headline:::::FDL
The future isn’t dead. We simply overtook it — and then shot off into new territory that we don’t have the maps for yet.//Warren Ellis
NASA has discovered a new life form, a bacteria called GFAJ-1 that is unlike anything currently living in planet Earth….Instead of using phosphorus, the newly discovered microorganism—called GFAJ-1 and found in Mono Lake, California—uses the poisonous arsenic for its building blocks.////gizmodo.
The results, published in the Lancet, showed that aspirin reduced death due to any cancer by around 20% during the trials. But the benefits of aspirin only became apparent after taking the drug for 5 years or more, suggesting aspirin works by slowing or preventing the early stages of the disease so that the effect is only seen much later.//U.ofOxford
“Our study offers compelling evidence that it is the social aspects of religion rather than theology or spirituality that leads to life satisfaction,” said Chaeyoon Lim, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the study. “In particular, we find that friendships built in religious congregations are the secret ingredient in religion that makes people happier.”//escience
One study found a nasal spray of oxytocin — a frequently used way to deliver the hormone, because it provides a direct route to the brain — made people more trusting. Participants were more willing to hand over money in an experimental game than those not given the spray. “Given that some of the things that are suspected of triggering oxytocin — massage, sex, touch, eye contact — given that those are uniformly likable, it’s hard not to recommend them,” he said.//livescience
“Persian Gulf Oasis” may have been host to humans for over 100,000 years before it was swallowed up by the Indian Ocean around 8,000 years ago.//sciencedaily
“Information has never been so free,” declared Clinton. “Even in authoritarian countries, information networks are helping people discover new facts and making governments more accountable.”//guardian
Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!
The Internet is the last bastion of freedom in this evolving technical world. The Internet is capable of connecting us all. When we are connected we are strong. When we are strong we have power. When we have power we are able to do the impossible.//anon
Governments don’t like to be embarrassed. They don’t like their secrets aired on the internet. Sure, it’s okay for governments to tap all of
your secrets by monitoring your phone calls, emails and web browsing habits, but every government seeks to protect its own secrets at practically any cost. That’s why the upshot of this Wikileaks release may be that
governments will now start to look for new ways to censor and control the internet in order to prevent such information leaks from happening in the future.///
naturalnews
Now I know that for the time being, my forecast is still science fiction and therefore fantastic, but I can’t help imagining state agents riding discreetly in stagecoaches along untrackable routes, bearing only memorised messages or, at most, the occasional document concealed in the heel of a shoe.//
Umberto Eco
Despite all its drawbacks, and against all odds, WikiLeaks has rendered a sterling service to the cause of transparency, democracy and openness.//Eurozine
Over the long haul, we will need new checks and balances for newly increased transparency — Wikileaks shouldn’t be able to operate as a law unto itself anymore than the US should be able to. In the short haul, though, Wikileaks is our Amsterdam. Whatever restrictions we eventually end up enacting, we need to keep Wikileaks alive today, while we work through the process democracies always go through to react to change.//Clay Shirky
January 21, 2010 will go down as a dark day in the history of American democracy, and its decline…..In effect, the decision permits corporate managers to buy elections directly, instead of using more complex indirect means, though it is likely that to avoid negative publicity they will choose to do so through trade organizations…..The conception of corporate personhood evolved alongside the shift of power from shareholders to managers, and finally to the doctrine that “the powers of the board of directors … are identical with the powers of the corporation.” Furthermore, the courts determined that these state-established “natural entities” must restrict themselves to pursuit of profit and market share, though the courts did advise corporations to support charitable and educational causes, or an “aroused public” might take away the privileges granted to them by state power.///Noam Chomsky
Essentially, the argument is that global warming is a collective action problem that only an international entity will have incentives to solve. If not a world government, it will have to be a “global governance” structure that is to a large degree independent of individual governments and has the power to compel them to take necessary measures, such as reducing carbon dioxide emissions.//Volokh
“The people will once again decide their own fate”
Filed under: cyberanthropolgy | Tagged: wikileaks anonymous | 1 Comment »
