You may have seen a post on Gawker today about how the ”UC Davis Pepper Spray Cop Is Now a Meme.” Now, by way of Occupy Lulz on Facebook (and the Facebook friend who brought the below to my attention), comes this, um, arresting contribution to the meme:

The “Pepper Spraying Cop” continues his beat across the internet. You’ll find some of his many tragicomic manifestations at his new, dedicated Tumblr, which includes a few more run-ins with religion, Eastern and Western.

Considering that meditation has played an ongoing and meaningful role in the Occupy protests — note for example the related coverage my colleagues and I have been posting on the Shambhala Sun blog — it will be interesting to see how Buddhists respond to this Conan segment from Thursday night, in which Triumph the Insult Comic Dog takes on Occupy Wall Street and a meditator gets in his line of fire. …You’ve been warned. But will you laugh anyway?

Meditation flash mobs: are they more than just a fad? Sure, none of the participants are moving, but this new — and certainly fad-inspired — activity seems to me far more meaningful than, say, planking, doesn’t it? After all, here are the reasons given by the people behind today’s “Med Mob” in Los Angeles: (more…)

After playing Tibet House’s annual benefit this year, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne is wondering about Tibet’s situation. According to Spinner, he’s said of Tibet House (and, presumably, its mission to preserve Tibetan culture):

“I’m not going to put it down — these are humane peaceful people trying to do something. That being said, if I had been oppressed for [this long], I think I’d just accept it and say ‘Who gives a s—?’” …Yes, that does sound bleakly negative and resigned, but Coyne turns his view to himself and qualifies things: “Kind people that make the world a better place, but I don’t know if I’m like that.” (More, via Spinner, here.)

Whether Wayne’s in for next year or no remains to be seen, but Tibet House still could benefit from your help and attention. Check out them here.

Via Rolling Stone: “U2′s ‘Scarlet’ (shown below) was played to celebrate the release of Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, and was mashed up with Jay-Z’s ‘History,’ which he wrote after President Obama was elected.”

Glad to see this is now online. I really apologize that you’ll have to watch the Axe ad, with all its “balls” jokes. Guh-ross. Well, I guess Axe understands how to advertise to their market.

Anyway, if you can get past that you’ll eventually get to the Worst Horse-relevant bit of this. (Okay, once you get the general setup, you can just jump ahead to the 4:25 mark or so.)

And also, Dear God, please deliver us from further Axe ads if you can.

New York City’s The Interdependence Project has made a head-turner of a new T-shirt:

What’s the story here? Well, as the IDP site says, “Wearing this tee is a reminder to stay in touch with the reality of impermanence as well as a way to support the efforts of the Interdependence Project.” To do so, click here.

If the IDP ever makes one with the same slogan in small reverse type, a la Memento, I’m all over it.

Update: after expressing some of my developing reservations about the shirt to the IDP’s Ethan Nichtern, I was invited to share said comments on the IDP blog. See this post: Sure, “This Body Will Be a Corpse”… but should I wear a shirt that says so?

Vietnam’s Thich Quang Duc — whose self-immolation protesting discrimination against his nation’s Buddhist majority has become one of the defining acts of the Vietnam War era — has been honored with a new statue that, as VietNamNews reports:

is 6.3m tall and stands amidst a 2,000sq.m park at the busy intersection of Cach Mang Thang Tam and Nguyen Dinh Chieu streets, where the self-immolation took place.

It’s beautiful. See it, larger, here.

See also: Uncovering the Buddhist monk at the center of one of the most significant images of the modern age

Heidiminx — the very model of the punk-rock dharma activist — rules. But you knew that, right? Well, if you didn’t, check out her new video, “Tattoos and Tibetan Ex-political Prisoners.”  In it, she interviews a member of the Tibetan ex-political prisoners association, GuChuSum.

As Heidiminx writes, “While there are numerous sites and TV shows dedicated to the meanings of tattoos, the tattoos of Tibet’s ex-political prisoners have not been well documented. Their experiences are crucial to understand the human rights violations China commits on a daily basis.”

Support and follow Heidiminx’s work here. And visit GuChuSum here.