We’re in for a treat today, basketball fans. Not only is the UNC men’s team (“we’re #23, woot!”) playing Miami. The still-#1-ranked UNC women’s team is playing Virginia and it’s on TV!
Continue reading “Double header”
Author: Ruby Sinreich
Upgrading
I just upgraded my blog software from WordPress 1.5 to 2.0.1! So far so good. My theme (template design) works fine. I had to disable some of the plug-ins that don’t work on this version, but it seems like the really important ones still work or have new versions, like my favorite subscribe2 (this is the one that sends e-mails to subscribers with the content of each new post).
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Web job @ Self Help
The Center for Community Self-Help, an excellent nonprofit based in Durham, is hiring a Web Producer. Self Help works for economic justice all across the southeastern U.S. through advocacy and it’s innovative micro-lending program. Brian and I have a joint savings account there.
SXSW or bust
If you look really hard on this page you will find me listed as one of many speakers at South by Southwest Interactive. And it’s not a typo!
I’ve always wanted to attend SXSW even back when it was just the hotspot of independent music. The musicians I knew spoke of it with awe. Now I’m not as interested in the indie rock but in the collection of some of the most interesting and creative minds on the Internet. I was invited by Henry Copeland of BlogAds (which is located here in Chapel Hill) to be on a panel called “Revenge of the Blogs: Election 2008.”
Continue reading “SXSW or bust”
Carter family alive and kicking
I was quite shocked to learn that El Presidente attended and spoke at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, until I heard that other speakers hassled him to his face. (For which I’m sure someone is getting fired right now.)
Former SCLC leader Joseph Lowery wrote a poem to eulogize Mrs. King:
“She extended Martin’s message against poverty, racism and war
She deplored the terror inflicted by our smart bombs on missions way afar
We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there
But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here
Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more for the poor.”
Entrapment
Soldier in Iraq pose for gay porn site
Fort Bragg officials are moving forward with their investigation into claims that several soldiers may have posed for a gay porn Web site believed to be based out of Fayetteville….
WRAL spoke with a man who says he was a soldier and an editor of a gay porn Web site. He said many such sites target young troops, offering quick cash — even thousands of dollars — to people who do not make much money.
“It’s very enticing, very enticing,” said the man. “(It’s) almost a form of entrapment by these porn sites.”
Now that’s not at all like military recruitment of men and women with few other options, now is it?
Make media for peace and justice
Citizens For Global Solutions is a grassroots international organization that emphasizes cross-border solutions to cross-border (ie: global) problems. At a conference last month I saw a few short Flash movies thay had produced to encourage people (especially Americans) to think cooperatively about international issues.
I thought the scripts were powerful, but the movies themselves were visually underwhelming. Which is why it’s great to see they are having a contest to encourage people to make something even better:
We’re looking for short flash movies that can inspire, amuse and activate people out there who believe a better world is possible.
FLASH CONTEST THEME: AMERICA’S ROLE IN THE WORLD >>>
Answer this question: Why do global problems matter to Americans and what do you think America should do about them.
Civil technologies report
In the past year I have received many requests for interviews from consultants trying to develop recommendations for nonprofits looking to use the Internet more strategically. Since I am sometimes a consultant myself, I usually grant the interview on one condition: that I be given the rights to publish an audio or text transcript of the interview. This way I can help out the project, but also share any good ideas I might accidentally have with anyone else who might be interested.
Last year, when I still worked for PPFA, I was interviewed for a paper called “Civil Technologies: The Values of Nonprofit ICT Use” published by the program on Information Technology and International Cooperation. You can download it as a PDF or Word document.
The report is long but it has lots of great examples from real-life nonprofit staff (like me!). My interview follows after the jump. It gets more interesting toward the end when he stops asking me elementary questions about Planned Parenthood and GetActive and we talk more about online organizing strategy. I did some copy editing of what appear to be audio transcription errors.
Continue reading “Civil technologies report”
Roundup
So I am a bit of a news junkie, and sometime I think people would interested in a roundup of the notable stuff I find so they don’t have to do the research themself. Is this interesting? Or am I just re-hashing stale content? I probably won’t post the obvious stuff that is already in the headlines. Please tell me if you’d like me to do this on a regular basis:
- There’s a new alaskan oil spill. 🙁
An oil tanker carrying nearly 5 million gallons of oil and gasoline was struck by an ice floe and ran aground while loading oil products at an Alaska refinery on Thursday, causing a spill, a state official and the refining company said.“At this time we do not have an estimate as to the amount of product released,” refinery owner Tesoro Corp. said in a statement.
I love that the story ends with this important information:
Shares of Tesoro, based in San Antonio, Texas, fell $3.70 to $66.31 and Seacor Holdings’ stock fell $2.25 to $71.19 in afternoon New York Stock Exchange trade. - Pat Robertson admits he “ad libs.”
“I’ve been doing TV for years and years,” Robertson said. “And the problem is, I ad lib.”Interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on the morning of the annual National Prayer Breakfast, Robertson was asked about statements suggesting that the United States assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and intimating that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s stroke was God’s punishment for giving up the Gaza strip.
- Also at the national prayer breakfast: Bono prentending not to realize he’s shaking the president’s hand.
- And speaking of Mr. Preznit, he wants more money. Shock.
The White House said on Thursday it would ask the Congress for about $70 billion in new emergency funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and seek another $50 billion for those wars early in fiscal 2007.The Bush administration also said it would seek a further $18 billion for the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast and $2.3 billion to prepare for a possible avian flu epidemic.
The new war funds would come on top of the $320 billion the White House budget office said has been allocated for the wars so far, pushing costs since the start of the wars through early next year to about $440 billion.
- And finally, the CIA says that telling people what they do makes it hadrer for them to do it. I think that’s the idea, guys!
The truth shall set us free
This is a post I have been needing to write for a while. It is a real test of my committment to right speech because I would really like to attack the people who I feel are attacking me.
Here are a few things about me that normal people can’t possibly give a crap about. But some folks are extremely curious and have active imaginations, and other people just don’t want to listen to me or something.