2 weeks ago
How Memes Became the Best Weapon Against Chinese Internet Censorship
China’s censors are blocking words like “today” and “June 4” from social media as part of the country’s yearly chore to block any reference to the anniversary to the Tiananmen Square massacre 24 years ago. And though the Chinese are running a sophisticated and tight censorship ship, they’re having a bit harder time blocking memes. Yes memes.
Read more. [Images: Weibo]
via theatlantic
2 weeks ago
Besiktas under heavy tear gas, noise bomb and plastic bullet attacks
Someone’s started a photo tumblr of what’s going on in Turkey.
h/t Colleen
via occupygezipics
this is absolutely bone-chilling
Holy shit.
Regardless of the outcome, this will have ripple effects across the region. Wow.
via pol102
2 weeks ago
What Pangea would look like mapped with modern political borders – a modern mashup reflecting cartography’s long history as power, propaganda, and art.
Anachronistic geopolitics.
via explore-blog
3 weeks ago
Graphic: In & Out of Guantanamo
In January 2002, 20 shackled prisoners became the first inmates of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. A total of 779 men have been held at the naval facility since it was opened. Eleven years later, 166 prisoners — many of them on hunger strike to protest their conditions and incarceration — are still there.
via nationalpost
3 weeks ago
9 Photos Of Jennifer Lawrence That Will Make You Reassess The Scope Of The 1986 Vienna Convention On The Law Of Treaties Between States And International Organizations «
JLaw + iLaw.
The Onion wins.
3 weeks ago
BBC: Barack Obama defends ‘just war’ using drones
Drone ‘rules’
In an outline of the new policy released to the news media, the administration said it preferred to capture terrorist suspects, with drone strikes used only amid a “continuing, imminent threat” to the US.
Reports suggested that the military would assume greater control over the drone programme, which is currently led in most areas by the CIA.
However, it was also reported that the CIA would maintain control of the programme in Pakistan, where most strikes have been carried out.
Beyond that, the administration listed criteria for the approval of a drone strike:
On Wednesday, the US disclosed that four Americans had been killed in drone strikes in Yemen and Pakistan since 2011, marking the first formal public acknowledgement of the US citizen deaths in drone strikes.
- “Near certainty” the target was present and that civilians would not be injured or killed
- Capture would not be feasible
- Authorities of the country in question could not or would not address the threat
- No other reasonable alternatives were available
Read the full article and watch Obama’s speech here.
From foreignaffairsmagazine:
China has drones. Now what?
Welcome to the new arms race? Except, with a much lower (i.e. cheaper) entrance threshold?
via pol102
3 weeks ago
Even in the midst of war, Syria’s fighters have been seen briefly putting aside their weapons for afternoon tea.
Read: Tea Time in Syria
[Images: Reuters]
via theatlantic
4 weeks ago
Is “Star Trek Into Darkness” a Drone Allegory?
“The anti-drone argument that ‘Star Trek’ goes for most is not one having to do with due process or civilian or collateral casualties…but an essentially emotional one: they feel strange. It doesn’t seem right, or like a fair, forthright fight.”— Amy Davidson on “Star Trek” as a drone allegory: http://nyr.kr/13G1xxg
via newyorker
