What’s gotten into the water at UC Berkeley? I personally think this is a positive development and hope to see more of it in the future. The young people in this country are too fucking passive. They need to wake up and flex their collective political muscle or risk ceding their futures to the dum-dum Tea party types… which would be a huge tactical error.

“The youth is starting to change. Are you starting to change? Are you? Together”—MGMT, The Youth

What began as a dance party on Upper Sproul Plaza led to an occupation of Durant Hall at around 11:15 p.m. Thursday to raise support for the March 4 statewide protest in support of public education.

According to a statement distributed by the occupiers, the building was selected because of its symbolic nature. Durant Hall formerly housed the campus East Asian Library and the campus Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. It is now being renovated to become office space for the College of Letters and Science, which spurred activists to “reclaim” the space for students.

UCPD Captain Margo Bennett said the occupiers “cut a lock to get into the construction area and then cut a lock to get into the building” before vandalizing the area.

“There were windows broken, there was spray painting and graffiti on the interior, there was construction equipment that was tossed around,” she said.

The occupation evolved into a riot as it moved onto streets south of campus, where a protester broke several windows of the Subway at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue at about 1:41 a.m.

And then something idiotic like this happens at UC San Diego. “Compton Cookout”? A noose? How incredibly lame.
 

 
Am I just missing it or has the situation in Greece—2 million people, which is about 40% of the workforce, walked off their jobs in protest over cuts in governmental programs—gotten precious little press coverage in the American media? (I know, I know, healthcare and the Olympics). Considering that this is literally a crisis that could split the Eurozone—and have terrible consequences in Spain, Portugal, Italy and beyond—shouldn’t Americans be paying more attention to this?

It certainly seems more dangerous than the Asian Contagion crisis of 1997.

And Greeks know how to riot properly:

Tens of thousands of striking Greek workers took to the streets today, some throwing stones at police, in a defiant show of protest against austerity measures aimed at averting the debt-plagued country’s economic collapse.

Riot police responded with teargas when, in sporadic bursts, masked youths charged them in Athens city centre. The violence coincided with a general strike that shut down public services and closed off Greece to the outside world.

For trade unions the mass show of force was a warning shot to a government struggling to satisfy its eurozone partners with policies deemed vital for the nation’s fiscal health while appeasing angry workers at home.

“This is the red line,” said Nikos Goulas, head of a union that represents 20,000 workers at Athens international airport. “Greece is not Ireland. If the government does not back down there will be huge unrest,” he added, holding a banner that proclaimed: “As much as you terrorise us, these measures won’t pass.”

 
You Philly kids being spied on by your own school-issued laptops, this one’s for you:

We are looking for high school students and teachers across America to participate.  Photograph A Recruiter is an online photography project that invites high school students to photograph the military recruiters posted within their schools.  Through the act of looking back at the system that is looking at them, the project empowers students to consider the role of the government for which they will soon have the right to vote for.

 
(via Arthur)

Wired picked up on the Hexayurt—a $100 stable housing solution that can help put Haiti back on the rails far quicker than disposable disaster tents. (Hexayurts previously covered at Dangerous Minds here.)

With just $100 worth of plywood and screws, almost anyone can build a shelter known as a Hexayurt that can last three years and possibly even withstand a hurricane. The simple DIY structure could be a critical temporary solution for some of the estimated 1 million or more people left homeless in quake-torn Haiti.

Aid agencies have distributed around 10,000 tents to Haiti so far, according to to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), one of the dozens of charity groups in Haiti focused on emergency shelter. But 200,000 are needed, and even then, the tents won’t stand up to the weather.

“Tents are a three to five month option in the midst of the dry season,” said Vincent Houver, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti, in a recent press release. “But emergency and transitional shelter solutions sufficiently durable to last at least two years need to be found before the heavy rains arrive in a few months.”

Tents do have the benefit of a supply chain already in place that makes it easy to ramp up production when disaster strikes, and they can be transported to remote sites and set up relatively quickly. But they run around $300 to $400 and only last about a year, in good weather.

(Find out how you can help here.)

(Wired: Hexayurts for Haiti)

(And at the UN Dispatch, here.)

 
RONLEWHORN

 
Two headlines this morning that seemed of a piece: First, in the Guardian, there was this alarming item: Utah delivers vote of no confidence for ‘climate alarmists.’ The US’s most Republican state passes bill disputing science of climate change, claiming emissions are ‘essentially harmless.’”

The original version of the bill dismissed climate science as a “well organised and ongoing effort to manipulate and incorporate “tricks” related to global temperature data in order to produce a global warming outcome”. It accused those seeking action on climate change of riding a “gravy train” and their efforts would “ultimately lock billions of human beings into long-term poverty”.

In the heat of the debate, the representative Mike Noel said environmentalists were part of a vast conspiracy to destroy the American way of life and control world population through forced sterilisation and abortion.

By the time the final version of the bill came to a vote, cooler heads apparently prevailed. The bill dropped the word “conspiracy”, and described climate science as “questionable” rather than “flawed.”

Okie dokey… and then in the Los Angeles Times, this story ran this morning: In Utah, a plan to cut 12th grade.

Coincidence or is the state of Utah intent of raising an entire generation of know-nothing Sean Hannity types? It boggles the mind…

 
We can all get some sleep now! From the New York Times:

The lingering mystery, though, was who was behind the site. The question was answered on Saturday when Andrey Ternovskiy responded to the questions we sent to an e-mail address on Chatroulette. Mr. Ternovskiy said he was a 17-year-old high school student in Moscow.

“I was not sure whether I should tell the world who I am mainly because of the fact that I am under age. Now I think that it would be better to reveal myself,” Mr. Ternovskiy wrote.
I asked Mr. Ternovskiy about the origin of the idea for ChatRoulette, how he manages the technical challenges of running the site, whether he viewed it as a business, and about the way some people were using Chatroulette in, as he put it, “some not very nice ways.” Here are his e-mailed responses, slightly edited and condensed:

Read more of Chatroulette’s Creator, 17, Introduces Himself

 
The wider this astonishing tale travels the most pronounced the effect it will have on the Islamist theocracy-types in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Right-wing spy novelist Brad Thor, a man who obviously has extensive Middle East connections, broke the incredible story last month of a pornography ring run by the Taliban connected Haqqani network. When the story surfaced many people were brutally murdered to make it go away. Now Thor has updated his original reporting with a new videotape that has emerged. This has the potential to turn into a really big story and could have a huge impact on tribal dynamics in the region. I’m sure the CIA are all over this one:

As Siraj Haqqani moved from village to village, rounding up the sons of poor Muslim families to fight for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, he offered the villagers free medical care.  He even sent his physician, Dr. Hassan Duraz to conduct the clinics.  There was a horrific catch, though.  Duraz was a monster.

He arrived in each village with Siraj Haqqani’s uncle, Ibrahim, and Siraj’s cousin, Ishak, in tow.  With them, the Haqqanis brought along their own very special tools of terror – a video camera and an eye for human flesh.  You see, with Haqqani healthcare, you not only received a medical exam, if you were an attractive young girl, you also got a screen test.  And heaven forbid you passed.

For those women and girls unfortunate enough to catch the good doctor’s fancy, it was show time.  The Haqqani uncle and cousin would be brought into the exam room, they would set up their video equipment, and Duraz would drop his trousers and go to work.

The Haqqanis and Duraz sexually assaulted poor women throughout the tribal regions and captured every moment of their degradation and humiliation on video to enjoy over and over again.

Times were good for the Haqqani pornography ring.  Their enterprise thrived until someone slipped up and word leaked out.  In the blink of an eye, Siraj Haqqani was in big trouble.

 
—snip—
 

Last month on the FOX Business Network, Colonel Oliver North revealed a startling piece of information.  Conservative mullahs and elements within the Haqqani terror network – known as the backbone of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the Af/Pak theater – are working to take the Haqqanis down from the inside.  Their key weapon is a disturbing video that shows the serial sexual assault of several young girls.

Colonel North explained that no one in American intelligence had yet seen this video:

A transcript of what the mullah is reading in the videotape is here.

Sad news—the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota are about to be declared a failed reservation. A recent storm disaster flooded much of the reservation, but went completely unnoticed by the media during the mayhem about Haiti.

The first Native Tribe to officially support Barack Obama for president is now waiting for him to declare the reservation a disaster.

According to a Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) press release, 3,000 utility poles were downed during recent severe storms. CRST Chairman, Joseph Brings Plenty, has declared a state of emergency.

Thousands of CRST residents have been without water, heat, and electricity for six days as of this morning. Experts relate it may be as long as one month to restore power across the reservation.

Wind-chill factors in central South Dakota have been subzero.

Instructions on helping here.

Photograph by Austin Hargrave
 
Al Jazeera English’s Witness takes a fascinating look at how the homeless survive in Sin City’s underground tunnels:

“Under the Neon” is an extraordinary journey below the surface of the bright lights of Las Vegas, to meet some of the city’s homeless people who are battling to make a home for themselves under the streets of gold in the city’s storm-drains and tunnels.

 
(via Mister Honk)