The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. ..."
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls

German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls
Logo No Hate Speech Movement

Bundestag passes law to fine social media companies for not deleting hate speech

Honouring computing’s 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace. (Design of doodle by Kevin Laughlin)

Friday, November 30, 2012

Communication blackout in Syria, especially Internet

Deutsche Welle, 29 November 2012



Internet traffic in Syria has slowed to an effective standstill, according to a pair of US technology companies monitoring web traffic. Rebel fighters, meanwhile, have reported clashes for control of Damascus airport.

US companies Akamai and Renesys said on Thursday that Syrian Internet activity had ground almost to a halt as of 12:26 local time (1026 GMT), with coverage staying down throughout the afternoon.

"In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet," Renesys wrote on its blog.

Several news agencies reported that residents had noticed only sporadic coverage for their cell phones and some disturbances for landlines as well.

Localized blackouts have taken place in the past during Syria's lengthy conflict, but Thursday's was thought to be the first nationwide loss of coverage.

"As the atrocities in Syria continue, now the Internet and telephone connection are shut down. Really scary #SyriaBlackout," EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström wrote on her Twitter account, using the signature "CM" to denote that she had written the entry herself.

The blackout also interrupted the news feed of Syria's state-run SANA news agency.

Fighting reported around Damascus airport

Activist groups, including the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported heavy fighting on Thursday around Damascus' airport, as rebel forces apparently sought to gain control of the site. The airport is situated roughly 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) to the east of the city center.

"The road to Damascus International airport was closed because of ongoing fighting and military operations in the surrounding areas," the Observatory said.

As with most reports coming out of Syria, the information could not be independently verified owing to restrictions on access for international press - though state television later acknowledged the clashes, saying that the road had been reopened.

"The road from the airport was secured after attacks by armed terrorist groups against cars and after a deployment of the competent forces," the broadcaster said, citing the Intormation Ministry.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that more than 40,000 people have died in Syria since the civil war broke out in March last year between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and those seeking a change in government.

International envoy Lakhdar Bramini was also due to brief the Security Council on the situation in Syria on Thursday, an address that looked set to be overshadowed by the General Assembly vote in New York on recognizing the Palestinian Territories as an observer member of the UN.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Offshore company directors' links to military and intelligence revealed

Companies making use of offshore secrecy include firm that supplied surveillance software used by repressive regimes

The Guardian, David Leigh, Wednesday 28 November 2012

Bahraini protesters flee teargas. Activists' computers in the country were infected
 with Finfisher spying software. Photograph: Mohammed al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty Images

A number of nominee directors of companies registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) have connections to military or intelligence activities, an investigation has revealed.

In the past, the British arms giant BAE was the most notorious user of offshore secrecy. The Guardian in 2003 revealed the firm had set up a pair of covert BVI entities. The undeclared subsidiaries were used to distribute hundreds of millions of pounds in secret payments to get overseas arms contracts.

Offshore Secrets
Today the investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the Guardian uncovers the identities of other offshore operators.

Louthean Nelson owns the Gamma Group, a controversial computer surveillance firm employing ex-military personnel. It sells bugging technology to Middle East and south-east Asian governments. Nelson owns a BVI offshore arm, Gamma Group International Ltd.

Gamma's spyware, which can be used against dissidents, has turned up in the hands of Egyptian and Bahraini state security police, although Nelson's representative claims this happened inadvertently. He initially denied to us that Nelson was linked to Gamma, and denied that Nelson owned the anonymous BVI affiliate. Martin Muench, who has a 15% share in the company's German subsidiary, said he was the group's sole press spokesman, and told us: "Louthean Nelson is not associated with any company by the name of Gamma Group International Ltd. If by chance you are referring to any other Gamma company, then the explanation is the same for each and every one of them."

After he was confronted with evidence obtained by the Guardian/ICIJ investigation, Muench changed his position. He told us: "You are absolutely right, apparently there is a Gamma Group International Ltd. So in effect I was wrong – sorry. However I did not say that Louthean Nelson was not associated with any Gamma company, only the one that I thought did not exist."

Nelson set up his BVI offshoot in 2007, using an agency, BizCorp Management Pte, located in Singapore. His spokesman claimed the BVI company was not involved in sales of Gamma's Finfisher spyware. But he refused to disclose the entity's purpose.

Earlier this year, computer researchers in California told the New York Times they had discovered Finfisher being run from servers in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Mongolia and a government ministry in Turkmenistan. The spying software was previously proved to have infected the computers of political activists in Bahrain, which Nelson visited in June 2006.

The Finfisher programme is marketed as a technique for so-called "IT intrusion". The code disguises itself as a software update or an email attachment, which the target victim is unaware will transmit back all his or her transactions and keystrokes. Gamma calls itself "a government contractor to state intelligence and law enforcement agencies for … high-quality surveillance vans" and telephone tapping of all kinds.

Activists' investigations into Finfisher began in March 2011, after protesters who broke into Egypt's state security headquarters discovered documents showing the bugging system was being marketed to the then president Hosni Mubarak's regime, at a price of $353,000.

Muench said demonstration copies of the software must have been stolen. He refused to identify Gamma's customers.

Nelson's father, Bill Nelson, is described as the CEO of the UK Gamma, which sells a range of covert surveillance equipment from a modern industrial estate outside Andover, Hampshire, near the family home in the village of Winterbourne Earls, Wiltshire.

In September, the German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, called for an EU-wide ban on the export of such surveillance software to totalitarian states. "These regimes should not get the technical instruments to spy on their own citizens," he said. The UK has now agreed that future Finfisher exports from Andover to questionable regimes will need government permission.

Other types of anonymous offshore user we have identified in this area include a south London private detective, Gerry Moore, who operated Swiss bank accounts. He did not respond to invitations to comment.

Another private intelligence agency, Ciex, was used as a postbox by the financier Julian Askin to set up a covert entity registered in the Cook Islands, called Pastech. He too did not respond to invitations to comment.

An ex-CIA officer and a South African mercenary soldier, John Walbridge and Mauritz Le Roux, used London agents to set up a series of BVI-registered companies in 2005, after obtaining bodyguarding contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Le Roux told us one of his reasons was to accommodate "local partnerships" in foreign countries. Walbridge did not respond.

A former BAE software engineer from Hull, John Cunningham, says he set up his own offshore BVI company in the hope of selling helicopter drones for purely civilian use. Now based in Thailand, he previously designed military avionics for Britain's Hawk and Typhoon war planes. He told us: "That account was set up by my 'friend' in Indonesia who does aerial mapping with small UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]. He was going to pay me a commission through that account … However, this was my first attempt to work in Asia and as I have found, money tends to be not forthcoming. I have never used that account."

The military and intelligence register

Gerry Moore

Company: GM Property Developments, LHM Property Holdings Story: south London private detective sets up BVI companies with Swiss bank accounts Details: Moore founded "Thames Investigation Services", later "Thames Associates", in Blackheath, south London. He opened a Swiss bank account with UBS Basel in 1998. In 2007, he sought to open another account with Credit Suisse, Zurich, for his newly registered BVI entity GM Property Developments. He sought to register a second offshore company, LHM Property Holdings, using his wife Linda's initials.

Intermediary: Netincorp. BVI (Damien Fong)

Comment: No response. Thames Associates website taken down after Guardian approaches.


John Walbridge and Mauritz le Roux

Companies: Overseas Security & Strategic Information Ltd, Remington Resources (Walbridge), Safenet UXO, Sparenberg, Gladeaway, Maplethorpe, Hawksbourne (Le Roux)

Story: former CIA officer and South African ex-mercenary provide guards in Iraq and Afghanistan Details: John H Walbridge Jr says he served with US special forces in Vietnam and then with the CIA in Brazil. His Miami-based private military company OSSI Inc teamed up with the South African ex-soldier and Executive Outcomes mercenary Mauritz le Roux to win contracts in Kabul in 2005. Walbridge set up his two BVI entities with his wife, Cassandra, via a London agency in June and August 2005, and Le Roux incorporated five parallel BVI companies.

Intermediary: Alpha Offshore, London Comment: Le Roux told us some of his offshore entities were kept available "in case we need to start up operations in a country where we would need to have local partnerships". His joint venture with OSSI was based offshore in Dubai, he said, but used BVI entities "to operate within a legal framework under British law, rather than the legal framework of the UAE". Walbridge did not respond to invitations to comment.


Julian Askin

Company: Pastech Story: exiled businessman used a private intelligence agency to set up covert offshore entity in the Cook Islands Details: Askin was a British football pools entrepreneur. He alleged Afrikaner conspiracies against him in South Africa, when his Tollgate transport group there collapsed. The apartheid regime failed to have him extradited, alleging fraud. He hired the Ciex agency to report on ABSA, the South African bank which foreclosed on him. Ciex was founded by the ex-MI6 senior officer Michael Oatley along with ex-MI6 officer Hamilton Macmillan. In May 2000, they were used to help set up Pastech for their client in the obscure Pacific offshore location of Rarotonga, in the Cook Islands, with anonymous nominee directors and shareholders. Askin now lives in Semer, Suffolk.

Intermediary: Ciex, Buckingham Gate, London Comment: he did not respond to invitations to comment.


Louthean Nelson

Company: Gamma Group International Story: Gamma sells Finfisher around the world, spying software which infects a target's computer.

Details: Nelson set up a UK company in 2007 on an Andover industrial estate to make and sell Finfisher – a so-called Trojan which can remotely spy on a victim's computer by pretending to be a routine software update. He set up a parallel, more covert company with a similar name, registered in the BVI, via an agency in Singapore, using his father's address at Winterbourne Earls, near Andover. He also sells to the Middle East via premises in Beirut. He ran into controversy last year when secret police in Egypt and Bahrain were alleged to have obtained Finfisher, which he denies knowingly supplying to them.

Intermediary: Bizcorp Management Pte Ltd, Singapore Comment: his spokesman declines to say what was the purpose of the group's BVI entity.


John Cunningham

Company: Aurilla International Story: military avionics software engineer from Hull with separate UK company launches civilian venture in Indonesia Details: Cunningham set up a BVI entity in 2007. His small UK company, On-Target Software Solutions Ltd, has worked on "black boxes" for BAE Hawk and Typhoon war planes, and does foreign consultancy. He also has interests in Thailand in a drone helicopter control system.

Intermediary: Allen & Bryans tax consultants, Singapore Comment: Cunningham says the offshore account was never activated. "I actually make systems for civilian small UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). I have never sold to the military. That account was set up by my 'friend' in Indonesia who does aerial mapping with small UAVs. He was going to pay me a commission through that account."

--------------------------
Offshore secrets

Guardian team: David Leigh, Harold Frayman and James Ball.

The project is a collaboration between the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) headed by Gerard Ryle in Washington DC. The Guardian's investigations editor, David Leigh, is a member of the ICIJ, a global network of reporters in more than 60 countries who collaborate on in-depth investigative stories that cross national boundaries. The ICIJ was founded in 1997 as a project of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington DC-based non-profit.



Saturday, November 24, 2012

'Gangnam Style' becomes YouTube's most watched video

Gadgets NDTV, AFP, November 24, 2012


South Korean pop sensation Psy's "Gangnam Style" on Saturday became YouTube's most-watched video of all time, registering more than 803 million views to overtake "Baby" by Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber.

The 34-year-old rapper has rocketed to fame since his "Gangnam Style" video - in which he performs his now famous horse-riding dance - became a worldwide hit following its release in July.

Earlier this month the song ousted Jennifer Lopez's dance hit "On the Floor" from second place on YouTube, and on Saturday it overtook Bieber's hit. In the evening, it had racked up 803,761,928 views against 803,658,345 for "Baby".

Psy's song, which is a tribute to an upmarket neighbourhood in Seoul, has topped charts from Britain to Australia and has been name-checked by global notables including US President Barack Obama and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

It has spawned numerous tribute videos and been imitated by an impressive roster of big names, including Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and London Mayor Boris Johnson.

The quirky star, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, has won adulation in his homeland for the global hit and was this month awarded one of South Korea's highest cultural honours, the Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit.

South Korea sees popular culture as a potent export force providing international exposure for a country that still feels overlooked in comparison to neighbours China and Japan.

The rapper recently unveiled plans for his next song in an interview with CNN, saying the lyrics would be a mix of English and Korean.



Saudi Arabia criticised over text alerts tracking women's movements

Male 'guardians' receive text message whenever women leave country under new system

guardian.co.uk, Luke Harding, and agencies in Riyadh, 23 November 2012

Saudi women must have the permission of their male 'guardian' to go
abroad. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images

Saudi Arabia has been accused of behaving like Big Brother after introducing technology that alerts male "guardians" by text whenever women under their guardianship leave the country.

The kingdom already bans women from driving and excludes them from most workplaces. It also disapproves of women's sport. Since last week it has been operating a new electronic system that tracks all cross-border movements.

The system functions even if a woman is travelling with her husband or male "guardian", with a text sent immediately to the man. Saudi women must get formal approval from their guardians to travel abroad, and have to hand in an infamous "yellow slip", signed by a male, at the airport or border.

The move has prompted protests. "The new compulsory text service, compliments of the Saudi ministry of interior, is not only a vicious reminder that Big Brother is watching me but that now he will snitch and tell my 'guardian' every time I leave the country," Safa Alahmad, a freelance journalist and documentary maker, said. "Apparently, as a Saudi woman, I don't even deserve the simplest of rights like the right to privacy. The core issue remains the same. Saudi women are viewed and treated as minors by the Saudi government. A text message doesn't change that. It's just adding insult to injury."

"The authorities are using technology to monitor women," the columnist Badriya al-Bashr wrote, criticising the "state of slavery under which [Saudi] women are held".

Some Twitter users compared the Riyadh government to the Taliban. Others jokingly suggested women should be microchipped to keep tabs on them.

Manal al-Sharif, a well-known women's right campaigner, raised the alarm over the new text system on Twitter after a couple alerted her. The husband was travelling with his wife when he received an unprompted text at Riyadh international airport saying she had left the country.

Sharif, 33, attracted global attention last year when she led an underground civil disobedience campaign to allow women to drive. About 100 women took part. Many were arrested and jailed; one was sentenced to 10 lashes, and later reprieved. In June Sharif posted an open letter to King Abdullah appealing again for an end to the ban on women driving, the only law of its kind in the world.

Bloggers in Saudi Arabia have pointed out that the new text system does not merely apply to women. Text messages are also sent to male "guardians" whenever any of their "dependants", deemed to be children of both sexes and foreign workers, leave the country.

The interior ministry introduced the system in April as part of its modernising e-government plan. The goal was to replace the "yellow slip" with electronic permission to leave. The text messages were originally sent to "guardians" who opted into the system, but are now apparently being sent out universally.

According to Human Rights Watch, guardians can include a woman's husband, father, brother or even minor son. They enjoy extraordinary power over female relatives of all ages. They can approve or reject their travel, work, marriages, official business and even healthcare.

Apart from areas such as education and healthcare, women are mostly excluded from the workplace. The labour ministry passed several new decrees in July theoretically increasing the number of jobs available to women. But under pressure from religious conservatives it also restated that strict segregation laws, relaxed in 2005, should apply in the workplace.

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Playing politics: new ways to win votes in Africa

Deutsche Welle, 23 November 2012



Politics is changing in Africa, reflecting the growing role played globally by modern information technology. Campaign strategies are also changing in a bid to attract more young voters.

Ernest Bai Koroma is hoping to be confirmed in office as president of Sierra Leone but just weeks earlier he seemed more interested in football. During his campaigning for the November 17 election, he frequently wore a tracksuit and tossed footballs in the air to his supporters. This earned him the nickname "World's Best."

Footballs for votes

“The young people were equating him with Lionel Messi and Ronaldo,”  Leonard Balogun Koroma, the president's national campaign coordinator, told DW. "The nomenclature was so attractive particularly with the youths,” Balogun Koroma said. "That is why the party decided to adopt it as a campaign slogan."

Young people are increasingly becoming targets for African politicians because they make up the highest percentage of the population in many countries on the continent.

Yoweri Museveni's rap became
a sensational hit in Uganda
Hip hop star

Just a year ago, another African president decided it was time to actively woo young voters. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda became a chart topping star overnight after his rap message to young people was mixed with hip hop beats. The song “You want another rap” topped the play list on Uganda's radio stations and at night clubs.

“The main target I will say is the young and educated who understand what is going on,” Jerry Sam, project coordinator of the Ghana-based African Elections Project told DW. His organisation monitors elections and media coverage across the continent. When young people get the message, “they can go home and explain to their family and siblings," Sam added.

"It is the youths that have access to Internet and understand the tools involved,” Sam says. Social media for example have become an attractive meeting point for Africa's youngsters.

'Facebook president'

 Goodluck Jonathan seems ever
present on Facebook
.
In response politicians have started abandoning formalities to join the social media bandwaggon. Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria is dubbed "the Facebook president". He boasts over 700,000 'likes' on his page. He even announced his candidacy for the 2011 elections via Facebook.

For others, an attractive website is the first choice.

"Mobile phones and Internet connectivity makes politicking easier in Africa,” says Kenyan political analyst Dr. Carey Francis Onyango. Nowadays “it will be strange if you don't have a website as a politician in Kenya.”

One example is the colorful and sophisticated homepage of Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga which contains frequently updated social media elements. “This is Kenya's moment” is the first greeting that catches your eye when you open the page. “Using technology is also an easy and convenient way to reach people,” Dr. Onyango says.

 Young people are actively being wooed by African politicians.

Techno - campaigns growing

Nico Mele is an American pioneer in the integration of social media and the Web with politics. “Technology and the Internet are not just a source of power for the politicians but also for the voters,” he says. And technology is continuing to change.

“When I started using technology for campaigns, there were no smartphones, there were no online videos,”Mele recalls.

Being able to access information helps voters make decisions on polling day and so it is no surprise that more and more politicians are coming up with new strategies to  try and influence those decisions. Some opt for hip hop, others try to become a social media star, or even Lionel Messi. Whatever they choose, they all have one goal in mind – to win votes.  

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"..  Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit. …."       

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Kelvin Doe, Self-Taught Engineering Whiz From Sierra Leone, Wows MIT Experts (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post, Hayley Hudson , 11/19/2012




At the age of 13, a boy living in Sierra Leone created batteries and generators using materials he picked up around the house or from trash bins. Now, he's wowing experts in the U.S.

Kelvin Doe, now 16, became the youngest person in history to be invited to the "Visiting Practitioner's Program" at MIT, according to CNN.

Doe, a completely self-taught engineer, manages his own fully-staffed community radio station in Sierra Leone where he broadcasts news and plays music under the moniker 'DJ Focus.' The radion station is powered by a generator created from a deteriorating voltage stabilizer, which he found in the trash, while a simple antenna lets his neighborhood listen in.

"They call me DJ Focus because I believe if you focus, you can do an invention perfectly," Doe said in a video produced by @radical.media for their THNKR YouTube channel.

Among those inventions is a battery that he created to light up homes in his neighborhood.

"The lights will come on once in a week, and the rest of the month, dark," Doe told interviewers.

It took several attempts before Doe finally had a working prototype for the battery -- a combination of soda, acid and metal, wrapped together by tape.

MIT discovered Doe during Innovate Salone, a national high school innovation challenge held in Sierra Leone by an international organization called Global Minimum. Doctoral student David Sengeh recognized his skills right away.

"It's very inspirational," Sengeh said in the video. "He created a generator because he needed it."

Before attending Innovate Salone this year, Doe had never been more than 10 miles from home. With Sengeh's help, in September he journeyed to New York for the 2012 World Maker Faire, where he sat on a “Meet the Young Makers” panel with four American inventors.

Doe's fame only promises to grow from here. Soon he will be a resident practitioner with the International Development Initiative at MIT and a guest presenter at Harvard School of Engineering, where he'll gain even more practical knowledge to help his community.

"Whatever things I've learned here, I will share it with my friends, colleagues and loved ones," Doe said.

Watch the video above from THNKR, which, as part of a biweekly series on young prodigies, details Doe's incredible story.


Related Articles:





"..  Let me tell you where else it's happening that you are unaware - that which is the beginning of the unity of the African states. Soon the continent will have what they never had before, and when that continent is healed and there is no AIDS and no major disease, they're going to want what you have. They're going to want houses and schools and an economy that works without corruption. They will be done with small-minded leaders who kill their populations for power in what has been called for generations "The History of Africa." Soon it will be the end of history in Africa, and a new continent will emerge.

Be aware that the strength may not come from the expected areas, for new leadership is brewing. There is so much land there and the population is so ready there, it will be one of the strongest economies on the planet within two generations plus 20 years. And it's going to happen because of a unifying idea put together by a few. These are the potentials of the planet, and the end of history as you know it.

In approximately 70 years, there will be a black man who leads this African continent into affluence and peace. He won't be a president, but rather a planner and a revolutionary economic thinker. He, and a strong woman with him, will implement the plan continent-wide. They will unite. This is the potential and this is the plan. Africa will arise out the ashes of centuries of disease and despair and create a viable economic force with workers who can create good products for the day. You think China is economically strong? China must do what it does, hobbled by the secrecy and bias of the old ways of its own history. As large as it is, it will have to eventually compete with Africa, a land of free thinkers and fast change. China will have a major competitor, one that doesn't have any cultural barriers to the advancement of the free Human spirit. …."

Israel and Hamas wage social media war

Deutsche Welle, 21 November 2012



Social media has elevated the Gaza conflict into a minute-by-minute tickertape of dead children, destruction and misinformation. Both sides are engaged. Yet Israeli tweets might also help Hamas aim its rockets.

When Ebaa Rezeq sits down in her room to tweet, she first opens up the window. Shyly, she explains her reasoning. If a rocket hits somewhere near her house or a bomb explodes, she explains, then she won't be cut by shards of glass.

Even with the windows closed, the gunshots are unmistakeable. "We're living in hell here and I want the world to experience some of it," she said.

The student twitters the entire day - about explosions, deaths and damaged buildings. Before leaving home she checks Twitter to see where the latest shots were heard. Often, Ebaa says, Israelis whom she calls "extreme Zionists" send her digital threats. "The way they insult me is just awful," she said. In spite of those threats - or perhaps because of them - she tweets on.

A war of propaganda

Attacks are first tweeted by eye-witnesses
 - and then later by those responsible
On the battlefield of social media, a war of propaganda and interpretation is underway. It is a battle in which both sides employ images of rubble fields and dead children - something like the picture of the crying BBC journalist Jihad Misharawi as he held the wrapped body of his eleven-month-old son in his arms. The picture was re-tweeted throughout the world before landing on the covers of international newspapers.

"The Israeli army and Palestinians are trying to get worldwide support through social media," said Ula Papajak from Berlin's Technical University. It is therefore no surprise that so many tweets are in English.

Even the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) first announced their attack on Gaza through their Twitter account, @IDFSpokesperson, prior to holding a traditional press conference. Not long thereafter a warning was issued to members of Hamas via Twitter. "We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead," the message said.

An answer followed promptly. It came from the Hamas Al-Kassam Brigade via its own Twitter account, @AlQassamBrigade. "Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves)."

Minute-to-minute war updates

The Israeli Defense Force gives
updates on its Facebook page
As both sides twitter officially without interruption, so, too, do hundreds of Palestinian and Israelis citzens. Their war is 'updated' every minute from Gaza. It is also made vivid from Tel Aviv bunkers, where entire families sequester themselves and stream their worries live on Youtube.

The extent of the coverage has even reached a point where the IDF has warned the Israeli populace against exact descriptions of rocket attacks from Gaza. "Ultimately that's information that could end up helping Hamas," said Gabriel Weinmann, a media expert at the University of Haifa. Hamas could use that information, for example, to improve the hit-rate of its rockets.

Support from worldwide hackers

The virtual war, however, is not a level playing field. "The Israelis are more organized, they have a real propaganda machine and full-time employees and anything they need," said Asaad Thebian, a Lebanese media expert. Palestinians, by comparison, have to rely on themselves.

Every eight hours, Ebaa explains, the power goes out in Palestine. During that time all updates come from smartphones and Twitter. "Cell phone connections are so slow, it isn't easy." Still, they manage to send as many tweets as possible - some days upwards of a hundred, the media expert said.

Access to social media is far more
limited in the Palestinian territories
While the Palestinian power grid is down, others take over the fight. According to Gabriel Weinmann, that means hackers from Saudi Arabia or Lebanon. As recently as Monday (November 19) hackers attempted to break into his university's network, the professor explained. He is used to it. "As soon as there's war here there are always a huge number of attempts by hackers to infiltrate websites or disseminate false information."

False information via Twitter

False information about the current war is also being spread via Twitter and Facebook - pictures of dead children, for example, that are actually from  Syria. That angers Ebaa. "We have to stick to the truth, or no one is going to believe us any more." Ulla Papajak also believes that pictures and information need to be verified for accuracy - even if he also understands that there is no time to do so.

Through the explosions, gunshots and the flood of Twitter updates, it is  not always easy to find the truth, Ebaa admits. "Nobody actually knows for certain what really happened." That, however, is not going to stop the tweets.


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Smartphones crushing point-and-shoot camera market

Videogame consoles and portable music players also struggle against smartphones

LiveMint, Hiroshi Hiyama, AFP, Nov 21 2012

Global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled
about 42% in September from a year ago. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint.

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Tokyo: The soaring popularity of smartphones is crushing demand for point-and-shoot cameras, threatening the once-vibrant sector as firms scramble to hit back with web-friendly features and boost quality, analysts say.

A sharp drop in sales of digital compact cameras marks them as the latest casualty of smartphones as videogame consoles and portable music players also struggle against the all-in-one features offered by the likes of Apple Inc.’s iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy.

Just as digital cameras all but destroyed the market for photographic film, the rapid shift to picture-taking smartphones has torn into a camera sector dominated by Japanese firms including Canon Inc., Olympus Corp., Sony Corp. and Nikon Corp.

“We may be seeing the beginning of the collapse of the compact camera market,” said Nobuo Kurahashi, analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities.

Figures from Japan’s Camera and Imaging Products Association echo the analyst’s grim prediction.

Global shipments of digital cameras among Japanese firms tumbled about 42% in September from a year ago to 7.58 million units, with compact offerings falling 48%, according to the Association.

Higher-end cameras with detachable lenses fell a more modest 7.4% in that time, it said.

Part of the decline was due to weakness in debt-hit Europe and a Tokyo-Beijing territorial spat that has sparked a consumer boycott of Japan-brand products in the China market.

But smartphones have proved a mighty rival to point-and-shoot cameras, analysts say, offering an all-in-one phone, computer and camera with comparatively high quality pictures and Internet photo downloading.

Those features have also dug into videogame makers such as Nintendo, which has just released its new Wii U game console, as smartphone owners increasingly download free online games or store music on the devices instead of using standalone MP3 players.

“The market for compact digital cameras shrank at a faster speed and scale than we had imagined as smartphones with camera functions spread around the world,” Olympus president Hiroyuki Sasa told a news briefing this month.

Olympus said its camera business lost money in its fiscal first-half due to the growing popularity of camera-equipped smartphones, and a strong yen which makes Japanese exports less competitive overseas.

Digital camera firms have scaled back their sales targets for the fiscal year to March in a “collapsing” market, said Tetsuya Wadaki, an analyst at Nomura Securities.

“Order volumes at parts suppliers currently appear to be down more than 30% year-on-year,” Wadaki said.

Firms are scrambling to keep improving picture quality, offer features such as water-proofing and expand their Internet features, like allowing users to share pictures through social media networks.

Camera makers say growth areas include emerging economies—where many own neither a camera nor a smartphone—along with replacement demand among compact-camera owners.

And the fall-off in demand has not been as stark for the pricier detachable lens cameras favoured by avid photographers and growing ranks of camera-buff retirees, particularly in rapidly ageing Japan, they say.

Another emerging battleground is for mirror-less cameras which can be made nearly as small as compact cameras but with picture quality that rivals their bulkier counterparts.

Canon insists the market has not been abandoned to smartphones.

“Demand for quality snapshots is there, like taking pictures of your friends’ weddings, an overseas vacation, or your children,” a Canon spokesman said.

“We believe there are many people who need compact cameras,” he added.

Mizuho analyst Kurahashi acknowledged that compact cameras “will not disappear”.

“But we see the current trend continuing as image quality in smartphone cameras steadily improves,” he said.

“The compact camera market is going to keep shrinking and it’s difficult to forecast any immediate comeback, or have any optimism.” AFP


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