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East of It All

Occupy Seattle Makes a Stand

The Occupy Seattle protests reached a milestone on Saturday afternoon with their estimated numbers reaching close to 3000. Saturday’s protest activities included the movement’s “Night of 500 Tents” where protestors set up tents in a direct challenge to the city’s stated commitment to evict campers from the park after 10:00pm. By 9:00pm there looked to be around one hundred tents set up in the center of the park.

On Thursday night, 10 protestors were arrested in the park when they refused to dismantel and leave a tent structure in the park. On Friday some of the protestors did move to City Hall Park, which the city had offered as an alternative to Westlake Park where protestors have been for nearly three weeks. The city has stated that the occupation was in violation of the park’s terms of use and for most of the previous week, occupiers have been in the park without a permit for demonstration activities.

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Prana Vayus…The Latest Transparent Podcast

Occupy Seattle Takes Another Step

Saturday marked a turning point of sorts for the now two-week-old Occupy Seattle protest movement. In a day marked by rallies, demonstrations and a seven–block march through Seattle’s downtown retail and financial cores, the number of protestors reached its biggest number so far. With nearly a thousand protestors joining the march, the day’s events ended with a tense but peaceful standoff with police at the intersection of Fourth Avenue and Pike Street.

The encampment at Westlake Park is a patchwork display of people and political causes.  Anarchists commune next to college graduates. Young parents push strollers past seniors– some carrying signs and talking animatedly among themselves about the issues behind the protests. In snippets of overheard conversations, the words “greed” and “banks” are often used. But the movement’s aims are diffuse and inchoate. Not unlike some Tea Party organizers, people here are quick to point out that ideological labels are secondary to the grassroots nature of the protests. Looking across the waves of marchers in the street, you could indeed see signs excoriating Wall Street greed next to anti-war placards, socialist banners and anarchist flags. Despite the crazy quilt of causes on display, the umbrella of corporate greed vs. economic equality held steadily throughout the day.

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Yes I Do! The story behind the transparant theme song

Newest Podcast

Molly and I discuss issues of authenticity in leadership and the pressures of being “public” in the media saturated wired world:

Superconductivity Flash Mob!

Early this Spring I was fortunate enough to be invited to document a science based flash mob here in Seattle.  Created by local artist Suzy Tucker, it was really inspiring and I learned a bit about science too!

Transparent: Yoga and Everyday Life…


The latest in our continuing series of podcasts about Yoga and everyday life!

Content is King. Long Live the King!

The psychsters over at Psychster Inc. have done something that media creators have been clamoring for ever since the collapse of the first internet bubble a decade ago.  They released a study looking at how engaged web users become with video content.  One of the continual challenges for web producers is how to effectively evaluate the cost benefit ratio of developing and distributing rich multimedia content online.  Consumers have more video choices now than they have ever had before, but video producers, directors, editors and writers are being squeezed by the emegence of “content farms” that produce very low cost (and sometimes low quality) video content for web sites.

There is a growing debate among media pundits and economists alike about the inflated valuations of tech companies like Groupon and Facebook.  These voices have raised the specter of a new and potentially bigger tech bubble developing.  Facebook, Google’s YouTube and other Web 2.0 giants have all pioneered business models based on user generated content—not professionally produced content.  Psychster’s recently posted study looks at the effectiveness of online video content in relation to production values.  In short, the study asks the question:  do web users engage with professionally produced video content more than they do with cheaper content?  Why is this important?  Lets back up a little and look at how video on the web has evolved over the last decade. Continue reading Content is King. Long Live the King!