16 Jul, 2014
by KIKI
Author:
KIKI
Notes:
News

 

And some articles again from this last week:

 

First a German petition against Monsanto, here.

 

A German article about the recent TTIP events, here.

 

A season calender in German about when to eat what from an environmental/sustainability standpoint, here.

 

An article about why it might be too late for our oceans, here.

 

Some funny modified brand slogans with kind of a true statement behind each of them, here.

 

A German article about why media and new technologies have nothing to do with content, so why curse smartphones, tablets or e-readers when all you can do with it is the same as in the old days with newspapers or books but in a more handy, easier way, here.

 

Ongoing scandals around the Berlin BER airport, here, German.

 

A film tip, German, about waste, it's called "Weggeworfen", here.

 

Shocking images about how Israelis celebrate bombing Gaza, here. There's also coverage of protests against biased media in this conflict, here.

 

Obama still has not closed down Guantanamo, as he had promised back then. But there's also terrible methods to house prisoners in the Federal prisons elsewhere in the country. Have a look here.

 

Some news about Fukushima after a while, no good ones, here.

 

And last but not least a really good film about the gloomy situation our world is facing today on so many levels. But instead of only showing how fragile the whole system has become it's taking it a step further, there is hope in our seemingly hopeless world, we just have to keep pushing it into the right direction and hit the critical mass that could trigger a real change. Recommended! It's here.

 

KIKI

 

 

9 Jul, 2014
by KIKI
Author:
KIKI
Notes:
News

 

I found those articles interesting this last week:

 

A Wikileaks article about the new secret TISA agreement between the US and the EU, here, and a German one here.

 

An article about facebook and its mind control experiments, here.

 

Sascha Lobo is a German new media expert, here is a statement about total surveillance and the motives and techniques behind it. There's some tricks by the way about how you can flood the XKeyscore surveillance software, here.

 

I also like Christian Ströbele's blog, here, him being the head of the NSA investigation committee at German Federal Parliament.

 

These are the findings out of the interrogation of former NSA officers in the Bundestag, here.

 

If you care about petitions in Germany actually to avoid bad things to happen, environmentally critical laws to be past or decisions against the citizens to be made, check out campact and their recent pleas and petitions, here.

 

And something different, an article that focuses on the eyes in photographs, here.

 

KIKI

 

 

26 Jun, 2014
by KIKI
Author:
KIKI
Notes:
News

 

Only some articles from the last weeks ...

 

An interesting article about our president Gauck and his influence on a military level, here. (German)

 

Here you can see what stake investors own in Germany, there. (German)

 

Some interesting comment about political assassinations, here.

 

Did you know what area would be necessary to power the whole world with solar energy? The university of Braunschweig found out years ago, here.

 

And why not use drones against the state in return, here.

 

Till next time,

 

KIKI

 

 

15 Jun, 2014
by KIKI
Author:
KIKI
Notes:
News - 13.-15.06.14

 

It's probably better to not only post news once a week but when they show up, so here's what I read the last days:

 

Facebook will now track your external websites visit for better-targeted ads, here.

 

Frank Schirrmacher from FAZ died this week. Like Sahra Wagenknecht mentions, despite his function for a conservative newspaper he never shied an exchange and open dialogue with leftwingers. Here's an interesting statement from three years ago in which he admits those leftwingers might be right. (German)

 

Tesla Motors, a pioneer in electric car technologies, turns all its patents over to the open source movement, here.

 

Here is an article about why the Football World Cup is nationalist. (German)

 

An interesting German article about why we don't act in the NSA affair, here.

 

Some fatcs about what collected data is used for, terrorism? No. (German) here

 

A German article about how the CIA tries to improve its image with funny tweets, here.

 

I really can only laugh about how the west reveals Putin's propaganda. It's ridiculous given how politicians, mass media and big companies lie to us, propaganda on a different level, here.

 

Some spectacular aerial shots that show how the humans ruel the world, here.

 

This is a picture of what's going on in the streets in Brasil at the moment. There's also an radio interview explaining the situation, here.

 

And there's a Wikileak about the US massacre in Peru, it's here.

 

KIKI

 

 

12 Jun, 2014
by KIKI
Author:
KIKI
Society - News, 05.06.-12.06.

 

Here are interesting articles and videos from this last week:

 

Let's start with the World Cup. I will boycott it. Why? John Oliver from HBO has some explanations here. Watch how Brasilian government forces use tear gas against the protesters, from today, here.

 

Protests on Taksim square in Istanbul have led to brutal police acts. Amnesty set up a support page to solidarise with the peaceful protesters. It's here.

 

A very interesting video that explains the very awkward story behind Julian Assange and him being trapped in the Equadorian embassy in London, here.

 

A video about the US EPA regulations and the consequences for the environment, here.

 

This is an interesting German article about the team behind Edward Snowden, here.

 

I really enjoyed the interview of Abby Martin with Noam Chomsky about war and imperialism, here.

 

Some interesting German information about the GMO industry and their strategy to occupy Europe, here.

 

This is a really good German article about what the TTIP would also mean, here. I have little hope it can be overturned.

 

If you want to do something against the plans of the Bundesregierung to advance Fracking in Germany you can sign this petition here.

 

Three years ago Fukushima shocked the world. Today nobody speaks about it anymore. Tons of radioactive water still seap into the Pacific every single day for the last three years and their are no signs it's going to change. The consequences for people in the region and the generations after are very bleak. Watch this!

 

If you're interested what real scientists have to say about the financial situation, crisis and the consequenses of debts for us and future societies, this blog site is really good.

 

And one amazing interview with a German professor about the emancipation from abundance in a post growth economy, it's here. It has three parts and is over two hours long but well worth it.

 

Now something beautiful for last, crazy flowers that look like humans, ghosts or animals, here.

 

See you later!

 

KIKI

 

 

5 Jun, 2014
by KIKI
Author:
KIKI
Society - News, 22.05.-05.06.14

 

 

I decided to collect interesting articles and post them into the blog roll instead of just sharing them on facebook so that everybody who may be interested can read them. This is only kind of a news ticker instead of an individual article that contributes to the flood of information we are exposed to. Some articles are German, most of them are English.

 

First there is an article about protests of McDonald's workers for higher wages, it's here,

 

then I found what Noam Chomsky has to say on class warfare, it's here.

 

An article about China lambasting US spying tactics, here.

 

I collected some articles about the protests in Brasil against the World Cup, one is here, another one here. There are also German ones here and here. This article about graffiti art expressing the problems related to the World Cup, here, is nice, too. There is an interesting German documentary about the doubtful event, here. I will boycott the games by the way, there are too many terrible things related to them, one being the deforestation of rain forest to build absurdly expensive stadiums for only four World Cup games and charge entrance fees that the normal Brasilian population could never afford. Bad!

 

Although I'm still not quite sure how serious this news site is, this German article about the weapon industry and how it benefits from the World Cup makes perfect sense, it's here.

 

I found this article about Americas relation to Nigeria interesting, here.

 

This is an article about global obesity, here.

 

By the way, there is an interesting article about cooking shows, here.

 

I liked this article about a woman who got rid of the general obsessional washing, here.

 

I also liked what Gregor Gysi had to say about the approach of the Federal German Bar regarding the US mass surveillance: "Die Bundesanwaltschaft leitet wegen der NSA-Ausspähaffäre offenbar kein Ermittlungsverfahren ein, weil sie keine Möglichkeit sähe, an belastbares Material über die Aktivitäten der NSA und des britischen Geheimdienstes GCHQ zu kommen. Das ist merkwürdig, weil wegen Diebstahls oder Mordes noch nie ein Ermittlungsverfahren mit der Begründung abgelehnt wurde, dass man nicht an Beweise herankäme. Ob dies gelingt oder nicht, stellt man erst im Ermittlungsverfahren fest. Wann hört die Hörigkeit der Bundesregierung, unserer Geheimdienste und anderer Behörden gegenüber der US-Administration endlich auf?" Gregor Gysi

 

Interesting to see what those responsible at the web summit in Stockholm had to say about why Edward Snowden and other whistleblower were blacklisted from the event, here.

 

And finally I liked those drawings and paintings about environmental and political issues, here.

 

I am collecting new articles already for the next news post.

 

Happy reading!

 

KIKI

 

 

11 Jan, 2014
by KIKI
Author:
KIKI
Society - Why The Young Turks? ...

 

… because they are great. But wait, I’m going to explain everything here.

 

Of course saying something was great is totally subjective, well, not totally, it depends how many people agree. The more people agree the more confident can you be saying something was great.

 

But it’s a good starting point and reminds me of some heavy discussions I had on facebook a year ago. I try to explain all now to solve some misunderstandings.

 

First of all I need to define some expressions. What’s the difference between saying „The Young Turks are great!“ and „Global warming is a fact!“? First one will always be subjective, the Young Turks may be as great as it get’s to everybody in the world. It’s still an opinion, something that can change and be different. You can always find pros and cons for or against it.

 

The second sentence on the other hand is a fact. What’s a fact actually? A fact is a circumstance that you can prove. There’s no pros and cons for or against it. To stick to Global Warming you can research the internet and find multiple scientific studies during the last couple of years that prove it. A good starting point is almost always Wikipedia. Wikipedia is amazing, because it became better and better over the years, it’s open to everybody and it self-corrects by us people and those who research. That makes it as objective as it gets. You will always find pros and cons or different opinions to controversial topics and people correct errors or wrong statements over time. That makes it pretty reliable because there is no company controlling everything but the whole world overlooking it, it’s incredible.

 

Anyway, Global Warming is a fact because you can prove it. Who says that all this is true? Especially as there are so many people in the world who don’t believe in Global Warming. Are they all wrong? Yes, they are! Isn’t that pretty arrogant? Not really because it’s not arrogant to tell the truth, it’s just uncomfortable to hear it when you believe in something else.

 

Do I believe I knew everything? Of course not, but I know some things and I can prove that I’m right. But this sounds arrogant! Well, maybe, but there is a difference between the things you say and what people understand. It’s often about misunderstanding, the reason for arguments or even wars by the way. People just don’t understand each other correctly and it’s very difficult to say things so easy that everybody understands them the same way. This is a problem often described as relationship level in psychological terms.

 

What’s a relationship level? It’s the opposite of the content level in conversations. The content level consists of facts or claims, opinions or just random words. In the content level personal relationships, experiences or undertones are irrelevant, they don’t belong to the content level but to the relationship level.

 

One little example: Two men know each other for quite a long time, one is very passionate about environmental issues, the other less so and a bit annoyed by his friend. One day the eco guy comes up and says: „Do you actually know how bad Global Warming is?“. The careless guy could have answered: „No“ or „Yes“ or „Yes, but I don’t care!“ on a content level, but screams: „Leave me alone with your crazy ideologies!“. He completely leaves the content level, not even answering to the question, claiming the eco guy would believe in crazy things. He could have said: „I don’t know but I’m really not interested in it right now. And to be honest, I’m a bit annoyed by your stuff.“, to stick to the content level.

 

Anyway, what has all this to do with The Young Turks? The Young Turks is a news network on the internet, apparently the biggest in the world, but still only very little people know it, at least out of the US. It’s based in L.A. and was founded by Cenk Uygur. He is a Turkish American who came to the States when he was eight years old. He became a lawyer and worked as an attorney in Washington and New York. At some point he realized that there’s a lot of bad things going on in his country, especially involving money in politics. Another huge problem in the US in his mind is that public media is pretty bad, telling lies to the people and being financed by huge corporations and appropriate interests.

 

It’s in fact so bad that he decided to skip his law career and found a news channel on the internet. One that is based on telling the truth. That’s a bold claim for sure, but it’s not too hard if you focus on what makes great journalism, f.e. researching and basing reports and broadcasts on things you can prove, especially scientific studies. The easiest way to stay focussed is to keep ads away and only rely on donations like Wikipedia does or subscriptions. The Young Turks seem to be successful. By the way it’s pretty wise to try to never say something that is wrong, well, or apologize if you found out you did. One single lawsuit against The Young Turks could ruin their whole business model, making it even more likely they do a good job. And I’m convinced Cenk has just the right education to know how to play save.

 

The Young Turks have become pretty big over the years and there’s a lot of topics and shows that are live discussions regarding specific issues rather than only telling facts like on a news show. But it’s almost always that you can experience Cenk’s brilliancy in putting things straight. Knowing that he wouldn’t dare lying to you makes it even greater!

 

Check them out, they are well worth it www.tytnetwork.com and this is one example ...

 

 

KIKI