Originally posted just a short while before the Open Thread (2009-11-30 08:17:14 -0500), I've bumped it back to the top because I posted w/o looking both ways before crossing the river. :) -- GH

One of the things that intrigued me, originally, was one of the reviews saying it would be good for Community Blogs and Bloggers wanting to research and work on pieces together. I asked one of my Blog friends (Bob Morris) that had been using it for a while if he thought it would be good for just that and he agreed that it would. So I signed up a while back for Google Wave and it does have a lot of functionality for people that are working on projects
together. I finally got in there this weekend (you might have to wait
a while if you sign up today) and was poking around in their Beta version.

I can also say that it is on the road to becoming everything they said it would be, and then some. It is good for messaging, sharing a video, images or to share any bits or pieces of info you might find out there on the net. And everyone or anyone you share it with can add to whatever you post, easily, if you want them to.

To add to the functionality of the site? Little bonus apps you can add to your personal Google Wave tool box like:

• Ribbit for conferencing - Ribbit is a fully programmable communications platform that
  allows web developers to integrate telephony and messaging capabilities
  into any workflow or application. Combining Ribbit with Google Wave means real-time, asynchronous
  audio streams can now be inserted into any Wave.
  Participants can collaborate using voice in live
  conference sessions and by leaving audio messages.
  Both of these streams become an integral part of the
  Wave collaboration process, providing additional channels
  of communication and significantly enhancing the overall
  Wave collaboration experience.

• 6Rounds - Want to talk abouit a video you want to use and how to use it in a post or how to edit material from one to use in a certain post? Yeah... I know, it looks like a typical flirt place BUT, I also know some video Bloggers that will enjoy and recognize the functionality of this in Google Wave for VBlogging.

There is a lot of other stuff that you will like. This seems to be the most functional tool for political Blogging (for any kind of Blogging) I have seen in years. In fact, I can't think of any business that will not see some kind of use for it. And the sooner you sign up for it the sooner you will see what I mean.

Gov. Howard Dean on MSNBC:

"The biggest time bomb in the short run is the Public Option. Without a Public option, basically the activists of the Democratic party sit on their hands in 2010. Obama is not on the ballot. There's no reason to go out and vote for a Democratic Congressman or give them any money if they can't pass a healthcare bill that's worth anything. And that's a huge problem for the Democrats if its not in there and so it looks like some of the, a few of the folks aren't going to let it in there. [snip] [The Public Option] has been watered down, it's about as as watered down as it can get and still be a real bill. So there's not a lot left in this bill. For example, there's really no insurance reform in this bill. [snip] I think Sanders has got the right idea. You might as well kill this thing because the people are going to be furious if it passes if it doesn't have a Public option."

Also, over at HuffPo and via TomP at dKos, Howard Dean makes a few points that some who are willing to pass a crappy bill are ignoring:

Brought to you by MoveOn.org & R.E.M.:

We Can't Afford to Wait

And Peace Through Music
How Producer Mark Johnson put it all together.

Morning Edition, May 4, 2009 - Until a video of "Stand by Me" had gone viral on YouTube, Roger Ridley had sung and played guitar anonymously on the streets of Santa Monica, Calif., for years. The video begins with Ridley and then mixes in 40 other musicians from around the world. It's part of a 10-song collection called Playing for Change: Songs Around the World.
Producer Mark Johnson got the idea a few years ago when he heard Ridley's voice on a street in Santa Monica.
"I approached him after the performance and said, 'Hey, if I come back in an hour with some recording equipment and cameras, I'd love to record you, film you, add musicians around the world to it,' " Johnson says. "And he looked at me really funny, sort of thought I was crazy. But he said, 'OK, if you come back, we'll do it.' "..................Rest Here with Video Links to a Couple of the Songs
Brings up the NPR Player to Listen to Discussion

hat tip Wilbur Coleman

http://playingforchange.com - Playing For Change: Peace Through Music is a film that explores our connections in a world overwhelmed with division. Through the process of making this film we travel.

From here, hat-tip Chaosopher Legend Bandog:

Why? ...why not? Facts, reason and sanity need to return to this nation sometime. Let's start with the beginning...or ~not~ the beginning, as this video exposes -- and expels -- "Expelled" as any sort of documentary and places it firmly into the anti-science creationist category.

Consider this an Open Thread.

Thanks to Chongolo at Stumble Upon. Playing for Change: Song Around the World.

Hat tip to Luaptifer for calling my attention to this video.

Ilona Meagher has just posted on her blog site, PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within, an outstanding collection of links and a few video's on what the subject title describes "Art For, By And About Veterans Begins Sunday" and the link just above will take you to it.

She starts it out with this:

People in the United States of America have been "asleep at the wheel" while their airwaves, traditional media, education and political discourse have been perpetually "dumbed down" to the point where the average citizen is often unaware and indifferent of major people, places and events of the world and from history.

If you don't think education matters, and that news like the latest pop-glam scandal are more important than knowing what goes into our food, our environment, our foreign and domestic policies and what's happening around the world, then you'll probably fail to grasp the significance of the following video:

Note: suspected spoof video

Bumped. Originally posted Fri, 02/08/2008 - 22:49.

Just a reminder...

From Wikipedia:

Jane Akre and her husband Steve Wilson are former employees of Fox owned-and-operated station WTVT in Tampa, Florida. In 1997, they were fired from the station after refusing to include knowingly false information in their report concerning the Monsanto Corporation's production of RBGH, a drug designed to make cows produce more milk than what is natural. Side effects of the drug include a 25% greater chance of mastitis (infection of the udders). They successfully sued under Florida's whistle blower law and were awarded a US $425,000 settlement by jury decision. However, Fox appealed to an appellate court and won, after the court declared that the FCC policy against falsification that Fox violated was just a policy and not a "law, rule, or regulation", and so the whistle blower law did not apply.

In 2001, Jane Akre and her husband won the Goldman Environmental Prize as a recognition for their report on RBGH. [1]

After the verdict in the original case, according to Jane Akre,

By 10:31 p.m. when the station buried the story in the late news, the report was that WTVT was "completely vindicated." A FOX attorney from Los Angeles was seen telling viewers the jury's decision "does not have to do with distortion of the news."

From the actual findings, according to foxBGHsuit.com:

After a five-week trial and six hours of deliberation which ended August 18, 2000, a Florida state court jury unanimously determined that Fox "acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiffs' news reporting on BGH." In that decision, the jury also found that Jane's threat to blow the whistle on Fox's misconduct to the FCC was the sole reason for the termination... and the jury awarded $425,000 in damages which makes her eligible to apply for reimbursement for all court costs, expenses and legal fees.

The appeal found that distorting the news was technically not a crime...