According to a BBC News report, Sister Megan Rice and two other protesters, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, were convicted this week of sabotage and depredation of government property. The trio cut a fence and broke into the Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which processes and stores uranium for use in nuclear weapons. They threw baby bottles filled with human blood onto the walls of the facility.

The protesters are part of a group called Transform Now Plowshares. The group issued a statement in conjunction with the protest, stating that the facility is “an ongoing criminal endeavor in violation of international al treaty law…” From a separate statement:

We come to the Y-12 facility because our very humanity rejects the designs of nuclearism, empire and war. Our faith in love and nonviolence encourages us to believe that our activity here is necessary; that we come to invite transformation, undo the past and present work of Y-12; disarm and end any further efforts to increase the Y-12 capacity for an economy and social structure based upon war-making and empire-building.

Sister Rice is well-known for her anti-war activism. According to a New York Times feature on Rice published in August 2012, she has been arrested “40 or 50 times” for civil disobedience.

Rice and her fellow protesters now face up to 20 years in prison for what authorities believe is one of the most serious U.S. nuclear facility security breaches in history.

According to a Las Vegas Sun report, the protesters were members of Culinary Union Local 226. The protest took place outside the The Cosmopolitan hotel and casino.

The union states that it has been in contract negotiations with Deutsche Bank, the owner of The Cosmopolitan, for over two years and “have not come to an agreement on major issues.” Worker contracts are scheduled to expire on June 1.

The arrests came after some of the protesters sat in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard, blocking traffic for over an hour. The protesters in the road were well aware that the act would likely result in their arrests. According to the Vegas Sun, they were surrounded on walkways and sidewalks by over 2,000 of their fellow protesters.

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Culinary Union 226
@Culinary226

Workers getting arrested right now on the Las Vegas Strip! #1u#Vegas#cosmopolitan#occupy#lasvegas#p2… http://t.co/khiBqg5HUb

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(Image via Culinary Union/Instagram)

A few months later, the folks at ZETA, a German zoophile-rights group, put together a peaceful protest/march that would make its way through the street of Berlin. The group used the march to highlight the persecution that zoophiles face every day. The civil rights group, Equality for All, showed up to the protest as well. Here’s a picture of their display from Germany’s largest newspaper The Bild, courtesy of Free Thinker Unlimited:

It remains to be seen if ZETA’s efforts will have any effect on the national dialog regarding bestiality, but this first march may have inspired other zoophile groups around the world to go public. We may even start seeing other marches in other countries that ban bestiality.

That being said, it’s hard to believe that any progress towards legalization will actually happen. The core argument here is whether or not bestiality is animal abuse, and there’s no easy way to prove either scenario. Most lawmakers are probably going to err on the side of caution in the debate, however, and outlaw it until compelling evidence can validate either side’s argument.

What we have is a video called “Hooded,” and it was created to give viewers an idea of what it’s like to be captured, abducted, and tortured, all while having your face covered with a hood. As you might imagine, it’s powerful stuff, and if you were unsure about where you stood on the sensitive subject, it might just illuminate the subject with a stronger light:

‘Hooded’ is an exploration of visual and auditory senses to convey the horrific nature of torture. It combines extensive sound design with abstracted visuals to provide a disturbing experience. It is a powerful reminder that torture is barbaric and never justifiable.

This film has been made as part of Amnesty International’s Security with Human Rights campaign, which aims to end abuses of human rights which take place in the context of terrorism, countering terrorism and national security.

The video is available in the following formats, as well, which should help salve those who feel like Amnesty International is targeting the United States:

French http://youtu.be/z924ZRGo7Wg
Spanish http://youtu.be/l9UbBcST-tI
Arabic http://youtu.be/XUX5C0p1vNg
Russian http://youtu.be/DuQqSbCrkXw

The group also provides a link to their page requesting the United States government apologize for the treatment of Maher Arar. If you’re unfamiliar with the story, you might want to address that.

While most Internet users have moved on to whatever’s currently trending, thankfully, some haven’t forgotten the damage Smith’s bill tried to cause. Take the “Fight For The Future” movement, for instance. Backed by a successful crowdfunding process, the group placed a friendly reminder outside of Smith’s San Antonio office, telling him essentially to keep his hands off of the Internet in the form of an awesome billboard, which leads this article.

As indicated, the billboards were paid for by the crowdfunding venture, which was so successful, the organization was able to afford two billboards, both of which sport a nifty “PAID FOR BY THE INTERNET” reminder, just so Smith knows who he’s up against. The second billboard is being displayed in Austin, Texas, also near one of Smith’s offices. There’s a Google Map embed showing interested parties where exactly the billboards are:

One wonders if Smith even notices these billboards. If he does, does he understand the message being posted?

Judging by the list of complaints, which can be seen here, it seems like a comprehensive patch would be sufficient. Unfortunately for those who support the MW3 blackout, the publishers are concentrating more on downloadable content than they are fixing the game.

As the lead video indicates, the HC4M Elite group has experienced a few hurdles with the publishers, especially in relation to getting the word out. Apparently, any mention of the MW3 blackout on Activision’s forums are being removed, and a quick glance at the official Modern Warfare 3 forum reveals this to be so, at least in regards to the current and popular topics listed.

The video also features a quote from Infinity Ward employee who discusses the lag issues, essentially blaming it on the gamers by saying players are throttling their bandwidth and inducing latency on their connections, directly contributing to the lag conditions the MW3 Blackout group discusses. The Infinity Ward employee quote goes on to say the spawn issues have been assigned a lower degree of priority.

Instead of blaming players who made the Modern Warfare title the billion dollar operation it has become, the group would like the developers to actually address the issues at hand.

For those who might question whether or not a movement like this would be successful, it remains to be seen. While the initial video has over 120,000 views, the group’s Twitter page (@MW3Blackout) has only picked up an additional 400 or so followers since the initial article ran. At the time of the first video, the account had close to 500 followers. A week later and the total now stands at 856. It remains to be seen if the blackout movement will be effective.

If the YouTube comments are anything to go by, the desired effect may not be attained:

hate to bust your bubble, but one day of missing gameplay won’t make a bit of difference. Too many people won’t know, won’t care, and will just play anyways on that day.
Black it out for a week, or a month, or better yet, just get everyone to stop playing entirely and you’ll get your point across.

flipitjtr

And:

They already have your money so what good will this do?

cpucrash0

Sadly, there’s a lot of truth to that last comment. What say you? Does the Modern Warfare 3 blackout sound like something you’d support or are you happy with the game as it is? Let us know what you think.

Last year, following the revolt that toppled then-President Hosni Mubarak, a rule was enacted for presidential elections wherein candidates must not possess citizenship for any other country other than Egypt, but their parents must not be citizens for any other countries, as well. An Egyptian electoral commission has disclosed that Abu Ismail’s mother had “used an American passport for travel to and from” Egypt. According to the documents, Abu Ismail’s mother became a naturalized citizen in October 2006.

Abu Ismail has denied the allegations and declared the claims to be a conspiracy against him to invalidate his presidential campaign. Meanwhile, legions of his supporters have flooded President Obama’s Facebook page with comments ranging from warnings against the United States for participating in the conspiracy to pleas earnest urging the U.S. government to confirm that Abu Ismail’s mother did not in fact possess U.S. citizenship. Several comments simply have an as ASCII-type graphic that simply display’s Abu Ismail’s first name:

The comments are being left in posts that are largely irrelevant to the Egyptian elections, such as one post containing a video of singer Janelle Monáe expressing her support for President Obama. Many of the comments were left in Arabic, but several were also in English.

The people of Egypt tells you you Obama ::: —- live with dignity ….. …………. dirty despite your plans and we took the decision that we will break the dependency constraints we will not give you … . and we will hang your customer Hosni Baaaaaaaaaaaaarak …….. ………… Egypt’s youth are free to live .. freedom … social justice, human dignity ……. .. …… glory to God, glory to the martyrs and the victory of Egypt, God willing ………. We are firm despite the haters hate

Obama is a liar, and the Egyptian military is also a liar, and the Egyptian people we do not want only the dignity and freedom of our country or world and Egypt believe Hazem Abu Ismail and Nkzpkm of you because we are accustomed to lie … I will live with dignity and glory of the martyrs

becareful obama if you prove that hazem’s mother is an american so hazem also is an american too …. and you will not be president no more … because we will support hazem to be president of usa

Obama Beware wrath of the Egyptian people of Israel not far from us but did not leave us the freedom to choose our president, do not blame only yourself and the U.S. embassy is also not far from Tahrir Square’s youth Egypt will not accept humiliation and shame and dominance of the American administration by Vibta for our candidate Hazem Abu Ismail and stop fraud nationality of his mother أوباما إحذر غضب الشعب المصرى إسرائيل ليست بعيده عنا وإن لم تترك لنا حرية إختيار رئيسنا فلا تلوم إلا نفسك والسفارة الامريكيه أيضا ليست بعيده عن ميدان التحرير فشباب مصر لن يقبل بالذل والهوان ولا بهيمنة الاداره الامريكيه عليها فأبعدوا عن مرشحنا حازم ابو اسماعيل وتوقفوا عن تزوير جنسية والدته

We will fight our battle to the end and WE TRUST IN GOD we will win.{YES WE CAN !!} with the aid of ALLAH we will live with DIGNITY .Hazem Abu Ismail is not just a person,but he is an idea lives in us. If you want to remove Hazem ,you have to kill all of us!!.

As you can see, the comments are considerably more grave than the “sarcasm bombing” embraced by American protestors against anti-choice politicians.

[Via BBC.]

While this is becoming frighteningly common when Occupy protesters and police lock horns, later that night one supporter tweeted this troubling message: “we wont make a difference if we dont kill a cop or 2.” The tweet has since been deleted but the user, whose Twitter user name is @Smackema1, the name anonCan0n, and a bio that lists the user’s location with the abbreviation for the state of Florida, has continued to retweet articles quoting the tweet and other comments regarding what was said.

According to New York Daily News, the New York Police Department is seeking a subpoena to learn the identity of the person who managed the Twitter account.

The Daily News managed to locate the user and, speaking with the news outlet, the unidentified man shared the following explanation: “It’s not like I meant anything of it. Who takes anything like that seriously? I’m in Florida, what am I going to do?”

Uh, it would appear that police will take very seriously not-so-subtle calls for murder. The Floridian Twitterer might still be learning how this confounded Twitterscape works since the account was only created on November 10, 2010, and didn’t really start becoming active until earlier this month.

@Smackema1 added more tweets and retweets after the incendiary comment from Saturday. They’re not exactly the most pacifying words you’ll read today, but he appears to be having a relatively small cultural second or two.

Note: going all militia-style by stating how you’ve got a license for weapons isn’t exactly the best way to mollify the antagonism and convince people you didn’t mean anything by what you said.

As of this morning, @Smackema1 was futilely trying to shout down the internet in an ensuing flame war that’s undoubtedly giving him a brutal lesson in this internet thing. Anybody want to take bets on whether @Smackema1 was surprised to find out that people can actually read what he says on the internet?

While these masks have become incredibly popular because of these protests, and because Anonymous has adopted them as their logo, for those who may not know, the masks were first made popular by Alan Moore and his V for Vendetta comic series. Inspired by the story of Guy Fawkes, the protagonist in “V” also dons the Guy Fawkes mask as part of his ensemble.

Because of the resurgence in popularity of the masks, the BBC asked Moore to discuss his viewpoint on the use of these masks. Considering his rebellious nature against the establishment, it’s not surprising to see Moore supports seeing the masks he introduced to the public used in such a manner:

After that, it wasn’t long before the character’s enigmatic Time-Warner trademarked leer appeared masking the faces of Anonymous protesters barracking Scientologists halfway down Tottenham Court Road.

Shortly thereafter it began manifesting at anti-globalisation demonstrations, anti-capitalist protests, concerted hacker-attacks upon those perceived as enabling state oppression, and finally on the front steps of St Paul’s…

It also seems that our character’s charismatic grin has provided a ready-made identity for these highly motivated protesters, one embodying resonances of anarchy, romance, and theatre that are clearly well-suited to contemporary activism, from Madrid’s Indignados to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Moore also comments on the protests themselves, approving of the nature of these citizens who are eager to speak out against various government positions, and it’s clear he embraces the public’s backlash towards their respective governments:

Today’s response to similar oppressions seems to be one that is intelligent, constantly evolving and considerably more humane, and yet our character’s borrowed Catholic revolutionary visage and his incongruously Puritan apparel are perhaps a reminder that unjust institutions may always be haunted by volatile 17th century spectres, even if today’s uprisings are fuelled more by social networks than by gunpowder.

Some ghosts never go away.

Considering the protests that are scheduled to go on all over Europe on Saturday, expect Moore’s pride in these protesters to grow even further, as masked citizens take the streets to speak out against ACTA, all while securing a modicum of personal privacy.

According to Jeff Roberts of paidContent, graffiti of Google’s logo has been showing up around New York City with one very shaming alteration: the two Os in “Google” have been replaced by surveillance cameras. The photo below is the picture of the graffiti that Roberts shared earlier today.

Roberts notes that the logo hasn’t existed at that particular location longer than few weeks and that this bridge seems to attract “tech-themed street art” so it’s unclear if this is a direct reply to Google’s changes to their Privacy Policy or just general discontent aimed at the company. Regardless, whenever a company starts to share the same wall of shame as SOPA (see the message scrawled to the right of the logo), it’s a reliable sign that people are decidedly angry with you.