Ploofle

from Wikipedia:

In American politics and advertising, the expression astroturfing is used pejoratively to describe formal public relations projects which deliberately seek to engineer the impression of spontaneous and populist reactions to a politician, product, service, event, etc. by many diverse and distributed individuals acting of their own volition, when such reaction does not in fact actually exist.

Astroturfing is carefully designed to ”appear” as though it is the result of popular feeling, rather than manipulation. The astroturfing campaign attempts to gain legitimacy by affecting the appearance of having sprung forth spontaneously from “the people”, whereas it is actually centrally coordinated and engineered by a small group. The planners hope that the public at large will believe that so many seemingly independent viewpoints could not have been faked.

The term is wordplay based on “grassroots” efforts, which are truly spontaneous undertakings. AstroTurf refers to the bright green artificial grass used in some indoor sports stadiums. A “grassroots” action or campaign is one that is started spontaneously and is largely sustained by private persons, not politicians, corporations, or public relations firms. A “grassroots” campaign is perceived to come from the popular feelings of some mass of people and to not be a creation of the powerful.

Examples of these kinds of practices can be found throughout history, though there is a perception that use of astroturfing is increasing in reaction to the declining credibility of politicians and corporations.

See example: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007846.html

Tags: praxis

Pointed out to me by Melissa - I had read about it, but the moving picture medium makes you really see what’s going on: UCLA student tasering. What. the. fuck.

If you’ve heard about this, watch the video - see for yourself. And the youtube comments to it are idiotic. A terrible sign - if this is the way you respond to resistance, how could things like the civil rights movement really gain momentum? Then again, they had firehoses, billy clubs, and german shepherds then…

At UW, they do check id’s at the 24-hour library “for your safety”. I wonder what would happen if people chose not to show their id. As a publicly-funded institution, the rationale of which is used so often to restrict our coursework or actions, shouldn’t tax-paying people (and I mean in the broadest sense - everyone pays taxes at least for their groceries) be allowed to access these resources?

Back to the youtube comments, many were like “that’s what you get for saying no to the law” or “that’s school policy. you should follow it.” Maybe people are forgetting that law and justice, or even decency, aren’t identical. We have laws that allow for huge loopholes in tax credits, we have laws that allow the environment to be abused for the sake of profit, hell, we’ve had laws that forbade interracial marriage (and I’m painfully leaving out the laws that fuck me over)! Where is there justice in these laws? This isn’t an earthshattering law that’s illustrated here, but I’d hate to see what would happen in a more substantial situation.

Tags: currents

Leandra’s gotten a job, and maybe 3, depending - all the responses came in on the same day, so despair was replaced by excitement and slight confusion - as in, will they all be fitting into a 24-hour day?

Bonnie’s coming on Tuesday!! And staying for a week!!!!! It’ll be really fun - we’re going to Dim Sum, and crumpets, and likely cupcakes, and a fancy dinner or two, and maybe a fun day trip, a museum…or something. Woo!

I had a tasty tuna-rita today (margarita with this bright pink-colored juice from cactus) and it was happy hour and cheap. Also had nopalitos (fried cactus bits) for the first time. I was surprised at how tasty they were, but I should’ve known - if it’s deep-fried, it’ll be something I like

Going to bed now, but figured I’d update on life a bit.

Tags: seattle

So I got my official nomination for Mongolia in Peace Corps. It’s a mixed feeling - reading about it sounds exciting (lots of community health and development projects) and livable (maybe electricity, maybe heat, maybe cell phones), but I’m also sad a bit because it means that I’m likely locked into this 2-year committment away from Bonnie. I’m sure we’ll see each other and correspond, but it’ll be further than across the US.

On a side note, I’m looking really hard for the Hakodate Ika Dance (ika ika ika ika ika odori!) music or a video of it. It’s hard to explain, and I think an illustrative video will help convince people they *really* need to stop by Japan sometime.

Tomo may be coming up to UW around the 20th of Dec., when I won’t be here. I’ve offered my place in absentia, though, and Melissa will be picking him up from SeaTac. He’s graduating this May, which is pretty strange on one level - the time flies quickly, if not like bananas, even.

Anyway, thanksgiving’s happening soon and I need to remind people to rsvp - if you aren’t on the list yet, lmk and I’ll add you…

Tags: mongolia, peace corps

After several days straight of getting pissed off about just about anything that has the word “medical student” or “no room in the budget” I have gone over the edge and wrapped right around the other side. I am going to be pleasant (dammit), using my favorite girlfriendal unit as a model. I’m tired of being angry. I’m going to try to be constructive and just get more determined and, well, inevitable-like (a nice implacable, preferably) about the things that normally chap me. Being mean isn’t fun, and I don’t like it anymore. So there. Today, I’m gonna talk about the things that make me unreasonably happy or tickled.

I listened to a voicemail that said “Hello hello! plerf plerf.” and that was it.
Leroy, the black and white cat here, came up to me and purred. He’ll normally let me pet him, but doesn’t necessarily purr.
I am likely going to an election party at Spitfire hosted by The Stranger where there will Red and Blue drink specials. I believe I will stick with the Blue drinks, which are closer to my political preferences…
I by chance have gotten back in touch with my TOK teacher, who is super spiff - she was a good influence on me in high school, and she with a few other teachers made my life less hellish for a while. So, much excitement on my side at least
I made biscuits on Sunday, but, according to Bonnie, I made them wrong (she’s pro-Fannie Farmer, I’m pro-Joy of Cooking). Conceptually, they taste like biscuits, but you have to put two of them together to make it the height of a “normal” biscuit. I prefer to think of em as pre-sliced.
In the theme of finding old teachers (I started looking for my elementary first grade teacher and wandered off from there), I found out my old comp sci teacher is apparently now a fixtue on the local scifi/fantasy cons as one part of a three-person belly-dancing troupe - when she’s not doing tai chi.

Overall, I’d say the voicemail was the nicest thing so far today - it just happened a few minutes ago.

Tags: random