Michael Molitch-Hou presents his new guidebook, entitled “Why-to: a short and helpful guide to motivate one’s pursuit of activities either a. previously not pursued or b. pursued so regularly that no one knows or remembers why they’re doing them in the first place”, to the MFA writing students at CalArts.
05/22/12

The Future of Stuff: Vending Machine That Prints in 3-D
By Tim Maly, wired.com
No matter how fast postal delivery gets, nothing beats the immediate gratification of pushing a button on a vending machine and having your purchase tumble down into the delivery box. The Chinese live crab dispenser and Art-O-Mat…
05/22/12

Gesture Controls Get a Huge Boost with New ‘Leap’ Interaction System
By Roberto Baldwin, wired.com
Technology is always chasing after science fiction. Star Trek communicators became the cell phones in our pockets, and the wireless in-ear headset Uhura wore eventually became the Bluetooth headset. And now the futuristi…
05/22/12

Murder for fun and “morale”: Shocking video of lethal Israeli attack on sleeping Palestinian prisoners
Shahd Abusalama, electronicintifada.net
The camera follows heavily armed Israeli security personnel raiding a prison dormitory, shouting at the prisoners to get out of bed, and that they would be shot if they didn’t obey orders.
The prisoners can be heard screaming i…
These are scenes from a video that was shown in April 2011 by the investigative program Ouvda on Israel’s Channel 2 television station. The violent attack it records against the Palestinian prisoners on 22 October 2007 was real, but it was carried out as a “training exercise” for Israeli security personnel at Ketziot Prison to boost their “morale” and “motivation.”
05/21/12

Chicago terrorism charges part of NATO ‘climate of fear’
cbc.ca
Defence lawyers say Chicago police have vastly trumped up charges against three men arrested earlier this week, as part of a campaign to frighten peaceful protesters away from a NATO summit.
But defence lawyers shot back that Chicago police had trumped up the charges to frighten peaceful protesters away, telling a judge it was undercover officers known by the activists as “Mo” and “Gloves” who brought the firebombs to a South Side apartment where the men were arrested. “This is just propaganda to create a climate of fear,” Michael Deutsch said. “My clients came to peacefully protest.” On the eve of the summit, the dramatic allegations were reminiscent of previous police actions ahead of major political events, when authorities moved quickly to prevent suspected plots but sometimes quietly dropped the charges, or lost the cases in court, later. Toronto computer expert Byron Sonne’s ordeal stemming from the G20 summit there two years ago is just the latest example; Sonne spent 11 months in jail on bomb-plot accusations before being cleared of all charges this week by a judge who found he had no ill intent whatsoever.
05/21/12