Keywords

Just how many different ways has the Bush Administration tried to hide once-public information sources from the public record? Help us count the ways. {Bush, secrecy, war on terror}

In his classical work, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Walter Benjamin wrote that modern technology would free art from its “aura”: for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual. To an ever greater degree the work of art [...]

A known terrorist enters the United States and the department of Homeland Security only arrests him after a Miami-based NY Times reporter points it out to them. They charge him with the minor crime of “illegal entry” and then “lost” all the evidence relating to his case … Did I mention that this terrorist was [...]

Did you know that a secret government algorithm assigns you a “risk score” every time you fly in or out of the country? That have no way of knowing your own score or of challenging it? That this score will stick around on file for 40 years? The scores are assigned to people entering and [...]

There are two important stories about the use of “alternative interrogation techniques” by US forces which deserve to get more attention: First, the suicide of Army specialist Alyssa Peterson, a 27 year old mormon translator who “died by her own hand after objecting to interrogation methods used on prisoners.” What I find especially troublesome is [...]

This really is gruesome, so don’t read it if you don’t want to spoil your day. Still the recent murder of five children in a home in Hualien has confounded investigators, since the house was locked from the inside, with no other apparent way out … {hualien, murder, 花蓮, 台灣}

This is a general shout-out to all the stupid people out there: Thank you! Thank you for buying your memory from Apple (or purchasing a black MacBook), thank you for drinking from the mini-bar at hotels, thank you for bidding more on eBay than Amazon charges, thank you for buying your airline tickets from a [...]

This is so important that I can’t believe the NY Times wants you to pay to read it. So here it is: Kristof’s latest article on Darfur … and Chad. {Chad, Darfur, genocide}

We are happy to announce some very exciting news … Today we signed a contract with Documentary Educational Resources (DER) to distribute two of our films: Acting Like A Thief, and Mahasweta Devi: Witness, Advocate, Writer. It was Shashwati’s film about Mahasweta Devi that got us involved with these issues, and because of Mahasweta Devi’s [...]

One of the most moving experiences we had when shooting the film was a performance arranged for the cadets at the Gujarat Police Academy. It will probably end up being a key scene in the movie, but who knows? Fortunately, you won’t have to wait. Renowned journalist (and blogger) Dilip D’ Souza was also in [...]