5 Inventions That Herald an ”Outernet” Revolution
by Activist Post
Nov 18, 2014
If there is anything good to be said about mass surveillance, overcharging and monopolization by telecom/ISP companies, and government censorship including cell phone and Internet shutdowns as they see fit, it is that these heavy-handed measures only create a stronger desire for freedom.
For many in the modern world, open access to the World Wide Web is being viewed as an essential human right – it is a gateway to knowledge, peer-to-peer communication, innovation and economic opportunity. Basically: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. For the 5 billion people who still do not have access, it represents the universal dream of self-determination.
There are several devices in various stages of development that aim to rectify the gaps in knowledge and communication which keep large portions of humanity enslaved and threaten freedom for the rest of us if the restrictions mentioned above are permitted to flourish. It is clear that some, if not all, of what is mentioned below carry various hurdles and challenges that might be difficult to overcome if widespread adoption is a goal. However, the ideas are there to be expanded upon – and as we know: “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.”
1. Lantern – Lantern has officially adopted the term Outernet for its mission of providing free data anywhere in the world. It’s the perfect antithesis to the expanding move to exert control over the IN-ternet. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lantern-one-device-free-data-from-space-forever
2. goTenna – This device enables off-grid communication between any goTenna-connected smartphones, but without the need for cell towers, Wi-Fi, or satellites. It’s like a walkie-talkie on steroids. http://www.gotenna.com/
3. Cryptocurrencies – Within an Outernet framework cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could become even more powerful. We can imagine one more layer put between their use and the regulators who continue to seek ways to eradicate this powerful peer-to-peer form of economic empowerment.
4. OpenBazaar – A peer-to-peer marketplace with no central server susceptible to shut down or seizure by authorities. By running a program on your computer, you can connect directly to other users in the OpenBazaar network and trade with them. No mandatory fees, and your trade is censorship-resistant. OpenBazaar uses Bitcoin cryptocurrency, and is an open source project, which means the code is publicly available, can be reviewed, and anyone can join the project and suggest changes. This system is in beta testing right now and is expected to be fully released in 2015. https://openbazaar.org/
5. Mesh Networks – Authoritarian governments around the world (including the U.S.) have considered implementing full communications shutdowns during protest. P2P chat apps like FireChat were used by Hong Kong democracy protesters to end-run a potential Internet shutdown and/or cell tower jamming. Similar local-range solutions could be instrumental during natural disasters as well, facilitating community organization, as well as search and rescue when traditional networks might be overloaded. Texting is the first useful app for mesh networks, but imagine combining it with goTenna and Lantern technology as well as P2P markets and the current way we access the Web may soon change altogether.
Do you know of other open-source technologies that are part of this ideological revolution? Please share with others in the comment section below.
VIDEO — Amazon’s Prison Factory | Brainwash Update
RT
Dec 2, 2014
Abby Martin discusses cyber Monday, a day in which millions of items are purchased from Amazon.com, highlighting disturbing reports about the company’s warehouse conditions.
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VIDEO — “This Is Day One Of A New Age” – Jeffrey Tucker on Bitcoin
Press For Truth
Dec 1, 2014
“We’re entering into a new world, nobody knows anything about this world. We didn’t know that money could be completely produced privately… this is day one of a new age.” Says Jeffrey Tucker of Liberty.Me in this interview with Dan Dicks.
Dan and Jeff talk bitcoin and how it relates to liberty and whether there are any nefarious plans behind the cryptocurrency. Tucker is excited for the future of this money without the state. “I’m really looking forward to this world of alt coins, radical diversity in coinage.”
Meet the BRICS’ “New Development Bank”
The Corbett ReportJames Corbett
corbettreport.com
This article originally appeared in The Corbett Report Subscriber newsletter on August 23, 2014. To subscribe to the newsletter and become a member of The Corbett Report website, please sign up for a monthly or annual membership here.
Last week we attempted to dispel some of the confusion surrounding the World Bank and the IMF, how the two are differentiated, and what the World Bank actually does.
As you’ll recall, Bretton Woods architect John Maynard Keynes admitted that the confusion over the bodies was embedded in their names; the World Bank should rightly be referred to as a fund (for development projects) and the International Monetary Fund as a bank (to help countries cover balance of payment deficits and ensure financial stability). The World Bank itself is a body that ostensibly provides long-term low interest or no interest loans secured on the global bond market to fund sectoral reforms and infrastructure development projects in some of the poorest countries in the world.
As we saw last week, however, the Bank is used as a weapon by the economic hitmen identified by John Perkins and others, directing infrastructure development funds to crony corporations and forcing countries into debt obligations that they will be unable to meet. These impossible debt obligations are then used to give the Bank leverage over the developing world economically and geopolitically. What’s more, both the IMF and the World Bank have historically been controlled by the US and Europe, and clamors for reform in governance from the developing countries have fallen on deaf ears.
It is in the context of this IMF/World Bank stranglehold over the global financial architecture that we have to understand the stunning development that took place at the 6th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil last month: the creation of a New Development Bank (NDB) to compete with the World Bank in providing funds for infrastructure development to developing nations and the creation of a Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA) to compete with the IMF in providing liquidity protection to countries with balance of payment difficulties.
The development was by no means surprising: the idea for a BRICS development bank has been bandied about for years now and was written about in the pages of this newsletter extensively last year. Nor does it represent (at least at this point) a fundamental challenge to the World Bank or IMF’s dominance; neither the NDB’s $50 billion USD in subscribed capital nor the CRA’s $100 billion liquidity pool come close to the World Bank’s $232.8 billion in subscribed capital or the IMF’s $755 billion in liquidity ($1.4 trillion if you include emergency funds). Neither do they have the infrastructure yet in place to coordinate and deploy these funds, nor a track record of working with the world’s poorest countries to ensure that funds reach their intended targets and not the Swiss bank accounts of corrupt politicians and middlemen.
Still, there is something of a revolutionary feel to the obligatory pictures of the smiling BRICS leaders coming out of this year’s summit. This year the smiles do not seem quite as forced. Perhaps they even seem a little self-assured. It may be a baby step, but after all it is a step toward a world where the poorest countries do not have to turn cap in hand to the IMF or World Bank for financial aid.
But what are the implications of this for the developing countries themselves and the prospect of genuine development? What does this development say about the BRICS and their growing ambition on the world geopolitical stage? And where does this fit into the age-old banker quest for global government? To answer these questions, we must first examine the institutions in question.
Banking culture breeds dishonesty, scientific study finds
By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent
LONDON Reuters
Nov 19 (Reuters) – A banking culture that implicitly puts financial gain above all else fuels greed and dishonesty and makes bankers more likely to cheat, according to the findings of a scientific study.
Researchers in Switzerland studied bank workers and other professionals in experiments in which they won more money if they cheated, and found that bankers were more dishonest when they were made particularly aware of their professional role.
When bank employees were primed to think less about their profession and more about normal life, however, they were less inclined to dishonesty.
“Many scandals..have plagued the financial industry in the last decade,” Ernst Fehr, a researcher at the University of Zurich who co-led the study, told reporters in a telephone briefing. “These scandals raise the question whether the business culture in the banking industry is favouring, or at least tolerating, fraudulent or unethical behaviours.”
Fehr’s team conducted a laboratory game with bankers, then repeated it with other types of workers as comparisons.
[…CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE]
[hat tip: Drudge Report]
VIDEO — The Truth About Net Neutrality
Stefan Molyneux
Jul 29, 2014
Advocates say that Net Neutrality means guaranteeing free speech on the Internet. Without it, big telecoms could control what you see and how you see it. But what is the truth about Net Neutrality?
VIDEO — G20 Brisbane: Police State Lockdown Begins – Asia-Pacific Perspective
The Asia-Pacific Perspective
Nov 13, 2014
PN 