The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.
Sir Tim calls Snowden a hero, and Snowden receives a standing ovation from the audience.
Edward Snowden: Here's how we take back the Internet
TED2014 · 35:17 · Filmed Mar 2014
I have been asked recently why do I persist in working hard for the things that I believe in, knowing that I will die in the next several years, and am almost certain not to be around for the catastrophic future that seems to cast its dark shadow across the road ahead, and can only be removed by a major transnational movement of the peoples of the world.
. . . . . . .
My own reflections on why I persist in doing what I am doing are more simplistic, less sophisticated, and maybe no less trivializing, but also more satisfying to me as explanations that connect with my experience. In contrast to ScheffIer I would emphasize three distinct lines of explanation that are each experiential, and hopefully not sentimental: lifetime habit, being on the right side of history, and the inherent pleasures of intellectual life.
Full presentation below the line.
Grassroots UAVs for Disaster Response
I was recently introduced to a new initiative that seeks to empower grassroots communities to deploy their own low-cost xUAVs. The purpose of this initiative? To support locally-led disaster response efforts and in so doing transfer math, science and engineering skills to local communities. The “x” in xUAV refers to expendable. The initiative is a partnership between California State University (Long Beach), University of Hawaii, Embry Riddle, The Philippine Council for Industry, Energy & Emerging Technology Research & Development, Skyeye, Aklan State University and Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. The team is heading back to the Philippines next week for their second field mission. This blog post provides a short overview of the project’s approach and the results from their first mission, which took place during December 2013-February 2014.
Imagine every citizen being able to hold politicians accountable down to the penny
Against Crony Capitalism,
There is great hope that tech will bring local bureaucrats and crony capitalists if not to heal, at least more into the light in a big way, soon. We are at the beginning of a transformation. (Let’s hope.) As data becomes more and more available, and search engine tools become better and more intuitive, citizens are going to increasingly audit the books of their home towns.
Dear Wiser.org friends, members and supporters,
After many months of reflection and extensive feedback from Wiser.org members, editors and our board of directors, we have decided to close and archive the Wiser.org website.
The archiving of the site will take place on April 10th 2014.
It has been an incredible journey and we are so grateful that you have shared part of it with us.
Our priority now is to ensure that all the hard work over the years is nurtured and continues to thrive in the hands of other community leaders in the field.
To this end, we have been working with partners who will help re-purpose parts of Wiser.org's content and support our community. Once our site is closed, the following partners have offered to build upon our data set:
Continue reading “Peggy Duvette: WISER.org Closes – Social Network for Sustainability”
Tenth Anniversary of War by Deceit
Emmanuel Charles McCarthy
Center for Christian Nonviolence
Each one deceives the other, no one speaks the truth. They have accustomed their tongues to lying… A murderous arrow is their tongue. It speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he lays an ambush for him … Jeremiah 9: 4, 7
“When virtually all major authority-bearing and communications institutions in a society act in concert to sell a well-packaged web of lies to that society, the
truth will seem absurd. Those who point out that the laws of logic, science, and mathematics—as well as eyewitness testimony—utterly contradict the conclusions drawn by the deceivers will be subject to whatever form of demeaning and/or silencing that is required to maintain the “big lie.”
The underlying assumption of these deceivers is that a lie told often enough, on a large-enough stage, in fact becomes the truth. However, it does not
become the truth.“
“All human beings desire to know, and truth is the proper object of that desire. While each must be respected in his or her search for truth, there exists a primordial moral obligation to seek the truth and to adhere to it once found. People cannot be genuinely indifferent to the question of whether what they know is true or not. One may define the human being as the one who seeks truth. The thirst for truth is so deeply rooted in the human heart that to be obliged to ignore it would cast existence into jeopardy.” -John Paul II
We have come to an unprecedented moment in time. Thanks to the capabilities of contemporary mass media and the deceitfulness of those who control their content, over the next several days more lies will be told to more people more often than arguably during any other period in the history of the world. The pandemic of deceit—on which the current economic and political rulers of the United States depend for the public political validation they need if they are to keep their hands on the controlling levers of the nation's operations of organized violence, e.g., military, police, FBI, TSA, IRS, CIA, etc.—will reach a crescendo on the days leading up to September 11, 2011, as an unparalleled propaganda blitz is orchestrated in order to nail down unquestioning acceptance of the US Government’s shabby explanation of the events of 911.
Continue reading “Emmanuel Charles McCarthy: Tenth Anniversary of War by Deceit”
Europarl Suspends U.S. Trade Talks, Data Sharing Over Mass Surveillance
Privacy: The European Parliament has just voted on a comprehensive bill to express its massive disapproval of U.S. mass spying on ordinary citizens. In the bill, it calls for suspension of trade talks, suspension of data sharing, suspension of U.S. corporate rights to European data, and calls for the general principle of only surveilling suspects to be honored. This follows a several-months-long continuous inquiry into United States spying practices.
