DOMINIC BASULTO, - big think
Stephan: This could get very interesting, if it gets traction.
The same people who brought you Wikileaks are back, and this time, they’ve created a virtual currency called Bitcoin that could destabilize the entire global financial system. Bitcoin is an open-source virtual currency generated by a computer algorithm that is completely beyond the reach of financial intermediaries, central banks and national tax collectors. Bitcoins could be used to purchase anything, at any time, from anyone in the world, in a transaction process that it is almost completely frictionless. Yes, that’s right, the hacktivists now have a virtual currency that’s untraceable, unhackable, and completely Anonymous.
And that’s where things start to get interesting. Veteran tech guru Jason Calacanis recently called Bitcoin the most dangerous open source project he’s ever seen. TIME suggested that Bitcoin might be able to bring national governments and global financial institutions to their knees. You see, Bitcoin is as much a political statement as it is a virtual currency. If you think there’s a shadow banking system now, wait a few more months. The political part is that, unlike other virtual currencies like Facebook Credits (used to buy virtual sock puppets for your friends), Bitcoins are globally transferrable across borders, making them the perfect instrument to finance any […]
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ALYSSA ROSENBERG, - AlterNet/Think Progress
Stephan: This report is a classic case study in shock politics, creating a financiual catastrophe and then using it to cover all manner of attacks based on 'values.' The conscious coarsening of our culture in the service of an ideology is disgusting.
After Republican proposals to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities died in Congress this year, it might have seemed like there was a momentary lull in the fight over public funding for the arts. But at the state level, Republican governors and Republican-dominated legislatures are using difficult economic times as an excuse to slash the budgets of arts agencies and public broadcasters, or to try to eliminate them entirely.
In five states, Republican governors or legislatures have proposed either dismantling arts agencies or entirely eliminating some of their funding streams:
KANSAS: The most pitched battles are in Kansas, where in February, Gov. Sam Brownback signed an executive order dismantling the Kansas Arts Commission to make way for its replacement by a privately-funded group. That move meant Kansas will likely lose $778,200 from the National Endowment for the Arts and $437,767 in funding from the Mid-American Arts Alliance. Both organizations require states to support the arts before they’ll kick in funding. The Kansas legislature pushed back, overriding the executive order and approving $700,000 to fund the agency, but on May 10, Brownback told the entire staff of the Commission that their […]
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TOBY STERLING, - The Associated Press
Stephan: This awful trend just becomes more and more bizarre.
AMSTERDAM — The Dutch Catholic Church and the Salesian order are investigating revelations that a Salesian priest served on the board of a group that promotes pedophilia with the full knowledge of his boss.
The order’s top official in the Netherlands, Delegate Herman Spronck, confirmed in a statement that the priest – identified by RTL Nieuws as 73-year-old ‘Father Van B.’ – served on the board of ‘Martijn,’ a group that campaigns to end the Dutch ban on adult-child sex.
The group is widely reviled but not outlawed.
‘Of course we reject this and distance ourselves from this personal initiative’ on the part of the priest, Spronck said in a statement. ‘Membership in such organizations does not fit with the ethos of the Salesian order.’
However, Spronck’s own superior in Belgium said he will investigate both Spronck and Van B., after both men were quoted by RTL Nieuws as saying such relationships aren’t always harmful.
Superior Jos Claes told Belgian television on Saturday he ‘couldn’t imagine’ that both men would not be disciplined, but said he must make sure of the facts first.
‘Society thinks these relationships are harmful. I disagree,’ RTL quoted Van B. as saying. He served on Martijn’s board from 2008 until 2010, […]
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ANNIE MACCOBY BERGLOF, - Financial Times (U.K.)
Stephan: More on the emerging biochar trend.
There is a popular saying among organic gardeners: ‘feed the soil not the plants
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MATS LEWAN, - Future Energy eNews
Stephan: This Rossi technology is beginning to look very real, and there is serious talk of commercialization. As I have said before if this continues it hold up it is a game changer. Within a decade it will have completely altered the energy equation across the world. The impact can hardly be overstated. It won't stop climate change but it will stop our continuing to aggravate the situation and, in the long term, will create a different world -- just as each energy revolution before it has.
Thanks to Jonathan Kolber.
Ny Teknik recently participated in two new tests of the Italian ‘energy catalyzer’, providing more accurate measurements to reduce possible error sources.
The new tests with the energy catalyzer, which seems to generate heat by an unknown nuclear reaction, took place in Bologna on 19 and 28 April, 2011. As in previous tests the objective was to measure the net energy that the device generates as accurately as possible.
The results of the two tests showed a developed net power of between 2.3 and 2.6 kilowatts – of the order of a large stove plate. Input electric power was in the order of 300 watts.
As previously, the power output was calculated from the amount of water boiled into steam, and thus depends on the water flow. At the two new tests the water flow was set at a slightly lower rate than in previous tests. The device used was the smaller version of the energy catalyzer, which was first shown at a test March 29, 2011.
The tests lasted for two and three hours respectively and the total net energy developed was calculated to be 5.6 and 6.9 kWh (see report for April 19 and April 28).
As Professor Sven Kullander and Associate […]
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