May 2013

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Julian Assange on Meeting with Google and His Response to Anti-WikiLeaks Attacks from New Film

Picture: As seen on Democracy Now! Video On Tuesday, Ecuador's foreign minister accused the British government of trampling on Julian Assange's rights by refusing to allow him to travel to Ecuador, which granted him political asylum almost a year ago. Joining Democracy Now! from the embassy, Assange addresses what he calls "attacks on all fronts against WikiLeaks", from a monetary embargo involving some of the world's largest financial firms to a new Hollywood documentary on WikiLeaks, "We Steal Secrets". Assange...

Israel/Palestine: Kerry On Peace Process

Picture: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu courtesy U.S. Department of State/Wikimedia Commons. Jamie Stern-Weiner - The biggest, boldest, most ambitious development in the Middle East peace process for two decades. With this faint praise, Secretary of State John Kerry introduced a new initiative to revive the Palestinian economy on Sunday at an annual World Economic Forum summit in Jordan. The project will see a team of business people working with Middle East Quartet representative Tony Blair to mobilize $4 billion of private investment in the West Bank and Gaza, providing jobs and growth for Palestinians...

Global Protest Against Monsanto

Picture: tertius v Video On Saturday 25 May, an estimated quarter million people in more than 400 cities around the world marched against Monsanto, one of the biggest and most powerful biotech corporations that promotes genetically modified products, more commonly known as GMOs. Activists used extensive social media and community outreach to raise awareness about Monsanto's influence in an attempt to galvanize millions to demand Monsanto be stopped. Among participating cities were Tokyo; Amsterdam; Paris; Vienna;...

Monsanto: The Most Hated Corporation on Earth?

Picture: march-against-monsanto.com Glenn Ashton - What does it take to be the most hated corporation on earth? How many global corporations have had an entire day of global protest declared to draw attention to their nastiness? Well, the worlds leading producer of genetically modified seed, Monsanto, has just managed this feat, with millions having participated in over 450 actions across 52 countries on the 25th of May. It is worth examining how and why Monsanto has become so uniformly hated around the planet. It is difficult to assume...

Introducing WikiHouse: The Open Source House that Anyone Can Build Anywhere

Picture: As seen on TED. Video Architect, Alastair Parvin presents a simple but provocative idea: what if, instead of architects creating buildings for those who can afford to commission them, regular citizens could design and build their own houses? According to Parvin, this concept puts design and building solutions into the hands of the 99%. It is at the heart of WikiHouse, an open source construction kit that means just about anyone can build a house, anywhere. Free 3D building models are already available online....

Noam Chomsky: The Kind of Anarchism I Believe In

Picture: Noam Chomsky courtesy Andrew Rusk/Flickr Michael S. Wilson - So many things have been written about, and discussed by, Professor Chomsky, it was a challenge to think of anything new to ask him: like the grandparent you can’t think of what to get for Christmas because they already have everything. So I chose to be a bit selfish and ask him what I’ve always wanted to ask him. As an out-spoken, actual, live-and-breathing anarchist, I wanted to know how he could align himself with such a controversial and marginal position....