Violent crackdown on protests in Syria

Violent crackdown on protests in Syria

These images were filmed in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Deraa in Southern Syria, as security forces open fire on demonstrators who had gathered outside one of the city’s mosques, which has been the focus of unprecedented anti-government demonstrations for near to one week now. The web continues to provide coverage of the protests.

This video, also filmed in Deraa, shows a court set alight by protesters who are demanding, notably, an end to corruption and for the state of emergency which has been in force in Syria since 1963, to be lifted.

Opposition members are also using the Internet to share accounts of the repression. This video was uploaded on Monday and shows anti-government protesters fleeing police gun fire.

And here, demonstrators are picking the bullets off the ground so that mobile phone cameras can gather footage. Objective: denounce the violence used by the authorities.

Several people have been killed in these clashes with security forces over the past few days. The victims are being hailed as martyrs on social networks, where videos of their bodies have been uploaded, accompanied by hundreds of messages from outraged web users.

But the repression does not appear to have demotivated the opposition. The Facebook group at the origin of the movement has launched fresh appeals for demonstrations over the next few days. Web users are notably being asked to print out and distribute this flyer to encourage people to take part in the rallies.

Tracking radiation data online

An interactive map displaying the radiation levels recorded across Japan. Numerous sites like this one have emerged on the web over the past few days amid increasing concerns over the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis.

The information on this platform, created by a German photographer and web designer living in Japan is based on official data. The authorities are being transparent with information and Japan’s Ministry of Science and Technology is posting data on the Internet in real time.

And in France, the radioprotection and nuclear safety institute is also sharing observations online, on this page, so that people can monitor radiation levels across the country.

Others prefer to take their own readings. The site RDTN is asking web users from all over the world who own radiation detection devices to send in their data. People will be able to use this platform to cross check information sent in by the general public with official data.

Steven Danieletto for example, a physicist living in Tokyo, is taking radiation level readings in the Japanese capital more or less on a daily basis. On Wednesday he measured levels he believes to be three times as much as the normal level in this zone.

Rama Hoetzlein is an artist and has put a graph together which looks at the risks associated to different levels of radiation exposure. He compares the radiation levels in Japan to those of previous nuclear accidents, to demonstrate that the Fukushima disaster does not appear to be as serious as the Chernobyl disaster.

Movie to be released on BitTorrent

Hollywood is joining pirate networks. Paramount pictures is going to test a new way to market a movie with ‘The Tunnel » a feature film which has been partly financed by web users. This horror flick which tells the story of a television crew in the subway tunnels of Sydney will not be released in cinemas. It will go straight to DVD and will also be broadcast on file sharing applications.

Internet guide to bad movies

This site is a like a bible for fans of those films that are so bad they are good. It lists and reviews films in a variety of categories. The aim is to direct web users towards the most unlikely productions or the worst dubbed films… it’s a tribute to these Z list films with their inimitable actors…

Video of the day

Kutiman is back on YouTube. In 2009, This Israeli artist whose real name is Orphir Kutiel mixed together hundreds of clips uploaded by amateur musicians and turned them into a track, and later an actual album. For his latest song “My favourite colour”, he has remixed 23 YouTube videos, thus creating this orchestra with a soul jazz style.