Strickling speaking, the Naughties are dead
By Kieren McCarthy, The Register
The US government's policy of leaving the Internet alone is over, according to Obama's top official at the Department of Commerce.
Instead, an “Internet Policy 3.0” approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet governance.
The outcomes of such discussions will be “flexible” but may result in recommendations for legislation or regulation, Strickling said in a speech at the Media Institute in Washington this week.
The new approach is a far cry from a US government that consciously decided not to intrude into the internet's functioning and growth and in so doing allowed an academic network to turn into a global communications phenomenon.
Strickling referred to these roots arguing that it was “the right policy for the United States in the early stages of the Internet, and the right message to send to the rest of the world.” But, he continued, “that was then and this is now. As we at NTIA approach a wide range of Internet policy issues, we take the view that we are now in the third generation of Internet policy making.”
Outlining three decades of internet evolution - from transition to commercialization, from the garage to Main Street, and now, starting in 2010, the “Policy 3.0” approach - Strickling argued that with the internet is now a social network as well a business network. “We must take rules more seriously.”
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Wednesday, March 3, 2010
US government rescinds 'leave internet alone' policy
Using non-military tactics to prevent genocides
Director of the Mass Atrocity Response Operations Project, Michael C. Pryce, spoke in Blaustein last Wednesday about America's failure to prevent genocide.
Pryce, a former professor of Conflict Resolution at the US Army War College spoke of his time overseas as a marine and the profound effect this had on his worldview.
“I got to know a lot about war crimes in Kosovo and Bosnia,” he said.
Though Pryce comes from a military background, he believes that America has failed to prevent violence in other nations because of our inability to anticipate the future as we are constantly, “looking backwards.”
Pryce believes that the root of the problem is the classic planning design that the military continues to fall into when taking on foreign conflict.
“We tend to plan in a military paradigm,” he said, “friend vs. enemy.”
At the bottom of Pryce's design is a basic reconstitution of these military standards to a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities inherent to bringing an outside force into a native conflict.
“A given genocide will be comprised of perpetrators, victims, interveners and others,” he said.
The friend vs. enemy paradigm falls apart in these situations, a phenomenon that must be addressed according to Pryce in order to affectively create a plan that will have any positive effect.
“One of the most important things to consider is that improvisation is dead,” he said.
Pryce has a direct plan of attack concerning genocide, though not in the typical militaristic sense.
“We have to shift the planning paradigm,” he said. “We have to rely on predominantly non-military actions to prevent mass atrocities.”
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No joke: South Carolina now requires 'subversives' to register
From Raw Story:
Five-dollar registration fee for persons planning to overthrow US government
Terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions -- or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison.
The state's "Subversive Activities Registration Act," passed last year and now officially on the books, states that "every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State."
There's even a $5 filing fee.
By "subversive organization," the law means "every corporation, society, association, camp, group, bund, political party, assembly, body or organization, composed of two or more persons, which directly or indirectly advocates, advises, teaches or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States [or] of this State."
Welcome to North Korea by Peter Tetteroo and Raymond Feddema
Type: Documentary Rating: NR Running Time: 60 Minutes Starring: Directed by: Peter Tetteroo, Raymond Feddema PLOT DESCRIPTION The winner of the 2001 International Emmy award for Best Documentary, Welcome to North Korea is a grotesquely surreal look at the all-too-real conditions in modern-day North Korea. Dutch filmmaker Peter Tetteroo and his associate Raymond Feddema spent a week in and around the North Korean capital of Pyongyang -- ample time to produce this outstanding film. Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs; from www.archive.org.
Massive bank failures due, says oversight panel
Close to 3,000 banks are currently classified as having a risky concentration of commercial real estate loans, according to a recent report by the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP). All of them are small to mid-sized banks, already weakened by the financial crisis.
The COP is “deeply concerned” that commercial real estate losses could jeopardize the stability of these banks and the damage will contribute to prolonged weakness throughout the economy, according to chair Elizabeth Warren.
About $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate loans are due for refinancing between now and 2014. “In today’s market, many applications will be turned down,” Ms. Warren said on a video posted on COP's Web site.
Property values have fallen 40 percent on average, and banks are unwilling to refinance; many wanting a lower loan-to-value ratio, which will trigger lot of foreclosures.
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Orson Welles - The Trial (Intro Story)
"Before the law, there stands a guard. A man comes from the country, begging admittance to the law. But the guard cannot admit him. Can he hope to enter at a later time? "That is possible," says the guard. The man tries to peer through the entrance. He had been taught that the law should be accessible to every man. "Do not attempt to enter without my permission," says the guard. "I am very powerful. Yet I am the least of all the guards. From hall to hall, door after door, each guard is more powerful than the last." By the guard's permission, the man sits down by the side of the door, and there he waits. For years, he waits. Everything he has, he gives away in the hope of bribing the guard, who never fails to say to him, "I take what you give me only so that you will not feel that you have left something undone." Keeping his watch during the long years, the man has learned to know even the fleas in the guard's fur collar. The man growing childish in old age, he begs the very fleas to persuade the guard to change his mind and allow him to enter. His sight has dimmed, but in the darkness he perceives a radiance streaming immortally from the door of the law. And now, before he dies, all he's experienced condenses into one question, a question he's never asked. He beckons to the guard. Says the guard, "You are insatiable! What is it now?" Says the man, "Every man strives to attain the law. How is it then that in all these years, no one else has ever come here, seeking admittance?" His hearing has failed, so the guard yells into his ear, "No one else but you could ever have obtained admittance! No one else could enter this door! This door was intended only for you! And now, I am going to close it." This tale is told during the story called "The Trial". It has been said that the logic of this story is the logic of a dream... a nightmare."
Land restitution in South Africa: Post-Apartheid property struggle
The South African Restitution Program's primary goal is to return land that was stolen from blacks during white minority rule. Media portrayals of the struggle for land usually focus on the conflict between white farmers and black landless individuals and communities. In the documentary, this standard paradigm is inapplicable because the apartheid government sold land that it confiscated from one black family (the Ndolilas) to other black families (the Bondholders). The pressing question is: what will the ANC do when the problem is no longer black and white?
The plight of the North American bipeds
Impact of automobilus runoverus on homo sapient environment and culture.
Includes music by David Drexler and the Oakwood Chamber Players.
More items of pedestrian concern at http://www.pedestriana.net
image from http://www.spitting-image.net
