NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Pussy Riot Spawns Web Uprising

Unless you're a cave-dwelling monk or spend your Saturday nights watching reruns of The Lawrence Welk Show, you've probably heard of Pussy Riot.

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They're the ski-masked, all-female punk trio from Russia who were sentenced to two years in prison last week for staging a punk prayer on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.

As protesters of Russian President Vladimir Putin and self-described "activists of the opposition movement, dealing with the problems of feminism, ecology, as well as rights for the L.G.B.T. movement," the group bum-rushed the altar and sang an obscene anthem ending with three cries of "Holy Mother, send Putin packing."

Their arrest, trial and conviction sparked a world-wide media blitz and drew heavy condemnation from the international community over Russia's continued iron-fisted crack downs of political dissent. Those in solidarity with Pussy Riot have taken not only taken to the streets, they've taken to one of the most popular arenas for contemporary protest: the Internet.

There's the Free Pussy Riot website, a home-base network of sorts, full of aggregated information about the case as well as outlets for international activists to join together in unity. There's the requisite Facebook page -- Free Pussy Riot Now (Putin, fear no art.) and a Tumblr page, We Are Pussy Riot, where visitors can sign an online petition.

Like clockwork, Web crusaders and hacktivist collective, Anonymous, rallied for Pussy Riot with trademark tactics: by hacking the website of the Moscow court that sentenced the band.

Anonymous defaced the Khamovnichesky District Court's site with anti-Putin statements and uploaded a new Pussy Riot song entitled "Putin is Lighting the Fires of the Revolution," as well as a video of gender-bending Bulgarian singer, Aziz.

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In John Steinbeck's Great Depression novel "The Grapes of Wrath," Okie protagonist Tom Joad promises to advocate of behalf of oppressed people everywhere as he bids farewell to his mother with this famous quote:

Whenever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Whenever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there ... I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an' -- I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry an' they know supper's ready. An' when our folks eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build -- why, I'll be there.

Retrofitted for today's freedom fighter on the digital frontier, it's safe to say Tom Joad would also be at his computer fueling an uprising via his various websites and Twitter account.

via Free Pussy Riot

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Social Media Feeds Chick-fil-A Same Sex Kiss-In

According to one Chick-fil-A executive, Wednesday's "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" was a record-setting day for the fast food chain.

"While we don’t release exact sales numbers, we can confirm reports that it was a record-setting day," said Vice President of Marketing, Steve Robinson, according to NY Daily News.

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Unless you've been hiding out in a cow pasture, you're probably well aware that chicken wasn't the only thing on the menu on Wednesday. Lines snaked out the doors as conservative bigots customers, including neo-Nazis and GOP gadfly Mike Huckabee, showed up in droves to show their support of Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy's controversial comments about gay marriage.

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“We’re inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage," said recently on a radio show. "And I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude that thinks we have the audacity to redefine what marriage is all about.”

Cathy's comments naturally sparked a culture clash as gay rights advocates rose up to oppose the company's stance and anti-gay marriage supporters dug in their totally hetero, not-at-all-platform heels.

Now members of the LGBTQ community and its supporters have organized a National Same-Sex Kiss Day campaign. At 8 PM ET on Friday, same-sex couple are encouraged to assemble at their local Chick-fil-A and proceed to lock lips in an act of non-violent defiance.

Organizers want to push the campaign viral by taking to, where else, the Internet's social networks to help spread the word. There's a National Same Sex Kiss Day Facebook page, a lip-smacking Tumblr page and #Chickfilakissin is making it's way around Twitterverse.

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GayWebSource posted the following statement which includes comments by kiss-in organizer, Carly McGehee:

"The event is intended to show Chick-Fil-A how many people their donations and decisions are affecting, not to disturb business" said McGehee. Chick-Fil-A’s promise to leave the same-sex marriage debate to the government and political arena "isn't enough," she continued. "They are still donating millions of dollars to anti-same-sex marriage institutions and that is unacceptable."

Meanwhile, over at KFC, Colonel Sanders says, "When it comes to the sub-ja-macation of marriage rights, why I reckon I'm a bit more progressive than my pals down at Chick-fil-A. Yep, let it be known that Colonel Sanders loves the gays."

Seriously, though, folks -- this issue is hotter than a deep fryer spittin' grease. Don't be chicken, why don't you weigh-in on the comments below and let us know what you think.

via LA Times

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Olympics-Starved Fans Dodge NBC

One of Twitter's hot trends right now is #NBCfail. No wonder. Not even a week into London's Summer Olympics and NBC has racked up so many faults you would think they'd be on the verge of disqualification. Where to start?

First off, there's the basic-cable time delay of the most popular sports, which means those events don't air in the United States until 5 or 6 hours after they happen. NBC's reason for doing so? Cashing in on prime-time audiences. But with today's climate of smartphones, social media and 24/7 internet connection, Olympic spoilers are easy to come by, if not impossible to avoid.

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Then there's the story of Guy Adams, a Los Angeles correspondent for the the Independent (UK), who took to Twitter to voice his criticism over NBC's coverage. In doing so, Adam's published the email account of an NBC senior executive. NBC, who paid $1.18 billion for the rights to broadcast the Olympics on television and the Internet in the United States, quickly brought the hammer down. They lobbied Twitter to suspend Adam's account to which Twitter complied, despite the executive's email being publicly available.

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Other complaints from critics range from spotty online streaming to NBC editing out sensitive terrorism content during the opening ceremonies.

However, some techie customers are taking matters into their own hands. Yahoo! Sports reported that some people in the United States are circumventing NBC's grip by setting up virtual private networks (VPN) to re-route Internet connections through London servers.

"Because all of my Internet traffic looks like it's coming from that box in England, the BBC thinks I'm located in England," 31-year-old California-resident, Jason Legate, told Yahoo! Sports.

Doing so has allowed Legate to watch at least 12 hours of live BBC coverage since setting up his network. Otherwise, when logging onto the BBC's website, Legate would have encountered messages telling him he was not allowed access.

"To me, it just felt like they were insulting everyone so I basically decided to boycott NBC for the duration of the games, which meant I had to find an alternative," Legate said.

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Yahoo! Sports also spoke with 26-year-old Kate Gardiner, a New York City journalist, who spread word on Twitter that she was using a service called TunnelBear to get around NBC's restrictions. TunnelBear is another VPN service that makes Gardiner's Internet connection seem like it is based in London.

Although some VPN services might include manuevers that are beyond casual Internet users' know-how, not to mention subscription fees (TunnelBear requires a $5 fee after streaming 500 megabytes of video), it appears the Olympic-starved masses have spoken.

What about you? Have you found ways to circumvent NBC? Let us hear about you crafty ways in the comments below...or just air you grievances.

via Yahoo! Sports

Credit: Felix Kunze / WireImage / Getty Images

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The Revolution Will Not Be Identified

After Iran's 2009 presidential elections, in what came to be known as the Green Movement, protesters flooded the streets and demanded that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be removed from office after he was accused of rigging votes to get reelected.

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During that time, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps asked people to help identify dissenters in videos and photos, many of which were obtained from YouTube and social media sites. Since then, corrupt regimes, military and law enforcement agencies from across the Middle East, Europe and North America have routinely trolled YouTube and social media sites to try and identify protesters.

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According to the 2011 Cameras Everywhere Report by human rights organization Witness, "No video-sharing site or hardware manufacturer currently offers users the option to blur faces or protect identity."

Well, not anymore. YouTube has an announcement to make:

"As citizens continue to play a critical role in supplying news and human rights footage from around the world, YouTube is committed to creating even better tools to help them...Today we're launching face blurring -- a new tool that allows you to obscure faces within videos with the click of a button."

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Giving visual anonymity to your videos is simple. Here's YouTube's instructions:

Once you’ve chosen the video that you’d like to edit within our Video Enhancements tool, go to Additional Features and click the “Apply” button below Blur All Faces. Before you publish, you will see a preview of what your video will look like with faces blurred. When you save the changes to your video, a new copy is created with the blurred faces. You will then be given the option to delete the original video.

For a company widely known for being a viral vehicle for less-than-revolutionary cat videos and the Cinnamon challenge, today I proudly put my fist in the air and say, "Right on, YouTube."

via YouTube Blog

Credit: YouTube

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Geoengineering Soaring To New Heights

I come from a pasty Norwegian breed. In my younger, devil-may-care years, I used to scoff at wearing sunscreen with the belief that the quickest way to skin cancer a bronzed bod was roasting myself at the beach without a drop of SPF in sight.

Not any more. I've read the reports and even witnessed my dad, who has a similar complexion, receive skin test results that came back malignant. Now I'm a liberal sunscreen applier when I go out. Plus, sunscreen makes you smell like you just came from the beach, and I like that. It's my new cologne.

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In some ways, our planet is of a pasty breed and needs adequate protection from the sun, too. Many scientists say our planet is getting hotter, compliments of us industrious folks who call Earth home.

Here in Missouri, the grass is brown and the leaves on the trees are wilted. The USDA has declared every county in the state as disaster area because of the drought. Just a random old hot-and-dry summer or the consequences of human-induced climate change?

Well, a couple of Harvard engineers aren't waiting around for your opinion. David Keith and James Anderson are preparing to spray thousands of tons of sun-reflecting sulphate aerosols into the sky over Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Why? They believe the particles will reflect the sun's rays back into space and help lower the Earth's temperature.

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They plan to do so by using a balloon flying 80,000 feet above the Fort Sumner. The geoengineering project aims to mimic the effects of volcanoes spewing sulphuric ash into the air.

Keith says the project could be an inexpensive way to slow down climate change, however other scientists warn that his methods could have dire effects on the planet's weather systems and food supplies. Environmentalists fear Keith's method is merely a stopgap that undermines efforts to accurately fight climate change by reducing carbon emissions.

The experiment will take place in a year and see the release of tens or hundreds of kilograms of particles that, besides measuring impacts on ozone chemistry, will also find ways to make the sulphate aerosols the correct size.

"The objective is not to alter the climate, but simply to probe the processes at a micro scale," Keith told the Guardian. "The direct risk is very small.

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However, Pat Mooney, executive director of the technology watchdog ETC Group, begs to differ:

"Impacts include the potential for further damage to the ozone layer, and disruption of rainfall, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions – potentially threatening the food supplies of billions of people. It will do nothing to decrease levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or halt ocean acidification. And solar geoengineering is likely to increase the risk of climate-related international conflict -- given that the modelling to date shows it poses greater risks to the global south."

What say you? Let the balloon fly or pop it with a BB gun before lifts off?

via the Guardian

Credit: NASA/Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS

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PETA's 'Porn' Site Now Live

Now that we've got you here, let us turn you on to what we're really about.

So says the banner that greets you when you log on to PETA's new NSFW website. Back in September, we told you how the animal rights advocacy group was planning to launch a XXX domain in effort to lure people with risque images then confront them with graphic footage of animal cruelty. 

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Well all you lascivious lads and ladies, peta.xxx is live. Not only that, they've enlisted some of the biggest names in the porn adult entertainment industry to help them do so.

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"This site has some of the most explicit and jaw-dropping videos I have ever seen, and that says a lot," says iconic, harmonica-playing porn star Ron Jeremy in the site's welcome video. That's right, Ron Jeremy playing a harmonica.

"Peta.xxx is a lot more than just sex appeal," Jeremy continues against schmaltzy-saxophone background music. "You may get a little more than you bargin for. So sit back, relax and allow us to turn you on. You may get the ride of you life and you will never be the same again."

Other high-profile names baring themselves for the site include Jenna Jameson who invites you to "Discover the pleasure of pleather." Sasha Grey, now a serious actress, also reminds you that "too much sex can be a bad thing" and, oh yeah, "have your cats and dogs spayed and neutered."

Visitors to the site are given a variety of links to click on. The 'Sexy Photos' link includes various images of scantily clad vixens publicly stumping for PETA while the 'Sex Tips' link makes the case that vegetarians make better lovers.

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However, the 'Hardcore Videos' link is the most extreme. And by 'hardcore,' PETA means videos of animal cruelty that are "so 'offensive' that no TV stations have dared to run them." It's here where the site's bait-and-switch is best achieved. Those seeking videos of the primal act are instead given videos of what PETA considers the primal sin.

Videos include those of slaughter houses, abused circus animals and giggling lab rats, as well as lizards being decapitated in Indonesia.

Think PETA compromised their ethics by teaming up with the smut business? Here's their defense:

PETA's mission is to put an end to animal suffering, and we use every available opportunity to spread this message -- we always have, and we always will. Unfortunately, this is not always an easy task. Unlike our opposition, which is mostly made up of wealthy industries and corporations, PETA must rely on getting free "advertising" through media coverage. It's a safe bet that many visitors to PETA.xxx didn't set out to learn about how animals are mercilessly slaughtered on today's factory farms; understandably, such topics are convenient to ignore. That's why PETA must make our message impossible to forget -- and launching a website with a .xxx domain name is one way that we can achieve that goal.

via Gizmodo

Credit: PETA

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Parking Jerks Beware!

Oh, hey there guy in the the throes of a mid-life crisis. Say, that silver Benz with the scissor doors you're driving is a real screamer. It's sick, yo! Did you just wax it? Because it's shinier than your rhinestoned Ed Hardy t-shirt. Dig your spray-on tan too, bro.

With a car like that it's obvious you're well-endowed with an enormous...bank account and sense of self-pride. You've earned it, working hard to sell people subprime loans over the last few years. Reward yourself. In fact, reward yourself with both of those parking spots. Straddle that line. A Mercedes like that needs some breathing room. You don't want some beater-driving peasant parking too close and dinging up that paint job, now do you?

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Every time I'm in a parking lot and I see some clown with bleached teeth and frosted tips take up two spaces with his status symbol, the above internal monologue courses through me like battery acid. And I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one.

In fact, I'm not. God bless the folks at Moscow-based online newspaper, The Village. They've created a new Android app, eloquently named "Parking Douche." Their modus operandi? Simple: stop the parking jerks by publicly shaming them in the online news and on social media.

When users see someone who has taken up two spaces or parked on a sidewalk, all they have to do is snap a picture with their phone and upload the image to the Parking Douche database.

“The data is streamed live to banner ads that are targeted through an IP address, so people that live or work close to locations where these cars were parked see it.”

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Unfortunately, these banners pop up on websites and "interrupt you while you're trying to read an online article." To get rid of the pop-up ads, users must relay info about the offender on social media. This may be a cool app, but you're not going to win me over with annoying pop-up ads. Still, its creators do seem aware of this by taking measures so users aren't overwhelmed with pop-ups.

However, I don't think being humiliated on social media is enough to make offenders change their ways. I mean, their tolerance for humiliation is obviously quite high. That's why I'm fond of tweezing a dirty diaper out of a near-by trash can and dropping it on their windshield.

 

via Mashable

credit: The Village

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Citizen Journalism App Inspired by Arab Spring

The Arab Spring inspired citizens of more than a dozen countries to stand up for their rights and share the fight with people all over the world. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are largely considered the fuel to the fire of civil resistance. Hundreds of thousands of videos, postings and statuses keep us up to date on what’s happening every day. This kind of citizen journalism is what inspired Mark Malkoun, of Lebanon, to create an app called Signal. 

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The app allows its users to upload photos or short headlines along with a geo-tag of their location to share with others. Stories that garner the most votes from others will appear first in the lineup, but don’t confuse Signal with a social network. Malkoun says that social network feeds can get filled with news about friends and relationships, which can sometimes leave news in the dust. He hopes people will use Signal, rather than the traditional news outlets, to find out the major happenings in their country. The app will be available to users in Lebanon for now, but it will open up to other regions soon.

via DVICE

Credit: John Cantlie / Getty Images

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Less-Lethal Weapon, More Bang For Your Buck

How a weapon that shoots, stuns, blinds and sprays its intended targets can be described as nonlethal is beyond me, but I'm sure this guy will be pleased to know all about it.

Last month, American inventor Joel Braun recently got his patent approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a little piece of sunshine he calls the "Non-Lethal Weapon Mount With Modular Weapon Components."

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In fact, to give this device the publicity it so rightly deserves, I propose hiring ShamWow pitchman Vince Shlomi to do an infomercial for Braun's system with the Don't Taze Me bro as his sidekick foil.

Can't you just hear Shlomi's weaselly little New Jersey accent as he persuades you that you can't live without this weapon.

'Ey it's Vince here for the new, the all-in-one, less-lethal weapon. How less lethal is it? Lemme put it this way, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover aren't even in it. It sprays, it maces, it'll make ya shoes untie their laces...Gotta a perp that ain't no fun, no worries, son, squeeze the trigger of the stun gun! And if the pepper spray don't make 'em cry, shine this big friggin' light in their eye! If those bad guys don't give a listen when you tell 'em they need to 'cool it', how 'bout a nice, subtle reminder compliments of these fine rubber bullets...

I jest, but this weapon is no joke. Imagine slipping your hand, wrist and forearm into a device reminiscent of Nintendo's old Power Glove only less glove-y and more rap-trap-y.

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Once it's nice and snug around your forearm, you now have multiple advantages to choose from as you take down the bad guys, even if they're just a bunch of non-violent college kids protesting tuition hikes.

The real question is, how are you going to do it? With so many choices, what non-lethal weapon are you going to use? The spray nozzle offers a dependable, reliable mist of pepper spray or mace, giving you the precision control you need as you aim for the eyes.

Or how about firing a few of those rubber bullets from the munitions barrel? That'll teach 'em to enact their freedom to assemble. No, wait, I got it. The knock-out, one-two punch of the blinding light dazzler followed up by a few thousand volts of electricty compliments of the taser. That's gotta be the way to go. After being blinded by the light dazzler, trust me, those protesting activists will never see those taser prongs a comin'.

via Wired

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

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Mozilla Watching Google Watch You

Today is March 1st, so you know what that means. Today Google officially kicks off their new privacy policy that is anything but private. We gave you a heads up more than a month ago -- heck, George Orwell tipped us all off more than 60 years ago --  so don't say we didn't warn you when your search results all of a sudden seem to be one step ahead of you.

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If you're less than thrilled about Big Brother watching you, how about a round of applause for Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs who just unveiled a new Firefox add-on that lets you watch Big Brother right back.

It's called Collusion, a visualization tool that helps you see all the various websites tracking your browsing trail while surfing the Web. Kovacs introduced the add-on during a presentation earlier this week at the Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) conference.

Collusion uses a matrix of gray-ringed dots -- sites you have visited or are currently visiting -- connected to red-ringed dots indicating sites that have used your browser tracking cookies to keep your site navigation under surveillance.

"Privacy is not an option," Kovacs said in his presentation, according to Gizmodo. "It shouldn't be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet."

Eventually, Kovacs wants to launch Collusion on a larger scale, to the point where it will let users share their tracking data optionally and anonymously with researchers who will then analysis it to better understand ways to circumvent those who are tracking us.

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"The memory of the internet is forever," Kovacs said. "We are being watched. It's now time for us to watch the watchers."

Yippee-Ki-Yay!

Also don't forget Rockwell and his Jheri curl warned you this day was coming almost 30 years ago with his hit song "Somebody's Watching Me." Guess what year it was released? Yep, 1984. Coincidence? I think not.

 

[Via Gizmodo]

Credit: Mozilla

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