Thursday, April 5, 2012

Das Netz: The Unabomber, LSD, and the Internet

From The Wildcat:

“Das Netz (En: The Net) is an independent film directed by Lutz Dammbeck and subtitled “The Unabomber, LSD and the Internet”. Das Netz premiered in 2003. The film explores the ideas and histories of groundbreaking artists Marshall McLuhan and Paik Nam-june, hippy idealists such as Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey, counterculturalists such as John Brockman and Stewart Brand, cyberneticists such as Robert W.Taylor and Heinz von Foerster, and neo-luddite Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.”



Alternately watch the video here.

What do LSD, advanced mathematics, computer technology, multimedia art, top scientists, hippies and the Unabomber have in common? Lutz Dammbeck's THE NET not only poses this and other questions, it also urges viewers to ask their own.

On April, 3, 1996, in the Montana mountains, the FBI took Harvard graduate and ex-mathematics professor Theodore J. Kaczynski into custody. Kaczynski was accused of mail bomb attacks against scientists and managers, three of whom died. Kaczynski, a model student in his youth with an IQ of 170, became one of the “most wanted” terrorists of his time and has since been found guilty in a court of law. To this day, Kaczynski denies having committed the bombings.

Judge orders testing of evidence in Judi Bari bombing

Dean Kuipers, L.A. Times

Almost 22 years after Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney were car-bombed during a campaign to save old-growth trees, a federal judge has ordered the FBI to turn over evidence from the bombing for forensic testing.

In an order dated last Friday but released Monday, Claudia Wilken, United States district judge of the Northern District of California, affirmed a March 21, 2011, order by Magistrate Judge James Larson, directing the United States, through the FBI, to turn over the remnants of two pipe bombs, cardboard signs and other evidence connected to the bombing. The items have never been tested for DNA evidence or other identifying characteristics that could provide leads in the bombing case, which has never been solved. The items have been in FBI possession since the bombing two decades ago.

“I predict that we are going to solve the case as to who bombed Judi Bari this year, and this court ruling takes us one giant step closer,” said Cherney. He is currently screening his new documentary film about the case, “Who Bombed Judi Bari?,” which premiered March 2 and played last week in Santa Monica.

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Greek Suicide: Austerity Measures In Greece Lead To Elderly Man Killing Self In Syntagma Square

Nicholas Paphitis reports for Huffington Post:

A Greek retiree shot himself dead in the busiest public square in Athens during morning rush hour Wednesday, leaving a note police said linked his suicide with the country's acute financial woes.

Hours later, more than 1,500 anti-austerity protesters gathered in the square, responding to social media calls for peaceful demonstrations accusing Greek politicians of driving people to despair with harsh cutbacks implemented to secure vital international bailouts.

Limited scuffles broke out betweeLinkn the protesters and riot police, who used a small amount of pepper spray to repel youths throwing bottles of water at them.

The 77-year-old retired pharmacist drew a handgun and shot himself in the head near a subway exit on central Syntagma Square which was crowded with commuters, police said. The square, opposite Greece's Parliament, is a focal point for public protests.

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See also:

Pensioner's suicide over 'occupation govt' sparks riots in Greece (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Riots in Athens after 77-year-old pensioner commits suicide