New $35 tablet computer released in India

Empowering the disempowered with affordable technology in India (ctv.ca)

India launches $35 tablet computer aimed at world's poor

NEW DELHI (USA Today) - India introduced a cheap tablet computer today, saying it would deliver modern technology to the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty.

The computer, called [the] Aakash, or "sky" [actually "space," which includes all the visible sky] in Hindi [akasha in Sanskrit], is the latest in a series of "world's cheapest" innovations in India that include [the world's cheapest computer with alternative power,] $2,040 compact Nano car, a $15 water purifier, and $2,000 open-heart surgery.

Developer Datawind is selling the tablets to the government for about $45 each, and subsidies will reduce that to $35 for students and teachers. In comparison, the cheapest Apple iPad tablet costs $499, while the recently announced Kindle Fire will sell for $199.

Datawind says it can make about 100,000 units a month at the moment, not nearly enough to meet India's hope of getting its 220 million children online.

Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal called the announcement a message to all children of the world. "This is not just for us. This is for all of you who are disempowered," he said. "This is for all those who live on the fringes of society." More

Could "gaming" save the world?

A female "World of Warcraft" character in the making -- but is her player male or female? (©2004-2009 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. The Burning Crusade is a trademark, and World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries).

VIDEO GAMES (On the Media)
(NPR, July 1) Take a one-hour look at the history, culture, and future of video games like WoW. Whether you know it or not you are likely a gamer and games are creeping into nearly every aspect of life. How far have video games come, and where are they going?

• The Future of Gaming
• The Influence of Gaming
• Tom Bissell keeps caring about videogame

WoW
howstuffworks.com

"World of Warcraft" has millions of active subscribers worldwide (Blizzard). While there's no publicly-available, comprehensive census of exactly who plays the game, there are several researchers who have studied WoW players extensively. More

Myth is the language of symbols. What does all the occult symbolism mean?

Saladin Al Kurdi sees an Illuminati conspiracy

Superstruct: Games predict our future
archive.superstructgame.net
Gamers’ scores will reflect personal role in humankind’s survival.

PALO ALTO, California — The Institute for the Future (IFTF) announced the [2008] launch of Superstruct, the world’s first Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game (MMFG). Designed by renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., and IFTF lead forecaster Kathi Vian Ph.D., Superstruct invites players to imagine life in 2019 and to document and record how they, their families, local communities, or extended social networks might respond to a catastrophic population collapse. Global gameplay ran for six weeks.

Superstruct was played by more than 8,000 citizen "future-forecasters." Although the game is no longer in play, learn about it and explore some archived game content:

• Find out how the game was played
• Watch the scenario videos to preview the Superthreats
• Learn about the 8000+ players
• Read 1000+ stories they crafted
• Discover the 500+ superstructures they created.

Did superstruct gamers predict this economic collapse, the Amero solution, or the next one?

Is the CIA or is China hacking the Web?

Performers take the stage May 2, 2011 near image of Mao Tse-tung at Beijing's Red Classic restaurant nostalgic for China's revolutionary past (Ng Han Guan/AP).

(CNET) The Chinese military wants to beef up its cyber-defense efforts as it anticipates greater threats originating from the U.S.

"The U.S. military is hastening to seize the commanding military heights on the Internet, and another Internet war is being pushed to a stormy peak," the Chinese military wrote in its official newspaper, Liberation Army Daily.

"Their actions remind us that to protect the nation's Internet security, we must accelerate Internet defense development and accelerate steps to make a strong Internet army."

Though Liberation Army Daily isn't an official mouthpiece for the Chinese government, Reuters, which first reported on the story, points out that it typically reflects the official opinion of China's ruling party. More

Is it the CIA?

Wisdom Quarterly

The best evidence pointing a finger at the CIA is twofold. It has easy access (through the NSA, Google, Facebook, misconstruing the Patriot Act, as well as subversive and clandestine means such as co-opting arrested hackers), and what it stands to gain is enormous. It would gain a blanket cover story, with plausible deniability for itself as the source.

In this way it can accuse China, or any other convenient cyber "terrorist" group it wants to target for "retaliation," all the while explaining how American citizens lost our privacy. CIA Agent Phillip Agee explained how it's done in general. In particular, My Lai and Ben Tre* revealed CIA involvement prompting the US military during the U.S. war on Vietnam:

"We had to destroy [privacy] in order to save it."

The CIA has followed the same tactics in the Americas (Agee himself being involved in them) and is following them today in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, and Yemen. Why not one more front, the Web itself?

And the blame is put on an "anonymous" hacker group to show that, far from being the perpetrator, the CIA is the victim of malicious hacks humiliating it. Remedy? Orwellian clampdown? All out cyber-war?

Oh no, CIA hacked; this means war!
(WPN) The hacker group LulzSec, famous for their gaming community hacks, is moving on to bigger targets. While the group has claimed responsibility for hacks and data dumps against Sony, Bethesda, and Nintendo in the past, they recently went after the U.S. Senate and have now taken down the CIA’s website. More

• *One of the most famous quotes of the Vietnam War was from the AP writing about the provincial capital Bến Tre in 1968: "'It became necessary to destroy the town to save it,' a United States major said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualties..."

Sex in the Digital Age: Sad and Solo

Jeremy Hsu (LiveScience.com) with Wisdom Quarterly commentary


Sexuality in the Digital Age can mean sexting on smartphones, hookups through Craigslist and Facebook, and transmitting lewd photos like Weiner.

But while humans continue to define the do's and don'ts of online lust, a new generation of computer programs may have already figured it out. Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, a scandal like Anthony Weiner's doesn't even necessarily need two humans anymore.

Online chat bots already send come-hither messages to users of social media or dating websites. Video games and online programs also offer virtual girlfriend (or boyfriend) experiences on smartphones and handheld video game consoles.

The crude connections may signal a "robotic moment" for society where humans begin turning to artificial intelligence to fulfill emotional needs, said Sherry Turkle, director of MIT's Initiative on Society and Self.

"I did find people who were interested in artificial boyfriends and girlfriends, in artificial spouses," Turkle told InnovationNewsDaily. "They were not being ironic. They felt that people had failed them. And that a robot would be a safe choice."

Virtual lovers
Such "seduction by social robots" forms a key theme in Turkle's latest book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (Basic Books, 2011).

She found that some people can desire what robots offer -- either in virtual form or as crude sex bots -- even if it marks a step below emotional fulfillment with other human beings. More

• Top 7 Useful Robots You Can Buy Right Now

VIDEO: Sex Robot (Discovery Health)
All over America there are men with a bizarre unspoken fetish. Welcome to the sex robot scene where femme-bots are becoming a reality.
Inventor unveils $7,000 talking Sex Robot
(CNN) To some men, she might seem like the perfect woman: She's a willowy 5 feet 7 and 120 pounds. She'll chat with you endlessly about your interests. And she'll have sex whenever you please -- as long as her battery doesn't run out.
Couple's robotic child does everything (is it legal?)

Make Love, Not Robots

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

It seems like the end of the world. This is a terrible idea. But it makes it obvious how easy it is to sell anything: Accentuate the positive; dismiss the obvious.

What people do, whatever they do, that's fine. Why would anyone else worry about other people's business -- unless it affects us, unless they are part of the Sangha (or some other select group with inherent rules)?

Often it would happen among Buddhist monastics that, in ancient times, one would say to another, "You don't tell me what to do, and I won't tell you what to do." That comment alone is a violation. Outside of the rarefied atmosphere of a monastery, family, or coherent group, however, who can argue with this laissez faire attitude? Free trade, rough trade, who's to say?

Is it "sexual misconduct"?

Sexual misconduct (kamesu micchacara) is defined, technically, as sexual intercourse (penetration) with someone when you are not free to consent (because of living in dependence on someone else such as a parent, guardian, or spouse) or with someone not able to give consent (because that person is living in dependence on someone else).

This detailed definition (found in the Numerical Discourses, Book of Tens, Sutra 206) is not the whole story. The Five Precepts are defined at different levels: In the most basic sense, they are the bottom line. But the reality is, there is more to it. Although it is frequently mentioned, no precept says one abstains from lying. That's what people say based on not reading primary documents and instead relying on loose translations. One abstains from "false speech." And false speech goes a lot farther than mere lying.

As an unsuitable translation, "sexual misconduct" is defined as "adultery." But our modern view of this word (a married person having extramarital relations) is not mentioned at all. What's mentioned is much wider, what we would call "cheating," seducing someone in a relationship. But usually we do not hold that person as having done much by Judeo-Christian standards, even if we despise such people at a gut level. Kamesu means sensuality. Sexuality, its most exaggerated form, stands for less serious manifestations of it (such as gluttony or abuse of any of the other five senses). The worst "false speech" (musavada) is bearing false witness (perjury).

The Five Precepts were not invented by the Buddha but realized by him and revealed as crucial to keep -- if one would be happy now (through peace of mind) and in the future when one meet with the results of karma. What makes something "bad"? If it harms the doer (when the action bears its result, which is rarely right away), if it harms another (which is usually right away), or both (which seems to mean society or everyone involved not merely the two principals, e.g., sex with someone dependent on parents involves many more people that the two having sex.

Who's harmed by sex with a bot?

There is no way to have sex with a robot without engendering a habit of lust and its expression. This will not be helpful in life. The excuse, completely unfounded, that it is a "release valve" for sexual energy is flawed. Eating more does not make one less hungry. On the contrary, one grows fatter and hungrier. Be that as it may.

If one chooses to become obsessed with sex -- Internet pornography, prostitution, pandering, or prurient interest in "interactive technology" -- that individual is alone in that. But none of us are alone. The illusion of separation is deluded, but there is no convincing anyone in the grip of it that it is anything but true. All we do affects others, and to a greater or lesser extent we are responsible for that.

Sex with robot -- even robot "children" -- may be legal. But is it a good idea? This commentary cannot go any further than to say to the individual, Think twice. Lot's of things are legal that are not a good idea.

Masturbation (which is what sex with an inanimate machine is) and the realization of the fantasy envisioned in West World makes us all more isolated, unempathic, and enmeshed in unsatisfactory pursuits that science (for profit) hails as a technological breakthrough to advance the world. This is what happens when socially-ostracized nerds rule the world.

Help save the world -- offer nerds affection so they won't spend their time inventing things like automated kissing machines.

Macs hit by Malware, iPhones could be next

Unless Apple, Inc. acts fast, Macs are no immune from malware, and iPhones could be hit next. It has taken steps to stop a malware "phishing" program (Image: cutcaster.com).

(NPR, June 6) Apple's computers have been able to avoid most serious hacking attacks, but that era may be over. As Steve Jobs and his colleagues prepared for this week's developers conference, the company was also taking steps to stop a malware "phishing" program.

The ploy, says technology columnist Rich Jaroslovsky of Bloomberg News, uses an infected website to install a piece of software on Apple computers. The software then pops up a new window, with an urgent message about a security vulnerability.

As Jaroslovsky tells NPR's Renee Montagne, the rogue window includes "a scary-sounding message that tells you that your computer is infected, and that you need software to eradicate the infection — and to please give your credit card number." More

Technology
CALLING THE INTERNET POLICE
Hackers Target FBI Affiliate, Post Passwords Online
The hacking collective, Lulz Security, also recently targeted Nintendo, Sony, and PBS.
Nintendo: Server Breached, No Data Lost

FBI Partner Attacked By Hackers, Passwords Taken

Sexed, Stressed, and Sick (addictions)

Dr. Gabor Maté on the Stress-Disease connection, addiction, ADD, and the destruction of American childhood

For Memorial Day Democracy Now! presented special programming combining the amazing contributions to understanding the root of diseases many think are genetic. He also exposes the complicity of the pharmaceutical industry: Americans, who comprise only 5% of the world's population, are prescribed 66% of the world's psychoactive medications such as Prozac.

Sex addiction is one of the main compulsions in America today, largely stemming from our traumatic childhoods, exposure to ubiquitous porn, our craving for comfort, and religious oppression. (Image: a scene from "Choke," nytimes.com).

They are actually due to childhood trauma, diet, and stress. Canadian physician, disease and addiction expert, and bestselling author Dr. Gabor Maté presents his findings together on one program.

The screen, the screen, we're as addicted to our screens as children are to candy.

This includes his groundbreaking Buddhist work In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction on sex, computer screen, workaholism, drug, excitement, and fast food cravings, which drive feel good brain chemicals.

Internet porn, masturbation, adultery, alcoholism, "acting out," what's at the root of our compulsive/self-soothing behaviors?

From disease to addiction, parenting to childhood ADD (attention deficit disorder), Dr. Maté’s work focuses on the centrality of early childhood experiences on the development of the brain and susceptibility to a wide array of "incurable" diseases and addictions.

Early childhood experiences such as being sexually mole

sted or emotionally traumatized impact everything from behavioral patterns to physical and mental illness. The relationship between emotional stress and disease -- and mental and physical health more broadly -- is often considered controversial within medical orthodoxy.

But Dr. Maté convincingly argues that many doctors seem to have forgotten what was once a commonplace assumption -- that emotions are deeply implicated in the development of illness, addictions, and psychological disorders and, more importantly, in their healing.

"Go the F*** to Sleep" (book)

(Akashic Books) A PDF of the book Go the F--- to Sleep was widely circulated on the Internet and has now become a best-seller on Amazon.

Last week, a friend forwarded Southern California Public Radio's Madeleine Brand a PDF of a funny little book with a catchy title: Go the F*ck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach.

She forwarded it on to her friends... and apparently she wasn't alone. The book has become a viral sensation. The PDF was leaked, and now every parent under the Sun has seen it. [First Everyone Poops, now this!] It's the number one best-selling title on Amazon. And it hasn't even been released yet.

The publisher bumped up the release date from October to June because it was in such high demand. Fox has already optioned the rights to turn it into a movie. Here's a taste of it:

"The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You're cozy and warm in your bed, my dear
Please go the f*** to sleep."

Here to talk about what this book's success could mean for publishing is Seth Godin. He's an author and founder of the Domino Project - an e-publishing venture: LISTEN

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News of the Day: Facebook Nation

Facebook is acting like a sovereign nation

The Atlantic Wire, May 24, 2o11

In Paris, today, French president Nicolas Sarkozy rubbed shoulders with tech industry superstars, including Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg, for the inaugural eG-8 meeting. The two-day event intends to prime the conversation at the Group of Eight summit set to take place later this week in Normandy. Sarkozy took a hard line in urging governments to better regulate the Internet. "Don't let the revolution that you've begun threaten everyone's basic right to a private life and full autonomy," he told the conferences attendees. "Full transparency… sooner or later runs into the very principle of individual freedom."

Dutch Jewish Groups Face Off Against Animal Activists
Opening Serve: Thieme, one of only two members of Dutch parliament representing the "far-left minority" Party for Animals, introduced a bill back in April that, according to Chabad.org, "would effectively outlaw kosher slaughtering in the Netherlands," including kosher slaughtering practices which require "that an animal be conscious when its throat is cut." Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported when the bill was first introduced that "The Animal Rights Party fervently believes that animals should not have to endure what they call torture in order to accommodate religious beliefs." In an op-ed at Radio Netherlands Worldwide entitled, "An Animal Doesn't Care About Its Killer's Faith," Thieme wrote that, despite the fact that the Qu'ran and Torah both "describe how animal products should be prepared in such a way that no such suffering is inflicting on humans or animals ... based on new insights, their methods of slaughter are in need of reform today. Religious believers can no longer justify a method that was ahead of its time 3000 years ago."

Fukushima out of control: melting down, contaminating sky and sea, being covered up.

10 Free Ways to Speed Up Computer

Computer boot up and Web page loading too slow? If computers are running slower, here are some things to do to get “old reliable” running in tip-top shape again. Of course, budget-savvy Nerd Chicks are always looking for ways to save some dough, so we’ve made sure they are all FREE.

Palin lets her religion show, confuses prophecy with history
(Commentary) Sarah Palin never seems far from saying things that invoke god's name or a biblical allusion. She has been known to be as blunt when sharing her religious beliefs as she is about most other issues. She spoke with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, telling her that Pres. Barack Obama was on the wrong side of history -- and god -- with his policy positioning on Israel. He announced that position during Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. "Anyone who studies history," Palin told Fox News, "studies the Old Testament, studies geography, understands that Israel now is surrounded by enemies at all times. It should be now that America takes a stand in defending our friends in Israel."

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