battle to stop screener leaks. A record 37 films were nominated this year, and the studios sent out screeners for all but four of them. But, so far, only eight of those 33 screeners have leaked online, a record low that continues the downward trend from last year.”

Mega-man: The fast, fabulous, fraudulent life of Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom – “Dotcom has gone out of his way since the early 1990s to put himself at the center of media attention. He’s certainly got it now. But who, really, is this guy?”

Bloomberg’s amazing — and rejected — Mitt Romney cover – “Bloomberg Businessweek chose not to run with this remarkable illustration of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.” it’s all fun and games in politics until someone gets a bloody nose

WordPress Plugin Unblocks Censored Sites, Including The Pirate Bay – “A new WordPress plugin makes it dead easy to uncensor blocked websites. In just a few clicks people can setup their own proxy site with the popular blogging software. An essential tool for people whose speech is restricted by oppressive regimes, and handy for downloaders in The Netherlands, Italy, Finland and other countries where ISPs are blocking The Pirate Bay. ”

Author Alain de Botton Plans to Build Temples for Godless Londoners – “For de Botton, temples don’t need religions to be built. “You can build a temple to anything that’s positive and good,” he said. “That could mean: a temple to love, friendship, calm or perspective. Why should religious people have the most beautiful buildings in the land?”"

Cyclists: What do you do when someone yells at you from their car? – creative tipps on how to avoid road rage

Girl Band ‘Pussy Riot’ Arrested for Anti-Putin Song in Kremlin – “Moscow’s self-proclaimed “Feminist punk group” Pussy Riot terrorized the Red Square by blasting their protest song “Putin Pissed Himself” (alternatively, “Putin Is Chickenshit”) in front of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, before being hauled away by the Russian version of the Secret Service.”

Marina Abramovic Throws Latest Bizarre Party at Sundance – “All guests wore white labcoats (ring a bell?) and noise canceling headphones; they were forbidden to speak for an hour. (The silence was supposed to echo Marina’s own during her MoMA retrospective performance.)”

DJ Food | A couple of reviews – “Sometimes with a release, gig or event, there are reviews that stand out, where the person has delved a little deeper than the first impression or copied the press release. Here are two” the new album is fantastic.

Infographics: The European Parliament vote on ACTA – “ACTA is the Anto Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Disguised as a Trade Agreement, ACTA goes much, much further than that …”

Radiohead Switzerland 2012 – July 9 2012 st. triphon in a quarry, tickets go on sale on january 31.

COOKIES CREAM – wow, what a great vegetarian restaurant in berlin, we will eat there thursday.

One Page Graphic Novel – “Welcome to a new story telling medium… the One Page Graphic Novel. Is this a gimmick? Yes, probably.” Henry Flint invented it… hope it catches on

#lang:de

Bern: Mani Matter bröckelt von der Wand ab – “Die BDP will das Bild von Mani Matter neben dem Rathaus erhalten. Dies sei nicht möglich, sagt der Gemeinderat.” Die BDP zeigt sich pro streetart, in diesem fall…

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[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

‘My First Hardcore Song’ by 8yr old Juliet OFFICIAL – “8 yr old Juliet teamed up with the hottest producer ROB SHARPE this school holidays and smashed out this BRUTAL track..” gives me hope

YEARS – “A record player that plays slices of wood.”

The Many D’ohs of Homer Simpson – “From Season 1-20 of The Simpsons, the D’ohs that Homer Simpson says.”

Burning Man: Rites Of Passage, Burning Man Experience In Day & Night – “Burning Man: Rites Of Passage, Burning Man Experience In Day & Night By Rusty Blazenhoff on January 14, 2012 Burning Man: Rites Of Passage is a two-part film from Brooklyn-based photographer Ahmed that shows “a short glimpse” of the 2011 Burning Man festival experience in day and night.” these films are so beautiful they made me sad that I will never make it to burning man …

The Scream – Edvard Munch’s famous painting animated

#learn

Famous Photogs Pose With Their Most Iconic Images – “Many of us can automatically recall these photos in our heads, but far fewer can name the photographers who took them. Even fewer know what those photographers look like. Tim Mantoani hopes to change that by taking portraits of famous photographers holding their most iconic or favorite photos”

the pothole gardener – “londoner steve wheen brings greenery and miniature scenes to the streets of east london in his ‘the pot hole gardener’ project. the idea, which was conceptualized based on guerrilla gardening, is simple: ‘my neighbourhood has a distinct lack of green space,’ wheen reflects; ‘[and] I’m a gardener with no garden.’”

Sandwich Artist – classic art pieces in sandwich form

Herpderpedia, A Collection of Tweets by People Freaking Out About Wikipedia’s SOPA & PIPA Blackout – “This in turn has resulted in quite a few freakouts on Twitter that are being thoughtfully collected by Nick Quaranto on @herpderpedia.

The Occupy movement: three months on – “There are different ways of being on the streets, and all of them are political. As the recession immiserates more and more of us, resistance will increasingly become a process of negotiating trauma, of developing economies of care that include the lost, the destitute, the down-and-out, those who cannot be “fluffy” because they have become crusted over with the debris of desperation. When these occupations are evicted, not everyone involved will be able to go home, scrub the dirt out of their hair and go back to work. Those who have lost their jobs and homes, those who left them to protest, and those who never had them in the first place attract disapprobium from their own side as well as from those determined to slander the anti-capitalist movement as filthy and unkempt. Useful activism, however, usually involves getting your hands dirty.”

#FactsWithoutWikipedia, Twitter Users Create Their Own “Facts” Without the Use of Wikipedia – “With the English language version of Wikipedia blacked out to protest of SOPA and PIPA today, Twitter users have begun creating their own humorous “facts” and tagging them with #FactsWithoutWikipedia.”

Valentine’s Domo – “A plush of pink Domo with heart-shaped glasses”

TheOatmeal.com blacked out in protest of SOPA / PIPA – “As someone who creates content for the web, earns a living from it, and has had his content pirated, I do feel that we need better legislation against online piracy. I do not, however, think that SOPA or PIPA are the legislation we need.”

iconic black-and-white photos photoshopped in colour – “swedish artist sanna dullaway renders iconic black-and-white photographs in colour, utilizing primarily photoshop CS 5. dullaway, who offers a recolouring and restoration service for old photographs, undertook the works– alongside processing old family photos– as a personal project.”

melted plastic sculptures by stefan gross – “his melted plastic statues are formed from found objects– in this instance, childrens plastic toys. the grittiness of the collection may be observed in the sort of scientific approach gross employs in his practice of filling each toy with plastic organs to then spill as the innards of the disemboweled objects”

Capitalism Works For Me! True/False – “The sign starts here in Cleveland and will tour the US leading up to and beyond the 2012 presidential election. People who vote will be given the opportunity to have their portrait taken and give a short statement about why they voted the way they did. There will be a book, website, and videos that document people’s interactions and thoughts.”

svetlana mikhailova: tools for self-punishment – “Self-Punishment is one of the oldest religious practices in the world. This project explores a topic of what is self-punishment today; Are soul-searching, self-effacement, sorrow and self-incrimination physiological disorders or strength which allows you move forward?”

Strike Against SOPA & PIPA – “Over coming days you’ll be hearing from the many businesses, advocacy organizations, and ordinary Americans who oppose this legislation because of the myriad ways in which it will stifle free speech and innovation. We hope you’ll take our concerns to heart and oppose this legislation.”

Rave Wars II – The Hardcore Strikes Back – “Limited edition of 200 copies.” and it’s already sold out.

Where the hits are streaming in 2011 – “We are also see­ing Hol­ly­wood now treat­ing online as more equiv­a­lent to DVD sales, offer­ing titles for sale online at roughly the same rate as they do on DVD. Let’s hope that this trend con­tin­ues to hold and that the indus­try sees the wis­dom of pro­vid­ing online streams in an ear­lier release win­dow. ”

Half the world’s richest 1% live in the United States – “In the grand scheme of things, even the poorest 5% of Americans are better off financially than two thirds of the entire world.”

WordPress › SOPA Blackout Plugin – “This plugin allows you to set SOPA blackout dates for your WordPress website. SEO friendly plus easy options to configure how often it’s shown.”

STRIKE AGAINST SOPA – lists sites that will go dark on 18.01. to protest SOPA

Why we need to stop SOPA and PIPA – great summary why we need to stop SOPA and PIPA

#lang:de

Thesen gegen die Ausplünderung der Gesellschaft – “Der Kapitalismus braucht keine Demokratie, sondern stabile Verhältnisse. Dass funktionierende demokratische Strukturen eher als Gegenkraft und Bremse des Kapitalismus wirken können und so auch wahrgenommen werden, machten die Reaktionen auf die angekündigte Volksabstimmung in Griechenland und deren baldige Rücknahme deutlich.”

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[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Beastie Boy Mike D explains Illin’ on the Colbert Report – “Mike D. of Beastie Boys made a guest appearance on “The Colbert Report” last night, but not to perform. Stephen Colbert invited him on to settle a recent disagreement between New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz and blogger Julieanne Smolinski.”

BLUE VELVETTE (David Lynch rap) – “Music video for “BLUE VELVETTE” by Cancer Merchant”

Somebody That I Used to Know – Walk off the Earth – 4 Guys and 1 Girl – 1 Guitar has nothing to do wth 2 Girls 1 Cup. Or does it?

George Mason University Green Machine plays Rage – Marching Band plays Rage against the Machine. That girl, dancing too enthusiastic, I hate that, but other than that, nice.

#learn

Oakland cops complicit in covering name-badges at Occupy protests disciplined – “both the cop and his supervisor have been disciplined for their roles in the incident (the cop for covering his badge, the supervisor for failing to report the illegal conduct). The supervisor, formerly a lieutenant, has been busted down to sergeant, and the officer has been suspended for a month”

glitchr turns facebook bugs into art – “glitchr, a project undertaken by lithuanian laimonas zakas, uses unicode characters to exploit programming bugs of common web destinations (including facebook, tumblr, and google), resulting in visually interesting textual digital art that overwrites the standardized formatting generally used by these sites.”

i’m fucking it – yeh sure, ronald

Bank of America ATMs In San Francisco Turned Into Truth Machines – “RAN activists took to the streets of San Francisco last night and turned every Bank of America ATM in the city into an Automated Truth Machine.”

Could You Be Addicted To The Internet? [POLL] – “Overall, our findings indicate that Internet addiction disorder has abnormal white matter integrity in brain regions involved in emotional generation and processing, executive attention, decision making and cognitive control”

The Valencia Street Swing – “A few weeks ago, some folks hung this swing from a tree branch across the street from Summit Cafe and it somehow managed to survive until late this afternoon.”

106 of the most beloved Street Art Photos – Year 2011 – “And thats some of the most beloved Street Art Photos posted in 2011 on Street Art Utopia!”

Bathtub Self-Portraits in Unusual Locations by Mariko Sakaguchi – “Japanese artist Mariko Sakaguchi photographs herself sitting in a bathtub in unusual locations like lecture halls, film sets, and offices.”

Designy Temporary Tattoos — Enamorado – “Look at this happy gentleman, with a spring in his step and but one thing on his mind: Love!” <3

New Facebook app lets you choose your last words. – “If I Die lets “you” post a final message to your wall and loved one when you’re dead. After installing the app, you choose three “trustees” (Facebook friends) who are charged with verifying your death.”

swissted – “drawing from his love of punk rock and swiss modernism, two movements that have absolutely nothing to do with one another, mike has redesigned vintage punk, hardcore, and indie rock show flyers into international typographic style posters.”

LEGO stop-motion marriage proposal – “a proposal in stop motion by firepit productions”

Dutch ISPs Ordered To Block The Pirate Bay – “Despite claims that freedom of expression is at stake, today a pair of ISPs have been ordered to block The Pirate Bay. Following a demand from Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, the Court of The Hague ruled that Ziggo, the largest ISP in the Netherlands, and competitor XS4ALL have to block subscriber access to the world’s most famous torrent site.”

The End of the World – “Planet Earth, Every Street Description: And even if nothing happens, it will still be worth a laugh.” I’m attending. You?

How to Start a Revolution – “His booklet From Dictatorship to Democracy (which you can download as a PDF) provide a list of 198 “non-violent weapons”, including mock awards, alternative communication system, wearing of symbols, pray-in, boycott of elections, withdrawal of bank deposits, consumers’ boycott, renouncing honours, etc.”

The Restart Page – Free unlimited rebooting experience from vintage operating systems – simulates restarts of old OS … nifty

Helmets Experiments – Includes a Balls, a Heads and a Sexual Collection. Yeh Balls Balls not Balls. Thinking of which, under Sexual there could be a balls version.

LIVE ! – album covers minus the dead ones

2011: The Year in Kickstarter – “So many exciting things happened on Kickstarter in 2011 that we had to celebrate. We scoured the site for the most fascinating stories of the year and we’re thrilled to share them with you here. Thanks!”

gracia studio: endémico resguardo silvestre – “scattered along the sloping terrain of valle de guadalupe, mexico, ‘endémico resguardo silvestre’ is a cluster of twenty hotel rooms, designed by san diego-based practice gracia studio.”

Les planètes du Système Solaire en chocolat – japanese chocolate candy looking like our planets, minus the ring of saturn

#lang:de

Wirtschaft voller Widersprüche – “Wo immer in unserem heutigen Wirtschaftssystem Regeln und Regulierungen von Vertretern der freien Marktwirtschaft propagiert werden, sollten wir kritisch sein. Es handelt sich häufig um einen billigen Bluff um eigene Interessen zu kaschieren, und dieses Metier beherrschen unsere Wirtschaftsexperten ja bekanntlich blendend.”

An den Originalschauplätzen – “Bei aller unterschiedlicher Einschätzung der Vorgänge, die zum Rücktritt von Nationalbankpräsident Philipp Hildebrand führten, lieferten die letzten Wochen einen erhellenden Einblick in die Mechanismen der Medien.”

Okkupiert die Ehe! – “Die Ehe ist out. Wer noch an sie glaubt, ist hoffnungslos romantisch. Junge Paare, die heiraten wollen, gelten als reaktionär. Eine Rettung ihres Rufes könnte die Öffnung der Ehe sein: mehr sprechen über das ganz Private.”

Watchlist: Inges Idee” – “Auf der heutzutage sehr heterogen genutzten, ehemals für die Stadt Berlin repräsentativen Potsdamer Straße werden auf einer Länge von 2 km sieben innerstädtische Situationen verdoppelt.”

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[I will update this over the years]

To-Do:

treehotel, sweden

endémico, mexico

Done:

palafitte, switzerland

Pretty much every day i receive a notice from my flickr activity feed stating in not many more words “DEPRESSED added as favorite”.

I have to admit I find it quite depressing that this should be my most favored photo on flickr…

Not much more uplifting, but at least a little more indignado, in second place is “FRUSTRATED“. Maybe you can help me start a race to get FRUSTRATED to take the lead? Please visit and click favorite here:

Both photos are from 2007 Isabelle Krieg: KRIEG MACHT LIEBE at the Musee PasquArt in Biel-Bienne. The complete sentence that she created with tree branches was “REFUSE TO BE DEPRESSED OR FRUSTRATED”.

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Time is Nothing // Around The World Time Lapse – “After I quit my job last year, I packed a bag, grabbed my camera and bought a one way ticket to London. 17 countries later, I put together this time lapse video of the many amazing places I came across.”

Pingu’s THE THING – “Pingu remake of John Carpenter masterpiece THE THING (1982) This is the 2 minute extended cut.”

Fishing under ice – “Some under ice views from beautiful lake Saarijärvi in Vaala, Finland.”

never a dull moment on the nyc subway – “An awesome performance by two people who have never met before.”

Cat attacks singing card. – this cat has good taste, of course she would attack this card

#learn

How Many Stephen Colberts Are There? – “Here is this fictional character who is now suddenly interacting in the real world. It’s so far up its own rear end”

Raoul Vaneigem Interview – “But indignation isn’t enough. It is less a matter of struggling against a system that is collapsing than in favor of new social structures founded upon direct democracy.”

Global unrest: how the revolution went viral – “The past 18 months have seen extraordinary outpourings of discontent. But what links them? In this extract from his new book, Paul Mason examines how technology has been at the heart of the global unrest, and finds parallels less with 1968, and more with 1914″

Former Homeless Woman Becomes Twitter Celebrity – “The 41-year-old tweets to her more than 4,800 followers about what it was like to be homeless and also advocates for homeless people. When she was homeless, Walsh would tweet from her cell phone or use computers at her local library.”

Peeing out the window of a moving Muni bus – “HAPPY FUCKING NEW YEARS ASSHOLES, I JUST PEED OUT THE WINDOW OF A MOVING BUS.” classy.

The WELL: Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky: State of the World 2012 – “we see persistent focus on the politics of the various nation-states, yet those entities are increasingly broke and powerless, their poetical and economic force is waning.” as visionary as ever.

get a free occupy sticker, designed by shepard fairey – one per household is free, but still …

Exhibition – Corporations Are People Too – “In a time where protesters across the country, and the world, are objecting to the influence corporations have over democratically elected governments and one leading candidate for the Republican nomination for President, Mitt Romney, was roundly criticized for claiming during a campaign stop that “Corporations are people too,” a bright spotlight is being shined on the complicated role they play in contemporary life.”

Sweden recognises church of file sharing as a religion – “A group of 3,000 Swedish file sharers have succeeded in getting their organisation, called the Church of Kopimism, recognised as a religion by the Swedish authorities.”

Plan to create Central Park on the roofs of Beirut – “The hanging gardens of Babylon were the inspiration for an architect’s ambition to turn the city of Beirut into a “wonder forest”.”

Mogees – “Through gesture recognition techniques we detect different kind of fingers-touch and associate them with different sounds.”

Paperback Q&A: Jon Ronson on The Psychopath Test – “This struck me as such a huge thought, I kept wondering if I could verify it. Could I become a professional psychopath spotter and journey into the corridors of power?”

Tell Congress To Undo The NDAA, Ban Indefinite Military Detention Of Americans – “President Obama just signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law despite startling provisions that will allow the military to indefinitely detain American citizens.”

Lost ring found on carrot – “Lena Paahlsson, who lives on a farm near Mora, Sweden, says that she found her wedding ring, lost for 16 years, on a carrot in her garden.”

Record mp3: record live audio and get an mp3 – “Just click the button above to start recording. We will give you an mp3 you can save, and a link you can share with anyone. If you want better sound quality, connect a headset”

Bubble Calendar, a poster-sized calendar with a bubble to pop every day. – huge bubbles you can pop every day

The Obliteration Room, Kids Cover All White Room in Polka Dots – “Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama created obliteration room, an art work where she gathered used furniture, recreated a typical Australian home all in white and then allowed children to sticker it in colorful polka dots.”

“Blindside” can’t be seen to be believed. – “It’s called BlindSide, and it’s one of the first games to bring a brand new gaming experience to sighted players, that can also be fully enjoyed by visually impaired gamers. So far we’ve completed 10 minutes of gameplay to prove out the technology, and demonstrate that our core mechanic is fun.” game play by audio cues

Turn Any WordPress Site Into A BitTorrent Tracker – “A new plugin for WordPress allows anyone to set up a fully functioning BitTorrent site in just a few minutes.”

My Top Ten Top Ten Top Ten list – this is so meta, it almost hurts

Cory Doctorow: A Vocabulary for Speaking about the Future – “The future isn’t pre-ordained. It is contested and contestable. Science fiction isn’t a literature that tells you what will happen tomorrow.”

Guerrilla Grafters: Splicing Fruit-Bearing Branches Onto City Trees – “In San Francisco, a new form of covert agriculture is taking root: making fruit trees out of trees that normally don’t bear fruit, and turning an entire city into an orchard.”

Anonymous 101 Part Deux: Morals Triumph Over Lulz – “In the beginning, there were lulz, pranks and a culture of trolling just to get a rise out of anyone. But despite many original Anons best efforts, Anonymous has grown up to become the net’s immune system, striking back whenever the hive mind perceived that the institutions that run the world crossed the line into hypocrisy.”

25 best Occupy photos of 2011 – “Below, the best photos of the Occupy movement from the past year.”

In Photo Series, Photographer Defies Gravity And Reality – “Paris-based artist and photographer Philippe Ramette has a passion of defying gravity and reality.”

Morrissey Hacked Into Google Earth – “The Google hack insert is a pixeled replica of Morrissey’s pose on the 1986 The Queen Is Dead LP, right at the virtual replica of the location at St Ignatius Walk in Salford, M5 3RX, United Kingdom” sweet

#lang:de

PK-Training2012 – “Permakultur-Training 2012 – inklusive 72 Stunden-Kurs nach Bill Mollison – März bis Nov. 2012 an 12 verschiedenen Orten neu mit Josef Holzer, Sohn von Sepp Holzer und Margit Rusch Autorin des Buches anders Gärtnern Permakultur Elemente im Hausgarten”

Kevinismus – “Als Kevinismus (auch: Chantalismus) bezeichnet man die krankhafte Unfähigkeit, menschlichem Nachwuchs menschliche Namen zu geben.”

Press Pause Play – “Ein­er­seits bietet die heutige Zeit sicher grandiose Möglichkeiten, der Welt sein Schaf­fen mitzuteilen und so wie z.B. Seth Godin ein Buch kosten­los zu veröf­fentlichen und dabei noch Geld zu ver­di­enen, ander­er­seits besteht angesichts der schieren Masse von uhuere geilem Züg prak­tisch keine Möglichkeit aus diese Masse her­auszustechen, wenn men­sch erst beginnt, Küstler zu sein.”

DMZ is no more – a sad day in comic history, the best graphic novel of the last years ends its run.

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Reggie Watts: Humor in music – “Watts knows this audience well”

Poetic Terror 3: The Final Detonation (Terrorismo Poético 3: O Desembesto Final) – “Short film about urban intervention and street art.”

2012 & The End Of The World – “Why (some) people think the world will come to an end during 2012.”

TotalRandomness512′s Channel – silent video by a kid with a serious heart condition who died a few days after posting this. very moving.

NextLevel Squad – gasmasks! and wicked next generation dance moves

Riley on Marketing – riley has already figured this out

TateShots: Maurice Sendak – “Maurice Sendak, the creative genius behind books such as ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and ‘In the Night Kitchen’, is an illustrator whose work has been seen by millions of people all over the world.”

How to Film a Revolution – a tutorial – Occupy the Movie – “Big brother, we are watching you. Part of OCCUPY THE MOVIE, an indy film series aiming to be entirely funded by the 99%. Join us, become a crowd funding produce”

robotarm scratch – created by daito manabe and motoi ishibashi

#learn

Richard Prince Lawsuit Focuses on Limits of Appropriation – “recycle and remix culture is gaining speed so rapidly that trying to bring order to it was, even now, like trying to hit a moving target.” well… if then NYT starts to say so…

A break a day, every day, all year. – steinski did a mix for “a break a day” soundcloud.com/365breaks

Kyle Bean: “Soft Guerilla” – “A series of weapons made from harmless materials for a feature article centred around the topic of ‘Guerilla Gardening’ and ‘Yarn Bombing’.”

Fireplace – fireplace software. yup. interactive as well.

Book Review – Art & Activism in the Age of Globalization – “The quality of the book extends way beyond its premise. Art & Activism in the Age of Globalization is composed of 30 essays by artists, art historians, philosophers, cultural critics, social scientists, curators, theatre directors, etc. I expected at least one or two of these texts to be bland, too scholarly, or cliché.” thank you regine.

Occupy Geeks Are Building a Facebook for the 99% – I don’t want to say we’re making our own Facebook. But, we’re making our own Facebook”

WonderLand – “a unique but rather simple and elegant artificial lighting and household objects (from vegetables to plastic bags)”

Drexciya: Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller I – “You’ve heard bits and pieces of Drexciya, you grasp their importance, but you feel guilty: you don’t really know Drexciya’s music, and you should. But where on earth do you begin?” the electro gods lineage is clear – kraftwerk, drexciya, aphex twin, boards of canada

In Caffeine We Trust: Infographic Print For Tracking Your Coffee Consumption Data – “In Caffeine We Trust: Infographic Print For Tracking Your Coffee Consumption Data”

Car Atlas – Rainbow, 2,500 Toy Cars Arranged in a Circular Rainbow – “London-based artist David T Waller created Car Atlas – Rainbow, a beautiful art installation using nearly 2,500 toy cars arranged in a giant circular rainbow pattern.”

The Boombox Project, A Photobook of Vintage Boomboxes – “The Boombox Project: The Machines, the Music, and the Urban Underground is a photo book by photographer Lyle Owerko featuring fine art photographs of vintage boomboxes.”

Wormworldsaga.com – Part 2 – part 2 is out

Illustrated Map of Argentina’s Primera División Stadiums and Clubs – “all the details you could possibly want on Argentina’s Primera División for the 2012 Clausura”

The Family – “Over 10 years ago, Jocelyn Bain Hogg followed and portrayed the protagonists of organised crime in South London. Gangsters, funerals, big rings, big cigars, diamond-encrusted knuckle duster, more funerals, pimps and prostitutes”

be afraid be very afraid – this graphic gave me a fou rire this morning …

#Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked Revolts—Coming to a City Near You – “On those rare occasions when we want to form a crowd, our tech can work a strange, dark magic.”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

Fionn Regan – Dogwood Blossom

LANA DEL REY-VIDEO GAMES

PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

Happy Flying Spaghetti Monster Day

Terry Gilliam – The Christmas Card – animation by terry gilliam from the 60s

Evil marzipan pig is evil – “This was meant as a Christmas present for two girls I know who are 5 and 7, but I don’t think I’ll give it to them actually. It turned out a bit too evil-demon-pig-from-hell-y for that”

Hey! Look at My Toys!: The 2011 Action Figure Nativity Contest is HERE! – “Action Figure Nativity contest and the call out to my dork horde brethren did not go unheard, with so many of you stepping up and really delivering some incredible, zany, original, brilliant and all-around awesome nativity scenes”

Braun-Weiße Weihnachtsgrüße 2011 – “Der FC St. Pauli wünscht fröhliche Weihnachten und einen guten Start ins neue Jahr”

Gingerbread Yoga Cookies – “Our best-selling yoga cookies, featured in “O” Magazine, come in a set of 10 different poses:”

Silent Night – festive greetings indeed

#watch and

Bradley Manning Had Secrets – “The story of Bradley Manning, not as a Wikileaks ‘hacktivist’, but as a young American soldier simultaneously going through a crisis-of-conscious and a crisis-of-identity.”

constant creak – try not to scream while watching putin’s uhm mashup

WTF IS A DDP? – Decentralized Dance Party

Crowdsourced anti-SOPA rap – “After I finished writing the song, I put a post on my Facebook wall asking people to take photographs of themselves presenting lines from the song.”

Official Occupy Wall Street Thank You Video – “This it the official OWS video to thank our supporters. This video was passed by consensus through the New York City GA on Tuesday, December 20.”

shitgirlssay’s Channel – “Shit Girls Say, Web Comedy Series Created From One-Liner Tweets”

Taxi Driver suédé par Michel Gondry – “Gondry has decided to join in the fun by creating his own “swede” version of Martin Scorsese’s classic film “Taxi Driver.”"

#learn

“Sneak Preview” of Mr. Brainwash’s Art Show 2011 – “The very hyped Mr. Brainwash show opens tomorrow at 1pm at his huge warehouse/studio on La Brea and Lexington in Los Angeles.”

Writers and artists design money fit for modern times – in pictures – “Global economic meltdown, the euro crisis and Occupy protests – this year has been dominated by financial issues. But what is money anyway? We invited writers and artists including Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood and Naomi Klein to invent new currencies and banknotes for a changed world”

Eco-Friendly Battery Runs on Old Newspapers – “This new tech relies on turning cellulose products (including, lest we forget, the paper greeting cards all you Earth-hating monsters are exchanging this time of year) into glucose sugar.”

Skull Style Trade Edition – “Formerly an emblem of evil and mortality, the skull has been transformed into an avant-garde design element used in the most cutting-edge art, chic interiors and vanguard style of the moment.”

Banksy – Inside – Caution Sir Wet Floor

Tetrahedral kite ‘Little Shining Man’ doubles as flying sculpture – “Little Shining Man is a kite which will reside in the atrium of a building in Jersey all year, except for one day where it will be taken down and flown in St. Aubin’s Bay.”

Occupy Wall Street: The Lego Set – “After months of demonstrations by the Occupy Wall Street movement, Slate V imagines a special edition Lego set just in time for the holidays.”

In WikiLeaks case, Bradley Manning faces the hacker who turned him in – “Lamo, who turned Bradley Manning into the FBI and Army for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands of sensitive government documents to WikiLeaks, denied in his testimony that he’d violated a journalistic or ministerial promise of confidentiality”

kim jong-il dropping the bass – i loled

Zeitgeist 2011: How the world searched – “When looking at the data, it is fascinating to see the cultural fads and trends that took over the globe, from cupcakes (making top food lists in over a dozen countries) to the Dukan diet and high-profile weddings, but Google was used for much more than staying up to date on the sisters Middleton and Kardashian” I rather enjoyed the companion video

Occupy Everywhere, Tiny Protest Camps in San Francisco – Last night a group of prankster-activists installed miniature Occupy protest encampments around San Francisco. The encampments were made up of soft camping tent stress toys imprinted with the words “Support Your 99%,” and tiny cartoon protesters carrying miniature placards.

Armament, Human Heart-Shaped Glass Molotov Cocktails – “I created this work, inspired by the Egyptians and the so called Arab spring. The visual starting point is the molotov cocktail that has been the weapon of choice for the protesters. There is a connection in any conflict between the combatants.”

The return of the Radical Chic evening – Occupy Wall Street – “The Occupy movement seemed like it was doing just fine before the celebrity bandwagon showed up. So what do these people have to gain from association with the first genuine counter-culture to show up in a generation?”

What are you doing after the apocalypse? – Musée d’ethnographie de Neuchâtel – “Tandis que les médias charrient un flot ininter-rompu de nouvelles apoca-lyptiques, l’équipe du MEN invite à se pencher sur la question de l’après, en colla-boration avec des artistes et des chercheurs en sciences sociales.”

Occupy Hand Signs Cheatsheet – “If these aren’t correct, let me know.”

target bookshelf by mebrure oral – “each ‘target books’ shelf is produced in three pieces via injection molding of recyclable ABS plastic”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

Playlist on Youtube

plus one to make you cry:

Youtube Link

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Festive greetings from Cyriak – “Something to remind us all of the true spirit of Christmas.” makes you wonder if he mixed up xmas with halloween

Кошкина йога – Kiteh Yoga Ride

Gingerbread Geodesic Dome – “Build your own gingerbread geodesic house with our lasercut dome template and easy to follow instructions including recipes for gingerbread and icing.”

Cymatic Frequencies II by DK – Part 1 – “DK returns with ‘Cymatic Frequencies II’ and as before it’s another AV mix. This is Part 1 of ‘Best of 2011′, taking personal favourites from his mixes this year and adding suitable and sometimes breathtaking visuals to compliment the audio.”

I’m Not Leaving Occupy – you best I ain’t going nowhere

The most intense taekwondo fight ever – Fierce, ferocious, only watch if you have very strong nerves ;p

#learn

Former Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito on the battles faced by CC licensing – “Creative Commons is now at “critical mass”, he claims, but argues that the average person still doesn’t know what it is. Success will be marked by Creative Commons content appearing at the top of search results provided by the likes of Google and Yahoo”

Shane Meadows, digital technology and the making of This is England 88 – “How digital cameras saved Shane Meadows’ sanity and defined the look and feel of the latest This is England installment”

Police Brutality Coloring Book Begs Question, ‘What Color Is Pepper Spray? – “Don’t let the cops see your kid coloring in this book — they might confiscate that box of Crayolas, or worse.”

Roasted butternut squash and red onion with tahini and za’atar recipe, plus lamb-stuffed quince with pomegranate and coriander | Yotam Ottolenghi – “A tasty vegetarian platter to add the wow factor to the festive table,” mmmmh, dinner

Naked lunch – “People walk past an activist during an Animal Naturalis demonstration to promote vegetarianism in central Barcelona, December 15, 2011.”

Twitter by Post – “For a month, with a billion stamps, our correspondent moved his tweets from the laptop to the post office, and rediscovered the joy of mail.” [via b3ta]

Xmas Animated GIFs – One of 5 short idents we made for E4 on the topic of Christmas. The general idea was to surprise people with something really anti-christmas

Artist Cleans A Wall To Create ‘Reverse Graffiti’ – “De Crook used a high-pressure water spray to clean off moss from a wall—forming clean lines and shapes to create his design.”

Banksy Cardinal Sin Sculpture @ Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool – “The statue? I guess you could call it a Christmas present. At this time of year it’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity—the lies, the corruption, the abuse.” and another brilliant banksy

How the effects of climate change can create more climate change – “how warmer temperatures and lower snowpacks are contributing to the spread of massive pine beetle infestations across the western United States. This is more than just inconvenient. The pine beetles can quickly kill huge amounts of trees, raising the risk of property-destroying forest fires and razing whole ecosystems. And, as the trees die en masse, forests that were once carbon sinks”

2011 in Lego: the year’s news – in lego – lego politics are fun.

The Media Messenger of Zuccotti Park – “How an activist/journalist’s live video stream from New York City’s Zuccotti Park garnered mainstream attention and helped galvanize a movement”

TIME’s Person of the Year 2011 – “No one could have known that when a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in a public square, it would incite protests that would topple dictators and start a global wave of dissent. In 2011, protesters didn’t just voice their complaints; they changed the world.”

Britain’s press are fighting a class war, defending the elite they belong to – “our political system has been corrupted by the entire corporate media. Defending ourselves from the economic elite means naming and unmasking the power of the press.”

Occupy Oakland takes over Port of Oakland: photos – “Occupy Oakland demonstrators sit on top of a trailer truck outside the Port of Oakland during the Occupy movements’ attempts to shut down West Coast ports in Oakland, California on Monday, December 12, 2011. OWS activists trying to shut down West Coast ports on Monday managed to close several terminals and encountered forceful responses from police, but fell short of mounting the full-scale cargo blockade they planned.”

Stop American Censorship – “I’m censoring my posts in protest of two bills that would censor the web. SOPA and the PROTECT IP act would give governments and corporations the power to take down entire websites over infringing posts by users, endangering the internet as we know it.”

Políticos bajo videovigilancia / Politicians under surveillance – “For our installation Politicians under video surveillance, we carried 75 fake security cameras with us, of the type which detect movement and possess an intermittent red light and we trained them on the advertising used by the parties in their electoral campaigns, observing from close up the faces that were touched up for the photos, of the politicians elect.”

The Complicated, Brief Life of Occupy Boston – “I will look back on all this in 20 years and just think how life changing it was, in just the sense that it helped me grow,” he said. “It was a sharing of basic human decency.” full of beautiful quotes

Flickr: 2011: the year of protest – “Do you have a picture on Flickr or yourself taking part in a protest? We’re putting together a Flickr gallery of images of people taking part in a strike or protest this year and need more entries.”

Using QR Codes To Restore Murals To Their Original State – “I’m not sure when the mural above first appeared in Vancouver, British Columbia. But I recently noticed a QR code painted over an offending tag that had been sprayed on the mural. Remarkably, the QR Code takes you to an image of the mural before it was vandalized.”

Experience the tsunami-affected areas of Japan through Street View – “Back in July, we announced our initiative to digitally archive the areas of Northeastern Japan affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Today, we’re making good on that promise—after driving more than 44,000 kilometers through the affected regions, 360-degree panoramic imagery of those areas is now available through the Street View feature in Google Maps.”

In Small Town Sebastopol, Occupy Movement Stirs Hope Of Big Changes – “Occupy Wall Street-events in big cities like New York, Oakland and Los Angeles receive considerable coverage in the mainstream media, especially when police react. Less known is the fact that the ‘Occupy’ movement has reached into small towns and mid-size cities around the country, engaging people in new conversations and moving into the local political sphere.” I <3 Sepastopol

Resort Baumgeflüster – treehouse hotel in northern germany

Treehotel
“treerooms with contemporary design in the middle of unspoiled nature.” I so want to go there…

Blaming the victim – “Of course they call you sick. The idea of democracy has always been infectious, and right now it is spreading like a virus around the developed world, with Occupy as its main vector.”

I Know What You Downloaded on BitTorrent… – “Most people know that BitTorrent is far from anonymous, but seeing all your recent downloads listed on a public website is still quite a revelation. This is exactly what Youhavedownloaded.com does.”

SimplyDifferently.org – “Aside of the tipi and yurt I explored and researched also on other nomadic shelters forms and built models and implemented mathematical solutions as online calculator (using just your browser) to calculate e.g. surface of half-sphere, bow-based domes, struts calculation of the geodesic dome, and worked further on the detailed calculator for the yurt and its components”

#lang:de

Vorschlag für die zentralste und genialste Brache der Schweiz – “Wie ihr oben zwischen dein Zeilen sicher lesen könnt, ist alles noch ziemlich ungewiss. Das hielt die Arbeitsgruppe Nachbarschaften jedoch nicht davon ab, schon mal einen Vorschlag zu lancieren, der zwei Nachbarschaften sowie einen Park auf dem Areal vorsieht (und neben all den Ideen, die für das Areal kursieren, ausserordentlich vernünftig und machbar ist).”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Cory Doctorow – The Politics of Copyright and the New Cultural Economy (Video Podcast) – Cory Doctorow in Zürich

OCCUPY TOGETHER: THE SHORT FILMS – “Our aim is to educate and empower a broader public on sustainability issues and solutions through the medium of film, photography and the written word.” The Occupy Sustainability Group has put together some very nice films.

Yoga Breakdancing – impressive. odd. cooky.

#learn

The diagnosis – “The thing that brings you back is love.” a very brave, very inspiring Xeni on her diagnosis. Thank you so much.

Your Favorite Kanye West Tweet Handstitched – “you have to admit that his Twitter is pure comedy gold (if you’re a fan of 30 Rock, add the words “Liz Lemon” to the tweets and you will swear they’re coming straight from Tracy Jordan)”

Law and Order builds replica of Zucotti Park – “Law and Order was shooting an episode about Occupy Wall Street, and the production team built a perfect replica of Zucotti Park, as it was before the brutal eviction of the protesters by NYPD. So members of the original Occupy camp went and occupied it.”

Roasted aubergine with fried onion and chopped lemon recipe, plus creamy cabbage with roasted pork belly – “A whole peeled lemon, chopped up and added, flesh, juice and all, will work wonders on your cooking. Plus a warming winter roast with a difference” meow, if you manage to ignore the pork recipe just bellow it.

Sell your News images – “You retain the copyright for your work meaning you are free to use and sell your images in any way you wish.”

Interview with Cory Doctorow – “The Euro might collapse on the back of collateralised debt obligation and of virtual currency issued by private corporations whose monetary policy isn’t about maximising benefit for the users of the currency, but rather maximising the benefit for the shareholders of the firm that issued the currency.” this has got to be one of the most eloquent and concise sentences ever regarding the euro crisis.

V for Vendetta’s Alan Moore, David Lloyd Join Occupy Comics – “Moore will contribute a long-form prose piece, possibly with illustrations, to the Occupy Comics project. His writing work will explore the Occupy movement’s principles, corporate control of the comics industry and the superhero paradigm itself.”

It’s not easy being desaturated. – “Desaturated Santa costume only works when there are lots of other red Santas for contrast. Otherwise you just look sort of weird and sickly due to the gray body paint, and it’s not immediately obvious what you’re up to.”

England riots: was poverty a factor? – “Did deprivation and poverty cause the riots? We’ve mapped them with suspects’ addresses. Find out what it showed”

The start of a revolution – O.o. Bees are up for a surprise.

Newt encounters a different kind of Tea Party – “Newt Gingrich — a man with the aspect of a toad with expensive dental work”

The Cyriak Method: How To Turn Madness Into Millions Of YouTube Views – “The British animator Cyriak Harris has translated his surreal creature creations into YouTube stardom.” Interview

Alan Moore Responds to Frank Millers ‘Occupy’ Rant – “I’m sure if it had been a bunch of young, sociopathic vigilantes with Batman make-up on their faces, he’d be more in favour of it. We would definitely have to agree to differ on that one.”

Delusions of Self-Immolation – “The person would stand on a platform covered in a flame-resistant gel. A flame-thrower would then burn their body for less then half a second. The platform then turns on itself so that the extinguisher situated on the opposite side of the machine can extinguish the person immediately.” Radical stuff

#lang:de

Politik findet nicht in den eigenen vier Wänden statt: Die Occupy-Bewegung gründet auf einer langen Tradition des Protests – und hat bereits die USA verändert – “Man kann die Habgier von Wall Street nicht mit ein, zwei Gegen­forderungen bekämpfen. Es geht um ein demokratisches Erwachen. Und letztlich um das, was Martin Luther King eine Revolution genannt hätte: den Transfer der Macht von den Oligarchen zu den gewöhnlichen Menschen aller Hautfarben. Das geschieht Schritt für Schritt. Es ist ein demokratischer Prozess. Ein gewaltfreier Prozess. Aber es ist nichtsdestotrotz eine Revolution.” Cornel West

Nicht meine Zeitung – “Ein Jahr lang will die Schweizerische Post testen, ob es für eine personalisierbare Tageszeitung einen Markt gibt.”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

Twenty six years ago today my sister Sabin committed suicide. It is a sad day still for us, her family, and maybe some of her friends. But at the same time I still fully respect her decision to end her life young, she was twenty one at the time. She went out with dignity, with her ideals in tact, before life could corrupt her into heavy compromise and jaded routine.

Today in these harsh times with an uncertain future I more than ever stand in favor of every persons right to commit suicide. Over the years I flipflopped several times on the issue. Doubts about the ethical implications of such an act, influenced by some religious and spiritual reflections, made me hesitate. Then the violence and aggression involved made me turn against it. But now I am back and fully convinced, every person has the unquestionable right to end their life at the time they deem right. Of course this should not happen as a rash decision, as is often the case in teenage suicides. With teenagers it may most often not be the right decision and everything has to be done to prevent it. But if an adult takes the educated decision to end their life, for whatever reason really, they should be allowed to do so.

In recent times, with the #Occupy Movement turning me back into the political animal that I have always been, I have consulted my old favorite utopian model again, bolo’bolo. One central element in that book is called “nugo”, a gold capsule, protected by a combination lock, that contains a deadly poison. Every Individual can wear one of these around their neck and use it when they need to. The sentence that sticks out: Life is a fatal error to begin with and there is no greater horror than not being able to die [translation mine]. Ignore the 80s pathos for a moment, if you can, but this really does say it all, we are just trying to do our best here, but the nightmare that is our existence can become so overwhelming, that no one can be blamed for wanting to take a sexy exit.

R.I.P. Sabin

nagu: “Every ibu gets a capsule with a deadly poison, and can commit suicide whenever it wants. It can also demand aid for this purpose.”

nugo

Das nugo ist eine Goldkapsel, 3,7 cm lang und 0,9 cm im Durchmesser, die mit einem Drehkombinationsschloss gesichert ist, dessen siebenstellige Code-Zahl nur das betreffende ibu selbst kennt, und die eine bei Einnahme sofort tödliche Substanz enthält. Jedes ibu kann sein nugo von seinem bolo jederzeit beziehen, ähnlich wie das taku. Das ibu kann das nugo zusammen mit den taku-Schlüsseln an einer Halskette tragen, damit es sofort erreichbar ist, wenn es aus bolo’bolo aussteigen möchte. Wenn das ibu wegen einer Lähmung oder Verletzung sein nugo nicht selbst einnehmen kann, sind die ibus verpflichtet (siehe: sila), ihm dabei zu helfen.

Wenn das ibu genug von bolo’bolo, nima, yalu, fasi, yaka und anderem hat, dann hat es immer die Möglichkeit, endgültig zu verschwinden und dem (Reform-)Alptraum zu entkommen. Es soll nicht die Ausrede haben, dass es zum Leben verpflichtet sei, weil es Verantwortung für bolo’bolo oder andere ibus trage.

Das nugo erinnert das ibu daran, dass auch bolo’ bolo keinen Sinn hat, dass niemand und keine Gesellschaftsform dem ibu in seiner Verlassenheit und Verzweiflung helfen kann. Das Leben ist zum vorneherein ein fataler Fehler und es gibt keinen grösseren Schrecken als nicht sterben zu können.

This was part of some school art project, a performance of sorts. The woman walked around this chalk circle for 30 minutes.

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Be a Vegetarian – “with coffee stains all over our desks from bursts of laughter and 4 week behind us, we proudly present you “Be a vegetarian”.”

.:.The Art of Dancing by Lewis – quirky dancing calendar for the holiday season

Vigilante Gardner Part 2: A Thief, A Dirty Old Man, and GOD. – Part 2

Vigilante Gardener – “I decide to illegally grow a vegetable garden on a neglected patch of land in Brooklyn.”

Post-Apocalyptic Cover Illustration – “Time Lapse video showing the process of creating a cover illustration”

#learn

Swiss Govt: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal – “Not only will downloading for personal use stay completely legal, but the copyright holders won’t suffer because of it, since people eventually spend the money saved on entertainment products.” yay.

Occupy Radio’s sounds on SoundCloud – “Mixes from the Massive Attack
Channel. we did some mixes in support of the occupy london movement.”

Elvis Costello Tells Fans to Steal His Music – “Costello is genuinely advising fans to avoid buying his boxset because of its unfairly high price tag. Instead, they should buy a box set from the “far superior” Louis Armstrong, the singer says.”

Girl Walk // All Day – “This is the project blog of Girl Walk // All Day, a 71-minute dance music video of epic proportions, set to the tune of Girl Talk’s All Day”

Tiny Crime Scene – “This is one complete roll of awesome sticky tape, made on quality vinyl tape… like those leading brands, only more fun.”

Kalle Lasn and Micah White, the Creators of Occupy Wall Street – “We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. . . . No true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.” long yet essential read.

Knuckle Tattoo Gloves – “Not-so-permanent version of knuckle tattoos, so you can casually wear what you want to say or your knuckles.”

Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask – “I suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn’t it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world… It’s peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction.”

Occupy News Bin – “I spent most of Thanksgiving creating a diorama of the UC Davis pepper spray incident which was installed in an empty newspaper bin on Market Street this morning (Black Friday).”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

Guys. The end is nigh … Unless the revolution starts now. No wait. It should have started yesterday! … There I go again, falling into my pessimistic outlook.

But really, is it already too late to save the world?
We can only speculate, only time will tell.
At any rate, profound change needs to happen and fast, now, yesterday, or it will certainly be too late.

So what do I think is wrong? What needs to change?

Well, where do I start? We managed to create such a mess on this planet, that it’s quite difficult to decide where to begin.

We are the 99 %

The deregulated financial market has gone out of hand years ago. It is a miracle, that it has not collapsed yet. The gap between the super rich and the poor has increased to perverse levels. The greed of some of the super rich seems to know no limits.

Any economy that declares certain companies “too big too fail” will sooner or later be in real trouble. At that point the power shifts from the state to the corporations and we no longer live in a democracy. The super rich and their companies hold all governmental bodies by the balls. Democracy has turned into a de facto oligarchy.

While most of the super rich stay in the background and influence politics through lobbies and campaign support, some of them get openly involved in politics. In Switzerland, just as an example, one of the richest guys in the country, also runs and probably pretty much finances – we don’t know for sure, since there is no obligation for transparency – the Swiss People’s Party, running on a populist and xenophobic agenda that is about as right wing as it can get before turning brown. His main goals, deregulation and social cuts, typical neo con fair, thinly disguised underneath the immigration issues and xenophobia that he uses to scare and mobilize the masses. Who profits from his politics? The rich and super rich? Yet who supports Blocher and his party in Switzerland? The farmers and socially disadvantaged. It is so frustrating to watch and rarely so obvious, but in Switzerland money really does buy political influence.

In Switzerland 1% of the population own 59 % of the wealth. That is an even more extreme ratio than say in Germany or the US. This ratio is as extreme as the one in Columbia. The problem in this country, the “poor” people here are still pretty well off, unemployment is low, social services function, the wealth somehow seems to trickle down. But even worse, we are all collectively responsible for this situation. In a sense all Swiss citizens profit from big business and the banks, these same banks that generate their blood money by offering tax haven and banking secret to the super rich from around the world. Name one of the recently toppled dictators who didn’t have a Swiss bank account … The Swiss are collectively caught in this scheme, which leads to reactions from shame to cynical boasting.

Meanwhile a mixture of guilt and outrage over deregulation and social cuts has finally brought a timid group of people here in Switzerland to join the international occupy movement in protest.

But will we be able to reach a critical mass and motivate any real change? It’s late in the game … We are already in extra time.

We are a cry from the heart of the World

Even more grave, and of course totally related to corporate greed is our environmental situation. Our planet is overpopulated and it’s not looking as if population growth will slow down anytime soon – sauf catastrophe.

Human population was able to grow out of proportion, because of medical advances and industrial agriculture. Big agriculture relies on fertilizers made from and produced with fossil fuels as well as a distribution system that relies on oil. Most areas where Big Agriculture grows corn and wheat would no longer yield anything, unless more and stronger fertilizer keeps getting added. The top soil is pretty much depleted, should we stop to add these fertilizers in these areas, we would be left with a pile of dust that would blow away in the wind.

Meanwhile many scientists claim, that we have already moved beyond Peak Oil, meaning our oil reserves will start to run out soon, with the immediate effect that fuel will get more expensive. Fossil fuels also contribute heavily to global warming and other potential ecological catastrophes. We look at overpopulation made possible by a resource about to be depleted, and at the same time this is just one of the mechanisms, that might well lead to the demise of our species.

We poison our food with chemical agents to preserve it, make it look better, fluffy, shiny, white or what not. On the markets we speculate on food, pushing the price of corn and wheat to record levels, which in turn contributes in large part to world hunger. Of the 7 billion people on this planet 1 billion are poor, which means they can experience catastrophic famine at any moment.

As if these potential disasters were not grave enough add to these nuclear waste, water scarcity, and the many more toxic and poisonous materials humans have produced and discarded into landfills, and all this why? To satisfy our greedy consumerist lifestyle …

Nature is pretty much fucked. We should have started to unfuck it years ago. The timid attempts to protect nature that were initiated over these last years just did not go far enough. Is there still time to save the planet?

This is the beginning of the beginning

The past few years I have been compulsively checking my Twitter feed for messages announcing impending doom. I had pretty much lost all hope that we can turn this mess around. Ask me then, I would have answered, it is too late, we have let things go too far.

But instead last winter and spring I read about the arab spring, then spain, and in summer I found #occupywallstreet, and all this has given me hope. I might project too much on it, but here finally are people who are saying enough is enough and doing so in a non-violent, creative, constructive ways. It took off in the US and when it came to Switzerland naturally I joined. It’s been fun and constructive, but I keep wondering why there are not more people getting involved.

I am grateful to see the occupy movement taking a stand and I fully support it. But how can we affect real change? We are looking at such profound changes that need to happen, many of us, even some protesters, will have trouble to accept them. Consumerism is everywhere and some of the stuff money buys is so fucking cool.

Create the Change You wish to see in the World

The deregulated global economy? It needs to collapse.
Corporations effectively running our governments? That needs to stop.
Or their greed will simply kill us all.
But every single one of us need to be willing to make huge sacrifices individually and change our ways.

In my own life I have tried to change to a very careful and respectful life style. But there is only so much I can do, and, if I am perfectly honest, so much I am willing to do. I grow my own vegetables, eat only organic vegetarian food, use public transport, no longer own a car, we even moved to a so called ecological development, that turned out to be one huge disappointment, but that’s another story. But so much is wrong with all the things i currently do, much of it does serve not much more of a purpose, than to appease my own guilt. For instance, I can only grow food because I got lucky and happen to live in the small area on the earth, where that is even possible, right climate, enough water, good topsoil. Move me to central Spain or Africa, and my project goes bust. In other words, I am privileged on so many levels. And then I still love my gadgets, my plasma TV and my hip clothing way too much. Just last week I bought some winter boots “Made in China”, knowingly. Yes. i felt guilty, but I still bought them.

The annoying demand for demands

Some people will read this and say “duh”. Others will reject it with violent denial. Most won’t ever read it, since I am just one small voice on the huge internetz adding to the noise. Even I wonder, why I would suddenly feel the need to state the obvious here?

Everybody, the press and everyone else, keeps pointing out that the Occupy Movement does not have a list of clear demands. We are confronted with a ferocious demand for demands. But look at the state the world is in, look at all the problems we have to address, so much is going wrong. If anything, we have too many demands. And as naive as this may sound, we mainly just want a better world.

And this quote might also explain it:

you can’t just say, we demand a world of peace, demands have to be specific. [yet] anything that people can articulate can only be articulated within the language of the current political discourse. and that entire political discourse is already too small. and that’s why making explicit demands kind of reduces the movement and takes the heart out of it. that’s a real paradox, but I think the movement understands that [source: the revolution is love]

Here’s how I would say it: If humanity is running straight into the open knife, do we need to stop humanity from running or do we have to take down the knife? Probably both, and that is why this task feels sooooo enormous… It feels overwhelming. I am confused and I don’t have the solution. But I am willing and exited to start the process and to look into possible ways, and to learn how to find consensus and interact with others in a non-violent, democratic way. Let the change we want to see in the world be the guideline of how we go about it.

Only tribes will survive

Food, Energy and Finance are the three main areas where huge shifts need to happen fast. However we could get there faster by starting at the other end, by building tribes, by organizing ourselves in our neighborhoods, to grow our own food, share our resources, our fridge space, our kitchens, to reduce our collective carbon footprint, etc. asf.

Maybe the shit really does need to hit the fan before things start to change. Some of the solutions we now develop might well have to be for post-apocalyptic times. It might well have to be the end of the nation state as we know it and the dawn of a new way to organize humans into smaller, localized communities and tribes. “Small is beautiful”. “Bolo’Bolo”. Localized, regional economies and live-work units interwoven with each other, in touch with nature and socially responsible must replace the nation state.

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#stilloccupyingyourinternetz

Occupy News Bin – “I spent most of Thanksgiving creating a diorama of the UC Davis pepper spray incident which was installed in an empty newspaper bin on Market Street this morning (Black Friday).”

PEPPER SPRAYING COP – “Little did we know that Pepper Spraying Cop has cracked down on so many famous moments in history!!”

Occupy HOPE V2 – Shepard Fairey re-touches the Occupy Hope Design after receiveing feedback.

N.Y.P.D. Stops Reporters With Badges and Fists – “Over several days, New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers.”

UC Davis Pepper Spray Incident, Four Perspectives – Seen from 4 different angles, split screen

Occupy Wall St – The Revolution Is Love – “Love is the felt experience of connection to another being. An economist says ‘more for you is less for me.’ But the lover knows that more of you is more for me too. If you love somebody their happiness is your happiness. Their pain is your pain. Your sense of self expands to include other beings. This shift of consciousness is universal in everybody, 99% and 1%.”

We Are Many by Amir Amirani – “We Are Many is a documentary about the never-before-told story of the biggest protest in history, on 15 February 2003, and its legacy, through the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement. The day that saw an estimated 30 million people in over 700 cities around the world, gave birth to a new global social movement.”

MK12 ZeroFilm NYC Open – Occupy as Pong

Occupy Lulz – “Everything becomes a meme, eventually: Occupy Lulz.”

UC Davis Chancellor Kotehi walks to her car – UC Davis Students confront Chancellor Kotehi in silence as she walks to her car (higher quality). In reaction to the Pepper Spray Attacks on Friday.

Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis – “During peacefully Occupy Movement, police came in to tear down tents and proceeded to arrest students who stood in their way. Once students peacefully demanded the release of the arrested, a police officer unnecessarily pepper sprays the students to open a path for the rest of the officers”

Ray Lewis interviewed by wearetheother99 – respect

I love the 99% protesters! – “Good people, doing good things. I love you guys, and hope nobody else gets hurt!=/ My dad helped me make this because I’m still little.:( When I get a bit older, I’ll make loads more videos, and have my own channel!:)” 8 year old makes a video for the 99 %, with some help by her dad…

#watch and

#learn

The Nicest Place on the Internet – free hugs

LEGO logo for times magazine by sachiko akinaga – “japanese LEGO artist sachiko akinaga’s
sculpture of the iconic ‘T’ of new york times magazine”

Sleep Headphones – “Fall asleep faster – drug free! Block out snoring – without painful ear plugs! Relax with music – stress free!” is this the answer to my prayers?

Woman pepper sprays other Black Friday shoppers – “A woman trying to improve her chance to buy cheap electronics at a Walmart in a wealthy suburb spewed pepper spray on a crowd of shoppers and 20 people suffered minor injuries, police said Friday.” smells like a hoax

Flash Rob – “It’s a fad that started in Washington, D.C. back in April, when around 20 people filed into a high-end jeans store in Dupont Circle and quickly made off with $20,000 in stock.” I am tempted to find this way cool. But hey, my shoplifting days are way way back in the past.

Nude photo blogger reported to general prosecutor – “Blogger Aliaa El-Mahdy is seeing a backlash after a nude photo she took of herself and posted online spreads across the internet”

All Together Now – Everything the Beatles ever did. by ramjac – “Every Beatles tune, played together, sequenced in order of lengths, with the longest starting first and all 226 tunes ending together.”

Is the end of the world really nigh? – “Science is moving ever closer to understanding how, and when, humanity may be extinguished”

No time for novels – should we ditch fiction in times of crisis? – “When our daily news is apocalyptic, it’s irresponsible to read made-up stories. It’s time to start reading the serious stuff instead”

#lang:de

Die »Zeitgeistbewegung« bei den »Occupy«-Protesten – “Eine dieser Gruppierungen nennt sich »Zeitgeistbewegung«. Sie wurde 2007 von dem in den USA lebenden Peter Joseph gegründet, propagiert eine Abkehr von jeder Politik und Ideologie und will mit technischen Mitteln das nebulöse Ziel einer »ressourcenbasierten Wirtschaft ohne Geld« erreichen. Joseph stammt aus dem politischen Umfeld des rechtslibertären Politikers Ron Paul.”

[delicious.com/pieceoplastic or subscribe to this RSS feed - with all the typos]

[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#occupy highlights (and some lowlights)

Interview with creator of Occupy Wall Street “bat-signal” projections during Brooklyn Bridge #N17 march – “Here’s a partial video of a beautiful sequence of light projections that appeared on the side of the Verizon building while tens of thousands of Occupy Wall Street participants marched across the Brooklyn Bridge tonight.” total absolute 99% highlight of the week. get #denisevega trending.

Shepard Fairey Doesn’t Get Occupy Wall St – “Recently, Shepard Fairey explained how he’s down with Occupy Wall Street and their message, but it’s hard to believe he ever bothered to understand what the movement is all about on even the most fundamental level in light of this new illustration he did to show “his support.”” yes. i have to say i agree, that obey does not get occupy. lowlight of the week.

UFO: Unidentified Flying Occupation. Tents float over UC Berkeley after cops trash encampment. – We are not allowed to pitch our tents? no problem, we will make them float … ha!

Occupy London takes over empty UBS bank – live – “Protesters open new front in anti-banking campaign They plan to use buildings as ‘Bank of Ideas’ Corporation to take St Paul’s camp to high court next week” this does feel like the next step. wish all countries had the same squatting laws as england.

Occupiers set up Occupy tent inside – “Yo, dawg, I heard you like occupations… so I pitched a tent inside your bank while you occupy the bank! ” tent turning into the symbol of the occupy movement.

the raid on zuccotti park – the police raid on liberty square set to frank sinatra’s new york new york.

Statement of Autonomy | NYC General Assembly – “We welcome all, who, in good faith, petition for a redress of grievances through non-violence. We provide a forum for peaceful assembly of individuals to engage in participatory as opposed to partisan debate and democracy. We welcome dissent.” I admire the egoless stance of thsi statement.

Inside Occupy Wall Street’s (Kinda) Secret Media HQ – “The revolution may never be televised, but if Occupy activists in a semi-secret media war room in New York’s Bowery district have their way, it will be livestreamed.”

Occupy Wall Street: you can’t evict an idea whose time has come | JM Smucker, Rebecca Manski, Karanja Gaçuça, Linnea M Palmer Paton, Kanene Holder, William Jesse – “It does not matter. We will reclaim our streets block by block: we will occupy our public spaces, everywhere, knowing that this idea cannot be evicted.”

Occupy Wall Street Loses Legal Bid to Rebuild in Zuccotti Park – Quinn Norton on how it all went down for occupywallstreet, temporary injunction, then overruled …

Occupy Zurich Eviction Circle 15-11-11 – “Occupiers form a circle at Occupy Zurich in face of Police Eviction. Pacific resistance in face of State Repression.”

2- Occupy Bern Bundesplatz 11.11.11 – our occupy bern efforts in video form.

Exclusive Video: Inside Police Lines at the Occupy Wall Street Eviction – “I just want to witness what is going on here,” I yelped. “You can witness it with the rest of the press,” he said. Which, of course, meant not witnessing it.”

Inside Occupy Wall Street – “How a bunch of anarchists and radicals with nothing but sleeping bags launched a nationwide movement” nice overview of the occupywallstreet movement focusing on the historical elements

Occupy With Aloha – “I sweetly sang lines like “You enforce your monopolies with guns/ While sacrificing our daughters and sons/ But certain things belong to everyone/ Your thievery has left the people none”. ”

Is Jay-Z Trying To Profit From Occupy Wall Street? – “‘Occupy All Streets’ is our way of reminding people that there is change to be made everywhere, not just on Wall Street. At this time we have not made an official commitment to monetarily support the movement.” and that’s another lowlight. of course.

#watch and

Losers – “A film about bullying.”

DJ Shadow – Scale It Back – music video using Memory Man

24 hours in Dubai – “A 24 hour timelapse of Downtown Dubai, starting at 4am local time on 11/11/11″

#learn

ThinkUp: Social Media Insights Platform – “Ever get frustrated that Twitter doesn’t let you simply search for your own Tweet from a year ago? ThinkUp’s got you covered.” and many more functionalities.

Marshall McLuhan ‘The Medium Is The Massage’ reissue – “‘The Medium Is The Massage’ celebrating 100 years of McLuhan‘s record of the book”

new york shots – “shots captured with disposable cameras left in new york’s lovely parks. SUPPORT THIS PROJECT – jump to my kickstarter” this so reminds me of photobots we used in the cyberhelvetia project

LEGO recycling containers by flussocreative – “‘leco’ is a system of recycling and storage containers, utilizing the look and practical design of LEGO building blocks.” these look a bit clunky but awesome.

Radiohead reveal three more King Of Limbs remixes – “After the release of the Radiohead remix vinyls and the album TKOL RMX 1234567, Radiohead reveal three more remixes from Anstam, Nathan Fake and Jamie xx.”

Switzerland Legalizing Up To 4 Marijuana Plants January 1 – “Citizens of Switzerland will soon be allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants each at home, according to government officials. Four people sharing a house can grow up to 16 plants, but only if each person tends to their own crop.”

Le Sibère Carnet de Christophe Courtois: cinéma – this guy assembled some movie posters to astonishing effect

Miranda July / It chooses You – “miranda july selling pairs of things, probably gives away her book”

Its a MIRACLE! Take that…. Jesus toast. – jesus spotted on a dogs asshole

Meanwhile, 6th And Mission – comic by wendy macnaughton compares 6th and mission with 5th and mission: “A block away. a universe away”

Nazi Bunker to Become Europe’s Largest Solar Power Plant – “A former Nazi bunker located in the Wilhelmsburg district of Hamburg, Germany is about to get a full-scale makeover. The building, which sorta looks like a giant LEGO, is set to become Europe’s largest renewable energy power plant.” I resist … I resist … and finally can’t conatin this joke in very bad taste, Solar Heil.

Sierra Zulu | Communism is not an opinion, it is a promise! – “A ragtag UN peacekeeping force operates a small camp guarding the no-man’s-land between Austria and the tiny agrarian microstate Soviet Unterzoegersdorf, the last existing bastion of the defunct Soviet Union. When an explosion occurs deep inside Soviet territory, the team is dragged into a bizarre conspiracy of industrial espionage, media madness and political intrigue.” monochrom make a movie.

Hepatitis C: The Last Chimpanzee Research Battleground – “the one remaining exception, the ground over which the deciding scientific and ethical battles will be fought, is hepatitis C.” not in my name.

Powerbags charge your gadgets wherever, whenever – “Powerbag creates a number of different products, which are all fully equipped with a charging system, including a battery, Apple connector, micro and mini USB connectors and an on-board USB post, meaning your bag will be able to charge up to four devices at all times.” Great, now make one with included solar panels.

PleaseCycle: ‘air miles’ for cyclists – “PleaseCycle is a new London start-up that allows organisations to reward their employees for cycling instead of taking fossil fuel-guzzling transport to work.” awesome

24 hours in photos – “This installation by Erik Kessels is on show as part of an exhibition at Foam in Amsterdam that looks at the future of photography. It features print-outs of all the images uploaded to Flickr in a 24-hour period…”
Michihiro Matsuoka
“These mechanical animals are the creation of Japanese artist and sculptor Michihiro Matsuoka”

Metrics used to track tweets, Elven – “The intelligence analysts… are tasked with sifting through millions of tweets, Facebook messages, online chat logs, and other public data on the World Wide Web to glean insights into the collective moods of regions or groups abroad.”

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[weekly linkdump, somewhat edited]

#watch and

Midget Parkour – Finger Parkour seems *gasp* dangerous

Occupy Wall Street teach-in with Douglas Rushkoff – - “They say the Occupy movement has no leaders. They are wrong. YOU are the leaders! The rest of us are your followers! What you do here shows us what we can do out there.”

Timelapse-icus Maximus HD Burning Man 2011 by James Cole, Music by Elite Force/DISTRIK – “Burning Man 2011 Tilt Shift Time-lapse by James Cole”

Occupy Your Mind: An Interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky – “Topics include Occupy Wall Street, why revolutions fail but mutation succeeds, the magical side of reality, the search for gurus and wisdom and why Twitter is the haiku of this century!”

Something Inspirational – “Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security.” yes, it’s a good time to re-listen the charlie chaplin in the great dictator, video and transcript

Welcome to Kitty City – Strange Brilliant Kitteh Animation by Cyriak

Roger Doiron – A Subversive Plot: How to Grow a Revolution in Your Own Backyard – “Roger Doiron is founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a network of people taking a hands-on approach to re-localizing the global food supply.”

#learn

This 28-Year-Old’s Startup Is Moving $350 Million And Wants To Completely Kill Credit Cards – “Unlike PayPal, Dwolla doesn’t take a percentage of the transaction. It only asks for $0.25 whether it’s moving $1 or $1,000.”

Metrics used to track tweets, Elven – “The intelligence analysts… are tasked with sifting through millions of tweets, Facebook messages, online chat logs, and other public data on the World Wide Web to glean insights into the collective moods of regions or groups abroad.”

Polar bears pushing blocks of ice – It’s the Polar Bears! melting all our ice. we finally found the culprit.

Marina Abramović’s Allegedly Kinky, “Criminal” MOCA Gala – “I hope the performance itself will bring some kind of dignity, serenity, and concentration to the normal situation of a gala, and actually change the energy of the space and bring the performance into an everyday life situation.”

Arthur Recreates Scenes from Classic Movies – a rather irritated baby used to recreate famous movie scenes? great parenting 2.0 [via b3ta]

decagon tent by logos: japan good design award 2011 – “japanese outdoor equipment company logos has created ‘decagon tent’, a series of outdoor structures that can be used separately or linked together to create larger, more complex spaces.”

Artist creates volcanic rupture in wall – “If you came into a room and saw a crack in a wall that seemed to be filled with fire or bubbling with lava, would you go any closer? French designer Thierry Dreyfus says of his installation “Wall Rupture for Flos” that most people do.”

MOUSTAIR – “Where men meets moustaches meets hair meets moustaches meets hair meets MOUSTAIR.”

Anonymous 101: Introduction to the lulz – “Anonymous is a nascent and small culture, but one with its own aesthetics and values, art and literature, social norms and ways of production, and even its own dialectic language.”

Guardian Weekly hangman game – “Guess the city by using the letters below, remember it could be anywhere in the world.”

BLOOD RICE: CHINESE MUTANT HUMAN-RICE HYBRID MAY SAVE LIVES, FREAK PEOPLE OUT – “No, this is not some neo-communist plot conceived to create a 21st century “red army” of genetically superior mutant rice-soldiers intent on securing China’s world-dominance. China is well on its way without a mutant army.” as eww as hmm

1st challenge winners – The challenge was to create a datavisualisation to illustrate the end of some relevant natural resources, if our consumption stays the same.

Which is the greenest football club? – “Following a football team can involve lots of travel – but some clubs are now starting to think about their carbon footprints”

Plastic bullets available to police for Wednesday’s student protests – “Scotland Yard says officers are free to use baton rounds in extreme cases but critics say tactic is ‘appalling and un-British’”

The Kitten Covers – Album Covers redone with Kittehs

Earth fail wale – lol

US entrepreneurs cash in on Occupy movement – “T-shirts, coffee mugs and other merchandise being offered on campsites that have sprung up in cities across country” how rather cynical

Data Points: An Overview of the Euro Crisis – “Charting the web of debt exposure among sagging economies”

Tweet Like Don Draper With This Retro Rotary Phone – “Russia-based firms UP Digital Bureau and Unteleported Tech Agency collaborated to produce the world’s first analogue Twitter client: Tweephone.”

Occupationalist / Covering the Occupy movement as it unfolds. No filters. No delays. – Interesting approach, but so far focused soley on US cities

Great but fairly strange Russian Photos – By a guy named Petros

Laurie Penny: A woman’s opinion is the mini-skirt of the internet – “I believe the time for silence is over. If we want to build a truly fair and vibrant community of political debate and social exchange, online and offline, it’s not enough to ignore harassment of women, LGBT people or people of colour who dare to have opinions. Free speech means being free to use technology and participate in public life without fear of abuse – and if the only people who can do so are white, straight men, the internet is not as free as we’d like to believe.”

#lang:de

Statement von Sven Väth 1993 zur Berliner Mayday – “Ein intellektuell forderndes, spannendes, ausführliches – ja, beinahe schon ausuferndes! – Statement von Sven Väth 1993 auf der Berliner Mayday, das in seiner epischen Breite fast schon das gesamte Spektrum der Partykultur der Neunziger schlüssig aufbereitet, selbst die kleinsten Details berücksichtigt und dabei im Subtext selbst vor Gesellschaftskritik nicht zurückschreckt. So war das damals.”

Distanzlos gegen Fangewalt – “Die Berichterstattung über «Fussballfans ausser Rand und Band» (Blick) gerät zunehmend selber ausser Kontrolle.”

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Last night we went to Zürich, where at the RiffRaff they showed a preview of Miranda Julys new movie The Future. The movie is fantastic, maybe not as mind blowing as her first movie ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, but just as brilliant in many ways. The movie will open in Zürich December 15., if the world does not end before then …

After the viewing there was a Q&A session with Miranda July over Skype, during which she gets introduced to surprise guest Dieter Meier of Yello (2:45). Apparently she found his latest book at some airport, got intrigued and now the organizers set up this meeting of kindred spirits …

I have been a huge fan of Miranda Julys work for some time. And she keeps surprising me. Miranda also has a new book that is about to get released It Chooses You, and German Art Magazine Du has dedicated their latest issue to her work [In german].

Spoiler Alert: At the start, Miranda does speak a little bit about her movie and may give away some information. So if you want to see just the talk with Dieter Meier jump to 2:45. But then you’d miss Miranda walking her laptop around the apartment, an awesome dress … Plus her dog!