Seattle Building Massive Edible Forest Filled with Free Food

BRB! Moving to Seattle. 

[image via Organic Authority] 

What's On the Blacklist? Three Sites That SOPA Could Put at Risk

EFF digs into the language of the “Stop Online Piracy Act” and breaks it down into terms that explain how some sites like Etsy, Flickr, and Vimeo could suffer if the bill passes.

You NEED to do this.

On 11/16, Congress holds hearings on the first American Internet censorship system. This bill can pass. If it does the Internet and free speech will never be the same. Join all of us on the 16th to stop this bill.

If this law passes, sites like Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr could be shut down for letting users post freely. Join the protest to stop it. 

Click here and scroll down for simple step by step directions on how you can fight to stop the bill. (Or visit americancensorship.org for more information)

From BoingBoing: “The worst bill in Internet history is about to become law. Law is very real here in the United States and legal language is often different than stated intentions — this law would give government and corporations the power to block sites like BoingBoing over infringing links on at least one webpage posted by their users. Believe the EFF, Public Knowledge, Google when they say this bill is about much more than copyright, it’s about the Internet and free speech everywhere…

…Everyone, the entire Internet community needs to stand together if we don’t want to see this bill actually become law. Internet and democracy groups are planning an Internet-wide day of protest called American Censorship Day on Wednesday, November 16th for the day Congress holds a hearing on these bills to create the first American Internet censorship system. Every single person with a website can join and needs to.

Your purchase is your advocacy - Slavery: A 21st Century Evil

“It is not easy mobilising an army of citizens that will put an end to modern slavery. The mass of people find it hard to believe that slavery still exists in the 21st century. The fact that tens of millions of individuals around the globe daily live in real forms of bondage contradicts our sense of modern history and moral progress. Such ignorance nurtures passivity.

Remarkably, once individuals do become aware of the reality of slavery, a new form of inactivity typically kicks in: paralysis. The crisis is so global, and so complex, what can one person really do about it?

The answer is actually quite simple: confront your own link to the problem.

Admittedly, most of us are quite removed from the supply side of slavery. We do not seek out vulnerable human beings and turn them into a commercial commodity.

Yet nearly all of us do have a personal link to the demand side of modern slavery….

…My consumer purchase therefore may be my most powerful act of advocacy against slavery. When a million consumers start shopping with their conscience, they shift the economics of the market…

…A mobilised army of conscious consumers alters the demand side toward which supply chains bend. When we make human dignity a key factor in our shopping decisions, we assign it an economic value. Companies that ignore or blatantly disregard human dignity will lose business.”

Not For Sale’s Free2Work App “assigns a product a grade - A to F - based on the tangible steps that a company has taken to demonstrate that it has zero tolerance for forced labour in its supply chain.”

If you would like to learn more about Not For Sale visit their website here.

[via abodyofthoughtandmedia]

(via aljazeera)

Occupy Wall Street Livestream.

The whole world is watching.

(Source: inothernews)

Crazy, naked hippies dance near Wall Street, not to be taken seriously

It’s nice to see that the NY Times is painting a clear and balanced picture of the Wall Street Protestors. Yes, it’s true that there is no one unifying cause and no specifically defined desired outcome, but that doesn’t mean the protestors shouldn’t be taken seriously. They are protesting to fight for what they believe in, and while that might not be the same thing for every single person there, at least they are trying. At least they’re taking action. Condescendingly ridiculing them and comparing the events to carnivals and “street theater” is unfair and unwarranted. Playing this down isn’t going to make it go away. What does it matter if there are 100 protestors or 100,000? The point is that people are angry about and unhappy with the current state of our country and they know it’s not going to change unless they do something about it.

The White House has issued detailed guidelines to government officials on how to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, with instructions to honor the memory of those who died on American soil but also to recall that Al Qaeda and other extremist groups have since carried out attacks elsewhere in the world, from Mumbai to Manila.

Well, if this isn’t Orwellian, than I don’t know what is.

[via joshsternberg]