The Five Steps to Tyranny

Urban Farming Lend a hand

From Grist

...in the early 2000s, ... Mayor Giuliani essentially issued a fatwa against community gardens, declaring them “communism.” He tried to sell them off for development; citizen activism, with a major assist from then attorney general Elliot Spitzer, for the most part stymied the small-minded mayor’s designs, though he did manage to pave dozens of gardens in some of the city’s lowest-income areas.
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...like a zombie, Mayor Giuliani’s discredited garden agenda has popped back up again in Brooklyn’s glorious, storied Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where developers are scheming to bulldoze a highly productive community garden called Bed-Stuy farm.

h/t 99

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Sign Petition
Soul Food Farm. Bay area community comes together to save the farm.

toy guns to trees

This clip is jam-packed with really good ideas!

Let's do 'em!

you make me feel brand new

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Buy Nothing Day

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From Adbusters' Blog:

Buy Nothing Day was a radical concept when we first introduced it 20 years ago. It struck a blow against the very heart of our consumer culture. For the first decade of its existence it had a profound and sweeping effect, shining a light on the dark side of consumerism at a time when the world was largely oblivious to its insidious effects. Year after year it fired up the world’s imagination – inspiring its fair share of sympathy and solidarity, resistance and mockery. I remember people laughing their heads off at the sight of my BND button. But somehow, as the years wore on (and despite the fact that last year it was celebrated in 65 countries around the world), the day seems to be losing its edge. Now, as humanity faces crises of ecology, psychology and faith, the time has come to rethink the day, to reanimate it with new intensity, purpose and scale.

This year we’re calling for a wildcat general strike. On November 27/28 we’re asking tens of millions of people around the world to bring the capitalist consumption machine to a grinding – if only momentary – halt. We want you to shut off your lights, your televisions and other nonessential appliances. We want you to park your car, turn off your phones and log off your computer for the day. We’re calling for a Ramadan-like fast. From sunrise to sunset, we abstain en masse. Not only from shopping but from all the temptations of our five-planet lifestyles.

Instead we’ll feed our spirits and minds with a feast of subversive activities: pranks, shenanigans, credit card cut-ups, bicycle swarms, mall invasions and all manner of culture jams and creative détournements … and some of us will take things even further with sit-ins, demonstrations, passive resistance and acts of nonviolent defiance, anarchy and civil disobedience. If we can create a big enough ruckus on November 27/28, then we may be able to catalyze what the Situationists tried to set in motion half a century ago: a chain reaction of refusal against consumer capitalism … a sudden, unexpected moment of truth … the first ever global revolution.

[h/t ANN]
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OrionMy Winter Friend

Last night I walked out on my deck, and looking east I found my winter friend rising above the horizon. Orion, I greet thee...


This deep field image, from the Hubble Space Telescope, is oriented as Orion appears when overhead, as opposed to the photo above as he appears when rising.


An Orion star map:


The Orion Nebula, consisting of Messier Objects 42 and 43 (M42 & M43) resides in the sword tip below Orions belt.


The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) sits just below Alnitak at the left end of Orion's belt.

Orion is the master of the winter skies. He lords over the heavens from late fall to early spring, with his hunting dog Sirius trailing at his feet.

The mythic tales of Orion go as far back as the Hittites, who flourished from the Second Millenium BC to around 1200 BC.

One story from this culture gives an interesting account of Orion's death. Here he is called Aqhat, and was a handsome and famous hunter. The Battle-Goddess Anat fell in love with Aqhat, but when he refused to lend her his bow, she sent another man to steal it. This chap bungled the job, and wound up killing Aqhat and dropping the bow into the sea. This is said to explain the astronomical fact that Orion and the Bow (an older version of the constellation) drops below the horizon for two months every spring.

Much More...

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Kakamega Rain Forest Battle for survival

One of the world's smallest rain forests, Kakamega Rain Forest of Western Kenya, struggles for survival.


[46:14] (The videos claim to have six parts, however it appears there are actually only 5.)

Kakamega Rain Forest Biodiversity
Impact of The Rain Forest Destruction on the Environment

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except you can't set it on stun

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The Power of Nightmares The Rise of the Politics of Fear

PART 1

[59:14]

PART 2

PART 3


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Is it LiveOr is it X-Box?

Then see this: third millennium reprehensible warfare
[click the photo there]

Read the comments on the film at Frontline

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As Serious As Committing War Crimes Is Covering Up War Crimes!

Dennis used the word ALMOST, I say it IS as serious!

[h/t Agent 99]

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