Edward Snowden: Here's how we take back the Internet

CloudFlare Watch Internet access is a basic human right: A Q&A with Keren Elazari Keren Elazari speaks at TED2014. The day she gave her talk, we spoke to her about the shutdown of Twitter in Turkey. Photo: James Duncan Davidson Two weeks ago, hours after Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to “wipe out” Twitter, his government blocked access to the platform across the country. It was just weeks before a hotly contended election, and Erdoğan was upset about tweets accusing him of corruption. Other governments have also tried to block access to parts or all of the Internet in the past, including Egypt’s Internet shutdown in January 2011 and Syria’s in May 2013. In her talk, Elazari said that hackers play an essential role in giving power, or free access to information, back to the people when governments try to take it away. So what’s really going on in Turkey? While Egypt had Tahrir Square and other places around the world had other social uprisings and revolutions, in Istanbul it happened in Taksim Gezi Park. But they’re still trying. Definitely.

Why I, a founder of PLOS, am forsaking open access I co-founded the Public Library of Science (PLOS) in 2002 because I believed deeply that the open access publishing model PLOS espoused and has come to dominate was good for science, scientists and the public. Over the past decade open access has become a personal crusade – my own religion – one I have fervently promoted here on this blog, on social media, and to thousands of colleagues at meetings and social engagements. To back up my commitment to open access, since 2000, I have exclusively published papers from my lab in open access journals, and have urged – some might say hectored and harassed – my colleagues to do the same. But in the last few weeks I have had a major change of heart. The most immediate reason is that, to be honest, I’m jealous. It used to be cool to publish in PLOS. But now those t-shirts are ratty, and PLOS has become The Man. And who’s to say what’s right anyway. As these were landmark studies, most were published in the highest profile subscription journals.

rot rot.js: ROguelike Toolkit in JavaScript #################### #.............##...# #.............##...# - GitHub #............D##.?. 8 math talks to blow your mind Mathematics gets down to work in these talks, breathing life and logic into everyday problems. Prepare for math puzzlers both solved and unsolvable, and even some still waiting for solutions. Ron Eglash: The fractals at the heart of African designs When Ron Eglash first saw an aerial photo of an African village, he couldn’t rest until he knew — were the fractals in the layout of the village a coincidence, or were the forces of mathematics and culture colliding in unexpected ways? Here, he tells of his travels around the continent in search of an answer. How big is infinity? There are more whole numbers than there are even numbers … right? Arthur Benjamin does “Mathemagic” A whole team of calculators is no match for Arthur Benjamin, as he does astounding mental math in the blink of an eye. Scott Rickard: The beautiful math behind the ugliest music What makes a piece of music beautiful?

Ruffin sur Europe 1 (Aphatie) : "Lagardère mériterait d'être licencié" "C’est pour dire merci à votre patron." Après avoir été décommandé de l'émission de Frédéric Taddeï sur Europe 1, François Ruffin, réalisateur de Merci Patron !, a finalement été reçu par Jean-Michel Aphatie, ce mercredi. Et Aphatie de lui répondre que ce temps passé à remercier Lagardère, "sera du temps de parole que [Ruffin] n’aura pas pour parler du documentaire". "Un salarié aussi désinvolte qu’Arnaud Lagardère aurait été licencié d’une entreprise. Aphatie relance alors Ruffin sur son film, l’estimant "plutôt bien fait mais tournant un peu à vide à certains moments". L'occasion de voir notre émission avec Ruffin et Lordon : Merci Patron: "Mes inspirateurs?

Israel buys most oil smuggled from ISIS territory - report Kurdish and Turkish smugglers are transporting oil from ISIS controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and selling it to Israel, according to several reports in the Arab and Russian media. An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization. The oil is extracted from Dir A-Zur in Syria and two fields in Iraq and transported to the Kurdish city of Zakhu in a triangle of land near the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Israeli and Turkish mediators come to the city and when prices are agreed, the oil is smuggled to the Turkish city of Silop marked as originating from Kurdish regions of Iraq and sold for $15-18 per barrel (WTI and Brent Crude currently sell for $41 and $45 per barrel) to the Israeli mediator, a man in his 50s with dual Greek-Israeli citizenship known as Dr. Farid. “Israel has in one way or another become the main marketer of ISIS oil. Comments Your comment

Religion vs. Humanism: Isaac Asimov on Science and Spirituality by Maria Popova “The soft bonds of love are indifferent to life and death.” Science and religion have a long history of friction as diametric opposites. But some of humanity’s greatest minds have found in science itself a rich source of spirituality, from Albert Einstein’s meditation on whether scientists pray to Richard Feynman’s ode to the universe to Carl Sagan on the reverence of science to Bucky Fuller’s scientific rendition of The Lord’s Prayer to Richard Dawkins on the magic of reality . Here comes a wonderful addition from the mind of beloved science fiction author Isaac Asimov , found in the altogether indispensable It’s Been a Good Life ( public library ) — a revealing selection of Asimov’s letters, diary entries, and his three prior autobiographies, In Memory Yet Green (1979), In Joy Still Felt (1980), and the posthumously published I. Asimov succinctly recapitulates his philosophy: I have never, not for one moment, been tempted toward religion of any kind. Donating = Loving

La violence des casseroles | Pierre Foglia | Pierre Foglia Mais quand vous jouez de la casserole, ils ont peur. Il y a cet ami et collègue de Rosemont, pas particulièrement contre l'augmentation des droits de scolarité, qui s'en est allé rejoindre 2000 personnes au coin de sa rue avec sa petite fille de 4 ans et son fils de deux ans et demi, bang, bang la casserole. Il y a cette fille à la une du Devoir vendredi matin, celle avec une poêle à frire à la main, hé, mais je la connais! J'appelle une de mes deux petites-filles, grand-papa, j'ai pas le temps de te parler, on s'en va jouer de la casserole au coin de la rue. Attendez-moi, j'arrive. Maisonneuve, brave monsieur Maisonneuve, s'inquiétait vendredi midi: oui, mais si toutes ces manifestations allaient perturber les festivals, nos chers festivals? Oui, mais les touristes? Ne croyez pas les flics ni les politiques quand ils dénoncent la violence des casseurs. La violence qu'ils redoutent vraiment est celle, domestique, des casseroles. Chérie, est-ce qu'on a des vieilles casseroles? Ça se peut.

How Dangerous Is The USA? AnonHQ November 20th, 2015 | by hqanon Politics The USA is the world’s only superpower. Armed with weapons of mass destruction and a history of committing some of the worst crimes to humanity, how far will the USA go to maintain economic, political and military dominance? Transcript of the video: In 2014, the United States of America was officially named the country that posed the greatest threat to world peace. With the USA’s position as the world’s leading economic and military power set to be unchallenged, perhaps we should all ask ourselves: “How dangerous is the USA?” Despite the fact that congress last officially declared war in 1941, since World War II, America has been engaged in more wars than any other country. Most recently, the USA’s involvement in the Middle East has led to the rise of terrorist group ISIS, which is intent on violently installing a global Islamic state. Related articles: The Truth About The Wars of the USA This Article (How Dangerous Is The USA?)

We Are Singing Stardust: Carl Sagan on the Story of Humanity’s Greatest Message and How the Golden Record Was Born by Maria Popova “We [are] a species endowed with hope and perseverance, at least a little intelligence, substantial generosity and a palpable zest to make contact with the cosmos.” In 1939, just before his fifth birthday, Carl Sagan visited the New York World’s Fair, where he marveled at the Time Capsule evincing the fair’s confidence in the future — a hermetically sealed chamber, filled with newspapers, books and artifacts from that year, buried in Flushing Meadows to be revisited in some far-off future era by a future culture very different from and curious about the present. Sagan, in his characteristic eloquence, writes of the motivation, offering a poetic, humbling, and timelier than ever reminder of just how misplaced our existential arrogance is: The coming of the space age has brought with it an interest in communication over time intervals far longer than any [of our predecessors] could have imagined, as well as the means to send messages to the distant future. The Golden Record

#NuitDebout : « Nous étions endormis et nous nous réveillons » LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Annick Cojean Est-ce l’amorce d’un mouvement qu’ils rêveraient « lame de fond » ou peut-être « déferlante » ? Est-ce l’annonce d’un « sursaut citoyen » qui mettrait dans la rue des Français de toutes conditions avides de protester et débattre, en criant leur défiance abyssale envers leurs élus et envers un système ? Est-ce le prélude d’un processus dit « révolutionnaire » ? Le mot ne fait pas peur au millier de jeunes gens réunis place de la République dans la nuit du 1er avril. Quelle jubilation quand ils prononcent ce mot ! La convergence des luttes Mais la révolution ne s’improvise pas en un jour. « Renouer avec les cahiers de doléances » Surtout, on s’accorde à reconnaître « qu’il ne faut pas compter sur les élections pour changer la politique ». Tout est à réinventer, clament tour à tour une multitude de jeunes gens. Car on vote beaucoup lors de cette assemblée générale. « Nous étions endormis et nous nous réveillons » Le terrorisme ?

General Motors streetcar conspiracy The General Motors streetcar conspiracy (also known as the Great American streetcar scandal) refers to allegations and convictions in relation to a program by General Motors (GM) and other companies who purchased and then dismantled streetcar and electric train systems in many cities in the United States. Some suggest that this program played a key role in the decline of public transit in cities across the United States; notably Edwin J. Quinby, who first drew attention to the program in 1946, and then Bradford C. Snell, an anti-trust attorney for the United States Senate whose controversial 1974 testimony to a Senate inquiry brought the issue to national awareness. History[edit] Background[edit] At one time, nearly every city in the U.S. with a population over 10,000 had at least one streetcar company; nearly all were privately owned and were later dismantled. Early years[edit] In 1922, GM President and CEO Alfred P. The Omnibus Corporation was formed in 1926 by John D. Conversion[edit]