hyrcan

Friday is here and while I'm a bit late in posting this, I'm going to start posting Video Fridays. Something that I do at my office, but I figure if I post it here I can be a bit more free in the type of videos I post. There are some videos that might not be appreciated on my office Intranet Blog. No, nothing to naughty, but might be to political/religious/racy and thus might get a disapproving glare from some co-workers.

So every friday I'll be posting 3 or 4 videos friday morning, so you can watch them instead of doing real work. This doesn't quite work out today, what with it being almost 5 here on the east coast, but alas. The videos that will get posted will be a collection of videos that I feel people should watch. That's about it. There's not likely to be any other rhyme or reason behind it, other that the fact I think you should watch them.

My hope is that you might discover something new, or enjoy a little inside peek at what I fancy. This particular Video Friday features three videos from three of my favorite projects, and a little bit of randomness thrown in at the end.

Now... On with the show!

Global Mind Shift Remixed!

From one of my favorite projects, The Pinky Show, Pinky reads a short passage by Willis Harman. The Pinky Show has a wonderful collection of videos available on their website and youtube channel, and has inspired me to create a couple of projects of my own. I'll let you know when I launch those.

The Uncultured Poject

This is another favorite, The Uncultured Project what do you do when Dr. Jeffrey Sachs gives the homework assignment to alleviate extreme poverty? Move to Bangladesh, and get to work of course. This particular video shows a project that he's supporting with donations he's received, where $250 sponsors a child's education for a full year, along with medicine and supplies. There's a surprise inside... ;) can you guess what it is?

Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat

Ahh, TED. TED TED TED... My co-workers know it well...and so will you. Technology, Entertainment, and Design. The TED Talks are a collection of amazing people talking about/performing amazing things. Here Mark Bittman discusses what's wrong with what we eat, and reminisces when there weren't "ingredient lists" because of the fact that what you were eating WAS the ingredient.

Time Stops for some at Grand Central

And now a bit of random fun.... ;)

As entertaining as this video is, the status quo of Democrat and Republican is not the answer. And it certainly does not have anything to do with change. Unfortunately people love glossy high-price messages, especially if it preys on peoples emotions and is catchy.

Of course, since I live in the District of Columbia my vote won't matter. No, it's not because we don't have any voting rights in the House or Senate, and no it's not because we have some electronic voting machines that are trivial to hack and change vote counts. It's because we don't have a democracy we have a Oligarchy. Our presidential election is not based on the vote of the people. Our government does not operate under the will of the majority.

In the District of Columbia it will not matter if I vote for the Democrat or the Republican, and certainly won't matter if I vote for a alternative party such as the green, or libertarian. Our electoral college will be choosing a Democrat and DC will be a blue state.

If we were a true democracy and not an Oligarchy Bush would never have been president in the first place. Sadly people are so wrapped up in manufactured, heart-string picking, BBQ-grilling, catchy nostalgic rhetoric to even notice.

So since it doesn't really matter anyway, I'll be voting for one of these following people, in hope for actual change, not just a song about it.

GREEN PARTY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES
• Jesse Johnson – http://www.jesse08.org
• Cynthia McKinney – http://www.runcynthiarun.org
• Kent Mesplay – http://www.mesplay.org
• Kat Swift – http://www.voteswift.org

...or I'll just write myself in.

again.

People often ask me where I'm from. Where'd I grow up. What's your hometown?

My normal response is that I've lived all over the place, Washington, Oklahoma, Washington again... back to Oklahoma, on to South Carolina.... etc. etc. That usually satisfies their curiosity or they get distracted with how much I moved.

Sometimes though, I get stuck, and the topic of how long I was in the places I lived comes up and unfortunately the truth of the matter comes up. I lived in Oklahoma for longer than I wish to admit. That being pretty much all of my school age life, except 2nd grade.

That's a pretty long time... and while it wasn't hell, it wasn't pleasant. Going to a private religious school certainly didn't help my outlook on the ordeal. Though I'm glad I did in a way because it opened my eyes quicker to the hypocrisy inherent in religion.

Though while I was in Oklahoma, I could tell there was something very wrong with the place. I couldn't put a finger on it, but I felt very out of place, things that seemed logical, ethical, moral to me where foreign ideas.

Now I'm not talking, that I think everyone should feel the same way as me. And the ideas I had weren't hot button issues. Today I think I know what that feeling was, it was manipulation, it was the systematic pressure towards the sort of mindless population and political climate that allowed HB1804 pass without a whisper of resistance. We're talking 88-9, 41-6 votes in the house and senate.

This new law makes transporting or sheltering an illegal immigrant a felon. Yes, a FELON. Think about that, every cab, bus driver, every nice person to stop and help someone broke down on the side of the road. Every homeless shelter, hospital, hotel, apartment, will now be required to ask about their immigration status of the people that come to them. Otherwise that nurse who admits the person there for medical assistance, volunteer at the homeless shelter, or even priest will risk going to jail with a felony.

This is also just the tip of the iceberg, while not only passing this law an alternet article highlights some other craziness coming from the Oklahoma state government, including Bullying tactics from Rep. Randy Terrill (the author of HB1804) who actually threaten a senator, saying he was going to "whip his ass."

I truly feel sorry for any sane and rational person still stuck in that hell hole of absurdity.

People speculate what the biggest threat to America's future is, is it the Gays, Muslim, Atheist, Terrorist in general?

It's none of these things, the true threat to America's future is extremist nut jobs like Randy Terrill.

As for Oklahoma. I'm ashamed to say I lived there at all.

marriedtothesea.com

I'll let it speak for itself.

Quick note for those of you in the same boat as me. I love todotxt, and quicksilver looked pretty cool, but it never really seemed to work well together. Which is odd because everyone seemed to be in on how to make them work together except me. Well I looked around and found there was an applescript that would make them friends but alas I could not find this magical script.

That's right everyone today is National Taxation without Representation Day!

Over a half-million people participate in this day every year. They, under fear of being jailed or worse, audited mail off their forms pay their tax and party like it's 1775.

Atheist Representative tells a Christian they have 'no right' providing testimony at a hearing.

How long would that Representative still have a job be for getting the boot if? I'd been surprised if they lasted a day.

But when a Christian Representative yells that at an Atheist?

It doesn't matter though, no Representative would be so stupid as to do something like that. Right? Think again, because that's exactly what happened during testimony given on April 2nd to the House State Government Administration Committee.

Which ever tool over at Samsung that made the decision to use SEDG instead of a widely used and supported codec should be fired.

Sitting hereon the metro, getting an odd look here and there... I'm sure the thought is 'WTH is they guy doing with a kids toy.' or 'Why is he playing with a speak and spell?'

Why do I think this? Because I've found am alarmingly large number of people who are totally unaware of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, much less with what one of those laptops look like.

It's here! In all it's tiny green awesomeness!

What you may ask? My very own OLPC!

Yeah... I could have saved up some money and got a nice Powerbook or spent less by getting some other gadget. If I did that though, I'd be missing out on this opportunity to not only get a cool gadget, but help some kid get one too!

Not only that...it's green too, and not just in color! With being designed from scratch focusing on cost, in the field relyabilaty, and durability, this little gem uses very little energy, has no moving parts, and from the looks of it...can take a beating.