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This free paper discusses, in simple language, what is anarchist in everyday life, and how those spheres of cooperation can be expanded. It addresses common questions that often deter people from exploring anarchist ideas and approaches, and endeavors to help introduce new terms and possibilities into the public consciousness—as well as to celebrate the times when we’ve realized those possibilities, for those who have been consciously participating in the anarchist project for years or decades already.

Mass-produced material like this is no substitute for individual expression, decentralized activity, or cultivating community, but it can be used to initiate and encourage those beautiful things. We’re not trying to speak for everyone, but to make it clear that everyone can speak; we’re not trying to define anarchy for everyone, but to undermine misunderstandings so everyone can begin that conversation afresh.

To make this experiment work, of course, we need your participation. Please do order a bundle of these for your town, and put copies at every record store, farmers’ market, bookshop, and high school! Take them on tour with your band, and leave them at gas stations as well as punkhouses; put them out in the employee restroom, or at art openings, or in public parks. We can pull out all the stops in spreading this paper—it deals with universal themes, the tone and aesthetic are not subculture-specific, and heaven knows there are enough of them.

The fact that we’ve been able to build up such an extensive and effective network for the free circulation of material like this is itself a testament to how well anarchy works, even in times of capitalist occupation. With this project, we hope to help expand that network, and the recognition of its value, a little deeper into surrounding society.

As always—especially since over the past year we’ve almost ceased releasing new commodities that make profit, in order to focus on free and break-even material—we rely on donations, benefit shows, and other kinds of assistance from you to make this possible, so do help out as much as you’re able.

Click here to read a recent tale about FFOL in action.

The whole right half of your body is screaming in agony. You feel like you've been dipped in molten lava. You almost faint from shock and pain, but instead you stumble backwards -- and then start running. To your surprise, everyone else is running too. In a few seconds, the street is completely empty.

You've just been hit with a new nonlethal weapon that has been certified for use in Iraq -- even though critics argue there may be unforeseen effects.

According to documents obtained for Wired News under federal sunshine laws, the Air Force's Active Denial System, or ADS, has been certified safe after lengthy tests by military scientists in the lab and in war games.

The ADS shoots a beam of millimeters waves, which are longer in wavelength than x-rays but shorter than microwaves -- 94 GHz (= 3 mm wavelength) compared to 2.45 GHz (= 12 cm wavelength) in a standard microwave oven.

The longer waves are thought to limit the effects of the radiation. If used properly, ADS will produce no lasting adverse affects, the military argues.

Documents acquired for Wired News using the Freedom of Information Act claim that most of the radiation (83 percent) is instantly absorbed by the top layer of the skin, heating it rapidly.

The beam produces what experimenters call the "Goodbye effect," or "prompt and highly motivated escape behavior." In human tests, most subjects reached their pain threshold within 3 seconds, and none of the subjects could endure more than 5 seconds.

"It will repel you," one test subject said. "If hit by the beam, you will move out of it -- reflexively and quickly. You for sure will not be eager to experience it again."

But while subjects may feel like they have sustained serious burns, the documents claim effects are not long-lasting. At most, "some volunteers who tolerate the heat may experience prolonged redness or even small blisters," the Air Force experiments concluded.

The reports describe an elaborate series of investigations involving human subjects.

The volunteers were military personnel: active, reserve or retired, who volunteered for the tests. They were unpaid, but the subjects would "benefit from direct knowledge that an effective nonlethal weapon system could soon be in the inventory," said one report. The tests ranged from simple exposure in the laboratory to elaborate war games involving hundreds of participants.

The military simulated crowd control situations, rescuing helicopter crews in a Black Hawk Down setting and urban assaults. More unusual tests involved alcohol, attack dogs and maze-like obstacle courses.

In more than 10,000 exposures, there were six cases of blistering and one instance of second-degree burns in a laboratory accident, the documents claim.

The ADS was developed in complete secrecy for 10 years at a cost of $40 million. Its existence was revealed in 2001 by news reports, but most details of ADS human testing remain classified. There has been no independent checking of the military's claims.

The ADS technology is ready to deploy, and the Army requested ADS-armed Strykers for Iraq last year. But the military is well aware that any adverse publicity could finish the program, and it does not want to risk distressed victims wailing about evil new weapons on CNN.

This may mean yet more rounds of testing for the ADS.

New bombs can be rushed into service in a matter of weeks, but the process is more complex for nonlethal weapons. It may be years before the debates are resolved and the first directed-energy nonlethal weapon is used in action.

The development of a truly safe and highly effective nonlethal crowd-control system could raise enormous ethical questions about the state's use of coercive force. If a method such as ADS leads to no lasting injury or harm, authorities may find easier justifications for employing them.

Published: 12:48AM GMT 25 Nov 2009

"At a time of limited resources and increased competitive pressure, it's necessary to concentrate our journalistic firepower on our central mission of covering Washington and the news, trends and ideas that shape both the region and the country's politics, policies and government," the newspaper's editor, Marcus Brauchli, wrote in a memo to employees that was obtained by Reuters.

The Post will close its bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, effective Dec 31.

The news comes after the Post told several employees at its website that they would be laid off, and follows several rounds of buyouts in recent years.

The Post, like nearly every other US newspaper, has been battered by falling advertising revenue and circulation as readers get more news online for free.

With a circulation of more than 582,000 copies, the Post is the fifth most-read daily newspaper on weekdays, according to figures released by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It is the third most-read Sunday paper, with paid circulation of more than 822,000 copies.

During the past four to five decades, it has made a franchise of covering national politics and government from the White House to Capitol Hill.

Unlike other big national papers including News Corp's Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Gannett's USA Today, it limits most of its distribution to the Washington metropolitan area.

For a time, the Post and many US newspapers relied on big profits at their parent companies to send reporters on coveted assignments overseas and throughout the United States.

More recently, it has been trying to cut costs as ad sales shrink. It also is facing more competition from new media outlets, most notably Politico.com, run by two former Washington Post reporters, and staffed by plenty of other ex-Post workers.

VeriChip (CHIP), the company that markets a microchip implant that links to your online health records, has acquired Steel Vault (SVUL), a credit monitoring and anti-identity theft company. The combined company will operate under a new name: PositiveID.

The all-stock transaction will leave PositiveID in charge of a burgeoning empire of identity, health and microchip implant businesses that will only encourage its critics. BNET previously noted that some regard the company as part of a prophecy in the Book of Revelation (because the HealthLink chip carries an RFID number that can be used as both money and proof of ID) or as part of President Obama’s secret Nazi plan to enslave America.

The most obvious criticism to be made of the deal is that it potentially allows PositiveID to link or cross-check patient health records (from the HealthLink chip) to people’s credit scores. One assumes that the company will put up firewalls to prevent that. PositiveID CEO Scott Silverman said:

“PositiveID will be the first company of its kind to combine a successful identity security business with one of the world’s first personal health records through our Health Link business. PositiveID will address some of the most important issues affecting our society today with our identification tools and technologies for consumers and businesses.”

Unless, of course, consumers don’t actually want to be implanted with chips, have their health records available over the internet, or have their medical records linked to their credit scores.

• Related:
• VeriChip TV Ad Confirms Critics’ Worst fears: They Want Everyone Implanted
• Microchip Implant Controversy: a Mark of the Beast or the Coming “Singularity”?
• Microchip Implant to Link Your Health Records, Credit History, Social Security
• Novartis Chip Implant Texts Your Phone When You Need Another Pill

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Computer manufacturing soaks up fossil fuels, UN University study says

8 March 2004 – The manufacture of an average desktop computer and monitor uses more than 10 times its weight in fossil fuels and chemicals, according to a United Nations University (UNU) study which has called for worldwide action to halt "the growth of high-tech trash."

The study, released yesterday, shows that the construction of an average 24-kilogram computer and 27-centimetre monitor requires at least 240 kilograms of fossil fuel, 22 kilograms of chemicals and 1,500 kilograms of water – or 1.8 tons in total, the equivalent of a rhinoceros or sports utility vehicle.

The report - which examined the environmental impact of the information technology revolution - said computer manufacturing is much more materials-intensive than making a car or refrigerator, which need only one or two times their weight in fossil fuels.

More than 130 million computers are being sold each year now, and "today it is hard to imagine life without one of these indispensable 21st century tools," one of the co-editors of the UNU study, Eric Williams, said. "But it is exactly because they have become so ubiquitous that we must be aware of the negative impacts of the PC boom."

Mr. Williams and his co-editor, Ruediger Kuehr, have called for government incentives to extend the life of personal computers and the desire or need to rapidly discard them for newer models.

They also identified several other potential environmental consequences of the PC boom, such as exposure to hazardous materials during the computer manufacturing process or when used computers have been dumped in landfills.

Listen to UN Radio report

all the way up baby