Switzerland: In September, Swiss authorities launched a military exercise to test its preparedness to deal with internal civil unrest as well as refugees from the Eurozone crisis, according to international media.
Comment: The Swiss are not prone to overreact to threats. They do not spend defense funds in order to be prepared for potential threats. They prepare for real threats.
The exercise is significant because it means the Swiss have determined that internal civil unrest coupled with refugees from Eurozone countries represent real threats for which their security forces must be prepared. The Swiss understand the meaning and significance of early warning and know about indicators.
Until recently, public libraries had little reason to innovate. Then Google arrived. More disruptive technologies followed, causing an identity crisis for librarians. Now the profession is re-thinking its purpose — a quest that lured a gathering of 350 eager librarians to Telluride, Colorado recently for the R-Squared (Risk and Reward) Conference.
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Americans need help navigating a way forward — whether it's to find work or explore a new career path. It's no wonder people are rediscovering their local libraries as a place to begin. That's why libraries need to innovate. Otherwise, they risk becoming an object of nostalgia — the emotional step right before irrelevance. Deadly. Research shows that when taxpayers stop expecting public institutions to transform, they invite entrenchment. Consider the battle to reform public education in America. The same hollowing-out could happen to America's public libraries at a time when we need them most.
There's hope. It's heartening to think that there are more public libraries than McDonald's restaurants in America.
Tom Atlee, author of The Tao of Democracy, is on a mission to bring the citizen back into democracy through a simple and practical method. The co-director of The Co-Intelligence Institute in Eugene, Oregon, calls for the introduction of citizen councils that offer a platform for “collective intelligence.” This political pioneer shares his views in his new book, Empowering Public Wisdom, and with you in this engaging online seminar.
Logistics
Date: October 18, 2012 (=October 19 for Dutch viewers due to timedifference) Location: Online Time: 5 pm-6:30pm PDT (02.00-3.30 for Dutch viewers) Price: $10 (€10 for Dutch registrants)
by Jytte Klausen, Eliane Tschaen Barbieri, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, and Aaron Y. Zelin
Abstract
Producers of Al-Qaeda inspired propaganda have shifted their operations in recent years from closed membership online forums to mainstream social networking platforms. Using social network analysis, we show that behind the apparent proliferation of such sources, YouTube account holders associated with incarnations of the British al-Muhajiroun collude to post propaganda and violent content. European groups commonly use American platforms and domain names registered with American companies. Seeking shelter under speech rights granted by the First Amendment, they evade European laws against incitement and hate speech.
Amazing! There is no other word that can describe the situation on October 3. Workers all over Indonesia went on strike and took to the streets. This first national general strike in half a century truly raises expectations and hopes that it will be a turning point for the Indonesian labour movement.
More than 1 million workers struck in more than 20 districts and 80 industrial zones. Ports and industrial zones were blocked. Workers conducted factory “sweepings” to rally other workers to strike as well. (“Sweeping” is a recent militant tactic often used by Indonesian workers, whereby they go from factory to factory to rally other workers to strike, often forcing the owners to open the factory gates and stop productions).Where owners prevented their workers from joining the strike by closing the factory gates, masses of workers from outside took down those gates to liberate their brothers and sisters. The following short reports give a picture of the militancy of the workers and the dimension of this general strike.
