If you’ve been to any of the occupy rallies that have been going on for the past several months, you’ve no doubt seen a Guy Faux mask or two. Perhaps you’ve seen pictures of folks wearing the mask and you’re wondering why everyone’s been so into V for Vendetta cosplay this year. Maybe you haven’t noticed at all.

That’s partially okay. The ladies and gentlemen who sport that mask want you to notice what they’re up to, they just don’t want you to notice who they are. They are Anonymous, both figuratively and literally. Anonymous is the collective name for folks who conduct internet vigilantism. They’re hackers, trollers and activists who began undertaking acts of discent on the internet way back in 2008.

Four years later, they’re taking it off of the interwebs and into the streets. They’re joining the occupy movement en masse. If you’re a V for Vendetta fan, you have to be at least a little amused by the use of the mask. It’s pretty amazing watching internet meme combine with a pop culture icon to turn something fictional into something in the real world.

Anonymous has taken on some pretty amazing feats. But right now, they’re rumored to be taking on one of the biggest hacking feats in history. They’re threatening to take down Facebook.

This would probably be one of the funniest and most ridiculous take downs in internet history, since the site serves no actual purpose. It would be amazing to see what the world would be like without Facebook for a day. Would anything change? Would alcohol consumption go up? Would there be a No-Facebook baby boom nine months from the date of the black out?

There’s no doubt in my mind that many people would be angrier than they’ve ever been before. But who would they have to blame? Anonymous? What would they have lost? A day of wasted time?

What do you think about anonymous? How would you feel if they shut down Facebook’s servers for a day?

Happy Nuclear Internet Blackout Day! I’m sure you may have noticed that when you got up to have your eight a.m. martini and Lucky Strike (good morning Mr. Don Draper) that your internet was broken (Don Draper, what are you doing in the future?). Okay, so maybe your internet isn’t broken (and maybe you’re not Don Draper), but there doesn’t seem to be as much on it as there usually is. Well it looks like you’re getting the point of this here blackout pretty quickly.

The internet is giving you a gift today. The internet is showing you what the digital world would be like in a few years, if the bills SOPA and PIPA were to pass through congress. Pretty 1984-ish, eh?

Yes, what the internet is trying to convey, is that letting SOPA and PIPA pass, would be like giving the internet gastric bypass surgery. Once the procedure is done, there will be less and less of the internet until it’s rid of all of it’s porn and free downloads. But that’s not all, the internet will continue to wither away like the dude did in Steven King’s Thinner, until there’s nothing left of it but us.gov and the Nyan Cat video.

Okay, maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration. I’m sure you’ll still be able to check your bank statements and apply for wacky scholarships sponsored by Duck Tape. But seriously, the people who are in charge of the largest technology companies in our nation are freaking out about this bill.

Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin likened the act to China’s censorship of the Internet saying “I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.”

Not only would websites be penalized for hosting material under copy write law (even if it was written in the comment section by a user) they would also not be able to operate unless they were granted an ISP containing numbers. It gets creepier. Here’s a great article about the more oppressive statutes in the bill.

Beyond that, this is a fight against the government serving the interests of a select few corporations and themselves. Let’s face it, he who owns information and communication, owns everything. But this is a fight that the internet is taking to the streets…. Totally makes sense.

What do you think about today’s internet blackout?

t may not look like it at first glance, but these kids are actually making a politcal statement... It's the aristocracy vs. indigenous people/nature/furry green folks.

In Charlottesville, Virginia, a classroom of third grade students is getting a lot of attention for their lyrical talents this week. These youngsters wrote a song in a workshop, that people are calling “leftist” and “Marxist.”

Yes, you’d better watch out. The kids are going red. The reaction to the song called has been heated, to say the least. The song is called “Part of the Ninety Nine.” It mentions “the one percent,” who had everything but still wanted more, and “the ninety nine percent” that they’re happy to be a part of. The children went through a workshop led by Kid Pan Alley. For the workshop, instructors helped them write their own lyrics to learn the creative process. Unfortunately, the children came out on the other end as song writing socialists.

Conservative bloggers jumped on the story and reported skepticism that the children had come up with the lyrics on their own. Kid Pan Alley founder, Paul Reisler, released a statement that he had in fact added some phrases to the song. But Kid Pan Alley has been quick to say that they don’t condone any political stance after the backlash from conservative bloggers. They have also clarified the rules for lyrical guidance.

Since this blog is about the Occupy movement, we’re probably supposed to hop on board and say that this is freedom of speech. But, I have to say, I’d be outraged if children were taught to sing a song about Mitt Romney’s ideology or something equally politically conservative.

So what do you think? Is this wrong? Was he right to promote the idea of solidarity and unity to a group of young children? Was it wrong for this man to guide children into writing a protest song? Is this leftist and Marxist indoctrination? Or is this a case of letting something that you care about mistakenly seep into your work life?

It’s interesting to watch this movement continue to grow and change over time. Occupy Wall Street may have started to address a very specific set of problems in a nation that has relatively few problems. But “Occupy” has become a buzzword that begins to fuel any kind of mass unrest and protest in the world. Now civilians in nations that regularly face life and death issues at the hands of their governments, finally have something to rally around, in order to start organizing and standing up to their respective “man”. It’s some pretty amazing stuff.

Occupy Nigeria is a protest responding to the governments repeal of a gas subsidy that kept gas prices in the nation at around $1.70 per gallon. Since the subsidies repeal just six days ago, gas has reached over $3.50 per gallon. This has caused food and transportation costs to skyrocket in the nation causing more food insecurity in a country that has a great deal of problems already. Most of the Nigerian population lives on under $2 per day. They experience water and electricity shortages on a regular basis. A large portion of the population doesn’t have access to clean drinking water. Many face hunger on a daily basis. They’re also facing a radical militant group of Muslims that killed over 500 people in the country in 2011. What do police officers do in the face of that kind of violence? Apparently, not enough. We’ll see how active they become when the mass strikes begin on Monday.

“We are sitting near a keg of gunpowder and we are playing with fire,” said Rep. Pally Isumafe Obokhuaime Iriase of the Action Congress of Nigeria. “This will be the last straw that will break the camel’s back if we do not act.” [Christian Science Monitor]

Nigerians are gathering in solidarity to re-enact the gas subsidy which would cost the government $8 billion in the coming year. But many in the nation feel that that’s not unreasonable considering the years of corruption that the populace has had to deal with at the hands of the government. Nigerians have seen billions of oil dollars funneled into politician’s pockets over the past few decades, and they, like us, are tired of being taken advantage of.

What do you think about Occupy Nigeria?

To date, there have been almost 6,000 arrests that have taken place at occupy protests. This may not sound like a lot for a nation-wide protest that’s been going on for over a year. It is a little alarming that nearly all of these arrests have nothing to do with violent crime, property damage or any real form of crime. As the people, we’re supposed to have a right to peacably assemble. It’s a constitutional right. And the constitution doesn’t say how long. It doesn’t say where. It doesn’t doesn’t say who.

So, I suppose you could interpret it as, “peaceably assemble, during the day, for a few weeks, and then go away or you’ll get pepper sprayed.” However, I’m not sure that’s really what our founding father’s intended. The right to peaceably assemble was meant as a safe guard against a tyranical, unjust governement. One that’s fully in the pocket of big business would probably qualify. However, our wonderful checks and balance system can put the people in check like it’s nobody’s business:

“The First Amendment is not absolute,” Deputy City Attorney William Carter tells the Los Angeles Times. Just because the law of the land (literally) allows for peaceful protests doesn’t mean it is really alright, says Carter. For the hundreds of demonstrators arrested during Occupy LA protests in recent months, they seem to think that the US Constitution is of actual importance. For the city officials though, those silly hippies don’t know “habeas corpus” from their hacky sacks. In order to show them what the good old US of A is really about then, the city of Los Angeles is letting those charged with misdemeanors stemming from Occupy LA incidents to forego the legal system in exchange for taking a class on the First Amendment — for the price of $355 a pop. [rt.com]

How awesome is that? You have to pay to be brainwashed in the good ole U S of A. I’m pretty sure it’s free in North Korea. Maybe we should all move there.