When FRONTLINE filmmaker Olly Lambert sat to interview Jamal Maarouf, a Syrian rebel commander, he did not anticipate that bombs from government jets would begin to fall just 300 meters away.

Though the first blast knocked him to the ground, Lambert kept his camera rolling. He spent the next hour documenting the impacts of the Oct. 28, 2012 bombing of al-Bara, a village in Idlib province an hour south of Aleppo. The result is a rare, immersive portrait of the immediate aftermath of Syrian government air strikes on a civilian population.

The Yes Men Fix The World (2009):

Troublemaking duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, posing as their industrious alter-egos, expose the people profiting from Hurricane Katrina, the faces behind the environmental disaster in Bhopal, and other shocking events. 

MORE: If you would like to know more about the “Yes Men” have been doing - or if you would like to support their work - just go to: http://theyesmen.org/.

Enjoy!

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, takes us inside the world of Anonymous, the radical “hacktivist” collective that has redefined civil disobedience for the digital age.

The film explores early “hacktivist” groups like Cult of the Dead Cow and Electronic Disturbance Theater, then moves to Anonymous’ raucous beginnings on the website 4chan.

The documentary traces Anonymous’ evolution from merry pranksters to a full-blown movement with a global reach, the most transformative civil disobedience of our time.

pulitzercenter:

Pulitzer Center grantee Jason Motlagh talks to the director of the only school group operating in Malaysia’s palm oil plantations in his latest Untold Stories post. Some companies have started to educate their workers’ children, who are often stateless and invisible to the government. Read the whole story here.

Photo: Children of migrant workers receive free lessons at a learning center set up with help from the Humana Child Aid Society on one of Sabah’s largest plantations. Image by Jason Motlagh. Borneo, 2012.

A White House staffer on the epic trolling on the White House’s petitions website (think: Death Star). (via motherjones)

newsweek:

The best memes of the Petraeus affair.

kenyatta:

In Israeli Attack on Hamas: Shock, Awe and Social Media

via NYTimes.com

As Israel began an attack on Gaza on Wednesday, killing a top military commander of Hamas, the government also took to Twitter to live-tweet the strike as it unfolded.

@IDFSpokesperson, the official Twitter account for the Israel Defense Forces, sent more than 25 messages over five hours as the attack occurred. The account also shared videos taken from the helicopter that killed Ahmed al-Jabari, Hamas’s top military commander, and warned of other attacks should Gaza retaliate.

Israeli officials even started their own hashtag for the strike, #PillarOfDefense.

“The IDF has begun a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the #Gaza Strip, chief among them #Hamas & Islamic Jihad targets,” the Israeli military said on Twitter as the strike began.

This was followed by updates of the attack, including a 10-second video that showed Ahmed al-Jabari’s car being blown up as it traveled down a Gaza street. Officials then shared a link to the official I.D.F. blog, which explained who Mr. Jabari was and why the attack was important to Israel.

btw, Twitter’s Rules state:

Violence and Threats: You may not publish or post direct, specific threats of violence against others.

(via greggyour)

motherjones:

The David Petraeus Scandal, Explained

Who knew what and when? Is there a connection to Libya? Why is Paula Broadwell getting straight-up slut-shamed? And what was up with that uncanny NYT advice column? We’ve got answers.

vanityfair:

Chasing Ice | Horrifying—yet undeniably beautiful—photos of vanishing glaciers

Photographs by James Balog

(via laughingsquid)