Information Apathy

Today's population seems to accept anything given to them, be it the Big Mac, or the pre-cut and chewed information, made available to the public by the Media. Today's media can create any image it wants because it is rarely challenged, I will admit that in some rare instances that is not correct but overall it is true. Political information is given in a manner that allows the government to control or rather the media to control what people believe. Most people do not search for information, and this allows not just for mis-representation but rather for no real representation.
Governments today orient themselves around interest groups, this can be by means of taxes, support given to a certain branch etc. this can be seen to the greatest extent in the USA. Where lobbying is very important but not just that, lets take an election campaign for example, those campaigns are financed with? Yes, right money supplied by very rich individuals, corporations CEOs, in other words by the people that have the money. Their interests will be most respected by the politicians, since they payed and will pay for their election campaigns. Is this democratic?
Further, yes the USA is an extreme example, but isn't also true that this policy making a) influences other nations b) that corporations and other interest groups attempt to gain stronger footing in other nations too?

Enough of my rant, if you want to know more I suggest that you should watch the movies 'Manufacturing consent' and 'Creating Political Power'.

International Criminal Court

The United Nations Security Council instated the first permanent International Criminal Court, this was done against the resistance of the US Government which feared the prosecution of soldiers employed by the US Government.

Here is the link...

International court in first case

Blogs...

I' am in the process of collecting addresses to Blogs which then will go on a link list for Blogs on this Blog, up to twelve Blogs will be put on that link list, and once the forum has actual participants the forum community will be able to bring suggestions forward on which then there will be a vote, by the community if more then 50% vote for the Blog being added to the link list the Blog will be added, if another Blog has to be dropped for that there will be another vote concerning which of the Blogs is to be dropped.

Blogosphere

Hehe, yes this Blog is part of that...lol...anyways here is a very interesting article from the BBC...further if you follow what the article said you should start commenting on the Blog and posting on the Forum...this way my e-mail account might see a little less traffic...lol.

I know I said that you can always contact me and comment, yet I was primarily thinking of on the Blog and now on the Forum...we don't want yahoo to start charging me money because of the eating up of Bandwidth for e-mails...now do we?

PS. I added the link to this post...

Blogosphere sees healthy growth

Transportation and the price of it

How much should a ferry or bus ride cost?
This issue is something people are often torn about, should the government subsidize transportation within its borders to support the industrial growth and the free movement of its citizens and visitors. This is a question that often leads to a cross-road which leads to state supporting transportation or the independent profit dependent company. Which is better?
I personally vote for the state supported Transportation because it a) supports the free movement of the people living and/or visiting the country, this allows people to relocate to areas where they can find jobs more easily. b) Industrial growth is less inhibited which boosts the economy and allows for more jobs.

What do you think?...

Police Brutality?...

The state officially has the monopoly on violence within its own boundaries which means that state is the only party in that can administer 'violence'. The police is the tool to enforce the rules set up by the state, state in turn gives the police the right to administer 'violence' to insure that the police will be listened to.
Now it is somewhat of an oxymoron to scream "Police brutality" if the police has the permission to administer violence towards anyone who is doing something against the state. Why do people then complain when the police uses this 'right' and administers violence against offenders and suspected offenders. Technically the once that are going against their rights and powers, are the people resisting the police. They do not have the right to administer violence against anyone, which means that when they attempt to administer violence against the party that is allowed to administer violence, the one that 'should suffer' is the party that is offending not the party that is remaining within its rights. Right?

Code of Ethics

As can be seen I once more changed the link system and added several new links, one of the links in the Resource section is a link to the 'Ethical Code of Bloggers' however I like to think that until now I did adhere to this code, further I intend to continue to do so, yet if you, the reader see in-coherencies or errors, don't be shy to point them out by commenting or e-mailing or posting on the forum. Not that you have been shy up until now. I want to use this moment thank every reader that was vigilant and pointed errors out or questioned certain points in articles, Thank you for doing so and I hope that you will continue to do so.

P.S. I know that I said that all announcements and Notices would be posted on the forum, yet due to the lack of participation there I decided to at least post this one here and on the forum.

A Bloggers' Code of Ethics (Cyberjournalist)
Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidants (RSF)

Enemies of the Internet...

Reporters without borders released a new and revised version of the 'Enemies of the Internet' list. This list shows nations that limit the flow of information within their nation, and thus make it difficult for the people to access information from the internet, in some cases they even face prosecution. Also those nations that are listed limit the information that can be published onto the internet, again the threat of prosecution hangs over the heads of those who ignore that and continue to blog, or post content they are not supposed to post. Further Reporters without borders are strongly engaged into Freedom of the Press and are fighting for that.

I added a link to the Introductory Page of Reporters without borders and of course the link to press-freedom score chart made by the Reporters without borders.

Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2005

Microsoft vs. the rest of the world...

Microsoft is challenging every other technology corporation that does not have a contract with them. So now Microsoft challenges Google Earth with a Virtual world simulator, Ipod which is Apple an well opponent with the Zune, Firefox and IE have been battling for the dominance over the internet browser domain. Xbox 360 is standing of against the PS2 and 3 as well as the Nintendo Wii, how long can Microsoft sustain this pressure against these other corporations? Sony, Apple and Nintendo have access to billions, further Microsoft is now joining in the fight against Blu-Ray which means a strong Ad-campaign, also all their other software products are competing with an ever growing number of open-source programs. Open-source programs are drawing form the ever growing annoyance of corporately handled program development, which often is inflexible compared with the open-source system which allows all users if they wish to add to the program. It would seem as if Microsoft is engaging in a multi-front war.

The illegal internet activities...

Governments have started to hunt hackers and pirates out of the net...well not quite that dramatic. Governments and their agencies are attempting to stop internet piracy, nearly every second week there is a new lawsuit against several pirates. Yet, it does not seem as if they actually succeed in reducing the material available online, some pirates seem to do what they do in contempt of those attempts. The common argument for pirating is the over-pricing that movie companies, music labels and game publishers often do. That the consumer is simply unable or willing to pay for the content provided sometimes it's a fairly small content too. Many Game publishers have become minimalistic with their packaging which doesn't even contain a decent manual in most cases. Some game publishers do not offer sufficient support to the player which is why they lose a portion of their costumers there which want to play the game but find that the legal option is far too expensive considering the content and the later support. If the content would contain things that are not download-able such as posters, maps etc. something that has appeared quite often in the packages of games published by Atari, the consumer might be willing to pay more if the publishers would be willing to provide more, such as the earlier named items. Yet, the only action which the publishers and other companies advocate is the use of force, since they are right and the consumer wrong. But this show of force has not helped their cause, it actually worsened the fight because due to the publicity given to the ways of file-sharing which educated more and more people in the ways of obtaining pirated software and other items.