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Continuum Question: People Fighting Corporate Power In the Future Are Terrorists

By spocko, on June 16th, 2013%

The following post is about Season 2 episode 2 of the Canadian produced show Continuum that is running on the Syfy. The episode has raised a lot of issues that I want to talk about and this show allows me to do it.

I think that this show is very interesting because it is making who and what the bad guys fighting interesting. Notice the question that Travis asks in this clip.

What Libr8 is fighting

He is fighting for a version of Occupy in 2077. Income inequality. Corporate power. 1% vs. the 99%. These questions are important to ask, Just how far will you go in your fight? Libr8 isn’t fighting a nation, they are fighting and idea that has gotten out of control. An idea that has fewer and fewer check and balances to it’s power.

As much as I LOVE to talk about time travel, I’d like to focus on what Libr8 is fighting. Corporate power. It’s actually at the heart of the show.

Time Travel is just the way they talk about it like any good SF. This is about now. The show is about about Occupy and the 2008 financial crash. It’s about corporations buying . . . → Read More: Continuum Question: People Fighting Corporate Power In the Future Are Terrorists

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Build Your Own armed Drones!

By spocko, on June 15th, 2013%

Yesterday Boing Boing linked to a Northeastern University engineering students’ drone that honed in on radio signals. Today we see the next step, arming those drones.

In this commercial for a cell phone screen protector product, a quadcopter flies up to some fruit, sodas and a cell phone and shoots them with a remote controlled handgun.

The company, Clearplex, has many videos of its screen protector products being shot at, so this one is a natural, although creepy, extension of that series.

The video is edited so it’s hard to know how accurate the quad-copter is, but consider how apparently easy creating this one was, what’s the next step?

Be the first on your block to make one!

Cross posted at FireDogLake

  After posting this I decided to follow up with the company and sent this email to them.

Hello:

I recently wrote about your video, Drones Vs. Phones Samsung Galaxy S IV – GunDrone for the blog FireDogLake , for my blog Spocko’s Brain after seeing it at the science fiction and science blog io9.com.

I’m curious why you chose to use an armed quadcopter to illustrate the protective properties of your screen protector. I’m . . . → Read More: Build Your Own armed Drones!

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Is Jimmy Carter the Reincarnation of Eleanor Roosevelt? Exclusive Photo Proof!

By spocko, on June 6th, 2013%

(Photo Comparison Exclusive, MUST CREDIT SPOCKO’S BRAIN! Creative commons license)

I spotted this photo of Eleanor Roosevelt on her pistol permit in New York State. I noticed a similarity with Former President Jimmy Carter so I put his photo on the card next to her so you can see it too.

Her getting a pistol permit reminds me that some people hated her. Did they hate her for her ideas or just because she was a woman? My Dad’s family didn’t like her at all. I don’t know why, but ever since I found out I’ve been reading up on Eleanor and her role in helping America get through the Depression with our soul and with new social solidarity systems in place. Systems like Social Security.

On Friday The Social Security Trustee’s report came out. We found out yet again that Social Security is in good shape. So is Medicaid. Yet people like Pete Peterson still think it is a problem. For more detail on just how full of it that the Social Security attackers are, listen to this interesting segment with my friend Alex Lawson of Social Security Works while talking to Sam Seder on Monday. (Sam was . . . → Read More: Is Jimmy Carter the Reincarnation of Eleanor Roosevelt? Exclusive Photo Proof!

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1969 Video Technology Shows Moon Landing Not a Hoax

By spocko, on June 3rd, 2013%

What a delightful video! Smart and well paced.

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“Just Call the Po-lease Baby.”

By spocko, on May 27th, 2013%

This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in awhile.

BACKSTORY from WBRZ-Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE, La. – A man pleaded for help after jumping on the hood of a moving truck on Coursey Blvd. after his sign was picked up, according to Baton Rouge Police Cpl. Tommy Stubbs.

Stubbs says the man was on Coursey selling shrimp when another man driving a pickup truck pulled over and picked up his sign.

When the man in the truck went to pull off with the sign, the man selling the shrimp jumped on the hood of the pickup.

The man in the truck then drove to the police station off Coursey Blvd. with the man on his hood. In a viewer submitted video the shrimp salesman yells for people in ongoing traffic to call the police.

No one was charged over the incident.

More BACKSTORY from the comments in the news story at the WBRZ

It’s about time someone did SOMETHING. This is the gentleman that myself and the rest of the real estate world refer to as “the sign man.” He’s been stealing signs for years and years. . . . → Read More: “Just Call the Po-lease Baby.”

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LLAP Frame

By spocko, on May 25th, 2013%

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Tesla Pitches Silicon Valley VCs

By spocko, on May 22nd, 2013%

As my friend Interrobang would say, “Brilliant With Brilliant Sauce.”

Let’s but the silly back in Silicon Valley! (As I used to say.)

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Which DC Lobbying Firms are the Unemployed Hiring To Represent Them?

By spocko, on May 22nd, 2013%

Digby’s latest Post Stock market highs — and high unemployment: the new normal? struck me today because of a comment that Thurbers made on my post last night.

“We the People” are closer to the abused employees and/or the defrauded customers of Amy’s Baking Company. We are the real victims, but despite our numbers we are the ones with the least recourse and the least power to change the narrative.

– Thurbers comment 8 Firedoglake

It reminds me of the spot on Onion story, American People Hire High-Powered Lobbyist To Push Interests In Congress.

I’m really sick of how “the economy” is the stock market. It. Is. NOT. I also know that the constituents of unemployed and underemployed aren’t out there putting pressure on congress or the President. (I’m thinking of paraphrasing SF Writer Harlan Ellison, “Dear Obama and Congress. Fuck you. Hire me!”)

When I was traveling cross country to see my sick mother two years ago unemployment was the real issue on people minds, I asked them why they thought the media was writing about the deficit. They didn’t have an answer. I asked if they had heard of Pete Peterson. Nobody had. “Would . . . → Read More: Which DC Lobbying Firms are the Unemployed Hiring To Represent Them?

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When Your Safety Cuts Into Industry’s Bottom Line, You Lose…Your Fingers

By spocko, on May 18th, 2013%

I just read a really amazing story about a product that stops table saws from cutting off people’s fingers. You might think that manufacturers would race to incorporate this feature into their products. Yet the opposite happened. A coalition of table saw makers have taken multiple steps over years to suppress this technology.

If you wonder, “Why would manufacturers fight against a product that saves customers’ fingers?” you haven’t been paying attention to the power of association lobbying money.

The article describes all the various methods that the big power tool industry uses to block the incorporation of this technology into their product. It really is fascinating the way they turn losing your fingers into a right while transforming the makers of SawStop into some kind of greedy hucksters.

Steve Colbert did an excellent piece on this over a year ago. What I like about this piece is that they point out the way power tool manufacturing industry uses the same right wing tropes about “nanny state” and “freedom” that we see in the weapons industry. But if you look behind the scenes you see the manufacturers don’t really care about users freedom to cut their fingers off, they really . . . → Read More: When Your Safety Cuts Into Industry’s Bottom Line, You Lose…Your Fingers

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Happy Dancing Video of Australian Hurdler

By spocko, on May 17th, 2013%

It’s Friday. When it’s foggy and gloomy in SF I watch happy videos. I like videos of people dancing and smiling. I think I’m going to post some of my favorites each week. I was just watching one from the Ghostworld Intro, ‘Jaan Pechan Ho’ Song from 1965 Bollywood film, Gumnaan Then Good Morning from Singing in the Rain.

But I also just found a new dancing video Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor in Where did you learn to dance. wonderful, check it out.

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