Iran’s Nation of Bloggers: A Means of Revolution

Political dissent in Iran in the aftermath of last week’s national election has spread not only to the streets of Tehran, but also online, where protesters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and election observers have battled to get news out of the country for three days. Cellphone service was restored on Sunday after it had been down since Saturday, but Iranians could still not send text messages. Government filters have also cracked down on opposition party websites and social networking websites. Satellite internet connections have also been disrupted.

Foreign media outlets have found themselves coming under attack as they attempt to report on the protests ever since the official announcement that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won a resounding victory in Friday’s poll. However, the government’s crackdown hasn’t prevented Iran’s young bloggers and activists from reporting by using proxy servers to get around the censors in a game of cat and mouse. Iran’s youthful and Web-savvy population has proven adept at using Twitter, blogs, mobile phones and social networks to spread the word about the post-election discord. Technology has proven to be extremely important in bypassing the government’s attempts to crackdown on dissent.

Millions of young bloggers are challenging the conservative government of Iran, at great personal risk. Iran: A Nation of Bloggers is an “infographic” video from the Vancouver Film School that powerfully tells this story in just 2 minutes. It explores how the digital world allows many Iranians access to ideas and freedom of expression they haven’t had for close to thirty years. Iran: A Nation of Bloggers is a visual essay that illustrates how blogging is a major cultural outlet for thousands of Iranians, despite it being a sometimes dangerous practice. Blogging is, in essence, a means of revolution.

Iran: A Nation of Bloggers

Reporters Without Borders: For Press Freedom Here.

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Two Too Sad Doggy Bloggers

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Dogged Fameball Ego-Blobber Julia Allison Airs on Most Obscure TV Channel Ever!

Gawker reports that the never-ending ego-blobber Julia Allison has just informed them of some amazing, breaking world news: Her videoblog, TMIweekly, has been picked up by NBC’s New York Nonstop. Now, this turns out to be highly appropriate, because New York Nonstop is certainly as close as it gets to the edge of internet obscurity, while still letting one claim to be on television. This makes it quite a suitable perch for the vapid, irrelevant musings of Allison, an inappropriately well-known dating columnist for Time Out New York, and her two cohorts, Silicon Valley heiress Meghan Asha Parikh and vapid handbag designer Mary Rambin. The episodes of TMIweekly, Allison’s videoblog, have featured the goofy trio blathering on and on about totally uninteresting aspects of their lives (just imagine very bad Twittering, only videotaped).

It’s all part of their faux-business called NonSociety. Allison recently reported that NonSociety had taken in revenues of $60,000 during all of 2008. Calculating with an advanced business metric known as earnings before expenses, that would give NonSociety’s three pseudo-socialite Foundresses a living-level that’s just slightly above minimum wage. Now, whatever NBC is paying Allison for her 24×7 filler, it’s certainly too much, as NBC’s own officials seem to realize! Meredith McGinn, Senior Manager of Special Products for NBC4, explained to the New York Daily News: “You’ll get your meat, your news, weather and headlines-every 15 minutes. In between those 15 minutes, you may have a two-minute segment, a two-minute pod, a five-minute pod. So the shows we’re looking at are in little bits, not your traditional half-hour newscasts.”

So the news is the meat, which makes TMIweekly what, exactly? Shredded lettuce? Mayo? Anything, surely, except relish. So rather than force-feed you to watch even one awful episode of Julia Allison’s TMIweekly, here’s Gawker videographer Richard Blakeley’s much funnier parody-spoof, Welcome to NomSociety:

Julia Allison and Cohorts: Welcome To NomSociety

Thanks to Gawker.

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Inspiration: Vanquishing the Patron Demon of the Blank Page

Inspiration is an animated short film that was produced and animated by Carlos Lascano. This artistically unusual film is about…well, I know you must know…because I don’t know quite what to write here about it, uh, let’s see. I can’t think of what the exact words could be…oh well, they’re right on the tip of my tongue. Oh yes…it’s about…Writer’s Block! Yes, it’s about Writer’s Block, the Patron Saint of the Blank Page.

Inspiration is an animation that was produced without the use of a video camera. The film was composed entirely from a number of still photographs. The photo shots were then split into layers; then pieces were drawn and pasted like a collage or patchwork composition, with 3-D effects added later.

Inspiration: Vanquishing the Patron Demon of the Blank Page

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