Is there life after Facebook?: The Cyber Gulag revisited & Debate reloaded

To read more click these links:The 4th Media  or ifimes

International institute Ifimes :Is there life after Facebook?

By Anis H. Bajrektarević

Is there life after Facebook? Or after the Spring-ing ‘revolution’? Now, when Wall Street is occupied, how will we occupy ourselves? Could we google protest, tweet discontent, upload promenades, block a tragedy and avoid farce, and eventually download pure happiness – happily ever after? ...

Through the pain of sobriety, the protesters all across the MENA, Euro-Med and overseas are learning that neither globalization nor the McFB(1) way of life (mostly spent in the large, air-conditioned shopping-malls) is a shortcut to development; that free trade is not a virtue, but an instrument; that liberalism is not a state of mind but a well-doctrinated ideology, and finally that the social media networks are only a communication tool, not a replacement for indepen- dent critical thinking(2) or for the collapsed cross-generational contract. “We are the suckers, the eternally expectant ones, the hopeful ones– and the eternally disappointed ones(3)...”

Machines run on binary-coded algorithms (predictability of human behavior cyber-providers) can neither compensate for an empathic human touch nor can they replace the wonders of socio-emotional interactions of individuals in a real time-space(4). Sociableness is neither of a linear, one-directional dynamics à la the Running Sushi, nor can it be simplifiable and instant portable like the three-size Starbucks coffee. Personal relations are lived, not utilized by the mouse click. Human integrity is self-molested (brutalized) and self-reduced (trivialized) into the lame shop-window commodity which is purchasable 24/7 by ‘poking’ on the photo of someone’s personal profile. And, likies are available to give a rating for ‘commodities’.

he Philippines' Puerto Princesa Underground River

World's new seven wonders of nature Photos | World's new seven wonders of nature Pictures - Yahoo! News

World's new seven wonders of nature
The Amazon rainforest, Vietnam's Halong Bay and Argentina's Iguazu Falls were named among the world's new seven wonders of nature, according to organizers of a global poll. The other four crowned are South Korea's Jeju Island, Indonesia's Komodo, the Philippines' Puerto Princesa Underground River and South Africa's Table Mountain.

Australia to become first country to introduce unbranded cigarette packets

 | Mail Online

Australia to become first country to introduce unbranded cigarette packets

Cigarettes to be sold in the same olive green packs
Health warnings will cover 75% of packs' front

Australia is to become the first nation to ban logos and other advertising on cigarette packs to make smoking less appealing.

The new laws means tobacco companies wont be able to display their distinctive colours, brand designs and logos on the packets.

Instead cigarettes will all be sold in the same olive green packs with brand names dwarfed by often gruesome, full-colour health warnings covering 75 per cent of the packs' front.

Australia is to become the first nation to ban logos and other advertising on cigarette packs to make smoking less appealing

Graphic health warnings currently cover only 30 per cent.

The government has vowed to fight tobacco companies over the legislation change, which comes into force from December next year, in court.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060019/Australia-country-introduce-unbranded-cigarette-packets.html#ixzz1dSdhboCv

As of Nov 22, Gmail app for BlackBerry will stop

Gmail to Stop Providing Email App for BlackBerry | ABC News - Yahoo!

Do you use Gmail? Do you use a BlackBerry? Do you check your Gmail on it?

Google has offered a free app that BlackBerry users can download to read their Gmail on the go, but it has now announced that as of Nov. 22, it will stop. No more downloads, no more technical support if you already have the app. The app will still work if you have it (go to http://m.google.com/mail on your handheld if you still want to get it), but Google says it would prefer you just use the browser on your handheld instead. (Just go to http://www.gmail.com. It’s slow but it works.)

Google’s explanation: “Over this past year, we’ve focused efforts on building a great Gmail experience in the mobile browser and will continue investing in this area.”

On Wednesday a week ago, Google released an app for Apple devices — and pulled it within a few hours. It ran an apology on Twitter: “The iOS app we launched today contained a bug with notifications. We have pulled the app to fix the problem. Sorry we messed up.”

The app for RIM’s BlackBerry devices has not had such problems — but RIM has had its share as it tries to compete with smartphones that use Google’s Android software or Apple’s iOS operating system.

While Google and RIM have played down the decision, Ed Hansberry of Information Week wrote, “When one of the largest email providers in the world drops support for a platform and suggests users wait for a mobile Web page to be developed, it isn’t good.”

Alkesh Shah, an analyst at Evercore Partners in New York who follows RIM, has said, “They made great phones that focus around email, but not around the Internet. And that’s where Apple and Android are way ahead of them.”

Snaptu: 11/11/11: mystical meaning or simply Armistice Day? | Open thread

Uri Geller believes today's palindrome date holds the key to the universe. Tell us whether you think its significance is spooky

It is a palindrome that occurs once every 100 years and has inspired an onset of global mysticism. 11/11/11/11 or the…

Click here to read the full story

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This email was sent to you from Snaptu mobile application.

China Autumn 2011

Finally I can access blogspot and twitter again after so many days without them. China indeed ban them. But, I think, soon China will change its policy. Internet filtering should never be implemented in this transparancy era.... Currently I am in Hongkong. Just arrived from Beijing. Have spent days in Nanning, Tianjin, and Beijing. Tomorrow will be home again. Will miss China soon.

Withdrawing Renminbi using CIMB debit card

I need to use my debit card to withdraw some Renminbis because I have not exchanged my IDR to yuan
Practical travel information on Money and costs in China - Lonely Planet Travel Information

Money
Atms

ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) advertising international bank settlement systems such as GlobalAccess, Cirrus, Maestro Plus and others are common in Hong Kong and Macau. On the mainland, ATMs that take international cards include branches of the Bank of China and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, where you can use Visa, MasterCard, Cirrus, Maestro, Plus and American Express (AmEx) to withdraw cash. The network largely applies to sizable towns and cities. Large airports such as Beijing Capital Airport, five-star hotels and some department stores have ATMs. Most other ATMs in China can only be used for withdrawing Renminbi in domestic accounts. The exchange rate on ATM withdrawals is similar to credit cards but there is a maximum daily withdrawal amount. If you plan on staying in China for a long period, it is advisable to open an account at a bank like the Bank of China with a nationwide network of ATMs.

For your nearest ATM, consult the ATM locator on www.international.visa.com/ps or on www.mastercard.com/cardholderservices/atm; both have comprehensive listings. For those without an ATM card or credit card, a PIN-activated Visa TravelMoney card (US 1-877-394 2247) will give you access to predeposited cash through the ATM network.

Hongkong trip

...just finished eating some junk food in Hongkong...will be leaving soon to Nanning

Beijing, Tianjin,Nanjing

Quo Vadis

I will abandon this blog for temporary. I am in China now. Will be travel to Beijing, Nanjing, and Tianjin. This is my second trip to China.

quit smoking, curb obesity, the unhealthy will pay more

Insight: Firms to charge smokers, obese more for healthcare - Yahoo! News

Like a lot of companies, Veridian Credit Union wants its employees to be healthier. In January, the Waterloo, Iowa-company rolled out a wellness program and voluntary screenings.

It also gave workers a mandate - quit smoking, curb obesity, or you'll be paying higher healthcare costs in 2013. It doesn't yet know by how much, but one thing's for certain - the unhealthy will pay more.

The credit union, which has more than 500 employees, is not alone.

In recent years, a growing number of companies have been encouraging workers to voluntarily improve their health to control escalating insurance costs. And while workers mostly like to see an employer offer smoking cessation classes and weight loss programs, too few are signing up or showing signs of improvement.

So now more employers are trying a different strategy - they're replacing the carrot with a stick and raising costs for workers who can't seem to lower their cholesterol or tackle obesity. They're also coming down hard on smokers. For example, discount store giant Wal-Mart says that starting in 2012 it will charge tobacco users higher premiums but also offer free smoking cessation programs.

Tobacco users consume about 25 percent more healthcare services than non-tobacco users, says Greg Rossiter, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, which insures more than 1 million people, including family members. "The decisions aren't easy, but we need to balance costs and provide quality coverage."

For decades, workers - especially with large employers - have taken many health benefits for granted and until the past few years hardly noticed the price increases.

But the new policies could not only badly dent their take home pay and benefits but also reduce their freedom to behave as they want outside of work and make them resentful toward their employers. There are also fears the trend will hurt the lower-paid hardest as health costs can eat up a bigger slice of their disposable income and because they may not have much access to gyms and fresh food in their neighborhoods.

"It's not inherently wrong to hold people responsible," says Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a research and advocacy organization on employment issues based in Princeton, New Jersey. "But it's a dangerous precedent," he says. "Everything you do in your personal private life affects your health."

Overall, the use of penalties is expected to climb in 2012 to almost 40 percent of large and mid-sized companies, up from 19 percent this year and only 8 percent in 2009, according to an October survey by consulting firm Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health. The penalties include higher premiums and deductibles for individuals who failed to participate in health management activities as well as those who engaged in risky health behaviors such as smoking.

"Nothing else has worked to control health trends," says LuAnn Heinen, vice president of the National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers on health and benefits issues. "A financial incentive reduces that procrastination."

LACK OF JOBS

The weak economy is contributing to the change. Employers face higher health care costs - in part - because they're hiring fewer younger healthy workers and losing fewer more sickly senior employees.

The poor job market also means employers don't have to be as generous with these benefits to compete. They now expect workers to contribute to the solution just as they would to a 401(k) retirement plan, says Jim Winkler, a managing principal at consulting firm Aon Hewitt's health and benefits practice. "You're going to face consequences based on whether you've achieved or not," he says.

And those that don't are more likely to be punished. An Aon Hewitt survey released in June found that almost half of employers expect by 2016 to have programs that penalize workers "for not achieving specific health outcomes" such as lowering their weight, up from 10 percent in 2011

The programs have until now met little resistance in the courts. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) prevents workers from being discriminated against on the basis of health if they're in a group health insurance plan. But HIPAA also allows employers to offer wellness programs and to offer incentives of up to 20 percent of the cost for participation.

President Barack Obama's big health care reform, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will enable employers beginning in 2014 to bump that difference in premiums to 30 percent and potentially up to 50 percent.

Employers do, however, also need to provide an alternative for workers who can't meet the goals. That could include producing a doctor's note to say it is medically very difficult, or even impossible, to achieve certain goals, says Timothy Jost, a professor at the Washington and Lee School of Law. For example, a worker with asthma may not be able to participate in a company exercise program.

These wellness programs typically include a health risk assessment completed online, and on-site free medical screenings for things such as blood pressure, body mass index, and cholesterol.

The programs, while voluntary, often typically offer financial benefits - including lower insurance premiums, gift cards and employer contributions to health savings accounts. For example, workers at the railroad company Union Pacific get $100 in their health savings account for completing the health assessment, $100 if they don't use tobacco and $100 if they get an annual physical (tobacco users also can get the $100 if they participate in a tobacco cessation program).

INCENTIVE TO EXERCISE

Like Wal-Mart, more employers are coming down harder on individuals who have voluntarily identified themselves as tobacco users, often during their health risk assessment. As yet, very few employers identify smokers through on-site medical screenings.

Veridian, which until now has not charged its employees for healthcare premiums, says increases to its health care costs have been unsustainable, climbing 9 percent annually for the past three years. Earlier this year, it rolled out a wellness program and free screenings, which 90 percent of workers have now completed.

As it starts charging, it will provide discounts to those making progress as it "wants to reward those who have healthy lifestyles," says Renee Christoffer, senior vice president of administration for the credit union.

Mark Koppedryer, vice president of branches at Veridian, was one of the workers who participated in the screenings. The 37-year-old father of three initially participated to show his support but was shocked to find out that he had elevated blood pressure and cholesterol scores.

His colleague, Stacy Phillips, says she used the new wellness programs to exercise more. "I knew there needed to be a change in my life," says the 35-year-old, who has lost 40 pounds since January. "This made me more aware that at some time there would be a cost."

These changes come at a time when health insurance premiums are soaring. In 2011, the average-cost of an employer-provided family plan was more than $15,000, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust. That's 31 percent higher than five years ago. And the number is expected to climb another 5-8 percent next year, according to various estimates.

In contrast, the giant medical and research center Cleveland Clinic, which employs about 40,000 people, has seen these costs grow by only 2 percent this year because it has implemented a comprehensive wellness program that has dramatically improved the health of many workers.

The effort began several years when it banned smoking at the medical center and then refused to hire smokers. It later recognized that having a gym and weight loss classes wasn't enough to get people to participate. It made these facilities and programs free and provided lower premiums to workers who maintained their health or improved it, typically with their doctor's help.

"You don't do this overnight," says Paul Terpeluk, Medical Director of Occupational Health at the Cleveland Clinic. You have to develop a program and change the culture, he said.

INTRUSIVE

But not all programs are as well constructed and effective, says Mark A. Rothstein, a lawyer and professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. The wellness programs may be well-intentioned, he says, but there's not strong empirical evidence that they work and getting a weekly call about your weight or smoking habits, which is offered by some programs, could be humiliating for participants.

"What might be seen as a question to one person may be an intrusion to another," he says. That's one reason that lower-paid janitors at his school participate but, "the professors on campus consider it a privacy tax so we don't get some stranger calling us about how much we weigh."

And there are also those that no matter how much they exercise or how healthy they eat can't lose weight or lower their blood pressure or body mass index. "There are thousands and thousands of people whose paycheck is being cut because of factors beyond their control," says Maltby from the National Workrights Institute.

The programs could be especially burdensome for low-income workers, who are more likely to fail health assessment tests and less likely to have access to gyms and healthier fresh produce, says Harald Schmidt - a research associate at the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

"We want to use provisions to help people and not penalize people for factors beyond their control," Schmidt says. "Poorer people are often less healthy and this constitutes a potential double whammy. They are likely to face a higher burden in insurance premiums."

That's the case for Barbara Collins, a 35-year-old Wal-Mart employee - who lives in Placerville , California. She says she'll have to pay $127 every two weeks for health insurance next year, including a penalty of almost $25 because she's a smoker.

"I'll cut back on cigarettes and hopefully eventually quit," says Collins, who earned $19,000 pretax, or about $730 every two weeks, last year. "Christmas will definitely be tight this year and for years to come if this lasts," she says. "Family vacations, there's no way I can afford that.".

(Reporting by Jilian Mincer in New York. Editing by Martin Howell in New York.)

Al-Qaida presence in Benghazi, Libia

Libya’s turmoil, al-Qaida presence ‘no surprise,’ says White House - Yahoo! News

Weekend media reports showed al-Qaida’s flag flying in central Benghazi, and noted that Libyan anti-aircraft missiles had been purchased by terror groups, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday the administration has not been surprised by news reports from Libya.

“I’m not aware of anything that has been reported that has surprised us out of Libya,” Carney said during a morning press briefing.

White House officials have not responded to The Daily Caller’s request for an explanation of Carney’s statement

7 billionth baby

United Nations marks 7 billionth baby - Yahoo! News

Demographers say it took until 1804 for the world to reach its first billion people and a century more until it hit 2 billion in 1927. Soon the numbers began to cascade: 3 billion in 1959, 4 billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1998.

The U.N. estimates the world population will reach 8 billion by 2025 and 10 billion by 2083. But the numbers could vary widely, depending on life expectancy, access to birth control, infant mortality rates and other factors.

In Uttar Pradesh, India — the most populous state in the world's second-most populous country — officials said they would appoint seven girls born Monday to symbolize the 7 billion.

India, which struggles with a deeply held preference for sons and a skewed sex ratio because of millions of aborted female fetuses, is using the day to highlight that issue.

"It would be a fitting moment if the 7 billionth baby is a girl born in rural India," said Dr. Madhu Gupta, a gynecologist. "It would help in bringing the global focus back on girls, who are subject to inequality and bias."

According to U.S. government estimates, India has 893 girls for every 1,000 boys at birth, compared with 955 girls per 1,000 boys in the United States.

Meanwhile, China, which at 1.34 billion people is the world's most populous nation, said it would stand by its one-child policy, a set of restrictions launched three decades ago limiting most urban families to one child and most rural families to two.

"Overpopulation remains one of the major challenges to social and economic development," Li Bin, director of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, told the official Xinhua News Agency. He said the population of China would hit 1.45 billion in 2020.

While the Beijing government says its strict family planning policy has helped propel the country's rapidly growing economy, it has also brought many problems.

Soon, demographers say, there won't be enough young Chinese to support its enormous elderly population. China, like India, also has a highly skewed sex ratio, with aid groups saying sex-selective abortions have resulted in an estimated 43 million fewer girls than there should be, given the overall population.

India, with 1.2 billion people, is expected to overtake China around 2030, when the Indian population reaches an estimated 1.6 billion.

Anya Belyayeva and Irina Iskanderova

Russian families whose daughters were accidentally swapped at birth win $100,000 each in compensation | Mail Online

Two Russian families whose daughters were switched at birth by accident have been awarded $100,000 (£62,000) each in court today.

Judges in Chelyabinsk, Russia, ordered the maternity home where the error took place a dozen years ago should pay out the money to the shattered families.

The two girls were born 15 minutes apart on the same day and the medical centre, located in the Ural Mountains, admitted that they had mixed up the identity labels of the pair of babies.

7 billionth' babies

Various '7 billionth' babies celebrated worldwide - Yahoo! News

Countries around the world marked the world's population reaching 7 billion Monday with lavish ceremonies for newborn infants symbolizing the milestone and warnings that there may be too many humans for the planet's resources.

While demographers are unsure exactly when the world's population will reach the 7 billion mark, the U.N. is using Monday to symbolically mark the day. A string of festivities are being held worldwide, with a series of symbolic 7-billionth babies being born.

The celebrations began in the Philippines, where baby Danica May Camacho was greeted with cheers and an explosion of photographers' flashbulbs at Manila's Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital. She arrived two minutes before midnight Sunday, but doctors say that was close enough to count for a Monday birthday.

The baby received a shower of gifts, from a chocolate cake marked "7B Philippines" to a gift certificate for shoes.

"She looks so lovely," the mother, Camille Galura, whispered as she cradled the 2.5-kilo (5.5-pound) baby, who was born about a month premature.

The baby was the second for Galura and her partner, Florante Camacho, a struggling driver who supports the family on a tiny salary.

Dr. Eric Tayag of the Philippines' Department of Health said later that the birth came with a warning.

"Seven billion is a number we should think about deeply," he said.

"We should really focus on the question of whether there will be food, clean water, shelter, education and a decent life for every child," he said. "If the answer is 'no,' it would be better for people to look at easing this population explosion."

We can love our diverse neighbours without kowtowing to their every prejudice

We can love our diverse neighbours without kowtowing to their every prejudice - Telegraph

I was having an argument with a Left-wing friend. “The way I see it,” he said, “rules to govern diversity, they’re just a way of taking the rough edges off a society.” He looked at me, and I did wonder: how do you disagree with such an assertion? “The problem with your approach,” he continued, “is that you would leave the weakest people in society to find their own way.”

I don’t think that society should be smooth; and I don’t think that the laws protect the weak. But let’s assume he might have a point. All those laws and bizarre prosecutions: they’re only to take the rough edges away. I remembered that conversation when I read about a protest in a school in London. Pupils – sorry, “students” – were protesting because the school’s administrators had removed a vertical sheet from the multi-faith prayer and “quiet” room. Specifically, Muslim students were protesting, because they had erected the sheet in order to segregate the male and female pupils, lest they had to endure the apparently unacceptable insult of witnessing someone with a slightly different chromosomal disposition also in the act of prayer. Business student Kamil Alp said: “It’s very inappropriate if a man does it [prays] in the presence of a woman.”

How far we have come! Schools and colleges now have to set aside rooms for “faith” – for which, of course, read Islamic prayer – and what was once a common space in a college is now just another line in the sand being crossed, prostrate business student by prostrate business student. “I feel discriminated against,” added Kamil. The young man knows his stuff! And I know how he feels.

I remembered my conversation again when I read about Adrian Smith, a manager for a housing trust, punished severely by his employers – to the tune of a cut of £14,000 in his salary – because in the course of a private conversation on his Facebook page, he’d written – calmly, politely – that he could not support gay marriage. I don’t happen to agree with Mr Smith, but our theoretical disagreement pales into insignificance compared to the bullying retribution enacted on him by his employer, for the audacity of expressing a perfectly reasonable view. One of his employers said, “The Trust has an equal opportunities policy.” Case closed. Those equal opportunities policies exist to smooth away our rough edges, and Mr Smith will just have to take the smoothing with the rough.

These two cases, involving very different people (Mr Smith is plainly a good man; Mr Alp makes the news because he appears determined to promote divisions, both metaphorical and literal) illustrate what happens with these well-intentioned (let us be charitable: the alternative is too hideous to contemplate) laws. Mr Alp’s campaign – can you imagine being a timid student in his year? – serves too as a warning that we need greater care with the inspection of faith schools, whose number will surely rise following the Government’s campaign to expand the number of providers in the state education sector.

Winter in Wartime

‘Winter in Wartime,’ Directed by Martin Koolhoven - Review - NYTimes.com

The spartan world of Martin Koolhoven’s sober, well-made World War II melodrama, “Winter in Wartime,” is a rustic blue-gray landscape of woods and snow-covered roads through which armed German soldiers roam in trucks. This handsome film, set in a village in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and shot in Lithuania, is an adaptation of a semiautobiographical 1972 novel by the Dutch author Jan Terlouw, who lived under German occupation for five years.

Gentoo Forums :: View topic - V for Vendetta masks: Who's behind them?

we're protesting corporate greed from behind our guy masks, while we tweet on our iphones! hold on a sec... i need to sip some of my starbucks mochaccino before i spill it.

Why computer voices are mostly female

- CNN.com

Another answer lies in history. According to some sources, the use of female voices in navigation devices dates back to World War II, when women's voices were employed in airplane cockpits because they stood out among the male pilots. And telephone operators have traditionally been female, making people accustomed to getting assistance from a disembodied woman's voice.

When automakers were first installing automated voice prompts in cars ("your door is ajar") decades ago, their consumer research found that people overwhelmingly preferred female voices to male ones, said Tim Bajarin, a Silicon Valley analyst and president of Creative Strategies Inc.

This may explain why in almost all GPS navigation systems on the market, the default voice is female. One notable exception has been Germany, where BMW was forced to recall a female-voiced navigation system on its 5 Series cars in the late 1990s after being flooded with calls from German men saying they refused to take directions from a woman.

"Cultural stereotypes run deep," said Nass, who details the BMW episode in his book.

Job's Afterlife :That's why I don't put on-off switches on Apple devices

Steve Jobs Didn't Want Apple Devices to Have an Off Switch - Yahoo! News

How the afterlife informed Apple's design:

I remember sitting in his back yard in his garden one day, and he started talking about God. He said, "Sometimes I don't. It's 50-50. But ever since I've had cancer I've been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more. Maybe that's because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die it doesn't just all disappear. The wisdom you've accumulated, somehow it just lives on." But then he paused for a second and he said, "Yeah but sometimes I think it's like an on-off switch. Click, and you're gone," he said. Paused again and said, "And that's why I don't put on-off switches on Apple devices."

Bamboo electric scooter

Bamboo electric scooter takes green to a whole new level | Technology News Blog - Yahoo! News
via AutoBlogGreen]

How can you make an electric scooter even more green? Make it out of bamboo! The concept of using bamboo as a construction material for vehicles is starting to gain a foothold, and Antoine Fritsch of the French firm Fritsch-Durisotti has unveiled the T20 electric scooter, which features an eco-friendly bamboo frame.

With a range of 25 miles and a top speed of 22 miles per hour, the T20 offers a stylish option for zipping around town. Or it would, but sadly it's only a concept design — Fritsch-Durisotti has no intention of actually putting the scooters into mainstream production. The T20 is part of the firm's research to "investigate themes exploring changing behaviors related to sustainable development."

[via AutoBlogGreen]