From the publisher: Yes, there are too many Muslims in this book. This book is not about Muslims, but isn’t that what you thought about when you read the title? We did! Let’s hope your kids wouldn’t jump to the same conclusion. But if they did, they would have been correct; there are a lot of Muslims in this book. There are a lot of Muslims everywhere! And most, like you and I, DON’T want to blow you up! I Don’t Want To Blow You Up! is a book for kids and adults aiming to counter the terrifying messages transmitted in the name of the “War on Terror.” In an age of yellow, orange, and red terror alerts, let’s draw attention to the myriad people of different colors and cultures who are living peaceful and meaningful lives. From Magic Propoganda Mill the creators of the controversial It’s Just a Plant – a children’s story of marijuana, and the critically-acclaimed Portrait of the Dog as a Young Artist, comes another book bound to astound all ages.

Myth of the Motherland is a documentary film project taking young New York poets to Africa to dispel the prevalent myth that "people in the developing world are helpless victims." In 2008, filmmaker Lisa Russell will follow a group of young spoken-word artists, aged 18-23, from Urban Word NYC, on a creative-writing journey to 12 African nations to meet with scholars, writers, artists and others to address myths and biases about Africa and Africans. The experience, she says, will expose the young writers to a face of Africa they rarely see. "Giving local scholars, writers and poets a platform to mentor American youth," she says, "would flip the power dynamic we are accustomed to seeing." The documentary will be produced by Governess Films, a project of the Independent Feature Project. Hear the project's voices on MySpace.

Saturday, April 21, 2007 at 3:00pm was the departure time of the longest non-stop sea voyage in history when Reid Stowe and Soanya Ahmad depart, and will not step foot on any land for 1000 days. .Departure was from the pier at 14th Street and Frank Sinatra Drive, Hoboken, NJ. They will not refuel, not re-supply, and not pull into any harbor during the entire voyage. When they cast off they will follow global trade winds from New York eastward toward Europe, then to the southern coast of Africa. and begin a route to scribe a huge heart shape graphic on the ocean between Africa and South America. They will then continue around Africa, through the Indian Ocean, past Australia, around the end of South America’s Cape Horn to circumnavigate. Their return to New York Harbor will be the first time they will have seen land in almost three years.
"The object of the voyage is to leave the land and all support, sail for 1,000 days, non-stop at sea without receiving help, to live at sea, to be healthy, to send back good messages and have the whole world follow the voyage and understand the importance of it and then we'll be back sailing back into New York City after 1,000 Days." - Capt. Reid Stowe
Visit www.1000days.net where you can follow Captain Stowe and Soanya Ahmad on their adventure of a 1000 days. Send, via satellite, a message to the Schooner Anne. A live real-time tracking map is also available or subscribe to a monthly personalized dispatch printed on a calendar page and mailed to your home or office.

For some on deck footage check this out or for a audio update on sea.

ED in '08 recently partnered with The Kanye West Foundation challenging the presidential candidates to speak up about education. He's eager to use his celebrity and platform to bring attention to this issue -- we agree that the candidates from both parties aren't doing enough to show that K-12 education reform is something that they care about. Kanye's new album, which will be released on September 11th, is called "Graduation," but that's something that 46% of black males in America will never reach. There are millions of voters who like Kanye are outraged that out of every 100 black kindergarteners, only ten will ever earn a bachelors degree. The same is true for Latino students. This is a national crisis and the failure of the next president to address this problem will be a national tragedy for both social and economic reasons. Just consider, the poverty rate for families headed by dropouts is more than twice that of families headed by high school graduates, and over a lifetime, dropouts earn $260,000 less than high school graduates and contribute about $60,000 less in federal and state income taxes. More alarming, our economic competitiveness depends on the innovation and skills of our students. America once had the best graduation rate in the world -- today it ranks only 19th among developed countries. The American dream is in danger. Future generations could find themselves without the skills they need to survive in the global economy -- let alone seize the opportunities of tomorrow.

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Where My Ladies At? is an interactive documentary. Yeah, we know sex sells. But what happens to women who love Hip Hop? Do we have to be ho's? There are so few female MCs that most women in Hip Hop are wearing thongs. Like Jadakiss, I got my own questions. Why are there so few women of color on TV? Why are so many of them only seen from behind? Why don't we see women expressing more than their shake? Feel me? OK, maybe they are making a little money-clearly people are making money off their (naked) backs, but what about the rest of us? It's like we are all buying this fantasy. MEN: just get this truck, this ice, then you'll have 10 naked girls in the back of your ride. WOMEN: shake your moneymaker, take your clothes off, get yours. That's not power, and it's not sexy. We're not mad at the women in the videos, we think they're hot, and some of them are friends. Women rarely talk about porn, but we should. We don't have to buy this fantasy some corporations made for us, Hip Hop means so much more. So, LADIES, where you at?

Google has created a black version of its search engine, called BLACKLE, with the exact same functions as the white version but with a lower energy consumption. This is exceptional because of how a single change can make such a potentially large impact. When your screen is white - an empty word page, or the Google page, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when it’s black it consumes only 59 watts. Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views. According to his calculations, 750 mWh per year would be saved. That’s the kWh per year that 1,000 average US refrigerators would use. Ok, so it’s not an enormous amount to stave off global warming, but it’s significant just by doing something small like changing the color. (Of course in the world of graphic or visual design, changing a color isn’t small.)

To Write Love on Her Arms is a work in progress. This began with one broken girl, one painful night; addiction, depression, cutting. This is a glimpse at the five days that followed, a decision to love and to begin telling her true story. To Write Love on Her Arms is becoming something bigger, something hopeful. It's the realization of what life can be when we commit to meeting a need. A friend of mine told me there's no such thing as suicide prevention. This is an attempt to prove him wrong, to say that love can change a life. We can hold back the darkness. Rescue is possible. More soon to come. Join us as we continue to write this story, and as we begin to offer hope to the many hopeless who walk these dark roads. A Jimmy Eat World lyric has been stuck in my head today, "Believe your voice can mean something."

Leonardo DiCaprio's “The 11th Hour” is a feature length documentary concerning the environmental crises caused by human actions and their impact on the planet. "The 11th Hour" documents the cumulative impact of these actions upon the planet's life systems, and calls for restorative action through a reshaping of human activity. With the help of over fifty of the world's most prominent thinkers and activists, including reformer Mikhail Gorbachev, physicist Stephen Hawking, and Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai, “The 11thHour" documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed, and their causes rooted in human activity. The combination of these crises calls into question the very future not of the planet, but of humanity. However, the most powerful element of “The 11th Hour” is not a portrait of a planet in crisis, but the offering of hope and solutions. Scientists and environmental advocates paint a portrait for a radically new and exciting future in which humanity seeks not to dominate the earth's life systems, but to mimic them and coexist. “The 11th Hour" calls for a future now within our grasp that is both sustainable and healthier.

I’m sure you’ve received a number of e-mails, phone calls and letters concerning the recent Unicef campaign featuring children with mud “blackface”. Truth be told I don’t know a great deal about racial relations in Europe, I simply assumed they are much better over there than they are here in America. Perhaps it is because of this that the use of blackface isn’t as taboo in Germany as it is America. Here the use of black face conjures memories of white comedians who used black paint to make fun of oppressed black people and enforce some very negative stereotypes. However my concern is geared more towards the words used in your campaign than it is the mud “blackface”. I’m sure you had the best intentions in mind when you came up with the campaign, seeking to illicit as many donations as possible. Still, it is somewhat off putting that you would trivialize the current state of the education system in Africa. It may not be up to the high standards of your fine country but they are far from having no schools or being as uneducated as your advertisement may lead people to believe.

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