I tried to paint it orange

mizoguchi:

letterstomycountry | prettayprettaygood:

A Yemeni youth activist has been tweeting his reactions to his village being struck by a U.S. drone. Amazing.

See Also: Afghan Villagers Flee Their Homes, Blame U.S. Drones

See Also: US Drones Blow Up Any Hope Of Close Ties With Yemenis

swintons:

420bastardchild | anarcho-queer:

Meet The Street Artist Who’s Wanted By The NYPD For Punking The Police With Fake Drone Ads

His name is ‘Essam’ and he’s a 29-year-old art school grad from Maine, who served in Iraq as a “geo-spatial analyst”, and has put up posters like the one above all over New York. It shows drones being used to police regular people in an Orwellian world… with the NYPD logo plastered all over it, as if to endorse it. The NYPD wants him arrested, he wants to let people know the scariness of drones.

Animal New York scored an exclusive interview with the street artist who readily admits that he’s not really a part of the street art scene and it’s interesting to hear him describe his work. In his talks with Animal:

He agrees that there is an inherent irony in his spoofs: the very fact that the NYPD (which claims to be strongly pursuing him with their “counter terrorism squad”) hasn’t caught him yet, is proof that we have not reached a state of Orwellian control. “But we’re going in that direction and no one’s talking about it,” he says. “And I think that’s pretty scary.”

He’s already put up over a hundred of these spoof drone ads and he’s done them under the very nose of the NYPD and has yet to be caught. Let’s hope it stays that way. Be sure to check out Animal’s video interview with ‘Essam’ too (his face is blacked out and his voice is distorted):

[Animal New York]

it’s fucked up how they can put up these ads: 

but not the drone ones, which are way less offensive. ‘merica yall

(via mizoguchi)

newsweek:

markcoatney:

picturedept:

Dronestagram: The Drone’s Eye View

via futurejournalismproject:

At the FJP, we’re always fascinated by projects that colonize the new booming platforms and go totally native; adapting the story to survive in a new environment. 

Dronestagram posts a satellite view to Instagram showing the location of drone strikes before the attack. By focusing on getting the drone story working well on Instagram, the story automatically gets to mobiles, Facebook, twitter and tumblr easily and elegantly.

The inventor and publisher, James Bridle, writes he’s “making these locations just a little bit more visible, a little closer. A little more real.”

James Bridle’s CV extends way beyond journalism; as well as his column for the UK-based Observer newspaper, he’s presented at TED and SXSW, and his Iraq War Historiography, a twelve volume encyclopedia of changes to politically contentious wikipedia pages about the second gulf war, has been exhibited in galleries in the US, Europe and Asia.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism provides Bridle with details of the strikes across Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. He then researches across “original media reports, wikipedia, local government and media sites” to get the best location and satellite view.

This isn’t the first time creative technologists have tried to tell the drone story in creative ways on digital platforms; back in August we posted about Apple rejecting an iPhone application that showed an alert each time a drone strike was reported. But this one has actually reached the public, and is already growing its audience.

There’s more on the project The Verge, and you can follow Dronestagram on twitter, tumblr or Instagram, of course.

Followed.

Fantastic idea.

(via shiisa)

Rep. Dennis Kucinich - As Obama stonewalls on drone strikes, critics warn of war crimes.

The implications of the use of drones for our national security are profound…. They are faceless ambassadors that cause civilian deaths, and are frequently the only direct contact with Americans that the targeted communities have. They can generate powerful and enduring anti-American sentiment.

(Source: mehreenkasana)

Cameron P. Munter, US Ambassador to Pakistan

(via mehreenkasana)