Rich people are invited to make signs and upload them at
We are the 1 percent | We stand with the 99 percent

Oddly related:
Mark Cuban, who first made his money in computer hardware and early Internet streaming before buying the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA, blogs My Soapbox Advice to the OWS Movement and then some.

It starts with 1. The Great Lie of Wall Street ("We are acting in the best interests of shareholders."):

By number 4, he's pointing in very big type to a blog entry he wrote in 2008 titled Tax the Hell Out of Wall Street; Give it to Main Street.

Good stuff.

Jack Scott anchored the soundtrack of many a first fluttery hormone surge and he'll be headlining the Legends of Rock'N'Roll & Doo Wop show at the Park Theatre in Cranston Saturday night. Singer-songwriter, label owner and producer Gerry Granahan of East Greenwich will be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Rhode Island Popular Music Archive. (You Were Mine by the Fireflies may strike a chord.)

Musician Rick Bellaire emails,

This ceremony will be the last order of business by the original group under our name "The Rhode Island Popular Music Archive". Last year, we hooked up with the remaining members of a team who were pursuing the same goals and they threw in their lot with us and gave us the name we wanted all along, but which they had tied up: "The Rhode Island Music Hall Of Fame". This year, the group hooked up with yet another group of folks looking to get something going but unaware of what we've been doing. Now, we've become an official non-profit and will soon have an actual location for a museum and library.

On the same night we're inducting Gerry, the first fundraiser for the new organization will be taking place at Lupo's and we're planning an induction ceremony for another group of great Rhode Island musicians in the early spring of next year. All the previous recipients of the RI Pop Music awards (Ken Lyon, Anders & Poncia, and Gerry) will be grandfathered in to the new "official" Hall Of Fame and will act as presenters.

A group of musicians who recorded under various names (The Vibrations (My Girl Sloopy, The Watusi), The Jayhawks (Stranded In The Jungle), and The Marathons (Peanut Butter).), will also perform.

The intellectually dazzling Christopher Hitchens, despite esophageal cancer is still alive, has his voice back and accepted an award in person Saturday at the annual convention of the Atheist Alliance of America and Texas Freethought. Richard Dawkins presented the Freethinker of the Year Award to Hitchens in Houston, near the MD Anderson Cancer Center where he's receiving treatment.

Houston Chronicle blogger Geoff Berg reports the event (Christopher Hitchens makes first public appearance in months), including Hitchens' recommended books in response to 8-year-old Mason Crumpacker asking what she should read. And,

An unapologetic supporter of the Iraq war, Hitchens urged Western foes of violent jihad to make common cause with moderate Muslims to combat Saudi influence, which he condemned as extremist, backward and violent.

He said that he appreciated the fact that Rick Perry is so open about his faith instead of lying about his desire to inject fundamentalism into public life.

In discussing Mitt Romney's faith, Hitchens said that what he liked about about Mormonism is that it presents the rare opportunity to witness the creation of a new religion. The faith's founder, Joseph Smith, Hitchens said, wanted to be remembered not as the Jesus of the new religion, but as its Mohamed, who, Smith believed, presented his followers with a choice: "either the Al-Koran or the sword."

Charles McGrath of the New York Times caught up with him (Christopher Hitchens on Writing, Mortality and Cancer), and saved "but how is he?" and the best for last.

Mr. Hitchens has an extensive support network that includes his wife, Carol Blue, and his great friends James Fenton and Martin Amis. Mr. Amis is known for being cool and acerbic, but as he kissed and embraced Mr. Hitchens last week, visiting on the way to a literary festival in Mexico, his affection for his friend was unmistakable. "Hitch's buoyancy is amazing," he said later. "He has this great love of life, which I rather envy, because I think I may be deficient in that respect. It's an odd thing to say, but he's almost like a Tibetan monk. It's as if he'd become religious."

That focus is perhaps his highest human quality, embodying Hitchenness at every moment.

Occupy Sesame Street

Occupy Wall Street is a major movement both on the streets and on the web, but it isn't getting the media attention it deserves. Why? Because it doesn't resonate with kids. Kids drive the market and therefore the media, but they have absolutely no interest in seeing politically-charged 20-somethings sprayed in the face with mace (probably).

Pepper spray Snuffleupagus, however, and you got yourself a protest ready for prime time. Which is why we here at Tauntr have envisioned the perfect revolution. Don't Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Sesame Street.

Viral, instantly.

Now you don't have to "like" something to share it. A new breed of apps will tell your friends what you read, listen to and watch -- because when you sign up for them, that's what you give them permission to do.

As far as seismic visions for the Web, this is one of the big ones. Think about it: Everything you do online, shared automatically. And Facebook keeps a running log of it all.

Creepy. The Ticker and Timeline affect even those who don't spring for such apps. The "how to opt out" tips here make this a keeper.

But what is the idea? The most consistent criticism laid against the occupiers is their lack of a central organising system or core message. Who are these people, and what do they want? The fact that the mainstream media is even asking this question can be considered a victory for the Occupy Wall Street.

Part of the point of this occupation, like the occupations in Greece, Spain and London, has been to create a different kind of political space, a temporary reality outside the lassitudes of mainstream politics where human beings are equal and respected. People have come from all over the country and all over the world to be here, and not all of them, contrary to most of the reports, are white and college-educated. I meet black high-schoolers from Brooklyn, young men from California, young women from St Louis, Maine and Wisconsin, older laid-off workers from Texas and Virginia, and activists from Spain who have come to see if America can really host the kind of revolutionary space that has been opening up across Europe and the Middle East. It seems that, in its own way, it can: copycat protests are opening up across the country, from Chicago to Denver to Los Angeles and Boston.

To those of us who came up in the '60s, this really is a deja vu. Young people I know are discussing going to New York this coming weekend to join them.

Oct. 2

PeterThiel2012
SPREAD THIS LIKE WILDFIRE:New York Times change story as Al Baker police bureau chief gets involved i51.tinypic.com/296i2iq.jpg #OccupyWallStreet
9 hours ag0

(Peter Thiel co-founded PayPal.)

The same story, updated again, with the lead changed slightly and yet another author added to the byline:

Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge
By AL BAKER, COLIN MOYNIHAN and SARAH MASLIN NIR

Updated, 3:35 a.m. Sunday | In a tense showdown above the East River, the police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

The police said it was the marchers' choice that led to the enforcement action.

"Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested," Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, said. "Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested."

But many protesters said they believed the police had tricked them, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, only to trap them in orange netting after hundreds had entered.

"The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway," said Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street who marched but was not arrested.

@OccupyWallSt points to this 14-second clip above as "proof of entrapment." It's part of a nearly 9-minute video, NYPD Arrests 700 #OccupyWallStreet Protesters On The Brooklyn Bridge, that ends with arrests, and cries of "Shame!" and "The whole world is watching."

Update: 2:07 p.m. Dueling videos: Police Gave Warnings at Bridge, Videos Show. NYT's City Room blog:

Updated 12:33 p.m. | With the Internet bursting with videos showing various interactions between the police and protesters from Occupy Wall Street, the New York Police Department decided to add two more.

The videos, which were released on Sunday morning, show the police issuing two separate warnings to marchers who were either poised to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on its roadway, rather than the pedestrian walkway, or had already begun doing so....

Sources: #OccupyWallStreet, aggregating everyone's tweets on the topic, including Salman Rushdie, Alyssa Milano, Yoko One and Bianca Jagger.

Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for American Revolution. Official site of the protest.

Their "General Assemblies Statement, Declaration of the Occupation of New York City" -- why they're doing this.

Live stream: "Global Revolution brings you live stream video coverage from independent journalists on the ground at nonviolent protests around the world."

Tweets from jail:

AnonyOps Anonymous
RT "@NYCSep17: #occupywallstreet i am out. High morale in jail. Songs and laughter. Police seemed confused and guessed at 800 detainees"

jeffrae Jeff Rae
Our cell does not have running water but toliet works. Cell next to us had a non working toliet #occupywallstreet
7 hours ago

Jeff Rae's tweets from jail, with photos.

Wikipedia attempts to corral it all: Occupy Wall Street.

Interesting detail: Alexander Eichler at HuffPost describes the human Twitter that evolved in the park earlier in the week, passing the messages back through the rows.

NEW YORK -- The members of Occupy Wall Street are not allowed to use megaphones, so they've adopted a low-tech workaround.

At their twice-daily general meetings in Zuccotti Park in Manhattan's financial district, whoever has an announcement to make speaks slowly and clearly, with a pause every few seconds, so that everyone within earshot of the speaker can repeat back what he or she just said -- amplifying it for the crowd of hundreds to hear.

One more: Every Action Produces Overreaction. Gina Bellafante in the Times.

Philip Scott Johnson's 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art elegantly morphs selected portraits to the elegant strains of Bach's Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma. Outstanding. The last 30 seconds of the video, the modern period, get especially interesting. It's all done in under 3 minutes.

Boni's Site is mainly for her computer students, but she tracked down and displays all 90 portraits, from 2nd century Russia to Picasso: 500 Years of Women in Western Art.

If you like this, Johnson has done more of them with different themes.

LONDON (AP) -- It's a bird, it's a plane - no, it's a pig, floating above London.

The 30 foot by 15 foot (9 meter by 4.5 meter) inflatable porker soared Monday over the derelict Battersea Power station - an image famous from the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album "Animals." (Photo below)

The scene was recreated to mark the release of remastered versions of Pink Floyd's 14 studio albums.

Organizers had hoped to use the original vinyl pig, which has been in storage for 35 years. But it was found to be leaky, and a replica was created instead.

There was no replay of the moment during the 1976 photo shoot when the original pig broke free of its moorings and floated into the flight path for Heathrow Airport. It was later found in a farmer's field.

Pink Floyd, Animals, 1976.

Yes, I'm back from my pilgrimage to the cathedral of code, a jagged mental space like pointed crystals, an untextured place where sudden death follows a misplaced apostrophe. I might once have said I'd code when pigs fly.

As summer ends, I wanted to point optimistically to the promise of summers future. I've waited all my life for the adult toy above, and there it is as an inflatable concept car.

Unfortunately, close up you'll see there's nobody in these cars. There can't be -- they'd sink. These Morris Minis can be pulled behind motorboats and they'll stay up for the same reason water skis do -- the forward motion of the speeding boat creates enough water pressure from below to keep the skier afloat.

The Mini Inflatables are just a promotional tool from Access Agency, the ad agency spinoff of The Cool Hunter.

But, someday....

"Like This", 2011 by Munich-based Mario Klingemann, who describes himself as "a computational artisan and a tinkerer trying to create or discover things that are beautiful, interesting or simply undiscovered. For that purpose I build my own tools with code."

Here's how he describes his real-ife Like Button:

It is not connected to Facebook since for obvious reasons it is not possible to register a "like" for another person without being logged in. Only the button design has been borrowed since it is such a cultural icon already and most people will immediately understand how to use it.

Technically it contains an Arduino which takes care for permanently storing the count of button presses (so they do not get lost when the power is detached) and which also controls the display. Also what cannot be seen on the still photo is that you have to press the button for about a second during which a progress bar appears in order for your "Like" to count - so people who do not like it but still want to touch it can do so.

The idea was to create a self-referential artwork that shows how many people like it. Apart from that I find it interesting to have an object in a gallery or show that is not only allowed to be touched but actually supposed to be.

PSFK says, "The project will be on display at the Ultra Social exhibition as part of Munich's Urban Arts and Media Organization Festival" in October.

This week, I unfollowed everyone on Twitter. That was over 131,000 people. I didn't do it manually, but rather, with some help (ask @jesse, if you need custom help like that). My reason was that I'd started receiving over 200 direct message spams a day. (These messages said things like "lol, look at this funny photo," with a link that would enslave my account to send similar messages.)

I learned a few things in the process.

Much of what entrepreneur Chris Brogan learned was that people felt rejected when he didn't want to read their tweets any more. But the real takeaway was,

When you follow 131,000 people, you don't see any tweets.

Maybe they should have called it bleating.

Doug MacCash, a reporter and blogger at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, took his family to New York on vacation in July. In a grocery store, he noticed an odd mismatch of Zabar's lobster salad to its labeled ingredients.

August 1, In New York City a lucky crawfish can become a lobster

August 12: Fake Zabar's lobster salad unmasked by Times-Picayune reporter; New York grocer crawfishes

August 31: Zabar's grocery in New York renames crawfish salad Zabster Zalad

Among all the stories Doug MacCash has ever written, this may be his journalistic legacy.

The Hartford Courant reports, Onlookers Urged Pair Not To Canoe Pequabuck In Bristol

Witnesses on Sunday urged Shane Seaver, 46, and Raymond Clyman, 39, not to take their canoe into the Hurricane Irene-swollen Pequabuck River in Bristol.

The river was raging and flooded a significant portion of Bristol. A veteran Bristol police officer said the river was the worst he's seen it in 33 years on the job.

One of the men reportedly responded to people photographing the river from the bank that they couldn't pass up the once in a lifetime experience to go canoeing in the swollen river, police said.

Clyman surfaced and swam to shore after the canoe capsized. Seaver's body was recovered last night.

That must have been one powerful urge, a risk that in one wild and crazy moment looked do or die, and turned out to be both.

Reporter David Owens updated the original story:

"I heard the people yelling 'Help, help' -- they were coming down the river," said Kathy Oates. "Then they banged their heads right into the end there, next thing they went under and my husband went running."

Photos by Frank Lennon

A tree fell in front of the house I grew up in today, on the sidewalk where I chased and stomped ants until my dad told me their families were waiting for them to come home and I cried inconsolably.

Like the tree that fell in my back yard, this one was polite coming down, neither damaging the house nor blocking the driveway.

My brother lives there now, on Cathedral Avenue near LaSalle, and he and visiting friend Dick Drago, the former Red Sox pitcher up from Tampa, just showed up on my current doorstep with the contents of the freezer. We still have power.