Notes from the Surf

Brutal Legend - Official E3 Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxnho1yTjRo
Another step in the convergence of the video game and film industries?

Graph
http://abstrusegoose.com/a/191.htm
A graph that makes sense... maybe.

Dogbert needs to drive up our stock value
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/10/dilbert-does-warren-buffett/
"Assemble the Illuminati!"

Bipartisan Consensus
http://www.thismodernworld.com/arc/2009/TMW2009-08-19colorlowresopy.jpg
Using the Iraq strategy on health care.

Millions spent by lobby firms fighting Obama health reforms
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/01/lobbyists-millions-obama-healthcare-reform
"America's healthcare industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to block the introduction of public medical insurance and stall other reforms... The largest contribution, totalling close to $1.5m, has gone to the chairman of the senate committee drafting the new law... there are six registered healthcare lobbyists for every member of Congress"

Bought by the Insurance Lobby
http://intershame.com
Even Republican voters favor public option 47% to 42%. 5 key Democrats oppose it after getting $19 million from you-know-who.

Guatemala: School teacher dies so Canadian mining company can get nickel
http://links.org.au/node/1279
Upon arriving to the community of El Chupon, the group of nine men was ambushed by CGN’s private security agents... Adolfo Ich Xaman, a primary school teacher, was killed as a result... men armed with machine guns opened fire on the mini-bus from all sides... Martin Choc, auxiliary mayor of the “Lote 8” community (another of the communities evicted violently on January 2007), had been killed.

Colombian teachers face highest rates of political violence
http://www.ei-ie.org/en/news/show.php?id=1099&theme=rights&country=colombia
"political violence against educators cannot, and should not, be separated from an understanding of the broader social struggles of Colombian trade unions and social movements against inequality, authoritarian rule and endemic political violence that continues to sustain a highly unequal development model favouring a small minority of wealthy elites at the expense of the vast majority of the population"

A quarter of Iceland population to stop paying mortgages?
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/09/30/pm-iceland/
People are very angry because we feel the banks were gambling with the economy, with the currency, stealing, stealing our properties... it is clear that the households cannot go on forever struggling to pay off ever-increasing debts … while at the same time the bank tycoons and moguls responsible for this disaster have the debts of their defunct companies written off left and right.

Venezuela: Peasants training to protect one another after shootings
http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSN02205402._CH_.2400
"It's like one's life is worth nothing, like the life of the person with money is the one with value."