Raf Noboa y Rivera

laphamsquarterly: Theodore Roosevelt. IN SHORTS. Original...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:32:41 -0500

laphamsquarterly:

Theodore Roosevelt. IN SHORTS.

Original hipster. Since 1888.

Leavin’ on a jet plane #dcpanda (Taken with instagram)

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:14:01 -0500

Leavin’ on a jet plane #dcpanda (Taken with instagram)

"Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how..."

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:31:28 -0500

“Courage is a special kind of knowledge: the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.”

- David Ben-Gurion

Given that the Iraq War officially ended this past week, I’ve been thinking about the nature of that experience, and how it shaped me, along with the experiences that came after. “Courage” is one of those…things that people talk about in the context of war, and yet, I think that many people don’t comprehend it fully.

I Work For The Internet

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:42:04 -0500

I Work For The Internet:

And so can you. Upload your picture & join me.

Newt. (Taken with instagram)

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:27:51 -0500

Newt. (Taken with instagram)

Occupy's Asshole Problem: Flashbacks from An Old Hippie

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:35:00 -0400

My friend Sara Robinson penned this, as her take on many of the challenges facing the various Occupations taking place across this country. I thought it was a very sharp and prescient essay, so I’m posting it in full here. She sent it as an email to various friends, including me.

I wish I could say that the problems that the Occupy movement is having with infiltrators and agitators are new. But they’re not. In fact, they’re problems that the Old Hippies who survived the 60s and 70s remember acutely, and with considerable pain.

As a veteran of those days — with the scars to prove it — watching the OWS organizers struggle with drummers, druggies, sexual harassers, racists, and anarchists brings me back to a few lessons we had to learn the hard way back in the day, always after putting up with way too much over-the-top behavior from people we didn’t think we were allowed to say “no” to. It’s heartening to watch the Occupiers begin to work out solutions to what I can only indelicately call “the asshole problem.” In the hope of speeding that learning process along, here are a few glimmers from my own personal flashbacks — things that it’s high time somebody said right out loud.

1. Let’s be clear: It is absolutely OK to insist on behavior norms. #Occupy may be a DIY movement — but it also stands for very specific ideas and principles. Central among these is: We are here to reassert the common good. And we have a LOT of work to do. Being open and accepting does not mean that we’re obligated to accept behavior that damages our ability to achieve our goals. It also means that we have a perfect right to insist that people sharing our spaces either act in ways that further those goals, or go somewhere else until they’re able to meet that standard.

2. It is OK to draw boundaries between those who are clearly working toward our goals, and those who are clearly not. Or, as an earlier generation of change agents put it: “You’re either on the bus, or off the bus.” Are you here to change the way this country operates, and willing to sacrifice some of your almighty personal freedom to do that? Great. You’re with us, and you’re welcome here. Are you here on your own trip and expecting the rest of us to put up with you? In that case, you are emphatically NOT on our side, and you are not welcome in our space.

Anybody who feels the need to put their own personal crap ahead of the health and future of the movement is (at least for that moment) an asshole, and does not belong in Occupied space. Period. This can be a very hard idea for people in an inclusive movement to accept — we really want to have all voices heard. But the principles #Occupy stands for must always take precedence over any individual’s divine right to be an asshole, or the assholes will take over. Which brings me to….

3. The consensus model has a fatal flaw, which is this: It’s very easy for power to devolve to the people who are willing to throw the biggest tantrums. When some a drama king or queen starts holding the process hostage for their own reasons, congratulations! You’ve got a new asshole! (See #2.) You must guard against this constantly, or consensus government becomes completely impossible.

4. Once you’ve accepted the right of the group to set boundaries around people’s behavior, and exclude those who put their personal “rights” ahead of the group’s mission and goals, the next question becomes: How do we deal with chronic assholes?

This is the problem Occupy’s leaders are very visibly struggling with now. I’ve been a part of asshole-infested groups in the long-ago past that had very good luck with a whole-group restorative justice process. In this process, the full group (or some very large subset of it that’s been empowered to speak for the whole) confronts the troublemaker directly. The object is not to shame or blame. Instead, it’s like an intervention. You simply point out what you have seen and how it affects you. The person is given a clear choice: make some very specific changes in their behavior, or else leave.

This requires some pre-organization. You need three to five spokespeople to moderate the session (usually as a tag team) and do most of the talking. Everybody else simply stands in a circle around the offender, watching silently, looking strong and determined. The spokespeople make factual “we” statements that reflect the observations of the group. “We have seen you using drugs inside Occupied space. We are concerned that this hurts our movement. We are asking you to either stop, or leave.”

When the person tries to make excuses (and one of the most annoying attributes of chronic assholes is they’re usually skilled excuse-makers as well), then other members of the group can speak up — always with “I” messages. “I saw you smoking a joint with X and Y under tree Z this morning. We’re all worried about the cops here, and we think you’re putting our movement in danger. We are asking you to leave.” Every statement needs to end with that demand — “We are asking you to either stop, or else leave and not come back.” No matter what the troublemaker says, the response must always be brought back to this bottom line.

These interventions can go on for a LONG time. You have to be committed to stay in the process, possibly for a few hours until the offender needs a pee break or gets hungry. But eventually, if everybody stays put, the person will have no option but to accept that a very large group of people do not want him or her there. Even truly committed assholes will get the message that they’ve crossed the line into unacceptable behavior when they’re faced with several dozen determined people confronting them all at once.

Given the time this takes, it’s tempting to cut corners by confronting several people all at once. Don’t do it. Confronting more than two people at a time creates a diffusion-of-responsibility effect: the troublemakers tell themselves that they just got caught up in a dragnet; the problem is those other people, not me. The one who talks the most will get most of the heat; the others will tend to slip by (though the experience may cause them to reconsider their behavior or leave as well).

This process also leaves open the hope that the person will really, truly get that their behavior is Not OK, and agree to change it. When this happens, be sure to negotiate specific changes, boundaries, rules, and consequences (“if we see you using drugs here again, we will call the police. There will be no second warning”), and then reach a consensus agreement that allows them to stay. On the other hand: if the person turns violent and gets out of control, then the question is settled, and their choice is made. You now have a legitimate reason to call the cops to haul them away. And the cops will likely respect you more for maintaining law and order.

Clearing out a huge number of these folks can be a massive time suck, at least for the few days it will take to weed out the worst ones and get good at it. It might make sense to create a large committee whose job it is to gather information, build cases against offenders, and conduct these meetings.

And finally:

5. It is not wrong for you to set boundaries this way. You will get shit for this. “But…but…it looks a whole lot like a Maoist purge unit!” No. There is nothing totalitarian about asking people who join your revolution to act in ways that support the goals of that revolution. And the Constitution guarantees your right of free association — which includes the right to exclude people who aren’t on the bus, and who are wasting the group’s limited time and energy rather than maximizing it. After all: you’re not sending these people to re-education camps, or doing anything else that damages them. You’re just getting them out of the park, and out of your hair. You’re eliminating distractions, which in turn effectively amplifies the voices and efforts of everyone else around you. And, in the process, you’re also modeling a new kind of justice that sanctions people’s behavior without sanctioning their being — while also carving out safe space in which the true potential of Occupy can flourish.

the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:42:03 -0400

the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support:

understatementblog:

The announcement that Nexus One users won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich led some to justifiably question Google’s support of their devices. I look at it a little differently: Nexus One owners are lucky. I’ve been researching the history of OS updates on Android phones…

This is just damning.

clientsfromhell: Client: “Can you draft me up a banner for our downtown location?”Me: “Sure. What...

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:56:17 -0400

clientsfromhell:

Client: “Can you draft me up a banner for our downtown location?”

Me: “Sure. What did you have in mind?”

Client: “It’s very simple. The Banner will read ‘#Occupy Pizza!’”

Me: “Uh, do you really want to use that as a marketing ploy? I think it has different connotations than you might think—”

Client: “And a picture of a pizza with a tiny slice shaded that says ‘We’re the 99%, so why not enjoy $1 off’, or something like that.”

Me: “Oh boy.”

*head-desk* *head-desk* *head-desk*

VISIONS: TIM HETHERINGTON OPENING RECEPTION

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:15:01 -0400

bronxdoc:

At last! Join us for the opening of our inaugural exhibition, Visions: Tim Hetherington and the launch of the Bronx Documentary Center on October 22, from 6-10PM.

Totally visiting this the next time I’m in town.

the understatement: Roboto vs. Helvetica

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:05:33 -0400

the understatement: Roboto vs. Helvetica:

understatementblog:

Google announced the mouthful known as “Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich” today. The first bullet point of their presentation was a new system-wide font, Roboto. John Gruber quickly pointed out what had caught my eye as well: Roboto sure looks a lot like Helvetica, the typeface so famous they made a movie of it.

Look, I know Picasso said (and Steve Jobs quoted him) “Great artists steal”, and all that, but this is basically Helvetica Droid.

Union Station #dcpanda (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:38:05 -0400

Union Station #dcpanda (Taken with instagram)

US Capitol #dcpanda (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:39:38 -0400

US Capitol #dcpanda (Taken with instagram)

Steve, leaning on Laurene after his last keynote #SteveJobs...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:40:42 -0400

Steve, leaning on Laurene after his last keynote #SteveJobs (Taken with instagram)

not ready to make nice: headdesk

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:18:26 -0400

not ready to make nice: headdesk:

drunkengenius:

I had a lot of deeply uncomfortable moments reading this piece on Racialicious, which consists of the Facebook comments — under their real names! So much for non-anonymity making the Internet a better place or whatever — from the girl seen holding this sign, her friend that made it and all…

*headdesk* *headwall* *headdoor*

Steve Jobs, 1955-2011

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:40:42 -0400

(Earlier today, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, passed away at 56. I wrote this email to him when he resigned, and decided to post it as sort of a eulogy, having tweaked it slightly to reflect the news of his death.)

Steve,

You don’t know me from anyone. We’ve met a few times, in passing. And now that you’ve passed, it’s a bit late to be writing this, but here goes anyway:

Thank you.

The two years I worked at Apple weren’t necessarily the best two years of my life. They were two years that changed my life, though, and for that I’m grateful.

Without you, and the company you made, my life literally wouldn’t be the same, and for that you get my thanks.

Also: thanks for never taking any shit from anyone. Thanks for doing so many things right. Thanks for putting my mind in motion. You always said that computers were bicycles for the mind, and I’ve been cycling away since I was a kid.

I knew this day would come, probably soon, and yet — it was too soon. It always is, isn’t it? And yet, it was too soon. You deserved at least one more act in the stage of life, if not more.

Thanks for being such a singularly, crazily ornery guy. Thanks for inspiring me, and so many others, to change the world and put a ding on it.

Every time I see the “Think Different” commercial, I get a little bit choked up. I’ll admit it. It gets me in the gut. What most people don’t know is that the original is a bit different itself:

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

How else, indeed?

All I know is that you stared at that empty canvas, and not once, not twice, but many, many times over, you made tools for people like us.

So: here’s to you, Steve. Some may have seen you as the crazy one, but you put a ding in the universe, and helped me and others do the same. And in dinging the universe, we invent. We imagine. We explore. We create. We inspire. We heal. We push the human race forward.

I’m just sorry we couldn’t heal you. So all I can do tonight is thank you, even though that’s not enough.

The first advert Apple ran after Steve Jobs came back to the...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:30:00 -0400

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

The first advert Apple ran after Steve Jobs came back to the company was “Think Different”. You may remember it, it featured people like Gandhi, MLK, Amelia Earhart, and Picasso as folks who literally changed the way we saw the world.

What it didn’t feature was a computer, or indeed any product at all. It was the kind of crazily genius move you’d expect from an Apple led by Steve.

Goodnight, Steve. And good luck, wherever you are.

Still Life (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:53:01 -0400

Still Life (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 15:42:31 -0400

Still Life (Taken with instagram)

Take Back the American Dream

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:33:12 -0400

This coming Monday through Wednesday, I’ll be attending the Campaign for America’s Future (CAF) annual conference. This year, it’s titled Take Back the American Dream. It’s the ninth year of the conference, and this is the second time I’m attending.

I’m actually fairly stoked about going because this year, CAF is joining up with Van Jones’ “Rebuild the Dream” organisation, in order to add a bit of policy heft to what is fast becoming a widespread grassroots brush fire. From Madison to Liberty Park in New York City and across the country, more and more people are becoming all too aware that things have gone deeply wrong in this country.

I’m not talking about voting for one candidate over another, or even about one party over another. It goes deeper than that; it goes, really, to the heart of what the American Dream really means, and whether that idea can still be achieved by the vast majority of people. I think many Americans would argue that it cannot be, and this is a big part of the reason why you’re seeing folks like this taking part in the “Occupy Wall Street” protests:

(Photo courtesy Erik Kain/Forbes Magazine)

When you have over 700 airline pilots showing up at the Wall Street protests, it’s hard to paint them as being composed of counterculture drum circle fetishists. One of my acquaintances, Matt Stoller, described the protests as being like a “church of dissent” and not in fact a protest per se, which I thought was a poignant way of describing them.

That’s not to knock voting, or participating in the electoral process; far from it. I make my living participating in that process, and I think it’s a great mechanism for people to make their voices heard. With that in mind, I’d say that voting is a necessary but not sufficient mechanism for making the changes we want to see made manifest.

In other words: electoral politics is not the only vehicle for change. I’ll write more on this later, but one of the things that I like the most about this conference is that it really delves into the strategy, tactics, techniques and procedures that best help progressive organisers achieve the world we are all striving for, and it does that by acknowledging that there is more than one route for achieving that change.

As an organiser, full stop, that appeals to me deeply. I think it’ll appeal to you as well.

But you’re not going, you say? Fear not, here’s how to follow along from home.

First, if you find yourself in DC on Monday, you can still sign up. The conference is taking place at the Washington Hilton, 1919 Connectictut Ave NW. Bear in mind that there will be an additional door fee of $25 to sign up on site. You can check out the agenda here.

Second, if you’re at home: you can watch the entire event on Free Speech TV. That’s DIRECTV Channel 348 and Dish Network channel 9415. FSTV will also be streaming the event at http://ourfuture.org and http://freespeech.org.

You can also follow along online on Twitter and Facebook. The Twitter hashtag is #takeback11, and the Facebook page can be found at http://facebook.com/OurFuture.

I’ll be writing about my impressions of the conference over the next few days. If you have a question, feel free to ask.

State Sen. Eric Griego, progressive candidate for NM-1 (Taken...

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:14:10 -0400

State Sen. Eric Griego, progressive candidate for NM-1 (Taken with instagram)