ISPs exaggerate the cost of data Internet service providers were recently exposed for grossly exaggerating the cost of providing online data For years, internet service providers have been raising the costs of broadband internet service due to what they call "increasing demand for service." Both fixed and mobile internet providers recently claimed that increasing demand is leading to "ballooning" costs, which made price increases necessary. All of this was brought to a halt by a study from Plum Consulting. On a smartphone, €10 per gigabyte is about the norm. This statement was released by Plum Consulting after the survey: "Traffic-related costs are a small percentage of the total connectivity revenue, and despite traffic growth, this percentage is expected to stay constant or decline." Of course there are still operating expenses such as maintaining the lines, employing a workforce, and paying for other business expenses such as office space and utilities. Post a CommentRelated Articles
#OccupyTogether: The Best Among Us There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. To be declared innocent in a country where the rule of law means nothing, where we have undergone a corporate coup, where the poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists, where you, as a citizen, are nothing more than a commodity to corporate systems of power, one to be used and discarded, is to be complicit in this radical evil. Choose. Who the hell cares? © 2011 TruthDig.com
The End of Strategy « how to save the world I spent much of my professional career developing and implementing Strategic Plans. The hardest part of this was that most people didn’t (and still don’t) know what ‘strategy’ is: the choice among alternative courses of action, not the determination of goals and objectives. It’s about how, not about what. Most of the ‘strategic’ plans I was given (by bosses, and by clients I was advising) were not plans at all, but rather targets. This failure of understanding and setting strategy seems endemic in all kinds of organizations today. The middle column of the chart above shows how strategic planning should work, but in most organizations it does not work at all. Instead of being driven by a Mission and Vision (which are inherently and perpetually dissatisfied with the current state, such that any happiness in those organizations that goes beyond transitory success is highly suspect), these organizations are driven by a Purpose — a shared “Why are we here?” But old habits die hard.
A Athènes, les mêmes slogans que sous la dictature Pour la première fois hier lors de manifestations à Athènes, les plus âgés étaient nombreux dans les cortèges pour exprimer leur désespoir. Avec les plus jeunes, ils ont repris le slogan du temps de la dictature des colonels: "Pain, éducation, liberté". Prochaine épreuve de force: la grève générale du 19 octobre. Une fois encore, les Grecs sont redescendus hier dans la rue. Puis le gros de la troupe, formé des syndicats du public mais aussi ceux des grandes entreprises, l’eau, l’électricité, le gaz, …, toutes les sociétés privatisables dans les semaines à venir. Mais ce sont les autres que l’on remarque : ceux qui sont là pour la première fois, ou alors il y a si longtemps, du temps de leur jeunesse. Cela suffit. Et prenant courage, à l’unisson des autres, quand les forces de l’ordre font mine d’avancer, bien abritées derrière leurs boucliers, ils les houspillent et les sifflent : Valets des pourris, robots sans âme au service des puissants". "Il me reste ma dignité"
Welcome to Boston, Mr. Rumsfeld. You Are Under Arrest Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been stripped of legal immunity for acts of torture against US citizens authorized while he was in office. The 7th Circuit made the ruling in the case of two American contractors who were tortured by the US military in Iraq after uncovering a smuggling ring within an Iraqi security company. The company was under contract to the Department of Defense. The company was assisting Iraqi insurgent groups in the “mass acquisition” of American weapons. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters in 2004 of photos withheld by the Defense Department from Abu Ghraib, “The American public needs to understand, we’re talking about rape and murder here… We’re not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience. Rumsfeld resigned days before a criminal complaint was filed in Germany in which the American general who commanded the military police battalion at Abu Ghraib had promised to testify. Abu Ghraib Prisoner Smeared with Feces Dilawar
Delaware judge dismisses Goldman Sachs pay claims | Delaware Inc. The New York investment bank Goldman Sachs is known for, among other things, paying its executives pretty well. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, for example, was awarded a $67.9 million bonus in 2007, the same year the firm set a Wall Street pay record. Criticism over Goldman’s pay practices found its way into Delaware’s highly-regarded business court system recently, with investors claiming that the bank’s compensation practices are unfair. Goldman, Blankfein and other officers and directors were named as defendants in the suit, which was dismissed by Delaware Chancery Court Judge Sam Glasscock III on Wednesday. “Here, the Plaintiffs allege that the Director Defendants violated fiduciary duties in setting compensation levels and failing to oversee the risks created thereby,” Glasscock wrote in his decision. The suit also says that Goldman turned its back on clients during the financial crisis, including in one now-infamous case.
David Graeber: On Playing By The Rules – The Strange Success Of #OccupyWallStreet Yves here. I have to note that David DeGraw of Amped Status is widely credited as the originator of “We are the 99%.” By David Graeber, who is currently a Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths University London. Prior to that he was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University. He is the author of ‘Debt: The First 5,000 Years’ which is available from Amazon. Just a few months ago, I wrote a piece for Adbusters that started with a conversation I’d had with an Egyptian activist friend named Dina: All these years,” she said, “we’ve been organizing marches, rallies… And if only 45 people show up, you’re depressed, if you get 300, you’re happy. As the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads across America, and even the world, I am suddenly beginning to understand a little of how she felt. The usual reaction to this sort of thing is a kind of cynical, bitter resignation. But as I paced about the Green, I noticed something. Over the next few weeks a plan began to take shape.
The Impossible Alternative This article is the introduction to the anthology What Comes After Money? Essays from Reality Sandwich on Transforming Currency and Community, edited by Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan, just released by EVOLVER EDITIONS/North Atlantic Books. Contributors include economist Bernard Leitaer, media theorist Douglas Rushkoff, musician Paul D. The money game ... Ever since the mangling of his ideas led to horrific dictatorships and genocidal regimes over the last century, the philosopher Karl Marx has been out of fashion, neglected and suppressed. Hypnotized by our culture, most people believe that our current form of money is the only rational way to exchange value -- that a debt-based currency, detached from any tangible asset, is something as organic and inevitable as carbon molecules, ice, or photosynthesis. This requires an act of will, and a leap of faith, from many of us. The political philosopher Antonio Negri demystified "capital" by defining it, simply, as a "social relation."
#OccupyWallStreet – How to Occupy an Abstraction “What’s good for Goldman Sachs is none of your f**king business.” The occupation isn’t actually on Wall Street, of course. And while there is actually a street called Wall Street in downtown Manhattan, “Wall Street” is more of a concept, an abstraction. So what the occupation is doing is taking over a little (quasi) public square in the general vicinity of Wall Street in the financial district and turning it into something like an allegory. Against the abstraction of Wall Street, it proposes another, perhaps no less abstract story. The abstraction that is Wall Street already has a double aspect. This rentier class is an oligopoly that makes French aristocrats of the 18th century look like serious, well organized administrators. The abstraction that is Wall Street also stands for something else, for an inhuman kind of power, which one can imagine running beneath one’s feet throughout the financial district. A refusal to make demands How can you occupy an abstraction? Keep On Forwarding!
Philippine-American War: The War They Don’t Teach in US Schools (Scroll down to view documentary) | Michael D. Sellers Introduction In the aftermath of writing about Manny Pacquio’s Extraordinary Character two weeks ago, I’ve been writing posts that tend to be a bit inspirational, and I’ve enjoyed looking at some very positive things in the process. Full disclosure: this isn’t one of those posts. I decided to write about the Philippine American War because earlier today Rena and I were working on a new chapter of “Daughter of Lawaan” and in that chapter had to deal with the Balangiga Massacre (which Rena’s ancestors participated in — Lawaan was part of the Balangiga poblacion) –and while we were doing that, I found myself thinking once again about Balangiga, which in turn led me to start thinking about the Philippine American War which is one of the topics that most intrigues me (and disturbs me) about the Philippine-American relationship. Why Don’t They Teach it in American Schools? What were American leaders thinking? In the Philippines It’s Not Forgotten — But Perhaps Misunderstood
Banking's loneliest defender FORTUNE -- For a man with a fairly genial demeanor, Dick Bove has been dishing out a lot of vitriol in recent weeks. The targets of his ire have been wide-ranging: President Obama, Senator Dick Durbin, former TARP cop Neil Barofsky, former FDIC chief Sheila Bair, and even Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein. Bove, an equity analyst at Rochdale Securities who became prominent during the depths of the financial crisis, is a stock picker by occupation. "In all the years I've been doing this, I've never really gotten angry at something the government has done or something that has happened," he says. The primary issue that keeps Bove up writing angry missives at night is what he sees as the mistaken belief that blame for the financial crisis should be laid squarely at the feet of financial companies, and no one else. He's just warming up. The real problem, argues Bove, is that the country's economic engine is kaput. Whose fault, precisely? Dick Bove, people.
Naomi Klein on Environmental Victory: Obama Delays Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Decision Until 2013 Environmental activists are claiming victory after the Obama administration announced Thursday it will postpone any decision on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline until 2013. The announcement was made just days after more than 10,000 people encircled the White House calling on President Obama to reject the project, the second major action against the project organized by Bill McKibben’s 350.org and Tar Sands Action. In late August and early September, some 1,200 people were arrested in Washington, D.C., in a two-week campaign of civil disobedience. This is a rush transcript. AMY GOODMAN: Environmental activists are claiming victory after the Obama administration announced Thursday it will conduct a review of the route of the 1,700-mile Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline and put off any decision on approving the pipeline until 2013. Among those arrested in August was the Canadian writer Naomi Klein. So, OK, it’s not the victory that we wanted.
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% | Society It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. Economists long ago tried to justify the vast inequalities that seemed so troubling in the mid-19th century—inequalities that are but a pale shadow of what we are seeing in America today. Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. First, growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity. Third, and perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology. Economists are not sure how to fully explain the growing inequality in America.