Category Archives: Anonymous

Did YOU Remember?

Posted on by
Remember, Remember. Make sure Wall Street never forgets!

Remember, Remember. Make sure Wall Street never forgets!

Yes, it’s November 5th, Bank Transfer Day.

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, guy, t’was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England’s overthrow.

By God’s mercy he was catch’d
With a darkened lantern and burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.

And what shall we do with him?
Burn him!

http://twitter.com/#!/Jemima_Khan/statuses/132780357379563520

Who is this Thomas Jefferson guy? He sounds like a filthy dirty hippie.

Who is this Thomas Jefferson guy? He sounds like a filthy dirty hippie.

Don’t look now, but there’s something going on at the bank over there, George!

Occupy your own wallet by taking all your funds out of the Big Banks, putting them into your local credit union. You’ll get better service and better protections, you’ll own stock in a community business, and you’ll be helping make the world a better place.

Along with over one million Americans and counting:

That’s already about twice as many as switched from banks to credit unions last year, and when that video was made it wasn’t even November 5th yet! More switched in the month of October, 2011 than switched in all of last year.

“These results indicate that consumers are clearly making a smarter choice by moving to credit unions where, on average, they will save about $70 a year in fewer or no fees, lower rates on loans and higher return on savings,” said CUNA President Bill Cheney.

No relation to…you know…THAT guy.

Are banks really that evil? Let’s ask THIS guy:

Scott Warren opened an account at JP Morgan Chase Bank in 2009 to receive unemployment payments.

Scott Warren has some hard numbers for JP Morgan Chase

Scott Warren mailed his statement to Chase after switching to a credit union. It said 'Dear Chase, Occupy Wall St., from your ex-customer.'"

“Chase was the only one that set it up for you,” said Warren, who was a quality supervisor at Unisolar in Greenville before being laid off. “I went to the unemployment office, they gave me my paperwork. I go to Chase, they set me up, and, right away, they’re trying to get me to sign up for a credit card.”

Warren was stunned. And it happened every time he went into a branch, he said.

“They knew why I was there,” he said, referring to his unemployed status at the time. “I told them I didn’t think that was smart. This tells me that they are not in business to serve my needs. They intend to make money off of my failures.”

Here in Vancouver, a call has gone out from Nancy Zimmerman, Moneycoach, to VanCity Credit Union, one of the biggest success stories in the industry:

In light of corralled girls and teargassed wheel-chair bound women and articulate youth and the hashtag #occupy showing up here, there, everywhere, does Vancity have something to offer? Yes, this vid gives a glimpse of a better way. It’s inspiring.

But it’s not a manifesto, and if ever a ballsy manifesto (nothing pretty, please! and no slick marketing!) was needed from a financial institution, one whose DNA is still gritty and radical even if tamed over the years, it’s needed now. Is a credit union something more than a kinder, gentler bank? I’m listening. And I hope about 99% of Canadian citizens are too.

Think there was no Canadian bank bailout?

Lord Black of Conradistan

Lord Black of Conradistan

Think again:

Between September 2008 and March 2009, Canadian banks reduced their holdings of domestic residential mortgages from $486.1 billion to $434.9 billion according to Bank of Canada stats; on a net basis.

Where did those mortgages go, you ask? Did 10% of Canadian homeonwers sell their homes and move into rental accomodation enmasse during a six month period?

Of course not. The federal government created a unique program through CMHC specifically targeted at allowing Canadian chartered banks to move tens of billions of dollars of assets off of their balance sheets. The reason? Canadian banks couldn’t raise sufficient and/or cost-effective funding from their traditional sources – primarily other global financial institutions – and needed Crown intervention to keep the wolf from the door. By mid-November 2008, the federal government had agreed to take $75 billion of mortgages from Canadian banks.

Assuming the risk-weighting of these assets was 20%, the feds essentially put $15 billion of capital into the Canadian banks that participated in the $75 billion CMHC program.

Bank Transfer Day: Ah, remember how it all began!

Bank Transfer Day: Ah, remember how it all began!

More money for you, less for “Too big to fail” corporations that would no longer exist if your tax dollars hadn’t been used to prop them up when their own machinations dug a grave for them. No tie-dyed, herbal-tea-stained, smelly hippie radical protester fingerprints on any of it.

Taking back your own wealth while sticking it to The Man, making more money, and saving fees? 

Ca-CHING!

Haters Gonna Hate ... Gramma

Haters Gonna Hate ... Gramma

UPDATES:

Oh, it’s working all righty:

As of this writing, somebody’s posting to Facebook every 30 seconds that they ditched their bank in favor of a credit union…The campaign has caught on and credit unions reported a $4.5 billion surge in assets in October alone…

Should you wish to go about your business today or any other day wearing an Anonymous-approved Guy Fawkes mask, but hesitate to participate in consumerism by buying a mask copyrighted by Warner Brothers, you can print out a paper pattern for a 3D mask here, and you can find instructions on making an origami mask at the bottom of this post.

Is it hot in here?

Posted on by
FAP. Just what it says!

FAP. Just what it says!

Rumours to the contrary, it really IS just me.

You may have seen some of the right leaning newspapers carry the news that up to 90% of the tents outside St Paul’s for the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest are empty at night.

The newspapers are making the point that these protesters aren’t trying, that they don’t really care and that the tents are just a nuisance tactic that should be removed.

The newspapers used a thermal imaging camera to scan the square in order to reveal heat sources inside the tents. On the surface it sounds like a really smart idea. It’s an effective way to see which tents are occupied and which are empty that does not involve disturbing anyone.

Sounds logical, right? Sure sounded that way to the Vancouver firefighter I spoke to early this week, who said they’d done exactly the same thing here, and found most of the tents completely empty. Of course, the firefighter I spoke to a day later, the one with many more, very shiny badges that I couldn’t read because I’m all about the myopia, stated unequivocally that the Vancouver firefighters hadn’t used their infrared camera, although every truck has one, because “well, we just don’t want to KNOW some of what’s going on, and you can see absolutely everything with those cameras.” It’s true, nobody wants to inadvertently videotape the moment of Tent Baby‘s conception; hippie/hipster/crunchygranolaactivist/unionleader porn is not a genre with a great future ahead of it.

Now, I don’t think either of those men were lying, but only one can be right: either Vancouver Fire and Rescue used the infrared cameras or they didn’t. I asked the second firefighter if he’d be willing to put them to a test, which was when he brought up the fact that he for one wasn’t going to authorize the invasion of any tent dweller’s privacy, and kudos to him.

Whatever they are.

Anyhoodle, that’s not exactly what I had in mind. I had in mind something like this:

Following all the media hype (Telegraph, The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express) about ‘empty tents’ at OccupyLSX we decided to check out whether their thermal imaging evidence was true. 

We got hold of *exactly* the same thermal imaging camera and showed that – surprise, surprise – you can’t tell when people are in their tents. 

So don’t believe the lies – come down to OccupyLSX and join the vibrant community of people working for a better world. http://occupylsx.org

So today’s serving of some more paperwork on OccupyVancouver is particularly timely; they must have known I was working on this post! Awwww. I got a copy to digitize, which attempt failed when I couldn’t get Cathy Browne‘s scanner to work (I think it must be a 1%er; Canon is a huge company) but I took some pictures, so here are some.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

which reads:

Order (Pursuant to Vancouver fire by-law no. 8191) to:
As a Representative of Occupy Vancouver, Grounds of 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2H7 [wait, Occupy has its own postal code? That feels somehow validating!]

The premises Occupied by you to wit, Assembly located at 750 Hornby St Vancouver, BC, legally known as Plan 15322, New Westminster Land District, blks 51, 61 & 71 DL 541 PLN – 14423 Assessment includes improvements on 026-602-124-04 & 12 & 14 & 1-6 & 56 026-604-124-24 (exc. leased) Inspected on the 03 day of November 20011.

THE INSPECTION REVEALED THAT:
Vancouver fire by-law, Sentence 1.4.41.(1) – it is the opinion of the Fire Chief a condition exists at 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC which endangers life and poses a risk of injury or loss by fire due to;
1. The lack of secure and safe means of egress and access ways within any large tarpaulin structure containing secondary tent structures.
2. The use of open flame and/or flammable heat source.
3. The storage and use of propane or other fuel sources.

THEREFORE, pursuant to the authority vested in me in accordance with Clauses 1.4.4.1.(1) and Article 1.4.4.2.(1)(d), 1.4.4.2.(1)(e), 1.4.4.2.(1)f), 1.4.4.2.(1)(g) and 1/4/4/2/(1)(j) of Vancouver Fire By-law No. 8191, you are HEREBY ORDERED TO:

1. Remove all tarpaulin enclosures or erect overhead tarps as canopies providing full visibility and appropriate egress and access routes.
2. Provide, alter or improve a continuous path of travel to all individual tents within all tarpaulin structures.
3. Identify for Fire Safety Inspectors all tents that are occupied.
4. Remove all unoccupied tents.
5. Provide appropriate spacing between the tents to reduce/eliminate fire spread and smoke exposure.
6. Remove all open flame and/or flammable heat sources.
7. Ensure no propane or other fuel sources are located on this site.
8. Comply with any other provision of Vancouver Fire Bylaw 8191.

The work involved in this Order must be completed on or before: Immediately.

John McKearney, General Manager/Fire Chief

Both sides are probably going to be pissed at me for putting the Anonymous mask anywhere near this document, but what can I say? It does liven things up a titch.

Now, our old friend Rumour has some things to say, but first we’re going to hear from me, because it’s my blog and Rumour will just have to wait his damn turn again.

I was there the night the fire lanes and access paths were built, and people cooperatively moved tents. Yes, it was a pain in the ass, but nobody wants to die and nobody wants the Occupation to get shut down, so people cooperated. Generally, the firefighters other uniformed personnel have been pretty cool. There’s no hostility, and at the General Assembly you can generally find several paying close attention not because they’re conducting surveillance, but because they’re actually interested. I tried to donate a railway lantern, and everyone just said NO, are you KIDDING? because they have actually been very good about no flames in Tent City. The issue of the big Uber-tarps over a whole cluster of tents was raised Wednesday, so it’s no surprise that this was coming. The firefighters were firm about the danger; not only can they not tell when a tent inside the superstructure is on fire, but there are really no clear ways out in case of danger. I can attest to the fact that the media tent’s door is so well-hidden that it’s going to be my LAST choice of exit in case of emergency.

The meditation tent even has those electric votives, by the way.

DSCN4119

Okay, back to Rumour. Rumour says that this morning firefighters found not only had tents encroached on the fire lanes and accessways, but also there were several propane tanks sitting out in the open right in one of the accessways.

Prize for the stupidest Occupier has just been won, methinks. At least he lost those tanks, and they’re not that cheap.

About the man who overdosed this morning: all I know at this point is, he OD’d in a tent and isn’t dead at this point, although his condition is either serious or critical. Someone very smart on Twitter said that it’s a good thing it happened in Tent City, because if he were in a less public, less collectivist space he could well have died. This is the city where my co-op put up seven foot high steel fences to keep people from OD’ing in the playground, because they choose isolated places to shoot up, and then people never find them in time. I’ll report back on that when I know more. There were apparently (according to Rumour) serious talks only yesterday about drug use, in particular smoking drugs in the plaza and at the GA. People are particularly concerned because there are young children living here. No resolution one way or the other as far as I know.

Welcome to Vancouver

Welcome to Vancouver

How do you spell “Hail Cthulhu” in Elvish?

Posted on by
Occupy Pumpkin Patch

GPOY: Occupy Pumpkin Patch

via Vicki McLeod

One does not simply walk into Gourd Door

One does not simply walk into Gourd Door

I had the best costume today, even if the mask didn’t fit very well.

V for Vogue

V for Vogue

The best part was that when people at, say, Starbucks looked surprised and alarmed (and they did) I just said, “Well, we TOLD you to expect us!” and they’d laugh.

Didn’t get the pumpkin carved in time (Elvish characters are a bitch to make without a proper Elven Pumpkin Carving Dagger) so I guess I’ll be eating a lot of curry, soups, and pie [holla, Oxford Comma] in the near future. And even though I had no jack o’ lantern and the porch light was out, I did get a few kids showing up: one four year old Super Mario, one six year old witch, a three year old um something vampiric I guess, and two older kids around twelve, one dressed in civvies and the other at least halfheartedly tried with a boy scout uniform. I rooted through the kitchen in desperation and ended up giving out all the apples. Super Mario Boy, “Oh goody, I LOVE apples!” By the time I remembered the lowfat caramel dip (what do you dip in it, Jenny Craig?) I was all out of Trick or Treaters for this year.

Then the cats and I spent four hours watching the fireworks in the park behind the house. Yes. Four. Hours. Every time there was a pause the black cat would freak out and start frantically pawing at the glass to make it start again. The bizarre thing is, it worked Every. Single. Time. The other cat expressed himself more directly, by expressing himself over the rug which is, thank god, machine washable.

In other news of unholy manifestations, I see that He is risen at last.

That’s right, bitches: Cthulhu is back!

Cthulhu is fit to be Thai'd

Cthulhu is fit to be Thai'd

As you can clearly see from these before-and-after pictures of the Chao Phraya river, He has returned…to Thailand. Great, do you have any idea how much the airfare will be?

HE could be a little more considerate, knowmasayin’?

Cthulhu as Nixon. He really IS evil.

Cthulhu as Nixon. He really IS evil.

Occupy Vancouver Monday Photos and thoughts

Posted on by

Well ladies and gentlemen, as you can see from scrolling down it looks like Flickr is censoring all my OccupyVancouver images so that you have to actually sign in to Flickr to see them. I’ve emailed them twice and just get the generic “you can change permissions under Bulk Editing or on each photo” and in fact I CAN’T. Here’s an image they deleted from my blog:
UPDATE: well, someone was censoring my photos, but it turned out to be me. So much for my urge to tinker with the Flickr Uploader. NEVER AGAIN! All fixed now, moving on…

Occupy Vancouver. I'm not lion, this got censored on Flickr

Occupy Vancouver. I'm not lion, this got censored on Flickr

Pretty obscene, eh?

So from now on I’ll be uploading them directly to WordPress.com. I only went to Flickr in the first place because I thought they were better than Photobucket, which censored this image:

Never Forget

Never Forget. Coalition of the Willing, to Power

Sorry to go all Godwin’s Law on you, Flickr, but you deserve it.

I’m uploading the pix here, so it’s going to take a little more time than before, but bear with me. I’m even uploading two videos to YouTube, and by the way, if you’ve got a video capable camera and a YouTube account, there are such a diversity of opinions at Occupy Vancouver that they would very much welcome your presence to document them all. There’s someone there today videoing and interviewing people to upload, and he could use some company.

Here’s the first video, which gives you a good idea how the Human Mic works. Effective, elegant, and absolutely free!

Like I said on YouTube, this is how your political sausage is made at Occupy Vancouver; slowly, inclusively, democratically. I’m impressed. And here’s the second one:

The guy at the end is worth waiting for.

Will update this post when all the images are uploaded. Check back in an hour or so. It’s worth it: I took the GOOD camera today! And should I ever get a 24 hour stretch of internet AND power access, I’ll even do that post on Love Is The Killer App that I’ve been meaning to put on raincoastermedia.com for two weeks!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Here’s your slideshow, finally. It’ll probably be tomorrow before both videos are uploaded, alas.

While the crowd was considerably thinner than Saturday, I’d estimate that tents are up 20%. There are over fifty tents there now, not including the service tents like Food Not Bombs, the Medic tent, etc. And the Kid Zone is well-populated. The General Assembly is in full effect, although not using amplification; I’d heard they couldn’t afford to keep it indefinitely, and some people told me they preferred the Human Mic because it was the ultimate triumph of humanity over impersonal, expensive tech.

The chubby, swarthy, middle-aged security guard who was on duty at the top of the stairs (not the tall, lean, young one who is very cool) made it his business to walk over and kick over signs placed on the stairs, and to tell me “that’s far enough” when I got within two steps of the top, even though the public is legally allowed to occupy the area right up to the fence at the top of the stairs. And yes, he is in these pictures. Click to enlarge.

Operation Don’t Be An Asshat or I’ll post your picture on a blog with four million hits in effect.

Speaking of identification, you might like Anonymous Mask in 3D to print out and put together. FYI I got that via this cool site (warning, autoplay radio).

The emergent imagery, of a fist clutching a red rose, is pretty powerful, although there are also many images of an open, upraised hand, the open hand of peace as I’ve heard it called. And yes, there are t-shirts. Apparently someone was just giving them away to the stalwarts who are chairing groups and working day after day, but I heard something about you can bring your old shirt down and they’ll put the symbols on it? I couldn’t find The T-Shirt Guy, but you are perfectly at liberty to adopt any of my images and print them out on that iron-on transfer paper you can get at Staples or wherever.

In the daytime the lions had lost the hearts in their eyes (probably under the influence of Asshat, see above) but by sunset the hearts had been re-installed. While it’s a lovely image, ferocious, powerful predators looking at the world through love, isn’t putting something on their eyes what you do with corpses? I don’t know: my family’s so cheap that someone always pocketed the pennies before the wake was over.

One fellow, in true Turning Swords Into Ploughshares style, had a suede arrow quiver for his tripod, which was appropriate. After all the complaints yesterday about the litter smokers made, today was almost smoke-free, and the ones I did see smoking were conscientious about non-asshattery and containing their litter. There was also a volunteer sweeping the steps pretty regularly. And there was an anti-tobacco campaigner on the premises; it IS ironic to be enslaved to Big Tobacco, but you can bet your last bippy, whatever that is, that if I were so addicted I’d be pretty resentful to the people who market that shizz.

The fellow in the More Heart sign is hand-carved of awesome. If you run into him, talk to him, because he has Deep Thoughts and Shit, and more heart than is legally allowed under the Statues of British Columbia. We all need the courage to have More Heart lately; engaged emotion is the last frontier.

Then I got a lot of shots of manifestii, schedules, calls to order, and Lists Of Shit We Need Donated. If you can’t click to enlarge them, maybe I’ll embed them all after a page jump.

Planking at 4:20. OF COURSE.

The meditation circle is apparently a very powerful experience. The original security dude, the tall, lean, non-asshatty one, almost had tears in his eyes as he described it to me. It’s a better world already when security forces partake of meditation circles and have evanescent experiences therein. Maybe I’ll go and report back myself because…

Occupy Vancouver has a second wind now. Yes, the Celebrity Effect is in full effect: Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine (and could there be a more timely band name?) is going to attend and perform on Wednesday; no time specified yet. He’s been at Occupy LA for some time, apparently, and you can follow his Occupation travels on Twitter. Previously, of course, billionaire Russell Simmons has led meditations at Occupy Wall Street and volunteered to pay for the cleanup via Twitter, to much skepticism. Why’d he use Twitter, people ask…why not just email the mayor directly?

Because Russell Simmons understands the power of social media. You want to back people into a corner, you do it in public so they can’t weasel out.

Accessibility is a big part of Occupy Vancouver, but there’s an ongoing problem with people chaining their bikes to the ramps, which makes them impassable for the wheelchairs for which they were built. Again: don’t be the asshat. Don’t be That Guy.

Gotta love “Please treat this Porta-Potty as if it were your own” signs. So Canadian. And of course it’s Vancouver, so there’s coffee. Free coffee. I’d like to know how they hooked THAT up!

You know, should I for a moment hesitate to photograph people without their permission I just have to look at the Japanese girl to my left at Starbucks, who has been videoing nonstop since arriving at this cafe an hour ago. There IS no “Off-Camera” anymore.

My Dad is so proud of you

My Dad is so proud of you

My Dad was
born #887 Hornby
in 1912. He is so
proud of
you all.

Ran into the Protest March through the Financial District at Howe and Pender. I was minding my own business, walking a friend to her next appointment, and then we saw flashing police lights and I said, “Let’s walk over this way” to nobody’s great surprise. Just caught the tail end of it, but it was substantial. At least a couple of hundred people, lots of signs.

At the VAG there was only one person I saw in an Anonymous mask, but s/he was making the most of it, getting the attention of passing cars. On Twitter there’s been some pushback about the masks and the concept of Lulz in general; people claim that the presence of jokers diminishes the entire movement, but this is getting it absolutely mathematically perfectly bass-ackwards: artists and jokesters are the way radical ideas first begin to integrate themselves into a society. If we got these hard truths from a straight man, we’d get our backs up. Shakespeare knew this when he wrote The Fool into King Lear.

Took a break and hit Cafe Artigiano, then back I went at about 6:00, just as the sunset light started. It gets cold at night; blankets, even those $2 space blankets from Canadian Tire, would be welcome.

Oh, I did see one of those Red Tents from the always-awesome Pivot Legal Society that were part of the Olympic protests. Good to see them still in use: sad to see they were necessary in the first place, and now more than ever.

I got a couple of shots of the beautiful Catherine and her partner David, modeling their signs, “Live in Harmony with Nature by Eliminating Price” and “Science vs Chaos.” Of course you know I’m all Team Chaos, but they were nice people anyway, from the Technocracy movement, and we had a great discussion about how the new paradigm hippies are skipping most of the 20th century and combining the best of the 17th with the best of the 21st, going off-grid with communications capabilities from the Digital Revolution.

It’s not every day you have those kinds of conversations, if you’re not an undergraduate.

Okay I give up what IS Kyriarchy?

Okay I give up what IS Kyriarchy?

w00t! as the kids say. Ya larn sumpin new ever day on the innernets:

Kyriarchy is a neologism coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza to describe interconnected, interacting, and multiplicative systems of domination and submission, within which a person oppressed in one context might be privileged in another.[1] It is an intersectional elaboration of the concept of patriarchy[1] — it extends the analysis of oppression beyond traditional feminism to dynamics such as sexism, racism, economic injustice, and other forms of internalized and institutionalized oppression[2].

I could have SWORN that said "Lawyer Up"

I could have SWORN that said "Lawyer Up"

Occupy Vancouver Day Two (Night One) Photos

Posted on by

Yes, I suck as a photographer. But I was there, and here’s what I saw, and below are my notes.

Flickr has hidden the photos behind a sign-in, so there will be a slight delay. Sorry. Bloody censors! Okay, guess what” That was entirely my fault. Should be fixed now. Sorry, Flickr!

Vodpod videos no longer available.

The first thing I noticed on my way to Occupy Vancouver was that last night the Bay took the perfume out of the window displays, whereas on Friday night they hadn’t. Goddam those fucking Chanel #5 hooligans, spoiling midnight window shopping for the rest of us! Bloody one percenters!

Stopped for a few minutes to listen to the band the Sons of Granville. If you haven’t heard of them, you will. I don’t even LIKE live music, and they stopped me in my tracks. Let’s just say I’ve never seen a viola player go Full Jimi Hendrix before, but it was not something I’ll forget quickly (nor will the knees of his jeans, I’m thinking). Not sure what you’d call the music: roots rock on a viola, acoustic guitar, and percussionist who played a speaker? Something like that.

The scene was quite different from the night before, with perhaps 30 small tents (some, yes, staked, but mostly nowadays you don’t need to stake the tents because tension keeps them up) and maybe a thousand people when I first arrived. Perhaps 600 by midnight, hanging around and listening to some guy rock out on the mandolin. Yes, there were a lot of dreadlocks there; how’d you guess? Heard that the police asked them to shut off the amplification at 11pm (there was a brief panic on Twitter as “the cops are moving in” but that’s all it turned out to be). There are two expensive hotels overlooking the protest grounds, and I suppose there must be noise bylaws about such things, even though I noticed the Hotel Georgia had only one window lighted on the side facing the Art Gallery; they’ve obviously put most of their guests in the inferior-view-having East side of the building, so they don’t have to stare at dirty hippies all day.

In related news, our old friend Rumour has some more news: that the new Superman movie is scheduled to be filmed at the Art Gallery and many protesters have been given to understand, somehow, by persons nameless, that the protest will have to pack up so that the (very expensive) show can go on. They seem quite resigned to it, which surprises and disappoints me. Surely this is the very thing for which movie production insurance was invented! Take those bastards at AIG for millions, Paramount! Solidarity!!! Stand fast! Supes would want it that way!

The cops were hanging out, being cool, and not appearing to take much notice of anything. There was a resolution made while I was there that the cops should stay out of the tented area unless their presence is specifically requested there; not exactly sure whether the cops replied to that or even if a response was required, but I’d expect cops will do their jobs, and if that means wading in, they will so wade.

This is as good a place as any to remind people that you can download Civil disobedience guide and you should so do. It’s fascinating reading, and quite up-to-date, as the date on it is September 23rd of this year. It even gives a list of things you should/should not bring to a demonstration, and here is an excerpt (click to enlarge):

What to Bring to a Protest from the Guide to Civil Disobedience in BC

What to Bring to a Protest from the Guide to Civil Disobedience in BC

There, don’t say I never did nothing for ya. Also, if you add baking soda to the water in your bottles it’s better for staving off dehydration AND rinsing tear gas. Just sayin’. I learned that by reading the WHOLE document, as I’ve already mentioned you should do and if not, what have you got to do that’s more important, eh? You just never know when you’re gonna get tear-gassed lately.

Speaking of servicey protest posts…I learned something useful while frittering away the seconds (we live on internet time now, baby) over at LolJulian, the Julian Assange Fangirl Tumblr. This is: what is up with all the bloody chanting? Seriously, I was getting worried this was some sort of indoctrination procedure, but it turns out to be something not only benevolent, but useful too: the human microphone. I don’t feel stupid, though, because Julian clearly didn’t know what it was either, till someone explained it to him.

from ImNotASlag:

Since Julian Assange’s speech at Occupy in London yesterday, people seem to have been freaking out about one specific thing: the crowd repeated everything he said.

Now, everyone who is shouting “he thinks he’s the messiah!”, “who does he think he is, God?!”, “he’s become like a cult leader!!!”, “it’s like that scene from Life of Brian!!!!1”, take a moment and read this.

There’s something called the ‘human microphone’, you may not be familiar, I wasn’t either until a few days ago, but let me fill you in. It’s when a crowd of people repeats everything the person speaking to them says. That’s basically it. It’s been done plenty of times at many protests and such, and especially at several of the Occupy protests round the world.

Amongst many others, Slavoj Žižek and Michael Moore are fairly well known names who have spoken to Occupy protesters, and the crowd repeated everything they said also, you can find videos on YouTube.

If you still don’t believe me and just want to pick on something else Julian Assange has done, just watch the video above. About 1 second in you hear a woman shout ‘human mic!’ and again a few seconds later. Julian starts his speech 8 seconds in, and is quickly interrupted by the crowd repeating what he had said. He looks a bit confused for a moment, then a couple seconds later, at about 11 seconds in, someone out of the frame apparently informs him as to what’s happening.

So, what is it they say on Mythbusters? Oh, right, busted.

Right then. Still sorta creepy if you’re not expecting it.

By the way, who’s this Mike Check they keep yelling for? He sure is popular.

I did climb out on the lions to see what was on their eyes, but it was only hearts, no actual words. Someday a shrink is going to lecture me about my tendency to see patterns and layers of meaning where there aren’t any, but that day is not today. In any case, the lions have love in their eyes, awwww.

Which is as good a place as any to mention that the Occupy Vancouver site is overlooked by skyscrapers housing HSBC, the world’s largest bank, the Toronto Dominion building, the Four Seasons, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, and, off in the distance, the Royal Bank building. Kitty corner is the building that used to and may still house IBM.

Sad that the last photo in the set is of the memorial water fountain that was put in place during the early years of the last century to provide drinking water to the urban poor.

The actual fountain has been removed.