The network of global corporate control
by Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston
A fascinating 2011 study by theorists at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich studying the relationships among 43,000 transnational corporations and revealing the small group of companies holding global economic power.
Monday, May 1, 2017
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Effects of Wash. Clean Energy Initiative Unclear
Emerging from the electorate's sound trouncing of Thurston County Prop. 1 that sought to electrify the county's public utility district, I am on the hunt for good background on the 2006 Initiative-937 as well as any public utility district plans for alternatives to hydro-power. I happened upon this good Kitsap Sun story that revisits the issues. Effects of Wash. Clean Energy Initiative Unclear
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Obama draws biggest convention TV audience, Twitter record
U.S. President Barack Obama (L-R), first lady Michelle Obama, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and Biden's wife Jill wave at a campaign event at the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire September 7, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing
LOS ANGELES |
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's acceptance speech on Thursday night drew the largest television audience of this year's political conventions and ranked as the biggest political moment ever on social media site Twitter.More than 35.7 million people tuned in on three broadcast and 10 cable networks to watch Obama accept the Democrats' nomination for president, according to Nielsen ratings data.
While TV audiences for political conventions have dropped sharply over the years, Obama's TV audience was only slightly lower from his 2008 acceptance speech, which attracted 38.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
For Republican challenger Mitt Romney's speech last week, 30.3 million people watched on television.
On social media, the number of tweets about the Democratic convention blew away similar figures from the Republican National Convention a week earlier.
The Obama campaign has always made extensive use of social media to reach young voters and media scholar Robert Thompson of Syracuse University said Thursday night's speech was split up into seven-minute sections that made it ideal for Web distribution.
"He spoke in segments that are perfect for YouTube," said Thompson, an expert on television and popular culture at Syracuse's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. "This was a speech made for use by the Democrats for social media."
The president's speech prompted 52,756 tweets per minute just after it ended, a new record according to Twitter.
The peak tweets per minute, following some of Obama's most memorable lines, exceeded all other moments for any speaker during either the Democratic or Republican conventions.
The biggest reactions came when Obama declared, "I'm no longer just the candidate. I'm the president," followed by a promise that "I will never turn Medicare into a voucher."
The Democratic convention's final day, on which Obama spoke, generated 4 million tweets, about equal to the total number of tweets for the entire Republican National Convention.
Obama gained on the Twitter Political Index, which measures how tweeters feel about a candidate on a scale of 1 to 100. The president's ranking stood at 52 on Friday, up 2 points from a day earlier. Romney's ranking stood at 9 on Friday.
On Facebook, Obama's address generated the most mentions from either convention and was 40 percent higher than the second-biggest moment, former President Bill Clinton's remarks. Romney's speech ranked fourth among most-mentioned convention events on Facebook.
Politicians also competed with pop stars Thursday night as MTV's Video Music Awards aired at the same time as the Democrats' final night. Facebook mentions of Obama, Clinton, Michelle Obama and Romney finished just ahead of British boy band One Direction, the big winner at the VMAs.
(Reporting By Nichola Groom; Additional reporting by Jill Serjeant, Lisa Richwine and Ronald Grover in Los Angeles; Editing by David Storey)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/07/us-usa-campaign-media-idUSBRE88619220120907
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
She Speaks: Indigenous Women Speak Out Against Tar Sands
When: Friday September 21
Doors at 5:30 pm. Program ends at 8:30 pm
Where: Aboriginal Friendship Center – 1607 East Hastings St (corner Commercial) – Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish TerritoriesDinner will be served and childcare on-site.
Feast is sponsored and provided by International Woman’s Caucus on Climate
This is a free event.
Indigenous communities are taking the lead to stop the largest industrial project, the Tar Sands Gigaproject. Northern Alberta is ground zero with over 20 corporations operating in the tar sands sacrifice zone, with expanded developments being planned. The cultural heritage, land, ecosystems and human health of Indigenous communities including the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McMurray
First Nation, Fort McKay Cree Nation, Beaver Lake Cree First Nation Chipewyan Prairie First Nation, and the Metis, are being sacrificed for oil money in what has been termed a “slow industrial genocide”. Infrastructure projects linked to the tar sands expansion such as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline, Kinder Morgan pipeline, Ontario Line 9 reversal, and the Keystone XL pipeline threaten Indigenous communities across Turtle Island.
Join us to hear from Indigenous women at the front line of defending the land and communities from tar sands development and expansion.
Dinner will be served and childcare on-site. This is a free event.
http://www.ienearth.org/blog/2012/08/she-speaks-indigenous-women-speak-out-against-tar-sands/
Monday, August 27, 2012
Kudos to Jeff Ament, Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Foundation, Vans, and others supporting Pine Ridge youth with a new skatepark and shoes. Jeff Ament is such a humble hero. I'm an even greater fan, now.
Pass the Bucket with Jeff Ament
For more information go to strongholdsociety.org or woundedkneeskateboards.net
While achieving tremendous success in the music industry as the bassist and co-founder of Pearl Jam, Jeff Ament has made it a mission to pay it back as an activist, philanthropist, and skate park builder. Growing up with humble beginnings in rural Montana, Jeff witnessed not only the tranquility of rural life, but also the difficulties that can often accompany growing up in extremely isolated areas. Luckily, Jeff found skateboarding, fell in love with it, and discovered the self-confidence that it can inspire. Remembering his roots and the positive effects skateboarding can have on young people, Jeff currently helps build epic skate parks in some of the most rural and deprived areas in the west. His most recent venture on the impoverished Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota is maybe his most rewarding project to date. Directed and Edited by Lukas Korver.
Creative Director Eliot Rausch
Directors of Photography Lukas Korver & Julian Tovar
Produced by Uber Content
Special thanks to all the Pine Ridge Park supporters, including:Jeff Ament and Montana Pool Service, Jim Murphy and Wounded Knee Skateboards, Walt Pourier and the Stronghold Society, Mark Hubbard and Grindline Skateparks, Pearl Jam's Vitalogy Foundation, The Tony Hawk Foundation, Vans, Ben Harper, Chris Sacca, The Eagle Bull Family
An Offthewall.tv Original Series
https://vimeo.com/42728419
Sunday, August 26, 2012
"We Breathe Again" Heartbreak and Hope in Alaska
Please join me in supporting this inspired work. "Alaska Native communities today are battling suicide rates six times the national average. Suicide is a problem that is difficult to think about and hard to talk about. In many families and communities people either do not want to talk about these tragedies or they do not know how to talk about them. Therefore the impacts of suicide get buried deep and individuals, families, and communities are left without a healing process."
"We Breathe Again" is a feature length documentary film that takes a real and intimate look at Alaska Native communities as they struggle with the impacts of suicide, and endeavor on a path of individual and community healing. The film presents journeys of both hardship and beauty; and it illuminates everyday paths toward reconnecting the severed ties between the people, the land, and the waters. Set in a landscape as dramatic as the stories, this film will push the audience to feel the rhythm of the land juxtaposed to the realities of its peoples."
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1009036513/we-breathe-again-heartbreak-and-hope-in-alaska
"We Breathe Again" is a feature length documentary film that takes a real and intimate look at Alaska Native communities as they struggle with the impacts of suicide, and endeavor on a path of individual and community healing. The film presents journeys of both hardship and beauty; and it illuminates everyday paths toward reconnecting the severed ties between the people, the land, and the waters. Set in a landscape as dramatic as the stories, this film will push the audience to feel the rhythm of the land juxtaposed to the realities of its peoples."
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1009036513/we-breathe-again-heartbreak-and-hope-in-alaska
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