Yet Again, YouTubers Ask Obama About Drug Reform
Isn’t it funny how a Democrat refuses to listen to the people who put him in power? From Alternet:
“We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws.”
Can you guess which 2012 presidential candidate said the above statement? You’d be forgiven for thinking Ron Paul, or even Gary Johnson, since both have publicly advocated for reforming our country’s drug laws. You’d be forgiven for guessing anyone but Barack Obama, based on his actions during the past few years, but it was. It may be hard to believe, but President Obama is the same person who once called for reforming our marijuana laws, and deemed the drug war an “utter failure” during his 2004 campaign for the US Senate. Despite previous calls for reform, on Monday night, when faced with over 70,000 individuals urging him to address the issue of marijuana prohibition, Obama’s only response was his silence. NORML and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition posted two of the most popular questions submitted to the White House’s recent Q&A on YouTube, alongside hundreds of others on the topic of marijuana law reform, but Obama offered no response or acknowledgement.
This recent attempt at citizen engagement, entitled “Your Interview With the President,” was launched to coincide with the State of the Union Address. The concept was simple. Anyone could submit a text or video question through the White House YouTube channel, before the public voted on them over the course of the week. The highest rated questions would be selected for Obama to address. On Tuesday, January 24th, NORML submitted a question of our own, which inquired:
“With over 850,000 Americans arrested in 2010, for marijuana charges alone, and tens of billions of tax dollars being spent locking up non-violent marijuana users, isn’t it time we regulate and tax marijuana?”
The question exploded in popularity…
The ‘Strange Sounds’ YouTube Meme: Apocalypse? HAARP? Viral Marketing?
Footage recording bizarre mystery sounds of seemingly immense proportions emanating from the heavens (like the ones above) are being posted from multiple points of the globe but mainly in the Northern Hemisphere:
Speculation is rife as to their cause and nature and the story has been quickly spotted by the usual suspects …
Facebook, Google, And YouTube In 1997 Format
Miss that classic feeling of using the internet back when it was fresh? Now you can feel it once again — via Once Upon by Olia Lialina & Dragan Espenschied:
Three important contemporary web sites, recreated with technology and spirit of late 1997, according to our memories.
Best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.03 and a screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels, running under Windows 95. We recommend using a Virtual Machine or appropriate hardware, connected to a CRT monitor. If such an environment unachievable, it should be possible to experience the piece with any browser that still supports HTML Frames. The transfer speed of our server is limited to 8 kB/s («dial-up» speed).
WikiLeaks: the Novel?
Author Thomas S. Roche has written a new zombie novel which incorporates WikiLeaks, conspiracy forums, and viral YouTube videos, studying the new wasteland where military violence intersects corporate disinformation.
“I think WikiLeaks represents a very important impulse and the start of a strong movement toward anti-corporate sentiment and the demand for government transparency,” he explains in this new interview, “As ineffectual as that movement may end up being – because it started so late in the process of corporate control being consolidated…”
He moves from discussing fictional zombie-fighting to the brutal real-world military violence in neo-colonial nations around the world. And he ultimately wonders if our wireless technology-enhanced future will also include the potential for massive global disinformation.
Iceland Uses Social Media to Write New Constitution
Aaron Saenz writes on Singularity Hub:
The newest government in the world was designed with help from comments on the internet. God help us all.
After Iceland’s economic collapse in 2008, the island nation decided it was time to write a new constitution, this one not based on its parent country of Denmark but rather made from the original ideas of its citizens. Iceland’s small population of 320,000 elected 25 assembly members from 522 ordinary candidates (including lawyers, political science professors, journalists, and many other professions), who in turn opened their process up to the public in an unprecedented fashion.
The Constitutional Council was highly active on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr, where they solicited comments and suggestions for the new government. On Friday July 29th, 2011, the Iceland parliament officially received the new constitution, comprised of 114 articles divided into 9 chapters. Set to be reviewed, and then put before vote for ratification…
TSA Considering Banning Photography Of Checkpoints
Carlos Miller writes on Pixiq:
The Transportation Security Administration is considering changing its policy on photographing security checkpoints after several videos depicting questionable incidents between passengers and TSA screeners were posted on Youtube.
News of the possible changes in policy was posted Friday on the TSA Blog, the same blog that posted that it is permissible to photograph checkpoints, even though most screeners act as if it has always been illegal.
The reason it is considering changing its policy stems from a Youtube video that was recorded in Phoenix when a woman opted-out of the metal detectors and chose to get patted down by a TSA screener.
The woman began yelling hysterically that she had been molested by the screener.
Meanwhile, the woman’s son was recording the incident and continued to do so, even though several TSA screeners told him he was breaking the law.
It is impossible to tell whether the woman was molested in…
YouTube Launches ‘Town Hall’
Time to trade in your soap box for a viral video. The Raw Story reports:
YouTube on Wednesday launched a “Town Hall” website at which US congressional leaders address issues in brief videos and viewers get to show which positions they support.
Republicans monopolized top slots in a “leaderboard” at the online forum for debating topics from energy and debt to health care and Afghanistan.
However, rankings were shifting quickly at the freshly launched website designed to let top US politicians indirectly debate important issues and then have viewers vote for preferred positions.
While the people in the videos are identified, their party affiliations are not revealed until after a viewer has chosen a side.
“How would you vote if you focused purely on the ideas needed to make our country and our world a better place, rather than on the parties putting them forward?” Will Houghteling of YouTube News and Politics asked in a blog…
YouTube Punishes Copyright Offenders With Animated Pirate Cat
Thursday YouTube announced a new program which requires copyright offenders to watch an animated cartoon starring a pirate cat. “In an adjustment to it’s three-strikes-and-your-banned-for life policy, the site is now requiring alleged offenders to watch a four minute ‘re-education’ movie featuring an animated cat, then complete a four-question multiple choice exam,” YouTube explained on their site. “Only then can the user upload clips again…”
The cartoon — entitled “Happy Tree Friends” — features singing animals who demonstrate the difference between uploading an infringing video and creating original content. (”YouTube has decided the solution is to patronize those users,” jokes one technology blog.) “Because copyright law can be complicated, education is critical to ensure that our users understand the rules and continue to play by them,” YouTube said in Thursday’s announcement. And some users who complete the YouTube “Copyright School” can also have copyright strikes removed from their account.
‘First Orbit’ Celebrates Today’s 50th Anniversary Of Man In Space
Move over PBS: YouTube/Google funded this very cool and very free movie about the beginning of spaceflight, with today being exactly 50 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space.
You can download the movie or watch it on YouTube.
From the official First Orbit site:
April 12th 1961 – Yuri Gagarin is about to see what no other person has seen in the history of
humanity – the Earth from space…
Is This The Absolute Dumbest Thing Ever Posted To YouTube? (Video)
Alexandra Wallace’s “Asians in the Library” rant:
Why Evan Emory Could Spend 20 Years In Jail For Edited ‘Prank’ YouTube Video
Unfortunately the original video is removed, however I cannot reasonably see how this man could face up to 20 years for a fake, edited skit. If anybody has the original, please share in comments. The Chicago Tribune reports:
The Muskegon County prosecutor who charged a 21-year-old West Michigan college student with manufacturing child abusive material says a recall effort targeting him likely is based on misinformation.
Tony Tague tells the Muskegon Chronicle he “will not be deterred in my efforts to protect the children of Muskegon County” after a Facebook group dedicated to his recall was set up.
Tague charged Evan Emory of Fruitport in connection with a sexually-themed YouTube video he [edited] that featured local first-grade students and vulgar lyrics.
Fox News: YouTube May Encourage Self-Injury
That darn Youtube! Fox News reports:
One of the most popular sites on the Internet, YouTube, started as a place for web users to share comedy skits, music, movie trailers, and other miscellaneous content. Now a study warns that a new kind of video is the latest trend on the site—cutting and other self-injury methods.
The data from the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found more than 5,000 YouTube videos on self-injury, including live enactments and graphic images of cutting arms and legs with razors—complete with haunting music, attracting millions of hits from viewers.
The videos have officials and parents alike worried that the videos may trigger the self-injuring behavior in others.
Canadian psychologist Stephen Lewis, a study co-author, said the study focused on 100 videos the authors found in December 2009. Their analysis was published online Monday in Pediatrics. The 100 videos were viewed more than 2 million times and generated many…
Activists Hijack North Korean Tweets
It seems North Korea’s internet borders are the only ones capable of being breached. Via BBC News:
Hackers have taken over social media sites associated with the North Korean regime, to make derogatory posts.
On 8 January, a Twitter account affiliated to the North’s regime began posting messages calling for an uprising.
Meanwhile a video appeared on the regime’s YouTube channel, depicting heir-apparent Kim Jong-un driving his sports car into women and children.
Users of a popular South Korean website have claimed responsibility.
The attacks coincided with Jong-un’s birthday.
[Continues at BBC News]
YouTube Removes Pro-Palestinian/Anti-Motorola Video
Via River Front Times (YES, on YouTube while this post lasts…)
Two weeks ago, we told you about the local activists who busted out an anti-Motorola song-and-dance routine at the Best Buy and AT&T stores in suburban Brentwood — and we posted a video of the performance. That video quickly drew more than 35,000 hits:
Ryan Higa – Agent of Secret Stuff (ASS)
Ryan Higa is the star of a massively popular comedic espionage “TV” series, Agents of Secret Stuff, but you won’t find it on any actual television network. 20-year-old Higa is making ASS for his YouTube Channel and in just a few days the latest 35-minute episode has amassed nearly 4 million views. I doubt he’s making money from it yet, but chances are that Higa is going to parlay his giant audience into some megabucks before long. One question, though … is he any good? Check him out:
Mainstream Film Rentals Coming Soon To Google/YouTube
Google, YouTube, Hulu, Netflix … it’s only a matter of time till Blockbuster files for bankruptcy. In case we didn’t already have enough access to instant movie viewing, Google is looking for a new deal with Hollywood studios. From Wired:
Google is reportedly in talks with the major movie studios to launch full-length video rentals on YouTube by year’s end.
YouTube has already experimented with film rentals, offering selections from the Sundance Festival earlier this year when it would not rule out the addition of Hollywood movies. And the site was reportedly in talks with the same studios around this time last year, so this does not come as much of a surprise, the Financial Times’ “scoop” notwithstanding.
However, YouTube’s movie rental program currently focuses on independent filmmakers and music artists. The addition of mainstream, pay-per-view feature films to YouTube would represent a significant development, regardless of how long these reported talks have…
Annalee Newitz: How ‘Max Headroom’ Predicted My Job, 20 Years Before It Existed
Very interesting essay from Annalee Newitz on io9.com. If you grew up watching American television in the ’80s this was one of the weirdest and most interesting shows on network TV, even for kids like myself who didn’t fully grasp the implications of what I was seeing on the screen. (The show obviously baffled many adults as well, since it only lasted fourteen episodes, thankfully the entire series has finally been released on DVD.)
Making sense of it all and putting the show in perspective twenty years later is Annalee Newitz on io9.com:
For those who don’t know the premise of the 1987—88 series, where every episode begins with the tagline “twenty minutes into the future,” here’s a quick recap. Investigative reporter Edison Carter works for Network 23 in an undefined cyberpunk future, where all media is ad-supported and ratings rule all. Reporters carry “rifle cameras,” gun-shaped video cameras, which are wirelessly linked back to a “controller” in the newsroom. Edison’s controller is Theora, who accesses information online — everything from apartment layouts to secret security footage — to help him with investigations.
They’re aided in their investigations by a sarcastic AI named Max Headroom, built by geek character Bryce and based on Edison’s memories. Sometimes producer Murray (Jeffrey Tambor) helps out, as does Reg, a pirate TV broadcaster known as a “blank” because he’s erased his identity from corporate databases.
In the world of Max Headroom, it’s illegal for televisions to have an off switch. Terrorists are reality TV stars. And super-fast subliminal advertisements called blipverts have started to blow people up by overstimulating the nervous systems of people who are sedentary and eat too much fat…
Russian Court Bans YouTube Website
Russia joins the company of Turkey, China, Pakistan and Iran, in banning YouTube. After an “extremist” nationalist video appeared on the website, a Russian court ordered YouTube to be blocked within the Khabarovsk region. The Guardian reports:
Russia’s blogosphere reacted with anger today after a regional court banned YouTube because it carried a single video containing “extremist” content.
The court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Khabarovsk region in the Russian far east ordered Rosnet, a local internet provider, to block YouTube as well as three online libraries and a website that archives deleted web pages.
The regional ban was made because YouTube hosted Russia For Russians, an ultra-nationalist video which was added to the justice ministry’s federal list of banned extremist materials after a separate court decision in Samara region in November.
The other four sites – Web.archives.org, Lib.rus.ec, Thelib.ru and Zhurnal.ru – all carried copies of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Anton Nosik, Russia’s leading internet guru, condemned the…
DIY Medicine From YouTube Videos
One of the positive things about the recession era is that it’s inspiring people to get creative — for instance, by performing their own minor surgeries, using how-to videos from YouTube. The Globe and Mail reports:
Before, doctors worried about patients who self-diagnosed after doing Internet research on questionable medical websites. But the social Web has given birth to a new beast: users who document their DIY medical procedures on camera and share the videos on YouTube.
Doug Southern would have preferred to see a doctor, but bad timing meant he was without health insurance. He was laid off from his job a short while before a three-year-old baseball-sized cyst on his back became infected.
When his brother-in-law, a family practitioner, and his sister came to visit him in Tuscaloosa, Ala., he decided to put down a towel and pillow on his kitchen floor and turn it into a makeshift operating room so his…
