Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Colin Munroe - Will I Stay feat. Wale - Rehearsal Footage
On the topic of Colin Munroe, here is by far the best version of his song, done with Wale. Other versions sound too pop, but this hits it just right with heavy percussion.
Colbert Study: Conservatives Don't Know He's Joking
I'm in a way surprised, and not at all surprised by this study done by Ohio State University on how Stephen Colbert's parody of a conservative talk show host is received by true conservatives:
This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion.
Full study.
Maybe they forgot this:
Monday, April 27, 2009
Okayplayer T-Shirt Competition
So Okayplay is doing a t-shirt contest. They have some pretty badass t-shirts, mostly designed by the Roots.
Here is my submission:
Front
Back
Logo
Here is my submission:
Front
Back
Logo
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Kanye West - Amazin' (feat. Young Jeezy)
This is one of my favorite tracks off of 808s. Not sure how I feel about the video. Looks like Planet Earth with splices of Kanye and Young Jeezy at a beach bonfire. Looks like it was filmed in Kaui and the Grand Canyon.
Republicans flinging bullsh!t at the Climate Bill
Functioning infant Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill) had this to say about the draft climate bill now being heard in Congress:
He went on to say that global warming is God's will:
From Grist.org
How are these really our elected officials?
This is the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I’ve ever experienced. I’ve lived through some tough times in Congress. We’ve seen two wars, terrorist attacks. I fear this more than all of the above.
He went on to say that global warming is God's will:
From Grist.org
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) chimed in with his own analysis: “Adapting is a common natural way for people to adapt to their environment ... I believe that the earth’s climate is changing, but I think it’s changing for natural variation reasons,” he said. “And I think mankind has been adopting, or adapting to climate as long as man has walked the earth. When it rains, we find shelter. When it’s hot, we get shade. When it’s cold, we find a warm place to stay.”
(And if you think that’s bad, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told ABC on Sunday that “the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. ... Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide.”)
The witness skepticism program
The witnesses Republicans bring to hearings are just as out of touch with climate science.
Democrats, who control Congress and thus chair its committees, schedule hearings on topics of their choosing and invite witnesses. A committee chair isn’t required to grant the minority party their pick of witnesses, but if the minority objects to the panel, they can request a second day of the hearing for which they pick all the witnesses. To avoid that messiness, chairs tend to let the minority pick at least one or two panelists.
At the March 25 hearing, Democrats’ five witnesses included the director of the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the director of natural resources and environment at the Government Accountability Office, and leaders from the National Wildlife Federation, the National Council of Churches, and Oxfam America.
The NOAA representative, Tom Karl, presented on the trends toward increased droughts and forest fires, and an uptick in the frequency and severity of coastal storms that the agency forecasts. John Stephenson from the GAO talked about the “growing understanding” at his agency that the costs of inaction could be greater than the costs of mitigating climate change. Even the witnesses who don’t work in climate science or government stuck to the topic at hand—adapting to a warmed world—without claiming expertise they don’t possess. Bishop Callon Holloway of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, speaking on behalf of the National Council of Churches, testified about the “call to be good stewards of the earth,” reflecting on the values of “stewardship and justice” that should compel us to protect the poor who would be affected by climate change.
In stark contrast, the Republicans’ witnesses challenged the very idea of climate change, and thus the whole basis for the hearing. First up was E. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, who warned that “fear of catastrophic, man-made global warming is a mistake,” and argued that because the “biblical worldview sees the world and ecosystems as the work of a wise God,” humankind couldn’t possibly be affecting the climate. Going further, he warned that restricting the amount of carbon put into the atmosphere would harm the poor, and that Americans are “morally obligated to provide access for the poor to affordable, abundant fossil fuels.”
The minority’s second witness was Lord Christopher Monckton, aka the 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, a British hereditary peer who’s become a minor star in the climate-skeptic world. “The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing,” he told the panel. He readily agreed with Rep. Shimkus: “We are a carbon-starved planet.”
Monckton argued that if Congress moved to address climate change, it would “create green jobs by the thousands and eliminate real jobs by the millions ... Green jobs are the new euphemism for vast unemployment.”
He also contended that aggressive environmental regulation in California has prompted a vast exodus from the state. “Everyone with the means to get up and go is getting up and going, and unlike their robotic governor, they won’t be back,” Monckton said—though he offered no evidence of a mass migration. (In reality, the state’s overall population continues to grow, even though the number of people moving out of California has slightly surpassed the number moving in.)
Monckton has a colorful history—journalist by training, advisor to Margaret Thatcher, business consultant, and developer of the high-selling Eternity puzzle—but no background in climate science. Nonetheless, he’s touted by climate deniers as an “expert” on the topic, and serves as chief policy adviser to the Science & Public Policy Institute, a climate-skeptic group. Republicans also trotted Monckton out as a witness at a Ways and Means Committee hearing on climate change in February, and he appeared at the climate skeptics summit sponsored by the conservative Heartland Institute in early March. (See George Monbiot, DeSmogBlog, and Deltoid for more on Monckton.)
“This was a serious hearing on a serious issue,” an aide to the Energy and Commerce Committee told Grist of the March 25 panel. “We gave the other side advance notice on the kinds of witnesses [Democratic leaders] were choosing. They chose to invite Monckton. ... If this is the witness that they want to choose, even though he’s contradicted by U.S. government scientists, then we’re going to move forward.”
Will the GOP play ball or throw sand?
Climate legislation will be highly complex, with society-wide ramifications. So far this year, there have been 11 hearings on the topic in the Energy and Environment Subcommittee alone, and there will be a number of additional hearings over the coming weeks focusing specifically on the draft climate plan from Markey and Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Markey has said they left many specifics out of their draft because they “want to hear from all affected parties” on, for instance, how to minimize impacts on citizens and help energy-intensive businesses adapt to a new regulatory scheme.
But instead of inviting witnesses who could speak to these critical concerns, the Republican committee members have thus far preferred to invite climate skeptics.
Asked about the prospects for meaningful Republican participation in crafting a climate bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) acknowledged recently that there might not be much, if any. “We would hope to have Republican votes as we go forward on this,” she said. “Will I not put it forth unless I do? No. There’s an inevitability to this that everyone has to understand.”
The Energy and Commerce Committee will hold its first four hearings on the Waxman-Markey bill this week, starting on Tuesday. Democratic leaders aim to pass the legislation out of committee by Memorial Day, and out of the full House by July. If you want to know how seriously Republicans are taking the process, keep an eye on these hearings.
How are these really our elected officials?
World’s first climate refugees"
Environmentalists predict that climate change will affect more than 375 million people every year by 2015, due to natural disasters and rising sea levels.
Thousands of people in Bangladesh are thought to be the world’s first “climate refugees” due to severe flooding.
Shaun Boothe: Unauthorized Biography of BOB MARLEY (2nd of 12)
Robert Nesta Marley is definitely an inspiration; musically, politically, spiritually, and especially because he is also biracial like myself. This unauthorized biography touches on his early life with an absent white dad, but a strong black mother.
Shaun Boothe: Unauthorized Biography of James Brown (1st of 12)
So I just discovered this guy Shaun Boothe, who writes and makes videos for unauthorized biographies of famous, influential, and inspirational historic figures from different spectrums of society. He is doing a series of twelve, and here is the first on James Brown. I will post the next four shortly.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Foreclosing the Future: Coal, Climate and International Public Finance
I've been working on this for the last 2 months for work. Check it out.
http://www.edf.org/coalfinance
An Environmental Defense Fund report has found that the World Bank and other international public financial institutions are continuing a 15-year trend of supporting coal-fired power plant construction throughout the developing world and economies in transition.
By financing this new carbon-intensive infrastructure, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and export credit agencies (ECAs) of the industrialized world are hamstringing the fight against global warming and setting back longer term efforts to alleviate poverty in the world's poorest countries.
* Since 1994, the World Bank, other MDBs and ECAs financed new construction or expansion of 88 coal-fired power plants.
* These plants will generate roughly 791 million tons of CO2 emissions per year, or more than 75% of the current emissions for coal-fired power in the entire European Union.
* According to the International Energy Agency, without a decisive reorientation of energy investment from carbon-intensive sources in developing and emerging economies, atmospheric CO2 will overshoot the point of no return for dangerous global warming, even if the industrialized world were to reduce its CO2 emissions to zero by 2030.
The time for change is now
EDF urges the MDBs and ECAs to hasten the shift to renewable energy by adopting the following recommendations:
1. Deploy public international finance in support of renewable energy, energy efficiency and other alternatives to coal. Scarce public international resources should go to renewable technologies and energy efficiency programs, which will help countries grow and alleviate poverty while reducing the impacts of global warming on the poor.
2. Calculate coal's true cost; MDBs and ECAs should institute comprehensive Greenhouse Gas Screening and Accounting and Shadow Carbon Pricing for all projects that emit greenhouse gases. (Shadow Carbon Pricing includes the external cost of carbon emissions to society and the economy.)
3. Create under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the first international database of GHG-intensive investments (including coal plants) and their emissions by public finance institutions. No such database currently exists.
4. Negotiate as soon as possible, an international agreement among OECD member nations on a common climate/GHG policy for their ECAs.
Read the summary [PDF] of "Foreclosing the Future" to learn more about the financing behind these plants and their impact on the fight against global warming.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
NYULocal: Nyle is Not Just a River in Egypt: An Interview with an NYU Student on the Verge of Graduating as a Hip-Hop Star
So after hearing is cover of Lil Wayne's "Let the Beat Build," I was wondering who this guy Nyle was. He's a senior at NYU, and an up and coming star. Granted, he'll need a producer with fresh beats, but with a resume such as the "Let the beat Build" video (posted earlier today), he shouldnt have an problems with that when he graduates.
Here is an NYULocal article about him:
Nyle Emerson, an NYU senior, has recently begun to make a name for himself across the internet for his impressive and catchy video “Let the Beat Build.” The video has swept its way across hip hop blogs and gone legitimately viral, garnering over 10,000 hits in just three days. Though it’s this video that caught NYU Local’s attention, Emerson has been working hard since high school to achieve his dream of becoming the next rap superstar, performing shows at the Bowery Poetry Club and compiling audio and video EPs. The first thing you’ll notice about Emerson is that he’s not your stereotypical hip hop hopeful. Thoughtful, incredibly intelligent and endlessly passionate about his art, I had to restrain myself from wanting to jump across the room and hug him. Entertainment Editor Joe Coscarelli and I sat down with Nyle yesterday at the Clive Davis Recording Studio at 194 Mercer to discuss music, hip hop nonprofits and the making of “Let the Beat Build.”
Joe: When did you record the video for your version of Lil Wayne’s “Let the Beat Build”?
Nyle: The video was recorded the 2nd week in March, I believe. About a month and a half ago. A friend hit me up and said that they wanted to do a video, my friend Jo Gallino was just like, “Yo, there’s this Lil’ Wayne track, I don’t know if you’ve heard it but when we get back to school we should record it with my band and do a video for it. And I was like okay, cool. And I heard it, and it got stuck in my head…
Joe: It’s a catchy beat.
Nyle: It’s a really catchy beat. and I immediately wrote a bunch of stuff that night. I wrote 3 verses for it and um, I don’t know, the video thing just kind of fell through. While I was writing I kept getting all these ideas and while I was sitting on it and waiting to hear back from them I just kept getting all these ideas built up in my head. So I knew I wanted to milk NYU for some money before I graduated, so I applied for pro funds with 194 Recordings which is the label club of Clive Davis.
continued.....
Ed Markey response to John Boehner
Here is Ed Markey, co-author with Henry Waxman of the renewable energy draft bill which will go before Congress at the Green Apple Festival in DC explaining why the EPA's finding that greenhouse gases were harmful to humans is "the most important decision in the history of environmental decisions."
Props
Nyle "Let the Beat Build"
Nyle "Let The Beat Build" from Last Pictures on Vimeo.
There are far too many Lil Wayne covers out there, but this one is inspired.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Boehner: It's 'comical' to say carbon dioxide is dangerous
I hate to be partisan, but Jesus H. Christ............republicans..........
The video speaks for itself. Transcript below.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let me ask you then about energy. We showed your statement on the president's decision through the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. Also, you've come out against the president's proposal to cap-and-trade carbon emissions.
So what is the Republican answer to climate change? Is it a problem? Do you have a plan to address it?
BOEHNER: George, we believe that our -- all of the above energy strategy from last year continues to be the right approach on energy. That we ought to make sure that we have new sources of energy, green energy, but we need nuclear energy, we need other types of alternatives, and, yes, we need American-made oil and gas.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But that doesn't do anything when it comes to emissions, sir.
BOEHNER: When it comes to the issue of climate change, George, it's pretty clear that if we don't work with other industrialized nations around the world, what's going to happen is that we're going to ship millions of American jobs overseas. We have to deal with this in a responsible way.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So what is the responsible way? That's my question. What is the Republican plan to deal with carbon emissions, which every major scientific organization has said is contributing to climate change?
BOEHNER: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, when they do what they do, you've got more carbon dioxide. And so I think it's clear...
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don't believe that greenhouse gases are a problem in creating climate change?
BOEHNER: ... we've had climate change over the last 100 years -- listen, it's clear we've had change in our climate. The question is how much does man have to do with it, and what is the proper way to deal with this? We can't do it alone as one nation. If we got India, China and other industrialized countries not working with us, all we're going to do is ship millions of American jobs overseas.
WP: Somalia's Godfathers: Ransom-Rich Pirates - Coastal Villagers Find Blessings And Ruin at Hands of Sea Robbers
NAIROBI -- The young Somali couple had plans. Ilka Ase Mohamed and the love of his life, tall, bright-eyed Fatima Mukhtar, were going to leave their little fishing town of Harardhere, attend university and, when Mohamed had enough cows for a dowry, get married.
But a little over a year ago, the woman Mohamed still calls "my beloved girl" was betrothed to a Somali pirate who wears a black cowboy hat, drives a Land Cruiser and paid $50,000 cash in what Mohamed described as a soulless deal with her mother.
"This man was like a small king who came to Harardhere," said Mohamed, 23. "He was dressed like a president. So many people attended him. I got so angry -- I said, 'Why do they accept this situation? You know this is pirate money!' "
The story of Mohamed, Fatima and the brazen Somali pirate -- based on an interview with Mohamed after he moved to Kenya -- underscores how entrenched piracy and its flashy new-money culture have become in the tiny, worn-out fishing villages that dot Somalia's coast.
As the world's most powerful navies patrol the vast shipping lanes of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, Somali pirates are commanding millions in ransom for the massive cargo vessels they seize. Even since a U.S. show of force last week, when Navy snipers killed three pirates and freed an American captain being held hostage, pirates have seized several more ships with dozens of hostages.
Given the challenge of patrolling more than a million square miles of ocean, attention is turning toward fighting piracy from the Somali shore, where ransoms that totaled about $50 million last year are pouring into fishing villages such as Harardhere, and well-armed pirates are overwhelming what little local authority exists in a country that has been without a functioning central government since 1991......continued...
Friday, April 17, 2009
Skyzoo - The Power of Words (Mixtape)
Skyzoo Mixtape featuring Maino, Young Chris, Talib Kweli, Reks, Rapper Big Pooh, Naledge, Wale & EPMD. Production coming from the likes of Jake One, Illmind, Khrysis, 9th Wonder, Dilla and Statik!
Download
WP: EPA to Propose Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Environmental Protection Agency today plans to propose regulating greenhouse gas emissions on the grounds that these pollutants pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, according to several sources who asked not to be identified.
The move, coming almost exactly two years after the Supreme Court ordered the agency to examine whether emissions linked to climate change should be curbed under the Clean Air Act, would mark a major shift in the federal government's approach to global warming.
Former President George W. Bush and his deputies opposed putting mandatory limits on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for years on the grounds that it would harm the economy; Congress is considering legislation that would do so but it remains unclear whether it can pass the proposal and enact it into law in the near future.
Late last month EPA sent the White House a formal finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare; the Office of Management and Budget signed off on the determination Monday.
When reached this morning, EPA spokesman Allyn Brooks-LaSure declined to comment on the matter.
President Obama pledged to limit greenhouse gases as a candidate, but has urged Congress to send him a bill that would cap them and allow emitters to trade pollution allowances nationwide. EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson, in a speech at the Aspen Environment Forum last month, emphasized that the administration still hopes the country will develop a legislative answer to the question of how best to limit greenhouse gases.
"The best solution, and I believe this in my heart, is to work with Congress to form and pass comprehensive legislation to deal with climate change," Jackson said. " We hope to avert a regulatory thicket where governments and businesses spend an inordinate amount of time fighting. We are not looking for a doomsday solution."
Some business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have warned that if the federal government regulates carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act it will end up imposing an enormous regulatory burden on small operations such as individual stores and even some office buildings.............Continued....
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