Reference: Southern Thailand Insurgency
05 Civil War, Academia, Peace Intelligence
Sixth Year of the Southern Fire: Dynamics of Insurgency and Formation of the New Imagined Violence
by Srisompob Jitpiromsri
Deep South Watch (DSW), Center for Conflict Studies and Cultural Diversity (CSCD), Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
Reference: Bank of England on Banks as a Pollutant Imposing System Costs, Recommendations
03 Economy, Analysis, Briefings (Core), White PapersNews Release: The $100 Billion Question –
Speech By Andrew Haldane
Journal: Israel’s Government a Mutant Cancer
04 Inter-State Conflict, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, 12 Water, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence
If the peace settlement does not include relocation assistance (economic), the settlers who want to relocate will be left ruined–at the same time that the government has ruined them, it plans to once again ruin Lebanon. Apart from economic equity for the relocatable settlers, a regional water management treaty that is fully transparent and enforceable through international sanctions against Israel as needed, are essential elements of any sustainable regional peace plan that integrates prosperity for all.
Israel Threatens Lebanon … Again
By CONN HALLINAN, Counterpunch, 30 Mar 2010
When Israeli Minister without Portfolio Yossi Peled said recently that a war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah was “just a matter of time” and that such a conflict would include Syria, most observers dismissed the comment as little more than posturing by a right-wing former general. But Peled’s threat has been backed by Israeli military maneuvers near the Lebanese border, violations of Lebanese airspace, and the deployment of an anti-missile system on Israel’s northern border.
The Lebanese are certainly not treating it as Likud bombast.
“We hear a lot of Israeli threats day in and day out, and not only threats,” Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri told the BBC. “We see what is happening on the ground and in our airspace…during the past two months—every day we have Israeli airplanes entering Lebanese airspace.” Hariri added that he considered the situation “really dangerous.”
By Tobias Buck in Karnei Shomron
Financial Times,March 30 2010 20:06
Benny Raz put up a “For Sale” sign outside his home last year, but he admits there is little hope of finding a buyer. The house itself is a three-bedroom property on a quiet street, with a garden and terrace offering views across rolling hills dotted with olive trees.
The problem is one of location: Mr Raz’s house sits on the outskirts of Karnei Shomron, a Jewish settlement built in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He bought the house 15 years ago for $130,000 (€97,000, £87,000). Today, Mr Raz says, no buyer is willing to pay more than $70,000 for the property – not nearly enough for the family to afford another place inside Israel itself.
Like thousands of so-called “economic settlers”, the 57-year-old moved to the West Bank for the cheap housing, the tax breaks and the promise of a comfortable life. Now, many of them find they are stuck. “The government said: I will help you buy a house in Karnei Shomron, so I went with my family. I came for economic reasons, not ideological reasons. I came because I wanted a cheaper house,” says Mr Raz.
Phi Beta Iota: There is nothing wrong with Israel, or the United States of America, that could not be fixed by restoring informed participatory democracy. Right now both governments are out-of-control and totally corrupt monsters, both cancers encroaching on everything they touch.
Journal: Barack Obama–Corruption, Not Change
05 Energy
Obama to allow oil drilling off Virginia coast
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 31, 6:18 am ET
WASHINGTON – In a reversal of a long-standing ban on most offshore drilling, President Barack Obama is allowing oil drilling 50 miles off Virginia's shorelines. At the same time, he is rejecting some new drilling sites that had been planned in Alaska.
Phi Beta Iota: This decision is corrupt on so many levels we will leave our comment at that.
21.3% of Malicious ‘Spam’ Researched by Symantec comes from Shaoxing China (30% China, 21.1% from Romania, US 3rd)
02 China, Cyberscams, malware, spamResearchers based in Symantec studied over 12 billion emails and
identified that almost 30% of all malicious emails are sourced from
within China and that 21.3% came from the Chinese city of Shaoxing
alone. The researchers were also able to identify that the primary
targets for these malicious emails were human rights activists and
experts in Asian defence policy, which they claim indicates a strong
state involvement in the attacks. The research shows that 28.2% of the
targeted attacks came from China, with 21.1% coming from Romania and the
United States coming in as the third highest source of malicious emails.
PhiBetaIota: It's worth noting that the article says “hacker” and later “attacks” as though they are equivalent. Anyone with a more sophisticated understanding of hacking is aware that this is not the case, and that there is a whole community of hackers that embody a whole other non-malicious form of hacking (see 2600.com & their summer conference in NYC).
Mobile + Micro-Volunteering
11 Society, Civil Society, Gift Intelligence, microfinancing, Mobile, Non-GovernmentalIt seems as though we've also entered a phase of “micro”. From micro-phones and micro-processors to micro-loans, micro-giving, micro-blogging, and micro-volunteering. (How will “nano” fit into this?)
Problem:
73% of Americans do not volunteer (2007 US Dept Labor).
Root Cause:
Most volunteer opportunities require vetting, many hours, and a long-term commitment. It’s akin to a second job. For most people, the process is inconvenient, takes too much time, and doesn’t easily fit into hectic lives.Our Theory of Change: Americans have spare time – billions of hours – but in small windows of idle moments: sitting in an airport, waiting in a doctor’s office, riding the bus to work, and more. If we can reach people during these spare moments we harness a huge pool of untapped human energy.To harness micro spare time we must reach people via mobile, but until recently, mobile phones were limited.
The arrival of smartphones like iPhone (with Internet, graphics, camera, GPS, video, audio, and more) created enormous possibilities. 115 million smartphones were sold in 2007 with projections of 700 million by 2012 (WashPost, Aug 2008).The Extraordinaries is smartphone software that allows millions of volunteers to perform tasks on their smartphones in just a few minutes. We make volunteering feel like a video game to encourage repetition and competition. People login to our system from any place on Earth within cell reception, and constructively use small windows of spare time for science, medicine, nonprofits, government, and more. Nearly anything you do on a regular computer you can do on a smartphone.
You can help:
-Translate micro-finance loan applications (Kiva).
-Transcribe subtitles for human rights videos (Witness).
-Immigrants improve their English (Phone ESL).
(I'm sure you can think of many more possibilities)
Also see this list from Time Magazine
