What distinguishes the protest movement today, whether it is for peace or anti-globalization, is that it attempts to be based on consensus and decentralized affinity groups. These ideas were first discussed in the 1960's, but came into fruition in the 1990's that was coupled with a pragmatic attitude that has no connection to a psychedelic idealism. The counterculture exists, but does not intrude into the planning and strategy of the activist movement. Therefore more results can be expected, and ideological burnout can be avoided.

 
Sometimes one can run across a niece piece of fiction on the Web. This is a good example, a concise blending that can be considered a close cousin to steampunk science fiction. The depth of both history and speculation on technology are combined in this case to provide social commentary. That is the mark of any good fiction.

 
In terms of science fiction, the future is the canvas upon which the imagination plays itself out. The imagery of the future, and the mode of living in it, has preoccupied people, especially in the 1930's as "streamlined" modern. This article looks at how movies look at the future, and how we are reflected in our conceptions.

 
The 1960's was one of the most unique decades of the 20th century. But the hindsight of that era tends to mythologize or villify a specific part of it. This demonstrates that the time period was more expansive than what was originally remembered. One thing agreed upon by all perspectives was that the 1960's was a time of great momentous change.

 
This article looks at the situation of sprawl from a design perspective. It particularly examines the type of buildings that exist on the periphery. Of course, the topic of sustainability is what should be looked into more as a solution to the destructive qualities of sprawl. More self-contained communities that recycle and reuse resources allows for a better relationship between urban and nature settings.

 
Last night I saw The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg. Made in the 1960's, it is a French musical where every line of dialogue is sung, made way before Andrew Lloyd Webber. It was a good movie, though I do not consider it a musical since I read the dialogue in subtitles. Clearly an unspoken character in the film was the wallpaper. In almost every scene, the walls have a mind of its own.

 
In the spirit of alternate history science fiction, here is a very interesting site. It also delves into the possibility of parallel worlds, and science fiction is the best medium for this subject since it was originally called speculative fiction. It is a very rich and imaginative subject, for lovers of the genre and for those who wonder about history and its consequences.

 
The current search for weapons of mass destruction in occupied Iraq will prove that the reason for the war was nothing but a lie perpetrated by the Bush regime. The relative quickness of the war itself also proves the non-existence of any nuclear or chemical weapons since none were ever deployed. Now the blame is drifting toward Syria, and the dreams of a new imperialism promoted by the Project for a New American Century is still going strong. The only hope is the slowly rising tide of dissent that sees through this illusion. The six months occupation of Iraq by a military government will only fuel that dissent.

 
An upcoming movie called Bulletproof Monk seems to be a complete waste of money. Coupled with the premier of a Titanic documentary directed by James Cameron, one begins to wonder what could have been done with the money that went into bad movies. The movie adaptation of Gravity's Rainbow could have been made with the money that went into the fictional Titanic, while a smaller budget adaptation of Camus' The Stranger could have been made instead of Bulletproof Monk.

 
Now that Iraq is plunged into civil unrest characterized by looting and possible warlordism, we are beginning to threaten Syria. That will probably be the next battlefield, and the current chaos will be made worse with Jay Garner, a former general picked by the president to be Iraq's interim leader. Joy at liberation will turn to resentment of an occupation, much like the Soviet liberation of Poland from the Nazis. Suicide bombings will increase, and guerilla warfare against the American soldiers will ensue. Things will only get worse, and we as citizens will be commanded to support the troops and be silent about everything else.

 
This demonstrates that history is a valuable tool in trying to understand what is going on in current events. Total Information Awareness is a program whereby information about all U.S. citizens will be put into a database in order to engage in constant surveillance of them. For the sake of equal time for differing opinions, there is also some positive side effects to this type of Orwellian strategy.

 
I just recently came upon a revelation. It suddenly dawned on me why Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar at the Academy Awards. This is not to say his performance was not of good quality, but there is another reason why he was chosen despite the stiff competiton of his fellow nominees. Of all five nominees, he was the one who had never won an Oscar before. Jack Nicholson won three, Michael Caine won two, Daniel Day-Lewis won one, and Nicholas Cage won one. The Academy probably thought that it was his time to win an award. Overall, the awards were distributed evenly across many movies, avoiding a Chicago sweep.

 
Lawrence Lessig is one of the main proponents of the open source attitude. In other words he believes that the public domain is a social benefit. This means fighting against overtly restrictive forms of copyright. He has written much about the subject, and speaks across the country and in other nations. He is considered an expert in this area that includes p2p file-sharing as well as open source.

 
For the past couple of weeks, as soon as the war began, some alternative websites that were anti-war were shut down or experienced technical problems. Al-Jazeera online was one example. But new sites, especially blogs, have sprung up to speak out against the war. The style of connecting information that is intrinsic to blogs allows a subversive way to bypass the mainstream media. It also is a form of media that is homegrown.

 
In this time of war, and dissenting against the war, there is a need to believe in the human being who is able to make his own decisions and be able to speak out against injustice. This includes other subjects beside the war. Civil liberties is the home front in this world at war.

 
One aspect of the open source movement is the question of copyright. Corporations are in the position to enforce the illusion that copyright is eternal. However that was not always true. In fact the British law inherited by the newly formed United States stipulated a copyright of only 14 years. What is vital for a thriving open source movement is the flexibility of the public domain as a common good that can benefit more than a restricted copyright interpretation.

 
An interesting subgroup of the science fiction genre is that of the alternate history. Its basic premise is a change in a historic event that changes the subsequent series of events and consequences. One common "what if" question is what would happen if the North lost the Civil War, and so forth. Another subgroup is that of steampunk, which like cyberpunk extrapolates on a current technology and how it affects the society. The difference is in the fact that this occurs in the Victorian and Edwardian era rather than the current time period of computers. This site is a wonderful hybrid of both in a very imaginative way.

 
It appears that the escalation of terrorism has begun as an automatic consequence of the Iraq war. The suicide bombing In Najaf seems to be the tip of the iceberg, now that people are crossing the border from Syria. This will of course be seen as reason to expand the war by the Bush regime to include Syria and possibly Iran. This expansion will further a fortress Arabia that will become a hotbed of a perpetual war. It is going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy that embedded journalism will maintain and convey to Americans as pre-packaged war propaganda. If our nation is doing something wrong, that can be identified as a form of self-abuse, then the true loyalty is to act with dissent.