James Powderly of Graffiti Research Labs Detained In China 337
An anonymous reader writes "News from Free Tibet 2008 that internationally known artist, technologist and co-founder of the Graffiti Research Lab, James Powderly, was detained in Beijing early on August 19th while preparing to debut a new work and technology of protest, the L.A.S.E.R. Stencil. According to a Twitter message received yesterday by Students for a Free Tibet at approximately 5 pm Beijing Standard Time, Powderly had been detained by Chinese authorities at 3 am. His current whereabouts remain unknown. Powderly was the inventor of throwies." (Powderly's detention was also mentioned at Make Magazine's blog.)
Whoops (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Whoops (Score:4, Insightful)
from that article:
The switch from gunshots to injections is a sign that China "promotes human rights now," says Kang Zhongwen, who designed the Jinguan Automobile death van...
So they're starting to look at how people die? Me - I would have thought looking at how people live would have been a more useful step in promoting human rights. But then what do I know - I don't control the lives of over a billion people...
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So, basically, it makes it easier to ignore the fact that you're killing someone.
I'm not against capital punishment, but I think that there should be a certain amount of raw reality involved in it. No coat of sugar.
Re:Whoops (Score:4, Interesting)
"I'm most proud of the bed. It's very humane, like an ambulance," Kang says. He points to the power-driven metal stretcher that glides out at an incline. "It's too brutal to haul a person aboard," he says. "This makes it convenient for the criminal and the guards."
So, basically, it makes it easier to ignore the fact that you're killing someone.
I'm not against capital punishment, but I think that there should be a certain amount of raw reality involved in it. No coat of sugar.
Whenever someone is exulting over inventing an instrument of punishment or death like this, I always wonder if they ever entertain the thought that they might have it used on them. I believe the story of Dr. Guillotine being serviced by his own device was a myth but this idea is a popular one, recurring throughout history. It just seems like poetic justice.
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If it wasn't for the tragic story of Sir Henry Blunt-Instrument, myths like that would never have arisen...
(OK, so it's a Pratchett line. If you're gonna steal, steal from the masters! ;-)
Re:Whoops (Score:5, Interesting)
Wow, Death Vans. That's creepy as hell. I mean, I know that there's been state-sanctioned capital punishment since the beginning of civilization but it just seems creepy when combined with the mobile approach. I'm used to seeing mobile clinics, mobile libraries, mobile law offices, not mobile death chambers. It reminds me of all the creepy art from the christian apocalypse stuff at my church when I was a kid. Once the UN ushered in the New World Order and the Antichrist became the General Secretary, all people now professing to be Christians post-rapture would be put to death, always by guillotine. This was absolutely agreed upon, just the same as the Antichrist working through the UN. Jack Chick had creepy little moto-guillotines in his drawings where smartly-uniformed motorcycle cops would drive up in an open-cab vehicle that looks like a landscaping utility tractor, the guillotine in the flatbed. They would then line up the Christians for the day's executions and lop off their heads. This part really freaked me out because the public works dept. of the city I lived in used tractors of exactly the same design. I was convinced that they had mounting brackets for the guillotines and were just waiting for the order to install them. Yeesh. Freddy Krueger never did anything for me but my religion scared the shit out of me.
Re:Whoops Combine Reagan and China: (Score:2, Funny)
and the political cartoonist: "It's not an execution chamber. It's a "Reincarnation ACCELERATION Chamber!"
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Re:Whoops "SOYLENG GREEN IS MORE than... (Score:2, Interesting)
..."PEE-POLE"...
But, I wonder about:
"Injections leave the whole body intact and require participation of doctors. Organs can "be extracted in a speedier and more effective way than if the prisoner is shot," says Mark Allison, East Asia researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong. "We have gathered strong evidence suggesting the involvement of (Chinese) police, courts and hospitals in the organ trade.""
Is the lethal cocktail an air injection? How do they remove the toxic lethal injection from any black
Wow (Score:2, Funny)
Was? (Score:5, Funny)
Powderly was the inventor of throwies."
Was? You're writing him off already? Geez! And people say *I'm* a pessimist.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Current whereabouts? (Score:2)
His current whereabouts remain unknown.
Anyone got a feeling they'll remain that way?
Re:Current whereabouts? (Score:5, Informative)
He's an American citizen being detained during the Olympic Games. He's not going to disappear. They'll question him for several hours, probably including sleep deprivation and a lot of yelling, and then kick him out of the country. There was another guy earlier on in the Olympics that got detained for trying to protest, and that's pretty much what happened to him.
The Chinese are trying to look good in front of the world, "disappearing" a foreign national, especially an American, during the Olympics would not be in line with that goal.
It's China. This is no surprise. (Score:2, Informative)
Anyone else think that China's human rights record doesn't affect them just because they're not Chinese citizens?
Consider him lucky if we hear from and about him ever again.
(Granted, going to China for the express purpose of protesting is going to get you in hot water with the Chinese authorities, but is that the sign of a healthy society?)
Oh, BS (Score:2)
Every other American protester so far has been, basically, taken to the airport and deported.
You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've never heard of most of these "activists" before the Olympics and I've got a feeling we won't be hearing much from them afterwards. If people have been involved with pro-Tibet, pro-Darfur, pro-democracy, pro-whatever stuff all along, then good for them. But most of these loudmouths getting press recently seem to only be interested in complaining when their neighbors are taking pleasure in something China-related.
It reminds me of all those goofs who are so indignantly outraged every Thanksgiving, but never lift a finger to help American Indians on the other 364 days a year. Or even on Thanksgiving, for that matter.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps this speaks more of the level of attention that the world pays to activists (during major events versus otherwise) than it does to the level of commitment of activists to causes.
Seriously, this guy been around a while. Your ignorance is not evidence that he's a mere opportunistic attention-grabber.
Re:You know... (Score:5, Insightful)
Feel free to convince me otherwise. The Wikipedia page linked here certainly makes him sound like an opportunistic attention-grabber. As I said, I have all the respect in the world for serious activists on this front, but this guy sounds like a self-promoting jackass who assumes (correctly, probably) that his white skin and US passport are Get Out Of Jail Free cards.
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All the dead ones.
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well off the top of my head, i can come up with one of the members of the Beastie Boys who has been doing "Free Tibet" work for damn near 10 years.
I don't know his name but could point him out of a crowd.
And i consider myself to not be very well versed on the subject at all, in terms of their music nor his stance, yet he popped into mind at the start of this article.
This "artist" doesn't pop to mind for any cause.
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There is little point in complaining that one European word does not properly describe them, and then insisting that another European word be used instead.
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It reminds me of all those goofs who are so indignantly outraged every Thanksgiving, but never lift a finger to help American Indians on the other 364 days a year. Or even on Thanksgiving, for that matter.
I'm not offended (I'm Indian myself), nor am I one of those ultra-politically correct, don't-want-to-offend-anyone types of people, but it would be more accurate to say Native American instead of American Indian. American Indian can also refer to people of Indian descent who were born in the US, and that can get a bit confusing for people who don't know US history.
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Americans, then? Don't worry, most of us are more than confused enough that this extra tidbit won't make a difference ;)
Re:You know... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes those do-nothing loudmouth liberal hiptards should just die in a fire. It's almost like they're doing nothing at all... what with all that thinking about this stuff.... and talking about it...
Since when did communication become a stoning offense? Bringing ideas to the fore without some kind of action attached to it isn't a crime.
And regarding those loudmouths who talk about the Native Americans on Thanksgiving, they are doing something. They are doing more than you sound like you're doing (which is simply whining about people who talk about what they feel strongly about).
Enjoy yourself a nice tall cup of STFU. On the house. With my compliments. You seem to be serving enough of it. Perhaps now would be a good time to have a drink yourself.
Wake up (Score:2)
Then you've been sleeping with your head up your ass. They've been around a lot longer than the time since China was awarded the Olympics.
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One of the major reasons that the IOC chose to allow China to host the games was in the hope that it would draw attention to China's human rights abuses. Ideally, China would address them before the game and everyone would be happy. Alternatively, for two weeks, the world will see a shadow of what China really is.
So far, we've seen one terrorist incident (before the games started and not widely reported), dozens of protesters arrested and deported, at least one Chineese citizen 'dissappeared' for his reli
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I've never heard of most of these "activists" before the Olympics and I've got a feeling we won't be hearing much from them afterwards. If people have been involved with pro-Tibet, pro-Darfur, pro-democracy, pro-whatever stuff all along, then good for them. But most of these loudmouths getting press recently seem to only be interested in complaining when their neighbors are taking pleasure in something China-related.
I can just picture you, sitting on your ass and posting these comments on Slashdot, criticizing someone who did at least something, however little (and did indeed risk imprisonment by an oppressive regime), spewing your self-righteous shite.
And for this feces of yours, you get the highest reward you can expect - being "Modded Up" - but that's also all the reward cowards like you can expect. You'll go to sleep tonight without having achieved anything of interest in your squalid little existence, save for a p
Well then (Score:3, Informative)
I'm sure he knew what might happen when he decided to protest in China about Tibet. I commend him for that, it might get some attention to people around the world to his cause. I think he either had to have had some seriouse balls or have been a little nieve to think of what would happen if he was detained by athorities. I don't think hes a dumb man he knew what he was doing and he knew what would probably happen.
Hopefully they just ship him home after a couple days or weeks and this doesn't get too ugly for him.
On another note "I know hippies. I've hated them all my life. I've kept this town free of hippies on my own since I was five and a half. But I can't contain them on my own anymore. We have to do something, fast!" hehe China is Cartman
Is this a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
Going to foreign countries run by totalitarian governments to protest is a bit on the unwise side regardless of how just the cause.
This guy agrees with you (Score:2, Troll)
And he wasn't even protesting. [freesklyarov.org]
Not a chance, bucko (Score:2)
Now, please, STFU.
Not going to happen, pal. Not with requests, pleading, negative moderation - you name it.
And since you bring it up, you kind of left off that we kept a guy locked up for almost a half a year with no trial. For something he did in another country. Which happened to be legal there. A six month jail term for a thoughtcrime.
All this whining about China being a totalitarian regime would be better spent on keeping our own noses clean in that regard.
I'll bring up the Dmitry debacle every single chance I
Your rights online (Score:5, Interesting)
What does this have to do with my online rights? Shouldn't this be filed under politics?
Tibet rant, this needs to be said... (Score:5, Insightful)
Tibet has been part of China since 1792. Yes, for over two freaking centuries! You might not like it, but tough shit. And guess what, if a bunch of Chinese students came to the US and flung banners around Stanford demanding we give California back to Mexico, we'd probably tell them to get their butts back to China and mind their own business. Heck, we'd probably even detain a couple of them.
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Tibet has been part of China since 1792. Yes, for over two freaking centuries! You might not like it, but tough shit. And guess what, if a bunch of Chinese students came to the US and flung banners around Stanford demanding we give California back to Mexico, we'd probably tell them to get their butts back to China and mind their own business. Heck, we'd probably even detain a couple of them.
1) At Stanford they'd probably get a few hundred locals supporting their idea.
2) Some idiots would yell things at them about going back to China, some would defend them, and the government and 95% of the population would think of it as normal. People express dissent in the United States. It's no longer all that attention-grabbing.
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Yeah, you're probably right. And I love your sig line!
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Re:Tibet rant, this needs to be said... (Score:5, Insightful)
If California wanted to go back to Mexico, what right would we have to stop them?
You're funny. (Score:5, Insightful)
Tibetans don't think they've been part of China since 1792. They thought they were running Tibet. And they did, until they were invaded in 1959. You might not like it, but tough shit
And guess what, if a bunch of Chinese students came to the US and flung banners around Stanford demanding we give California back to Mexico, we'd probably tell them to get their butts back to China and mind their own business.
NONSENSE! We'd laugh. That's it. We'd laugh and laugh and laugh.
Re:Tibet rant, this needs to be said... (Score:4, Interesting)
Tibet has been part of China since 1792.
Tibet was ruled by Imperial China from 1642 to 1913. At which point the Tibetan Dali Lama, with support for Western backers, declared independence from China due to China's demands for greater political control of Tibet (basically eliminating the Lamas). From 1914 to 1950 Tibet was a completely independent kingdom.
Communist China, not being a representative government and not being a legitimate successor of the Ch'ing Dynasty, has no legitimate claims on Tibet, just as they had no legitimate claims on Korea. The invasion was just another communist power grab.
What the hell is "China"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Strictly speaking, if you're talking about continuity of government, the "Chinese Government" is a robust democracy in Taiwan - they are the heirs to the traditional Chinese government. The murderous thugs ruling mainland China don't have a pedigree going back past 1949.
I've always wondered if there would have been a war in 1997 if England had said, "Ok...our 100 year lease on Hong Kong is up. Time to give Hong Kong back to China...here you go, TAIWAN!"\
Free Tibet? (Score:2)
Should be in Chinese, not English!!!
"Technologist" (Score:2, Interesting)
sometimes prison instead of deportation (Score:2)
Why don't Americans mind their own business? (Score:3, Insightful)
GWB goes over there and raises a stink about "human rights", now this clown, too. You're not going to change anyone's mind over there. They're doing this on purpose, economic freedoms are given to the Chinese people first, political will follow. Compared to 4 year cycle of US politics, they think in a span of 50 years or so - way too long an attention span for an average US politician to be able to muster.
It's not like there are no problems here at home, either. Infrastructure is crumbling, economy is in the toilet, military budget is astronomical, high schools put out idiots who need remedial courses to even be able to study further, space program is lagging behind, middle class is being raped with taxes, etc, etc.
It sure as heck is much easier to just bash foreign governments for their perceived shortcomings. Fixing problems here would actually require a brain and quite a bit of work.
Ugly (Score:3, Insightful)
Rosa Parks (Score:2, Insightful)
Rosa Parks knew that she was SUPPOSED to give up her seat, but she took a stand. It was arguably dangerous for her to do so.
People who have the balls to stand up against tyrants may be called stupid by some, but they will be called heroes by others.
Oh, and non-destructive graffiti is pretty damned cool.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Powderly is not Tibetan, not a resident of China, a foreigner who traveled to China for the express purpose of making this protest, and achieved nothing in this protest. Powderly and his protest is nothing like Park's protest.
And I'M BadAnalogyGuy?!
Re:Rosa Parks (Score:4, Insightful)
How do you know? Isn't it a tad/i hasty to be making assumptions? And hasn't he actually achieved at least something? When was the last time anything you did got mentioned on the front page of Slashdot?
What does the fact that he isn't Tibetan or a Chinese citizen have to do with anything? What I'm getting out of your post is, "people should mind their own business and not rock the boat." Is that the impression you meant to convey?
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What does the fact that he isn't Tibetan or a Chinese citizen have to do with anything?
People of any country have an exclusive right to demand changes from their government. Only then they are free. This guy makes Chinese and Tibetans less free because he infringes on their rights, and on top of that his example justifies more oppression from the government.
As a bad analogy, you are free to move furniture in your house, and only your family's wishes may constrain you. However what will you say if I, a
Re:Rosa Parks (Score:5, Insightful)
We are all free to express our desires to anyone. We are free to demonstrate and protest that which we find morally objectionable, and no arbitrary borders or citizenship should stop us. I find your stance morally reprehensible, as it seeks to divide people into arbitrary groups who are not allowed to support each other in seeking redress for wrongs. You advocate a particularly sick form of authoritarianism.
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We are all free to express our desires to anyone.
No, you are not free to tell me how I should conduct my business. If you try to tell me things on my own land you are trespassing, please leave.
We are free to demonstrate and protest that which we find morally objectionable,
Absolutely, as long as you do it on your own territory, or on a public land.
and no arbitrary borders or citizenship should stop us.
Sorry, the property line is here and you may not cross without my permission.
I find your stance
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The positioning of your deks hurts nobody. But if you turn your back on the suffering of another human being then it makes you complicit in their plight. We are a social species and part of a society is caring for those who are hurt - otherwise we
Re:Rosa Parks (Score:5, Insightful)
He went over there to get publicity for a cause, and he got publicity for a cause. You could argue he achieved less than he might have, but to say he achieved nothing is idiotic.
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This happened yesterday. You expect to see results in google a day later? Are you daft?
One doesn't need to be a member of the oppressed (Score:5, Insightful)
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Actually the fact that he is an American is all that much better. What is the saying, when the Nazis came for the Poles I said nothing because I wasn't Polish, etc.
True civil rights means not necessarily forwarding the rights of your minority, but upholding human rights for all human beings. Few people seem to get that.
And like Rosa Parks, he is advocating civil rights through non-violent demonstration.
It is especially powerful that an American is doing so, because it garners more press, and because it sh
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Or he is a publicity hound that knows his audience and is betting on his US citizenship to get him off with his skin intact.
I really don't like the Chinese governments treatment of it's citizens but this is a case of useless showboating.
Re:Rosa Parks (Score:4, Interesting)
So what? Are you suggesting that only those directly affected by human rights abuses can protest them, and everyone else should just mind their own business? In the Rosa Parks example given above, groups like the Congress of Racial Equality, which included white college students from northern states, took part in protests during the Montgomery bus boycott. Should they have just minded their own business?
That's debatable. The actions of any one person may be equivalent to "the movement of butterfly wings," as you stated below, but to quote Edmund Burke: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
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Rosa Parks was given a speedy trial, fined $14, and on appeal wreaked havoc on the laws that were the foundation of racial segregation in the United States.
Since this guy is a US citizen, the Chinese government will probably let him live. A Chinese citizen probably wouldn't be so lucky.
Hopefully this event teaches him, and and others in his home country to appreciate the freedom that they have when they're spewing their typical "baby out with the bathwater" rants about how fascist the US government is.
Re:Rosa Parks (Score:5, Informative)
"Hopefully this event teaches him, and and others in his home country to appreciate the freedom that they have when they're spewing their typical 'baby out with the bathwater' rants about how fascist the US government is."
By your logic, practically nobody in the world is in a position to complain about their situation, for you'll nearly always be able to find somebody who is worse off than you are. Keeping quiet about abuses at home because other, worse abuses are taking place elsewhere is hardly a reasonable thing to demand of another. Please keep your jingoism to yourself.
Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Oh... brilliant comeback!
Re:Rosa Parks (Score:4, Insightful)
It is not necessary for things to be as bad as they can possibly be before one has the right to complain about things that are wrong. The U.S. has in many ways grown greatly more totalitarian over the past eight years. Saying "It's not as bad as China, so the problems don't matter" is the height of idiocy. That's like saying "Linux doesn't crash as much as Windows, so it must be perfect.
Indeed, it is precisely because people do appreciate those freedoms that they rant about signs of growing fascism in the U.S. government. They who have never seen the light cannot know that they live in darkness, and so do not complain. Therefore, I would contend that the people who do not rant are the ones who do not fully appreciate those freedoms.
Re:Rosa Parks (Score:5, Interesting)
Powderly regularly protests all kinds of oppression, both at home and abroad.
When he protests in the US, people say that there are much worse things going on elsewhere (usually citing China). When he protests in China, the same people say he should to mind his own business.
At least he's doing something, and his sudden disappearance for throwing up a banner with a few lights on it certainly highlights the oppression that we all know exists in China.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Powderly regularly protests all kinds of oppression, both at home and abroad.
Oh wait...
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Let's keep things in perspective here. The guy isn't spray-painting public property, he's just projecting laser-generated images [youtube.com] onto buildings. Used often enough it might become a genuine nuisance, but as a tool for protest it is actually rather interesting.
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The images are made by a projector. A laser pointer is used to tell the computer where to draw. I doubt the laser is pointed at the building long enough to cause damage.
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To be honest, I was about to foe you for your first comment... But I think you have a point, even if you phrase it in the most inflammatory of ways. I am getting sick of people thinking of graffiti as art, much less activism. Its destructive and antisocial, and shouldn't be considered to have any merits, unless you only deface your own property. (I've gone so far as to report some acquaintances to the authorities for being "artists")
Its another case of people thinking that their individual rights shoul
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Rosa Parks
Are you really going to compare graffiti -- a nuisance of a chosen action -- to a civil rights struggle? Based on the color of a person's skin?
People like Rosa Parks were heroes to all, especially to racists and passive people who needed to have their eyes open. I'm not sure who James Powderly thought he was representing but going to a foreign country and committing what is a crime in that country just makes a bunch of people uneasy.
Oh, and non-destructive graffiti is pretty damned cool.
Light is still a form of polution. Though non-destructive, it is mo
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I think the protest sounded kind of dumb, but that response is far dumber. A comparison between graffiti and a civil rights struggle is like one between apples and monkey wrenches, but that's not what the OP was saying. He's making a comparison between refusing to give up a seat on a bus in defiance of the law with graffiti, i.e., the act of defiance itself. In
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Re:Rosa Parks (Score:5, Insightful)
People like Rosa Parks were heroes to all, especially to racists and passive people who needed to have their eyes open.
People like Rosa Parks were carefully chosen by lawyers to become sympathetic test cases before the Judiciary and the court of public opinion.
You think Rosa Parks was the only black woman who got arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus? Even Rosa Parks wikipedia page can't help but mention a pregnant 15 yr old girl named Claudette Colvin [wikipedia.org].
Light is still a form of polution. Though non-destructive, it is most likely still annoying. While I agree with the cause this man was "fighting" for, I am indifferent to his ineffective methods.
It shouldn't really matter how James Powderly chose to protest, in much the same way that it shouldn't have mattered that Claudette Colvin was unwed and pregnant by a much older man.
I'm sure when the right kind of protestor gets arrested, you and others with your mindset will take notice.
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That sort of protest works lots better when you are in a country that is basically democratic in the first place.
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How exactly do you commit genocide without killing people? Are the Han Chinese magically making the Tibetans disappear by sheer virtue of their presence?
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might well be "yes, but slowly." Not in the sense of taking them out one by one and shooting them in back alleys, but in the sense of marginalizing them as a consequence, say, of not speaking the same language and not, therefore, having opportunity to compete effectively in the new 'Han' economy. Those that cling to their ways will be marginzlized economically and
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Rosa Parks was preceded by a number of other bus riders who did the exact same thing but are forgotten (ever heard anyone talk about the great hero Claudette Colvin?). She would have been forgotten too if her supposedly spontaneous stand that day hadn't been carefully planned well in advance by the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP (where she worked).
Heroes are not just created by random acts of resistance, they're created by others willing to sell them as heroes.
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Yeah, they'll really stick it to him.
He might end up a floaty.
Re:idiot (Score:4, Informative)
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That's pretty disingenuous. Writing propaganda these days? "Arrest people who make signs with simple blinking LEDs"? Interesting description.
Yeah, it is disingenuous. They didn't just arrest them - they then proceeded to charge them with terrorism.
Because, like, they might have been bombs or something.
Re:idiot (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, they were "were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and placing a hoax device in a way that causes panic" according to Boston.com, and the charges were later dropped. Which is still a stupid overreaction, but not the same as charging them with "terrorism".
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Did you read the thread? The AC was answering the query to what "arrest people who make signs with simple blinking LEDs" was about. Apparently people have been living under a rock and didn't hear about the incident where people got arrested for putting some decorative advertising about Boston [wikipedia.org].
So yeah, this has nothing to do with people pointing lasers at airplanes. Reading comprehension ftw.
Re: (Score:2)
Please list the cases where people who tried to blind pilots were tried as terrorists.
Here [slashdot.org]
Also, please explain what said people should have been charged with after trying to crash commercial aircraft by blinding the pilots? How about 150 counts of attempted murder?
How about 'being a bit of a dick, but not really causing any damage... or intending to'
so what exactly are you trying to say? (Score:2)
So you go on to point out how dangerous it is for the people in America to shine lasers upwards and in people's eyes, but you seem to be supporting this idiot's efforts to get people to do exactly that. Or don't you think that there can be any people in those buildings looking out of windows when the crowd below shines those lasers.Don't you think the Chinese have helicopters, and that they would be present at just such events? And do you comp
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Re:idiot (Score:4, Interesting)
In NYC on Aug 10th, some protesters projected a film onto the Chinese Consulate in NYC. [nytimes.com]
Here's video on YouTube [youtube.com] [Warning, there are some graphic scenes].
Not a laser, but interesting trick nonetheless.
Re:So many ways to make a point (Score:5, Funny)
Disrespecting the athletes by marring the games with these protests is no better than what happened in Munich in 1972.
His laser wasn't that powerful.
Re:So many ways to make a point (Score:4, Insightful)
I like to think that going over and killing twelve people is slightly worse than mildly pissing a few people off with an unsolicited light show, but then i'm a bit weird like that.
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The Olympics aren't about you, and they aren't about your pet issue. There are plenty of other venues to air these protests. Disrespecting the athletes by marring the games with these protests is no better than what happened in Munich in 1972.
Er... Nothing is more serious than sports? That is a rather silly take on things. The Olympics isn't anything special, its a massive corporate event, nothing more. I'm sorry, if someone could actually effect some degree of change, while interrupting a mere sportin
Re:but they make ipods (Score:4, Interesting)
Amen! Don't you love the way capitalism lets you profit without worrying about the moral standards of the companies you invest in? I mean, I can invest in a company that will do awful things I would never do personally, and I never even have to hear about it, let alone lose sleep over it. And even if I do hear about it, well, I'm just a little investor, I didn't make that decision, it's not my fault! I love diffusion of responsibility. [wikipedia.org]
Re:What is a L.A.S.E.R Stencil?? (Score:5, Informative)
From TFA:
The work, "The Green Chinese Lantern," uses a 400 milliwatt handheld green laser with micro-stencils to beam simple messages and images up to three stories high on surfaces such as billboards, buildings, and bridges. The Laser Stencil technology was developed in conjunction with Students for a Free Tibet.
[...] For more information and high-resolution photos of the work, please visit http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?p=161 [graffitiresearchlab.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
LASER Tagging:
Video of it:
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76 [graffitiresearchlab.com]
Background on how it's set up, and such.
http://muonics.net/blog/index.php?postid=15 [muonics.net]
I still don't quite understand how they can illuminate that strongly, but I've not read a lot of it. I /though/ the laser was for the pointing only, but it could be that it's used for the projection as well.
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Are you sure about that? I suspect that a number of them don't serve anything.
rice & cabbage & rice & cabbage & (Score:2)