Category: Journal ISSN 1078-1935

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Sepp Hasslberger: Water Purification Disc

01 Poverty, 07 Health, 12 Water
Sepp Hasslberger
Sepp Hasslberger

We need technology that makes the lives of the poor easier – got enough high tech gadgets. Here's a decidedly smart but low tech way of doing water purification…

Students Invent Water Purification Disc That Could Revolutionize Clean Water Access – Video 3min

From higherperspective.com – March 3, 1:37 PM

Students at the University of Virginia have developed a new way of purifying water that they say could bring improved water quality for millions in the developing world.  It’s called a Madi Drop. Field testing begins this month in South Africa.

What’s created is called a MadiDrop – a ceramic disc infused with silver.

When dropped in water, silver ions, which are atoms that have an electrical charge,, are released to purify the water.  And, testing here at the University of Virginia shows clean, safe water.

“It’s not just about making a really great technology that effectively removes or kills bacteria and pathogens.  It’s about making a low cost, simple to use one, tailored to people in developing countries who don’t have many resources,” said Beeta Ehdaie, a doctoral candidate at UVA.

Click to watch embedded video.

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Tom Engelhardt: New World Disorder

Cultural Intelligence, Peace Intelligence
Tom Englehardt
Tom Englehardt

Missing in Action

What Happened to War and the Imperial Drive to Organize the Planet?

By Tom Engelhardt

EXTRACT

Driving With the Lights Off

So an imperial era is on the wane, war in absentia, and no rising great power contenders on the horizon.  Historically speaking, that’s a remarkable scorecard in an otherwise appalling world.

Of course, the lack of old-style war hardly means no violence.  In the 13 years of this new century, the scorecard on internal strife and civil war, often with external involvement, has been awful to behold: Yemen (with the involvement of the Saudis and the Americans), Syria (with the involvement of the Russians, the Saudis, the Qataris, the Iranians, Hezbollah, the Iraqis, the Turks, and the Americans), and so on.  The record, including the Congo (numerous outside parties), South Sudan, Darfur, India (a Maoist insurgency), Nigeria (Islamic extremists), and so on, couldn’t be grimmer.

Continue reading “Tom Engelhardt: New World Disorder”

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Berto Jongman: Project Censored 2014

Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency, Media
Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Every year since 1976, Project Censored, our nation's oldest news-monitoring group–a university-wide project at Sonoma State University founded by Carl Jensen, directed for many years by Peter Phillips, and now under the leadership of Mickey Huff–has produced a Top-25 list of underreported news stories and a book, Censored, dedicated to the stories that ought to be top features on the nightly news, but that are missing because of media bias and self-censorship.

Censored 2014: Fearless Speech in Fateful Times; The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2012-13

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Stephen E. Arnold: People Share Without Reading….

Cultural Intelligence, IO Impotency
Stephen E. Arnold
Stephen E. Arnold

People Are Too Busy To Read

The Internet is good for many things, especially generating tera-quads of content. News, social media content, videos, etc. pop up every second and people simply do not have the time to read it. The Verge posted the tongue-in-cheek article, “You’re Not Going To Read This” and it talks about the skyrocketing amount of content. The CEO of Chartbeat Tony Haile dropped a bomb for companies that specialize in content, “We’ve found effectively no correlation between social shares and people actually reading [an article].”

What a smack in the face!

People wear tweet and shared numbers like Girl Scout badges. If this has no value, what is the point of having a social media specialist? It’s not that generating content is bad, but people do not have the time to read every article. They usually skim the headlines and tweet without reading what they send. It really is a data overload.

Continue reading “Stephen E. Arnold: People Share Without Reading….”

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SchwartzReport: US Atrocity – Debtor Prisons, Offender-Funded “Probation” Industry

01 Poverty, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Civil Society, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement
Stephan A. Schwartz
Stephan A. Schwartz

I find it hard to believe the United States is bringing back debtor prisons, but that appears to be the case, as reported in the Guardian, arguably the best and most independent newspaper in the English language. The elimination of debtor prisons was something the Founders took as a very serious goal for their new country. So much for the Founders, they are trumped by the new private for-profit prison trend.

Thrown in Jail for Being Poor: the Booming For-profit Probation Industry
LAUREN GAMBINO – The Guardian (U.K.)/ The Associated Press

Many poor Americans face jail when they can’t pay steep fines for nonviolent crimes, like $1,000 for stealing a $2 beer

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Marcus Aurelius: Report from the Ukraine

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius

A current (today; consider time zones) professional assessment on the Ukrainian situation by a retired Army colonel living there and working with their military establishment.  Assume this reporting came out by e-mail; if so, it was at some risk.  Officer who forwarded to me may have sanitized to protect source.  Highlighting is mine.

From: [RETIRED SENIOR SPECIAL OPERATIONS OFFICER]
To: [REDACTED]
Sent: 03-Mar-14
Subj: FW: Ukraine – A good, private letter on the situation

This is a very good, stand alone letter, that should be noticed by most.  There has been other talk about the internal problems in Ukraine, but this letter lays it out better than most.

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Ted Shulman: The Future of Internet Alternatives

Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence
Ted Schulman
Ted Schulman

The Future of Internet Alternatives

Derrick Broze

BenSwann.com, 28 February 2014

In the wake of leaked documents detailing extensive, indiscriminate monitoring of the internet a number of solutions have appeared. These new alternatives to the traditional world wide web could completely alter the way we access information. But can they stop a nosy government? Is it possible to have a truly secure network that cannot be undermined by overreaching authorities?

Last Summer the name Edward Snowden went viral as we learned about the former National Security Agency contractors leak of documents related to massive spying and surveillance operations taking place in the United States and abroad. We learned that nearly all digital communications are catalogued and stored in a database. We learned that internet giants such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others work with the government to share your personal information. These revelations have prompted a wave of internet users to begin looking for a way to safely, securely and privately share information.

Total Information Sharing

One of the latest ideas to spring forth is a bold initiative called the Outernet. The Media Development Investment Fund is planning to launch hundreds of miniature satellites around the earth to create a wireless internet that anyone can access for free. The miniature satellite, or cubesat, will receive data from ground antennas around the globe and broadcast the content in the same manner as a television broadcast.

Continue reading “Ted Shulman: The Future of Internet Alternatives”

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