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the lies from the white house insult the intelligence of thinking people everywhere.

today, the way me and people i know think about americans has been changed forever, by their illegal unprovoked invasion of iraq

this invasion clearly has nothing to do with taking away saddam's AMERICAN MADE weapons, but is all about stealing their oil and setting an example for other countries that may stand up to the fascist american military empire's global domination

I WILL do my best to NEVER BUY AMERICAN PRODUCTS EVER AGAIN, or ever travel to the usa until america learns to respect other nations and peoples. i will not be the only person boycotting america.

go to http://www.adbusters.org/ to boycott america. at least 20 000 people have signed this petition so far

most of the people in the world will now have less respect for america and americans than ever before.

if america thought its economy was hurting before, just wait

apologies to americans who are not in support of this war, but the actions of your country make me sick

Where Do Terrorists Get Their Money? (Real format embedded)

If you can't view Real format video directly in your browser, here is a complete URL that you can cut 'n' paste into the "Open Location" menu item of Real Player, or use "Open With":

http://www.adbusters.org/abtv/movies/spotlight/Thi nkTank3/real_high.rpm

Thanks go to Adbusters.org.

--
Simon

Where Do Terrorists Get Their Money? (Real format embedded)

If you can't view Real format video directly in your browser, here is a complete URL that you can cut 'n' paste into the "Open Location" menu item of Real Player, or use "Open With":

http://www.adbusters.org/abtv/movies/spotlight/Thi nkTank3/real_high.rpm

Thanks go to Adbusters.org.

--
Simon

It reminds me a lot of this earlier tactic for getting people hooked onto playing games on cell phones. As I recall, the variant was to have a few hot chicks playing cell phone games in bars so that onlooking guys in the bar would assume that acquisition of said merchandise was the new magic bullet to Success with Women.

But please. My mental environment is already overly polluted with high-pitched sales "information" that crowds out reflection, creative thinking, following a logical train of thought, etc.

What a great opportunity for culture jamming! We just need a few thousand webloggers to start using weird words designed to repel "normal" people.

Obviously this could backfire and we could actually start a real trend. So, I propose that the first words we need to put out are ( geek || nerd ) && sexy. (And if you understood that, you must be hot stuff.) I'm willing to take this risk if you are.

• Adbusters
• Sniggle (jamming encyclopedia)
• some theory
• examples

Indeed, many of us do. Quite simply, a person can focus on more than just one type of injustice. Lets call it multi-tasking.

The fact is, the RIAA doesn't give a -damn- about consumer rights, the online community or even it's "own" artists.

This is wrong and worth fighting for.

If you actually want to learn more about TV-turnoff culture, go here:

http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/tvturnoff/

Let's see, Nike produces it's products in third world countries for pennies on the dollar, makes a shitload of money by successfully hyping crap, and here's the best part -- consumers are gullible enough to "purchase" the 'free advertising' at top-dollar.

"Look at me, Nike is successful - they're -so- kewl - therefore I must be too! Just look at the swoosh. I love Nike."

Woo! What a mindfuck our society has become.

Adbusters

provides an interesting insight into the amount of time that people watch TV. Basically, the article states that if you follow these three steps, you, too, can become very angry at how much of your life and mind are being wasted.

1. Watch any TV show for 15 minutes without turning on the sound.

2. Watch any news program for 15 minutes without turning on the sound.

3. Watch television for one half hour without turning it on.

Early American charters were created literally by the people, for the people as a legal convenience. Corporations were "artificial, invisible, intangible," mere financial tools. They were chartered by individual states, not the federal government, which meant they could be kept under close local scrutiny. They were automatically dissolved if they engaged in activities that violated their charter. Limits were placed on how big and powerful companies could become. Even railroad magnate J. P. Morgan, the consummate capitalist, understood that corporations must never become so big that they "inhibit freedom to the point where efficiency [is] endangered."

The two hundred or so corporations operating in the US by the year 1800 were each kept on fairly short leashes. They weren't allowed to participate in the political process. They couldn't buy stock in other corporations. And if one of them acted improperly, the consequences were severe. In 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed a motion to extend the charter of the corrupt and tyrannical Second Bank of the United States, and was widely applauded for doing so. That same year the state of Pennsylvania revoked the charters of ten banks for operating contrary to the public interest. Even the enormous industry trusts, formed to protect member corporations from external competitors and provide barriers to entry, eventually proved no match for the state. By the mid-1800s, antitrust legislation was widely in place.

I'm not sticking up for our culture's pervasive advertising, far from it. I think I can say that I get at least as annoyed at it as anybody -- in addition to being an ad monkey myself, I am a frequent reader of Adbusters, and am wholly sympathetic with a lot of their ideas. So please don't give me this "pound sand" nonsense.

What I'm getting at is the assertion that "internet advertising does not work, period". What does that mean? That it doesn't work for the consumer? Maybe so -- as we agree, a lot of people are jaded & block this crap out. For the advertiser? Well it does tend to pay the bills, and has for years (slash decades, slash centuries, depending on your distribution medium) and I'd tend to think that self-interested advertisers wouldn't be paying for people to get all this free stuff on their behalf if they weren't getting something in return. How many web sites do you go to that you have to pay for? For most people, little if anything. How much did you pay for your newspaper this morning? Did you realize that the subscription/cover price covers perhaps 1/4 the cost of producing it? The same ratio more or less holds up for magazines too.

So, given all that, does advertising work for society as a whole? In a weird kind of way, it is is a hidden redistributor of wealth, where companies spend their cash so that something that you want can be had for much less than it would have cost without their support, and all you have to do in return is pay attention (or pretend to pay attention) to a message that they inject along with whatever you were trying to get. You can be all snarky and say that you're immune to such messages, and hey that's great for you, but if you're benefiting from the effects of that system -- and by using this advertising driven web site, you are -- then you are part of the working system whether you like it or not.

I'm not sticking up for our culture's pervasive advertising, far from it. I think I can say that I get at least as annoyed at it as anybody -- in addition to being an ad monkey myself, I am a frequent reader of Adbusters, and am wholly sympathetic with a lot of their ideas. So please don't give me this "pound sand" nonsense.

What I'm getting at is the assertion that "internet advertising does not work, period". What does that mean? That it doesn't work for the consumer? Maybe so -- as we agree, a lot of people are jaded & block this crap out. For the advertiser? Well it does tend to pay the bills, and has for years (slash decades, slash centuries, depending on your distribution medium) and I'd tend to think that self-interested advertisers wouldn't be paying for people to get all this free stuff on their behalf if they weren't getting something in return. How many web sites do you go to that you have to pay for? For most people, little if anything. How much did you pay for your newspaper this morning? Did you realize that the subscription/cover price covers perhaps 1/4 the cost of producing it? The same ratio more or less holds up for magazines too.

So, given all that, does advertising work for society as a whole? In a weird kind of way, it is is a hidden redistributor of wealth, where companies spend their cash so that something that you want can be had for much less than it would have cost without their support, and all you have to do in return is pay attention (or pretend to pay attention) to a message that they inject along with whatever you were trying to get. You can be all snarky and say that you're immune to such messages, and hey that's great for you, but if you're benefiting from the effects of that system -- and by using this advertising driven web site, you are -- then you are part of the working system whether you like it or not.

Corporations cannot exist without the permission of the people. The corporation's existence depends on a charter issued by a state government, a government elected by the people to act in the public interest. It follows inexorably that corporations are allowed to exist, first and foremost, to serve the public interest. - Ralph Estes, founder of The Stakeholder Alliance

The first corporations, given license to operate in the 1600s, were strictly limited in scope and power by their charters. Corporations were kept on a very short leash right through the American Revolution and the early years of the new republic. When a corporation exceeded its powers or ceased to serve the public interest, its charter was revoked and its very right to exist was nullified. - www.adbusters.org

If business people resist the notion of legal change, we can remind them that corporations exist only because laws allow them to exist. Without these laws, owners would be fully responsible for debts incurred and damages caused by their businesses. Because the public creates the law, corporations owe their existence as much to the public as they do to shareholders. They should have obligations to both. It simply makes no sense that society's most powerful citizens have no concern for the public good. - Excerpt from an article Published in the January/February 2002 issue of Business Ethics: Corporate Social Responsibility Report

It would make unsustainable consumption prohibitive - that's the idea! While you might think it's a great idea to sacrifice our only habitat for short term finanacial gain, the people who'd like to leave something for future humans disagree.

"The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." - Henry David Thoreau

True cost pricing, Green taxes.

"Only after the last tree has been cut down; only after the last fish has been caught; only after the last river has been poisoned; only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten." - Cree Indian proverb

http://adbusters.org/campaigns/bnd/

It was BUY NOTHING DAY, you fools!!

I was perplexed, since it's only Tuesday, until I collated this with buy nothing day (more) and realized that November 29th was, in fact, on Friday. (I was out of town for Thanksgiving and wasn't going to buy anything that day anyway).

So, uh, yeah.

Robert.
[1] (Yes, every editor is Taco -- esp. the ones who go by Ed.)

Karma hit be damned, don't buy anyone a damned thing. Draw them a picture. Write them a letter. Fold them an oragami barn complete with animals.

I realize the point of this post is to be informative and this is a tech/nerd site. So be it. I'm suggesting that the best tech gift you can give someone is more of your time which, I might point out, is going to be spent working -- as opposed to spending time with them -- to earn the money for that runaway consuermism, optical, wifi, 3D, open-source imbedded OS GPS-capable caffienated, programmable biometric teeshirt.

Yeesh.

Here's a better idea: Buy Nothing Day.

And not consuming useless crap? AdBusters

You want a great gift: add a vacation day, or a half day if that's too much.

Perhaps the simplistic, reductive assumptions these machines are making are a function of the simplistic and reductive programming available. The producers are actively targeting demographic profiles; that is, producing != creating.

Opt out

I wonder how those pesky little culture jammers are going to react to this? How do you jam a moving target?

Will the ad be rendered static if I park a ghettoblaster two feet from the actual ad, or will it be smart enough to call the cops for domestic disturbance?

Adbusters is what you want. They have professionally produced -- i.e. really good directors/writers, even some from the ad industry -- uncommercials. They'll send you a broadcast quality tape if you buy the air time.

Adbusters is what you want. They have professionally produced -- i.e. really good directors/writers, even some from the ad industry -- uncommercials. They'll send you a broadcast quality tape if you buy the air time.

That's a cool idea, but unfortunately it will never happen. Have a look at AdBusters. They've got a number of great ads ready to air, but no network will show them because they run against the commercial grain of the rest of the sponsors. Rest assured, the media giants do *not* want to waste all their hard work kissing Microsoft's ass just to throw it away for a few million worth of ad revenue.

I'll be supporting Buy Nothing Day because of the action on your part against fatwallet.com. I feel that this use of the DMCA or any similar shows corporate disregard for your customers and a general attitude of "screw them all".

Furthermore I'll be doing it at your store, placing (small) printed Buy Nothing Day notes on your shelves.

I'll fill shopping carts with stuff and leave them in random places in the store.

I'll go with a friend and loudly discuss your overpricing and generally poor quality merchandice.

I'll move price tags around, or remove them entirely.

And I'll have a great time doing it.

Are we having fun yet?

Have a Nice Black Friday.

Just to remind folks, November 29th is Buy Nothing Day world-wide.

Buy Nothing and stand up for yourself!

My answer to this : Buy Nothing Day.

"See? I didn't take advantage of commonly available price information to make an informed decision!"

I would like to make a suggestion that is somewhat radical, but I will make it anyway. After all, if you can't say something radical on /., where can you say it?

For the past four or five years, a group called Adbusters has sponsored an anti-consumption event, called Buy Nothing Day. It takes place on Black Friday. I will be one of the participants who leaves my wallet in my pocket for the day, and by so doing, avoids the consumer orgy. For more information, go to Adbusters' page on Buy Nothing Day.

Of course, I will also be putting Staples, Wal*Mart, Target and BestBuy on my shitlist and spending my money elsewhere for a period of time that I haven't yet determined (suggestions? I was thinking 6 mos maybe) unless they reverse their stance before Monday, and letting them all know why. I think you (yes, you who are reading this right now) should join me in this.

I would like to make a suggestion that is somewhat radical, but I will make it anyway. After all, if you can't say something radical on /., where can you say it?

For the past four or five years, a group called Adbusters has sponsored an anti-consumption event, called Buy Nothing Day. It takes place on Black Friday. I will be one of the participants who leaves my wallet in my pocket for the day, and by so doing, avoids the consumer orgy. For more information, go to Adbusters' page on Buy Nothing Day.

Of course, I will also be putting Staples, Wal*Mart, Target and BestBuy on my shitlist and spending my money elsewhere for a period of time that I haven't yet determined (suggestions? I was thinking 6 mos maybe) unless they reverse their stance before Monday, and letting them all know why. I think you (yes, you who are reading this right now) should join me in this.

Adbusters sponsors Buy Nothing Day on Black Friday. They raise money to buy ad space on a major cable channel to promote it. I think it is a small step towards curbing maddened consumerism, but it will take much, much more.

"If enough jammers turn their disaffection into resistance for just one day, November 29 could mark the delivery of a landmark social message."

In reference to adbusters, check out: Food Fight

In reference to eating well:
__________________________________________________

NickFusion's Red Lentil Soup (Damn Tasy, & Healthy, too!)

1.5 Quarts Veg/Free-Range Chicken Broth

5 Cups Organic Red Lentils

2 Cups Organic Split Peas

1 Large Organic Yellow Onion, Diced

(Optional) 1 lb Free-Range Chicken Sausage

__________________________________________________

Put Broth, Lentils & Split Peas in large Soup Pot (4 Qt)

Bring to low boil, reduce heat to simmer (lowest heat, no more boiling)

Sautee onions until translucent (30%) & dump into pot

If sausage is in skin, remove from skin. Pan fry, break into bitesize morsels. Dump into pot.

Cook for about an hour, until the split peas are soft & tasty.

Salt & Pepper to taste.

You could also add Cumin, Paprika, Cayenne Pepper.

The measurements are approximate, and some people will want thicker or thinner soup.

Just keep adding water and/or broth until you like it. Soup gets thicker as it cooks.

Approximate cost: $10.00

Approximate # of servings: 18-32

__________________________________________________

Make it Sunday night, eat it all week long

(Freeze the extra for later!)

The author of the article wants you to take a stance against the integration of games and advertising by protesting in the online world.

Can anything make less truth?

Let's be honest: it follows logically that there would be a plethera of McDonalds in a simulation of America, because America really is over-run with fast-food resturants, advertisements, endorsements and the associated garbage.

Do you really want to make a change? Then follow these rules:
1) Don't protest within the Sim World.
This won't get you anywhere. In fact, you may wind up wasting more of your time away playing...

2) Don't support this game.
This isn't the first game to include coroprate advertising, but it has reached a new (sickening) level. SPEAK WITH YOUR DOLLARS: don't buy this game!!

3) Boycot McDonalds.
The fast-food industry's move to tie fast-food to children at an early age is well known, (they even admit it theirselves), but you don't have to stand for it. Do you REALLY want to protest? Take it to the streets in front of a real McDonalds. Talk to families... educate them.

4) Begin a letter writing campaign to EA.
Write it out by hand. Sign your name. Tell them that you refuse to buy their games until they change their policies regarding advertising. They'll get the message.

5) Support Ad-Busters.
If you don't have the time or energy to do these things yourself, then support those individuals and organizations that do. I'm not affiliated with them, but Ad-Busters (aka: the Media Corporation [Canada]) is great. You should support them.

The author of the article wants you to take a stance against the integration of games and advertising by protesting in the online world.

Can anything make less truth?

Let's be honest: it follows logically that there would be a plethera of McDonalds in a simulation of America, because America really is over-run with fast-food resturants, advertisements, endorsements and the associated garbage.

Do you really want to make a change? Then follow these rules:
1) Don't protest within the Sim World.
This won't get you anywhere. In fact, you may wind up wasting more of your time away playing...

2) Don't support this game.
This isn't the first game to include coroprate advertising, but it has reached a new (sickening) level. SPEAK WITH YOUR DOLLARS: don't buy this game!!

3) Boycot McDonalds.
The fast-food industry's move to tie fast-food to children at an early age is well known, (they even admit it theirselves), but you don't have to stand for it. Do you REALLY want to protest? Take it to the streets in front of a real McDonalds. Talk to families... educate them.

4) Begin a letter writing campaign to EA.
Write it out by hand. Sign your name. Tell them that you refuse to buy their games until they change their policies regarding advertising. They'll get the message.

5) Support Ad-Busters.
If you don't have the time or energy to do these things yourself, then support those individuals and organizations that do. I'm not affiliated with them, but Ad-Busters (aka: the Media Corporation [Canada]) is great. You should support them.

The author of the article wants you to take a stance against the integration of games and advertising by protesting in the online world.

Can anything make less truth?

Let's be honest: it follows logically that there would be a plethera of McDonalds in a simulation of America, because America really is over-run with fast-food resturants, advertisements, endorsements and the associated garbage.

Do you really want to make a change? Then follow these rules:
1) Don't protest within the Sim World.
This won't get you anywhere. In fact, you may wind up wasting more of your time away playing...

2) Don't support this game.
This isn't the first game to include coroprate advertising, but it has reached a new (sickening) level. SPEAK WITH YOUR DOLLARS: don't buy this game!!

3) Boycot McDonalds.
The fast-food industry's move to tie fast-food to children at an early age is well known, (they even admit it theirselves), but you don't have to stand for it. Do you REALLY want to protest? Take it to the streets in front of a real McDonalds. Talk to families... educate them.

4) Begin a letter writing campaign to EA.
Write it out by hand. Sign your name. Tell them that you refuse to buy their games until they change their policies regarding advertising. They'll get the message.

5) Support Ad-Busters.
If you don't have the time or energy to do these things yourself, then support those individuals and organizations that do. I'm not affiliated with them, but Ad-Busters (aka: the Media Corporation [Canada]) is great. You should support them.

http://unequalprotection.com/

And we can take it back. The second link has amendments and ordinances for each U.S. state to bring the focus back to the community. Corporate existence is only allowed by our statutes and when they begin to degrade we need to dismantle them or reign in their control.

The fact that we're being called "consumers" instead of "customers" sadly illustrates the cynical attitude of many corporate types. "Shut up and buy our stuff, you nose-picking, beer-guzzling sheep!"

Seems the perfect time to bring up a couple of interesting resources that point exactly along these lines.

There are a fascinating group of documentaries and a book about the rise of consumerism in America (/the world) and how it is adversely affecting us. I highly recommend the book Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic and the two documentaries on which it is based; Affluenza: The Disease of Materialism and Escape from Affluenza.

An interesting and disturbing part of the first film shows a marketing conference from Disney (actual footage) called "Kid Power" in which the head "marketeer" of Disney talks about how Disney owns America's children and how anti-social behavior in pursuit of a product in young consumers is a good thing. If junior wants a Disney product and is willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get it, then you know you have them. Creepy stuff.

I would also recommend the book Culture Jam How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge-And Why We Must from the editor of Adbusters Magazine.

They should replace the flag logo with this one.

What actions are that? You don't know me, and you don't know what my actions are.

just as you cant brand Treehuggers hypocrites. Simple.

Do you have any data backing up whether or not that is more energy efficient? I would think that communal cooking would be much more energy efficient than individualized cooking.


Organic, locally produced foods are unprocessed, better for you (free of chemicals), more-nutritionally-rich (fresher), better for the environment (dont contribute to pollution), dont require transportation (ie: boxed and driven across hell's-half-acre), maintain biodiversity because local-farmers maintain heritage varieties. You support decentralized control which helps avoid the corporatization* of the food supply (pay or starve scenario's by the mega-wealthy)... etc etc.

as for chain foods, they are nutritionally appalling (bad for you), again, you supporting a system of centralized control (by people with perpendicular motivations to their efforts (making money is unrelated to feeding people)), chain restaurants rely on packaged/processed foods shipped from afar, use disposable everything, pay people minimum wage and crush union efforts. chain-restaurants are a product (and source) of marketing bombardment and encourage consumer culture, these are also wasteful. Advertising is meant to coerce, to lead you to a decision that benefits someone's selfish motivation. The Mental Environment suffers because of it.

...as for communal cooking (or central food-prep) vs. individual cooking... im sure a Intentional Community's central cooking facility one within a short walk of a few hundred people is an environmental benefit. But im willing to bet that the idea that everyone should jump in their Internal-Combustion-Engine powered car and drive down to a %burger_joint% far overcomes the savings in your proposed-scenario.
*

You need these to make it work.

...and how long since the first TV Turnoff Week?

I think it doesn't really matter whether grieving is real or imagined. If somebody's feeling something, they have the right to express it. On the other hand, our information society is at a really scary crossroads. Media, and interactive media is still media, wants to be hyperreal. It wants to be more intense, more interesting and more intimate that real life. Adbusters published a pretty enlightening piece by sociologist Todd Gitlin that expresses this problem.

The question, then, is: Do we really want virtual intimacy to replace actual intimacy? Personally, I think it's still a poor imitation.

This story on adbusters conveys the same sentiments... its called "The History of America" and is an excerpt from a book I just bought after reading the article.
http://adbusters.org/magazine/28/usa.html

... have you broke the news to them?

> Never mind Pax Americana, fear Pax AOL / Time Warner.

That's the same thing, isn't it ?

Very true. However, the corporations have been given the same legal status as real human people. While the rights are the same for both, the corporation, being as it is the accumulation of the resources of many people, is in a better position to exercise those rights.

Witness, for example, today's news about the FCC selling telephone usage data, where the issue is framed in "free speech" terms by the corporate representatives.

These are the things that get my Irish up, and make me fear the rise of "corporatism"

Turn off TV, turn on yourself

This is nothing new, Culture Jammers have been changing the meaning of signs and images for a while now, a great source for this is adbusters.org

As for the method explained in the article, this was about helping people by altering existing signage.

Culture jamming is usually about subverting whatever message is present into something else.

One example that may interest /. readers is the defacement of a microsoft XP billboard in england

http://mirrors.meepzorp.com/xpsucks/

quite amusing, and very cost effective! Let the corporations pay for the message, and use it against them!

http://www.adbusters.org/creativeresistance/jamgal lery/street/ is the main culture jammers gallery.

Incorrect corporations have more rights than the people. Check out this article explaining how a 1886 court decision gave corporations more rights than the people.

here's one article about it