By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch LINZ, AUSTRIA - Copyright discussion has become a simplistic binary debate of "pirates that steal everything" versus "rightsholders that want to protect everything," warned Japanese entrepreneur, blogger and CEO of the Creative Commons Joichi Ito in his opening remarks for this year’s Ars Electronica ...
Symposium Calls For End Of Binary Discussion Of Rightsholders Versus Pirates
I couldn't have said it better, or,...er, I couldn't have said it as well.
So the Presidential conventions are at an end. Now we just have to painfully sit through two months of media speculation and, of course, the debates, before we’re treated to a result.
Your Mind, The Battlefield
Matthew Good
The transfer of authority in Iraq's Anbar province from American to Iraqi security forces on 1 September 2008 is an index of confidence that the situation in Iraq is indeed improving. There are indeed signs of progress across much of the country, though some of these have to be qualified by noting the context in which they are emerging. It is also important to keep an eye on the larger strategic picture in Iraq and the region, where the United States is surrounded by both familiar and unexpected concerns.
Cuba's most recognized song “Guantanamera” was written by Joseíto Fernández, who was born 100 years ago and who wrote the song when he was 20 years old, writes VivirLatino.
After watching a video clip of Canada's Environment Minister trying to explain the ins-and-outs of a carbon tax policy, it is clear now why Harper government is so vehemently against a carbon tax policy in Canada - they don't know what it is.
P2PNet.net publishes an editorial by NDP MP Charlie Angus on the election and key digital issues such as copyright and net neutrality.
A new wave of food colonialism manufactures famine in Africa and Asia
By George Monbiot
The Guardian, August 26 2008In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, Mike Davis tells the story of the famines that sucked the guts out of India in the 1870s. The hunger began when a drought, caused by El Nino, killed the crops on the Deccan plateau. As starvation bit, the viceroy, Lord Lytton, oversaw the export to England of a record 6.4 million hundredweight of wheat. While Lytton lived in imperial splendor and commissioned, among other extravagances, “the most colossal and expensive meal in world history,” between 12 and 29 million people died.[1] Only Stalin manufactured a comparable hunger.
Now a new Lord Lytton is seeking to engineer another brutal food grab. As Tony Blair’s favoured courtier, Peter Mandelson often created the impression that he would do anything to please his master. Today he is the European trade commissioner. From his sumptuous offices in Brussels and Strasbourg, he hopes to impose a treaty which will permit Europe to snatch food from the mouths of some of the world’s poorest people.
Solar power—is there anything it can’t do? British scientists have found a new use for solar technology with the Sahara Forest Project, a proposed plan to combine greenhouses that use seawater to grow crops with solar power installations.
The greenhouse-solar power combination could potentially provide food, fresh water and energy to deserts.
According to the project’s designers, the technology works by having greenhouses use solar farms to power seawater evaporators. Cool air is pumped through the greenhouses, reducing the temperature by about 15 C compared to outside.
By John W. Warnock Briarpatch Magazine September/October 2008
"No nation can donate liberation to another nation. Liberation should be achieved in a country by the people themselves."
Malalai Joya, Member, Afghan House of the People
The U.S. imperial project in Afghanistan has faltered. The government created by the United States lacks credibility and legitimacy. The vast majority of the people remain poor. The drug economy is dominant. Despite an increase in NATO military forces, the armed resistance led by the Taliban is increasing in strength. So what should Canada's response be?
Peace begins at home: Real alternatives for Canada in Afghanistan
Canada's aggression against Iran isn't widely known. For example, did you know that over the past year or so Canadian naval vessels have been regularly patrolling Iran's coast?
Target Iran: How Ottawa supports war threats
Mon, 01 Sep 2008 07:14:11 GMT
The Guardian has compiled a list of their top fifty arts videos, the majority being from either rare or obscure sources and uploaded onto YouTube.
