Jason's page

UPDATE 2

2009-06-15T18:04:00.004-04:00

I'm sorry if I'm spamming with updates from Iran election but I think it's important and I want to document it (even if it's just for myself in the future) about what's happening. Also I know that maybe many people aren't following it and I want to summarize it and post pictures and video that might not be shown anywhere else but twitter. With that being said if you are reading this and want sources, or think I should correct information here please let me know in the comments section. I don't want to spread disinformation.

It is helpful to know how politics in Iran work:

Also it's a mistake to assume that Mousavi really did win. However, how can you trust a government that shoots it's own people.

It is a lot more complicated there than in the states. All power ultimately lies with the clerics and the Supreme Leader.

It's kind of unreal watching this from afar a few days before the election, during the election, and now the aftermath/uprising/revolution of the election. There are a few users doing status updates many times per hour giving a play by play account of what's going on inside Iran. This is all being done while circumventing government firewalls by the use of proxies which they get from americans/brits that are sent to them through direct message through twitter.

Of course twitter may not be as reliable as we would like but you come to trust a few users as they back up what they said with picture and video. This is better (not necessarily more accurate) than more credible news sources like CNN. (Credible being a loose term--do we really need to hear what Letterman said about Palin on CNN/MSNBC/FOX NEWS?)

http://twitter.com/persiankiwi and http://twitter.com/StopAhmadi have been the most accurate and consistent sources of information for me when it comes to twitter and the real time events. They have been posting almost non stop for the past 3 days. It is almost like a soap opera/ movie as events unfold. They post of shootings, fires, riots, friends being lost, upcoming protest events, where tanks are, and help to find proxies.

It's also important to note there are two kinds of police in Iran, you have the normal police, like what we have here, and they have respected the protesters and have not incited violence. But you also have the riot police which are called the Basij which to quote wikipedia

"Currently Basij serve as an auxiliary force engaged in activities such as law enforcement, emergency management, the providing of social service, organizing of public religious ceremonies, and more controversially morals policing and the suppresson of dissident gatherings.[3] They have a local organization in almost every city in Iran.[4]"

and

"GlobalSecurity.org reports that the Basij appear "to be undergoing something of a revival under the administration of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad."

The basij are the cause of the violence in Iran, they are answerable only to the Supreme Leader.

My mind is getting overwhelmed with that to share. Take a look at these pictures and videos:

The Basij firing on people in the crowd

(click to expand)
The crowd of people was 5 miles long, French press estimated it at 2 million people.

They busted in Iran and hauled off upwards of a 100 people. Those people are missing. When they came in they smashed computers and took flash drives, memory sticks, cameras and smashed computers to stop the spread information.

more pictures

I'm not one to sit around and circle jerk twitter, but with out them a lot of the information we are getting wouldn't be able to get out of Iran. Tonight we learned that twitter was going to be going through routine maintenance at 9:45 PST for 90 minutes. This is during the middle of the day in Iran! Wouldn't the Iranian Goverment love for them to be shut off from the outside world during this time. With enough people calling/tweeting/emailing twitter and their hosting provider they listened to us and postponed the maintenance.

It is interesting to me that before this weekend the only talk of Iran has been about it's nuclear programs or it's involvement in Iraq. I'm happy to see that it has switched to people wanting their freedom back. 80% of the people in Iran are under the age of 30. They are just like you and I.

Please stay informed:
The Atlantic with Andrew Sullivan is live-blogging

Huffingtonpost with Nico Pitney is live-blogging also

Update

2009-06-13T15:30:00.003-04:00

If you're going to cheat, at least make it believable. 62%? Come on Mahmoud, that's just silly.

Riot in the streets!

Green's not such a bad color

2009-06-11T23:14:00.004-04:00

I think it's interesting to hear about the Iranian election in the news. But what is more interesting is to hear about it as it's happening on some Iranian twitter feeds @mousavi1388, @GreenMousavi, @psiphoninc (has really great anti-filtering software). But you don't have to click on those links. Instead, let's

come over here. Let's look at some other interesting Iranian web things tonight:

Mousavi soars in Google trends all across cities in Iran: Google Trends

SMS is down just hours before election: No SMS

Mousavi's site is down because it's been DDOS'd (by gov't IP addresses)

I'm curious to find out tomorrow if any of these observations will reach mainstream media and blogs. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Here are some pictures from yesterday that I found at twitpic.com:

This movie is ridiculous and Hugh Jackman blows.

2009-04-30T23:27:00.001-04:00

Windows 7

2009-04-27T22:06:00.002-04:00

Oh man, look at some of the default desktop wallpapers that are going to be shipping with windows 7.

Many forget many of those who work at Microsoft are rich Seattle hippies.

[link]

examples:

TEA BAGGING

2009-04-10T22:08:00.003-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

TWITTER

2009-04-05T11:17:00.001-04:00

(I just wrote this up all fancy-like with pictures and commentary and then my computer restarted. So now you are getting the lite[sic] version.)

Preface:
I will never mention Twitter again after this post.

Personally, I think twitter jumped the shark when @barackobama joined middle of last year.

Content:
I must admit I like it that nerds/geeks/techies are finally shaping what are considered the cool and mainstream trends. Twitter has some good uses if used correctly, but I think most of it is rubbish. I think that statement applies to any mass media device such as television, radio, or the internet. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) your phone is now a mass media device. With rumors of Google buying it, Twitter is going to be here to stay, though I think the 140 character limit will be expanded soon as the technology advances. That being said, I found this graph and it seems to be accurate. I am categorized as a Lurker.

If you also want to be a lurker, these are my favorite people to follow. Most of the usernames are recognizable and all of them are real unless otherwise noted. The more cryptic or unknown's I'll translate or explain for you.

@hotdogsladies -Merlin Mann- Creater or 43folders.com and internet personality. I highly recommend
@levarburton -from reading rainbow/roots/star trek and rising internet personality.
@johncleese
@aplusk -Ashton Kutcher- A guilty pleasure and number 2 twitter user in the world.
@mrskutcher -demi moore another guilty pleasure
@tinafey
@rainnwilson -dwight schrute of the office and member of the Baha'i faith
@the_real_shaq -I am in awe of how he can condense and entire page of text into 140 characters
@mchammer -He has found new fame as a successful twitterer and internet celebrity. 374,000 followers.
@theellenshow
@jimmyfallon -I feel bad for this guy. He has big shoes to fill.
@ryanseacrest -HA!
@neilhimself -Neil Gaiman
@michaelianblack
@woot -deal site woot.com
@joelmchale -star of the soup
@cnnbrk -breaking news from CNN it's the only account that synch's directly to my phone. The #1 twitter account. 808,000 followers.
@stephencolbert - I'm not sure if this is a fake account or not.

Where the wild things are trailer

2009-03-25T23:33:00.002-04:00

hype or good movie?

real video made with tilt shift lense

2009-03-21T13:39:00.001-04:00

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Sci Fi Channel what are you thinking?!

2009-03-16T17:32:00.004-04:00

Check out Sci Fi channels new channel name : SyFy

Apparently Sci Fi was too geeky so in order to get a more mainstream audience they changed it to the much more mainstream SyFy.

Mr. Howe, the president of the Sci Fi channel explains the change, below:

“When we tested this new name, the thing that we got back from our 18-to-34 techno-savvy crowd, which is quite a lot of our audience, is actually this is how you’d text it,” said Mr. Howe.

Huh? "How you'd text it"--O rly. Wut a dmb fkn idea.

Not only does SyFy look like slang for syphilis, in polish it means a sort of a cross between zits, filth and scum. And more importantly, it just looks FUCKING STUPID.

I didn't know he had anything to do with San Francisco

2009-03-16T17:27:00.003-04:00

(that curry dip sounds tasty!)

Links

2009-03-15T11:30:00.003-04:00

Here are some blogs and websites you might enjoy. I know I do.

This is one of my favorite blogs. It is called modern mechan ix. The author posts really bizarre and old magazine articles and print ads such as those from modern mechanics.

And here is another example. Could come in handy in these troublesome times.

A new favorite of mine is idiot toys. This one is written by a techy brit who has fascinations with:

batteries.

executive mustaches.

and gadgets with faces.

Next up is extreme craft where we find crafts so Xtreme! ⓒ. Here is a child being birthed:

extreme craft has some other cool posts but the above is all you should need to want to go there and read every article.

thank you, internet!

2009-03-09T07:39:00.000-04:00

What the hell, America?! subtitled: items that $2 will buy you at Walgreen's.

2009-03-04T10:46:00.006-05:00

Today I was sick with a sore throat so I had time to browse Walgreen's while waiting for my prescription. Here are some things 2 dollars will buy you:

Above you have $2 buck choc (is that supposed to be read "two dollar buck choc"?). Anyways, wouldn't you much rather get 2 buck chuck:

Onion Blossom Pringles, brought to you buy Outback Steakhouse.

Chili flavored chocolate?

This chocolate is so tasty, the guy over at chocolatemisison.net blessed us with this superb pentagon graph he did in paint:

Dwight Yoakam's Fried Macaroni Mouth Poppers with macaroni and cheddar cheese sauce. (You can buy 2 of these!)

2009-03-01T17:49:00.001-05:00

Five Dashes

2009-03-01T16:51:00.000-05:00

I should probably tell you why I am calling this blog five-----dashes.

(In morse code, 0 is coded -----)

I am calling this blog five dashes because I did not know it was possible to have a website URL with consecutive dashes. So I tried it and I found out you can have consecutive dashes in your URL if you want to have them. Now your website can have multiple dashes in it if you want.

my favorite meme at the moment:

2009-03-01T12:09:00.000-05:00