Ilya Zhitomirskiy by Karinavan Schaardenburg/Flickr
Correct me if I am wrong, but when a project is proposed to the Open Source community, people in the community should work positively to improve the project. Why then when the hyped Facebook rival Diaspora releases it’s source the community turns hateful and vicious? Then suddenly Ilya Zhitomirskiy, the 22-year-old co-founder of Diaspora commits suicide. Who are these haters, trolls? Are they hired corporate thugs or just idiots who don’t know what contributing to the open source community might mean? Maybe I’m naive, I don’t work in the “official” open source community, but I stand behind any initiative that is open, collaborative and that benefits the public.
Samples of ocher were collected in large abalone shells, where the first known paint was liquefied, stirred and scooped out with a bone spatula.
In African Cave, Signs of an Ancient Paint Factory
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: October 13, 2011
New York Times
Digging deeper in a South African cave that had already yielded surprises from the Middle Stone Age, archaeologists have uncovered a 100,000-year-old workshop holding the tools and ingredients with which early modern humans apparently mixed some of the first known paint.
• This TIME article headline is at first mislead in that appears that U.S. is shut out of Iraq oil auctions?? When later it mentions that ExxonMobile took 80% stake West Qurna Phase 1. Shut Out as Iraq Auctions Its Oil Fields by Vivienne Walt Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009. It makes me want to research the oil contracts awarded to U.S. Oil companies since the invasion.
• Finally, where is ConocoPhillips, U.S.’s 3rd largest oil company? A little research shows in 2004 Lukoil and ConocoPhillips had formed a strategic alliance in 2004, with ConocoPhillips owning 20% of Lukoil’s shares. In 2007 Lukoil promised ConocoPhillips a share of the West Qurna Oil fields. Lukoil, with ConocoPhillips’s shares at won the bid in 2009. So maybe the Time article shouldn’t say U.S. was “shut-out”completely, as oil contracts in Iraq, despite UN sanctions, are full of holes.
• If you look at the list of largest oil reserves, Libya comes right after Iraq, if you take out the unclean sands oil of Canada and Venezuela. It’s also might seem easier to destabilize under a false premise: WMD (Iraq), a rebel uprising (Libya)?
• Kuwait’s national lines were carved out of Iraq by the British after WWI. Hello BP!
• Kuwait is sandwiched between Iraq and Libya in terms of oil reserve. To no surprise, when Iraq attempted to reclaim Kuwait as the 19th province of Iraq, it only took 5 day for the U.S. forces to intervene. More info Gulf War wikipedia
What good is a language not your own? It doesn’t really speak for you, does it? In the Americas its original purpose was for efficiently managing the European colonies. Spanish continues to be the dominant foreign language in a majority of the Americas, but for how much longer? This new report from Al Jazeera shows how the Americas continue their decolonization beyond political rule. Colombia has lifted the ban on teaching indigenous languages allowing for people to tell their story in the language that developed around their culture.
Decolonization in the Americas shouldn’t just mean dismantling political control from foreign rule, real decolonization will begin when all colonizing ideologies are acknowledged and undone in the former colony. In most cases these colonizing ideologies run deep within the frame work of a society. Recently Boliva’s the Department of Decolonization has re-established the right to indigenous unions. Another step toward decolonization. This follow’s the “Rights of Mother Earth” law that Bolivia has recently passed in attempt to push back the abuse of nature, another area ingrained with colonial ideologies.
post script: I’m left thinking what could a deeper decolonization process mean for the northern parts of the Americas?
A recent article on wired.com notes that fake Apple stores are popping up in China. The whole enchilada: products, colors, interior design, etc. The article also mentions that even the workers think they are working for Apple. Guess what, the CHINESE are working for Apple! Apple has factories in China! (You would expect a lower priced computer given the labor cost are kept so low. Nope.)
What is an all American product this day and age? Can Apple be considered an “American” product when it is made in China? Let’s just say that it’s a co-production: Chinese workers + Apple designers.
I think the only tech product we don’t outsource is our military weapons. The High-Tech Top-Secret stuff. But even then I suspect we bend a few rules here and there if we see a good contract -that’s what capitalism is about, isn’t it?
