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It is very likely that you will be getting either Linux or Android operating systems as part of your Infotainment System or Instrument Cluster in a latest model car. Designs based on these operating systems are now getting into production, with some European OEMs going first but many others close behind. How designers chose which operating system to use is a very current debate – the popularity and rapid growth of Android is unparalleled in operating system history – around 70% of smart phones sold are now Android based. These phone users are now expecting the functionality of Android, and Android App access in their cars.
On the other hand, Android is very unproven as an in-vehicle software platform, and does not have a strong automotive team at Google behind it. How secure and safe is it? As an alternative, Linux has the weight of the GENIVI industry alliance promoting it as an open source platform solution for IVI design. The 169 GENIVI members can't all be wrong can they? Deciding which software platform to use is not necessarily a clear-cut decision, so we put together a short webinar to share the issues, and some market dynamics on this intriguing subject.
You will hear about :
– Android and Linux : Ownership & Roadmap
– Licensing
– Performance
– OEM and Tier 1 take-up
– Development Community
Please join us on May 16th – you can register at :


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Quotes & Info
ALCO > SEC Filings for ALCO > Form 8-K on 6-Feb-2014 | All Recent SEC Filings |
Results of Operations and Financial Condition, Financial Statements and Exhibits
On February 6, 2014, Alico, Inc. issued a press release announcing its financial results for the three months ended December 31, 2013. A copy of the press release is furnished within this report as Exhibit 99.1.
(d) Exhibits.
99.1 Alico, Inc. Press Release dated February 6, 2014

subset: commoncrawl


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NEWPORT, Ore. — State and federal agencies, along with nonprofit groups, met Tuesday to start putting together a plan for how to deal with the debris from last year's tsunami in Japan if and when it shows up along the Oregon Coast.
Park rangers clean up items that have washed up ashore here along the Oregon Coast on a daily basis. But now with the chance of debris from the tsunami that hit Japan last year washing up ashore, they're not sure how much we'll be seeing, but they're preparing for the worst.
NOAA representatives say some debris has already hit Alaska, but so far there are no confirmed reports of any tsunami debris landing on the Oregon Coast.
However, they say high-wind items, like a buoy, soccer ball or boat, could be washing up on our coast any day now.
"We have not seen any tsunami debris at all. We've had a couple of calls; both of them were checked out, and neither one of them ended up being tsunami debris," said Beverly Beach State Park Manager Patti Green.
Low-wind items, like a net or timber, are expected to take a few years to hit our coast.
Coastal residents say they're anticipating what might show up.
"It puts it into perspective. You know maybe what could be coming up or whatnot I mean, big or bad, hoping for the best because you don't want anything bad happening as far as animal life and stuff like that," said Newport Resident John Hicks.
"Well, clean up the beach for one, keep it nice and clean, and just see what you can find, because I like to beach comb," said Waldport resident Becky Whelen.
The big question is, how much debris can we expect?
State park leaders say they're preparing for the worst, but don't anticipate there actually being a problem.
They say volunteers will play a big role in helping clean up the debris.
"I think it'll have to be a big community effort and agencies, you know, multi-agency effort because the parks themselves can't take care of all of that," Green said.
If you do happen to find trash from the tsunami, you're asked to report it to NOAA before throwing it away. If you find anything of value like a personal item, you're asked to turn it over to any state parks department. If you find something you think might be hazardous, call 911.


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Hello! Hope you all had a lovely weekend Spent mine celebrating a friend's birthday on Friday night, dancing into the early hours & having lots of fun! Saturday & Sunday were very chilled lazy ones with the bf treating me to a yummy meal at Burger & Lobster…if you haven't been you must go!
Today I thought I'd share with you some of the recent goodies I've picked up at a few charity shops. I don't often find many amazing finds in the shops these days, they either seem inundated with Primark clothes or the items are too modern!
That being said, last week I did find two lovely items:
I am in need of some decent cardigans & this silk blend one from LK Bennett is fab for Summer.
However, my most exciting find is most definitely this vintage 1950s lucite purse!
Just by chance my brother & I decided to pop into a few charity shops close to my parents place. I wasn't really on a hunt for anything, just casually browsing & poking around the kick knacks of glass bowls & pottery when my eyes landed on the purse. At first I thought it was a jewellery box, but then I saw the marbled sides & a little twinkle from one of the rhinestones…& I think I literally snatched it up opened the lid & saw the price:
£3!!! Absolute vintage score!
If you follow me on twitter you will know that last month I was super gutted to have missed out on a lucite purse by seconds at a boot sale so to find this without the swarm or dealers to fend off…amazing!
Unfortunately it wasn't in the best of conditions when I bought it, pretty grimy on the lid, so much so that the rhinestones barely sparkled & with a lot of scratches & strange circle marks on it.
At first I tried Brasso to remove the marks & it barely made a dent which was frustrating as the marks were really noticable, but then I tried using Simichrome polish & in one application it made a huge difference. I think I used it about 4 times to fully remove all the scratches….AMAZING STUFF!
After finding the Horrockses & Shaheen dresses earlier last month I was pretty sure my vintage luck was running out but then I found this clutch which I absolutely adore & will treasure for years to come! It beats any Zara perspex clutch hands down
BUT! The luck hasn't stopped there…just spent yesterday evening bidding on an AMAZING bangle & I got it. Cannot wait for it to arrive so I can show you all!
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Make a statement with this beautifully handcrafted table lamp from Candice Olson.
From designer Candice Olson, this distinctive table lamp features a beautiful soft gold finish over metal construction and is topped by a cream poly silk hardback shade. As it is handcrafted, no two are alike.
Our associates are standing by to assist you.


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NEW YORK — Joe Johnson snapped out of a slump with 23 points against his former team, and the Brooklyn Nets matched a season high with their third straight victory by beating the Atlanta Hawks 91-86 on Monday night.
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Is an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) right for your electrical contracting company? What is an ESOP and how do you establish one? READ MORE
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Fueled by a hot real estate market, residential lighting manufacturers are creating products that integrate design and function at the onset. READ MORE
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Since the first power quality monitor was introduced by Dranetz Engineering Laboratories in 1975, there have been a lot of changes in the instruments that monitor electric dis READ MORE
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Amanda Wyatt
Sophia Tolli
Ronald Joyce
Exquisite Bridal Wear by International Designers
Based in St Helens, The Bridal Room is a contemporary boutique with everything for the bride and her attendants.
Fabulous bridal gowns by award-winning designer Sophia Tolli along with gowns by; Demetrios, Ronald Joyce, Romantica, Alfred Angelo and Special Day. Maids by Alfred Angelo, Romantica, Special Day and Ronald Joyce are also available to complement the gowns.
The Bridal Room is a family-run business and has become locally renowned for its relaxed environment, personal service and attention to detail. A carefully selection of stunning gowns will suit every bride and budget.
You are invited to visit The Bridal Room for the dress of your desires!
Click on a Brand to view examples of work


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Listen in today as we talk with Mr. Refirement himself, Jim Gambone!
Bob works as a mind-body transformation expert and trainer as well as a professional speaker. He's...
Dr. Lori L Shemek, the Founder/President of DLS HealthWorks, LLC, is a well-known and reputed Profes...
Ignite Your Life with Dr. Lori Shemek
] Mindset, Mindfulness, and How to Stop Negative Self-Talk
Mindset and mindfulness as taught by Dr. Lori in her visit as this episode of Igniting Your Life opens up the conversation about why this is critical to our wellness.
We're also joined by another expert and great pal Dr. Bob Choat, author of "Mind Your Own Fitness". The conversation between the three of us is lively and informative, to say the least. We all need to see things in the right way, and we discuss this as well as:
- Intentions
- The fallacy of multitasking
- Taking pleasure in your work
- And how reminding yourself about how awesome life is is important
Listen in as we talk about how an 'empty mind' is actually a very good thing and how that relates to mindfullness.


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Enable your users to stay productive from anywhere on any device, simplify desktop management and protect your corporate resources.
As more and more users expect to access their corporate resources from anywhere and on a variety of unmanaged devices and platforms, IT organizations need a solution to offer consistent and managed desktop and applications for user productivity and satisfaction. With the trend towards bring-your-own-device (BYOD), you not only need to support several different platforms but also protect your corporate resources and maintain compliance. In certain use-case scenarios, storing the data on the device may not be ideal or may not meet your data security or compliance requirements (i.e. confidential customer or patient records).
By centralizing desktops and applications in the datacenter or in the cloud, Microsoft Desktop Virtualization solution helps you enable your users to access corporate resources from anywhere, on a variety of devices, and maintain data compliance.
Desktops and applications are streamed but never stored on user devices so the risk of losing data on stolen, compromised or lost devices is reduced.
At Microsoft, we know deploying new solutions can be challenging as IT organizations work with limited resources. Microsoft's Desktop Virtualization solution is designed to simplify the deployment and management of remote desktops, sessions and applications using a single, unified console in Windows Server so you can leverage your staff's existing skills while enabling your users to be productive on a variety of devices and platforms.


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No Love For Rodgers
No. They shouldn't.
The way I see it, Aaron Rodgers is more advanced and NFL ready than any of the QBs coming out this year. Also, Rodgers is going to be under enough pressure as it is as Favre's heir. Why complicate things further by throwing another 1st Round QB in the mix to look over his shoulder? And what if Rodgers becomes a star? Then you have wasted a pick and are left with a talented, young QB with a huge salary. Just ask Brady Quinn and the Browns how awesome that situation has been.
No, the Packers need to draft for a need. QB isn't the biggest hole right now. I have a feeling they won't do it, but a CB is the only choice here.
And those of you clamoring for some insurance behind Rodgers, don't fret. The QB with the biggest upside in the draft will be available in the mid rounds… Kevin O'Connell out of SD State. 6'6, 230ish. Cannon arm AND he can fly. Click here for stats and a highlight video: http://nfldraft.rivals.com/cviewplayer.asp?sport=1&player=6766
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Hamas and Iran Want to Kill all the Jews in Israel
By EMERSON VERMAAT
November 26, 2012 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org –
Just recently, I paid a two-day visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp where more than one million Jews were killed by the Nazis. Most of the victims were gassed in the so-called gas chambers and their bodies were subsequently burned in huge crematoria. Deportation trains packed with Jewish children, women and men entered Birkenau through its "gate of death." Most of the deportees were murdered on the very day of arrival. But on October 23, 1943, a young Jewish woman named Franceska Mann refused to enter the gas chamber, grabbed the pistol of a notoriously cruel SS-guard and killed him. There are other examples of courageous women who lashed out against the SS-guards, telling them they were murderers and shameless criminals who would sooner or late face death themselves.
When I walked past the infamous unloading ramp inside Birkenau I saw a small number young people waving the Israeli flag. It was cold outside, but seeing the Star of David in this hellish place did give me a warm feeling inside. It showed that Hitler's diabolical plans to annihilate the Jews and to achieve an Arab victory in Palestine – a British mandate at the time – eventually came to nothing.
If Hitler would have won the war, he would indeed have killed all the Jews of Europe. He did kill six million of them and by 1945 there were still some four million left. After the Holocaust the founders of the State of Israel realized that the Jews were entitled to a place of refuge, where they would not be persecuted by anti-Semitic maniacs and conquerors such as Hitler whose notorious book "Mein Kampf" was also translated into Arabic. As Golda Meir, whom I admire so much for her courage, told the United Nations General Assembly in December 1956: "The concept of annihilating Israel is a legacy of Hitler's war against the Jewish people, and it is no coincidence that Nasser's soldiers had an Arab translation of Mein Kampf in their knapsacks." Gamal Abdel Nasser was the Egyptian president at the time. Nasser's "holy mission" was the liquidation of the State of Israel, "driving all the Jews into the sea."
When SS-officer Adolf Eichmann visited Egypt in the Autumn of 1937 he discovered that many Arabs sympathized with the Nazis. "They are very elated when they hear the name of Hitler," he reported after he returned to Berlin. The Muslim Brotherhood also sided with the Nazis. During the Second World War, Hitler in turn praised "the Arab liberation movement" and said he would do everything to prevent "a Jewish National Home" (a Jewish state) to be established in "Palestine." He even planned to conquer the Middle East and Palestine. By the summer of 1942 his armies were not far from the Egyptian port city of Alexandria and had penetrated deep into the Caucasus. The Nazi plan was to "liberate" Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.
During the war Eichmann was responsible for the killing of millions of Jews. He traveled to the Hungarian capital of Budapest in March 1944 to personally oversee the deportation of 438,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz within a period of just two months. Less than ten percent of the deported Hungarian Jews were still alive in 1945. The figure of 438,000 was derived from official Nazi documents written by Edmund Veesenmayer, Hitler's personal representative in Hungary at the time.
Hamas: "Kill all the brothers of apes and pigs, the Jews!"
Today, Hamas and Iran not only seek to destroy the Jewish State of Israel and replace it by their own Taliban-like dictatorship, also do they plan another Holocaust. Like Hitler and the Nazis they seek to kill all the Jews. In March 2008, Sheikh Yunus Al-Astal, a Hamas legislator and imam, discussed a Koranic verse suggesting that "suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next." "The reason for the punishment of burning is that it is fitting retribution for what they have done," Astal wrote. "But the urgent question is, is it possible that they will have the punishment of burning in this world, before the great punishment of hell?" Many religious leaders believe so, he said adding: "Therefore, we are sure that the Holocaust is still to come upon the Jews."
In their crematoria in Auschwitz and other death camps, the Nazis burned the corpses of millions of Jews. Bodies were also thrown into pits outside these crematoria and put on fire. And now militant Hamas leaders announce another Holocaust for the Jews. They want to "finish the job" that Hitler and Eichmann did not finish, killing all the Jews, that is.
Article 7 of the official Charter of Hamas quotes the Muslim prophet Mohammed: "The Final Hour will not come until Muslims fight against the Jews and the Muslims kill them, and until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, and a stone or tree would say: O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" "The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) looks forward to implementing Allah's promise no matter how long it takes," the same Charter says.
When I visited Gaza and the West Bank in 1996 and 2002, I was struck by the fact that militant Muslim clerics never referred to "Israeli citizens" or "Israelis" when they addressed their followers in their sermons of hate. Instead, they invariably lashed out against the Jews, all the Jews, that is. The influential Hamas cleric Yousif Al-Zahar refers to the Jews as "the brothers of apes and pigs." So does the hysterical Hamas MP and cleric Yunis Al-Astal who predicted that Muslims will conquer Rome: "Very soon, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was… Today, Rome is the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital, which has declared its hostility to Islam and has planted the brothers of apes and pigs in Palestine…" (Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden could not have said it better.)
The Jews are the ones who must disappear from the face of the earth. This is the same agenda that the equally hysterical Hitler and the Nazis once pursued. (Ideological and religious hysterics can be extremely dangerous once they are in power.) For Hamas the so-called Israeli occupation is just a pretext to justify outright hatred of the Jews – a widespread phenomenon in the Muslim world and among too many Muslim immigrants in the West who are often angry and frustrated young males and veiled women. These Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood sympathizers usually benefit from the welfare system and are causing serious problems in Europe's main cities. You will find them in anti-Western and pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Berlin, Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris or London. Some of them even joined the so-called jihad or "holy war" and are now dangerous terrorists.
Hamas, Turkey, Egypt, Iran and the neo-Nazis
Hamas is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood which is also rapidly gaining ground in Syria and Turkey. On November 17, Turkey's outspokenly pro-Muslim Brotherhood Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a solidarity visit to Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, and also lashed out against "Israel's attack on Gaza." Talks with Israel were not deemed necessary. "Turkish-Israeli relations are at zero level," Erdogan lamely explained. He also called Israel "a terrorist state." (Did Turkey not retaliate and invade Northern Iraq after the Kurdish PKK staged attacks on Turkish territory?) Erdogan did not say anything about the fact that it was Hamas that provoked these attacks by firing
numerous missiles on Israeli territory. New Iranian missiles have been smuggled into Gaza via Egypt and have a longer range. Last October Israel bombed an Iranian ammunition factory in Sudan because the weapons from that factory were smuggled into Gaza – also via Egypt.
"If Israel has peace and quiet, so will Gaza," IDF Spokeswoman Avital Leibovich told CNN on Sunday November 18. What she meant to say was that Hamas was the first to attack Israeli civilians by launching quite a lot of missiles. The very moment Hamas stops doing so, Israel will cease to retaliate. But Hamas is not as rational as many liberal journalists and politicians in the West assume. There is a wide gap between Western rationality and Arab or Muslim irrationality. Muslims can be easily set on the boil, regardless of the fatal economic consequences of their behavior. Moreover, Hamas has powerful friends in Iran and Egypt who supply them with deadly weapons. (Egypt allowed massive illegal weapons transfers into Gaza.)
Like Hamas, Iran seeks to kill all the Jews in Israel. They are developing an atomic bomb. A recent IAEA report notes "a sharp increase in Iran's supply of a more purified form of enriched uranium that can be more easily converted to weapon's grade fissile material." Iran's Islamo-Fascist president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that "the zionist entity" must be wiped off the face of the earth. In other words, drive all the Jews into the sea – an echo of Nasser's policy in the 1950s and 60s. Ahmadinejad is also a despicable Holocaust denier. His best allies are notorious neo-Nazis and radical socialists and communists such as Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.
Last October, Egyptian president Morsi joined a preacher in prayer for the dispersal of the Jews. Just like Ahmadinejad, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and most neo-Nazis in Europe and the USA, Morsi, too, believes that "the Jews" were behind the 9/11 attacks – an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, by the way.
Anti-Semitic neo-Nazis in Europe and the United States are siding with militant Palestinians and Iran. Thus, Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi gave an interview to the German neo-Nazi outlet "Junge Freiheit." Iran's president Ahmadinejad invited European, Australian and American neo-Nazis to Tehran, meeting their travel expenses. Ahmadinejad's view of the Holocaust was hailed by neo-Nazi publications in Europe.
There are now serious tensions between Iran and Egypt over the civil war in Syria. Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan belatedly realized that Iran does pose a threat to the region. Initially, he naively sought to court the Iranian and Syrian leaders. Citizens from Iran, Syria, Iraq and Jordan no longer need a visa for Turkey, but Israeli citizens are not welcome. This led to another unwelcome influx of Muslim asylum seekers and illegal immigrants in Greece, all of whom want to travel to Western Europe.
Iran and Hamas as the originators of today's suicide bombing frenzy
9/11 was the first major suicide attack in the United States. Al-Qaeda proudly referred to this successful attack as "a martyrdom operation." Suicide bombing attacks have really proliferated since then. They occurred in Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Australia, Russia, Chechnya, Spain, Italy, France and Britain. This list is not exhaustive. Suicide bombing is a virtually incurable cancer. One can only pray that the suicide attackers or those who sponsor them won't be capable of developing a nuclear bomb. These fanatics don't care about death and destruction. "Allahu Akhbar" is their holy slogan. It is rather, just like "Heil Hitler," a curse on those who die.
The first major suicide bombing attack occurred in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on April 18, 1983. A car bomb destroyed the U.S. embassy. On October 23, another car bomb destroyed the U.S. Marine barracks in the same city. Responsible for both attacks was an Iranian sponsored terrorist group called Hezbollah. Numerous suicide attacks would follow. Hezbollah leaders were the first to call their suicide attacks "martyrdom operations." They claimed that those who carried out these attacks would go straight to "paradise."
Hamas was founded in 1987 and they wanted to copy Hezbollah's successful "martyrdom operations." The first Hamas sponsored suicide attack occurred in Tel Aviv on October 19, 1994. It was a so-called 'belt bomb." Numerous terrorist attacks would follow involving belt bombs, car bombs, truck bombs and suitcase bombs. The successful suicide attacks carried out by Hamas and its even more militant rival "Islamic Jihad" were soon copied by Al-Qaeda and other very dangerous terrorist groups. One can, therefore, conclude that both Hezbollah and Hamas were, in a way, the inventors or originators of today's Islamist suicide attacks – a real frenzy now.
It was in the beginning of 1996 that I was making a television report on "The making of a suicide bomber." I had to travel to the Westbank and Gaza to interview family members of Yahya Ayyash, a notorious Hamas bomb maker who was killed in a successful Mossad operation. I saw posters everywhere glorifying Ayyash as a martyr who was in paradise now. I also heard stories about the promises that radical Muslim clerics made to those who wanted to die in a "martyrdom operation," killing as many Jews as possible. There would those "72 very pretty black-eyed virgins" awaiting them in paradise. Wow! The suicide bombers death is even portrayed as "a wedding." The so-called "martyrs" are marrying
beautiful virgins in paradise.
Most suicide bombers, also those who carried out the 9/11 attacks, were sexually frustrated young males, although women are also lured into "martyrdom operations" by hysterical hate preachers. The first female suicide bomber was a Palestinian woman named Wafa Idris. Hamas commemorated her as a martyr and so did the so-called secular Palestinian president Yassir Arafat. (Double-tongued Arafat also praised Yahyah Ayyash, in Arab, of course, not in English.)
Before they die, suicide bombers write their "last will" and also appear on propaganda videos which are distributed after the "operations" are over. For example, Hamas published the last will of Said Al-Hutari, who carried out the June 1, 2001, suicide bombing outside the disco near the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv, that killed 23, mostly teenage girls. "I will turn my body into bombs that will hunt the sons of Zion, blast them, and burn their remains," Al-Hutari wrote. "Call out in joy, oh my mother; distribute sweets, oh my father; a wedding with the 'black-eyed' awaits your son in paradise."
"The death announcements of martyrs in the Palestinian press often take the form of wedding, not funeral, announcements," MEMRI comments. "Blessings will be accepted immediately after the burial until 10 p.m…. at the home of the martyr's uncle," read one suicide bomber's death notice."
All suicide bombers do not go to their imagined "paradise," but straight to hell they go instead. They are psychopathic and fanatical little Hitlers bent on death and destruction, despicable worshippers of evil inspired by a satanic ideology. The same applies to all those Islamo-Fascist hate preachers who inspired and still inspire the suicide bombers. These Muslim preachers and clerics are not on the side of peace, justice and freedom, but on the side of diabolical and destructive evil – just like the Nazis between 1933 and 1945.
Emerson Vermaat is an investigative reporter in the Netherlands. He recently published a Dutch study on Adolf Eichmann. He is currently writing a book on Auschwitz. Website: emersonvermaat.com.
Golda Meir, My Life (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1975), p. 304.
Emerson Vermaat, Adolf Eichmann. Technocraat van de Holocaust (Soesterberg, Netherlands: 2012), p. 186 (Eichmann's visit to
Egypt in 1937), p. 195-200 (Hitler's plan to conquer the Middle East and "Palestine").
International Herald Tribune, April 1, 2008, p. 8 ("Hamas ratchets up anti-Jewish rhetoric"). Quotes from Sheikh Yunus Al-Astal.
Khaled Hroub, Hamas. Political Thought and Practice (Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2000), p. 271, 272 (Hamas Charter).
Memri Clip No 1739, April 11, 2008, Hamas MP and Cleric Yunis Al-Astal in a Friday Sermon: "We will Conquer Rome, and from There Continue to Conquer the Two Americas and Eastern Europe." (Jews referred to as "the brothers of apes and pigs.")
Morsi and Erdogan to Hold Talks on Israeli Attack on Gaza, Bahrein News Agency (BNA), November 16, 2012.
Iran's Enhanced Nuclear Capabilities, IPT News, November 16, 2012 (IAEA report).
Egyptian President Morsi Joins Preacher in Prayer for Dispersal of the Jews, MEMRI TV, Videoclip 3614, Channel 1 (Egypt),
October 19, 2012.
Robert Sattloff, Getting Egypt's Morsi to give up his 9/11 "truther" talk, in: The Washington Post, September 11, 2012.
Khaldoun Al-Chihabi, De Turks-Israëlische Betrekkingen: Een onherstelbare breuk of tijdelijke wrok? (Gent, Belgium: University of Gent, 2012).
Anton Maegerle, Die Unheilige Allianz Zwischen Hakenkreuz und Halbmond. Neonazis und fundamentalistische Islamisten, Informationsdienst gegen Rechtsextremismus (IDGR), 2001. (Rantisi).
Christoph Reuter, Mein Leben ist eine Waffe. Selbstmordattentäter – Psychogramm eines Phänomens (Munich: C. Bertelsmann,
2002), p. 88, 89, 110 (Hezbollah's "Martyrdom operations")
MEMRI, Inquiry and Analysis Series, No. 74, October 30, 2001, "72 Black-Eyed Virgins": A Muslim Debate on the Rewards of Martyrs."
(Said Al-Hutari).
Nazi Roots of Arab Palestinian National Movement
There was a time when Jewish children were hunted down and killed in France. Their killers believed themselves to be members of a superior group that was destined to rule the world and enslave or exterminate members of inferior groups. The cowardice and appeasement of the French authorities allowed them to operate freely, to kill Jews and launch attacks on other countries.
What was then is now again. The occupying army doesn't wear uniforms, it wears keffiyahs. It doesn't speak German, it speaks Arabic. It doesn't believe that it is superior for reasons of race as much as for reasons of religion. It does not view all others as Untermenschen, but as infidels. It looks forward not to a thousand year Reich, but to a thousand year Caliphate.
Mohammed Merah did not chase down a French-Jewish seven year old girl, put a gun to her head and pull the trigger because he came from an economically depressed area or any of the other media spin. He was only doing what Muslims had been doing to non-Muslims for over a thousand years. He didn't do what he did because he was "radicalized", he did it because he became a fully committed Muslim.
It won't end with taking down one man and it won't end with Jewish children. When your ideology believes that it is in a zero-sum struggle with the rest of the world and that membership means that you are a superior breed of human being because you worship the Fuhrer or Allah, then it won't stop. It won't ever stop. Not until the figurehead is toppled, the creed is humiliated and the supermen are shown to be cowards, neurotics, pedophiles, insecure men dressing up their weaknesses in power fantasies.
Between all the non-stop coverage, the expressions of grief, the political pandering, no one is stating the obvious. France has been occupied all over again. Once again the occupation has been carried out with the consent of the authorities who have decided that cowardice is the only way. Vichy France has become Vichy Europe, Vichy America, Vichy Australia, where the blatant appeasement is disguised as honor, treason is portrayed as responsible leadership and collaboration in the mass murder of your own people is never acknowledged as such.
It's not Neo-Nazis that are the threat to Jews today. It's the new Nazis and the old Nazis who were rounding up Jews into ghettos and murdering their children long before a thousand years before Hitler. The Neos are pathetically longing for the return of a genocidal state that isn't coming back, while the Muslims are actually working to bring back their genocidal state. They are doing it in Egypt, in Libya, in Pakistan and in England, France and Spain.
Muslims have hated Jews before the telephone, the telegraph, the steam engine, gunpowder, movable type and paper currency. And now surrounded by smartphones, credit cards and jet planes, they still hate them. That simple undeniable fact is denied by government, in every university and in every center of culture. And every one of those deniers has blood on his hands.
Not only the blood of the Jewish children murdered by Mohammed Merah. Not only the blood of Jews murdered by Muslims in France. But the blood of all those who have been killed by Muslim immigrants, no matter of what generation, in the name of Islam.
The names of Chamberlain, Petain and Quisling have become eternally infamous because they stand for appeasement and collaboration. But then what do we make of the names Blair, Sarkozy and Stoltenberg? What have the latter done differently from their predecessors? The left likes to pretend that its collaboration with Islam is moral, while the collaboration with Nazism was immoral. It's a distinction without a difference.
Does it really matter whether the men murdering children in the name of their Fuhrer call him Adolf or Mohammed? Does it matter whether they call themselves Hans or Mohammed? Does it matter whether their fantasies of superiority are based on bad science or bad religion? What matters is the end result. A foreign enemy controls your cities, murders at will and takes your future for his own.
The Tolouse Massacre did not come out of the blue, it follows decades of Muslim violence in France– a Kristalnacht that has been going on year after year. It will not stop here. Not while there are five million Muslim in France, some of whom are bound to pick up the Koran and take it seriously. The "radical" clerics that Mohammed Merah listened to did not innovate a new religion, there has never been any basis to the teachings of the so-called radicals other than the Koran. The only book more popular in the Muslim world than Mein Kampf.
"O Muslims, O Servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him." That is what Muslims look forward to in their end times. Rocks and trees that tell them where the Jews are so that the fat faithful servants of Allah don't have to spend too much time and energy searching for their victims. Mohammed Merah did not have any trees or rocks to tell him where to find Jews to kill. But he had a compliant French state which tolerated a known Jihadist to the detriment of his victims.
The question, as always, after every act of Muslim terror is how many more must die? How many? Because the killing will continue. It has gone on for over a thousand years. It is not about to stop now. Muslim leaders who condemn these acts do it for tactical reasons, not moral ones. They don't believe it's wrong to kill rebellious non-Muslims… unless the act rebounds against Muslims.
The difference between the "radicals" and the "moderates" is that the radicals want to engage in genocide even while they are a minority, while the moderates want to wait until they are a majority. The radicals are satisfied with killing a few Hindus, Christians, Jews, here and there. The moderates want to wait and kill millions. Neither are our allies. Both are our murderers.
There is no peaceful way forward here. Carving up Czechoslovakia, Cyprus or Israel will not sate the blood lust of people whose egos are fed by hate, who treat every concession as proof of their own superiority, who love nothing so much as for others to fear them. There is no peace to be had with a creed that defines peace exclusively in terms of its own dominance over others.
Islam, like Nazism, is a disease of the soul, a twin sense of superiority and victimhood possessed by the angry corner dwellers of the world, who are certain that they would rule if only it wasn't for all the others holding them back. To understand a Nazi or a Muslim, you don't need to learn their creeds, just stare into the eyes of a wife beater, a pedophile or any bully and you will see that same smirk which easily transforms into outrage, the arrogant tone that turns unctuous when it is set back on its heels, the flickering eyes that are always looking at what they can't have.
You don't need to read the Koran to understand Mohammed Merah, you can just as easily understand the Koran by reading about what Mohammed Merah did. Nothing much has changed in all the centuries, except that Mohammed Merah didn't get to rape the girl he murdered, because the French state was still functional enough to keep him on the run. The day will however come when it won't be and then the peoples of the free world will learn what true Muslim terror really is, as the peoples of Africa and Asia, as the many other religions of the Middle East, including the Jews learned, in the day of the original Mohammed.
There is nothing extraordinary about what Mohammed Merah did. You may think that there is, but that is because you are a citizen of the free world and you have become used to that rare thing known as civilized behavior. But when your nations opened their borders to people who consider your infidel lands, the Dar Al-Harb, the House of the Sword, then civilization gets its throat cut, it gets chased down at a school, has a gun put to its head and the trigger gets pulled.
Killing children is not a shocking act in the Middle East, except when CNN points its cameras the right way. Parents routinely kill their own children for minor offenses that would hardly get an American child grounded. When they move to America or Canada, they kill their children there too and we considerately look away. If they do that to their children, why do you think they will have any more mercy on yours?
There is no point in holding Mohammed Merah accountable for what he did, just as there was no point in bringing Nazi leaders to trial for crimes against humanity. Mohammed recognizes no form of law other than the law of Islam, just as the Nazis recognized no other form of humanity than their own. There is no common moral or legal system that we share with Islam. Equality before the law, the cornerstone of our system, is so much noise in the windy corridors of the mosque. How can the Subhuman be equal to the Aryan, how can the Infidel be equal to the Muslim?
Mohammed Merah is a mad dog and should be treated as what he is. Accountability is for those who share our moral system. It is for our own leaders who continue perpetuating the macabre myth of a religion of peace, even while attending the funerals of tis victims. Accountability is for the Petains, the Chamberlains and the Quislings who have led us into this hole and keep waving in more Mohammeds to come and join the party.
The old Nazis marched in at the head of an army. The new Nazis bought a plane ticket. The old Nazis had to get by the French Armed Forces and the Royal Air Force. The new Nazis are welcomed in and anyone who says a word otherwise faces trials and jail sentences. The old Nazis deported Jews to camps. The new Nazis kill them right in the cities. And the killing will not stop until the Muslim occupation of Europe comes to an end.


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How to Find A Kitchen Range Video
Is that $5,000 range really better than the $600 one? The Good Housekeeping Research Institute shows you what to look for in a kitchen range to get the most bang for your buck.
It can be overwhelming to shop for a new kitchen range when you consider the price tag from $500 to more than $6000. Sharon Franke, kitchen appliance director at the Good Housekeeping research institute says consumers need to consider many factors.
The first thing they have to think is what type power they have in their home. Do they have gas or do they have electricity? And next of course is price. How much can you realistically afford to spend? and then what type of cook are you.
The Good Housekeeping research institute gives high marks to the self claiming Hotpoint range for its even baking.
In this oven, we were able to make 2 racks of cookies at the same time and you can see that every cookie looks identical.
At the mid price point is the 5 burner Electrolux electric range with a control panel that stays in sleep mode until you need it. The top choice among so called professional ranges is the Viking with gas burners and then electric oven. No matter your budget or your lifestyle, there are range choices for every kind of cook. Jacqueline Boulden for Good Housekeeping reports.
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Cell Phone Repair Overland Park
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Democracy Now! (6 am), for November 19, 2012 - 6:00am
Download this clip (mp3, 10.27 megabytes)
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Palestinian Civilians Bear the Brunt of Unrelenting Bombings in U.S.-Backed Attack on Gaza; U.N. Special Rapporteur Calls for Global Protection of Gaza Civilians from U.S.-Backed Israeli Assault; Live Report from Gaza Hospital: As Civilian Toll Mounts, Israel Again Bombs Palestinian Journalists; Obama in Burma: A Milestone for Reform or Groundwork for Oil-Friendly Junta Rule?
November 19, 2012
Palestinian Toll Mounts in Gaza as Obama Defends Israeli Assault
Israel Wounds Journalists in Attack on Gaza Media
Palestinian Rocket Fire Drops, Israeli Toll at 3
Protesters in Tel Aviv, D.C. Rally Against U.S.-Backed Assault of Gaza
Obama Pays Landmark Visit to Burma
Thousands Protest Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Outside White House
1 Dead, 1 Missing in Fire on Gulf Coast Oil Rig
Obama Calls Corporate CEOs as "Fiscal Cliff" Talks Begin
2nd Conspirator Sentenced in NYC Subway Bombing Plot Case
Protesters Hold Weekend of Actions Against Military Training Base in Georgia
Family, Supporters Mark 1-Year Anniversary of Chamberlain Killing
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connecting flight in Huston 2hAug 18, 20141I have a flight from frankfurt to san jose. Arrive Lufthansa - LH 440 13:45 Terminal D Layover 2h.7min. Departure United Airlines - UA 1565 15:52 Terminal E I would like to make sure if it is enough time to make connection?Laura M.Mon, Aug 18
IAH connection from QTO mexicoJul 12, 20141I can take a flight with an hour 20 minute connection from QTO to Phoenix through IAH but it sounds a little short (we generally don't check bags) my next options is almost 4 hours. which flight would you book?drw0201Sat, Jul 12
International TransferAug 18, 20143Hi everyone, I am flying via Houston, arriving to Terminal D and changing to Terminal C. Since both are international flights do I need to go through passport control and US customs? I have about 90 minutes for change and I do not want to miss my next flightATThu, Jul 10Where are you flying from and to and what airlines are you flying? No international flights depart from Terminal C.ZAPThu, Jul 10That is weird.. I am flying from Istanbul (Turkish Airlines) to Guatemala (United Airlines).ATFri, Jul 11
15 hours transit time at IAH, what to do?May 2, 20140Hi, i will be flying from SFO - IAH - LEX with a 15 hour connection at IAH on United! May you give me some ideas what to expect there? Will there be proper places where i can sleep (overnight) and eat and bathe and so on :( also, will there be any interesting things to do? This will be the first time I arrive at the states so sorta clueless as to what will happen :( thanks loads!HenryFri, May 2
ConnectionApr 17, 20141i have a connection from houston to los cabo mexico with only a 45 minute layover, my plane lands 10:16 and my connecting departs 11am, is this enough time?tvThu, Apr 17
Clearing CustomsApr 6, 20141I have 1hour 20 minutes to clear at IAH onto PVR. All will be in Terminal E. Is that enough time? Thanks!kbabySun, Apr 6
Waiting for husband to arrive on a different flight in IAHApr 3, 20141Hi, I am travelling to IAH from Holland and i like to meet up my husband who is arriving 3 hours later from Detroit. Am i able to do some shopping in IAH before meeting him and not go through the customs? Thanks.CChinThu, Apr 3
Layover in IAHFeb 26, 20142I have my flight from MSY to IAH (Delta airline) and IAH to DXB ( Emirates). I have only 1 hour 20 min layover in IAH. will be it be enough? Please suggestniksWed, Feb 26You arrive at Terminal A & depart from Terminal D. Take the above-ground TerminaLink train inside security starting at Terminal A station & connecting to terminals A, B, C, D/E (a 30 mins transfer).wefeb14Wed, Feb 26
Houston layover, leave airport?Feb 13, 20141Hello, we are flying in (with a 9 and 11 year old) from Cozumel to Houston and have a 6 hour layover. Can we leave the airport and see a site in Houston (perhaps the Space Center or even go out to lunch at a restaurant)? Just curious about the security issue, not sure if we go through US customs when we arrive in Houston or at our final destination in Boston?DPOThu, Feb 13You will go through Immigration in Houston. Yes, after you re-check your bags you could leave the airport. However, the Space Center is over an hour each way from the Airport, so considering it will take you about 45 minutes to clear immigration and customs and re-check your bags and the fact that you have to be back at the airport a little over an hour before your flight to Boston, that would leave you with only maybe an hour and a half at the space center. You could go to a restaurant near the airport. The Deerbrook Mall is not far from IAH and has a lot of restaurants nearby.ZAPThu, Feb 13
Can we pick up our checked baggage for overnight layover?Jan 30, 20141Hi - we will arrive from Calgary, AB around 10pm at night and don't catch our next flight to Costa Rica until 11am the next morning. Because our flight to Costa Rica is with a different airline than what we arrived to Houston with, do we get to pick up our bags did the night? Thanks.CR2014Thu, Jan 30
Friday night in Houston with Saturday flightJan 28, 20142We're arriving at IAH at 20:00 on a Friday, but our flight back to Chicago isn't until 7:10. Is it worth going in to Houston for a night and staying at a hotel there? Any hotel that has its own entertainment or entertainment nearby? Thanks!ekclarkMon, Jan 27Entertainment? What kind of Entertainment are you looking for. There is a hotel located inside IAH but it's a bit pricey. http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/iahap-houston-airport-marriott-at-george-bush-intercontinental/ With that short of a layover if you don't want to sleep on the floor in the airport, I would just stay in an airport hotel. It's a long and expensive ride into the city from IAH.ZAPMon, Jan 27
1 hour layover sufficient?Jan 18, 20141My brother has a 1 hour, 10 min layover. He arrives in Terminal C, and departs from B. He was planning to go out through security (at B) to see us quickly then go back in. Will he have time to do that? How long does it take to go from C to B?DalSat, Jan 18
Meeting someone who has a layoverJan 17, 20141I am planning to meet my brother who has a 3 hour layover. Where is the best place to meet him at the airport, and do I go through security check to meet him?DaliaFri, Jan 17
checked baggage on overnight layoversDec 2, 20131I get into IAH around 1:00 am and leave for Panama the next day around 8:30. If I check luggage, will I be able to retrieve it from baggage claim or will they hold it somewhere for the next flight? I'm currently deciding whether or not to take advantage of the in airport Marriott.jenverMon, Dec 2
Enough time to wine and dine?Nov 22, 20131Hi, I am coming in from the Los Angeles airport, arriving in terminal C, and have a connecting flight to Brazil. My flight arrives at 4:30 and leaves to Brazil at 9:15. Do I have to go through Customs/migration ? Is this enough time to leave the airport and get some fresh air? I assume my luggage will already be checked in. Thanks.Juandaniel2Fri, Nov 22


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Samsung SyncMaster S23A750D review: The dark mirror of monitors
Thanks to its extremely reflective screen, the S23A750D doesn't make for the best sunny Saturday afternoon movie-watching experience. When the sun goes down however, it's time to break out your Blu-ray copies of "The Dark Knight,""Dark City," or any movie for that matter. The experience of watching movies on this monitor is matched by few others.
Yes, the Samsung SyncMaster S23A750D supports Samsung's proprietary active shutter 3D, but forget about that for a minute. What you should really focus on is its movie and games performance.
Now, not everyone loves glossy screens. As I mentioned before, they can get uber-reflective, particularly during sunny days, and movies or TV shows or games with lots of dark scenes can suffer as a result.
However, the payoff of watching movies on the S23A750D under proper lighting conditions (i.e. at night) is worth any difficulties that sunny days bring.
Check out the full review of the S23A750D as I talk more about reflective screens, dark movies, and yes, 3D.
More reviews can be easily accessed from the monitor hub.


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Post-Game of Thrones: Season 4, Episode 7
The spoiler-laden recap show where we catch you up on the latest episode. This week: Season 4, Episode 7: "Mockingbird."2:23
News for You
- Brit awards shake up British album chart, boost Sam Smith
Fallout from the Brit awards shook up the music charts on Sunday, knocking U.S. rock band Imagine Dragons off the top spot in favor of English singer/songwriter Sam Smith, data from the Official Charts company showed. Smith won the British BreakThrough Act award at last week's ceremony, helping lift sales of his album "In the Lonely Hour" to number one from number two. By contrast, "Smoke & Mirrors," by Imagine Dragons, last week's number one, fell to twelfth place. British singer Ed Sheeran, winner of British Male Solo Artist, grabbed the number two spot with "X", while British hard rock group Royal Blood, winners of the British Group award, bagged the third slot, up 15, with their self-titled album.
- Lupita Nyong'o's $150,000 Oscar gown returned by thief via TMZ
The $150,000 Oscar gown worn by actress Lupita Nyong'o that was stolen two days ago was returned on Friday by the thief, who tipped off celebrity news site TMZ.com after learning the pearls on the dress were fake, according to officials and the website. TMZ said the thief took the Calvin Klein dress from Nyong'o's hotel room on Wednesday after finding the door ajar. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Michael White told reporters at a Friday news conference that they received a call around 3 p.m. local time from a media outlet who reported hearing from an anonymous caller that the dress had been returned to the London Hotel. The media source said the thief removed two pearls from the dress and took them to the Garment District in downtown Los Angeles where they were told they were not real, according to White.
'The Walking Dead' Recap: There's a New Sheriff in Town
2 hours 13 minutes ago'How to Get Away With Murder' Recap: The Honesty of Liars
Fri, Feb 27, 2015 8:06 AM PST'The Big Bang Theory' Recap: Penny and Sheldon Fall in Love With Each Other?!
Thu, Feb 26, 2015 11:48 PM PST'Empire' Recap: Cookie's Family Affair
Thu, Feb 26, 2015 6:03 AM PST


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Open-Source Diplomacy
Instead of hunkering down in the wake of the WikiLeaks fiasco, Foggy Bottom should move toward a less secretive diplomacy.
November 29th may be remembered as one of the most important anniversaries in the annals of American diplomacy. On this day, in two separate centuries, events occurred that shaped—and will continue to shape—the course of U.S. statecraft.
On November 29, 1775, the Second Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, established the Committee of Secret Correspondence. The goal of this committee, comprised of an illustrious band of revolutionaries including Benjamin Franklin and John Jay, was to solicit aid from potential European allies for the nascent American war effort. Equipped with codes and ciphers, the committee became the forerunner of the U.S. State Department, and the habits of secrecy it initiated have over the centuries become the modus operandi for modern American diplomacy.
It was also on November 29 of last year that the world's newspapers announced the release of the WikiLeaks cables, the enormous and infamous cache of classified State Department cables that suddenly and unprecedentedly fell into the hands of the uncleared public.
There is little doubt that the WikiLeaks breach caused serious and potentially long-term damage to U.S. diplomatic interests. The leaked cables included critical comments made by Saudi King Abdullah and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan about Pakistan's civilian leaders, making it unlikely these leaders, or many others, will offer their candid assessments to American diplomats anytime soon. U.S. programs to reclaim enriched uranium from a Pakistani research reactor were also revealed, as were the details of how U.S. Special Forces have been providing support to Pakistan's own military operations. Also swept up were some of America's most talented diplomats, including Carlos Pascual, who stepped down from his post as U.S. ambassador to Mexico after his blunt assessment of Mexican President Felipe Calderón's anti-drug efforts turned up in the document dump.
In its wholesale violation of U.S. diplomatic secrecy, WikiLeaks's actions have only intensified the prevailing tendency in Foggy Bottom and in the Administration to "batten down the hatches." In October, President Obama signed a sweeping executive order—the so-called "WikiLeaks order"—instructing the national security community to deploy more robust cybersecurity technologies and measures to make the secrecy infrastructure of American diplomacy more restrictive, pervasive, and impenetrable, including more aggressive enforcement mechanisms, new data breach prevention systems, and significantly enhanced protocols for access to official communications. Indeed, this bulked-up secrecy infrastructure may prove effective in preventing future breaches.
American diplomacy, however, need not proceed inflexibly along this track. As traumatic and embarrassing as it may have been, the WikiLeaks episode offers the United States a timely opportunity to reassess its approach to diplomacy to ensure it can remain relevant in the new global information ecosystem. In this new track, rather than trying to resist the increasingly transparent and networked global communications infrastructure in which American diplomacy is now enmeshed, America's diplomats may choose instead to adapt to new technical, cultural, and policy realities. It has become one of the great ironies of our time that while the United States has one of the most open societies in the world, its diplomatic activities and the technology infrastructure that supports them still remain among the world's most secretive and siloed.
One urgent consequence of this contradiction is that American diplomacy risks becoming ever more out of touch with, and therefore of less consequence to, the emerging mainstream of engaged citizens around the world for whom concepts such as national interest, identity, and political affiliation are influenced increasingly by the interactive social networks they have formed, rather than by traditional elites and governments. As billions of cell-phone-carrying and Internet-equipped citizens around the world move relentlessly toward more open, participatory, and collaborative forms of communication, American diplomacy—still mired in its habits of secrecy—risks being left behind.
This lag was glaringly apparent during the wave of democratic activism witnessed these past months not only in the streets, but also in the text messages and online social networks of the Maghreb and Middle East. These extraordinary events were not anticipated by American diplomats, and American diplomacy was not able to establish in a timely way a coherent, coordinated, or trusted voice within those critically important new networks of engaged citizens. If the State Department proves unable to maintain America's leadership—either in physical or now increasingly in virtual environments—other institutions, individuals, networks, or governments surely will fill the vacuum, and not always in ways that serve America's interests.
Today, one year after the WikiLeaks fiasco and in the wake of the Arab Spring, America's diplomatic enterprise urgently needs to be retooled. What should be the source code for this new diplomatic track? In a world whose politics increasingly are shaped by ubiquitous networks enabled by social media, the answer lies in the "open source" principles that have drastically reinvented the way citizens, markets, economies, and governments now interact.
America in the Bazaar
In practical terms, the concept of "open source"—which first gained momentum in the early days of the commercial deployment of the Internet in the mid-1990s—describes a means of developing software that ensures it can be licensed, modified, and distributed freely and transparently. Anyone can download open-source software for little or no cost, and can use, share, borrow, or change it without restriction. Relying on open collaboration by software developers, and the transparent sharing of insights between developers and users, open source has become a design principle not merely for software, but also now for a broader range of human endeavors, including business, medical research, biotechnology, and even government. (See "Wiki-Government" by Beth Simone Noveck, Issue #7.)
As the American computer programmer and author Eric S. Raymond described in his famous 1997 essay "The Cathedral and the Bazaar," adherents of the open-source movement saw in software-code writing nothing less than a political philosophy. The core tenet of this philosophy was that the authoritarian and buttressed "cathedrals" of hierarchical and proprietary information systems, whether they exist in cyberspace or in the brick-and-mortar structures of business or government, necessarily will give way to the more collaborative and self-organizing "bazaar" that is the new, networked, information society. In this open-source ecosystem, everything is shared, and adheres to Stewart Brand's famous adage that "information wants to be free."
Already, open source has become the dominant ethos for much of the world's information architecture. Everything from the way we communicate to the way we work, learn, and play is increasingly informed by the principles of open-source software design, which operates on a community model with more decentralized governance. One of the most successful examples of collaborative, peer-based, open-source design is Wikipedia, the online, not-for-profit, and user-generated encyclopedia that has revolutionized the very idea of content creation and distribution. With nearly 20 million articles, 90,000 active volunteer contributors, and more than 365 million readers, the site can be edited by anyone in any of the now 282 languages in which it is published.
If U.S. diplomacy is to flourish in this new environment, it too must prudently but deliberately integrate an increasingly open-source outlook in its operations, its culture, and the design and conduct of the communications networks and systems it deploys. This new diplomacy will leverage many of the attributes and instincts of the open-source technology movement itself—and will look vastly different from diplomacy as we know it. The practice of traditional cable writing from ambassadors at post to their superiors at Foggy Bottom—more often than not ghost written by staff officers and requiring elaborate clearance processes—will give way to platforms of reporting that are not always confidential, and will be accessible to wider internal and external audiences and open to their commentary and critique.
Technical fluency, just like language fluency, will be tested and developed in our diplomats before they are stationed overseas, so that communication via social media, web logs, and other technical means can be more efficient, more pervasive, and more systematic. Feedback about American policies, principles, and practices will be openly sought, encouraged, and actively measured. And our diplomats will focus not only on interaction with government officials, state institutions, and elites, but increasingly on building partnerships with local businesses, students, universities, organizations, and other non-governmental actors supporting issues and values of importance to the United States.
A Strategy for Reform
For any bureaucratic organization, change is hard. But for an institution as globally dispersed and organizationally complex as the State Department, it is exquisitely challenging. Lacking the command-and-control ethos of the Pentagon, and dependent on the morale, dedication, and commitment of its talented civil service, the State Department is an inherently conservative institution, deeply protective of its prerogatives, its personnel, and its traditions. It was not surprising when the White House website reported recently in its open government scorecard that the State Department lagged behind all the 15 cabinet departments in its progress toward implementing the President's open government and transparency goals.
During my service in Washington as a national security official in the late 1990s, I saw just how stubbornly opposed to innovation the State Department often could be. Even as the World Wide Web became globally available, most State Department personnel abroad had limited or no access to the Internet. Those few who did were forced for security reasons to locate their "open" terminals several feet away from their classified desktops. These open terminals had to be connected to the government's expensive proprietary global network, which was so inefficient it often provided download speeds as slow as data speeds for faxes.
The technology teams I led at the United States Information Agency recognized that commercial solutions to this problem were readily available, and sought to provide to diplomats in selected embassies around the world higher-speed Internet access using commonly available satellite technology. Over the often-strenuous objections of many in the State Department, the project was able to proceed—but only by using funds solicited directly from Congress. When it came to promoting innovation within the State Department, the key lesson for would-be innovators was that the best approach often was to ask not for permission, but for forgiveness.
Fortunately, attitudes and practices have evolved significantly in the past decade. Despite what some critics on the left may assert, the pre-WikiLeaks Obama Administration took some important steps in the direction of transparency and innovation in American diplomacy. Among other measures, it adapted a decidedly more open-source attitude in its first efforts to wean the U.S. national security community away from reflexive secrecy. In one of his first acts, President Obama issued the Open Government Directive, requiring all federal agencies to take immediate steps to foster transparency, collaboration, and participation. Since then, the Administration has made government data and documents more accessible, launched citizen-generated idea sharing platforms such as Challenge.gov to promote collaborative problem-solving between the public and government officials on a range of policy issues, and created the previously mentioned scorecard, which tracks overall performance on openness and transparency across the government.
The Administration has also made investments in more modern technology infrastructure and devoted greater attention to streamlining and modernizing federal communications, technology, and acquisition policies. This includes the establishment of the federal government's first chief information and technology officers based in the White House, a greater reliance on cloud technologies for data storage, patent reform, initiatives to speed up commercialization of government research and development, and efforts to make broadband spectrum more widely available.
The changes have not been restricted to the White House. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also has championed a more vocal mission for the State Department in the areas of innovation, openness, and technology, including the appointment of the first coordinator for cyber issues, as well as a senior adviser for innovation to help manage technology initiatives across the State Department's many bureaus focusing on security, privacy, spectrum, and Internet access. A range of new programs also has been launched, including a national innovation competition to elicit new ideas about how technology can more effectively support diplomacy.
But the WikiLeaks contretemps threatens to roll back some of these innovations. And while these initiatives certainly are important steps, we still need a longer-term strategy to ensure America's diplomatic corps is ready to engage effectively in an open-source world. The full transition from the "traditional" practice of statecraft dominated by more secretive interaction among elites to a more decentralized, technologically enabled, and transparent approach to diplomacy will be accomplished neither under the watch of any one secretary of state nor by any one administration. It will require a sustained, multiyear focus on the part of the executive branch, Congress, and the Foreign Service itself. It also will need to adopt the following set of bottom-line principles and practices—based themselves on core open-source tenets—in order to flourish.
The core principle for this new American diplomacy will be a deeper commitment to transparency itself. This call for openness in diplomatic practice, though often out of fashion since World War I, is not entirely new for American statecraft. In fact, transparency was the first of Woodrow Wilson's famous Fourteen Points of 1918, in which he laid before Congress a vision for a new postwar diplomacy based above all upon "[o]pen covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view."
Wilson's perception that the confidence of both the American people and of our allies requires an open approach to diplomacy could not be more relevant today. More than ever, there is a strategic premium in the marketplace and within civil society on open and unfettered communications. American diplomacy ignores this phenomenon at its peril. In this new environment, efforts by American diplomats to engage more openly with publics will be rewarded with increasing trust.
In practical terms, our diplomats must be given significantly more leeway in the future to engage with communities of interest without onerous clearance procedures, permissions, and approved talking points. It also means that the buildings in which our diplomats work must be designed and sited not only with security in mind, but also to facilitate optimal communication with access for local citizens. Locating our diplomatic offices closer to urban centers when feasible will be an important step in this direction.
Technology Engagement
For today's diplomacy, this call for transparency also will require more systematic understanding and use of technical platforms like telepresence, social media, and wireless communications tools. To remain relevant, American diplomats also will need to be more present, vocal, and accounted for in the new virtual town squares offered by applications like Twitter. Interacting with local populations and influencers via these new platforms will require more than linguistic and cultural fluency. It also will require technical know-how and adequate equipment. The post-WikiLeaks American diplomatic officers should be as nimble in navigating and posting to trending hashtags as they are in managing complicated official negotiations.
In this new, more technology-driven diplomacy, performance will no longer be measured by the quality and quantity of one's cable-writing skills, but by the influence of one's blog posts and the quality, depth, and interactivity of one's social network. To put it another way, a political officer in Cairo or an economic officer in Tripoli will be rewarded not merely for his understanding of and reporting on the nuances of the proverbial "Arab street," but equally by her insights on and responses to the latest "Arab tweet."
In the past 15 years, security and budgetary concerns have forced American diplomats to retreat both literally and figuratively into the increasingly reinforced walls of American embassy compounds around the world. Frontline diplomatic presence in consulates has been pared back. American cultural centers and libraries have been closed worldwide, curtailing what for many citizens around the world was their only and often most influential interaction with American ideals. Bureaucratic procedures and requirements have been made more irksome and time consuming, making it more challenging for American diplomats to operate directly with foreign populations in the academy, media, business, and rural areas.
In a more open-source American diplomacy, Foreign Service officers increasingly will be encouraged, trained, and offered the tools to venture more confidently and securely beyond the diplomatic compound to build sustainable partnerships with and among the communities in which they operate. The antecedents for this type of dynamic and direct collaboration by U.S. diplomats can be seen in posts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Foreign Service officers have joined with U.S. development officials and the U.S. military to work with local populations in community-based reconstruction and nation-building projects. American diplomats still will be vitally involved in managing official and often confidential bilateral and multilateral relationships and communications. But this official interaction alone will no longer be sufficient.
The Privacy Question
None of this is to suggest that privacy—or secrecy—is dead in the open-source diplomacy of the future. Unquestionably, privacy will always remain a fundamental requirement not only for consumers globally, but also for the effective conduct of America's diplomatic engagement abroad. Our political leaders and their diplomatic emissaries must retain the option—and have the technical means—to communicate confidentially both with each other and with our allies and even our adversaries in order to advance our national interests.
Moreover, at a time when cyber attacks on America's infrastructure and computer networks are posing clear and present dangers, our national security community will require ever more layered and defensible cybersecurity resources. The Pentagon's new Cyber Command is one of the promising new foundations for the U.S. government's initiatives to integrate cyber defense operations and protect the United States against threats of cyber warfare. From the Pentagon's perspective, the threats the Cyber Command defends against are not illusory. In August 2010, the U.S. military for the first time warned publicly about the Chinese military's use of "information warfare units" to develop viruses to attack enemy computer systems and networks.
The need for the United States to deploy ever more tenacious cybersecurity measures has become an urgent national priority, and the Obama Administration has taken decisive and measured steps to meet the challenge. But this commitment to the security of America's computer networks and critical infrastructure need not be incompatible with parallel initiatives to promote greater transparency, openness, and innovation within our diplomatic activities worldwide. Cybersecurity and protection of America's critical infrastructure should not be confused with the propensity toward secrecy in our statecraft. Indeed, an increasingly open and transparent posture by American diplomacy will only enhance U.S. security and esteem globally.
A New Diplomatic Corps
Even though the State Department has prioritized so-called "cyber diplomacy" and an increasingly transparent approach to diplomacy, its efforts may prove short-lived unless it changes the way the diplomatic corps itself is recruited and trained. We need to create a more adaptive, technologically engaged, and diversely skilled professional foreign policy corps.
The State Department's recruiting process has remained largely unchanged since the first merit-based Foreign Service officer test was administered after the Rogers Act created the modern Foreign Service in 1924. According to the State Department's own website, the selection process for the roughly 30,000 applicants who take the Foreign Service officer test "can be as short as six months, and as long as two years, but will typically fall between those extremes." The lengthy and onerous evaluation and security screening processes are distinct liabilities for attracting the kind of leaders our nation needs to pursue its diplomacy effectively.
According to the Office of Personnel Management, the federal bureaucracy as a whole has shown improvement in reducing recruitment periods for its workforce—an Obama Administration priority—to an average of 105 days. But the State Department continues to lag well behind, with an average recruitment time of more than 160 days—and considerably more for Foreign Service officers. If it has any hope of competing with the private sector for talented new leaders, the State Department must do better, and at the very least set as a concrete goal in the next four years reducing total hire time—including security screening—for American diplomats to no more than the 80 days called for by the President.
The department also needs to change its largely hands-off approach to the recruitment process. Alarmingly, the modern Foreign Service still is based on a dated "generalists only" construct, which relies on self-selection to get the kind of professionals required for today's more specialized missions. There is virtually no effort to recruit individuals with specific skills, languages, instincts, or expertise. The State Department needs to overhaul this approach, and begin to identify and recruit the kinds of skilled professionals in new areas such as social-media product development, market research, and strategic communications.
Once these specialists have been hired, they need to be given incentives to stay in diplomatic work. Today's Foreign Service must find more ways to integrate many of the State Department's affiliated but broadly dispersed civil-service specialists into its ranks. One approach would be for the U.S. Foreign Service to be reinvented as a new, more unified, and functionally diverse U.S. Diplomatic Service, encompassing a broader range of the increasingly important components of the State Department's current civil-service work force.
This could be accompanied by a change in the career tracks for Foreign Service officers. Today's Foreign Service provides five tracks: political, economic, public diplomacy, consular, and management. These tracks have been in place for years with little change. In a new U.S. Diplomatic Service, a range of civil-service specialists working now for various agencies and departments in Washington and at embassies around the world would be more fully integrated into the nation's diplomatic corps via new career tracks, including in such areas as technology, commercial outreach, security, development and agricultural affairs, and in important new fields such as knowledge management and public-opinion polling and market research. They also would be treated as co-equal to traditional Foreign Service officers in terms of rank, career advancement opportunities, training, and identity.
One more much-needed piece of U.S. diplomacy reform in the post-Wiki-Leaks world is a revitalization of the public diplomacy mission. Nowhere has the need for a new model of public diplomacy—and the arrival of an open-source world—been more evident than in the Arab Spring. But according to recent polls, rather than being seen at the forefront of and in solidarity with these citizen movements—and despite having given rise to many of the technologies and applications that served as the oxygen of the Arab Spring—the United States has been viewed by the Arab street as an impediment to progress. Fully two-thirds of Egyptians surveyed believe the U.S. will try to intervene in Egypt's political future as opposed to letting the people of the country decide for themselves.
Raymond's metaphors of the cloistered cathedral and the boisterous bazaar describe more than the tensions existing between the increasingly incompatible spheres of proprietary and open-source approaches to computer coding. They also aptly describe the distinct spheres of operational focus for the State Department itself: the realms of government-to-government engagement on the one hand and of government-to-citizen engagement on the other. In the open-source environment in which diplomacy now functions, there has been a shift away from the relative importance of the traditional "cathedrals" of confidential government and toward the "bazaars" that are the self-directed, technologically engaged, and politically enfranchised networks of citizens. (See Rachel Kleinfeld's "Global Outreach," Issue #23.)
In these "bazaars," the denizens are younger than at any time in recent history: Fully 45 percent of the world's population today is under 25 years of age. And they represent a particularly important demographic that is maturing at a time marked by increasingly limited direct engagement by the U.S. government. Moreover, in this new environment, power and influence have been shifting away from the "few" toward the "many" as mobile technology increasingly has become ubiquitous (there are now more mobile phones in use on the planet than there are human beings).
It has been the role of so-called "public" diplomacy to manage the increasingly important government-to-citizen and citizen-to-citizen interactions on behalf of the United States. And by any measure, the mission of public diplomacy has become only more central to U.S. foreign-policy objectives. Nevertheless, of the total $54.6 billion budget requested for 2011 by the State Department, public diplomacy programs accounted for just $1.29 billion—less than 2.5 percent of the department's total budget request for the year. With only 1,070 public diplomacy officers within the Foreign Service, public diplomacy is the second smallest of the department's five career tracks. Indeed, as of 2009, the State Department employed 60 percent more diplomatic security professionals than public diplomacy officers.
The consequences of these trends have not been auspicious. In a report to Congress written not long after the events of September 11, 2001, a group chaired by former Assistant Secretary of State Edward Djerejian wrote, "At a critical time in our nation's history, the apparatus of public diplomacy has proven inadequate, especially in the Arab and Muslim world." To overcome these challenges, and to ensure modern American statecraft can succeed, secretaries of state will need to put at risk more personal political capital with Congress, and with the bureaucracy they lead, to ensure that public diplomacy receives the resources, personnel, training, and technology infrastructure required to operate effectively.
Living in a WikiLeaks World
What WikiLeaks—and the open-source technology environment of which it is as much a symptom as a catalyst—has made jarringly clear is that the U.S. government alone can no longer fully control what remains classified and out of public reach. That power is now split between the government and the global digital technology infrastructure it shares. The nation's classified archives will always remain at some risk of public exposure. The fundamental question for American diplomacy will be whether it will withdraw more deeply into a musty and increasingly outmoded cathedral of secrecy, or if it will seek to accelerate efforts to be more transparently and muscularly engaged in managing the nation's interests in an open-source world.
This is not a new choice for American diplomacy. It was Benjamin Franklin, the founding member of the Committee of Secret Correspondence and himself perhaps America's pre-eminent technology visionary, who was the very first American diplomat to face the dilemma of how to properly balance secrecy with transparency in the conduct of our statecraft. And he answered it with a logic that today would be considered positively open-source in its approach. As the historian Stacy Schiff recounts in A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, during his famous first mission to France to persuade Louis XVI's foreign minister to support the American cause, Franklin found himself surrounded at every turn in Paris by swarms of spies and nonstop surveillance. Knowing it was impossible to prevent their intrusions, and having little taste for ciphers and invisible ink, Franklin wrote to a friend in 1777 on his philosophy of diplomacy, one that holds a valuable lesson for the post-WikiLeaks world:
It is simply this: to be concerned in no affairs that I should blush to have made public; and to do nothing but what spies may see and welcome. When a man's actions are just and honorable, the more they are known, the more his reputation is increased and established. If I was sure therefore that my valet de place was a spy, as probably he is, I think I should not discharge him for that, if in other respects I liked him.
It was no surprise that Franklin's best friends in France were spies. Nor is it a surprise that Franklin's insights on technology, secrecy, and the art of American diplomacy are proving yet again to be not only prescient, but revolutionary. What Franklin understood at that pivotal new moment in world affairs was that his young and still-fragile nation's ability to build alliances and esteem would not be enhanced by its inclination toward furtiveness and secrecy, but by its audacity to share confidences. He grasped that the United States should conduct itself with the same openness and transparency in the realm of foreign policy it sought to enshrine in its own republic. In the post-WikiLeaks era, marked also by extraordinary new stirrings for liberty around the world but equally by new dangers, we would do well to heed Franklin's lessons for American diplomacy.
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Read More »Artfully presented.
As crisis is opportunity, policy makers would do well to heed your call for transparency.
High unemployment among the under 25 demo may present the seeds of a solution. The under 25 set best understand social media, a core communication tool for organizers around the world. This demo must be leveraged for diplomacy through another technology meme: crowdsourcing.
Governments that engage, serve and mobilize their citizens reduce the risk of facing the ire of those citizens in the square, in the park, in the halls, or at the ballot box.
Nov 28, 2011, 5:58 PMDidn't someone use a very similar analogy a couple of years back?
I stumbled across this post that talks about the same cathedral and bazaar analogy and an open source approach to diplomacy - were you aware of it?
Nov 30, 2011, 10:27 AMThanks for sharing this post, which I hadn't seen. The essay it cites uses Eric Raymond's famous metaphor as a powerful framework for analyzing a branch of statecraft known as public diplomacy. Its author also cleverly puts into context the issues raised in Greg Fawcett's earlier post regarding modes of communication with the "under-25" demographic though such technology memes as crowd-sourcing. (My article notes the growing relevance of this demographic to diplomacy, which now comprises fully 45% of the world's population.)
The post adds yet more proof that Raymond's concept of the "cathedral and the bazaar" is now the central and most widely referenced metaphor for understanding the open-source software movement, and for explaining how open-source concepts can -- or should -- also extend beyond technology to other spheres of human activity -- from science, to education, capital markets, business and government.
On another point -- it is interesting to note that earlier this week, the lawyer for Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of illegally passing classified documents to WikiLeaks, said in a court filing that the document dump did not do "any real damage to national security." (Link: http://bit.ly/uNUL9W)
I would disagree. The WikiLeaks breach had immediate impacts on important US relationships, diplomatic careers, and possibly certain national security initiatives. In the longer term, it may call into question the critical issue of trust: Can foreign leaders ever feel reasonably confident they can communicate opens and candidly with American government officials? The restoration of that trust will be an ongoing effort for American diplomats, and I argue in my essay that confidence-building will be facilitated by the integration of a more open-source outlook in the design and conduct of US diplomacy.
Dec 1, 2011, 7:39 AMThe traditional level of secrecy in government agencies is for another age. The world is a lot smaller now than ever.
I believe that much of the conflict and problems
currently filling our TV screens every evening are due to the world trying to adapt to this new reality of a true global village. Its not an easy adaptation process due to cultural, economic and still outstanding development issues, but also due to the practices of the traditional nation state governments who up to now had been operating in a much more dispersed world.
What the author argues truly is the future. But right now it seems our political leaders
lack the vision to move things forward more creatively to the space where we can have less stringent security. Less stringent security will naturally come when nations,
or rather humanity perhaps in general, adapts to this global village.
great article, well written and researched, and spot on.
a couple of thoughts to take your analysis a few steps further:
1. Wiki-leaks as a catalyst for the Arab spring: it is perhaps not coincidental that the two leaders taken out by the Arab street were viewed as staunch US allies and proteges of Washington; indeed it is common knowledge that former Tunisian intelligence chief Ben Ali was viewed -- rightly or wrongly -- as the CIA's man in Tunis. US support conferred an air on invincibility, if not impunity. When the Arab street realized -- thanks to the publication of State Department cables by Wiki Leaks -- that we Americans were as shocked and dismayed by the human rights abuses, corruption and injustice that Ben Ali and Mubarak presided over in their stagnant regimes, that was a game changer. The Arab street realized that Ben Ali and Mubarak were fair game, and the rest is history.
2. Paradox of thrift and paradox of secrecy: here's a bit of an economics analogy for you poli-sci types: in Econonmics 101 we all learn the paradox of thrift, which says that when one person saves money, that's good. But when everyone in the economy hoards their cash, you have a recession. That's bad. I would advance a similar paradigm with respect to secrecy and diplomacy. In the world of national security and diplomacy, protecting sources and methods is critical. So classifying a State Department cable conveying the intimate thoughts which a local leader confided to a US ambassador, or the ambassador's personal views on a specific political or economic issue in his country, makes absolute sense, if only to protect the privacy (and indeed in some cases, the lives) of the individuals concerned. In fact journalists try to do much the same thing to protect their sources. And that is good. But when everything the USG thinks and does is wrapped in a veil of secrecy, only the bad guys benefit, and that is bad. the Arab street still looks up to the United States, to our values and our ability to live by those values. We are after all a free and democratic society, reasonably free of corruption and with a justice system that works quite well most of the time. That is something that inspires the Arab street and people all over the world. Getting our own views out into the open a little more often -- as was done in a rather untidy fashion by Wiki Leaks -- is a good thing. Hoarding US views only plays into the hands of the corrupt cronies who pretend to be annointed by Washington.
Finally, three personal and somewhat contradictory anecdotes from my life in the State Department to illustrate how much I agree with your analysis, and the need to "reboot" US diplomacy:
1. Rwanda: I was a first tour FSO in Kigali during the invasion of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF -- mainly Ugandan army elements who had "deserted") in 1990. This invasion and the subsequent war of attrition led to the attempted genocide of 1994. At the Embassy we produced copious reporting (I was wondering last year if any of my cables would end up on Wiki leaks!) trying to analyze who was fighting whom, why, and where the weapons were coming from. We conveyed the Rwandan government's pleas for intervention -- it wouldn't have taken much, a few hundered soldiers with some armor to separate the combattants -- but with apartheid ending in South Africa, Mobutu and Zaire dying, and UNITA finally coming to the negotiating table in Angola, there was no bandwidth in Washington to deal with Rwanda, where "our interests are solely humanitarian." (That's a real quote, and arguably true.) After a change of Ambassadors -- an inexperienced political appointee was replaced by a frustrated career diplomat with no Africa experience but intimate knowledge of how to get things done in Washington -- we resorted to sending cables to Washington with the highest classification -- in hopes that the "7th floor" would take notice. And this from an Embassy with no US Marines and no real physical security. But the highly classified cables did yield results, and ultimately led to engagement from Washington and the short lived Arusha peace accords between the Rwandan Government and the RPF. The perverted lesson learned by a junior FSO -- me -- was if you want to get your cables read in State, overclassify them. (Ironically, Rwanda was never really a focus of US foreign policy until CNN captured compelling images of the genocide in 1994, highly classified cables notwithstanding.)
2. Washington: I spent my third tour as an FSO in Washington running economic sanctions policy against Iraq, Libya and North Korea. This meant working closely with US allies in the UN Security Council, and the US intelligence community, to plug holes in the sanctions regimes, by identifying and stopping sanctions violations. The US intelligence community would regularly bring us proof positive -- intercepts, etc. -- of blatant violations of UN sanctions -- including proposed shipments of dual use or military equipment -- by various criminal organizations and individuals in Europe and Russia. At the time we had quite strong support for sanctions in New York. But more often than not, when we tried to get the information into a form that was releasable to other governments -- i.e. a smoking gun -- inevitably ran into the iron curtain of "protecting sources and methods." Finally I had to tell my intelligence community colleagues that much of their data was certainly interesting, but if I couldn't take action on it, I just didn't need to know. The second lesson for a junior FSO: highly classified information may be useful for soldiers and spies, but the benefit to business of diplomacy is marginal at best.
3. France: France at the time of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin was full of spies and informants, and led to the US Government's first use of encryption to keep its correspondence -- which was inevitably read by the French -- private. Encryption, by the way, is not just useful for keeping government secrets under wraps, it is an essential engine of electronic commerce over the internet (secure payments and data transmissions, for example). On my fourth and final tour in the US Foreign Servcie, I got involved in lengthy negotiations with the French in the mid 1990's on electronic commerce and encryption. This was when Windows 95 and Netscape Navigator software were opening the door to the internet on every desktop around the world. The US Government was convinced -- and they were right -- that the business of the internet -- electronic commerce, the buying and selling of physical goods and digital content -- could only flourish if it was protected from the asphyxiating embrace of European regulation, taxes and content quotas. (These are a traditional French specialty, as Franklin himself surmised at the time.) This led to long drawn out negotiations with the French Socialist government of the time, including Finance Minister Dominic Strauss Kahn of recent fame in NYC. The key to an agreement was understanding the motivations and objectives of the French side, which were in fact quite different from the US objectives. Our side was focused on the business objectives -- making the world safe for the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco -- while the the French were focused on the social objectives -- education, tele-medicine, and rural access to information, etc. That was the easy part. The hard part was getting the information back to the Washington agencies participating in the talks -- USTR, the FCC, the White House, and Commerce. We quickly learned that outside of the State Department no one could read our classified cables from their desktops. We realized that 90% of the content in our cables were "open source," i.e. you could read the same content in the French press or by chatting with the French 'man in the street." The remaining 10% were the personal insights, opinions, and recommendations of the French officials with whom we spoke. We quickly learned to classify our cables paragraph by paragraph, putting the 10% of personal insights that were worthy of "Confidential" treatment in one or two paragraphs, and leaving all the rest unlassified, so that Washington agencies could read the material and act on it. It worked, we got a deal with the French (and the Japanese too, but that's a separate narrative) to preclude taxation and quotas on e-commerce, which has been an engine for economic growth, new jobs, business, and the expansion of the internet around the world. And the rest is history, as you so artfully capture in your piece.
all the best,
tom marten
ps sorry i missed you on your last trip to paris, i'm living in saudi arabia these days. and now i know what you've been doing with your free time in berkley! keep up the good work.
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Board with Gambling Decal on the Bottom?
Hey, I saw a snowboard at the slope and I'm trying to figure out who makes it. I really hope someone here will recognize this.
I was neon green on the bottom and had a dice. It also had a huge Jack (playing card) on it. Please try to find for me! I couldn't find anywhere where it said the company name, but I did read someone's name (it might have been the company name). It was two words and I think the first name started with a C. I know this isn't much help, but I really want to buy this snowboard |
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Vegedus wrote:Game Grumps is pretty funny though.
Mr. Sefrol wrote:So, either have a bunch of charisma, play with friends, or both while doing a let's play.
I always wanted to do one of these myself at least once, but don't have the slightest idea on how to start. Like what sort of software/hardware I'd need, how to edit videos, etc.
I know WB and ND make their own, so they're good to ask for tips... hmm...
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