Comic books create fictional worlds in order for their stories to be effective, and these worlds have many details. Here is an example of making use of that world, specifically its sense of place, to create fictional travel posters.

 
With the current state of film technology, it is possible for people to create short films fairly inexpensively. These methods can also be used to create trailers for films that have not been made yet, but the trailers can be used to gather funding for the full-length film. Here is an example of a such a potential movie, a film that explores nerd culture in a new way. I hope that this interesting trailer can elicit enough money in order for the project to go through.

 
The applications that are possible through personal fabrication and 3D printing expand more and more as time passes. Here is a wonderful design for a gear that usually would be very difficult to manufacture, but through personal fabrication it can be created all in one piece with all of its working parts.

 
The events in the Middle East, especially in Tunisia and Egypt, showed that demonstrations and protests can still make a difference. The Arab Spring quickly became the European Summer with protests in Greece and Spain. It can be said that the United States is lagging behind in terms of political awareness and the willingness to act for change. But right now, with Occupy Wall Street and emulating protests in other major cities, there is still a chance for an American Fall.

 
For the art of movies the film poster can have its own aesthetic value, capturing the themes of the film. Here is an artist who has created posters for music videos. Many of the videos depicted have been made by directors who have gone on to make feature films. In this respect, the music video takes on the role of a short film.

 
The issue of equality requires the clarification of the difference between power and consumption. An equality of power is one where those who are affected by social structures have the ability to control those structures. An equality of consumption assumes that everyone makes use of the social structure equally. In an equality of power, rewards for merit are possible, but are naturally limited by the direct and democratic control of participants. A more authentic equality would be a redistribution of power rather than a mere redistribution of wealth.

 
In Britain, there is a new form of business organization called a limited liability partnership that can allow for the formation of open capital partnerships. In contrast, in the United States an open capital partnership is made possible through a variation of the community land trust. In both cases, an open capital partnership bridges the gap between workers and owners by allowing everyone who contracts with the business to be a shareholder in the business. All exchanges of goods, services, and money would occur within the enterprise without any conflict or competition of goals.

 
Neal Gershenfeld is one of the leaders of the idea of personal fabrication, where small devices controlled by computers can produce objects designed by individuals. It can offer a new form of manufacturing, while democratizing the production process. The formation of Fab Labs across the country has slowly developed with a culture of makers surrounding it.

 
Louis Kahn is one of the great modern architects, and is unique in his style by presenting a monumental aspect to the buildings he designed. They tend to look heavier with stone than the more larger works by other modern architects that are made with steel and glass.

 
Within capitalism, there is the appearance of choices through commodities. But these choices are always limited by the overall market, and imply that only the individual can make these choices which are shaped by external economic forces. The paradox of this kind of choice is a type of indecision that paralyzes people since they feel they must be responsible for these precluded choices.

 
The latest incident involving Sarah Palin and her misinterpretation of Paul Revere reveals that she is a woman who is so embedded in her ideology that the truth no longer matters. Everything she says is meant to state patriotic and conservative buzzwords that have no substantial content, but satisfies a specific target audience. The fact that she says nothing of importance is neglected by both her followers and the media.

 
Sometimes the best films can be made with very little resources. Here is a short film about a fictional tribal civilization, done in the style of an anthropological documentary, but describing a people completely independent from the social narratives of any other existing society. The form is familiar, but the content is absolutely strange.

 
In the experience of the 20th century, many would assume that socialism always leads to a totalitarian government and that capitalism is the only alternative that leads to individual freedom. However, as seen by the various goals of socialism as it was expressed in the 1800's, socialism originally meant worker ownership of the means of production through democratic processes. The phenomenon of statism is separate from the intent of socialism, which unfortunately converged with socialism during the Soviet Union.

 
The background and foundation of many forms of prejudice against race, gender, class, or ethnicity is the rhetoric of scarcity or the belief that the other will take away freedom or property from the self. This unfortunately has emerged again with the election of the first black president, followed shortly by baseless and unrealistic accusations of socialism. This sense that any attempt to provide for the less fortunate or to develop equality will be a threat to people who pose themselves as "real Americans" is a true threat to the real freedom of many because it is the deliberate maintenance and perpetuation of hierarchy.

 
The use of organic forms in art can take on different shapes or methods. Here is an example of the organic style that incorporates the imagery of algae or vegetative growth in unusual and alien ways. These are forms that may occur in nature, but in how they are presented they appear more strange.

 
The Open Ecology project has been working on a sustainable model for living by using open source methods of production to recreate the tools and systems needed for viable communities. The overall organization is based on abundance which in turns promotes a culture of democracy and empowerment. This is a very practical way to develop the backup systems that civilization will need in order to survive political, ecological, or economic collapse.

 
There is great potential in the combination of peer production and personal fabrication. As explored in science fiction, especially depicting a near future, one can see how local workshops with multipurpose tools can be the next wave of industrial manufacturing that makes use of online free blueprints and designs. It is a decentralization of the means of production alongside more democratic relationships of production, and overall it is a more sustainable form.

 
Here is a very direct chart illustrating how tax breaks for the rich directly affect public services for the poor. The current debate about the deficit is premised on the false assertion that the economic crisis is the fault of workers and the poor, and that it is only the wealthy that create value. This shows that class warfare is being waged by the rich in order to maintain power hierarchies and a control over the American democracy, when in fact any attempt to fix the economy and reduce the deficit must require elevating all participants.

 
The revolutions that spread across Europe in 1848 provided not only independent nations freed from empires but new democracies freed from authoritarian systems. Before the rise of Marx and his articulation of communism, there was a specific type of socialism that increased the democratic principle throughout the economy. This was an active attempt to establish cooperatives as the main economic unit in the national economy, avoiding direct government ownership. It was through the democratic process of the government that economic democracy was made possible.

 
This political cartoon, from a very insightful cartoonist, shows how the use of military force in Libya is just as invalid as the war in Iraq. It also demonstrates that all the accusations of Obama being a socialist are unfounded, and that the reality is that his administration is a continuation of the Bush administration.

 
Here is a great short film that illustrates the existence of mathematics in nature. The film clearly displays how mathematical principles are behind the inherent beauty of nature.

 
Even though the new Republican majority in Congress has pledged to repeal the insurance mandate, it it important to remember the fact that the current healthcare law benefits insurance companies rather than dealing with the lack of coverage for many Americans. Here is a concise reminder of what a real universal single-payer healthcare system would mean.

 
The current rhetoric from conservatives about the deficit is used in a precise way. Talk about deficit reduction deflects from a real discussion about the economy, unemployment, and the increase in income inequality. While the emphasis on deficit reduction has been used to blame the economic crisis on the working class and the poor, the reality is that corporations and large banks caused this crisis. The logical conclusion is that income inequality must be addressed first and foremost. Here is a series of graphs illustrating the structural problems that the nation faces.

 
Corporations are taking more and more risks in terms of finding resources and financial speculation. This risk taking illustrates the relationship between limited resources and the need for economic growth. Here is a great talk on the subject of economic risk and its association with the pursuit of growth, and how neither is sustainable for the long-term.

 
Before the development of cities and dense urban areas in the formation of civilization, the more decentralized mode of tribal societies fostered a greater desire for freedom. In tribal societies it was harder for hierarchies to form, and this social structure stimulated specific genetic personality traits that expressed autonomy and resistance to dominant authority. When centralized urban areas were created, and political hierarchies could easily develop, the selection for genetic traits changed and a toleration for dominance emerged.

 
The process of emancipation is where an individual becomes independent from a structure, group, or other individuals and able to engage in self-determination. For a few centuries, it was supposed that education can be one of the best methods to develop emancipation. But education as it has been practiced implies that the teacher will have more information than the student, thus inadvertently reproducing dependent and unequal relationships. Jacques Ranciere has proposed that a new form of education and emancipation must begin with an initial assumption of equality, and that any method must verify that equality rather than make unequal individuals equal. Starting with equality can insure that no new dependent relationships are formed, and that new subjective identities can arise.

 
The existence of power in non-state societies is quite different from the type of power expressed in states. In modern states, power is arranged in a hierarchy where coercion is exercised by one group on another. In non-state societies, power is equally distributed through ceremonial roles and duties. These roles and duties are maintained by unequal exchanges that form long-term social relationships. There is no permanent concentration of power that would cause the society to become a state.

 
Here is an animated short video that summarizes the plot to the "Call Of Cthulhu", one of the centerpieces of H.P. Lovecraft's famous mythos. The mythos overall, one that departs from previous depictions of the supernatural, is one of the most imaginative creations in literature.

 
Some have criticized whether Congress is truly representative of the people of the United States, based on the system of representation based on population in each state for the House and two representatives from each state in the Senate. Here is a redrawing of the states where each state has the same population, thus allowing for a more equal type of representation that is not so much an abstraction of the will of the people.