A Hill to Climb.

I’m taking an extended break to work on some big projects whose time has come. Ya’ll peeps are awesome truth seekers, I know you will keep up the good fight.

Rock on. –LG.

ps- have as many friends as you can watch the Collateral Damage video and talk to people about it, especially the ones you know might disagree. Jump on this opportunity to shake the war machine down.

David Cameron: The next age of government

h/t to Chairman Sterling. The talk is quite optimistic and not sure if this age of government is all that novel as there still is government to begin with and the ubiquitous corporate powers that be won’t likely let people power really be people power. but still an interesting talk.

buffleheadcabin:voryvzakone:catsluck:

Radical Mycology (click to download PDF)

“A new zine from the Spore Liberation Front exploring the numerous uses for mushrooms and their implications for ecoactivists and other Earth friendly folk. From food to medicine to paper and dyes to the amazing new field of mycorememdiation (the use of mushrooms to clean up oil spills and restore damaged habitats), this zine gives a thorough overview of the greater fungi with a novel, radical perspective.”

iisabelle:loveandzombies:catsluck:

The Nighttime Gardener’s Guide - a guide for the shy gardener in North Amerika (click for PDF)

• IT research firm Gartner estimates Google’s data centres contain nearly a million servers, each drawing about 1 kilowatt of electricity. So every hour Google’s engine burns through 1 million kilowatt-hours. Google serves up approximately 10 million search results per hour, so one search has the same energy cost as turning on a 100-watt light bulb for an hour.
• This doesn’t bode well. Even though the average American performs just 1.5 searches per day, it is hard to imagine that this will not rise dramatically.
• The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that data centres are responsible for 1.5 per cent of US energy use. How much more will that be when we, and our gadgets, are doing hundreds of searches per day? Or when the planet’s 6 billion inhabitants all want equal access? We’ve all heard the future of information architecture is cloud computing. It just might be a cloud of carbon dioxide.

Human Energy Recycle System Can Generate Energy From The Movement Of Users

• The human energy recycle system is an innovative concept that can gather energy emitted by human or even pets. This energy is used to power other devices, ensuring a new lifestyle for mass people with reduced electric bills and complementing to the environment. The system comprises lightweight, compact and portable units named ‘Solution Units’, designed to be worn in different spots of the human body, which collects energy from spinning, shaking, human heartbeat, body temperature and various other types of movements, and stores the energy into the ‘Standard Battery’ inside. When emergency power is required for a mobile device, these units can be connected to the device directly. Alternatively, the energy of the battery can be stored in the ‘Application’ units for later use.

Skeleton Replaces Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid

• “Copenhagen will be deprived of its Little Mermaid for six months, and we thought we should replace it. It’s April Fools, after all!” Hanne Strager, the head of exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told AFP.
  The replacement – which even had a skeleton fish tail – was placed in the same position as the Little Mermaid and sat in her vacant spot for two hours, to the delight of tourists.

How symbolic of the European (and world) economic state.

• US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims’ bodies in the bloody aftermath of a botched night raid, then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened, Afghan investigators have told The Times.
• Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a police officer and his brother were shot on February 12 when US and Afghan special forces stormed their home in Khataba village, outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan. The precise composition of the force has never been made public.

justinfinity:orlingrabbe:

In the US, 11,750 allegations of church priest child sex abuse have so far featured in actions settled by archdioceses – in Los Angeles for $660m and in Boston for $100m.

In 2005 a test case in Texas failed because the Vatican sought and obtained the intercession of President Bush, who agreed to claim sovereign (ie head of state) immunity on the pope’s behalf. Bush lawyer John B Bellinger III certified that Pope Benedict the XVI was immune from suit “as the head of a foreign state”. Bellinger is now notorious for his defence of Bush administration torture policies.

(via orlingrabbe)

I think he inhaled.

americansatori:

vruz:

by Dan Froomkin

[…]The helicopter crew, which was patrolling an area that had been the scene of fierce fighting that morning, said they spotted weapons on members of the first group — although the video shows one gun, at most. The crew also mistook a telephoto lens for a rocket-propelled grenade.

The shooting, which killed Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, took place on July 12, 2007, in a southeastern neighborhood of Baghdad.
The next day, the New York Times reported the military’s official cover story:

The American military said in a statement late Thursday that 11 people had been killed: nine insurgents and two civilians. According to the statement, American troops were conducting a raid when they were hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The American troops called in reinforcements and attack helicopters. In the ensuing fight, the statement said, the two Reuters employees and nine insurgents were killed.

“There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force,” said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad.

The video shows otherwise.

Washington Post reporter David Finkel described the incident — and the video — in great detail in his September 2009 book, “The Good Soldiers”. A summary can be found here.

Finkel also described a review session after Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, commander of the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment and his soldiers returned to base, which “concluded that everyone had acted appropriately.” (Kauzlarich was also involved in the Army’s Pat Tillman cover-up, and later told ESPN that the reluctance of Tillman’s parents to accept the military’s story that he was killed by enemy action, rather than friendly fire, was the unfortunate result of their lack of Christian faith.)

[…] WikiLeaks, a small, independent Web site that invites people to post information and documents that powerful interests would prefer to keep secret, says it received the video and supporting documents from military whistleblowers.

Julian Assange, the editor of the site, said the killings either violated the the army’s rules of engagement, or those rules of engagement “are very, deeply wrong.”

—read more—

Collateral Murder 

• 5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad – including two Reuters news staff.
• Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.
• The military did not reveal how the Reuters staff were killed, and stated that they did not know how the children were injured.
• After demands by Reuters, the incident was investigated and the U.S. military concluded that the actions of the soldiers were in accordance with the law of armed conflict and its own “Rules of Engagement”.
• Consequently, WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008, revealing these rules before, during, and after the killings.
• WikiLeaks has released both the original 38 minutes video and a shorter version with an initial analysis. Subtitles have been added to both versions from the radio transmissions.
• WikiLeaks obtained this video as well as supporting documents from a number of military whistleblowers. WikiLeaks goes to great lengths to verify the authenticity of the information it receives. We have analyzed the information about this incident from a variety of source material. We have spoken to witnesses and journalists directly involved in the incident.
• WikiLeaks wants to ensure that all the leaked information it receives gets the attention it deserves.

This is the pure madness of war. Very hard to stomach, but this needs to be seen.