SITUATION IN TIBET INTENSIFIES

BBC, March, 20 2008 · China has said that only 13 people have been killed during the protests, and that all were innocent and killed by "rioters" in Lhasa. The Tibetan government in exile has said at least 99 people have died so far, including 80 in Lhasa - and have accused the security forces of firing on crowds. Earlier on Thursday, China admitted for the first time that the protests had spread outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region to nearby provinces in south-western China where large numbers of ethnic Tibetans live.

Read this and other BBC News stories HERE | see also: New York Times
"China Dials Up Rhetoric on Dalai Lama": Related story at NPR
>> Consider Signing the Petition Organized by AVAAZ.ORG <<

2007 NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SCORECARD

www.lcv.org · The League of Conservation Voters, an independent voice for the environment, has recently released this annual measure of lawmakers' votes on environmental issues. The Scorecard reflects significant improvements in the new Congress, and is especially timely because it highlights all three front-running presidential candidates: John McCain (R-Ariz.) scored 0 percent in 2007 -- learn why, and how the other candidates scored, as well as lawmakers from your state...

Check out the 2007 Environmental Scorecard HERE <<

CANCEL THE APOCALYPSE

Burning Man 2006 · In this straight-forward public talk, author Daniel Pinchbeck explains his work exploring the evolution of consciousness as it relates to global warming and the climate crisis. Pinchbeck contextualizes his writings about psychedelics and the prophetic year 2012 by offering them as a thought experiment, one means among many for assessing our relationship with ourselves and our planet. Highly recommended.

Download the Hour-Long Podcast HERE <<

DON'T (ALWAYS) BELIEVE THE (ORGANIC) HYPE

NPR, June 21, 2007 · For many, eating right means eating organic. Cindy Burke, author of To Buy or Not to Buy Organic, says organic doesn't always mean better. In this informative segment, Burke compares and contrasts conventional, organic, sustainable, and local foods by taking the economic, environmental and health costs of each into account.

Listen to the NPR segment HERE <<

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE CANDIDATES

WMUR-TV · WMUR New Hampshire is now hosting an excellent series of Town Hall Meeting-style forums with 2008 presidential candidates from both parties. These extended interviews and interactive Q&A sessions provide a fairly in-depth yet conversational look at each candidate's platform and positions. Running time of 30min each. Inform yourself.

Watch the continuing video series HERE <<

CHINA SETS AMBITIOUS EMISSIONS GOALS

NPR, May 28, 2007 · Recently China has come under increasing pressure to take action on climate change. China is predicted to overtake the United States soon as the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide. In international talks, Beijing has resisted calls for global caps on greenhouse gas emissions. But at home it has set ambitious goals for saving energy and reducing emissions. >> Listen to the NPR story HERE | see also NPR's series

THE END OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Disinformation · Comic writer Grant Morrison, creator of "The Invisibles," recounts a hashish-induced encounter with other-worldly intelligences as introduction to an insightful talk about the magical properties of language, the development and evolution of consciousness, modern culture's dangerous obsession with self, the nature of the individual and the future of the counter-culture. "The consensus view doesn't explain our lives — so what does?"

Watch the complete video (45min.) HERE | see also wikipedia: Grant Morrison <<

AN UNLIKELY LEADER OF SOLAR ENERGY

Washington Post, May 5, 2007 · "ESPENHAIN, Germany -- When it opened here in 2004 on a reclaimed mining dump, the Geosol solar plant was the biggest of its kind in the world. It is so clean and green that it produces zero emissions and so easy to operate that it has only three regular workers..." >> Read the Washington Post article HERE

THINGS WE DID BEFORE REALITY

Comedian Will Franken's inventive, free-associating and cheerfully irreverent PODCASTS careen thru the collective consciousness "devouring every cultural cliché, vacuous dramatic trope, or everyday inanity a deeply middling civilization has to offer. The easily offended will not be disappointed. ... Scrupulously inappropriate, as well as refreshingly off-the-wall, Franken's the surreal thing."
>> Listen to the Podcasts HERE  |  See Also Will Franken Online

São Paulo NO LOGO

On the Media from NPR, April 20, 2007 · In January, South America's largest city officially banned outdoor advertising. Billboards, neon signs, bus-stop ads, even the Goodyear blimp — all were suddenly illegal. Reporter Vinicius Galvao describes seeing his city as though for the first time. "They uncovered a lot of problems the city had that we never realized."

Listen to the NPR Interview HERE  |  See Tony de Marco's Photos HERE

We'd love a related Photo Essay for FudoMouth—Got Images? Make Contact.

CALL For a NATIONAL CLIMATE INITIATIVE

President Kennedy understood that the competition with the Soviet Union was not a space race but a science race, which was really an education race. Yet the way he chose to get Americans excited about sacrificing and buckling down to do what it took to win the Cold War –which required a large-scale push in science and engineering– was by laying out a vision of putting a man on the moon, not a missle into Moscow. —Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat

We are now challenged by realities that shadow any individual war, a climate crisis that promises dramatic and distasterous consequences unless we make a collective commitment to changing the way we live on Planet Earth.

The United States is by far the largest contributor to global warming. It is time for us to become the largest contributor to solutions, chart a positive course of innovative change, and lead the world by example. America's strategies against terrorism aren't working. It is time for us to kick what President Bush called our addiction to foreign oil.

>> Read the Full Text of the National Climate Initative HERE

THE POWER OF GREEN

New York Times Magazine, April 15, 2007 · Thomas L. Friedman writes, "I want to rename 'green.' I want to rename it geostrategic, geoeconomic, capitalistic and patriotic. I want to do that because I think that living, working, designing, manufacturing and projecting America in a green way can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the 21st century."

Read the NYT Magazine article HERE <<

THE RISE OF BLACKWATER USA

Fresh Air from WHYY, March 19, 2007 · Blackwater USA is a secretive private army based in North Carolina with a sole owner: Erik Prince, a right-wing Christian multimillionaire. As a private contractor, Blackwater protects the top US officials in Iraq and yet we know almost nothing about the firm's quasi-military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and inside the US. Jeremy Scahill talks about his best-selling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Listen to the Interview (40min.) at NPR.org <<

CAN WE ACHIEVE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

Texas Straight Talk, Jan. 22, 2007 · Texas Representative Ron Paul writes, "our meddling in the Middle East has only intensified strife and conflict. American tax dollars have militarized the entire region. We give Israel about $3 billion each year, but we also give Egypt $2 billion. Most other Middle East countries get money too, some of which ends up in the hands of Palestinian terrorists. ... Our foolish and unconstitutional foreign aid has produced more violence, not less." >> Read this short column HERE

INC.COM'S GREEN 50

Inc.com, Nov. 2006 · Every few years or so, American companies and consumers embrace the concept of green business. But something seems different about our current green awakening. This time, the action is being driven as much by markets as morality. Here's a look at 50 of the most intriguing companies that are helping to drive today's green revolution. >> Read Article and View Slideshow HERE

MOM SELLS FACE SPACE FOR ADVERTISEMENT

Deseret Morning News, June 30, 2005 · "For $10,000 and a brighter future for her son, Kari Smith on Wednesday became a real life pop-up ad for a virtual casino."
"Will it go numb?" she asked.
"It'll go as numb as your brain," Brouse replied.
"My brain is already numb," she said, laughing.
>> Read the Utah News article HERE

THE FUTURE OF CREATIVITY

Creative Commons · In his concise and important book FREE CULTURE (2004), Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig explains the changing and dangerous nature of Copyright Law in the Digital Age. Lessig shows that while new technologies always lead to new laws, never before have big cultural monopolists used their political leverage to control the Internet, shrink the public domain of ideas, and control what we can and can't do with culture. Even more timely now than when it was first published.

Download Free Culture (PDF & Audiobook) for FREE <<