Day-to-day economic fluctuations aside, pockets of the country seem to be either dissolving fast, or mutating into something, well, Thunderdomish.  In today’s NYT, Dan Barry’s excellent “This Land” column sketches a portrait of Camp Runamuck in Providence, Rhode Island, a tent city for the homeless governed by its own compact and leadership council.  The subtext, here?  Cities like this, sadly, might soon become an unavoidable part of the American landscape.  With that in mind, the current issue of The Nation includes an article by author Walter Mosley, Ten Things You Need to Know to Live on the Streets.  Mosley’s survival tips include everything from how to find food and clothing, to the always needed, always appreciated reminder that, “housing is a human right!”

In the NYT: Living in Tents, and by the Rules, Under a Bridge

Walter Mosley’s Ten Things You Need to Know to Live on the Streets

Despite media distraction, Swine Flu remains a lingering worry. Though widespread inoculation efforts are being made, there are a lot of reasons you probably don’t want to wait around for Daddy Government to take care of you?

 
Side where you will when it comes to Israel vs. Palestine, but I do think it’s an encouraging sign that, content aside (and for many of us, I know, that’s a big aside), Hamas is launching their own, home-grown film studio in Gaza.  Why encouraging?  Film-making is a slow, arduous process!  I know we’d all rather have Mahmoud al-Zahar polishing his latest screenplay and fretting about distribution costs than plotting coups and ordering missile strikes.  In fact, I’m sure I’ve got an old copy of Story around here, somewhere.  If any of you have an address for Mr. Zahar, I’d happily mail it to him!

Via Foreign Policy: Welcome to Hamaswood

In today’s NYT: Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Culture War

We can be rich in cotton and mining metals and silkworms and we can makes things, we can make things cars, the machine can make it for us…on the East Coast they have slaves and they believe in slavery and made in China, but on the West Coast, the new West Coast, we don’t believe in that. We believe in the union and that’s what we are.

(via reddit)

NewTeeVee is one of the best “future of media” blogs out there. The reporters at NewTeeVee are all super smart and authoritatively know their space COLD. It’s one of my daily info stops and has been for some time.

Here’s a real showstopper of a post about the Pirate Bay, written by Janko Roettgers:

Much has been written in recent weeks about the future of The Pirate Bay, as well as about BitTorrent piracy in general. The sale of the site spooked some, while others are hoping to transform the new Pirate Bay into a legitimate, multimillion-dollar business. One aspect that has been largely overlooked is that the current Pirate Bay, due to the nature of P2P, is actually a relatively small and cost-efficient operation. The site?