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B Mannke

Clashes Between Militants and Army Spread in Iraq - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-and-army-spread-in-iraq.html

shared by B Mannke on 13 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • A confrontation between Iraqi insurgents and government forces in the western city of Falluja edged closer to the capital on Sunday, after clashes between militants and the army left at least 14 people dead in the Abu Ghraib district in Baghdad Province, according to security officials.
  • killing at least 14 civilians.
  • Instead of using the military, Mr. Maliki appeared to be leaning on Sunni tribal leaders to expel the militants themselves, and has been providing them with weapons and money for that purpose.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • We will be in this for the long haul,” Mr. Zebari said. “Probably as long as Syria is going on.”
  • The Obama administration “feels that if this is not contained, it’s moving toward an all-out sectarian confrontation,” he said.
  • Several of the refugees in Karbala said Sunday that they had little hope of returning home soon, and no clear notion of the identities of the gunmen fighting in their city — said to be a mix of tribesmen, Qaeda militants and others.
  • at least four soldiers and 10 civilians were killed, according to security and hospital officials.
  • In a statement, Fadhel al-Barwari, a commander in the Special Operations Forces, pledged to “kill a thousand Al Qaeda members” for each of the soldiers.
B Mannke

Where Free Speech Collides With Abortion Rights - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ides-with-abortion-rights.html

shared by B Mannke on 13 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • But she has to watch her step. If she crosses a painted yellow semicircle outside the clinic’s entrance, she commits a crime under a 2007 Massachusetts law.
  • The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday in her challenge to the law.
  • The Supreme Court’s 2000 decision upheld a complicated law that established 100-foot buffer zones outside all health care facilities, not just abortion clinics. Inside those larger zones, the law banned approaching others within eight feet for protest, education or counseling without their consent.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • “This law is access balanced with speech balanced with public safety,” Ms. Coakley said. “It has worked extremely well.”
  • “The government does not have the ability to decide,” he said, “that its public sidewalks are open for speakers on one side but not speakers on the other side.”
  • The buffer zone is small, she said. (It is the length of two parking spaces and takes just seconds to traverse.) “The only thing that’s before the court,” she said, “is the last seven seconds of a patient’s or a staff member’s walk to the door.”
  • “When you make people stand behind a line and make them shout,” he said, “that can diminish them in the eyes of the audience.”
  • “The protections of the First Amendment do not evaporate the closer one comes to an abortion clinic,” he wrote in an email. “Access must be protected; so must speech.”
  • “a law which bars a private citizen from passing a message, in a peaceful manner and on a profound moral issue, to a fellow citizen on a public sidewalk.”
Conner Armstrong

Francis Looks to the Developing World in Appointing New Cardinals - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...h-in-appointing-cardinals.html

francis developing world nytimes religion

shared by Conner Armstrong on 13 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Nine months into his papacy, Francis has sought to shift the tone of the church, with a special focus on helping the poor. On Sunday, he named cardinals from small, poor countries like Haiti, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua and Ivory Coast. He also named a second cardinal for the Philippines, a heavily Catholic nation struggling to recover from a devastating typh
  • But Francis’s appointments to the college are also part of his larger plans for the church, which include overhauling the Roman Curia, the bureaucracy that runs the Vatican, and opening a broad debate on the theme of family that could touch on delicate issues like homosexuality and divorce. The cardinals are expected to meet on Feb. 22 at the Vatican for a consistory, a formal meeting, to begin discussions. New cardinals will be formally appointed at that meeting.
B Mannke

In Blow to Peace Effort, Israel Publishes Plans for New Housing in Settlements - NYTime... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ew-housing-in-settlements.html

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • he Israeli government on Friday published plans to build 1,400 housing units in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a move the chief Palestinian negotiator condemned as a “slap” to Secretary of State John Kerry’s intense push for a Middle East peace deal.
  • The Israeli government on Friday published plans to build 1,400 housing units in Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a move the chief Palestinian negotiator condemned as a “slap” to Secretary of State John Kerry’s intense push for a Middle East peace deal.
  • struggled to please his politically complex coalition government by both engaging in the talks and continuing to expand settlements, something the Palestinians and many world powers contend undermines the prospects for a two-state solution.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Israel had agreed to release Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis as part of the peace talks but not to freeze settlement construction.
  • “But the reality is, both sides remain committed to discussing the framework, committed to moving forward, and we’ll keep working with them.”
  • Israel seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 war; it later annexed East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as the capital of their future state. Most of the world considers these territories to be occupied, and any settlement there illegal.
  • The framework will probably call for a division of the land along the 1967 lines with some swaps to accommodate settlements, Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state with protections for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinian refugees, and twin capitals in the Jerusalem area.
  • “there are differences between the different plans, but in all of them, the large settlement blocs remain part of the final-status peace. If you’re building in areas that are going to remain part of Israel in any agreement, are we really changing the map of peace?”
  • “I can’t believe how naïve, or disingenuous and complicit, the Americans are.”
B Mannke

BBC News - Cuba: US 'very open' to new relationship - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-latin-america-25691689

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • "Despite our historically difficult relationship...we have been able to speak to each other in a respectful and thoughtful manner," he told a news conference in Havana. But he added that the US wanted a "fundamental change" in the Cuban government's attitude towards its own people. "We want to have that opening reflect - from the Cuban side - a respect for Cubans to express themselves freely, to be able to petition their government with grievances without the danger of arrest."
  • discouraging Cubans from risking their lives at sea to reach the US, by ensuring that there were safe and legal alternatives.
  • The US and Cuba cut formal diplomatic ties more than five decades ago
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • They came after the first handshake between US President Barack Obama and his counterpart, Raul Castro, last month, at the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
  • "innate graciousness"
B Mannke

Lone Survivor's Takeaway: Every War Movie Is a Pro-War Movie - Calum Marsh - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...282812

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • The point of this sequence, it seems, is to show how exceptional the real-life SEALs are before introducing SEALs as characters. With soldiers’ conviction and might thus demonstrated, the film can then whisk a few of them off on a mission that, as the title suggests, does not end particularly well.
  • Many of its more aggressively nationalistic elements are just a matter of following genre protocol.
  • They are, in other words, ordinary guys, totally down-to-earth despite being the best at what they do.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • This is cartoon villainy—the realm of the black hat and the twirling moustache. Such gestures serve a straightforward dramatic purpose: They align the audience with the heroes while encouraging them to dislike the bad guys, so that when the battle finally ignites, the viewer’s sympathies have already been sorted out.
  • We need to believe, even subconsciously, that while the Americans are three-dimensional characters to whom we can relate, the seemingly endless droves of attackers who besiege them are not—they’re merely The Enemy, a faceless mass, a manifestation of evil
  • it’s doubtful that even the most outrageously jingoistic war films are actually dangerous in any meaningful sense
  • Not asking is its own kind of answer. It tells us to focus elsewhere: on the heroism of these men, on the bravery of their actions. The moral issues are for another day.
  • But it’s important to remember that despite their moralizing, war films are still essentially action films—blockbuster spectacles embellished by the verve and vigor of cutting-edge special effects. They may not strictly glorify. But they almost never discourage.
  • War isn’t great; war makes you great. What is such a sentiment if not pro-war?
  • He grumbled that it was just “another goddamned recruiting film.” And maybe that’s all they’ll ever be
B Mannke

How to Solve America's Democracy and Poverty Crisis - Daniel Weeks - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...282983

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Fifty years ago this week, President Lyndon Johnson promised to "strike at the causes, not just the consequence" of persistent poverty in America.
  • "strike away the barriers to full participation in our society."
  • Not only does poverty persist across the United States today, but American democracy itself has become impoverished. The two are more entwined than is commonly thought.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Millions more low-income citizens have a hard time making it to the polls for reasons that are partly within and partly beyond their control.
  • They are far from equal citizens in the public square.
  • Denying approximately 10 million taxpaying U.S. citizens the right to vote or voting representation in Congress, because of a prior conviction or the district or territory in which they live, is morally and constitutionally suspect.
  • In no instance should a former felon be permanently disenfranchised under the Constitution. State legislation or a constitutional challenge or amendment could accomplish this task.
  • Turnout in these states consistently ranks seven to 15 percent higher than other states.
  • Long before citizens go to the polls, candidates are recruited to run for office in a process scholars call the "wealth primary"; long after the polls have closed, candidates continue to raise large sums of money in anticipation of their next campaign.
  • Since electoral competition is also a democratic good, congressional and state districts should be drawn not by partisan state legislatures but by independent commissions charged with balancing representativeness and competitiveness.
  • They are a necessary part of our nation’s response to persistent poverty.
B Mannke

BBC News - Winter Olympics: Russia arrests five 'terror suspects' - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-25701603

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Russian authorities say they have detained five members of a "banned international terrorist organisation" in the restive North Caucusus region.
  • Russia earlier announced it was deploying more than 30,000 police and interior ministry troops to the region.
  • The main concern is the threat of attack by Islamist militants. Security fears have been heightened after two suicide bomb attacks killed 34 people in the southern city of Volgograd on 29 and 30 December.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The five suspects were in possession of "grenades, ammunition, and a homemade explosive device packed with shrapnel", the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said.
  • A "controlled zone" near Olympic venues will limit access to people with tickets and proof of identity while another "forbidden zone" will be in place in large areas around Sochi.
  • On Friday, the US issued a travel alert for its citizens planning to attend the Games.
B Mannke

France Oil Giant Is Expected to Seek Shale Gas in Britain - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...seek-shale-gas-in-britain.html

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Total would commit about $50 million for a roughly 40 percent stake in licenses held by a group of companies in Lincolnshire in the East Midlands
  • Britain, however, is the lone country in Western Europe that has encouraged the exploration of shale gas, which is produced through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals.
  • “Total, a French company who can’t frack in their own country because the French government has stopped the French countryside being ripped up, have now turned their sights on the U.K. countryside, where the U.K. government seems happy to allow the industrialization of our green and pleasant land,” the environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement on Saturday.
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  • If 10 percent of that gas could be produced, it would be enough for about 45 years of British gas consumption at current rates.
  • The Gainsborough Trough, the geological formation where Total plans to explore, has not been investigated for shale gas and oil, but Igas Energy, a British company, has conventional oil and gas production in the vicinity
B Mannke

In Scandal, Turkey's Leaders May Be Losing Their Tight Grip on News Media - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-tight-grip-on-news-media.html

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Mr. Erdogan’s lawyers have also filed suit against a newspaper columnist, once a reliable supporter of the prime minister, for his critical Twitter messages.
  • reports on the discovery of $4.5 million in cash stuffed in shoe boxes at the home of a director of a state bank.
  • “We would never have expected anything like this,” said Numar Baki, a waiter at an Istanbul cafe, referring to the public nature of the scandal.
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  • slow erosion of what had been Mr. Erdogan’s iron grip on all levels of power within Turkish society.
  • More journalists are in jail in Turkey than anywhere else in the world, including China and Iran.
  • hen Nazli Ilicak, a longtime journalist here, lost her job recently at the pro-government newspaper Sabah after emerging as a strong voice against the government’s handling of the corruption inquiry, she said she would simply keep up her criticism on Twitter and on independent websites.
  • Followers of the Muslim spiritual leader Fethullah Gulen, who is in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, have over the years secured top positions in the judiciary and the police and are said to be leading the corruption investigation.
  • “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism” and “This is just the beginning. The struggle continues” — slogans like those raised during the antigovernment protests last May and June.
  • I think I should o
  • “I think I should only tweet about penguins from now on,” Mr. Zeynalov wrote on Twitter after the case was filed, referring to some television channels’ practice of broadcasting a documentary about penguins last spring rather than reporting on the antigovernment protests.
  • “My phone is being tapped,” he said, “but I don’t care.”
  • “Erdogan wants to show that this is a conspiracy, that the United States and Israel are behind it,” he said. “Under no circumstances does he want to talk about corruption.
B Mannke

BBC News - Blaze ravages ancient Tibetan town - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-asia-25694902

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • More than 100 mostly wooden houses were destroyed in the blaze in Dukezong in Shangri-La county, in the province of Yunnan.
  • Casualties have not so far been reported. The blaze was put out by 2,000 firefighters, police and volunteers, according to local media.
  • "The fire was huge. The wind was blowing hard, and the air was dry... it kept burning, and the firefighters were there, but there was little they could do because they could not get the fire engines onto the old town's narrow streets."
B Mannke

BBC News - West Virginia chemical spill creates water warning - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-us-canada-25686048

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • About 300,000 people in the US state of West Virginia have been warned not to drink tap water after a chemical spill into a river near the state capital.
  • President Barack Obama has accepted West Virginia's request for a disaster declaration, which allows federal aid to be used.
  • Freedom Industries has said the chemical, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, could be harmful if swallowed and cause skin and eye irritation.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The spill was first found after the state's environmental protection department received a report of a strange odour near the Elk river on Thursday.
  • While the leaking container held at least 40,000 gallons (182,000 litres), state environmental official Tom Aluise said they were "confident" that no more than 5,000 gallons escaped.
B Mannke

BBC News - Libyan minister Hassan al-Droui 'killed in Sirte' - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-africa-25701470

shared by B Mannke on 12 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Local media quoted officials as saying unknown gunmen "sprayed bullets" at Hassan al-Droui near a central market. In another development, at least 15 people were killed in clashes between rival tribes in the country's south.
  • "Hassan al-Droui was killed by unknown attackers overnight, during a visit to his native city of Sirte," a security official told the AFP news agency.
  • Libya has been struggling to assert itself over up to 1,700 different armed militias, each with their own goals, following Col Gaddafi's death.
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  • The violence is the worst between the tribes since they struck a ceasefire agreement in March 2012.
julia rhodes

A Guillotine in Storage Bears Signs of a Role in Silencing Nazis' Critics - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...n-silencing-nazis-critics.html

20th century 20th century germany culture education history

shared by julia rhodes on 11 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • A guillotine used to execute thousands of people during the Nazi era, including a brother and sister who led a group of Munich students known as the White Rose in resistance to Hitler, has been provisionally identified in a storage area belonging to Bavaria’s national museum, museum officials said Friday.
  • Sophie and Hans Scholl, and another member of their White Rose group, Christoph Probst, were executed on Feb. 22, 1943, just four days after they were spotted by a guard at the University of Munich as they distributed the sixth edition of their fliers, which from the summer of 1942 had reported intermittently on Nazi crimes, including the mass killing of Eastern Europe’s Jews.
  • This was in keeping with a revival of beheading under Hitler, who “personally ordered a good number of guillotines to be built,” said Jud Newborn, the co-author of a 2006 book about Sophie Scholl.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Ludwig Spaenle, culture minister in Bavaria, said he was startled by a find of “singular significance for German history.” Historians, political experts and the White Rose Foundation, named after the student resistance, should decide what to do with it, Mr. Spaenle said.
  • Instead, the guillotine — of a type used in Germany in the 19th century and revived for broader use under the Nazis — was taken from the Munich jail where the Scholls and hundreds of others were executed and taken first to nearby Straubing, she said
  • How the “historically significant” instrument is now treated, and whether it can be exhibited at all to the public, is a matter “for the utmost sensitivity and reverence,” she added.
  • Mr. Newborn, the American expert on White Rose, called the find “really remarkable” and of great significance in modern Germany, where the story of the Scholls is widely known and used to reinforce the message that Nazi crimes should never be repeated and that civil courage and resistance are important.
julia rhodes

Syria Aid May Resume Despite Fears Over Where It Will Go - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ars-over-where-it-will-go.html

US history politics crisis policy syria aid fears terrorism rebel

shared by julia rhodes on 10 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • The Obama administration is considering the resumption of nonlethal military aid to Syria’s moderate opposition, senior administration officials said on Thursday, even if some of it ends up going to the Islamist groups that are allied with the moderates.
  • The United States suspended the shipments last month after warehouses of equipment were seized by the Islamic Fron
  • some of the Islamists fought alongside the Free Syrian Army in a battle against a major Al Qaeda-affiliated rebel group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Restoring the aid, they said, would send a message of American support at a time when opposition groups are threatening to boycott a Jan. 22 peace conference out of concern that it will only serve to tighten Mr. Assad’s grip on power and discredit them at home.
  • Aid would continue to be funneled exclusively through the Supreme Military Council, the military wing of moderate, secular Syrian opposition.
  • Opposition groups are scheduled to meet on Jan. 17 to decide whether to attend the conference. But the meeting’s stated goal — to chart a political transition in Syria — seems more elusive than ever, given the recent military gains made by Mr. Assad’s forces.
  • The administration has signaled a willingness to talk to the Islamic Front, but an effort to arrange a meeting in December was rebuffed by the group when the White House opted to send two midlevel State Department officials rather than the ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford.
  • While analysts said a decision to resume aid may encourage opposition groups to attend the peace conference, it would be far short of what is necessary to salvage the meeting — known as Geneva II but set to be held in Montreux, a nearby Swiss city.
  • Among the questions now being debated at the White House and the State Department, officials said, is how to ensure that the aid flows only to vetted organizations, and whether Islamist groups that receive any of it could be compelled to pledge that they will not work with Al Qaeda.
  • Still, as other experts noted, the aid in question includes food rations and pickup trucks, not tanks and bullets. None of it is likely to change the trajectory of the conflict, which some experts said had fallen into a kind of “territorial equilibrium,” in which neither the rebels nor Mr. Assad’s forces have much to gain from further fighting.
B Mannke

BBC News - Chris Christie 'humiliated' by bridge-gridlock scandal - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-us-canada-25671970

shared by B Mannke on 09 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • 9 January 2014 Last updated at 14:25 ET Share this page Email Print Share this pageShareFacebookTwitter Chris Christie 'humiliated' by bridge-gridlock scandal Advertisement $render("advert-post-script-load"); New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: "I am responsible for what happened" Continue reading the main story Related Stories Twitter drips with Christie snark Chris Christie's bridge-sized headache Christie: Republicans' best hope New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has fired an aide who allegedly orchestrated traffic mayhem to pursue a petty political vendetta. Mr Christie, seen as a potential Republican White House candidate, apologised for the scandal, which he said "embarrassed and humiliated" him.
  • Mr Christie, seen as a potential Republican White House candidate, apologised for the scandal, which he said "embarrassed and humiliated" him. The gridlock was allegedly engineered to punish a Democratic mayor who did not endorse the governor's re-election. Mr Christie denied any involvement, blaming "deceitful" staff.
  • "I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or execution," he said, "and I am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here."
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Asked about a 91-year-old woman who reportedly died after ambulance services were caught up in the gridlock, Mr Christie said that was "awful", though he added it was unclear whether the delay had contributed to her death.
  • "An apology today might be a bit premature. "I think this is a story that has not yet experienced its final chapter."
B Mannke

Saudis Back Syrian Rebels Despite Risks - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...despite-a-lack-of-control.html

shared by B Mannke on 08 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Abu Khattab saw something that troubled him: two dead children, their blood-soaked bodies sprawled on the street of a rural village near the Mediterranean coast. He knew right away that his fellow rebels had killed them.
  • The commander brushed him off, saying his men had killed the children “because they were not Muslims,” Abu Khattab recalled recently during an interview here.
  • It was only then that Abu Khattab began to believe that the jihad in Syria — where he had traveled in violation of an official Saudi ban — was not fully in accord with God’s will.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • the great challenge now facing Saudi Arabia’s rulers: how to fight an increasingly bloody and chaotic proxy war in Syria using zealot militia fighters over whom they have almost no control.
  • The Saudis fear the rise of Al Qaeda’s affiliates in Syria, and they have not forgotten what happened when Saudi militants who had fought in Afghanistan returned home to wage a domestic insurgency a decade ago
  • Abu Khattab also mentioned proudly that he is no stranger to jihad.
  • There is a shortage of religious conditions for jihad in Syria,” he said. Many of the fighters kill Syrian civilians, a violation of Islam, he added.
  • He proudly trumpets his return to jihad on his Twitter feed, which features a picture of him clutching a rifle with his mangled hands.
  • You cannot prevent all young men from leaving the kingdom. Many of them travel to London or other places, and only then to Turkey, and Syria.”
  • “They especially like Saudis, because the Saudis are more willing to do suicide operations,” he said.
  • In the end, it was the slaughter of innocents that made him decide to quit, he said, and a broader feeling that the rebels alongside him were not doing it for the right reasons. “If the fight is not purely to God, it’s not a real jihad,” he said. “These people are fighting for their flags.”But there was another reason he gave up the fight.
  • The real war is not against Bashar himself, it is against Iran. Everything else is just a false image.”
Javier E

Will Digital Networks Ruin Us? - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-digital-networks-ruin-us.html

digital divide network effects unemployment micropayments

shared by Javier E on 07 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • With unemployment seemingly stalled out at around 7 percent in the aftermath of the Great Recession, with the leak of thousands of National Security Agency documents making news almost daily, with the continuing stories about the erosion of privacy in the digital economy, “Who Owns the Future?” puts forth a kind of universal theory that ties all these things together.
  • unlike most of his fellow technologists, he eventually came to feel that the rise of digital networks was no panacea.
  • On the contrary: “What I came away with from having access to these varied worlds was a realization that they were all remarkably similar,” he writes. “The big players often gained benefits from digital networks to an amazing degree, but they were also constrained, even imprisoned, by the same dynamics.”
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Over time, the same network efficiencies that had given them their great advantages would become the instrument of their failures.
  • In the financial services industry, it led to the financial crisis
  • In the case of Wal-Mart, its adoption of technology to manage its supply chain at first reaped great benefits, but over time it cost competitors and suppliers hundreds of thousands of jobs, thus “gradually impoverishing its own customer base,”
  • The N.S.A.? It developed computer technology that could monitor the entire world — and, in the process, lost control of the contractors it employed.
  • There are two additional components to Lanier’s thesis. The first is that the digital economy has done as much as any single thing to hollow out the middle class
  • His great example here is Kodak and Instagram. At its height, writes Lanier “Kodak employed more than 140,000 people.” Yes, Kodak made plenty of mistakes, but look at what is replacing it: “When Instagram was sold to Facebook for a billion dollars in 2012, it employed only 13 people.”
  • the value of these new companies comes from us. “Instagram isn’t worth a billion dollars just because those 13 employees are extraordinary,” he writes. “Instead, its value comes from the millions of users who contribute to the network without being paid for it.”
  • “Networks need a great number of people to participate in them to generate significant value. But when they have them, only a small number of people get paid. This has the net effect of centralizing wealth and limiting overall economic growth.” Thus, in Lanier’s view, is income inequality also partly a consequence of the digital economy.
  • It is Lanier’s radical idea that people should get paid whenever their information is used. He envisions a different kind of digital economy, in which creators of content — whether a blog post or a Facebook photograph — would receive micropayments whenever that content was used
  • A digital economy that appears to give things away for free — in return for being able to invade the privacy of its customers for commercial gain — isn’t free at all, he argues.
  • Lanier wants to create a dynamic where digital networks expand the pie rather than shrink it, and rebuild the middle class instead of destroying it.
julia rhodes

South Korea Proposes Resuming Reunions of War-Divided Families - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-of-war-divided-families.html

culture crisis policy south korea north war

shared by julia rhodes on 06 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • South Korea’s president proposed Monday that the two Koreas improve their tense relations by resuming the reunions of families separated since the Korean War, a humanitarian program that seemed close to being renewed last year but was scuttled as negotiations soured.
  • President Park Geun-hye’s overture came five days after the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, urged that Seoul and Pyongyang create “a favorable climate for improved relations” in a New Year’s Day speech.
  • Ms. Park, a conservative, made two other conciliatory gestures toward the North, offering to increase humanitarian aid to the impoverished country and to let South Korean civic groups provide assistance to its farmers and ranchers. But she expressed skepticism about the prospect of meeting with Mr. Kim, whose government has until recently exhorted South Koreans to overthrow her “fascist dictatorship.”
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • She also said it had become “impossible” to predict “what will happen to the North and what actions it will take” since the purge and execution last month of Mr. Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who was long considered Mr. Kim’s mentor and the second-highest-ranking figure in his secretive government.
  • The Korean War, which began in 1950, was fought to a stalemate and an ultimate cease-fire in 1953. Since then, no exchanges of letters, telephone calls or emails have been allowed between North and South Koreans, and family reunions remain a highly emotional issue and an indicator of the state of relations on the peninsula.
  • After months of harsh rhetoric following the North’s nuclear test last February, North and South Korea reached an agreement last August to revive the reunions. But the North later ended the talks, blaming the South for refusing to resume an inter-Korean tourism program at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort, which had been highly lucrative for Pyongyang until it was shut down in 2008.
  • South Korea halted the flow of aid and investment to the North in 2008, demanding that Pyongyang give up its nuclear weapons. It also curtailed inter-Korean trade following the sinking of a South Korean naval ship in 2010, which Seoul says was caused by a North Korean torpedo attack.
  • Mr. Kim made similarly conciliatory comments toward the South during his New Year’s Day speech in 2013, but they were followed by a series of provocative acts, including its February nuclear test. Just last month, Pyongyang sent a letter to Ms. Park’s office threatening “strikes without warning.”
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