thegreenurbanist:

In an email from a professor: 

“The Chicago Clean Power Coalition, announces a major victory for the people of Chicago! After 2 1/2 years of continuous organizing by grassroots organizations and environmental groups, Midwest Generation, owner and operator of Fisk and Crawford coal plants on the city’s southwest side has agreed to permanently retire these corporate polluters - the largest in the city of Chicago and two of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants in the country. 

Under the terms of an agreement signed between Midwest Generation, the City of Chicago and the Chicago Clean Power Coalition, the Fisk power plant in Pilsen will shut down in 2012, while the Crawford plant in Little Village will be closed in in 2014.  These plants are responsible for more than 42 premature deaths each year, and have been targeted by community groups and environmental and heath organizations for more than ten years!   It’s time for clean power Chicago.”

motzart:

…practical knowledge of how darknets (non-indexed portions of the Internet) function will allow you to make more informed decisions regarding risks when rooting a box, hiding files, or communicating securely. Now, keep in mind that nothing short of unplugging your computer will make you 100% anonymous. You can have fifty proxies and a handful of VPNs, but never consider yourself to be completely masked. Look at anonymity as a trade off between function and speed.

The idea is to have enough masking, while maintaining a level of usefulness. While it is not impossible to track your actions, ideally you want to make it logistically too complex to be attempted in a realistic way.

If you need to escape your school’s firewall, a simple HTTP proxy may work for this. If you are rooting an AT&T server, you will want several layers between yourself and the target. Cyber crime laws are changing rapidly around the world, from Cairo to Chicago, and learning how to blend in with the masses is a valuable skill to have. You are harder to track when you are nobody at all….

danachang:

(02-07) 10:13 PST SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court declared California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional today, saying a state can’t revoke gay rights solely because a majority of its voters disapprove of homosexuality.

In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Proposition 8’s limitations on access to marriage took rights away from a vulnerable minority without benefiting parents, children or the marital institution.

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” said Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the majority opinion.

“The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort.”

Prop. 8, passed in November 2008, declared marriage to be the union of a man and a woman. It repealed a May 2008 state Supreme Court ruling that had legalized same-sex marriage in California.

The ban remains in effect while the case proceeds toward the U.S. Supreme Court.

In today’s ruling, the court took a narrower approach than that taken by then-Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who presided over the nation’s first federal court trial on same-sex marriage.

Walker ruled in August 2010 that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry their chosen partner - a ruling that, if upheld on appeal, would apply nationwide.

Today’s ruling was tied to the history of Prop. 8 and, if upheld, would nevertheless apply only to California.

meghanalefae:

aprilstar-dance:

SOPA Emergency IP list:         

So if these ass-fucks in DC decide to 
ruin the internet, here’s how to access your favorite sites
 in the event of a DNS takedown

        tumblr.com 174.121.194.34
        wikipedia.org 208.80.152.201

        # News
        bbc.co.uk 212.58.241.131
        aljazeera.com 198.78.201.252

        # Social media
        reddit.com 72.247.244.88
        imgur.com 173.231.140.219
        google.com 74.125.157.99
        youtube.com 74.125.65.91
        yahoo.com 98.137.149.56
        hotmail.com 65.55.72.135
        bing.com 65.55.175.254
        digg.com 64.191.203.30
        theonion.com 97.107.137.164
        hush.com 65.39.178.43
        gamespot.com 216.239.113.172
        ign.com 69.10.25.46
        cracked.com 98.124.248.77
        sidereel.com 144.198.29.112
        github.com 207.97.227.239

        # Torrent sites
        thepiratebay.org 194.71.107.15
        mininova.com 80.94.76.5
        btjunkie.com 93.158.65.211
        demonoid.com 62.149.24.66
        demonoid.me 62.149.24.67

        # Social networking
        facebook.com 69.171.224.11
        twitter.com 199.59.149.230
        tumblr.com 174.121.194.34
        livejournal.com  209.200.154.225
        dreamwidth.org  69.174.244.50

        # Live Streaming Content
        stickam.com 67.201.54.151
        blogtv.com 84.22.170.149
        justin.tv 199.9.249.21
        chatroulette.com 184.173.141.231
        omegle.com 97.107.132.144
        own3d.tv 208.94.146.80 
        megavideo.com 174.140.154.32

        # Television
        gorillavid.com 178.17.165.74
        videoweed.com 91.220.176.248
        novamov.com 91.220.176.248
        tvlinks.com 208.223.219.206
        1channel.com 208.87.33.151

        # Shopping
        amazon.com 72.21.211.176
        newegg.com 216.52.208.187
        frys.com 209.31.22.39

        # File Sharing
        mediafire.com 205.196.120.13
        megaupload.com 174.140.154.20
        fileshare.com 208.87.33.151
        multiupload.com 95.211.149.7
        uploading.com 195.191.207.40
        warez-bb.org 31.7.57.13
        hotfile.com 199.7.177.218
        gamespy.com 69.10.25.46
        what.cd 67.21.232.223
        warez.ag 178.162.238.136
        putlocker.com 89.238.130.247
        uploaded.to 95.211.143.200
        dropbox.com 199.47.217.179
        pastebin.com 69.65.13.216


Here’s a tip for the do-it-yourself crowd: 
Go to your computer’s Start menu, and either go to
 “run” or just search for “cmd.” 
Open it up, and type in “ping [website address],” 


Once you have the IP for a website, all you really 
need to do is enter it like you would 
a normal URL nd hit enter/press go. Typing in
 “208.85.240.231” 
should bring you to the front page of AO3,
 for example, just as typing “174.121.194.34/dashboard” 
should bring you straight to your Tumblr dashboard. 
Since we’re obviously bracing for the worst case scenario 
which would involve you not being 
able to access the internet regularly, you should,
 save this list.

Dear Tumblr-ers, -ites, ettes, and whatever other things you may prefer,

Please reblog the crap out of this. Add to it if you feel there is stuff necessary but missing.

P.S. Thank you to the lovely who wrote this up.

(via luhsavage)