Ariel Pink awesomeness via P4k.

Auto-cannibalism table from Inhabitat.

Posted by Wills Glasspiegel
wills@greenowl.com

Green Owl's small staff is divided when it comes to communication devices. There is team Crackberry and team iPhone. Sure, this chick is kind of annoying and if you are on team iPhone, you're apparently better geared to save the planet <slow, sarcastic hand clap>.

Posted by Ashley Rambo
rambo@greenowl.com

 
From last year's TED.  We gotta get this guy on track with Esau.
Much love to Bill B for the tip.

Even though we were told as children about 'consequences' and 'responsibility,' they never seemed to apply to anything but our individual needs and concerns. Perhaps that is why we have such a hard time realizing the consequences of global warming; we've been trained to understand results as a personal phenomena. One look at these maps and I am sure at least three of you will feel a little bad for all the plastic shit you've purchased and tossed to feel better about yourself.

Turns out we are completely killing people with our self centered decision making and I am not talking about Iraq, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leon, Johannesburg, Baghdad, Vietnam, Cambodia, or Kosovo (damn, I feel sick to stomach). I talking about all of Africa. Get hip to these maps gang, as we produce most of the worlds emissions, we feel the least of the consequences. That's right, map A bulges the areas with the most carbon output and map B, bulges the most affected places based on mortality from emission related deaths. Yep, we are all just a bunch of blood thirsty Dick Cheney's. SO DO SOMETHING. 

Posted by Ashley Rambo

rambo@greenowl.com                                                                                                                                 

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is suspected of buying votes from the Iranian people. Over the course of a few weeks, Ahmadinejad's government officials have been dispensing checks (about $80) to families, mostly in rural areas, along with vegetables.

Some see this as a means to conceal Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vulnerability in eradicating poverty as he promised and to steer the peoples votes come June 12. Mohsen Rezaei, a conservative candidate challenging Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the re-election bid stated “the president should create jobs for young people rather than doling out money to them from state funds.” It appears Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not ready to give up the fame, fortune, gay bashing and Saturday Night Live parodies quite yet.

Posted by Ashley Rambo

Man, I sure am glad America woke up and voted for Obama. Today Obama and his posse set new auto emissions and mileage rules. Obama has the kind of brain presidents should have, a brain with multifaceted solutions. With his new rules in place, the car industry will provide a fleet of cars and light trucks that get a minimum of 35.5 miles to the gallon by 2016. Moreover, his plan will kill 783 birds with one bad ass stone.

Check it, the new rules will not only ease green house gasses but will allow auto makers to fight their current downfall with new production, utilize eco-friendly concept cars that have been shelved for ages, provide a single national efficiency standard, and make cars 40% cleaner than today’s models. Perhaps most important, is the efficient spending of billions of federal aid dollars while creating positive long term effects. If it were up to good-old-boy-Bush, I predict he’d tell the auto corporations build giant tanks, with automatic amphetamine shots in 5,743 different locations while Ramstein plays on loop… Anyway, I am glad we have someone as cool as Melvin Van Peebles and smart as a cum laude Harvard Law graduate in the white house. Baaad Assssss.

Posted by Ashley Rambo

rambo@greenowl.com

More on Syrian legend, Omar Soulemon from Sublime Frequencies -- he's touring Europe this summer.
More on the history of Jews in Syria here.

post by wills glasspiegel
wills@greenowl.com

Photo of Cite Soleilin, Haiti by Jeff Antebi

All the links we're reading today point to Haiti.  We just found this online photo essay series (see above) on Haiti from artist, Jeff Antebi.  His pictures make the economic / human tragedy palpable -- kids walk barefoot through shantytown wastelands; jetliners fly overhead.   It's hard to believe Haiti is so close...

Former-President Bill Clinton will be thinking a lot about Haiti's proximity to the US.   Clinton just announced that he will become the UN Special Envoy to Haiti.   Seriously Bill, let's blow some rara with Wyclef.  Obama rara streaming here from Kanaval09.

And in other Haiti news, if you're in NYC, check Alliance Française's month of Haitian cinema and performance art.  More info on World Nomads Haiti here.

posted by wills glasspiegel
wills@greenowl.com

Hurray for historical women! Last time I was this excited for big historical women moves, M.I.A. performed while preggy at the Grammys. Today my sistahs, you can smile and take comfort in the power of our strength, mind, and Va-JJ. For the first time ever  a woman won the presidential election in Lithuania. Dalia Grybauskaite won the Lithuania election with 70% of votes! Better yet, she's a fly female, looking professionally fresh. Wow gang, this makes me want to throw a party with Roxy Cottontail, M.I.A., Dalia Grybauskaite, and Cynthia McKinney and take over the planet. Congratulations Dalia! If we could, we would send you two fine young men to fan you off in leopard-print speedo's, to relieve the sweat you must have broke running shit.

Read the full story here.

Along with DJ Geko and the Dutty Artz crew, Uproot Andy is revolutionizing the dance music landscape in NY (and across the world).  Just before heading off to talk to the folks at La Mega, Andy took a minute to answer a few probing questions about Madonna, synth-love and what he looks for in a NYC diner.

What song's stuck in your head right now?
Akon's 'Right Now' because Chief Boima made a killer remix that I've been playing non stop, and because, like Akon, I too have an ex girlfriend.

Why is Cumbia taking over?
Cumbia has been massively popular all over Latin America for a long time.  It has deep roots of course in Colombia but it's been a living modern music developing in different ways in different countries for years.  Cumbia Villera in Argentina for example is already a totally different sound from Cumbia Sonidera in Mexico.  I think that's one of the things that makes it interesting to those who are just now discovering it.  You see the different possiblities.  It also sets it apart from some of the other genres, like Baile Funk, that have recently blown up in the blogosphere and that have been inviting comparisons.

Who's the biggest music nerd that you know?
Is that a hint?  Is it me, is that what you're getting at?  If its not me its Geko Jones.  Oh, or Dj Rupture, it's gotta be DJ Rupture.

Have you ever made love on top of one of your synths and a cool melody came out and you stopped shagging and made a dope song instead?
No.

Tell us about La Mega and how that felt to get your music on that particular station.
I like to have La Mega on blast while I'm getting ready to go to the club.  They'll go from some heavy Reggaeton right into some mad Mambo de calle and flip it into some Salsa Dura.  It reminds me what people are really listening to in New York and it was probably my gateway to seeking out a lot of the other different South American music that I'm into nowadays.  So ya, it was pretty nice to have one a my own up on there.

Let's say you drank a bottle of aguardiente and it's your turn to play records at a seedy love-den on the northern coast of Colombia -- what's your first move?
Joe Arroyo!

Be patient young jedi's, for the first 45 seconds is in German and the rest will be English. This is a cool look into the Market Hotel before they painted it sterile white and cleaned up the punk rock rif-raf.

It may seem like the green craze is big in the US, but a new study shows that America is way behind in terms of supporting environmentally-sustainable businesses.  Story via GRIST / Huff Po.  

Apparently Twittering and using You Tube count as: “inciting financial panic… and inciting sedition, revolution, or overthrow of the state,” in Guatemala. In the recent chaos that has swept the country, two men have been accused of such charges. However, we translate those charges as "realizing the inhumane and corrupt control over the country and its people, who have been restricted from knowledge, progress and each other. As one Guatemalan Twitter user wrote, "Some guy on Twitter is in jail for one 96-character tweet, while assassins roam free."

The stint started after citizens were informed that president Alvaro Colom ordered the assassination of attorney Rodrigo Rosendberg. Guatemalan I.T. worker, Jean Anleu, used Twitter as a means to expose the corruption of the state-run bank. He was later raided by police and put in prison for bail of $6,500, which is more than the annual average income of a Guatemalan. Thanks to people coming together and further using technical resources (Pay Pal account) money was raised and Jean Anleu will be released. A video that Rodrigo Rosenberg has taped informing people of his death was later bootlegged by a street vender. He too was arrested and the heat goes on. So if we have learned anything today gang it’s that America isn’t so bad and we should stop bitching about our individual needs and look out for other (and this includes Twittering about what your eating, wearing, or watching).

Read more about the full blown madness here.