bm241 Making Better Use of the United Nations

Lots of governments and supranational organizations like the UN have websites, yet few are really understandable or usable for the average person. At the 24C3 in Berlin this past weekend, I sat down with Julian from undemocracy.com . His work has helped create a place on the internet where anyone can search, link, and read about who said what at the United Nations, in order to better understand what our nations are doing on the international level.

We Discuss:

  • The problems with the regular UN website
  • Documents, votes, statements
  • Searchability, linkability
  • What was necessary to create undemocracy.com
  • connections with wikipedia
  • His UK parliamentary project, http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/
  • NExt steps
  • Appeal to the public

In the New Year, MAke Changes.

Berlin parties too hard.

Podcasts, vlogs, and words will be here soon. In the meantime, reflect on 07, prepare for 08, and hopefully this year, the world takes a step forward for the first time in a long time.

HAcker Congress 07 Almost Done

Greetings once again from Berlin, where I am attending the 24C3, the conference hosted by Germany’s Chaos Computer Club one of the finest groups of hackers and humans on the planet. This year the topics revolve around Global Warming and how Nerds will survive the apocalypse. In many ways it is a humorous theme, but in between all the joking around, I do believe we should take it more seriously in terms of solutions to fight global warming and the forces behind it.

Somehow I’ve ended up at the more comedic, the world is over, enjoy yourself and wear good shoes type sessions, that have left me laughing but also longing for some new ideas. Of course, outside of the sessions, in the hallways and various dark corners of the congress, that is where I see the true geniuses creating – as always- something out of nothing. Among the things I’ve seen: the revival of old technology for modern day uses, namely the telex machine. I watched as someone telexed *interesting* images from somewhere else in the conference center to the machine next to me. Of course I’ve also seen the drones, 4 propeller flying machines with some improvements since the camp over the summer. Also this year there are at least 8 to 12 OLPC’s also known as the green machine/100 dollar laptop, being played with. I may do a followup on it, although clearly lots of people are getting their hands on them now (including madame l)

What else? A puppet show about steam power. Rebellious knitting. Infectious diseases in virtual worlds. Yes there are plenty of insanely interesting topics that occasionally have some social relevance as well. No podcasts recorded yet, but once I give my talk on the Arctic Cold War in a few hours… I’ll get on the podcasting.

For a live stream of it, click here (12h45 CET, 6:45am EST)

bmtv68 Green Spaces of Our Childhoods

During my recent visit to NEw JErsey, land where I was born and raised, I spent some time walking through the forest that my friends and I grew up playing in and around. It is a unique place and in this vlog entry I try to explain why.

Click To Play

On the Road

24 Hours in Amsterdam has not allowed me to prepare a podcast. Mostly it involves unpacking, repacking, cleaning, and preparing my equipment for the 24C3 in Berlin.

If you have not yet seen the documentation video from last years Chaos Communication Congress, here is the link.  I say a few lines in it, as do some nice folks that I know.

Some people might wonder what I say about the Bhutto assasination, sorry to disappoint but I don’t have much to say.  They knew full well the risks they took and I commend her and her people for facing death so bravely.  I’m not a huge Bhutto admirer, but the way she has carried herself in the face of so much pressure and hatred, I commend her and regret that this has happened. Unfortunately they will once again re-write history and hijack a tragedy by making this an excuse to dedicate more money for their crusade entitled “the war on terrorism”.

Missile Tests Mean…

Ok the two-day festivus is over. And just as many people sit down to eat the roast beast (or vegetarian roast-beast), over in Russia they are testing new Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.  Yes, the ICBM, an acronym usually associated with the cold war and the 80’s.

Welcome to the new cold war.  In this version the US acts like Russia is their best friend and presidents look into each others souls and they drive around in pickup-trucks together.

Meanwhile behind the scenes, the US has military contractors who need to build missiles and fear in order to justify their existence and make a profit so you can trade shares in Boeing and help make the CEO’s very wealthy.   The Russian government, on the other hand, has taken control of all the big oil and gas companies and if it gets the arctic claim they will control 1/3 of the world’s hydro-carbon energy.  So Russia tests ICBM’s, launching them by land and from submarines like the year is 1981. The US tries to build missile defences in places like the Czech Republic, Poland, and Greenland, claiming that this is all necessary to protect the world from… Iran.

Then Russia protests and says — Hey, that missile shield seems to be pointed towards us! And the US responds, no no no, that missile shield that goes right up til your border is not a threat to you, you can still launch your ICBM’s at us, no problem. Plus we’re best friends remember?

That is my rendition of the high school play entitled, The Cold War Part Deux.