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Anthony Judge: UN Climate Change Conference Just Like the Titanic — The Best, The Brightest, Right Into the Iceberg

Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence
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Anthony Judge
Anthony Judge

The “Saving of Humanity” framed by “Sinking of the Titanic”

Rising sea of discontent engendered by warming climate of opinion

Introduction
Exploring the parallels
Neglected signals of systemic negligence

The agreement reached at the UN Climate Change Conference (Paris, 2015) constituted the epitome of authoritarian excellence and expertise — like the RMS Titanic in 1912. It was witness to gatherings of the best, the brightest and the most wealthy — as with the first class passengers on the Titanic. It was also witness to a high degree of exclusivism — as with the lower classes in steerage on the Titanic — despite claims of a particpatory process (Akshat Rathi, This simple negotiation tactic brought 195 countries to consensus, Quartz, 12 December 2015).

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John Steiner: What Should Every American Know?

Political
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John Steiner
John Steiner

What should every American know?

In this time of social division and demographic change, we in the United States need a base of common knowledge more than ever. That's why we created an initiative called What Every American Should Know. Inspired by our colleague E.D. Hirsch, author of Cultural Literacy, we are asking: What do you think Americans should know to be civically and culturally literate?

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EVENT: 20 Jan 2016 London Call for Papers Decentralizing the Commons and the Internet

#Events, #OSE Open Source Everything
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David Solomonoff
David Solomonoff

Call for Papers:Ā DecentralizingĀ theĀ Commons

These centralized choke-points can be used by governments to increase surveillance (as disclosed by the Snowden revelations), to blackout the Internet (e.g. Egypt, Syria, or San Franciscoā€™s BART), or to restrict the activities of activist organizations (such as Wikileaks). It has now become clear that it is not enough to develop free/libre/open source (FLOSS)alternatives, if we do not as well endeavor toĀ re-decentralizeĀ the Internet.

Continue reading “EVENT: 20 Jan 2016 London Call for Papers Decentralizing the Commons and the Internet”

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RT: ISIS Sarin Provided by West, Via Turkey, Into Syria

Peace Intelligence
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RT logoTurkish MP faces treason charges after telling RT ISIS used Turkey for transiting sarin

A treason investigation has been launched against a Turkish MP who alleged in an exclusive interview with RT that Islamic State jihadists delivered deadly sarin gas to Syria through Turkey.

Erdem noted that the chemicals used for the production of weapons did not originate from Turkey. ā€œAll basic materials are purchased from Europe. Western institutions should question themselves about these relations. Western sources know very well who carried out the sarin gas attack in Syria,ā€ Erdem told RT.

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Phillip Davis: Open Source GIS for Everyone – A QGIS-based program at Lagara College Vancouver

Geospatial
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Phillip Davis
Phillip Davis

Open Source GIS for Everyone: A QGIS-based program at Langara College Vancouver

Until now the learning of GIS has not spread as widely as it could, in large part because of the high cost of GIS software. The benefits of GIS have been limited to large organizations, governments, and academia. Where is the GIS for the average person? In September 2013, QGIS 2.0 was released, answering the question posed above. This GIS software, released under a Free and Open Source (Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0) license, offers a credible alternative to commercial GIS programs. Now everyone can do GIS, regardless of their budget for software. Individuals, small businesses, charities, political parties, First Nations, journalists and numerous other groups can now harness the power of GIS for their own purposes.Ā  Read full article