A unique and detailed survey funded by the Rockefeller Foundation confirms the important role that social and community bonds play vis-à-vis disaster resilience. The new study, which focuses on resilience and social capital in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, reveals how disaster-affected communities self-organized, “with reports of many people sharing access to power, food and water, and providing shelter.” This mutual aid was primarily coordinated face-to-face. This may not always be possible, however. So the “Share Economy” can also play an important role in coordinating self-help during disasters.
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Here’s a short list:
AirBnB: A global travel rental platform with accommodations in 192 countries. This service has already been used for disaster response as described above.
Fon: Enables people to share some of their home Wi-Fi in exchange for getting free Wi-Fi from 8 million people in Fon’s network. Access to information is always key during & after disasters. The map above displays a subset of all Fon users in that part of Europe.
LendingClub: A cheaper service than credit cards for borrowers. Also provides better interest rates than savings accounts for investors. Access to liquidity is often necessary after a disaster.
LiquidSpace: Provides high quality temporary workspaces and office rentals. These can be rented by the hour and by the day. Dedicated spaces are key for coordinating disaster response.
Lyft: An is on-demand ride-sharing smartphone app for cheaper, safer rides. This service could be used to transport people and supplies following a disaster. Similar to Sidecar.
RelayRides: A car sharing marketplace where participants can rent out their own cars. Like Lyft, RelayRides could be used to transport goods and people. Similar to Getaround. Also, ParkingPanda is the parking equivalent.
TaskRabbit: Get your deliveries and errands completed easily & quickly by trusted individuals in your neighborhood. This service could be used to run quick errands following disasters. Similar to Zaarly, a marketplace that helps you discover and hire local services.
Yerdle: An “eBay” for sharing items with your friends. This could be used to provide basic supplies to disaster-affected neighborhoods. Similar to SnapGood, which also allows for temporary sharing.
In a two part series (titled “The Defense Budget Is Even Larger than You Think”) at Time magazine's Battleland blog, I attempt to explain how high spending advocates and even the Department of Defense misuse and manipulate budget data to alter public and congressional perceptions of the contemporary size of DOD spending. The differences between what the Pentagon's self-serving data present to the public and what is shown by generally used measures of the American economy amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars in some cases. The generally accepted, non-DOD budget history data I use for this analysis (described in more detail in tomorrow's Part II) put the current defense budget debate and assertions that Pentagon spending is shrinking to “dangerously low” levels in an entirely new perspective.
Part I, “Cooked Books Tell Tall Tales,” describes the subtle, and not so subtle, ways that the Pentagon and other high spending advocates distort DOD's budget history to make the public and Congress think they need to cough up more money. Find this first installment at
Snowden Hasn’t Yet Had the Last Word: Truth about the Suspicious Death of Chaves? Is That Why US So Nervous?
The threats and ultimatums with which the Obama administration is bombarding potential harborers of Edward Snowden should not surprise anyone. No other reaction from the U.S. authorities is possible.
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The likelihood that Snowden will be able to find safe haven in one of the countries of South America is fairly high.
Whatever limitations his status as a «political refugee» might place on him, he will find a way to continue his fight and to demonstrate the inner workings of the «Exemplary Democracy» and its real attitude toward human rights to the international community.
For most of his 29 years, Edward Snowden was a law-abiding U.S. citizen.
But after signing a contract and a non-disclosure agreement with the National Security Agency (NSA), he got the rare opportunity to see firsthand the colossal disparity between what his country’s leaders pharisaically preach about human rights and how they trample those same rights every day in the name of establishing control over the planet.
Provocations, starting wars, «color revolutions», lies and falsifications for the propaganda support of the fight against «hostile regimes» – all of this could not but horrify a young man raised on the principles of morality and integrity.
Posted By John Hudson Sunday, July 14, 2013 – 7:06 PM Share
For decades, a so-called anti-propaganda law prevented the U.S. government's mammoth broadcasting arm from delivering programming to American audiences. But on July 2, that came silently to an end with the implementation of a new reform passed in January. The result: an unleashing of thousands of hours per week of government-funded radio and TV programs for domestic U.S. consumption in a reform initially criticized as a green light for U.S. domestic propaganda efforts. So what just happened?
This is the new warfare. It is the obvious next step in asymmetrical conflict. Lower risk for Americans, and probably cheaper. But, I wonder, is it making more enemies than it is eliminating? If I lived in a little village in the Afghan mountains and, in the middle of night, a drone strike blew up one of the houses, killing a neighbor family, I might have some serous attitude about it.
There is a growing anti-American attitude taking root in Europe, one already well-established in the Islamic world, and parts of Asia. The long term consequences of this are not going to be happy. But our foreign policy barely deals with it.
More and more judicial decisions, particularly those of Republican appointed judges, overwhelmingly favor corporations over people. These decisions get almost no coverage in the media, but they have real and far-reaching consequences. Here's an example of what I mean.
