SITE OF THE DAY: Wordsmith

Wordsmith or wordsmith.org: I was under the impression that I had already raved about this site before, but, it seems I may have not (an unpardonable travesty, I humbly admit). So I must do so today. Post haste.

One would be hard-pressed to find a less pretentious-looking, less fussy or less 'flashy' website on the entire Internet, yet even the purveyor of possibly the most famous crossword puzzle in the world enthuses about the site:

"The most welcomed, most enduring piece of daily mass e-mail in cyberspace."



The site doesn't even have a viable logo for me to place here and pump its name!

I subscribe to the daily newsletter from this golden nugget of a website, which means that every day I am treated to the pronunication, meaning, etymology and usage of a given word. Hardly an example-a-day goes by where I am not in some way educated, amused or even astounded by words and where they come from and what they mean to us. All because of this little, wondrous site. 

In an Internet filled with a mind-boggling web of flash, glibness and shallow titillation, a simple, unfettered site like Wordsmith is reason for unwavering support because it exults in that most simple of thing that binds us all: words.

Rest assured, these are three of the most comforting bylines for any lexiophile on the Web:

A.Word.A.Day

Subscribe

It's FREE.

Or should that be 'lexiphile?' I'm sure Wordsmith would let me know.

SITE OF THE DAY: WikiLeaks

It was inevitable for to me to make Wikileaks the site for today. My last post on this blog was on a huge scandal that erupted yesterday regarding American soldiers firing on to Iraqi civilians from their Apache helicopter back in July 2007 . The massive news story was broken due to the sheer tenacity and bravado of just one site:

WikiLeaks.

I've often heard of this site, but for whatever (stupid) reason have never really taken the time to have a look at what WikiLeaks had to offer (at http://www.wikileaks.com/). That is to my discredit. After hearing about the breaking news on the 2007 massacre of Iraqi civilians by airborne American soldiers, I just had to take a look at the site that had been so instrumental in breaking the story.

Their lead expose on the 2007 Iraq massacre from the air is brilliantly entitled "Collateral Murder".

It's quite a site. It is just one leak after another on some of the biggest news stories and scandals of the last few months. They include leaked documents regarding different aspects of the recent Icelandic financial and banking crisis, as well as a stunning expose by a well-known anti-secrecy online site that was forcibly shut down after exposing a secret manual being used by police and intelligence services regarding user online activities (read: snooping of what people do online), a manual put together by none other than the corporate giant...Microsoft. I'd never even heard of this until I took the time to look at this site today.

There's even an investigation as to what lengths the US Intelligence Service had tried hard to shut down WikiLeaks itself. And that's just on their home page!

Talk about indefatigable journalism - you know, the kind that was once the mainstay of the serious printed media, but which is now long dead due to the corporate takeover of world-renowned newspapers over the past 20 years.

But it's quite shocking to me to read that this invaluable site nearly shut down entirely towards the end of last year owing to a lack of funds. You can see it on the site - it looks so pared down, owing to the site's inability last year to save all its articles and links. The site looks clearly very scaled down - but, thankfully, not out.

And there are quite a few mirror sites that allow one to access some of the older articles and leaks that are currently not available on the official site. One such mirror site is mirror.wikileaks.info - thank goodness for the ongoing spirit of open source and keeping dissent and the truth alive at all costs in the online community.

The good news is that they have raised over 300 000 US dollars to date, which is keeping them afloat - at least for now. They still need to raise more funds. Which is why I too must try to ensure that this site gets as much financial support as possible, even if I do so primarily by spreading the word about what this site does (and means) to other people and potential financial supporters I might know.

It is the least one can do to ensure that a group of people who are trying so hard and so valiantly to do the type of investigative, expose journalism  that is so desperately needed in the world today. As we are fed more and more disgusting corporate hogwash masquerading as news by much of the world's media, so the importance of fact-finding online sites like WikiLeaks, warts and all, must keep growing. Otherwize we will be all the poorer for it.

If knowledge is power, then a site like WikiLeaks is our means to ensure and to harness that power.

Ignorance is not always bliss.

SITE OF THE DAY: CanadasShame

My recommended site for today is a follow-up to the rant that I posted just a few hours ago. The site is www.canadasshame.com and it is the site the animal activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has established to bring into even sharper focus the barbaric butchering of thousands upon thousands of baby harp seals each year in Canada.

I like the fact that the site's URL is canadasshame.com - it is indeed Canada's SHAME that this hunt is still being allowed to take place this year, even after all these years of so much vociferous opposition to the hunt by PETA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and a host of other environmental groups and individuals from all over the world.

I applaud PETA for this online initiative and this is my small way of trying to spread the word on trying to get this heinous murder to finally be banned.

One can go onto the site and then follow the link to one's Facebook page whereby an appeal to sign a petition against the hunt can be sent to all one's Friends on that site. It's a simple, effective way of getting the word out there.

So, please go and see the site. Look at the pictures and even view the footage (if you can stomach it - it's horrific stuff) and please support this initiative in every which way that you can.

Canada, STOP the seal killing fields NOW!!!

SITE OF THE DAY: Little Sis

My recommended site for today is Little Sis. Once again, I have Max Keiser and his show on Russia Today (RT), the Keiser Report, to thank (bow to Max, yet again) for bringing my attention to this website last night - and what is a terrific initiative.

Basically, if my understanding is correct, Little Sis is a loose group of people online who track, analyze, cross-reference, corroborate and, above all else, expose the ongoing financial shenanigans (read: financial and economic terrorism) of the richest and most financially powerful people in America. This they accomplish by having everyone doing their own analysis, adding content, etc. It appears to me like a hybrid cross between Wikipedia (which I love and respect, with all its flaws) and Facebook (which I hate on many levels - more on that another time) - except its focus is very singular and very expressly stated: as the byline in the website's banner states, "Profiling the powers that be".

As the introduction to their (very young and obviously very dedicated) team states: LittleSis is a project of Public Accountability Initiative, a 501(c)3 organization focused on corporate and government accountability. Our mission is to facilitate and produce investigative research that promotes transparent and accountable governance. PAI was founded in early 2008 by a group of activists, public interest lawyers, and academics associated with leading universities and major social change organizations.

It's the whole accountability part of the Little Sis project that is especially appealing to me. And the fact that their emphasis is so markedly on the very rich and the very financially powerful, i.e. the bunch of lying, greedy weasels that got us into this worldwide financial crisis in the first place - yet still keep getting away with it!

A further direct, italicized quote from their site: LittleSis features interlinked profiles of powerful individuals and organizations in the public and private sectors. Profiles detail a wealth of information vital to any investigation of the ways power and money guide the formulation of public policy, from board memberships to campaign contributions, old school ties to government contracts. I have added the bold for added emphasis, because how very, very true. This simple yet innovative follow-the-money-and-power-paper-trail approach is precisely exactly the type of online initiatives that are so badly needed and that all concerned and outraged people worldwide should be a part of or support, one way or another.

Am I fazed by the fact that the Little Sis emphasis is on the American stinking rich? Not all all. For one thing, the rich and powerful of today have their putrid and money-grabbing tentacles all over the world. Just take all the speculating that is coming to light of late with the entire Greek default crisis - lots of American and other foreign dirty hands in that pie. For another, the influence of the mega-wealthy and the uber-capitalists in America continue to have huge impacts on the global financial and money markets. To deny the importance these American billionaires have in playing with one's own country's economy, sickening and perverse as that idea might be, just because one does not live in the United States is naive folly. Nor does it recognize just how globalized (and, thus, horribly dangerous) international finance has become.

For those reasons and, hopefully, many more to come, I immediately signed up with them today. And, hopefully, as a member I may yet add content to their posted lists, as any member of Little Sis is able to do.

So, if you wish to know more about just how powerful and all-pervasive the likes of Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or that evil incarnation du jour, Goldman Sachs, really are and where they come from and how they possibly get their money, then this is the site for you. Please become a member. As I hope for myself, you may even yet become a content contributor.

Visit www.littlesis.org - and be part of the growing groundswell movement of people worldwide who want to empower themselves by exposing the truth about the wealth of the super-rich and their distorted power. We need to expose them for the mega-greedy, manipulative and economically destructive pack of bastards that they really are.