The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Participatory Budgeting in Kenya: Finance Minister invites Suggestions through Social Media
Marvin Tumbo, Contributor:
The Kenyan Government has been getting quite tech savvy in the recent past, becoming more pronounced as Kenyans join the civil service. This has resulted in subtle, but solid, movements towards a better connected Government as was showcased during the Connected Kenya Summit in Mombasa in April.
Digital Activism, Epidemiology and Old Spice: Why Faster is Indeed Different
The following thoughts were inspired by one of Zeynep Tufekci’s recent posts entitled “Faster is Different” on her Technosociology blog. Zeynep argues “against the misconception that acceleration in the information cycle means would simply mean same things will happen as would have before, but merely at a more rapid pace. So, you can’t just say, hey, people communicated before, it was just slower. That is wrong. Faster is different.”
I think she’s spot on and the reason why goes to the heart of complex systems behavior and network science. “Combined with the reshaping of networks of connectivity from one/few-to-one/few (interpersonal) and one-to-many (broadcast) into many-to-many, we encounter qualitatively different dynamics,” writes Zeynep. In a very neat move, she draws upon “epidemiology and quarantine models to explain why resource-constrained actors, states, can deal with slower diffusion of protests using ‘whack-a-protest’ method whereas they can be overwhelmed by simultaneous and multi-channel uprisings which spread rapidly and ‘virally.’
Read entire anomalously long post….
Phi Beta Iota: Concentrations of power create preconditions for revolution. Precipitants (such as burning monks or fruit vendors) ignite masses. The public is a power no government can repress forever. Howard Zinn (RIP) knew the public is a power government cannot repress; Vaclav Havel spoke to this (power of the powerless); Jonathan Schell documented it most ably (unconquerable world). Bottom line: With a tiny handful of exceptions, all governments have lost legitimacy and capability at the same time that the public is increasingly aware of the shocking injustices by banks and predatory corporations that have been legalized by governments. Patrick Meier's discussion is a significant contribution to our understanding of why a global revolution is inevitable and panarchy will replace “sovereignty” as the primary operating principle for Earth.
UPDATED with Comment from O-5 (at end).
This email is from an active duty colonel who travels all over Afghanistan. He actually goes on foot patrols with troops to see things for himself. Here is his latest report. His message is bad Ju Ju, I am afraid.
Chuck Spinney
La Ciotat, France
To All,
The mendacity is getting so egregious that I am fast losing the ability to remain quiet; these yarns of “significant progress” are being covered up by the blood and limbs of hundreds – HUNDREDS – of American uniformed service members each and every month, and you know that the rest of this summer is going to see the peak of that bloodshed.
The article by Michael O'Hanlon last week (i.e. Success worth paying for in Afghanistan) and the one in today's WSJ by Kagan and Kagan (i.e., We Have the Momentum in Afghanistan) made me sick to my stomach – especially the latter. Have you seen it yet? It is the most breathless piece of yellow journalism I’ve seen in the entire OIF-OEF generation.
What Happens When Anonymous Gets a Bank?
Dominic Basulto on May 18, 2011
bigthink
The same people who brought you Wikileaks are back, and this time, they've created a virtual currency called Bitcoin that could destabilize the entire global financial system. Bitcoin is an open-source virtual currency generated by a computer algorithm that is completely beyond the reach of financial intermediaries, central banks and national tax collectors. Bitcoins could be used to purchase anything, at any time, from anyone in the world, in a transaction process that it is almost completely frictionless. Yes, that's right, the hacktivists now have a virtual currency that's untraceable, unhackable, and completely Anonymous.
And that's where things start to get interesting. Veteran tech guru Jason Calacanis recently called Bitcoin the most dangerous open source project he's ever seen. TIME suggested that Bitcoin might be able to bring national governments and global financial institutions to their knees. You see, Bitcoin is as much a political statement as it is a virtual currency. If you think there's a shadow banking system now, wait a few more months. The political part is that, unlike other virtual currencies like Facebook Credits (used to buy virtual sock puppets for your friends), Bitcoins are globally transferrable across borders, making them the perfect instrument to finance any cause or any activity — even if it's banned by a sovereign government.
You don't need a banking or trading account to buy and trade Bitcoins – all you need is a laptop. They're like bearer bonds combined with the uber-privacy of a Swiss bank account, mixed together with a hacker secret sauce that stores them as 1's and 0's on your computer. They're “regulated” (to use the term lightly) by distributed computers around the world. Most significantly, Bitcoins can not be frozen or blocked or taxed or seized.
See Also:
Phi Beta Iota: This 27:37 film focuses on a Serbian organization that claims to have provided peaceful non-violent training to 36 countries, with five successes including Ukraine, Georgia, Tunesia, Egypt, and the Maldives. The film strives to suggest that the US Government is funding this organization–more likely is that it is privately funded by a mix of George Soros, the Ayn Rand network, and related movements. Not to be confused with the Private Military Contractors and related quasi-criminal networks (e.g. Brown & Root) with close ties to clandestine elements of the U.S. Government. This is not “Shock Capitalism.” Russia and Venezuela are said to fear the concepts and organizational teaching represented by this group and its network of young learners. The film concludes that Globalization BENEFITS from revolutions by the young, over-throwing opponents of the New World Order such as Iran, Libya, and Venezuela. On balance, we are impressed. We do not believe that the awakening of the young will prolong predatory capitalism, virtual colonialism, and unilateral militarism. We welcome any initiative that empowers the young.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpXbA6yZY-8
See Also:
Posted on June 6, 2011 by Patrick Meier| Leave a comment
My colleague Jessica recently won the Tufts GIS Poster Expo with her excellent poster on civil resistance. She used GIS data to analyze optimal approaches to Tahrir Square in Cairo. According to Jessica, many previous efforts to occupy the square had failed. So Egyptian activists spent two weeks brainstorming the best strategies to approach Tahrir Square.
Phi Beta Iota: GIS is a two-edged sword, oppressive regimes can do this also. However, the “crowd” is more agile so on balance, GIS favors We.
Just too funny to not post. Evidently the Australian government has not made the connection between animal and human shit in the groundwater causing E. coli and other forms of disease migrating into vegetables–as occurred in the USA when spinach and cow shit combined. Immaculate Australian shit–perhaps it's all the beer they drink.
Deadly E. coli outbreak ‘won't happen here'
ABC News (Australia), 5 June 2011
Australia's peak vegetable group says the E. coli outbreak which has killed 22 people in Europe is unlikely to strike Australia.
