| YouTube Propaganda |
[Mar. 16th, 2008|08:14 pm] |
For those of you who have been living in a cave, there has been a recent wave of activism in Tibet supporting autonomy for the region. Some highlights, from CNN:
Monday, March 10
# Hundreds of monks begin a protest on the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule, which led to the exile of the Dalai Lama, now living in India.
# About 300 monks from Drepung Monastery on the outskirts of Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, peacefully march toward Barkhor Street in the central city, but Chinese People’s Armed Police stop them before they reach the city. Police arrest monks suspected to be ringleaders. All the monks were seeking the release of fellow Drepung monks, who apparently were detained as they tried to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s receipt of the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in October.
Tuesday, March 11
# About 2,000 Chinese troops fire tear gas to disperse hundreds of monks from Sera Monastery who are calling for the release of their fellow monks and shouting pro-Tibet slogans.
Wednesday, March 12
# About 100 Tibetan nuns from Chutsang Nunnery on the west side of Lhasa march peacefully toward Barkhor Street, but Chinese People’s Armed Police block them. No reports of arrests.
# Monks from Gaden Monastery, about 30 miles east of Lhasa, launch a protest. Police surround and seal off the monastery.
Thursday, March 13
# Two monks from Kirti monastery in Sichuan Province stab themselves in the chest, hands and wrists. A reporter for Radio Free Asia says they were protesting the arrest of 17 people in the Sera Monastery protest Monday. RFA says the two monks are in critical condition and not expected to survive. Other monks from Sera Monastery are staging a hunger strike to protest the arrests.
# Police arrest around 500 students from Tibet University.
Friday, March 14
# Monks from Ramoche Temple attempt to hold a protest march, but police block streets and prevent the demonstration. Laypeople join in and scuffles break out. There are reports of protesters setting fire to vehicles, shops and a main market in Lhasa.
The Dalai Lama, from is home in Dharamsala India, called the actions of the Chinese Government a “cultural genocide”, and asked for an international probe into the situation. According to the exiled Tibetan Government, there have been 80 deaths so far in this wave — including women and children.
According to the exiles, “Monasteries have been completely sealed off by [the military] and remain under extremely strict surveillance… Monks are being followed even as they try to move within the compounds of the monastery.”
Today a Youtube video was released entitled “Tibet WAS,IS,and ALWAYS WILL BE a part of China”, and has achieved 100,000 views in its first 18 hours online. The interesting part, however, is that the video has become the #2 most discussed video of the day because there have been over 10,000 pro-China comments during these 18 hours. People have even gone so far as to call the Dalai Lama a “terrorist” on many occasions.
While this sounds like an intense amount of support for the Chinese Government, in fact it is completely fake.
Upon further examination, one can see that literally thousands of new YouTube accounts have been created today and have only commented on this video. A classic case of an astroturf campaign, the goal is to bend our perception of reality: creating the false appearance that there is popular opposition to the exiled Tibetan Government. Popular movements are extremely strong, which is why it is extremely alarming that a fake one might be arising.
Given that coummunity averages far less than 1000 new accounts per day throughout the entire site, it is clear that YOUTUBE IS BEING HACKED IN THE NAME OF CHINA. It is beyond my technological capabilities to discover whether it is being done by the Chinese Government or simply from a Lama opponent, but I would be very interested to hear from anyone who might be able to find out.
The beauty of the internet and web 2.0 sites such as YouTube is that for the first time in history, inherent political bias is taken out of news reporting. Since everyone has access to thousands of first hand videos and responses to them by people involved, they are no longer forced to take what news networks report as truth. The events taking place today are extremely dangerous because they threaten to remove our ability to have an untainted window into the events taking place in the world today.
Falsification of information on YouTube with regards to Tibet are especially bad because we already start from a lack of information coming out of the region. TibetWatch claims that 80 people have died in the recent protests, including women and children — yet the Chinese Government claims that the number is only ten, all of which burned to death in the chaos of the riots.
I might be inclined to believe China if they let anyone verify that number, but major news networks beside Xinhua (owned by the Chinese Government) have been banned from the region and thus cannot report any new information. As always, lack of transparency implies there is something to hide. Every once in a while, an account will surface on Youtube, but it is clear that this last channel of unbiased reporting has now also been cut off.
An aside: Even without commenting on whether Tibet deserves autonomy, it is clear that China has been in the wrong during this recent wave. It is very hard to come up with an argument justifying the killing of monks in peaceful protest, ever. However, the warriors for the free flow of information do have one major thing working in our favor: the 2008 Olympics. Already there have been calls to boycott the games, and thankfully all eyes are on Beijing. Furthermore, the monks know this. Protests are expected to grow as the Olympics approach, and it will be impossible to ignore the events in Tibet — no matter how many thousands of fake accounts are created on YouTube. |
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| Don't know if anyone reads this |
[Jan. 16th, 2008|02:18 pm] |
I haven't posted here in almost a year, but I want to put out a declaration today.
MAD PROPS, SUPPORT, AND BIG ASS BLUNTS TO CHINESE BLOGGERS
KEEP FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 29th, 2007|03:12 am] |
Life is one fat wave, isn't it?. You get up, cruise for a long while, enjoy the view, but then after a while you just crash, huh? I mean you'll get going again -- you always do, and who knows, maybe the next wave will be even bigger -- but there's a while where you're pretty low.
I don't know if anyone reads this anymore. Maybe only thirteen year old girls buying their first tampons are on LJ these days. I just feel like in this specific case, sending my thoughts into the abyss of cyberspace somehow seems more apt than writing them down on a piece of paper. Or washing them away in drugs.
I get it though, I really do:
-I happened to do something to piss you off even though it was meant in the best of spirits, and now you won't talk to me. Addressing it just makes it a bigger deal and its already blown out of proportion.
-You tell me that you make out with boys but that you're also completely straight.
-Replacing meals with alcohol is no cause for worry.
-Pot tastes good. Why not have it for breakfast?
Everywhere I go, people are fucked up. In every sense of the word. Or maybe people are peachy, and I just crashed my wave. Maybe it's both.
Part of me wonders what it would be like if I dropped friends as a concept and took up mediation. Or cigarettes. Or at least something easy like pretention. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 29th, 2006|08:00 pm] |
ok omg can we just have a lil time 2 talk gurl to gurl here? ok lol ok.
>
> omg so i wuz checking my myspace last nite and i saw that i got a friend
> request from peter and i wuz like OMG he *ACTUALLY* thinks that i would be
> his friend! lmfao!!!11oneoneone *laughs, puts on eyeliner* omg but before i
> denied him i checked his profile and omg... the kid is such a dorkis lol! he
> like ONLY has 70 posts on his wall and most of them are from his loser
> friends and i'm like omg... get a life you freak. and then there was this
> one gurl who like claimed to be his ~~*~*TrU lOvE*~*~~ and i was like nuh
> uh gurl. haha lolzies. so i checked is friends and they were all like hella
> slutty ugly loser gurls who take their pictures from weird angles to try and
> look all deep but you can really tell that they just suck. eww. lol they all
> have names like xx~DeAtH iS mY bItcH lOvEr~xx and talk about the fucking
> freaky ass poetry that they write *throws up a little in the back of my
> mouth*. So i wuz like omg i'm in such a bad mood now does it mean i'm a
> loser that peter thinks he is good enough to request to be my friend???????
> so i wuz like hella not even tryna freak out but then that london bridge
> song came on the radio and i wuz like "awwww yeaaaahh!" lolzers.com and it
> wuz cool cuz i was in those booty shorts that say "FREAK" across the butt
> (omg don't you *LOVE* those shorts? you like hafta get a pair) and i
> started all shakin my butt to the song in front of the mirror lol and
> totally forgot about how i might be a loser because some loser boy
> requested to be my friend. can other people see that he requested that????
> i mean, cum on! He still has Tom in his top 8!!!!!!!! *cracking up*!!!
> anyway, i just wanted to let you know that you'll definitely be #1 in my
> top 8 4eva and eve and eva until i get a boyfriend because you are my
> BFFAEAEAEAEAE and i luv you girlie haha lol.
>
> text me!!! haha
> Britttney |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 7th, 2006|11:45 pm] |
Can you name three bands that include the word "dolls"?
Stipulation: the word "dolls" has to be included in its entirety. No being cute and trying to pass "Dolly Parton" or anything. That being said, words that include the letters "dolls" in consecutive order would count. For example, if there were to be a band named "the incest raping dollsies", it would count.
GO! |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 30th, 2006|04:18 pm] |
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is it still cliché to make fun of Bush? |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 15th, 2006|01:54 am] |
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun
threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly
without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer
office.
The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks
had no business at Harvard & probably didn't even deserve to be in
Cambridge.
"We'd like to see the president," the man said softly.
"He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped.
"We'll wait," the lady replied.
For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally
become discouraged
and go away.
They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to
disturb the president, even th ough it was a chore she always regretted.
"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him!
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously
didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses
and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.
The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him , "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He
loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was
accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to
him, somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't
touched. He was shocked.
"Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who
attended Harvard and died.. If we did, this place would look like a
cemetery."
"Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We
thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and
homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea
how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars
in the physical buildings here at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent.
The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now.
The lady turned to her husband and said
quietly, "Is that all it cost to
start a university? Why don't we just start our own? "
Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and
bewilderment.
Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away. Traveling to Palo
Alto, California, they established the university that bears their name,
Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared
about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who
they think can do nothing for them.
A TRUE STORY By Malcolm Forbes
(I don't know if this true. doubt it i think.) |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 19th, 2005|11:37 pm] |
24 hours from now I'll be in Seattle.
Has anyone else experienced a newfound love for the best city ever since you left it? |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 4th, 2005|12:22 am] |
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If it is true that Mr. Koon got fired for giving someone a massage on their butt after they got a cramp in Greece, that is bullshit.
Lakeside was Mr. Koon's life, and Mr. Koon gave SO much to Lakeside. And me.
If I were still at Lakeside, I would be organizing a HUGE campaign to get open dialogue about why this happened, and even trying to get him back.
I REALLY URGE YOU TO DO THAT IF YOU ARE STILL AT LAKESIDE.
write something on your shirt, call your friends, post shit in your journals so your friends can see it.
If it was something that was SO benign from such a benign person, please do something to help. Organize. I wish I could be there.
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 3rd, 2005|11:04 pm] |
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DID I HEAR THAT NICHOLAS STEVENS GOT HITCHED? |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 1st, 2005|02:22 pm] |
More political rantings
1. You've probably heard by now: Sandra Day Oconner is out.
moderate is out, lets play guess what kind of person will be in.
Wand a moderate in? Try Prado. http://draftprado.org
2. Remember how there was the federal marriage amendment? The senate votes on that around JULY 12th. www.dontamend.com
peace guys |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 27th, 2005|01:50 am] |
"Phil, you're just a conspiracy theorist"
 |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 16th, 2005|04:16 pm] |
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Wait, I'm sorry, by July 2002 Bush was ready to go to war?
DOWNING STREET MEMO
Minutes of a British Government official at a highly confidential meeting in 2002 in which Bush's plans for war and how he would justify them are detailed.
READ IT HERE
PUT THIS IN YOUR JOURNAL
-THE INTERNET IS THE ONLY WAY IT IS GAINING FAME
... and, for heaven's sake, tell me what you think. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 30th, 2005|07:50 pm] |
i can't take this any longer.
this has been bothering me for 2 years
on Lauryn Hill's CD "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill",
Listen to the song "Every Ghetto Every City"
there is a lyric:
The untouchable PSP
Where all them crazy niggaz be.
WHAT THE FUCK IS AN UNTOUCHABLE PSP. $20 REWARD, NO JOKE, FOR SOMEONE WHO TELLS ME WHAT AN UNTOUCHABLE PSP IS.
And no, William Klassen, it is not a play station portable. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 15th, 2005|04:12 am] |
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
nick stevens just puked all over my futon.
fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.
so he started drinking, he drank like one shot, i told him that he was a pussy and that he should drink more, he did liek a fucking stud, i told him that he wouldn't get sick and that to prove it I would take two shots for every one that he took. After we were both really drunk we took a walk, he started puking about a mile a way \\\ from my dorm. I was like fuuuuuuuuuuuck hes only ajunior in highschool i'm so drunk, i don't know how he'll get back to my dorm
finally like an hour later we got back to my dorm, he puked all over my room, i'm so fucking drunk right now, i'ts been a really bad night, i've probably had about 12 and he's probably had around 7
my room is ognna smell so bad in the morning
it's 430 he just went to bed and he has to get up at 9 in the morning.
this is going to suck
nicky i love you so much
i'm sorry i got you sick
you are the man
had anyone else started puking so far away
they wouldn't have made it back to the dorm
it's all my fault
i'm so sorry
i love you
you are the manj
i'm so drunk right now
PHIL |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 2nd, 2005|11:19 pm] |
today is the first day of the rest of my life.
i'm going to stop smoking pot multiple times a day
i'm going to stop smoking pot at all.
i will never buy another pack of cigarrettes.
i'm going to sell the mushrooms i bought.
time to get a life again.
-phil |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 5th, 2005|03:47 pm] |
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1. I love you Nicky Stevens, don't worry a reply is coming.
1a. You have to go to Stanford, and if you don't you at least have to visit, stay with me, and apply. You know you want to.
2. Home a week from Tuesday for a week. Not many people will be in town. If you are and want to chill, post a comment.
3. The war still sucks.
4. Research papers arguably suck as much.
Love.
PHIL |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 25th, 2005|12:48 pm] |
w w w . b o n n a r o o . c o m
HOLY CRAP I'M THERE.
p.s. do you still read this? you being wtpn. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 1st, 2005|06:59 pm] |
man, fuck this.
Where's 2006? |
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