vzn's Open Salon Blog

open salon beautiful women XXX, clickable pics, misc links

Sat, 26 May 2012 17:05:24 -0400

hi all. hows it goin? so summer is here & a young mans fancy turns to thoughts of... and Im plugged into yet another new job. its pretty elite stuff, I surprised even myself this time. & got through a crunch with a lot of busy work outside of work. you know what I mean?

the big news the last few months is the 50 shades of grey book-- erotica, erotic fiction. holy cow! what a phenomenon. even my sig other heard the news about it. its sold about ~10M copies in just about 3 months. amazing, viral stuff. also the movie rights have been quickly sold for a rumored sum between $4-5M.

wild stuff man. what not everyone knows is that the book actually started out as Twilight fan fiction on the internet! wow! Im sure all us bloggers have always had fantasies about being "discovered" and rocketing to fame. its great to see a one-in-a-million scenario like this play out right before our eyes.

Ive read various ideas on why this book is popular. I mean geez, erotic fiction has been around since the dawn of time, its readily available, theres certainly no shortage. so why would this book strike a nerve? no one can really say exactly but there are various factors:

supposedly a lot of sales are in ebooks where women feel more comfortable about purchasing a guilty pleasure that no one can see what they're reading.
S&M going mainstream. S&M is defn not really my thing, but I can certainly appreciate some elements of it.
its a viral phenomenon among middle age women, so-called "mommy porn".
I was thinking the theme in the book reminds me a lot of the turning-the-tables theme that is common in romantic literature. the woman starts out as subservient, inferior, or in a compromising position, but through the guy starting to fall in love with her, she flexes her relationship muscles and levels the playing field, getting what she wants. one of the bigger/famous examples of this in the movies is the timeless richard gere/julia roberts flick "pretty woman"
any other ideas why? please enlighten me & everyone else in the comments section.

so yeah predictably this book is generating a lot of controversy and "love it or hate it" type polarized responses. below-- an article where dr.drew describes the setup of the book "pathological" from a psychological pov. included, some Open salon writers on the subj. [cute that it made the front page/EP]

so its not entirely surprising that this sexy book is blazing new trails. but I must admit Im a bit mystified also. theres a lot of critical complaint about the quality of writing in this book. therefore its seems there is some deeper factor in play. it does attest to the seeming inscrutability-at-best, unfairness-at-times of viral hits. there are a lot of other authors out there who have written high quality erotica for years. are they burning up the bestseller lists? *

overall though Im rooting for it. heck the book makes a pretty good male fantasy as well because I think the young college girl is dating an older guy. [& no further comment on this matter.]

actually I suspect that this has probably not "fully climaxed" yet because of the movie coming out, and the author EL James is set to do a book tour. wow! I think I might hold my nose and go to one just to see all the hot sexy freaky women [er, uh, maybe a MILF or two...?] who show up in the audience. what do you think? weird hair color? peircings? strollers?

EL james seems to be kind of secretive or publicity shy so far, I dont think she's given any interviews whatsoever. theres some kind of story there.

I also read in one account or rumor that EL James is insisting on major control on the movie such as casting influence or even a veto. whoa man! I believe in hollywood there are many cases or legends of too much power given to the writer turning into a fiasco. on the other hand of course there are many of the opposite case that its completely typical, where the author loses most control entirely and hollywood runs off amuck & spoiling the original.... ah, the mounting suspense!

^{* see eg resident open salon erotica muse extraordinaire & my personal favorite, Keiko Alvarez.}

* * *

a ton of interesting gender related links this time, see below. is it just me or is it getting more intense every month? a quick rundown. sexting as an innate instinct? "cognitive impairment" of seeing beautiful women built into male brain? worlds most beautiful face based on perfect dimensions.. "emotional infidelity".. worlds most prolific sperm donor [who doesnt always use a cup], goldman sachs as not feminine enough.. models vs militant women in india.. hormones messing up womens heads to go for cads.. the model who makes more than a half million a year and still trawls for wealthy men online..

a tale of female hyper-cyber-sex.. can more sex save a relationship? the spreading world of swingers.. male vs female desire after sex.. "sex will change totally" as breadwinning women take on masculine traits and vice versa.. madrid escorts declare sex war on bankers.. gspot hype, gspot located? like the bermuda triangle? why the right wing is wrong about sex.. high profile yoga sex scandal.. Phd states: is cheating a rational choice?

porn is in the news as usual. porn brain study shows that porn movies "shut down" the brain.. absurd myths that porn has about sex.. can porn be feminist? "the demise of guys" due to porn and video games.. porn star banned from prom.. highly read & commented open salon article, "the evolution toward headless porn"..

* * *

without further ado, the fresh new batch of beautiful women of open salon. so its now proven that merely looking at beautiful female faces has a significant effect on male psychology. it could be discombobulating to some extent, but I think it also has an antidepressant effect. Im serious man! so yeah life can be a "grind" sometimes, so to speak. choose your grind carefully I guess is my advice.

misc gender-related news/links

50 shades of grey

50 shades of grey open salon reaction/commentary

sex

porn

beautiful OS women gallery archives

29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Tania Richard's Blog
Jessica Burday's Blog
lorianne's Blog
Francesca Maggi's Blog
jennipenni's Blog
Alpha Whiskey's Blog
kaylamariel's Blog
asia rein's Blog
Literanista's Blog
Samantha Ashford's Blog
Patriccia Daye's Blog
Catherine Lane's Blog
Elmaz Abinader's Blog
Kimberly Papillon's Blog
Necia Dallas's Blog
Jenni Lynn's Blog
travelandtravails's Blog
Molly Gum's Blog
Jill Pfeiffer's Blog
Mana22's Blog
Christine Geery's Blog

superhero Assange battles the MATRIX, now full 3 ring circus

Sat, 5 May 2012 12:05:27 -0400

hi all. hows it going? things have been kind of turbulent in my personal life lately. some health issues for nearby cohorts, not my own. employment volatility. persistent quandaries. to make long stories short. sometimes I feel like writing a long blog about it, other times not.

my zeal for this site has noticeably diminished a bit. its like a relationship where the initial zing and sparkle starts to wear off. or as an employee said who I overheard, the "tingle". thats ok. I still like open salon, but I realize Ive probably overdone it in the past. Ive probably pushed it to the limit as far as what I can personally achieve here. initially it seemed like there were lots of possibilities. lately I see the boundaries of the box.

it would be cool if open salon posted traffic statistics. sometimes I think there is less traffic. other times it appears the site is growing. hard to tell.

anyway Ive been collecting lots of links as usual. I like to try to time my blogs with current events. internet surfing is one of my favorite activities. I find it relaxing, engaging, and even energizing. the quality of free material online is really substantial now compared to many years ago.

the internet is especially good for diverse, multihued opinion. when I was young, a teenager, I remember reading the local newspaper Rocky Mtn News and thinking how limited in perspective the editorials were, and thinking that opinions were as diverse as humans, and that maybe someday there might be a way for more people to publicly share their opinion. so zillions of blogs blooming like dandilions in the spring are really a dream come true.

* * *

some of the links Ive been collecting are on Assange. now if you look at my blog you'll notice I had a lot of intense attraction for his quest, his near-jihad. this guy is about the closest we have to a modern day superhero if you ask me. the guy is brave, courageous, near fearless, and maybe a bit foolish. "fools rush in where angels fear to tread".

if you look at history, transformative figures are sometimes the ones that dont have a lot to lose. like that penniless street vendor guy who set himself on fire and started the egyptian revolution. its gruesome, and I dont approve, but its sometimes the downtrodden who can have the most transformative effect. [an old sr citizen in greece recently pulled the same stunt, complete with a dramatic suicide note.]

assange's on-the-run, near-fugitive childhood of frequent moving and avoiding detection/location by his divorced father seemed to have a big influence on his personality. he has a furtive, secretive, sneaky nature. it borders on near paranoia. strong parallels to the present, where it may be totally justified.

after the rape allegations, it didnt really diminish my opinion of him too much, but the whole situation had escalated to an entirely new level of near madness. I cringed, because assange rotting in jail does nothing for his cause, and he seemed to be inches away from it.

assange has directly challenged the status quo of the Warmachine. that is one of the highest personal risks one can take. there are others who did it in a slightly different way, and they are in prison or dead. assange has chosen to do battle on the level of information warfare, of memes. its a subtle difference in some ways. in some ways it is less dangerous, in other ways it is more dangerous.

the warmachine does not always/merely use physical weapons. it uses information, media-based weaponry. in some ways, its the most crucial. its part of its nervous system, its brain. assange intuitively understands this. this weaponry is well concealed, like a stealth fighter. stealth weaponry is the warmachines favorite mechanism. much more insight can be gleaned from the semifamous document that nobody has read, "silent weapons for quiet wars". I wonder if assange has read it? I wonder what is opinion would be?

assange has found a few kinks in the armor. his ideology of affinity for whistleblowers and whistleblowing is key, and powerful, and fruitful. it will continue to bear fruit. its the right direction. he has to focus on people who have cognitive dissonance between their reality and their actions. there are now MILLIONS of americans with secret security clearances. not all of them are robots. not all of them are amoral. not all of them have no conscience.

so, I have tremendous respect for assange and in many ways what he has done so far is revolutionary, unparalleled, unprecedented. I hope he can pull off more information liberation coups.

assange does not know the weaponry that is laid against him. he is learning of his adversary just as vice versa. you can read about his surprise that visa and mastercard and the electronic transaction infrastructure was derailed, choked off, shut down such that fragile life-sustaining wikipedia donations fell off a cliff. he expressed his surprise, shock, and dismay that the corporation machine and the war machine behaved as if they were one monolithic, connected entity.

surprise! welcome to the Matrix, julian. thanks for taking the red pill. thanks for talking about what its like to take the red pill in front of a large audience.

* * *

so Ive been collecting many links in my web sitting here like a cyber spider. Ive been thinking for a long time that I would write a post when the Manning verdict comes down. Im sure its quite imminent. Im sure it will be quite bad for manning. the evidence arrayed against him is deep. mannings mistake, I would say, is having a conscience, and not being paranoid enough.

I hope that someone outdoes manning with the information that they liberate, possibly in conjunction with assange. I guarantee you that such information exists, and there is information that could possibly have 10x or 100x the psychological impact of what assange has liberated so far. [try to think about that. Im sure you can realize its quite possible.]

but you have to be utterly paranoid. you cannot even trust the hackers around you who also want to liberate that information. you have to do it utterly, entirely alone. you have to figure out how to encrypt and send the data without telling ANYONE. you cannot even tell your close girlfriend, you cannot tell your own mother, you cannot tell your best geek friend. if you want to stay out of jail, you have to keep it secret, and take that secret to the grave with you.

anyway bradley, I salute you, you are a real american hero. and for that you will probably get something like 5-10 years in jail I suspect. if so, keep in mind its actually the Warmachine-Matrix idea of lenience.

* * *

so its been quite awhile since I talked about assange, and he's had an awful lot of adventures in the meantime. I hope someone does a movie about his life sooner or later. the book has already been written. several books. including his originally-authorized, turned-to-unauthorized autobiography.

heres a quick rundown of the latest stuff along with lots of links. hope you enjoy em. the story continues. I think there are at least a few more years of drama coming out of this, if we're a little lucky, and if we're really lucky, assange will stay out of jail and do outrageous, provocative, institution-altering acts the rest of his life. Im looking fwd to that.

big news is his new tv interview show "the world tomorrow" with at this point 3 episodes in the can. havent seen em yet. what do you think? take a look at em in the links below. russia today is probably highly partial to putin's views about the world, however, I think putin has some real insight. his long history in the russian intelligence services/circles is not an coincidence or aberration. its absolutly key to understanding his grip on power. but putin is not only about secrecy-- it seems he's also somewhat adept at using the media to selectively disclose insights about his adversaries. which is increasingly, along with julian, the US Warmachine.
assange interviewed in rolling stone and forbes. the rolling stone interview was mentioned in the front cover at newsstands. julian the rock star! with sex crazed groupies!
"assange claims credit for egyptian revolution". this is a stunning factoid but absolutely, the arab spring demonstrations started in Tunisia, and the Tunisian demostrations were unequivocally significantly triggered by wikileaks revelations about massively corrupt Tunisian government. so you can say that assange taking credit for the Arab spring is massive exaggeration, or you can realize its absolutely grounded in the facts and history. but the world will be slow to remember this. we'll see how it plays out in the history books.
assange initially cooperates and then angrily splits with and denounces his own autobiography. it seems like it might have coincided with some lawyers confiscating his book payments as I understand it. the Matrix plays dirty, doesnt it julian? Id say you're lucky not to be in jail or dead. [awlacki didnt really live a life all that different than yours-- he didnt seem to do much with weapons his whole life and was mainly a ideological figure from what I can tell.... and did you know I went to college with him? I saw him in the hallways a few times....]
state dept employee faces firing for posting wikipedia link. I think there are similar stories like this about govt workers harassed or intimidated about the wikipedia links. its now official policy that its grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal. radioactive, man! the truth will set you free. or it might put you in prison. its always a tossup sometimes.
wikileaks divulges sensitive info on Stratfor. now the media is laughing at or downplaying the significance of Stratfor but its one of those shadowy corporations you can be sure has a significant role in building the Matrix. its just like the CIA cultivates the images of keystone cop bungling, of an ineffective agency that cant tie its shoelaces, while in the meantime it is efficiently vaporizing terrorists with multimillion dollar drones flown in well oiled, tight operations with millimeter precision much more than merely the hardware. for more insight into these types of private agencies & their power role in the Matrix see john perkins "confessions of an economic hit man" books...
assange announces he is running for the australian senate. can this saga become any more convoluted? is it officially 3ring circus level yet? I havent heard further on this bid for power, its quite unintuitive in some ways. I cant imagine anything else coming from it, but its great theater. frankly it reminds me a little of the porn star who ran for the govenors office in california when the govenor was recalled. hilarious. or how about jesse ventura successfully winning office? I would like to see jesse ventura and assange team up for something, maybe a tv show or politics.
courts are ruling heavily against wikileaks eg by searches of people known to be affiliated with wikileaks, the subpoenas on twitter for people affiliated, email subpoenas, etcetera.
the manning trial is in process and looking very bad for manning because the forensic evidence is very strong. they have a computer of his with the sensitive information on the hard drive, but deleted.
"jolt in the case-- feds have found a manning-assange cyber chat."
ron paul hasnt said much about assange that I know of but he has heralded manning as a "true patriot" and that he would protect manning as a whistleblower. strange bedfellows! ron paul is also in the news because one of his top leutenants said that paul seemed to have doubts or a different opinion about the official story of 911. the Warmachine-Matrix is vast and it has enemies in strange places.
one of my favorite writers Hedges wades into the fray talking about manning as a political prisoner, part of the US Gulag.

its not widely publicized any more but assange started out as a teenage hacker, breaking into the US defense computers at one point. "gandalf". so there is a strong affliation with hacker ethics, tactics, etcetera. there has been a lot of commotion by the "anonymous" hacker group, it seemed to be triggered mainly by visa and mastercard shutting off donations. however, Anonymous increasingly seems to be independently targeting the USWarmachine outside of assanges' particular battle. Ive got lots of links on Anonymous & will be writing that up in another blog.

assange

assange-related books

^{vzn assange saga archives}

ix viii vii vi v iv iii ii i

now 3yrs gone! favorite/best content Ive found on open salon

Sun, 1 Apr 2012 00:04:46 -0400

hi all. april 10th is the 3yr anniversary of my blog here. yep, Im an old timer. do the wrinkles show?

its been a bit of an adventure. I started open salon on a bit of a lark. my main issue I wanted to talk about was new scientific evidence about 9/11. yes, it was my agenda, but certainly not hidden. at the time I was vaguely hopeful that this information could cause an awakening. in some ways it has. however, there is still a strong membrane separating this from the mainstream. it has not cracked the MSM except in a reactionary way, eg the van jones resignation, media hyperventililation over ron pauls comments on the subj, etcetera.

at the time I was a bit nervous. it was incendiary info & I knew its the kind of thing that could get me kicked off a blog site. you see, Ive had a long colorful history in cyberspace now spanning decades. my online persona tends to veer toward the gadflyish. take off all the social constraints & I let it all hang out.

but, here on a place like open salon, one can only have so much impact. when the site was smaller it was definitely more possible to stir up a commotion with concerted effort (Im speaking hypothetically here of course haha). but it appears to me that as the site has scaled larger, the dynamics of flamewars has decreased substantially.

frankly Im quite surprised about this. from what I can tell a small site does not stir flamewars nor does a large one, but there is something about a midsize one that leads to cliques and flamewars. I havent seen a flamwewar on here in quite awhile when previously they were quite common. an interesting phase change.

* * *

I think when the site was young there was more enthusiasm and a sense by people on here that they were participating in a potential gamechanger. moreover huffingtonpost had a tendency to reject intense comments. thats one reason I came here instead. I must say Im impressed with the overall tolerance of the editors. they tolerate a lot but yet the site is still fairly orderly. quite the feat given the mass flux of humanity through these corners & walls.

open salon is a great way to decompress at the end of the day. I used to read more news. now I read the news through open salon. this sounds kind of crazy but actually I think its actually quite sane. open salon is a filter of the news from the personal perspective instead of the corporate, filtered perspective. I was reading on here about the trayvon case long before it started resonating in the MSM. the MSM is gray compared to the rainbow of a healthy, lively, thriving blogging site. open salon is in that category.

yeah, sometimes it does seem like Ive killed way too much time here. but the site has been engaging. Ive sometimes stayed up a little too late engaging in long-forgotten dialogs & exchanges. but Ive seen amazing payoffs. there are some very elite writers on here. some are professionals but even the amateurs have flashes of brilliance. its literally the voice of the man on the street, the everyman.

theres nothing quite like it in the entire history of the media. its a revolution on the level of the invention of the gutenberg press. I believe it is still gradually playing out. it meshes with the social media revolution, and the user-generated-content revolution. its a confluence of multiple waves.

stuff that I really have noticed/enjoyed/remembered--

writing comments on a blog & then getting an IM back from the writer.
some incredibly colorful, articulate and intelligent analysis of current events, politics, history,various other topics.
engaging in ongoing debates eg on posts with many comments that strike a nerve.
finding really intense or raw writing.
getting in a strong disagreement & taking an opposite position with a highly articulate and opinionated writer.
finding/discovering new writers who just joined that are obviously quite talented and accomplished, sometimes before anyone else does.
writing about current events & putting up unique opinions not seen anywhere else.
writers who write about highly personal, sensitive experiences (although I personally find it risky & tend to avoid it).
gorgeous photography of faraway places that fires the imagination.
really funny humor, satire, parody & cartoons. taking goring the sacred cow to new levels.
beautiful young women who talk about their personal lives in a funny or intimate way.
accounts and picture of all the open salon meetups that have occured over the years. it would be cool to do a post on that but it would be a huge research project trying to hunt them all down.
demonstrations of compassion, humanity, empathy, community. eg a blogger on here died around the time I started, she had been to a meetup, and there was an outpouring of sympathy on the site. the time scanner got a mass donation from the crowd.
the julie powell "julie & julia" movie phenomenon and the mass influx of new bloggers as a result.
some highly eccentric [to put it diplomatically] writers.
occasionally running into near-famous or very-famous writers & feeling like one has a personal/"insider" line to the stars bulletin board.
total lack of inhibition on topics that were astonishingly once considered not suitable for "polite company"-- politics, religion, sex.

* * *

and yeah, one has to be careful about a blog site, and not attribute to it more than it can give back, not getting burned out. its easy to do so. its easy to get in a love-hate relationship or have poor boundaries with it. (surprising thought, but its apparently quite prevalent.)

people can make friends on here, but generally, I certainly wouldnt recommend joining for that reason. it would be a little like hanging out at a bar trying to make new friends.

also, somewhat counterintuitively, one cannot really expect a response. I feel Ive been blessed to get significant & sometimes enthusastic response on many posts. even a few comments is a great return compared to average. I get a very respectable number of hits, and in cyberspace often that is the most response one gets. vast nameless crowds silently nibbling at your content. there are many posts with zillions of comments, but these are rare. there are many, many blogs with zero comments. to even get a few can be a breakthrough. but, ultimately the response is silent. its fun to go through a list of posts & see which ones are highest rated or hit.

the other intrinsic feature of the site is the massive turnover. its said that more than 90% of blogs are "abandoned". this is a cyberspace-wide statistic and open salon is probably not far from average. I prefer the word "dormant" but either way, its a bit staggering. the implication is that this site is not so much a destination but a waystation for the crowds. people arrive, stop here for a time & then move on. its the challenge of the management to make it more "sticky". but stickiness is not necessarily something to aspire to is it? if you step in gum, and it gets stuck to your shoe, thats "sticky" also. :p

cyberspace feels at times to me like a high tech graffiti wall. electronic graffiti. its more meaningful than graffiti, but in someways, even as transitory and impermanent. I remember the 1st sting of discovering my comments had been deleted by a blog author! or how about entire posts with all their comments, maybe even highly trafficked, deleted into the vapor? vaporized. even more intense is when entire users are deleted, which happens occasionally. one guy I engaged in very long debates with on my own posts, and I thought I was safe-- but he caused too much commotion on the site & was deleted, along with all his comments, and I believe all his IMs to me also.

pretty wild and crazy how that works, huh? but ya gotta just roll with it. cyberspace is a beautiful modern illustration of the ancient theme of impermanence and transitory nature of reality, referred to as "maya" by the hindus. its also called the principle of "purusha and prakriti" which is a sort of idea of 3d pixels lighting up in the universe to create all the forms of matter, all the shapes of reality.

Im sure quite a few of my favorite posts have been deleted by the authors. and even after making this list, a significant fraction are going to disappear into the ether. ouch!

as kansas sang years ago, "all we are is dust in the wind".

as the old greek sage said, "you cant step in the same river twice". it seems nowhere is that more true than cyberspace.

* * *

so here is a selection of writing & other content that I found personally engaging and "worth it" to find it among the stacks of chaff. the few gems stand out. the personality bubbles over. people are colorful and it shows in their writing. they dont always color between the lines, so to speak. I enjoyed putting the list together. as usual with my posts I spent more time than I should have.

this selection is of course highly personal & reflects my own eccentricities, but think it will be compelling nonetheless.

heres my methodology. I went thru all the ratings Ive ever made page & that also lists total # of ratings on those posts. I focused on the ones with a fair number of ratings, say at least 10 or more. I also went through my list of favorites, picked some of my favorites among them, and then looked at their highest rated posts or highest trafficked posts, and picked my favorites among those to represent them. unfortunately I think I missed a few of my favorite posts which Ive commented on but forgot to rate. oh well! I also went thru the last 40pages of EPs and looked for anyone Id missed.

so yeah, the irony of me with no EPs pretending to be an editor. [of course there are no hard feelings about that, HA.HA.HA.] cyberspace is like that, you can put on different hats and try out different roles or personas.

and of course I invite you to comment, Id be happy to trade a few comments on the contents. feel free to let me know if you think there's someone Ive left out.

and Ive made various other posts of my favorite links on open salon that you can find in the left column.

Ive organized this into sections for your browsing convenience.

~~rants~~ opinion

stories

humor

sex-n-gender

econ

warm-n-fuzzy

politics

media

science-n-tech

photos, art, cartoons

beautiful women of open salon XXIX, clickable pics

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:02:36 -0500

hi all its been awhile since I last posted this series. 3 whole months. my 3yr anniversary on this site is coming up in early april & I guess Im running out of steam a little bit. yeah Ive got a lot of various writing out of my system I guess. it also amazes me how much turnover there is on this site. phenomenal!

Ive built up an audience over the yrs & thx to everyone for reading here. but boy this cyberspace stuff is sure transitory. it bums me out a little bit sometimes that so many ppl abandon their blogs. oh well. life goes on. as that old greek said, you cant step in the same river twice. even more so in cyberspace.

this is definitely a great site, its one of the best on the internet for blogging, and Ive met some amazing characters on here & read a lot of amazing writing. its not common, but it does stand out.

lately Ive also been busy hooking up a new job. geez its a little crazy but I think the last time I worked more than 1.5yr at a job could have been in college over 20yrs ago. how much transition can a single person take? Im kind of the poster boy for that.

anyway Ive got a big backlog here & its a shame to see it go to waste. I might not post this as frequently but I realize I do still enjoy it. mainly for the dribble of comments that I get & occasional conversations in the comments. so if you feel the slightest amusement or entertainment by all this plz stick around and lets chat in a back-and-forth & see if we cant entertain ourselves further, wink

included, lots of interesting gender-related links that I run across in my copious/sometimes near-epic cybersurfing expeditions, wanderings, & ramblings. again if you see something interesting feel free to comment on it & maybe we might chat about it. I tend to save stuff on evolutionary psychology in particular which is a fascinating field Ive studied for yrs & maybe the public is finally starting to pick up on it slightly lately.

oh yes & I admit the whole thing started out as a bit of a prank or a provocation to see if any of the ladies would actually respond too. I do have about a 1/25 record on that or so I would guess. which easily makes it well worth all the effort, wink

sex

beautiful OS women gallery archives

28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

mariahjm's Blog

November Kilo's Blog

Heather Siegel's Blog

abbycarter's Blog

Hedgehogger's Blog

Johanna Gretschel's Blog

Amelia Carolyn's Blog

MotherNatureDating's Blog

KillahK's Blog

Erin Judge's Blog

Jill Di Donato's Blog

Nicole Trilivas's Blog

Donna Graves's Blog

AttyJayne's Blog

Ariel Paul's Blog

rhonda talbot's Blog

Nancy Lynne Kanter's Blog

electronic democracy-- recent notable boycotts/protests

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:02:46 -0500

hi all. as some may have noticed Ive collected links under the heading "electronic democracy" almost since this blog started.

its an old idea Ive had ever since the late 80s or early 90s as computers were starting to gain traction in everyday life. what if our government & other bureacracies (eg corporate) were altered to become more efficient by [what is now called] information technology?

in particular, why is voting so convoluted? some govts in the world are indeed experimenting with electronic voting at least [which in my mind is a big part of electronic democracy].

its a very slow process. its a tough road. Ive started to realize Id be lucky to see a significant part of this happen in my lifetime. here we are in 2012. obama announced some initiatives for transparency and improving IT in govt such as a new CIO-like position [chief information officer]. obama has done a lot but bureacracy is always an inherently intransigent, sclerotic beast. it seems that there are only 3 definite things in life... death, taxes, and bureacracy [with the latter handling the paperwork associated with the former].

there was a lot of controversy in 2008 over the electronic voting machines. youd think that voting machines are kind of simple systems, but they are fiendishly complex. prone to lots of glitches and failures.

if ever we needed a more responsive democracy it is now.

I am heartened recently by some other directions that can be pursued. in particular, the emerging "electronic boycott". this seems to be a very new phenomenon. the corporatocratic MSM is not talking about it of course. surprise! but this feels like a bit of a gamechanger to me. it reminds me of what were called "wildcat strikes" that arose early last century.

here are some recent remarkable cases of an electronic corporatocratic backlash having swift, intense effects.

a few months ago Bank of America, highly reviled because of its prominent place in bank bailouts and raised fees, announced it would institute a new debit card fee. the fee was not large, I think it was something like $5/mo, but the public backlash was swift, loud, and decisive, and they backed off quickly even after it was made to seem like a "done deal".
mcdonalds announced a twitter ad campaign which massively backfired. the public hijacked their twitter tag to put up negative stories of their food.
netflix announced price hikes and an idea that they would split the company in two, with one called "quickster" that would handle the physical DVDs. the public smelled "ghetto" and pushed back HARD against this. this is not the 1st time this has happened to netflix. this sounded similar to the case where they announced they would yank support for multiple accounts, but the public backlash was swift there too and they backed off.
SOPA-- we have Google and Wikipedia doing online protests against this and the public boycott of GoDaddy who initially supported SOPA was incredibly stinging. Ive heard they lost close to 70K accounts in maybe two weeks or so. stunning! congress backed off on this. from long experience I know these bills are quite zombie-like in their periodic uprisings [read cory doctorow for more perspective on this], but it was a clearcut, resounding tactical victory.
then theres the latest case of the social media uprising against the Komen foundation over the issue of planned parenthood funding. theres been at least one highranking resignation in Komen over this. startling! Ive never really seen anything like this. it does remind me of online protests against eg Facebook but this one had massive real-world consequences.

the moral of all this story is that Corporations still have massive power, but lately, they might pause a millisecond or two before continuing their marching onslaught. these recent case studies seem to be genuine gamechangers to me and embodiments of Electronic Democracy. not the warm and cuddly side of it, but sometimes to make an omelette you've got to break some eggs.

hope you enjoyed this public service announcement; stay tuned, Im planning to write some more about electronic democracy in the near future wrt Assange.

ps I think there are some other excellent examples of public backlash causing a swift corporatocratic turnabout. if you can think of othes plz let me know in the comments!

backlash