6/08/2009
Mitchel Cohen - No Spray
Good evening everyone!
When I heard that a political activist came to our university to deliver a guest lecture about Barack Obama and his politics, I thought about anything, but Cohen being also active in environment protection!
I did some reference work and found out that Mitchel Cohen is a co-founder and coordinator of the NO SPRAY! organization. This organization fights against the spraying of toxic pesticides on fields or anywhere where plants grow that people will consume. And he even goes a step further and connects the guest lecture with his organization as he relates their work to the "biological" steps Obama faces in his politics. According to Cohen, Obama does not fight against genetic engineering of plants, fruit and vegetables, but he even endorses it! This goes completely against Cohen´s point of view. One can understand that he feels crestfallen as he set his hopes and desires in Obama. No Spray has been fighting against this pollution and usage of pesticides since 1999 and they are disappointed again and again.
Here is an example: "Thousands Exposed to Poison by Government´s Aerial Spraying"
http://www.naturalnews.com/z022434.html
It is an article by Rami Nagel about this above mentioned usage of pesticides that not only the plants but especially people are exposed to! Check it out, it describes the incidents very well!
By the way, you can also find this article and a comment on this on the organization´s own web page where you can also donate to support them. By doing this you make sure that they can have more influence on politicians so that they will change their policies to a more healthy way of living.
Then Mitchel Cohen will also be content with Barack Obama.
Here is the web page of No Spray!
http://www.nospray.org/index.shtml
When I heard that a political activist came to our university to deliver a guest lecture about Barack Obama and his politics, I thought about anything, but Cohen being also active in environment protection!
I did some reference work and found out that Mitchel Cohen is a co-founder and coordinator of the NO SPRAY! organization. This organization fights against the spraying of toxic pesticides on fields or anywhere where plants grow that people will consume. And he even goes a step further and connects the guest lecture with his organization as he relates their work to the "biological" steps Obama faces in his politics. According to Cohen, Obama does not fight against genetic engineering of plants, fruit and vegetables, but he even endorses it! This goes completely against Cohen´s point of view. One can understand that he feels crestfallen as he set his hopes and desires in Obama. No Spray has been fighting against this pollution and usage of pesticides since 1999 and they are disappointed again and again.
Here is an example: "Thousands Exposed to Poison by Government´s Aerial Spraying"
http://www.naturalnews.com/z022434.html
It is an article by Rami Nagel about this above mentioned usage of pesticides that not only the plants but especially people are exposed to! Check it out, it describes the incidents very well!
By the way, you can also find this article and a comment on this on the organization´s own web page where you can also donate to support them. By doing this you make sure that they can have more influence on politicians so that they will change their policies to a more healthy way of living.
Then Mitchel Cohen will also be content with Barack Obama.
Here is the web page of No Spray!
http://www.nospray.org/index.shtml
6/02/2009
Google Wave
Hey,
now I am going to discuss the Moment of Zen:
In how far can Google Wave take the Internet to the next higher level?
In this moment right now, we have several tools to communicate online, such as instant messengers (ICQ, AIM...), emails and their specific programmes (Thunderbird, Outlook), online chatrooms, web-based telephoning (Skype) and so on and so forth...
You can use all these tools and programmes at once, but you need a whole load of tools.
Google will revolutionize this: Google Wave combines all these tools mentioned above and forms ONE specific web interface.
This platform allows it for each user to communicate with others either synchronous (at the same time, see instant messaging) or asynchronous (email). But that is not all: Wave tends to real-time communication. This does not only cover chatting, but also collaboration concerning documents and photo editing. Collaboration? Yes! Users can work together on one project, but they do not have to sit together around one table. That IS the next higher level, isn´t it?? I am completely astonished by this...
By the way: the name "Wave" derives from this collaboration. Each user working on such a project can see the the design steps other used made to finish their process with the aid of a replay function.
Internet really becomes more and more and more and more and more interactive; to May 28th, 2009 I could not imagine this being possible - but I was disabused ;)
Here you can check out the whole presentation of Google Wave by its developper Lars Rasmussen in San Francisco - don´t get deterred, it´s a quite long video! :)
http://wave.google.com/
now I am going to discuss the Moment of Zen:
In how far can Google Wave take the Internet to the next higher level?
In this moment right now, we have several tools to communicate online, such as instant messengers (ICQ, AIM...), emails and their specific programmes (Thunderbird, Outlook), online chatrooms, web-based telephoning (Skype) and so on and so forth...
You can use all these tools and programmes at once, but you need a whole load of tools.
Google will revolutionize this: Google Wave combines all these tools mentioned above and forms ONE specific web interface.
This platform allows it for each user to communicate with others either synchronous (at the same time, see instant messaging) or asynchronous (email). But that is not all: Wave tends to real-time communication. This does not only cover chatting, but also collaboration concerning documents and photo editing. Collaboration? Yes! Users can work together on one project, but they do not have to sit together around one table. That IS the next higher level, isn´t it?? I am completely astonished by this...
By the way: the name "Wave" derives from this collaboration. Each user working on such a project can see the the design steps other used made to finish their process with the aid of a replay function.
Internet really becomes more and more and more and more and more interactive; to May 28th, 2009 I could not imagine this being possible - but I was disabused ;)
Here you can check out the whole presentation of Google Wave by its developper Lars Rasmussen in San Francisco - don´t get deterred, it´s a quite long video! :)
http://wave.google.com/
Moment of Zen
Hey Guys,
this is my new Moment of Zen I am going to discuss above. According to our last session when we were discussing "New Media" I found a new Internet tool being able to make the Web-communication more interaktive. The question is:
In how far can Google Wave take the Internet to the next higher level?
this is my new Moment of Zen I am going to discuss above. According to our last session when we were discussing "New Media" I found a new Internet tool being able to make the Web-communication more interaktive. The question is:
In how far can Google Wave take the Internet to the next higher level?
5/23/2009
Moment of Zen
Comparison of Elections: US President vs. German Federal President
Hey guys,
today the German Federal President has been reelected and I think this is a good basis for comparing the differences in election systems with regard to the use of new media devices.
One can regard the Federal President as the most powerful political figure as he represents the country in the world and can actually unseat the Federal Chancellor.
The use of new media devices was nearly imperceptible. There was not a real campaign, but the reason for this is, in my opinion, that the people may not elect the president itself. Another important factor is that the Federal Republic has been existing for exactly 60 years - it was founded in 1949. That is why there were several articles about the election always in connection with the "anniversary". But one did not stumble across a huge campaign - you have to be really interested in politics and willing to search for articles on the Internet. In contrast to this: there were several "shows" on TV which concentrated on the election - but not on the Internet!!
I found this page concerning Obama´s visit in Dresden in about a week:
http://www.dresden.de/obama/index.php
Over the last week, there were actually more articles on Internet pages discussing Obama´s visit, which sights he will visit, how the Secret Service is concerned with his security and so on and so on and so on and so on..... :)
This is the YouTube video showing the Federal President Horst Köhler being reelected (for those who are actually interested as one cannot elect him personally):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMbMfocqpP0
Hey guys,
today the German Federal President has been reelected and I think this is a good basis for comparing the differences in election systems with regard to the use of new media devices.
One can regard the Federal President as the most powerful political figure as he represents the country in the world and can actually unseat the Federal Chancellor.
The use of new media devices was nearly imperceptible. There was not a real campaign, but the reason for this is, in my opinion, that the people may not elect the president itself. Another important factor is that the Federal Republic has been existing for exactly 60 years - it was founded in 1949. That is why there were several articles about the election always in connection with the "anniversary". But one did not stumble across a huge campaign - you have to be really interested in politics and willing to search for articles on the Internet. In contrast to this: there were several "shows" on TV which concentrated on the election - but not on the Internet!!
I found this page concerning Obama´s visit in Dresden in about a week:
http://www.dresden.de/obama/index.php
Over the last week, there were actually more articles on Internet pages discussing Obama´s visit, which sights he will visit, how the Secret Service is concerned with his security and so on and so on and so on and so on..... :)
This is the YouTube video showing the Federal President Horst Köhler being reelected (for those who are actually interested as one cannot elect him personally):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMbMfocqpP0
5/18/2009
Moment of Zen
Hey Guys, here is my new Moment of Zen:
According to last week´s lesson, I chose on the qustions of got from you:
"Do you think the Teletubbies have an educational function as ´Sesame Street´?"
Well, as I told you in my presentation, there are lots of negative aspects of TV, such as violence and crime influencing the children´s attitude towards violence in reality; but on the other hand, there are positive aspects as well, such as the educational function. This is represented by the CNN Newsfeed at schools, or, as mentioned above, by the Sesame Street. Children can communicate with their peers while watching and with the characters on TV, such as Samson and Tiffy, with the aid of symbols, songs and so on. There you have a ´real´ language, that children can learn something from.
Transfered to the Teletubbies, one has to say, that is is absolutely NOT the case. They do not have a real language apart from the speaker, they communicate with their own one and they only call their names... that is all of communication in this series - and there is a danger for children, especially for those sitting in front of the TV for hours and hours and whose parents do not care for them. They might adopt this language and have difficulties to get rid of it.
I think that the Teletubbies absolutely have NO educational function and should be abandoned from TV!
But find out yourselves if you consider them as worth watching for you child in the future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiaLOzP1lCA
According to last week´s lesson, I chose on the qustions of got from you:
"Do you think the Teletubbies have an educational function as ´Sesame Street´?"
Well, as I told you in my presentation, there are lots of negative aspects of TV, such as violence and crime influencing the children´s attitude towards violence in reality; but on the other hand, there are positive aspects as well, such as the educational function. This is represented by the CNN Newsfeed at schools, or, as mentioned above, by the Sesame Street. Children can communicate with their peers while watching and with the characters on TV, such as Samson and Tiffy, with the aid of symbols, songs and so on. There you have a ´real´ language, that children can learn something from.
Transfered to the Teletubbies, one has to say, that is is absolutely NOT the case. They do not have a real language apart from the speaker, they communicate with their own one and they only call their names... that is all of communication in this series - and there is a danger for children, especially for those sitting in front of the TV for hours and hours and whose parents do not care for them. They might adopt this language and have difficulties to get rid of it.
I think that the Teletubbies absolutely have NO educational function and should be abandoned from TV!
But find out yourselves if you consider them as worth watching for you child in the future:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiaLOzP1lCA
5/09/2009
Unreliability of the Internet
This is my new Moment of Zen!
Our modern world does not work without computers, cell phones, emails, the web.... what if all servers are shut down or break down?? What would be the effects on the economy, politics, the daily-life?
We could see it on April 21st, 2009, when the clients of the German Telekom could not use their cell phones for talking for only a few hours! All based on a break down of the servers due to a software problem. Subsequent to this power failure they were allowed to send short messages the following sunday for free! This reveals how important new media devices are for our society and it also underlines the dependence on these devices.
I came across such an unreliable moment when I tried to find information about "Tailrank" for class... I used several search engines, such as ask.com, but Google as well, and they showed comparable results. The first entry was linked to the website "www.tailrank.com". "Well, sounds good, I should find information there", I thought without having a clue what ´Tailrank´ could be. But what happened? I clicked on the page, and it said: "Tailrank is taking a Gliding Lesson - We´re doing a big DB upgrade... should be fun :)..." They have been doing this upgrade since Tuesday, April 5th, when will it be finished??
This is such a case of the Unreliability of the Internet. There are of course other sources helping to find out what ´Tailrank´ could be, but I expect not to get these information at first hand! But that is in turn good about the internet: if one source does not work, there are enough others absorbing the losses so that there is always a way to gather information. So far so good.
But what if there is a "Web-Apocalypse"?? That´s a topic for the next MoZ ;)
Our modern world does not work without computers, cell phones, emails, the web.... what if all servers are shut down or break down?? What would be the effects on the economy, politics, the daily-life?
We could see it on April 21st, 2009, when the clients of the German Telekom could not use their cell phones for talking for only a few hours! All based on a break down of the servers due to a software problem. Subsequent to this power failure they were allowed to send short messages the following sunday for free! This reveals how important new media devices are for our society and it also underlines the dependence on these devices.
I came across such an unreliable moment when I tried to find information about "Tailrank" for class... I used several search engines, such as ask.com, but Google as well, and they showed comparable results. The first entry was linked to the website "www.tailrank.com". "Well, sounds good, I should find information there", I thought without having a clue what ´Tailrank´ could be. But what happened? I clicked on the page, and it said: "Tailrank is taking a Gliding Lesson - We´re doing a big DB upgrade... should be fun :)..." They have been doing this upgrade since Tuesday, April 5th, when will it be finished??
This is such a case of the Unreliability of the Internet. There are of course other sources helping to find out what ´Tailrank´ could be, but I expect not to get these information at first hand! But that is in turn good about the internet: if one source does not work, there are enough others absorbing the losses so that there is always a way to gather information. So far so good.
But what if there is a "Web-Apocalypse"?? That´s a topic for the next MoZ ;)
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