All you need to go off-grid

September 29, 2014

People

Lights goes off-grid to get her Mojo back

Hanging out with hippies in a New Mexico hot spring isn’t the first place you might picture Canadian electropoop singer-songwriter Lights — finding inspiration for her week-old new disc, Little Machines.

The 27-year-old songstress — born Valerie Poxleitner– had a case of writer’s block due to increased expectations after the release of her 2009 debut, The Listening, her 2011 sophomore album, Siberia, and its 2012 acoustic version.

So she set off for Taos, N.M., last August to get her mojo back.…

September 29, 2014 1 Comment

Pro-democracy protesters go off-grid to evade police crackdown

HONG KONG (CNN) — It was 10 PM on Sunday and 22-year-old Michelle Li, a dancer, saw Facebook updates of police tear gassing pro-democracy protesters in downtown Hong Kong. Within minutes, she followed online postings to the protest site itself — and soon had tear gas fired at her as well.

Only then did she peel her eyes from her mobile device. “While we were waging battle, we screamed out news to each other,” she tells CNN. “But before and after, I’d update people on the internet.”

It’s a high-tech response to a high-stress situation. Armed with top-of-the-line phones on some of the world’s fastest mobile networks, Hong Kong’s young protesters are able to organize themselves at a lightning pace older generations of activists could have only dreamed of.…

September 29, 2014 2 Comments