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)

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

A lot of hot air? Server farms plan to heat Amsterdam for free

DutchNews, February 20, 2018


The residual heat generated by the Equinix data centre on the A10 Amsterdam ring road will partly be used to heat the University of Amsterdam buildings in the city’s  science park, the Parool has reported. 

In the future, Equinix hopes to deliver the remainder of its surplus heat to the district heating network known as stadsverwarming which already heats some 70,000 homes in the capital, the paper said. 

In 2016, Amsterdam city council published a plan to rid the city of gas-fired cooking and central heating by 2050. The city has plans to build 50,000 new homes within the next 10 years and none will have gas heating or cooking facilities. 

Instead, the homes will be heated by surplus heat generated by industry – and server farms are an excellent source. There are some 35 data centres in and around Amsterdam and Schiphol airport, each holding tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of computers which are at work day and night. 

Together, they generate enough surplus heat to warm up half of Amsterdam, Stijn Grove of the Dutch Data Centre Association told the paper. The DDA estimates that a single 30,000 m2 server farm generates as much heat as the entire catering sector – hotels, restaurants and cafés –  used in 2015. 

But many problems still have to be ironed out before the excess heat created at the data centres can be used to heat Amsterdam. Chief among these is transport – expensive pipelines are necessary – and the need to raise the temperature of the residual warmth to residential standards.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Gates says billionaires should pay 'significantly' more taxes

Yahoo – AFP, February 19, 2018

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says billionaires should pay
"significantly" more in taxes (AFP Photo/Etienne LAURENT)

Washington (AFP) - Bill Gates says he has paid more than $10 billion in taxes over a lifetime but billionaires like him should pay "significantly" more because they benefit more from the system.

The Microsoft co-founder, the world's second richest man after Amazon's Jeff Bezos, was critical of a recent US tax overhaul that slashed corporate taxes and lowered the top bracket for individual income.

"I've paid more taxes, over $10 billion, than anyone else, but the government should require the people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes," he said in an interview Sunday with CNN.

He said the tax overhaul passed in December favors the rich despite Republican claims it will help the middle and working classes.

"People who are wealthier tended to get dramatically more benefits than the middle class or those who are poor, and so it runs counter to the general trend you'd like to see, where the safety net is getting stronger and those at the top are paying higher taxes," he said.

With a sixth of the US population living in what he called "disappointing" conditions, he said US policymakers need to think about rising inequality and ask, "Why aren't we doing a better job for those people?"

Monday, February 19, 2018

Palmreaders? Japan team builds second skin message display

Yahoo – AFP, Hiroshi HIYAMA, February 18, 2018

Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from
Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body (AFP
 Photo/TORU YAMANAKA)

Tokyo (AFP) - Palmreading could take on a whole new meaning thanks to a new invention from Japan: an ultra-thin display and monitor that can be stuck directly to the body.

The band-aid-like device is just one millimetre thick and can monitor important health data as well as send and receive messages, including emojis.

Takao Someya, the University of Tokyo professor who developed the device, envisions it as a boon for medical professionals with bed-ridden or far-flung patients, as well as family living far from their relatives.

"With this, even in home-care settings, you can achieve seamless sharing of medical data with your home doctors, who then would be able to communicate back to their patients," he told AFP.

Slapped onto the palm or back of a hand, it could flash reminders to patients to take their medicine, or even allow far-away grandchildren to communicate with their grandparents.

"Place displays on your skin, and you would feel as if it is part of your body. When you have messages sent to your hand, you would feel emotional closeness to the sender," Someya said.

"I think a grandfather who receives a message saying 'I love you' from his grandchild, they would feel the warmth, too."

A man holds an ultra-thin elastic display equipped with a light emitting diode, newly 
developed by Professor Takao Someya of Tokyo University (AFP Photo/
TORU YAMANAKA)

The invention could prove particularly useful in Japan, with its rapidly ageing population, replacing the need for in-person checks by offering continuous, non-invasive monitoring of the sick and frail, Someya told AFP.

The display consists of a 16-by-24 array of micro LEDs and stretchable wiring mounted on a rubber sheet.

It also incorporates a lightweight sensor composed of a breathable "nanomesh" electrode, and a wireless communication module.

"Because this device can stretch, we now can paste a display on things with complex shapes, like skin," Someya said.

It can be placed on the human body for a week without causing skin inflammation, and is light enough that users might eventually even forget they are wearing it.

Along with medical applications, Someya hopes the device could eventually lead to wearable displays for joggers to monitor heart rates or check running routes.

He imagines labourers using the displays to consult manuals on their arms while working.

The device will be showcased at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Texas over the weekend.

Someya created the device in partnership with Japanese printing giant Dai Nippon Printing, which hopes to put it on the market within three years.



Daddy Yankee gets the world dancing again with viral song

The Jakarta Post – AFP, Leila Macor, February 18, 2018

Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee perform onstage at the Billboard Latin Music Awards at
Watsco Center on April 27, 2017 in Coral Gables, Florida. (GETTY IMAGES NORTH
AMERICA / AFP/Sergi Alexander)

It's another viral dancing sensation. And once again, it's from Daddy Yankee.

The Puerto Rican king of reggaeton who co-wrote "Despacito" has people around the world moving their hips with his latest song, "Dura."

Millions of people have clicked on online videos inspired by "Dura" as aspiring dancers around the world -- from fresh-faced children to top models to endearing elderly people -- find their groove, with varying degrees of skill or stiffness.

"I'm beyond honored and feel very blessed. You make music for an audience," Daddy Yankee told AFP. "And the audience has made this song in their own organic, spontaneous way."

Daddy Yankee helped bring reggaeton -- a Latin dance music, with roots in Jamaican dancehall and the style of hip-hop, that was historically associated with the marginalized Afro-Puerto Rican community -- to a global audience starting with his 2004 hit "Gasolina."

But "Dura" marks a fresh turn in the 41-year-old singer and rapper's career as the song has taken off based largely on how fans appropriate it.

"Why have so many people -- even babies -- liked it?" he asked rhetorically. "Well, some things you can't explain. It's the magic of music, a magic that just happens and that you can't understand."

He has one theory. "Dura," he said, harks back to "the rhythm and nostalgia for music of the late 1980s and early 1990s, that essence of reggae that inspired reggaeton."

No excuse not to dance

Daddy Yankee, whose real name is Ramon Luis Ayala, released "Dura" on January 18. The next day, Colombian model Andrea Valdiri posted a video on Instagram, barefoot in sweatpants and a loose white top, as she danced to "Dura" with her hands rubbing sensually around her body.

The video has been viewed nearly nine million times on her Instagram account and in Daddy Yankee's repost. It also set off a rush of new homemade interpretations of the song -- posted under hashtag #DuraChallenge.

Daddy Yankee's original video has been seen nearly 200 million times on YouTube.

More recently, the 25-year-old Valdiri has been eclipsed as the #DuraChallenge star by a nonagenarian.

Rachel Phillipsen, a 90-year-old New Yorker of Puerto Rican origin, follows a zumba instructor with impressive rhythm and coordination as Daddy Yankee sings in Spanish, "I like how you move that ram-pam-pam." The video has generated 5.5 million clicks.

"There are no excuses not to dance. The excuse is all in your mind," the zumba instructor, Rina Elena Martinez (@rina_25), told AFP. The Venezuelan appears in the video shot in a gym in Miami.

Daddy Yankee agreed. "The 90-year-old grandmother was phenomenal," he said, adding: "No doubt that video gives encouragement to the whole world."

Celebrities who have taken the #DuraChallenge include Venezuelan model Diosa Canales, Dominican reggaeton singer Natti Natasha and the Puerto Rican former Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera, who also appeared in the "Despacito" video.


'You're one tough mama'

"Dura," which literally means "hard" but could also mean "hot" when it comes to appearance, is an ode to a beautiful woman.

"You're one tough mama," Daddy Yankee sings, with lines such as "If it's a crime to be so beautiful / I'll arrest you in my bed and put you in handcuffs."

Musically, the song returns to early reggaeton without the pop melodies that mega-stars such as Shakira, Enrique Iglesias or "Despacito" co-writer Luis Fonsi deployed to bring the genre to the anglo pop world.

In a retro video, Daddy Yankee and his cohorts dance around well-trodden streets covered with vibrant street art. Women, who so often take passive roles in highly sexual songs, assume the lead in showing their moves.

"We were inspired by the bright colors of the '90s and a bit of the era's fashion. I wanted to make this fun and to show that the song could empower women," Daddy Yankee said.

The video was directed by Carlos Perez, the Puerto Rican who shot "Despacito" and has worked with Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony.


"Despacito" also spawned spoofs and has made history as the most-watched video on YouTube with more than 4.8 billion views.

Helped by a remix featuring Justin Bieber, "Despacito" tied a record by spending 16 weeks on top of the benchmark Billboard singles chart in the United States -- a major feat in a country where non-English songs rarely fare well.

"Dura" as of Friday was number 10 on Spotify's global singles chart and number one in several Latin American countries.






Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Oracle to expand Dutch data centre ‘significantly’

DutchNews, February 13, 2018


California-based IT concern Oracle plans to expand its Dutch data centre ‘significantly’ to meet demand for its integrated cloud services, the Financieele Dagblad said on Tuesday. 

Financial details were not disclosed but data centres generally cost several hundred million euros, the paper said. 

This is Oracle’s second large investment in the Netherlands in a short time. Two years ago the company set up a new sales office in Amsterdam to cover Scandinavia, the Benelux and Germany, marketing Oracle’s cloud services to companies and institutions. The office has a payroll of 450 people, of whom 75% come from abroad. 

The Netherlands is popular as a data storage centre. At the end of 2016, Google opened a large new €600m data storage centre in Eemshaven. Microsoft is planning to spend €2bn on a new centre in Wieringermeer while Equinix of the US is to open a new €160m centre in Amsterdam’s  Science Park, near the Oracle facility. 

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Amazon makes French tax deal as tide turns against web giants

Yahoo – AFP, Joseph Schmid, 5 February 2018

US online shopping giant Amazon said it has struck a deal with the French
 government to settle a bill for nearly 200 million euros ($249 million) in unpaid taxes

US online retailer Amazon said Monday that it has settled a major tax claim in France and will start declaring all its earnings in the country in a response to building European pressure on the digital economy giants.

Amazon did not reveal how much it had paid over a French claim for nearly 200 million euros ($249 million) covering the period from 2006 to 2010.

It is one of several American technology giants in the line of fire in Europe over their tax-avoidance strategies, which often sees them route their income through low-tax nations -- in Amazon's case, Luxembourg.

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed a new mechanism for taxing US tech companies that would take into account the volume of sales generated in each European country, rather than on the profits that are booked through low-tax jurisdictions.

Amazon announced a similar tax settlement deal with Italy in December, paying 100 million euros to settle an investigation into suspected tax evasion from 2011 to 2015, while also agreeing to declare its income locally.

In 2012, Amazon revealed that it had been hit with a 198-million-euro tax bill in France for back taxes, interest and penalties relating to income spread between different jurisdictions.

At the time, the company had said it disagreed with the French assessment and vowed to "vigorously" fight it.

In its statement Monday, Amazon said it had created a French subsidiary for its European operations in August 2015, "with all retail revenues, expenses, profits and taxes due now accounted for in France."

The retailer also said it had invested over 2 billion euros in France since 2010, creating more than 5,500 jobs.

'Electroshock' plan

European officials have vowed to make the digital economy giants known as GAFA -- Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple -- pay a greater share of their taxes in the countries where they earn their profits.

Under current EU law, companies based outside the bloc can declare their earnings from across the 28-nation market in a single country.

That has led them to pick low-tax nations like Ireland, the Netherlands or Luxembourg -- depriving other member states of revenues, even though they may account for a bigger share of the earnings.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says such rules cost governments around the world as much as $240 billion (193 billion euros) a year in lost revenue, according to a 2015 estimate.

On Sunday, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said he would unveil by the end of March a plan to "create a consensus and an electroshock" on taxing digital economy revenues.

"The idea is to be able to identify the activities of digital companies, so we need a range of indicators -- the number of clicks, the number of IP addresses, advertising, and eventually revenues... and then we'll find ways to tax them," Moscovici said.

He said the new rules would apply to the GAFA giants, as well as accommodation services like AirBnB and Booking.com.

Changes underway

American tech giants appear to believe the European tax revamp is in the cards, with several already announcing pledges to pay more in each country where they operate as governments step up their fiscal demands.

Facebook said in December that it would start declaring advertising revenue in the countries where they have offices, instead of recording it at its international headquarters in Dublin.

"We believe that moving to a local selling structure will provide more transparency to governments and policy makers around the world," the social network's financial chief Dave Wehner said at the time.

France is pursuing Google for 1.12 billion euros it says it owes in back taxes, after paying just 6.7 million euros in corporate tax for 2015 by booking most of its revenues through Ireland.

A court initially ruled that Google was not liable for the tax claim, but the government has appealed the decision -- while saying it was still open to a settlement.

The search giant has already agreed to fiscal deals with Britain and Italy over the Irish tax arrangement.

Amazon's settlement comes as it is also facing a court case in France over claims it has abused its dominant position on its "marketplace" platform for third-party vendors.

The finance ministry said in December that it was seeking a fine of about 10 million euros.

Related Article:


The Netherlands tops EU list for internet accessibility

DutchNews, February 5, 2018

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Netherlands topped the list of the 28 EU countries for having the most household connections to the internet, the national statistics office CBS said on Monday. 

In 2017, 98% of Dutch households had connections to the internet, compared with 87% for the EU as a whole. The Netherlands also led the pack of those countries with high-speed internet connections, the CBS said. 

Luxembourg and Denmark were one percentage point behind the Netherlands, followed by Sweden and Finland, at 95%. In 2015 Luxembourg headed the list with 97%, edging out the Netherlands at 96%. 

The share of households with internet connections is considerably lower in southern and eastern Europe, although both regions are making gains, said the CBS report, which is based on figures from EU statistics agency Eurostat

The Netherlands and Sweden scored the highest at 87% in the use of mobile internet. The EU average for use of mobile internet by those aged between 16 and 75 was only 65%.