I was recently honored to be invited by President Sarkozy of France to participate in the e-G8 Summit — a new and potentially useful summit of global Internet leaders, right before this year’s G8 Summit in Paris.
This event will bring together Internet leaders and political leaders, for two days of discussions about the Internet.… Read More “The e-G8 Summit, Unveiled”
I have been thinking about the situation in the Middle East and also the rise of oil prices, peak oil, and the problem of a world economy based on energy scarcity rather than abundance. There is, I believe, a way to solve the problems in the Middle East, and the energy problems facing the world, at the same time.… Read More “Peace in the Middle East: Could Alternative Energy Be the Solution?”
The situation in Burma is far worse than the mainstream media has reported so far. Watch this video that was just smuggled out showing soldiers beating unarmed protesters. There are now reports coming in from eyewitnesses of young school students being shot by the army, masses of injured protestors being cremated alive, and thousands of monks and other protesters being killed and dumped in mass graves in the jungles.… Read More “Burma Update: Protestors Cremated Alive; Monks Massacred in Jungle”
Note: This is a new kind of online protest that uses blogs to spread a petition globally. To participate, just add your blog by following the instructions in this blog post.
This not an issue of partisan politics, this is an issue of basic human rights and democracy.… Read More “Help the People of Burma — Post this Meme on Your Blog!”
The nation of Myanamar (Burma) is currently ruled by a repressive and corrupt military dictatorship. Past attempts to bring about democracy have met with violent crackdowns by the government, usually against unarmed civilians. In one past incident, approximately 3000 protesters were killed by the military.… Read More “Dangerous Situation in Burma Developing”
A security researcher has figured out a novel way to compromise the security of messages traveling in the Tor anonymizer network. Messages in the Tor network are encrypted as they travel from node to node to their final destination. But the last node has to decrypt the messages before it can deliver them to their final destination on the Internet.… Read More “Rogue Nodes Turn Tor Anonymizer Into Private Listening Post”
This one really takes the cake. Diebold, the makers of the infamously hackable electronic voting machines, has done it again. They posted photos for replacement keys for their voting machines on their Web site. Unfortunately the photos were high enough resolution that anyone who knows how to make keys could easily copy them.… Read More “Almost Unbelievably Stupid — Diebold Posts Photo of Voting Machine Key — Hackers Replicate Key From Photo”
Where do I sign up to support this initiative? A group of exasperated US airline passengers who were stuck on the tarmac for 10 hours last month have come up with a proposal for a bill to establish a Passenger’s Bill of Rights, which would include the following provisions:
… Read More “A Passenger's Bill of Rights — Sign me Up!”Establishing procedures for airlines to return passengers to a terminal gate after three hours on the tarmac.
A new "miracle drug" appears to cure many types of cancers in a novel way. But the catch is no pharmaceutical company will fund research in it because it can’t be patented! Maybe it’s time to start a government agency or a non-profit that funds research and development, and distribution of, wonder drugs that are not patentable, for the public good.… Read More “New Cancer Wonder Drug: No Pharma Will Fund It Because it Can't be Patented”
This is so sad. Elephants are increasingly being wiped out due to encroachment by nearby human populations, and also by inept human attempts to help them — and of course by poaching. As their species is increasingly backed into a dead-end corner, and as older elephants are separated from their herds, younger elephants are developing psychological disorders and are becoming violent.… Read More “A World Without Elephants”
This article by Germany’s best-known economics writer provides a fast and high-level overview of how the American empire is losing (has lost?) its economic power. While the dollar is still the world’s currency of choice, the USA no longer controls it.… Read More “The Sell-Off of America”
This article in the Atlantic Monthly presents the best analysis I’ve seen of the strategic situation on the Korean penninsula, and various US options (and potential mistakes to avoid). It’s really a fascinating read, and quite educational, for anyone concerned about what might happen in that arena.… Read More “Excellent Strategic Analysis of North Korean Crisis”
I am concerned by what I’m viewing in our national media lately. Viewed from outside (and also from within the USA), it would appear that our nation is obsessed with, and plagued by, an increasing spree of horrible crimes and abuses of human rights.… Read More “A Proposal to Make the Media (and Society) Better”
Allegations of electronic tampering with Diebold voting machines in previous elections gained new evidence this week. A research paper by a team of researchers at Princeton University has conclusively demonstrated that Deibold voting machines are trivially easy to hack.… Read More “Diebold Voting Machines Conclusively Hackable”
I recently listened to a talk by Dr. David Martin, given at the Arlington Institute, a think tank I advise. You can listen to it here. It takes some patience to get to the main point — but you will be rewarded with a mind-blowing new perspective on what may unfold in the next few years.… Read More “US Banking System Collapse in 2008?”
This article from the Guardian raises the red flag about the vast amount of personal information that search engines are collecting, and the risks to individual privacy that entails. The article was really well written and made some good points.… Read More “A Good Article on Lack of Search Privacy”
The recent negative hype about the lack of privacy in search results got me thinking about the needs of online services versus those of individuals. Is there a way to satisfy both constraints?
AOL’s accidental data release was one thing that worried me.… Read More “Privacy and Search”
A bill has been proposed to do away with the penny — that most useless an annoying of coins. Thank you!!!! As far as I’m concerned, if you can’t buy a payphone call with it, or 10 to 15 minutes on a parking meter, then it’s just not worth having anymore — so I would also propose getting rid of nickels and dimes too.… Read More “Kill the Penny”
Grupthink is a service where anyone can create and participate in polls on various subjects. It’s similar to an idea I once had about polling the global mind in real-time (although their system does not show votes happening in real-time, presently).… Read More “Polling the Global Mind”
This is a very interesting scenario showing how China could potentially trounce US forces in a single, calculated strike. While it doesn’t consider the option that US would retaliate nonconventially, shifting the game to a new playing field, it certainly makes a compelling case for China winning in a conventional conflict in their territorial waters at least.… Read More “Scenario: What would Happen if US got in a War with China?”
The Norwegians are planning to create a deep underground vault near the North Pole to house a backup copy of seeds for all known varieties of crops. The goal is to ensure food supplies and enable humanity to regenerate in the event of nuclear war, global warming or other catastrophes.… Read More “Doomsday Vault to House World Seed Bank”
The Edge has published mini-essays by 119 "big thinkers" on their "most dangerous ideas" — fun reading.
… Read More “Big Thinkers' Most Dangerous Ideas”The history of science is replete with discoveries
that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally
dangerous in their time; the Copernican and
Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious.
This article is quite eye-opening. It appears the US government and military, as well as leading contractors, may have been heavily hacked by foreign governments, and it’s being kept secret.
Oy Vey. CNN just reported that Virginia Democrats are rumored to be asking Ben Affleck to run for the Senate. Note to the Virginia Democrats: Ben Affleck is an A-C-T-O-R not a politician. Am I the only one who is completely fed up with actors running for (and holding) public office?… Read More “Another Actor Running for Office?”
This article is very interesting not only because it provides an unusually detailed scenario of what would happen if a nuke was detonated in the Washington DC area, but also because it provides counter-intuitive guidance for how to survive such a situation, as well as information about new medical treatments for helping both first-responders and victims to combat radiation sickness.… Read More “Fascinating Article — Surviving a Nuclear Attack on Washington DC”
I read the an article today about how Brazil is gradually losing the fight to save the Amazon. The worlds’ rainforests are a global resource — not only are they
directly important to the air we all breathe, they also harbor a huge,
still untapped, reservoir of species diversity which could be of
profound importance to science and future medical and pharma research.… Read More “How to Save the Amazon Rainforest”
A recent article on Boing Boing reports the most recent round of Chinese cyberattacks on the Tibetan government in exile.
China has increasingly aimed its sophisticated cyberwar teams at the low-tech, peace-loving Tibetans. I know dozens of Tibetan lamas and their staffs and they all use PC’s — and none of them know anything about viruses, firewalls, trojan horses, etc.… Read More “Chinese Hackers Target Tibetans”