Topic: POLITIK - on January 10, 2017 at 4:53:00 PM CET
Emperor Trump! How the President-Elect Acts Just Like a Roman Ruler
In the middle of Rome, just next to the tomb of the Emperor Augustus, there’s a high wall engraved with hundreds of lines, written in Latin. This is the Res Gestae Divi Augusti—”The Deeds of Divine Augustus,” a mini-autobiography composed by the Emperor before his death in 14 AD. Augustus, the first of the Roman emperors, wasn’t lacking in self-confidence. Here’s a taste of what he wrote: “Twice I triumphed with an ovation, and three times I enjoyed a curule triumph and 21 times I was named. I paid to the Roman plebs 300 sesterces each from my father’s will.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 10, 2017 at 4:52:00 PM CET
Thinking About Fascism
The 2016 presidential election made me think about 1933 and Hitler's rise to power. I've known that he came to power through constitutional means and then used that power from the inside to destroy a constitutional system of government. This seemed like a good time to better understand the way that someone who was a megalomaniac, not taken seriously by elites, brought to power by pandering to people's fears, could take control of the levers of power. I just read Robert O. Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism. For me it helped clarify the tasks before us. In discussing Hitler's and Mussolini's rise to power Paxton says it is important to look at the means through which these fascists translated an ability to mobilize popular discontent into an almost unlimited ability to control the machineries of governmental power.
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Topic: SECURITY - on January 10, 2017 at 4:50:00 PM CET
Snowden: “Right and Wrong is a very different standard from Legal and Illegal”
There are times when you have tons of historical research lined up for a column about legal structures making bad assumptions based on facts that are no longer true, and then something just comes along that makes you wipe your desk and say “no. scrap all of this work. This. I need to post this, and I need to post this now.” Right now is such a time. The topic of cost structures of publishing in the 1800s will wait for another day (it’s already waited for over 200 years, after all).
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 10, 2017 at 4:47:00 PM CET
Swaziland or Switzerland? FBI silent about peculiarities in Russian hack documentation
There are several peculiarities in the technical documentation that FBI has laid out as documentation for Russian hacker attacks on the USA.
The documentation given by FBI and Homeland Security in an attempt to prove Russian hacking of American politicians, organizations and businesses are marked by several deviations that seem to be trivial typing errors. This is what a check made by the Danish IT website Version2 of the attached IP address lists in the report by the authorities shows. The report lists 876 IP addresses that the American authorities believe Russian hacker groups used in connection with attacks on the USA in recent years.
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Topic: WEB - on January 9, 2017 at 9:54:00 AM CET
Trump und das Silicon Valley «Löscht die Userdaten, bevor es zu spät ist!»
Bürgerrechtler in den USA sind alarmiert. Die Chefs von Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM drohten vor dem Sieg Trumps zwar mit der Auswanderung. Von dieser rebellischen Haltung ist nun aber nicht mehr viel zu spüren.
Die Electronic Frontier Foundation gehörte seit Beginn zum intellektuellen Silicon Valley. Als wäre sie das Gewissen der Branche und der Region, verschreibt sich die Foundation der Verteidigung von Bürger-, Verbraucher- und Menschenrechten im digitalen Raum. Jüngst sah sie sich zu einem ungewöhnlichen Manöver genötigt. In einer ganzseitige Annonce im Branchenblatt «Wired» wandte sie sich an die Internetkonzerne, mit dem Aufruf: Löscht die Userdaten, bevor es zu spät ist!
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Topic: TV - on January 9, 2017 at 9:50:00 AM CET
TV industry paves way for humongously high-res video
The newest HDMI video technology will deliver 8K video. That's overkill for the vast majority of us, but it means improvements will also come to color, dynamic range and video smoothness.
The HDMI Forum, a group of electronics companies that includes everyone from LG and Sony to Google and Netflix, has announced plans to release HDMI 2.1 by the end of June. On Wednesday at CES 2017, HDMI backers said it means that TVs and computer monitors will be able to display video at a remarkable 7,680x4,320 pixels.
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Topic: HOLLYWALD - on January 9, 2017 at 9:48:00 AM CET
Lucas museum board deciding soon whether to pursue Treasure Island
The Bay Area could soon learn whether billionaire filmmaker George Lucas will try — again — to build a high-profile museum on a prime spot on San Francisco Bay. The board of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is likely to meet by the end of this week to vote on whether to pursue development plans on Treasure Island, across from the Ferry Building in San Francisco, or in Los Angeles at Exposition Park near the University of Southern California. San Francisco’s bid for the museum includes an expectation that Lucas would pay roughly $26 million for the 4-acre site, an amount that city officials say is above market value. Los Angeles proposes to lease its 7-acre site to Lucas for a nominal $20 a year.
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Topic: DRUGS - on January 8, 2017 at 10:38:00 PM CET
My First Day Microdosing With LSD
Looking for a new way to regulate her moods, the writer Ayelet Waldman happened upon “microdosing”: the practice of taking tiny doses of psychedelic drugs (less than you’d need to make you hallucinate). In her new book, A Really Good Day, she describes her experiences — which began with the challenge of getting her hands on LSD.
Today I took my first microdose. My senses are ever-so-slightly heightened, a feeling all but unappreciable, so perhaps it’s psychosomatic, though that word carries little meaning when anything that might be happening to me right now has inevitably to do with the interaction of mind and body. I feel a tiny bit more aware, as if my consciousness is hovering at a slight remove, watching me tap the keys on my keyboard, rub my ankles together, sip a mouthful of tea and swallow it. The trees look prettier than usual; the jasmine smells more fragrant.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 8, 2017 at 10:37:00 PM CET
Russland soll draußen bleiben
Jeder darf mit jedem: Im EU-Parlament ist dem Zusammenschluss von Parteien zu Fraktionen kaum Grenzen gesetzt - das wollen die Konservativen nun ändern. Auch die Einflussnahme von Ländern wie Russland soll unterbunden werden.
Die Fraktion der Europäischen Volkspartei im Europaparlament (EVP) will radikale Gruppierungen in Europa künftig effektiver bekämpfen und schärfer gegen Fremdfinanzierung europafeindlicher Parteien, etwa durch Russland, vorgehen. "Wir sollten die Regeln für die Parteienfinanzierung auf Ebene der EU weiter verschärfen", sagte EVP-Fraktionschef Manfred Weber (CSU) dem SPIEGEL. Parteien sollen demnach künftig weniger EU-Finanzierung erhalten, wenn Mitglieder oder Partnerbündnisse von autokratischen Regimen mitfinanziert werden.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 8, 2017 at 10:34:00 PM CET
Trump said he had $315 million in debt. He left out $1.5 billion.
A new report reveals the breathtaking scope of Trump’s conflicts of interest.
Trump filed documents with the FEC over the summer that revealed he owed at least $315 million to ten entities. This debt, some of which is personally guaranteed by him, was a clear conflict. As president, Trump will be responsible for regulating entities that he also owes money to. Worse, these debts are frequently renegotiated, giving these companies leverage over Trump in the regulatory process.
A report this afternoon from the Wall Street Journal, however, revealed that Trump’s disclosure was the tip of the iceberg. The FEC required Trump only to report debt from entities he fully controls. The disclosure left out “more than $1.5 billion lent to partnerships that are 30%-owned by him.” That debt has been securitized and is owed to at least 150 financial entities.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 8, 2017 at 10:31:00 PM CET
The Soviet Union Is Gone, But It’s Still Collapsing
And 5 other unlearned lessons from leading experts about modern Russia and the death of an empire.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of 15 new countries in December 1991 remade the world overnight. The Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation disappeared, and democracy and free-markets spread across the now defeated Soviet empire. Of course, 25 years later, events didn’t exactly unfold as initially predicted. The forces of globalization have mutated former Soviet countries in unseen ways, emboldening autocrats and entrenching corruption across the region. Meanwhile, the geopolitical animosities of the Cold War are resurgent, with relations between Moscow and Washington at their lowest point since the Soviet-era arms race. The creation of new countries, meanwhile, has given rise to nationalism and autocracies that are shaping foreign-policy decisions and altering societies in unforeseen ways. Yet, the significance of this quarter-century of change is still not fully understood. Why did the Soviet Union really collapse and what lessons have policymakers missed? How is history repeating itself across the lands of the former superpower? In search of answers, Foreign Policy asked six experts with intimate knowledge of the region from their time in finance, academia, journalism, and policymaking. Here are the unlearned lessons from the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Topic: NEWS english - on January 7, 2017 at 2:18:00 PM CET
San Francisco's DNA Lounge is now on Patreon
The umbrella of DNA is host to countless vibrant communities and thousands of regulars. We've had many years of the most diverse, weird, interesting calendar of any venue. A typical month here doesn't include just bands and DJs, but comedy, lecture series, circuses, robotic exhibitions, dance performances, hair shows... We always strive to provide a home for a whole lot of truly amazing art. DNA Lounge has always been a political project: an attempt to move the needle of culture in this city. To provide a forum for a wide variety of art that makes this city a better place. DNA Lounge is putatively a business, but it is also activism. A political, cultural and artistic project like this does not come cheap. While we consider DNA Lounge to be monumentally successful in all the ways that truly matter, monetarily, the club has always operated at a significant loss.
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