Maquinas De Coser Alfa

joshsternberg:

AP reporting Joe Paterno has died.

3liza:

ACTA passed one of the several voting gates it needs to get through before becoming law.

It was ratified in Poland last night.  This was the scene at Polish parliament afterwards, as (presumably) a bloc of anti-ACTA politicians expressed their displeasure and, perhaps without knowing it, foretell of the Anonymous repercussions to this bill.

EDIT: Just so we’re clear, this does not mean ACTA has been signed into international law.  It means that it’s getting much closer to being signed into law.

Some things you should know:

• Online petitions are meaningless.  While they are well-intentioned and organized, the signing of a digital petition takes about twenty seconds, and does not require that you leave your beanbag chair in the coal cellar.  Politicians know this, and pay just as much attention to online petitions as is warranted by a “political action” that is literally less strenuous than leaving a YouTube comment.
  
  
• Nothing except direct action is going to do a goddamn thing.  This means getting out in the street, it means DDoSing, it means vicious and widespread boycotts, site blackouts, and other strongarm tactics that actually impact the flow of money from corporations to lobbyists to politicians.  How do you, as a tiny flailing consumer, do this?  You can’t, really.  You can join up with groups that are intent on doing actions that actually mean something, adding your voice to a chorus of hundreds or thousands, instead of screaming alone.  You can contact celebrities, the spokespeople of our time, as ask them to leverage their followers on the issue.  You can write to Tumblr and ask for more blackouts.  None of these things will be very effective, so don’t be too disappointed when they don’t work, but they sure as fuck are more effective than online petitions, and the intense response to SOPA by corporations and consumers was responsible for getting it “tabled” (not dead, but dreaming lies).
  
  
• ACTA was already signed in the US by Obama in September of 2011.  He had been praising the bill for over a year prior, and signed it without reservation.  Most of us didn’t hear about it, and he likely used the 9/11 coverage to make sure of that.
  
  
• Eventually, one of these bills will pass, and the pro-corporate laws will go into effect.  Expect it.  Be prepared.  Learn to circumvent this garbage and you’ll have a leg up when the feds shut down the internet as we know it.
  
  
• The best thing you can do now is install Tor and learn how to use it.  Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.  In order to circumvent the coming corporate takeover of the web, we’re going to have to go underground, creating a sub-internet of encrypted nodes known as a “darknet”.  It’s probably going to be like the internet was in the beginning, with most people only seeing what AOL wanted them to see, and only a small group of super-nerds existing outside of that bubble in the “real” internet.  It’ll take another twenty years for them to catch up to us again.
  
  
• Welcome to the grim cyberpunk future.

gothsuptrees:

James sent me this message:

Hi Goths up Trees,

We have a goth at workplace, he’s called Vince. I have enclosed a picture, he’s the bald one on the left hanging off one of his goth friends.

We’ve been trying to get him up a tree to take some pictures of him but he’s not having any of it. However we’re not giving up yet, we’ve made a facebook group to rally support and get ideas of how we can get him up a tree.

Please feel free to join the group and invite other goths in tree lovers to join:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/289709651076203/

Many thanks…

James

GVUAT 2012

So, dear friends of the Internet, the choice is yours.  Do you support James’ plight?  Is Vince being bullied by his workmates into being their performing tree-climbing Goth?  I do not condone discrimination in the workplace, James.  However, just this once I will allow others the opportunity to support your cause because I would like to see this Vince person up a tree as he looks like a nice kind of guy.  It’d better be a good photo though - at night with no smiling and some sort of dramatic pose and maybe a pizza. So, the choice is yours - support or ignore completely.

Please note: I take no responsibility for the goings on on the facebook page because it is absolutely nothing to do with me.