Marked is a chilling photo series by Claire Felicie of black and white triptychs of marines before, during and after their tour of duty to Afghanistan.

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In December 2010, Sweden issued an extradition request for Julian Assange in connection with a preliminary investigation. He has been under house arrest in Norfolk since this time. This video, released on June 16th 2011, commemorates 6 months of his house arrest.

So far, Julian Assange has not been charged with a crime in any country.

For soldiers in the Vietnam war, something so honest and everyday as a lighter became a powerful token of pre-war life and a way to express frustration, fear and loathing over the war. You could pick one up for a little over a buck and have it engraved by a local vietnam “jeweler” for about fifty cents. See the whole gallery.

Lessons for the Living is a documentary diretected by Lily Henderson and shot by Ed David on hospice workers about the experience of death and what it teaches us from those who surround themselves with it. You can see a 2 minute short excerpt here.

Osama bin Laden, * March 10, 1957, † May 1, 2011.

On April 26, 1986, reactor number four at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility exploded. The largest civil nuclear disaster in history (so far) led to mass evacuations, and long-term health, agricultural, and economic distress. The nearby city of Pripyat has been abandoned, and a 19-mile radius “exclusion zone” established where radiation contamination makes continued habitation dangerous.

Though they would eventually kidnap him, the Taliban granted Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal unprecedented access for a 9 days period in 2009 to do a 26 min. documentary that shows a side of the Taliban that we have never seen before.

The Danish Documentary Blood in the Mobile shows the connection between mobile phones and the civil war in Congo. Director Frank Poulsen travels to DR Congo to see the illegal mine industry with his own eyes. He gets access to Congo’s largest tin-mine, which is being controlled by different armed groups, and where children work for days in narrow mine tunnels to dig out the minerals that end up in our phones.

For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced. Not included are deaths due to global political instability involving oil fields, deaths from coastal flooding and deaths due to environmental impacts yet unmeasured, all of which skew it even more if you think about it. Read more.

Ex-surfer Hideaki Akaiwa, 43, in Miyagi prefecture, has decided not to wait for rescue workers. With a scuba suit on, he waded through flooded streets to rescue his wife, and later his mother. He continues to look for more survivors. Did you spot the Keirin bag? Bad ass of the month …

But the police don’t want you to know about it.

$22.50, printed on semi-gloss photo paper, 100% donated.

Yesterday, the US Army filed 22 additional charges against 23 years old PFC Bradley Manning who is accused of illegally downloading classified military documents that were then released by WikiLeaks. The most serious of the new charges is “aiding the enemy,” a capital offense that could carry a potential death sentence.

Jodi Bieber from South Africa took this photograph of Bibi Aisha, an 18-year-old woman from Oruzgan province in Afghanistan who fled back to her family home from her husband’s house, complaining of violent treatment. The Taliban arrived one night, demanding Bibi be handed over to face justice. Bibi’s brother-in-law held her down and her husband sliced off her ears and then cut off her nose. Bibi was abandoned, but later rescued by aid workers. After time in a women’s refuge in Kabul, she was taken to America, where she received counseling and reconstructive surgery. She now lives in the United States.

German doctors announced what could be ground-breaking news in the fight against HIV and AIDS. An HIV-positive patient, who had developed acute myeloid leukemia, is said to have been cured of his HIV infection after a bone marrow transplant, which was performed in 2007.

WikiRebels is the first in-depth documentary on WikiLeaks and the people behind it. From summer 2010 until now, Swedish television reporters Jesper Huor and Bosse Lindquist have traveled to key countries where WikiLeaks operates, interviewing members such as Assange, new spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson, as well as people like Daniel Domscheit-Berg who now is starting his own version Openleaks.org.

Thousands of protesters and demonstrators around the world have recently been marching, shouting and engaging to make their points – from Mexico to London to Chile to Germany and Spain and elsewhere. Collected here is a view of protests and demonstrations around the world over the past two weeks.

The first in a series of 3 ski-travel episodes, skiers Chad Sayers and Tobin Seagel travel halfway around the world to Kashmir to ski the high altitude Gulmarg gondola, only to find the snow pack is a ticking time bomb. Presented by Gore-tex and Arcteryx. Via

This month a team of Canadian and Spanish researchers went on a deep-sea expedition using a remotely operated vehicle at Newfoundland at Canada’s Atlantic coast with a maximum depth of about 3.000 meters and found 11 potentially new species. Among them is the little fella pictured above, a still unidentified purple octopus.

B.I.K.E. is an exploration of the Black Label Bicycle Club and the wider tallbike subculture that has grown up around it. Comprised mainly of artists driven by anti-materialism and a belief that the impending apocalypse will render cars useless and bicycles in power, BLBC battles mainstream consumer culture and rival gangs for its vision of a better tomorrow. The film chronicles the trials of co-director Anthony Howard as he tries to become a member of the club.

Via

In an industry as large as fashion, it remains difficult to know the conditions of many production facilities. That’s where the labor conditions group Fair Wear Foundation comes in. The Amsterdam-based nonprofit aims to fully expose the manufacturing process with a verification system to ensure that garments are made under sustainable working environments. As a multi-stakeholder initiative, they work to get corporate and textile associations, trade unions and non-governmental associations on board too.

With ten years already under their belt, FWF represents many fashion brands from Acne and Mammut to Cheap Monday and Nudie Jeans. Today the foundation inspects 1,000-plus factories that manufacture garments for 50 labels, helping reassure consumers that, from China to Turkey, fair labor standards are met.

You can download their 2009 annual report here.

Shot over a four year period, Holy Wars follows a danger-seeking Christian missionary and a radical Irish Muslim convert, both of whom believe in an apocalyptic battle, after which their religion will ultimately rule the world.

In Last Train Home, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Lixin Fan tells the story of a family embarking on an annual tormenting journey along with 200 other million peasant workers to reunite with their distant family, and to revive their love and dignity as China soars as the world’s next super power.

Five days ago, in the northeastern port city of Dalian, China, two oil pipelines exploded, sending flames hundreds of feet into the air and burning for over 15 hours, destroying several structures – the cause of the explosion is under investigation. The damaged pipes released thousands of gallons of oil, which flowed into the nearby harbor and the Yellow Sea. The total amount of oil spilled is still not clear.

Jane Korman’s 89-year-old father Adolek Kohn arrived at Auschwitz in a cattle car over 65 years ago. In 2009, he returned to Auschwitz and other locations in Poland associated with the Holocaust and did a victory dance with his daughter and several of his grandchildren. When Korman first exhibited the videos in Australia, she received quite a bit of criticism.

Many Jewish survivors have reacted gravely to the video, accusing her of disrespect. Yet Korman told Australian daily The Jewish News that “it might be disrespectful, but he [her father] is saying ‘we’re dancing, we should be dancing, we’re celebrating our survival and the generations after me,’ – the generation he’s created. We are affirming our existence.”

What a day: Germany kicks Argentina out of the World Cup with a devastating 4:0 and Arsenal Lodown wins the Borgmann Cup! Sorry Grill, not so royal today.

At the end of WWII, 60 minutes of raw film, having sat undisturbed in an East German archive, was discovered. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel, inclusive of multiple takes and cameraman staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage.

Nicely executed guerilla poster campaign drawing attention to the BP oil spill in the gulf. Via

By Andre Merilo. See also Part 2. Via

Pictures from day 51 after the explosion.

This June 6th marked the 66th anniversary of the 1944 Allied invasion of France. Several operations were combined to carry out the largest amphibious invasion in history – over 160,000 troops landed on June 6th, assisted by over 5,000 ships, aerial bombardment, gliders and paratroopers.

The Red Shirt political protest in Bangkok, Thailand has entered a new, deadly phase in the past week, with at least 36 of the total 60 deaths occurring in just the last few days. Anti-government protesters have barricaded themselves against government troops and the Thai army has declared certain protest areas to be ‘Live Fire Zones’. A state of emergency is in effect, covering 17 provinces in the country, as protesters have refused orders to leave.

“I thought it would be more interesting if I listed some things that I read and watched in preparation for the making of ‘Eastern Promises’ than just listing a random bunch of things that I like. Among these are The Mark of Cain, by Alix Lambert, … A companion piece to the Russian Criminal Tattoo books, this a very courageous documentary on the tattooing subculture in Russian prisons. I don’t know how it ever got made, but it’s beautiful, scary, and heartbreaking.” David Cronenberg

Last Friday, April 30th, was the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, and last Tuesday, May 4th, was the 40th anniversary of the shooting of protesting students at Kent State University.