UN-SPIDER aims at providing universal access to all types of space-based information and services relevant to disaster management by being a gateway to space information for disaster management support; serving as a bridge to connect the disaster management and space communities; and being a facilitator of capacity-building and institutional strengthening.
COINs are the most efficient social mechanisms to develop successful products in R&D, grow better customer relationships, establish better project management processes, and build higher-performing teams.
While it may appear that COINs seem to come to life serendipitously at the initiative of intrinsically motivated individuals without organizational blessing, the good news is that there are actual strategies an organization can employ to uncover, cultivate and nurture fledgling COINs to become more effective. In fact, there are even things individuals can do to become more productive COIN members.
1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions
9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine
12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connell—Karl Rove’s Election Thief
13. Katrina’s Hidden Race War
14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts
15. World Bank’s Carbon Trade Fiasco
16. US Repression of Haiti Continues
17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature
19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor
20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare
22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team
23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud
24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion
25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon
When you are standing on the edge of a cliff a step forward is not progress. — Anonymous
Our separation from nature — or should I say, our separation from reality as it really is, in all its fullness that is so hard for us to grasp — has now reached global proportions. Reality's feedback is now coming in the form of increasingly extreme weather, emptying oceans and aquifers, cancers arising from an environmental chemical soup so complex we can no longer track the causal links any more, new diseases that won't respond to antibiotics and can span continents and seas in hours on jets, and small groups and networks with increasingly powerful destructive technologies at their disposal.
We are rapidly moving into a realm where problem-solving becomes obsolete, if not downright dangerous — especially at the global level, especially when we are trying to preserve our systems, our habits, our identities, our protections and privileges. Because these challenges are not primarily problems to be solved. They are realities to engage with, to come to terms with, to learn something from about who we are in the world, to be humbled by and creatively joined. Yes, joined. Because inside the realities of today are profound lessons about who we need to be next, individually and collectively — about the cultures, technologies, stories, and social systems we need to create and move into.
Extract from Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon Press Conference
“We are also creating a new Global Impact Vulnerability Alert System, giving us real-time data and analysis on the socio-economic picture around the world, so that governments can reach those who most need it.”
Ron Paul – “Warmongering” On Iran Sounds Like Lead-Up to Iraq War
Congressman Ron Paul says the neo-conservative “warmongering” on Iran sounds suspiciously like the talk leading up to the war in Iraq. He also says sanctions against Iran for their nuclear ambitions would not help to alleviate the situation. Click on logo to watch short video.
Phi Beta Iota: The “paradigms of failure” discussed in ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig extend particularly from government to the media, which consists of “courtiers” and newshole fillers, most, not all, without any resources for investigative journalism, and most, not all, forbidden to actually question “the party line.” Below is an illustration of the standard information pathologies that prevent the public from achieving public intelligence in the public interest.
With Obama as President, Media Not Interested in Casket Coverage
So far this month, 38 American troops have been killed in Afghanistan. For all of 2009, the number is 220 — more than any other single year and more than died in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004 combined.
With casualties mounting, the debate over U.S. policy in Afghanistan is sharp and heated. The number of arrivals at Dover is increasing. But the journalists who once clamored to show the true human cost of war are nowhere to be found.