Fred sez, "To kick off the start of the academic year, Free Culture @ NYU has posted a Free Culture 101 guide with some helpful links to blogs and readings for those wishing to educate themselves about the movement to learn from. Check it out and suggest some sites of your own in the comments."

FreeCulture.org : This is the "National Organization" as we refer to it. It's basically a good place to see who is doing what else in the Free Culture world. I'm on the board, but it's just a title -- local chapters are really where the action is at.

Free Culture Chapters Around the World : See all the other schools where chapters are located.

FreeCulture.org has a discussion e-mail list, and an announcements list.If you're looking to debate and talk about Free Culture and these issues on campus, the discussion list is probably the best place in the world for that. Sign up for the announcements list as it's a good place to learn about Free Culture news before it hits the media.

Creative Commons, EFF, The Free Software Foundation, and Public Knowledge are the big institutional players in our world, and many people working in the free culture movement either work with them, for them, or around them. Check out their sites for more information about what they do.

Link (Thanks, Fred!)

This time-lapse video depicts 35 years' worth of construction in Tokyo's fashionable (and vertical!) Shibuya Shinjuku district in ten seconds. Link (via Digg)

The latest IT Crowd -- season two, episode three -- aired last night, and featured a milk-nose-snortingly funny parody of the pre-show anti-piracy ads you get in movie theatres. I'm downloading the torrent right now (they don't air The IT Crowd in China, where I am this week, and Channel 4's streaming service won't run on Linux, or to IP addresses out of the UK), and can't wait to see it.

The IT Crowd is my favorite new TV show -- barring The Daily Show -- of the decade, brilliant geek humor that rewards multiple viewings (as I discovered when I bought the Season One DVD and checked out the leet subtitles). Torrent link, Link to anti-piracy PSA parody on YouTube (Thanks, Justin, Ryan, and Iris!)

(Disclosure: I was an unpaid consultant on season one of The IT Crowd)

See also:
IT Crowd Season 2, Episode 2 -- keyboard-destroying nerd sitcom
The IT Crowd -- season two, episode one

Tay sez, "This is a pair of steampunk longboards that I have created. They are complete with etched brass graphics, dark-stained wood, and topped off with some useless gauges too." Link (Thanks, Tay!)

Dear sirs: Please find, hereunder, an exhaustive list of many novel and creative steam-punque artifacts. I remain, your humble servant, CE Doctorow, esq.

Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: remixed propaganda posters. Link

Naomi Klein (No Logo) and Alfonso Cuarón and Jonás Cuarón (Children of Men) have created a short film to accompany her latest book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," whose thesis is that present-day global capitalism took hold when its advocates learned to exploit disasters. After a disaster (war, tsunami, terrorist attack), you can push your agenda for worsening labor conditions, looser regulation, and pocket-lining exercises (Enron, Halliburton) while the reeling, disaster-struck population of the world has its attention elsewhere.

Klein attributes this technique to Milton Friedman, who is reported to have said that "only a crisis -- real or perceived -- produces real change." She connects this idea to the fundamental notion underpinning CIA torture techniques (as reported in CIA interrogation manuals from 1963 and 1983) -- to produce a state of shock in which the victim is out of control of her faculties, a "suspended animation" that can be exploited to get victims to do things that violate their own ethics or beliefs.

The Cuaróns' filmmaking is superb, as is Klein's writing. This is a chilling and powerful 7-minute film, and it made me want to pick up the book as soon as possible. Link to video, Link to The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Thanks, Csims!)

(Polar bear photo ganked from ucumari's incredible set on Flickr. Found mah bukkit.)

Here are some fairly terrifying news articles out in the past few days on the subject of global warming:

"Ice-free Arctic could be here in 23 years," Sep 5, in The Guardian. Snip:

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at a record low, scientists said last night. Experts said they were "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as Britain disappearing in the last week alone. So much ice has melted this summer that the north-west passage across the top of Canada is fully navigable, and observers say the north-east passage along Russia's Arctic coast could open later this month. If the increased rate of melting continues, the summertime Arctic could be totally free of ice by 2030.

"Warming Is Seen as Wiping Out Most Polar Bears," Sep 7, New York Times:

Two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will disappear by 2050, even under moderate projections for shrinking summer sea ice caused by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, government scientists reported on Friday.

"Arctic ice cap to melt faster than feared, scientists say," Sep. 7, Seattle Times. snip:

About 40 percent of the floating ice that normally blankets the top of the world during the summer will be gone by 2050, says James Overland, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Earlier studies had predicted it would be nearly a century before that much ice vanished. "This is a major change," Overland said. "This is actually moving the threshold up."

See also this Google News comment by Kassie Siegel from the Center for Biological Diversity:

All of this is indeed horrifying, but it is not cause for despair, but rather a call to action. The good news is that there is still time to save the Arctic, though the window is closing. Our hope lies in a rapid response including both deep and immediate carbon dioxide reductions, as well as a full-court press on other greenhouse pollutants such as methane. While carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere for about a century, and therefore commit us to long term warming, methane is more powerful but remains for only about a decade. Opportunities to reduce methane from sources like landfills, mining, and agriculture abound, and such reductions would also directly benefit air quality and human health. With such reductions we can still buy ourselves some time.

But we cannot "stay the course" of our current energy consumption, land use, and transportation patterns, without losing the Arctic sea ice, polar bears, and the quality of life we have enjoyed.

More background: here's the National Snow and Ice Data Center -- Link.

(All of these found on Ned Sublette's mailing list, sorry but I don't have a proper subscription request url)

Image: a 15-year-old Inca girl who died in an Andean human sacrifice ritual around 1500 AD, in Argentina. Indigenous groups unsuccessfully tried to stop the exhibition of her corpse and others, arguing they should instead be reburied or kept away from public display:

Scientists believe the so-called Children of Llullaillaco were sacrificed more than 500 years ago in a ceremony marking the annual corn harvest. Dressed in fine clothes and given corn alcohol to put them to sleep, the victims were then left to die at an elevation of 22,080 feet. (...) Seated with her legs bent and her arms resting on her stomach, the Maiden's remains are still adorned with a gray shawl and bone and metal ornaments. Scientists say her face was daubed with red pigment and around her mouth they found flecks of coca leaf, which is chewed by highland Indians to blunt the effects of altitude.

Link. Here's a Wikipedia entry on the volcano in Argentina where her mummified remains, and those of two other children, were found: Link.

Unicorn crossing! Link.

Project on Government Oversight (POGO) slams US Department of Energy (DOE) over repeated computer security breaches at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), gives the federal nuke site a "failing grade" on security matters. PDF Link.

Video footage of Chewie, stormtroopers, Leia, Boba Fett and a few Rebels invading the Oakland airport to hand off Luke's Return of the Jedi movie lightsaber prop to NASA, en route to the Houston Space Center. Link.

Utterly over-the-top fake nails to be worn with fancy kimonos. Link (via).

An oral history of Nerve, the online "literate smut" nexus: Link, appears as part of their tenth anniversary feature: Link.

Newspaper in Sri Lanka hates on The Gays: Link.

Italian motion picture actress Asia Argento wants to make porn for women: Link.

Tentacle hentai burfday cake: Link.

Images of wind turbines on the Bahrain World Trade Center, a twin tower construction with three turbines on the struts between the towers. Link.

Stephen Hawking in legos: Link.

Miss South Carolina "maps" t-shirt: Link.

"My other house is a yurt." Link.

Cat Laine says, "I met this Australian artist, Stephen Ives at this year's Burning Man and he had the most beautiful steampunk goggles and face mask. I especially appreciated how the 3M logo is still prominently visible."

(Thanks, Susannah Breslin, Samantha, Rufus Griscom, Ange, Leo, Philip Proefrock, Jon, Bonnie)

A music video for the song "pornografia," from Trisfe, a band from Seville (Spain). Barbie and Ken get it on, then take a milkbath. It's kind of lovely. Here's the video, directed by Joaquin Leon, and here's their MySpace, the song appears on a forthcoming LP. (thanks, Susannah Breslin)

Radar points to a Total Film magazine interview with Quentin Tarantino, in which the director says he's toying with the idea of making some 3D porn films. He wouldn't be the first to do so, but it's certainly an interesting prospect. Link to Radar item, Total Film's October issue contents are not yet online. (thanks, Susannah Breslin!)

Seattles' Roq La Rue has stellar art hanging right now. First, a mini show of Femke Hiemstra's "Heatwave" series of exquisite drawings and digitally-colored prints. Above, "Skinny Dipping" (graphite on paper, 7" x 7"), which my lovely wife just purchased for me as a birthday gift. Link to Hiemstra exhibition

And the main exhibition features the incredible talents of Stella Hultberg, Amy Sol, and Oksana Badrak. Seen here, from left to right, Hultberg's "Sometimes" (oil and ink on tea-stained paper, 12" x 16"); Sol's "Music of Turtles" (acrylic on wood, 8" x 10"); Badrak's "Lost #3" (giclee print, 8" x 10").

Link to Hultberg, Sol, and Barak exhibition

Andy sez, "Kiva.org is an organization that lets their users fund micro loans to business people in countries with weak economies. It has managed to find funding for every business on their directory. This has left them scrambling to find other needy business owners in under privileged countries but I think they consider this a very good problem to have." Link (Thanks, Andy!)

With a little over a month until the first ever Maker Faire Austin, the MAKE: and CRAFT team is headed to Houston next Sunday to meet crafters and makers who'd like to exhibit in the DIY extravaganza, October 20 and 21 at the Travis County Fairgrounds. The "auditions" will take place Sunday, September 16, at the Children’s Museum of Houston, from 1pm to 5pm. From the announcement:

“We’re looking for anyone who has something fun to share, something they’ve made with their hands,” explains Dale Dougherty, Publisher & Editor of Make magazine. “It can be practical or impractical—it could be something simple like a creative Halloween costume or maybe some handmade jewelry. Or it could be something wild like a bike with ten wheels, or a dog-powered lawn mower. Whatever it is, the more creative and imaginative, the better!”

Simultaneously, at the Museum’s Invention Convention exhibit, which closes September 30, will be in full swing offering kids the opportunity to experiment with gadgets and gizmos and become inventors using their creativity and imagination. They will have the opportunity to work on projects, such as building a jitterbug, designing rubber band powered cars, or assembling burglar alarms.

To request a 15-minute slot, email Maker Faire director Sherry Huss at sherry@oreilly.com.

Link to Maker Faire, Link to Children's Museum of Houston