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Earlier this week, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad spent 45 minutes addressing the country’s Parliament. This was his first public speech regarding the protests in Syria, which have threatened to bloom into a bona fide revolution. In this speech, he claimed that “Syria is the target of a big plot from the outside.” That’s right: He’s [...]
Governments around the world are looking at the Internet with a new perspective. While we’ve seen the Internet play a role in social activism before — the 2009 protests in Iran are a good example — the social upheaval taking place in the Middle East and surrounding regions show that the Internet can be a powerful tool both for instigation and organization. How can a government worried about maintaining control minimize the impact of social media?
We looked at Wisconsin at the beginning of the week… Today’s uproar – Wisconsin – From the protests over unions to an amazing power company deal …and events continue to unfold. There are three videos on YouTube today that are in YouTube’s top 200 most-viewed list. This video in in YouTube’s Top 5 today: The [...]
How Flashbang Grenades (AKA Percussion Grenades or Stun Grenades) Work
by Marshall Brain | February 23, 2011
It is fairly common to see flashbang grenades in movies. For example, in this trailer for the movie Salt, you see one land on the floor at approximately 1:15. It subsequently blows out the windows: You also see flashbang grenades in real life, mainly deployed during riots and protest marches to disperse crowds: The idea, [...]
The situation in Wisconsin certainly has caused an uproar. And there are at least three fronts for the uproar: 1) the idea of union busting, 2) the idea of political warfare, and 3) The idea of handing valuable power plants over to billionaires for “pennies on the dollar”. 1) the idea of union busting The [...]
Today’s uproar – How many more dominoes will fall after Egypt?
by Marshall Brain | February 14, 2011
There is a great deal of speculation this weekend, after the successful protests against Egypt’s Mubarak government, that many other vulnerable governments may fall in a similar way. Three indicators: Iran’s green opposition calls rally despite government ban Algeria set for weekly protests Also: Algeria shuts down internet and Facebook as protest mounts Gaddafi tells [...]
Today’s Uproar – Egypt cuts off the Internet and Cell Phones
by Marshall Brain | January 28, 2011
This week, there have been demonstrations and riots against the government in Egypt. Protesters have been shot, as shown here: A quick time line of events: Timeline: Egypt unrest Yesterday, Egypt’s government unplugged the Internet and cell phones: January 28: Internet and mobile phone text message users in Egypt report major disruption to services as [...]
Thanks to a tweet from Chris Hardwick this afternoon, I now know that “The Lord of the Rings” is being broadcast in Iran in an attempt to calm ongoing political protests. According to an anonymous account published on Time’s Web site, American and European movies typically hit Iranian airwaves a couple of times a week. That’s changed in the wake of the recent post-election protests. Blockbuster movies are a lot more frequent, and among them is a “Lord of the Rings” marathon on Channel Two.
Over the weekend I started to follow Change_for_Iran on Twitter. There are over 11,000 followers reading every tweet coming from this account. The Iranian student updating the feed is giving an account of the fallout following the recent elections in Iran. According to the Twitter feed, the government of Iran has used the police to persecute citizens supporting Mir Hossein Musavi, the chief opponent of President Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad announced that he had won the election with 63 percent of the vote.
Maybe you’ve noticed an odd trend over the last few days on various social networking sites and services — profile pictures are disappearing. In their place are solid black squares. Is there a new virus sweeping the Internet? Nope. As it turns out, people are changing their profile pictures on purpose.
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