Alternatív oktatás

A Sixth Sense in the War on Terrorism The new Sixth Sense technology will enable security forces to identify suspicious behavior and objects using two simple video cameras Nathanael Roseman, Bamahane magazine Forces specialized in fighting terror as well as security officials will soon acquire a sixth sense: though it sounds like science fiction, it’s actually new technology for preemptive action against terror attacks and crime. The system, manufactured by Ness Technologies, will identify suspicious activity in allotted areas and will thus alert of any unusual activity which could lead to acts of terrorism. The project, dubbed Sixth Sense, was recently developed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (Maf’at). The new technology creates a three dimensional scan of a given area using two simple video cameras. By interpreting the information composed of people and objects, the system creates the normal image of...

Flash Mob As Anti-Nuclear Protest Until now, flash mobs have been used to spark happiness, inspiration and positivity in onlookers. However, in the past week a video has been getting coverage that uses the flash mob in a new way—to protest against the misuse of nuclear energy by spreading fear. A scary flash mob, which was part of a national Greenpeace Switzerland campaign against nuclear plants, has the whole world chattering about the potential effects of nuclear energy. On May 25, groups of people all over Switzerland were involved in the Greenpeace campaign, randomly falling to the ground in public places around the country. The objective of the countrywide flash mob was to emulate what it would look like if a nuclear cloud spread over the country and to shock and awe viewers. The horrified looks on the faces of the onlookers say it all—the effects of the misuse of nuclear energy could potentially be terrifying. The video, ‘Der Zonenplan’, which is translated as ‘The Zoning Pla...

Russians don't have to look far for organic produce - Russia Beyond the Headlines Every weekend I go to my local market. My usual path is like this: First, I’ll go to the Lipetsk farmer for dairy products, then on to the Tambov farmer for meat and poultry; I buy honey from people I know in Volgograd; the fruit and vegetables I like best are those that are in season. Of course all this can be bought much more cheaply at the supermarket, but the taste of a chicken that has been running around a farmyard is completely different from that of a chicken that has spent its short and unhappy life imprisoned in a cage at a factory farm. And organically grown apples smell completely different from those that will keep for half a year. It turns out that I share these preferences with many of my compatriots. According to a recent survey carried out by the research company Romir, 39 percent of Russians believe that high-quality produce and Russian produce are one and the same. This surge of cul...

In mid-20th-century, the Communist Party wanted to believe that the environment could alter a species. The political payoff would be that Russia’s Communists could grow more wheat and create a New Socialist Man in a generation or two. A scientist named Trofim Lysenko elaborated this theory in great detail; and Stalin pronounced it True. For several decades there were two kinds of genetics in the world, what the Communists believed and what the rest of the world practiced. Stalin declared that 2 + 2 equals 5, as in the famous scene in Orwell’s “1984”, and all the people under his power enthusiastically accepted Lysenko’s teachings. “Scientific dissent from Lysenko's theories of environmentally acquired inheritance was formally outlawed in 1948, and for the next several years opponents were purged from held positions, and many imprisoned....Today much of Lysenko's agricultural experimentation and research is largely viewed as fraudulent.” At this point, you’re probably t...

Al Shabaab Is Falling Apart October 28, 2010: Al Shabaab is falling apart. For the same reason Somalia has had no national government for two decades, al Shabaab has been split by clan and personal differences. Rival groups, mainly Hizbul Islam, and the Sufi coalition ASWJ (Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca) have grown stronger. So has the TNG (Transitional National Government), despite being the largest, most corrupt and most fragile coalition around. The net result is that the al Shabaab threat to dominate all of Somalia is gone. The internal feud is not just about clan matters, but also between those who accept al Qaeda foreigners, their money and their goals, and those who do not want to be dominated by these murderous foreigners. This has led to some justified anxiety among the al Qaeda members who have sought to establish terrorism bases in Somalia. For the last week, TNG and al Shabaab gunmen have been fighting to control the southeastern town of Beled-Hawa. This has caused over 50,000 c...

Decay And Decline October 30, 2010: The current government has made progress in fixing the economy and reducing the atmosphere of lawlessness. But corruption is still rampant, and the newly centralized government is seen as a return to autocratic rule of the past. The problem with autocratic strongmen is that they tend to stay in power long past the point where they are effective. The czars and communists both suffered from this, and it is feared that new "democratic dictatorship" will do the same. Despite quality control and delivery problems, Russia continues to provide 60 percent of Indian arms imports over the last seven years. But because of those problems, Russia is only providing 45 percent of Indian arms exports over the next three years. Western suppliers are moving in, and Russia is having a hard time competing. A new mayor in Moscow (the old one had been in power for over a decade, but had gone against the national leadership and was dismissed) has said he wil...

Európa pestise - A cigányok A BBC "Ez a Világ" c. sorozat forgatócsoportja egyenesen Romániába utazott, hogy fészkükben vegye filmre, dokumentálja Európa pestisét! Kitűnő film, ajánlom mindenkinek! A címe: Tolvaj cigánygyerekek. Azon túl, hogy bemutatja a cigányokat a maguk valójában, úgy, ahogy élnek a maguk primitív, belterjes és agresszív világában, - nem teljesen mellőzve a bevett liberális, fajvédő torzításokat és csúsztatásokat -, felhívja figyelmünket azokra az élethelyzetekre, mikor ezek a mindig résen lévő, emberi farkasok lehetőséget láthatnak a meglopásunkra, kirablásunkra- rosszabb esetben: életünk kioltására is! Európa pestise - A cigányok

New NATO TV story - Using Nature to Clean Up

Saudi Prince Against Islamic Supremacist Mega-Mosque at Ground Zero Prince Alwaleed is the unfathomably rich Saudi prince who owns part of Fox News, and whose check to New York City after 9/11 was famously returned by Rudolph Giuliani after he made remarks suggesting that he thought America's foreign policy was to blame for the attacks. He also funds pseudo-academic propagandist John Esposito's Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown. Who knows what else he funds -- the mainstream media, in its frenzy to track and sensationalize the comparatively minuscule sums that anti-jihadists are taking in to sustain their operations, shows no interest in that. In light of all that, his statements here are remarkable and welcome. Notice also that he doesn't say anything to the effect that it is not at Ground Zero and is not a mosque: he no doubt knows that those are just propaganda lines fed to the useful idiots. (In case you're just tuning in,...

Mikhalkov's Disturbing Manifesto Film director and self-proclaimed monarchist Nikita Mikhalkov caused a big stir Wednesday when he released his 10,000-word political manifesto titled “Right and Truth.” The main theme of the manifesto, that Russia needs a strong leader, is nothing new.

Russia's Foreign and Security Policy: An Update - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Recent developments in Russia’s foreign policy reflect the country’s struggle to preserve its status as a “great power” through modernization. Dmitri Trenin of the Moscow Center discussed how the economic crisis, China’s rising power, and Moscow’s relations with its neighbors have affected its foreign and security policy. Carnegie’s Martha Brill Olcott moderated. “Modernization alliances” In a departure from previous policy, Russia now seeks to maintain its global status by focusing on economic as opposed to military power, Trenin said. The centerpiece of its foreign policy is forging so-called “modernization alliances” with other countries, including the United States, to secure the resources it requires for modernization. Domestic Situation Russia’s domestic situation will affect its foreign policy. 2012 election. The 2012 presidential election will be more interesting than previously an...

WikiLeaks and the Culture of Classification is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

Burma’s history is marked by insurgencies and ethnic tension. Next month’s poll could see them bubble over into armed conflict. MAE LA CAMP, THAILAND—Aside from the checkpoints, it could be any village in Thailand. The bamboo houses, bisected by dirt lanes and picturesque streams, are well-tended and strung with brightly-coloured laundry; in dirt-floored cafes, men in Burmese longyi (sarongs) chat over shots of sugary tea and chew betel nut, while nearby stalls stock the latest Thai cosmetics and DVDs. Children, their cheeks daubed with swirls of traditional thanaka face paint, chant lessons in Burmese and English in well-equipped bamboo classrooms. But for the residents of Mae La refugee camp, life is in an ongoing limbo. Created in 1984, the camp is now home to an estimated 47,000 inhabitants, most of whom fled ethnic violence and other abuses inside the military-ruled country to the west. Around 65 percent of the camp’s residents are ethnic Karens, part of the tragic diaspora b...

Schwarzenegger lauds 'Gold mine' (+video) - Russia Beyond the Headlines California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called President Dmitry Medvedev "a great visionary" and compared Russia to a "gold mine" of business opportunities in comments to a room full of entrepreneurs and journalists in Moscow The 63-year-old bodybuilder and Hollywood star came to the capital to lead the 2010 Silicon Valley trade mission to Russia, bringing along senior management from 28 U.S. companies — including leading IT and energy companies and venture capital firms — as well as State Department officials. "President Medvedev is a great visionary. He had this vision to create a Silicon Valley in Skolkovo," Schwarzenegger said. "I love places where there is an extraordinary potential," Schwarzenegger said of Russia. "It's almost like looking at a gold or diamond mine and saying, 'All you got to do is go in there and get it.'" The Kremlin ...

Moscow hosts global summit on heroin plague - Russia Beyond the Headlines Heads from around 40 countries gathered in Moscow to figure out how to win the battle against drugs, a problem daunting in scope. Of course it is not only the problem of dealing with drug addicts but also first and foremost the issue of tackling drug trafficking and drug production, which Afghanistan is notorious for. Local peasants there head the production line. The scope of the drug problem in Russia Heroin is a huge problem for the world at large, but as for Russia specifically this problem is monstrous. Around 80 tons of heroin, mostly produced in Afghanistan, are consumed in Russia annually. During his opening address to the summit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the drug problem should not be politicized. “We shouldn't distinguish between countries where drugs are a threat to all mankind, and countries which say – let things be as they are, we will see what the future holds. Any political ...

Kremlinology: balanced tandem - Russia Beyond the Headlines The dismissal of Yuri Luzhkov and the appointment of Sergei Sobyanin are seen by many as hallmark political events. The stand-off between the president and the Moscow mayor became a litmus test for Russian politics, revealing that the Kremlin was not lacking in political will. But what is grabbing people’s attention is the upcoming presidential election. Meanwhile, there is continuing uncertainty over the criteria for choosing the presidential candidate from the Putin-Medvedev tandem. This non-democratic approach, as well as Medvedev’s remarks about a possible third candidate, caused nervousness within Russia’s political elite, provoking new intrigue among officials and fuelling speculation on the looming redistribution of business. Among the most hotly debated issues is the impact of the Moscow events on the alignment of forces between Putin and Medvedev . Some say Medvedev has narrowed the gap in his approval ratings with Pr...

"Are We Going to Keep Winning For 20 Years?" After embedding with GIs and jihadis, a reporter reflects on America's chances of success in Afghanistan. In his new book, Aftermath: Following the Bloodshed of America's Wars in the Muslim World , journalist (and Mother Jones contributor) Nir Rosen presents a visceral portrait of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He's embedded with GIs and jihadists, hung out with Afghan "stoner cops," and has had some close calls, like nearly being dragged before a sharia judge who might have sentenced him to death. In this excerpt, Rosen reflects on his recent experiences in Afghanistan and the prospects of American counterinsurgency efforts in a country with a long history of unsuccessful occupations. Supporters of General Stanley McChrystal, the former US commander in Afghanistan, liked to say "he gets it," as if there was a magic counterinsurgency (COIN) formula they'd discovered in 2009. But Afghans...

Leaked Report, New Iraqi Alignment Reveal U.S. War Failure - IPS ipsnews.net Leaked Report, New Iraqi Alignment Reveal U.S. War Failure Gareth Porter, Inter Press Service, Oct 25 http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53283 Washington - A newly released Wikileaks document on Iraq and the new political alignment between Moqtada al-Sadr and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki both provide fresh evidence that Gen. David Petraeus's war against Shi'a militias in 2007-2008 was a futile exercise. The Wikileaks document is an intelligence report identifying the Shi'a commander who Petraeus said was the Iranian-backed rogue militia leader behind the kidnapping and killing of five U.S. troops in Karbala in January 2007. In fact, according to the leaked document, it was a Mahdi Army commander. That new information about the Karbala operation confirms earlier evidence that in 2007 a political axis linking Iran, Sadr and Maliki was working to foil Petraeus's assault on the Mahdi Army a...

Staunton, October 25 – Like their Soviet predecessors, the current powers that be in the Russian Federation are quite prepared to sacrifice the national interests of the ethnic Russian people in the pursuit of an imperialist agenda, but this sacrifice will not serve either Russian national interests or Moscow’s imperial goals, according to a Kazan sociologist. Aleksandr Salagayev further argues that “the legal vacuum which characterizes the situation of ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation and the position of the powers that be who are ignoring this contradiction is the source of inter-ethnic conflicts with migrants, the extremism of Russian organizations in Russia and the weakness of Russian diasporas abroad. In a 3200-word essay posted on the Regnum.ru news agency, Salagayev, a specialist on social and political conflicts at the Kazan State Technological University, traces the long and complicated history of the relations between the ethnic Russian nation and the states with...