“I’ve missed you so much,” Jon Stewart whispered longingly at an image of Glenn Beck on Wednesday night’s Daily Show, before kissing his fingers and then pressing them against the virtual cheeks of Beck’s floating head in the videobox over his right shoulder.You thought the conservative broadcaster had been banished to the Siberia that is the Internet since he left Fox News in June of 2011, but thanks to some signature conspiracy theorizing in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, Beck is back, baby. Just look at this Google Trends chart for searches of his name beginning the month after he left Fox:Continue Reading… … Read More
Extremists blame everyone but white men for Boston bombings
Who was responsible for the deadly Boston terrorist attack?The Muslims did it. No, it was an illegal immigrant. Think again – it was a gay guy. Wait, you missed the key signs: Our own government once again pulled off an act of covert terror to promote its nefarious aims.Fingers have been pointed in all of these directions by conspiracy theory peddlers and professional hatemongers since the bombings Monday.“It’s a pretty safe bet right now that this attack was carried out by an Islamist,” declared a post on the Tea Party Nation website Tuesday. The obvious cause for the violence? “We have a government that is not committed to protecting America.” Linking Islam with Ronald Reagan’s “evil empire” of Communism, the post warned that the Boston bombings are just another event presaging future violence in “an ideological war” that can only be won if we have tougher, more anti-Islam U.S. political leaders. That, of course, would be the Tea Party cabal.Continue Reading… … Read More
Do e-readers inhibit reading comprehension?
In a viral YouTube video from October 2011 a 1-year-old girl sweeps her fingers across an iPad’s touchscreen, shuffling groups of icons. In the following scenes she appears to pinch, swipe and prod the pages of paper magazines as though they too were screens. When nothing happens, she pushes against her leg, confirming that her finger works just fine — or so a title card would have us believe.The girl’s father, Jean-Louis Constanza, presents “A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work” as naturalistic observation — a Jane Goodall among the chimps moment — that reveals a generational transition. “Technology codes our minds,” he writes in the video’s description. “Magazines are now useless and impossible to understand, for digital natives” — that is, for people who have been interacting with digital technologies from a very early age.Continue Reading… … Read More
Russia – Mikhail Beketov: a fighter for press freedom
Reporters Without Borders expresses deep sorrow at news of the death of Mikhail Beketov, who never fully recovered from injuries suffered in a violent attack in 2008 – a reprisal for his environmental-protection reporting. Editor in chief of Khimkinskaya Pravda in the city of Khimki, and a fierce defender of local land resources, Beketov led opposition to a plan to build a highway through a nearby forest. On 13 November 2008, Beketov was beaten and left for dead. Though he survived the (…) … Read More
This Is What It Feels Like To Have Your Life Savings Confiscated By The Global Elite
What would you do if you woke up one day and discovered that the banksters had “legally” stolen about 80 percent of your life savings? … Read More
Let’s decide the budget ourselves
It has been nearly a month since the sequester went into effect, yet little is being done to reverse the deep cuts. It is a sad fact that our new normal is the inability to come to a compromise in Washington.Washington has failed the American people over and over again, and yet at each manufactured crisis we cross our fingers and hope that things will be different the next time. With such intense gridlock, it’s no wonder that Americans have thrown up their hands. According to a 2011 CBS News poll, 80 percent of those surveyed believe that Congress is more interested in serving the needs of special interest groups than the constituents they purport to represent.So why do Americans simply hope for the best? Why do we not stand up and demand a change? Perhaps it is because the idea of changing the culture of Washington is too daunting, too impossible. But Americans can start building a new system from the ground up that incorporates their voices into the political process.Continue Reading… … Read More
US urges China to halt hacking spree
In a speech on Monday President Obama’s national securityadviser Tom Donilon implored China to stop hackers within itsborders from engaging in industrial espionage and breaking into UScomputer systems.“The international community cannot afford to tolerate suchactivity from any country,” Donilon said in the New Yorkspeech, stressing that online spying damages international economicties, especially as cyber-security is becoming a “growingchallenge” to the relationship between Washington andBeijing.“US businesses are speaking out about their serious concernsabout sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential businessinformation and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusionsemanating from China on an unprecedented scale,” Donilon saidin prepared remarks for the speech made at the Asia Society, a NewYork think tank.Donilon also mentioned that Washington has urged China toacknowledge the “urgency and scope” of the threat and totake “serious steps” to stop the attacks, asking the Chinesegovernment to engage in a dialogue to establish norms incyberspace.“From the president on down, this has become a key point ofconcern and discussion with China at all levels of ourgovernments,” Donilon said, adding that US hopes China willengage in a “constructive, direct dialogue to establishacceptable norms of behavior in cyberspace.”The two countries have long been pointing fingers at each other,trading accusations of online spying.In February, the White House revealed its strategy to combat thetheft of trade secrets. Among the tools at its disposal, theadministration said it would use “trade policy tools” toenforce intellectual property laws and to compel other nations tostop breaking into US computer networks.According to a February report, an elite military unit ofChinese hackers – the People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398 – hasbeen ferociously engaged in espionage. In the last seven years, ithas allegedly hacked 141 companies across 20 major industries,including those vital to national security.China denies its involvement in the attacks, and has accused theUS of cyber-warfare. A report by China’s top cyber-security agencylast month said that over 2012, a total of 10.5 million infectedcomputers were traced to control servers with American IPaddresses. The agency said US hacks made up 74 per cent of all suchattacks on China. … Read More
