Category: Threats

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Suicide turns attention to Fairfax County school discipline procedures

04 Education, 07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO

Suicides are never associated with a single cause, experts say. But Nick's difficulties – based on interviews with family, friends, experts and school officials, and more than 100 pages of case documents – allow a close look at how consequences intended to help a student correct course instead can fuel a growing despair.

His story follows patterns described by parents in at least a dozen other Fairfax cases with similar disciplinary consequences. Even first-time offenders are out of school for long periods – a month, two months, longer if an appeal is filed. When they return, more than half are not returned to their original schools and can face difficult transitions – new teachers, new friends and new classes.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: We grieve for this family, and this post is a contribution to the public dialog.  In Fairfax County, the school is an extension of the police, not an extension of the family.   Originally inspired by the spread of very young Hispanic gangs into the schools–the police did a phenomenal job in shutting that down–today the police are an alternative to intelligent internal discipline.  The schools have failed to evolve and adapt to digital natives to the point that the brightest students are dropping out or turning out, with the schools becoming advanced child care.  This is not a new problem, but these suicides do offer an opportunity for re-examining what we regard as very poor administration of the Fairfax County school system philosophy and practice.

See Also:

TED: Sugata Mitra–The child-driven education

Journal: It’s Official–Social Media EDUCATES

Open Space Technology (OST)

Worth a Look: Live Language Lessons Online

Worth a Look: Books Reviews on Education for Freedom & Innovation

Review: The World Is Open–How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education

Review: Making Learning Whole–How Seven Principles of Teaching can Transform Education

Review: Why Don’t Students Like School–A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom

Review: Reflexive Practice–Professional Thinking for a Turbulent World

Review: Ideas and Integrities–A Spontaneous Autobiographical Disclosure

Review: Philosophy and the Social Problem–The Annotated Edition

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MIRROR: How to Communicate & Restore Collective Power if the US Government Shuts Down the Internet

07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, InfoOps (IO), Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, Mobile, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Real Time, Strategy, Technologies, Tools

HOW TO COMMUNICATE IF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN THE INTERNET

02-07-2011 8:48 pm – Wallace

Liberty News Online

Scenario: Your government is displeased with the communication going on in your location and pulls the plug on your internet access, most likely by telling the major ISPs to turn off service.

This is what happened in Egypt Jan. 25 prompted by citizen protests, with sources estimating that the Egyptian government cut off approximately 88 percent of the country's internet access. What do you do without internet? Step 1: Stop crying in the corner. Then start taking steps to reconnect with your network. Here’s a list of things you can do to keep the communication flowing.

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PREVENTIVE MEASURES:

Continue reading “MIRROR: How to Communicate & Restore Collective Power if the US Government Shuts Down the Internet”

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Hillary Clinton: Torn Between Dictators & Rhetoric

02 Diplomacy, 07 Other Atrocities, Advanced Cyber/IO, Autonomous Internet, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Mobile
What's Wrong with This Picture?

UPDATED:  Robert Smith comment at Facebook:

“WHAT? Dictators $10 billion, Democracy lovers $25 million, hypocrisy priceless.”

Phi Beta Iota: It is actually much worse than that.  Our estimate of the cost of US being best pals with 42 of 44 dictators is closer to 500 billion, and that is a very conservative estimate.  The cost is roughly divided between US taxpayer money being given away for the wrong reasons, and the “true cost” to the world–and ultimately to the USA–of an unethical, uninformed, unstrategic foreign policy that is in no way, shape, or form focused on creating a prosperous world at peace.  Not to be naive, we realize that we have a government Of, By, and For the Banks and their Corporations.  That is what needs to change, non-violently, on the basis of Internet Freedom and Freedom through the Internet.  In passing, we are not amused when people steal our ideas and offer to help the US Government do for $3 million what we are doing for free.  Three Internet Freedom URLs with links below the line.

Clinton Pledges $25 Million for Net Freedom Fighters

Spencer Ackerman

WIRED February 15, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed on Tuesday to invest $25 million for developers to build tools that will let online dissidents get around “thugs, hackers and censors.” It’s her attempt at giving teeth to the so-called “Internet Freedom Agenda” that she unveiled last year.

Read rest of the report….

Continue reading “Hillary Clinton: Torn Between Dictators & Rhetoric”

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Turkey to USA: This is where you get off….+ RECAP

02 Diplomacy, 05 Iran, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Peace Intelligence, Strategy
Who, Me?

Very heavy interview with Turkey's Foreign minister : Beginning at 9:40, the issue of Israeli intransigence on negotiations. No “mainstream” pick-up anywhere I can find.

Turkey's line in the sand. Cannot be walked back. I believe this to be a notice to US in the face of the wikileaks palestinian docs which revealed the US duplicity, in which EVERY nation under the influence of the US vis-a-vis negotiations was made to look like stooges. None, more so than Turkey. I believe that this interview ends that subordination.

Ahmet Davutoglu on Al Jazeera

As the Middle East undergoes historic transformation and upheaval one country is quietly enjoying levels of prosperity and stability that can only be envied by its neighbours – Turkey. And, in its ninth year of rule by the AK Party, the country is perceived as having successfully combined democracy and Islam.

But under the AKP Turkey has done more than improve its system of governance. It has also reached out to the Middle East in a way that no previous Turkish government has.

But as Western governments can tell you, getting involved in the Middle East is not always easy. One man more than any other is responsible for Turkey's drive to engage: Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister.

He talks to Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught about the recent developments in the Middle East and explains why he is hopeful that change and stability will work together in Egypt and serve as a positive example for other countries in the region.

This episode of Talk to Jazeera aired from Monday, February 14, 2011.

Phi Beta Iota: Turkey and Iran are both inevitable leaders in their region and across their considerable diasphoras.  There is NOTHING the US can do about it because the US is financially, morally, and practically bankrupt.  It is going to take a quarter century to recover from the craven criminality that has chracterized the two-party tyranny and their Wall Street and corporate masters.  The world is not stupid–they understand the inherent goodness of the American people and of America the Beautiful, but they also wonder why a public once famed for its independent intelligence can now be confused with a herd of sheep.

See Also:

Continue reading “Turkey to USA: This is where you get off….+ RECAP”

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$100 What from How Many Trillions?

07 Other Atrocities, Budgets & Funding

Big Number Problem

Short Video Explains Hypocrisy of Proposed Cuts

Summary:  From the stack pictured here, imagine one penny being taken off.  That is the nature of the proposed cuts.  Watch short video.

Rule One: Mandatory entitlements and spending are PORK.  Anyone with an ounce of integrity would start there, eliminating subsidies, corporate entitlements, tax fraud tolerance, and so on.

Rule  Two: Discretionary spending is so heavily weighted toward defense and intelligence that it is EASY to find $250 billion for redirection.  Nothing would make the Phi Beta Iota collective happier than to see all those “butts in seats” swinging a pick-axe in a road gang.

Rule Three: If the government does not start taxing the wealthy and getting OUR financial house in order, deep changes in government are likely to be demanded by the public in 2011-2012.  A complete tax boycott is one reasonable option.

Tip of the Hat to Rutledge McGhee, SAS '70, at Facebook.

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US Set to Veto UN Vote on Israel Settlements

07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards
Who, Me?

US lack of strategic morality is a known–what is interesting are the reactions to this story, here are just a few of them:

an American veto is circumventing the problem

I am utterly Embarassed to have an American Citizenship

US is lost and drowned

HA! The ONLY obstacle to peace is the vetos the us keeps using.

Settlements are ILLEGAL, Israel IMMORAL, U.S HYPOCRITICAL

The US Has Just Lost the Entire Arab World

Obama's moment of truth

Palestinians waving flags during a protest in Ramallah yesterday. Some 1,000 protesters called for an end to Palestinian divisions and the split between Hamas and Fatah. Photo by: Reuters

UN set to vote on settlement resolution; U.S. set to veto

U.S. is the only Security Council member that opposes the resolution; though its wording does not conflict with Washington’s stance on settlements it fears that if the resolution passes it will be an obstacle to renewal of peace talks.

By Barak Ravid, Natasha Mozgovaya and Shlomo Shamir

HA'ARETZ, February 18, 2011

EXTRACT:  The Arab states and the Palestinians rejected the U.S. compromise proposals. The Palestinian representative to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, announced that the resolution will be brought to a vote of the Security Council tonight. The Palestinians told U.S. officials they will not repeat the mistake they made in connection to the Goldstone Report last year, when they gave in to American pressure and at the last moment deciding not to submit the document for a vote to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

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Internet Freedom–The Public Dialog Continues

Advanced Cyber/IO, Analysis, Augmented Reality, Autonomous Internet, Budgets & Funding, Collective Intelligence, Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Computer/online security, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Geospatial, info-graphics/data-visualization, InfoOps (IO), International Aid, Journalism/Free-Press/Censorship, Methods & Process, Mobile, Open Government, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Real Time, Reform, Standards, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools
Michel Bauwens

SOURCE: P2P Foundation Category:P2P Infrastructure

This is a specialization of our general Technology section, focusing more explicitely on the ‘true internet' or distributed P2P infrastructures.  It is being updated over the next week or so.

On the overall perspective of the P2P Foundation: What Digital Commoners Need To Do, a meditation on the strategic phases in the construction of a peer to peer world

Help us improve our definition of what a true P2P Infrastructure should be: Defining True P2P Infrastructures

Programmatic Statement for the creation of a world-wide user-controlled network based on a distributed architecture, by Raffael Kéménczy

Projects we find worthty of support:

  1. We Rebuild is a cluster of net activists who have joined forces to collaborate on issues concerning access to a free internet without intrusive surveillance
  2. Open Source Mesh Networking projects monitored by Open Source Mesh
  3. Various strategies to achieve Free Fiber to the home
  4. High Priority Free Software Projects: “The FSF high-priority projects list serves to foster the development of projects that are important for increasing the adoption and use of free software and free software operating systems.”

Projects to decentralize/distribute the internet:

Continue reading “Internet Freedom–The Public Dialog Continues”

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