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James Powderly of Graffiti Research Labs Detained In China
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.)
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.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
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.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
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...
The Mothership
Going to foreign countries run by totalitarian governments to protest is a bit on the unwise side regardless of how just the cause.
The cake is a pie
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.
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.
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.
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.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Tibet has been part of China since 1792. Yes, for over two freaking centuries! You might not like it, but tough shit
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.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
They would get their heads ripped off.
This douchebag had it coming, having the gall to foment terrorism during the Olympics. Being arrested is a merciful punishment for him, we could have just let a crowd beat the shit out of him while the cops look the other way.
Free Tibet is a terrorist, separatist organization dedicated to establishing a Western protectorate over an "independent" Tibet so the Lamas can reinstitute theocracy, slavery, and poverty to the territory. They will never succeed, no matter how much the Western imperialists and the traitors who sold themselves to the West want it to be so.
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.
OK, first of all stop saying detained and call it by its name: arrested. Second, what the hell was this guy doing in China? He should've seen it coming.