We need to have a debate about the ethics of the people behind the robots. -- P.W. Singer
The above image is by Dan Eldon, the Reuters photojournalist who inspired my career as an investigative reporter. This image is, in itself, a derivative work. Dan Eldon was murdered by an angry mob while covering the crisis in Somalia in July, 1993. I created the below image, which is symbolic of ideas about death, and how to live life fully, that I learned from Dan Eldon. I did have his mother Kathy Eldon's permission to create derivative work. In fact, in seeking permission, I sparked a long friendship that changed my life. I can only imagine how far-reaching Dan's influence, particularly over young, creative people, might have been had he lived long enough to participate in the digital culture. But not all copyright holders are as responsive as Kathy Eldon. 
Dear Amazon.com Customer,Now, I also happen to be a big fan of coffee. It's a "habit." I keep a variety of roasts and blends. I buy whole bean, grind my own etc. I'm no connoisseur, but I do enjoy exploring the variety of piquant flavors from fine roasters. But who, but the most die hard fan would buy this?
Based on your recent shopping history, we thought you might like to know that Amazon Gourmet offers this special coffee:
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From Darklordzen: That sound you heard ... ...Was Alan Moore's head exploding with frustration in Northampton.and
Is there nothing that the shills in Hollywood won't market to try and turn a quick buck? Well, apparently they missed a trick with the 'Schindler's List' commemorative 'Amon Goeth replica sniping rifle' - but that's about it.
This product is one of the many reasons Alan Moore would rather not have his name attached to the Watchmen movie. Like JFK burgers or Hitler dolls this coffee is the epitome of bad taste.'Nuff said.
[The] Chinese New Year Gala Dinner in Surabaya was an impressive event. Thousands of people, mainly Indonesians of Chinese descent, packed into a beautifully decorated convention hall to enjoy a banquet and entertainment. Each item was introduced in Mandarin and Indonesian, and the mayor and the American and Chinese consuls-general were present to wish the revellers well.Also of interest are two relatively new related websites, the blog, "Islam in China" and its new companion site, Islam in China Webzine, which includes as its ethos:
Just a few years ago, public displays of Chinese culture were forbidden, and a celebration like this would have been unimaginable. But even in reformasi Indonesia, this was a Chinese New Year celebration with a difference. The Gala Dinner was hosted by the Chinese Muslim Association of Indonesia (PITI). An Islamic song or two featured alongside Chinese items. In a brief address, a leader of PITI wished everyone a happy Chinese New Year and thanked those who had donated to flood victims through the organisation. Later in the proceedings, another Chinese Muslim leader led a prayer for the few Muslims present before the singing and dancing extravaganza resumed.
The subject of Islam in China is an oft neglected one. In the West most people conceive of Muslims as being Arabs despite the fact that majority of the Arabs in America are Christians. Outside of China there are also many misconceptions that Muslims have about Muslims in China. Many Muslims are even surprised to learn that there are more Muslims in China than there are in Saudi Arabia.The webzine, while in need of a good copy edit, had a number of intriguing articles including one discussing the hadith, (a hadith is an oral tradition relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic prophet Muhammad), "Seek Knowledge as far as China." and another recounting the experience an American Muslim in China:
I had found that mosque in Shanghai and was warmly welcomed as if it were my own Friday haunt. In spite of this and the many conversations of which I’ve just spoken, some bit of cynicism wasn’t letting me accept the possibility of people really being that accepting of an early traveler just because the Tangerine knew the right words to say as the light would begin to fade on a Ramadan evening. These thoughts began to fade as I took off my shoes one Friday and found a place to sit between a middle-aged Uyghur man and a teenaged Hui, the room filled with whispers in a half-dozen tongues only to be silenced by an all-to-familiar call.Both publications are very useful reads on the subject of Islam in China. They left me wondering what Islam was really like in China for the individual Chinese citizen. When I was in China recently, I found the culture to be still very much secular, especially and ardently so for people under 30, for whom Mao Zedong is very much revered.
6. Rebooting .Gov. There is no reason why the U.S. Government should not be one of the top 10 destinations on the Internet! GPO should work with the rest of the U.S. Government to radically change how we present information on the Internet. Some of the initiatives would include installing a cloud for .gov to use, enshrining principles of bulk data distribution into legislation, and a massive upgrade in the government's video capabilities.
7. Full Transparency. GPO serves all 3 branches of government. As the nation's service bureau, GPO must be fully transparent in its own financial affairs and should be a forceful and effective advocate for the public domain. Most importantly, the GPO must be fully transparent to its clients—the Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary. If nominated and confirmed, I would pledge to serve on the front lines of customer service, working to understand the needs of our clients and the public.
Access to information is a human right and the United States of America is the world's leading producer of information. As the publisher of the United States, GPO plays a vital role in promoting useful knowledge, promoting the progress of science and useful arts, and promoting and preserving the public domain.
The best report on how the young are experiencing it all came this week from the Web site Boing Boing, from the writer Cory Doctorow, who asked readers, "How are you coping with collapse-anxiety?" He wrote, "For me, I think it's the suspense that's the killer. What institutions will survive? Which ones are already doomed? Which of the items in my calendar are likely never to come to pass? Will my bank last?" He continued, "What are you telling yourself? How are you all sleeping at night? Are you hedging your bets with canned goods and shotguns, or plans for urban communal farming? Are you starting a business? Restructuring through bankruptcy? Moving back in with your parents?"
His readers wrote back, creating a stunning thread that said, essentially, all of the above, and more. They went from the wry—one reader is "drinking more . . . feeling disconnected from reality . . . watching more TV and movies"—to the tough—one said, "When the world turns crazy the crazy turn pro." A number were moving in with relatives. In fact it sounded like the old days, before the abundance. Some were planting gardens. One said he was learning the ukulele so he could be a wandering minstrel. Mr. Doctorow told me the reaction was "stupendous" not only in terms of numbers but in terms of seriousness: These were people truly sharing their anxieties.
Big-budget movies (BBMs) require a lot of capital and rely on studios controlling the rate and nature of distribution of the finished product. If you're going to recoup your $300 million box-office turd, you need to move a hell of a lot of DVDs, TV licenses, foreign exhibition, Happy Meal toys, and assorted "secondary" revenues.
Let's be realistic here: Nothing anyone does is going to make it harder to get movies when you want them, where you want them, and at whatever price you feel you should pay for them (including free). And the harder you crack down on Internet movie-downloading, the more attractive you make buying pirate DVDs from criminals on the street -- a virtually zero-risk transaction that directly displaces DVD purchases.
Saudi poet Aydah Al Aarawi Al Jahani is being embraced as a hero by women and poets alike not only in the Arab world but further afield because she refuses to quit the highly popular Abu Dhabi TV show "The Million's Poet" despite pressure from her family and tribe.
Bloggers and Internet poetry sites have praised her decision not to walk away from the show, saying she is paving the way for women's empowerment in the Arab world.
"I ... hope she continues in the competition and doesn't throw in the towel before her time. She is a true example to women all over the region proving that women too have their place in the arts."
BlogTV - Allows users to create their own live streaming webcams
BitBomb - A text message reminder service that sends reminders to your cell phone
Sendible - Allows users to schedule email and text messages (such as for birthdays)
Doodle - An extremely simple scheduling/coordination program that requires no signup (I did use this to schedule my first year review with two busy professors - I was able to schedule and confirm in about two days, which I think is quite good)
The Director of Digital Engagement role requires the successful candidate to develop strategies to communicate with people on popular internet sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Twitter.
The Senior Civil Service position has a starting salary of £120,000 plus 30 days annual holiday but could rise to £160,000 - more than the Chief Whip, Cabinet Minister and Lord Chancellor get before allowances.
[f]our types of immersive new media that address the issue of religious identity: Waco Resurrection, a religiously-inspired first-person shooter, Noah’s Ark, a religious online reality show; Roma Victor, a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, and religious experiences in the online world of Second Life.
The response to the naming of the next public diplomacy chief should not be, "Who?" even among the cognoscenti. The appointment of a journalist renowned in the US and respected in the halls of power abroad will require no explanation. The acclaim in America will echo in the international media.
Reporting the news and telling America's story to the world are - emphatically - not the same thing. Yet journalist-as-public-diplomacy-czar is not an oxymoronic concept. The job description is similar for both: Effective communication skills; an instinctual understanding that the people of the world view America through many prisms; and, most of all, credibility.
At the end of the day, the public diplomacy czar is an advocate, but one who is always truthful. The experience of the Voice of America over the past six decades shows that policy advocacy and journalistic integrity are compatible. A journalist working for the government does not have to check his or her values at the door. Reporting on American policy as well as on dissent from the official line is good public diplomacy because it is credible.
When viewed in the context of the currently rising optimism about the US handling of Middle East issues, a project of this calibre suggests that US public diplomacy in Muslim countries is developing new approaches to Arab-Islamic culture. The project’s use of Second Life virtual experiences, where internet users can interact with each other through avatars to engage in intercultural dialogue, is indeed a pioneering initiative. It may enable foreign policymakers and practitioners, corporations, NGOs and ordinary people to both understand and appreciate the nature of the Islamic faith and the communicative power of virtual space in promoting religious dialogue.A year ago we were in Doha, Qatar -- in fact, that's where we effectively started the project -- at the US Islamic World Forum and as our friends and colleagues gather in Doha right now, we're particularly grateful for the support many of them showed for this project.
I do not mean by this that foreign ministers or ambassadors should start blogging, but rather that if they are to shape public opinion in other countries or even globally they will need to take a much more sophisticated approach than paying for quasi-corporate PR. The internet brings with it the likelihood of an immediate chorus of voices to disprove overly extravagant claims or political hypocrisies. This means that governments will increasingly be judged by their actions and not by how they themselves describe them. This is a wholly positive development for those who want more accountability, but it requires governments and diplomats at last to realise that no one believes you unless you practice what you preach. As in all good theatre, showing is telling. Diplomats should by all means communicate their government’s message, but must be aware that thanks to generational changes and new technology the scepticism with which that message will be greeted has never been greater. To those who are smart, of course, this is as much an opportunity as a challenge. We the public must now beware of governments which just like commercial corporations infiltrate their messages into otherwise innocent soap operas, chat-rooms or movie scripts.
"Government has always been driven by an effort to control information, but to be part of this conversation inherent in Internet culture is to let go of control of information and roll with it," Fouts said. "That's very challenging to the culture of government. Bureaucracy abhors that."
If someone takes something that belongs to you, and puts a lock on it that you don't have a key for, that lock isn't in your best interests.Or, put differently, "If you can't open it, you don't own it." (Hat tip to Quinn Norton.)
James K. Glassman at the New America Foundation in December 2008.NJ: What can the Obama administration do to enhance public diplomacy through new media and the Internet?
Glassman: Let me tell you the most important thing it should do. The administration needs to appoint a successor to me... who has an orientation toward national security, not an orientation toward public relations. That's an imperative. What I dread, what I'm really worried about, is appointing somebody who essentially sees his or her job as an image-maker. That would be a huge mistake.
Extremists can't adapt to social networking because it shakes the foundations of their whacked-out, rigid ideology. But what about governments? Aren't we rigid too? Don't we want to maintain control of our message?In those two grafs, Glassman posed a radical philosophical notion that flowed counter to almost any of the rhetoric of his predecessors not to mention the Bush Administration in general: Glassman proposed that controlling the message was not only impossible, but foolish.
Perhaps. But in this new world of communications, any government that resists new Internet techniques faces a greater risk: being ignored. Our major target audiences – especially the young – don't want to listen to us lecture them or tell them what to think or how wonderful we are.
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The Kaspersky Laboratory, a Moscow company which produces programs to defend against viruses, hacker attacks and spam, said in its highly regarded annual report that was released today that 22 percent of the spam on the Internet originated in Russia, compared to only 16 percent generated in the United States.
Like their counterparts elsewhere, the report said, Russian spammers most frequently "have employed technologies which allow them to get money quickly. One of these technologies," it continued, involves "paid SMS, by means of which users are offered services [of various kinds] for pay.
But while many of these offerings are legitimate if annoying, the Kaspersky Laboratory experts pointed out, spam is now being used to spread harmful viruses throughout the web. (It pointed out that in 2008, China rather than Russia was the leader in the distribution of such viruses).
FINDING OUR VOICES is a one-hour documentary that introduces the audience to these and other peaceful patriots who march, sacrifice their jobs, risk imprisonment, and face ridicule to act for a peaceful America. The film explores their causes and their lives, presenting their common convictions and their myriad diversity. We look at their dissent since the world-shattering events of September 11th 2001 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq, in the context of history, constitutional rights, and the changing face of law and policy; most importantly, we document their desire to create a better future for their children and grandchildren.
Over the last year, the Art of Common Space has commissioned artists Simon Faithfull, Pilot Publishing, Proboscis and Rob Davis and Usman Haque to develop new works which explore the question what is common space in our 21st century multicultural society? The new projects are on show around the Park and in the Field Station building during the Spring Equinox weekend: Pilot Publishing’s Energy Café (under collective construction) launches into the new season with its biggest local food cook up so far! Non-stop, energizing and DIY activities include a 'Bike in' peddle powered cinema with Magnificent Revolution, an off grid spring banquet fueled and sparked by the winter, experiments, shared resources and you!
Proboscis’s Being in Common includes discreet optical interventions in the landscape of the Park and ‘A Catalogue of Ideas’ inspired by ‘Exploration Packs’ sent around the world.
Simon Faithfull’s new film 0.00 Navigation will be premiered on the meridian line that runs through Gunpowder Park as an ongoing installation of Simon’s epic journey throughout the East of England;
Rob Davis and Usman Haque’s interactive installation Siphonophora in Gunpowder Park’s main lake, gives us an insight into the environmental conditions of pond life, and allows us to listen to the sound of the water.
"The Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project was guided by the 13th century Sufi mystic poet Rumi’s idea: ‘Out beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down upon that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make any sense.’"So it was extra special that Yas performed a song about Rumi. Special thanks to Yas and his manager, Neda Sarmast, for their support of this project and for generously appearing at the event.
"What troubles the ethically aware citizens of the non-muslim planet, is the apparent reliance on Friday afternoon street mobs, incited at mosque to do blackshirt street intimidation in dozens of settings--- even fully Islamic settings (such as the Maldives, where non-Maldivian contract workers are routinely brutalized).
Before even mentioning extremists on martyr missions, dozens of backward, clearly unethical domination artifacts survive in the tribalist miasma that is Islam-as-practiced.
Chauvinism and xenophobia are preached as holy duties, to millions having no other view of the remainder of the human race.
Has Ms. Eureka Dejavu (& Mr. Schmillson Nillson)addressed these realities?
Or have they created a saccharine doppleganger of Islam, cleansed of its crippling medievalisms and self indulgent tribal smallnesses?"
"Belief systems overlap now in ways that would have been unthinkable millennia ago when many of the conflicting ideas still governing human behavior today were created, but immersive virtual environments offer the perfect medium for assessment of concepts of self and community. It is not just a good medium, passable amid a sea of other equally effective options. It is the perfect medium, at least as an initial training ground to teach the digital culture how to engage in difficult and sensitive conversations involving real-world challenges in the complete absence of any possibility of physical violence or even any trace of intimidation. Additionally, virtual environments offer a deeper level of candor, which is necessary for true understanding."
