Category Archives: Politics

Working women in Dubai

High youth unemployment, but with sitting female talent, where’s the change? Interesting perspectives.

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    Crap … we’re all going to die if Fukushima collapses

    … Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4—with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground—collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4.

    In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel; dangerously, they are open to the air. This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced.

    Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity.

    About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S.

    Read more @ Akiomatsumura.com
    Dutch article [via] here @ hln.be

      Posted in General Interest, Politics, Science | Tagged | Leave a comment

      Mitt Romney’s tax plan is a mathematical failure

      Romney

      Even if Romney’s hot mic moment is a preview of the loopholes he would close, his tax plan creates a lot of red ink.

      Read the article @ Theatlantic.com

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        Melinda Gates: Birth control back on the agenda

        A big solution for many world problems: Everyone wants smaller families and birth control. Why we still don’t score a 100% is strange since everyone wants control over their life in this aspect.

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          Nederland, land zonder normen en waarden

          j

          Stoere praat in het buitenland, maar je gedragen als een verwend kind dat vindt dat regels alleen voor anderen zijn. Prat gaan op de vrijheid van meningsuiting, die anderen eerder narcistisch en ziek zouden noemen. Nederland is normloos, schrijft Ramsey Nasr.(..)
          Om te ontsnappen aan een vacuüm zonder normen en waarden, zullen wij dus moeite moeten doen. De burger zal die moeite pas ondernemen als hij merkt dat de politiek én de media hetzelfde doen.

          Ramsey Nasr raakt de tijdsgeest zuiver.

            Posted in Dutch, General Interest, Politics | 1 Comment

            Charlie Brooker on Kony 2012

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              TED – Coding a better government

              You might hate the politics, but you shouldn’t hate government. It is what we cannot do alone. Fix citizenship not government. Jennifer shows some coding solutions, but adds it can be done on more levels.

                Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

                Why blacklist are a bad idea

                According to NITEC chief Johnny Lundberg, it began when an employee at the police center decided to move from his own computer to that of a colleague.
                “He sat down and was about to make an investigation, and in doing so he placed a list of legitimate sites in the wrong folder,” Lundberg explained. “Before becoming aware of the error, two ISPs retrieved the list of sites.”
                Result: the Danish police similarly “accidentally” had 8,000 legitimate sites declared as child porn sites that needed to be blocked. Among the sites listed? Google and Facebook. Visitors to those sites, from ISP Siminn were greeted with the following message (translated, of course):

                The National High Tech Crime Center of the Danish National Police [NITEC], who assist in investigations into crime on the internet, has informed Siminn Denmark A/S, that the internet page which your browser has tried to get in contact with may contain material which could be regarded as child pornography

                Oeps! Again. Let’s not go this way of thinking that blocking sites is going to help us. Its quite the opposite.

                  Posted in General Interest, Politics, Webtech | Leave a comment

                  Wim Kok volgens SPELD

                  j

                    Posted in Humor, Politics | 1 Comment

                    Debunking The EU Commission’s ‘Myths About ACTA’

                    It’s a sign of the European Commission’s increasing desperation over ACTA that it has been forced to send out a document entitled “10 Myths About ACTA” [pdf] that purports to debunk misinformation that is being put around. Unsurprisingly, the EC’s document is itself full of misinformation. Here are just a few of the more outrageous examples. [via]

                    Read the article @ Techdirt.com

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                      Online Piracy Doesn’t Hurt U.S. Box Office Returns [STUDY]

                      ha ha ha

                      Remember SOPA? Remember the urgency with which the bill’s backers were trying to convince us that its intended target, online piracy, was a clear and present danger? Remember how those dastardly BitTorrenters were going to deprive us of a functioning, creative movie industry? Well, an academic study now doing the rounds suggests that’s nonsense. [via]

                      Read full article @ Mashable.com

                        Posted in Politics, Privacy, Webtech | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

                        PAY UP NOW Catlover – patent alert

                        You have just used the extraordinary invention of Kevin T. Amiss, Martin H. Abbott, patent 5443036 and are now laible for paying us two a shitload of money! See also:

                        A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct.

                        It leaves little to say that patents are non-sense.

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                          International Criminal Court ineffective?

                          F

                          14 Years, 1 Billion Euro in costs, 0 convictions. Moreover, 13 people appeared in court (half voluntary) and were judged by non-lawyers. This year construction for the permanent institute will start in The Hague. Global Mail has some point that if protests are not held here often, is it likely at all that the court will eventually become the centerstone of justice it aims for?

                            Posted in Politics | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

                            Czech Government Suspends ACTA Ratification

                            actaFollowing Poland’s lead, the Czech Prime Minister, Petr Necas has announced that the government there will suspend the ACTA ratification process until the country has had more time to analyze the agreement. This follows a “wave of protests” across Europe, in which this agreement, that everyone assumed was going through with no questions asked, has suddenly generated significant public interest.

                            Unfortunately, it sounds like some of the protesters are still claiming things about ACTA that were removed ages ago … because misinformation like this makes it easier for countries like the Czech Republic to come back later and say that they’re still ratifying the document, because the complaints turned out not to be true.

                            There are plenty of real problems with ACTA, and hopefully people can focus on those. Otherwise these milestone moments in the Czech Republic and Poland will be for nothing….

                            Read full article @ Techdirt

                              Posted in Politics, Privacy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

                              Niet Innoveren = Piraten | Revolutie in de telecomsector

                              Een oproep tot revolutie in de telecomsector

                              Telecomproviders staan er de laatste jaren belabberd op. Eerst T-Mobile met de iPhone. Het netwerk werd volstrekt onbruikbaar, en er was een Youp van ‘t Hek voor nodig voordat klachten van consumenten serieus genomen werden door het bedrijf. KPN startte onbedoeld een privacy-debacle omdat bleek dat ze haar gebruikers afluisterde, wat uitmondde in verregaande regulering door de wetgever. En Vodafone vatte mooi samen dat de reputatie van de sector zich op een “historisch dieptepunt” bevindt. De CEO wijdt dat onder anderen aan de netwerkkwaliteit en de klantenservice van Vodafone.
                              Mensen beginnen het zat te worden. Internet onderweg is voor veel mensen inmiddels net zo belangrijk als internet thuis, of internet op het werk. Maar voor die mobiele internetverbinding zijn we overgeleverd aan een conglomeraat van bedrijven dat structureel onder de maat presteert. Mobiel internet is op veel plekken in Nederland afwezig of is onbruikbaar traag. En ondertussen blijven de prijzen stijgen.
                              Het is niet voor niets dat het gezoem in het geruchtencircuit op dit moment oorverdovend is. Grote Nederlandse investeerders uit de technologie-, telecom- en mediawereld zijn bezig met het neerzetten van alternatieven voor KPN, Vodafone en T-Mobile, zo hoor ik van verschillende, goed ingevoerde bronnen.
                              In Frankrijk vindt de revolutie nu al plaats. Vorige maand begon ADSL-provider Free.fr met het aanbieden van telecomdiensten. Voor 30 euro per maand (of 20 als je al ADSL-abonnee bent) kun je onbeperkt bellen naar Frankrijk en 40 andere landen, plus onbeperkt SMS-en, plus 3GB internet of onbeperkt via landelijk wifi-netwerk. Dat is serieus goedkoop.
                              Een deel van het geheim zit ‘m in de routers van Free.fr’s ADSL-abonnees. Elke ADSL-gebruiker deelt zijn wifi-singaal automatisch met andere klanten, waardoor een enorm wifi-netwerk ontstaat dat in grote steden dekkend is. Daarnaast zitten er femtocells in de routers: dat zijn een soort mini-zendmasten die het GSM/3G-signaal versterken. Eigenlijk gebruikt Free.fr zijn miljoenen ADSL-klanten om het mobiele netwerk beter te maken. Redelijk briljant.
                              De oude garde reageerde laconiek op de nieuwkomer, maar dat is de arrogantie van de macht. Ondertussen trekt Free.fr hordes nieuwe klanten door het agressieve prijsbeleid. En de bestaande telco’s kunnen het prijspeil van Free.fr niet kunnen bijhouden, als ze hun netwerk niet drastisch anders inrichten.
                              In Frankrijk trekt een schokgolf van verandering door de telecomsector. Ik kan niet wachten op het moment dat die zich ook in Nederland aandient.

                              Alexander Klopping schrijf iets wat we al tijden willen.. maar wat zelfs verboden wordt. Dit is precies weer zo’n piraten verhaal. Als innovatie van de industrie zelf uitblijft, is het niet vreemd dat de mensen het dan zelf gaan oplossen..

                                Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Mobile, Politics, Webtech | Tagged , | 1 Comment

                                ACTA brings thousands to the streets of Poland

                                The people of Poland have taken to the streets in response to ACTA. With in the past three days tens of thousands of protesters have shown their discontent for the Anti-Courtesy Trade Agreement. The ACTA agreement which has been signed by seven other countries including the US and Australia, is supposed to put law and order on the internet which has become an illegal place for anarchy according to some. But the people of Poland believe it’s an abuse of power.

                                  Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Politics, Privacy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

                                  Elsevier Boycot started among Scientists

                                  In the list of supporters of SOPA and PIPA, we earlier found academic publishers Elsevier, Macmillan and McGrawHill.
                                  We noted before that particular Education seems to become less open.

                                  “The academic publisher Elsevier has attracted controversy for its high prices, the practice of bundling journals for sale to libraries and its support for legislation such as SOPA and the Research Works Act. Fields medal-winning mathematician Tim Gowers decided to go public with a blog post describing how he’ll no longer have anything to do with Elsevier journals, and suggesting that a public website where mathematicians and scientists could register their support for an Elsevier boycott would further the cause. Such a website now exists, with hundreds of academics signing-up so far. John Baez has a nice write-up of the problem and possible solutions.”(via)

                                  ACTA, SOPA and PIPA also try to kill off already open initiatives in which Universities participate.. excuse me? Again it can be much more open.

                                    Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Politics, Science | Tagged , | 1 Comment

                                    ACTA rapporteur denounces ACTA mascarade

                                    Kader Arif, rapporteur for ACTA in the European Parliament quit his role as rapporteur saying:

                                    ”I want to denounce in the strongest possible manner the entire process that led to the signature of this agreement: no inclusion of civil society organisations, a lack of transparency from the start of the negotiations, repeated postponing of the signature of the text without an explanation being ever given, exclusion of the EU Parliament’s demands that were expressed on several occasions in our assembly.”

                                    ACTA

                                    “As rapporteur of this text, I have faced never-before-seen manoeuvres from the right wing of this Parliament to impose a rushed calendar before public opinion could be alerted, thus depriving the Parliament of its right to expression and of the tools at its disposal to convey citizens’ legitimate demands.”

                                    “Everyone knows the ACTA agreement is problematic, whether it is its impact on civil liberties, the way it makes Internet access providers liable, its consequences on generic drugs manufacturing, or how little protection it gives to our geographical indications.”

                                    “This agreement might have major consequences on citizens’ lives, and still, everything is being done to prevent the European Parliament from having its say in this matter. That is why today, as I release this report for which I was in charge, I want to send a strong signal and alert the public opinion about this unacceptable situation. I will not take part in this mascarade.”

                                    Source: https://www.laquadrature.net [via]

                                    Lees meer over ACTA en wat jij ertegen kan doen: Bits of Freedom | Sargasso

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                                      ACTA – Stop the biggest threat to Internet freedom

                                      Wat is er aan de hand? Vandaag werd bekend dat het internationale anti-piraterij verdrag ACTA door de Europese Commissie is goedgekeurd. Dit verdrag – dat net zo schadelijk is als de zojuist afgeschoten SOPA en PIPA-wetgeving in de VS – is in achterkamertjes bedisseld. We weten ongeveer wat erin staat, maar geen der onderhandelingspartijen is bereid om de informatie met het grote publiek te delen.

                                      Europa kan een sleutelrol vervullen: als ACTA in mei wordt verworpen, is het hele verdrag van de baan. De bal ligt nu dus bij de EU. Stemmen politici in met een verdrag dat ingrijpende consequenties heeft of kiezen zij voor een vrij en open internet?

                                      Lees meer over ACTA en wat jij kan doen op Bits of Freedom | Sargasso

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                                        Bill Maher turns out to be evil

                                        Bill Maher gets OWNED by Guests for Supporting SOPA

                                        Bill Maher seems to think that just because his crappy religious hit piece “Religulous” was pirated, that Washington D.C. should control the internet totally with the SOPA bill. He refers to people downloading copyrighted materials as people who “just want free shit”. Mr. Maher perhaps there are some of us out there who would rather download something to see if its worth buying, instead of spending our hard earned money and being disappointed.

                                        Most shocking part of this Youtube clip is the notice the user added to the video:

                                        NOTICE: Fair Use Copyright Law
                                        This video may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, scientific, and social justice issues etc. We know that our use of any such copyrighted material constitutes a ‘fair use’ as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this video is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

                                        The fear the entertainment industry, nitwit politicians and other 20th century dinosaurs try to evoke seems to work … Sadly with these penny-wise pound-foolish remarks Bill Maher, his network and of course the advertisers of his show lost me as a fan.

                                        Let’s forget Bill for a while and watch some Michael Moore retro clips from e.g. 2006.

                                          Posted in General Interest, Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

                                          US court: Public Domain..sort of

                                          k

                                          Congress may take books, musical compositions and other works out of the public domain, where they can be freely used and adapted, and grant them copyright status again, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. In a 6-2 ruling, the court said that, just because material enters the public domain, it is not “territory that works may never exit.”

                                          With current copyright most of the time ALREADY 60 years, US Courts still think Older works, ALREADY in the public domain should by politicians allowed to put BACK AGAIN in Copyright. Hey.. what could go wrong?
                                          Seriously… could this mean that a nice lobby at congress could pull any work from organisations as Wikipedia or the Internet Archive, because they just didn’t like it (both for commercial or even political reasons). This doesn’t make sense.

                                            Posted in Innovation & Knowledge Economy, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

                                            Nobel Prize winners 2011 regarding EU crisis



                                            Thomas Sargent
                                            en Christopher Sims. Sargent (New York University) en Sims (Princeton) won the economic nobel prize for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy. Like 17 others before them they have a very specific view on the current economic crisis and the European Banking crisis in particular. The video above is a compilation of their press conference at Princeton. While at first they acted dumb, having no opinion, later they clearly critized the EU.
                                            Notice that they see politics, not economic theory as the foremost barrier for the solution.

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                                              The SOPA Debate and How It’s Affected by Congress’s Understanding of Child Porn

                                              Though SOPA has taken the spotlight, there is another Internet-related bill on the House Judiciary’s agenda. It’s H.R. 1981, a.k.a The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011, which proposed a mandate that Internet sites keep track of their users IP information for up to 18 months, to make it easier to investigate Internet crimes – such as downloading child pornography.

                                              Very interesting article @ Danwin.com.

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                                                Kopimism – New Official Religion

                                                d

                                                STOCKHOLM – Kopimisme, de godsdienst van internetpiraten, is in Zweden een officieel erkende religie in die zin dat de priesters van dat geloof nu ook mensen voor de Staat mogen trouwen. De Missionerende Kopimistengemeenschap staat volgens de zegsvrouw nu officieel bijgeschreven als ”een geloofsgroep die bouwt op godsdienstige werkzaamheden en daarvoor samenkomsten met gezamenlijke meditatie of bidden organiseert”.
                                                Kopiëren en verspreiden van materiaal, illegale bestandsdeling volgens critici, staat hoog in het vaandel bij de kopimisten, net als bij de Zweedse Piratenpartij die de politieke spreekbuis voor de internetpiraten is. De partij mist zetels in Zweedse volksvertegenwoordigingen, maar heeft sinds 2010 wel twee afgevaardigden in het Europarlement.(via)

                                                See also their website, because it is saccred.

                                                  Posted in Humor, Politics | Leave a comment