How much does Facebook know about you?

WorldRadio.ch (Switzerland); Wisdom Quarterly
(Sweden The Local, Info-wars.org/Ireland)

This summer, Austrian law student Max Schrems asked Facebook to send him all the data they had on him.

What he received was a massive 1,200-page file. But that wasn’t the biggest surprise. He discovered that the social networking site had kept data he had deleted from his account, like messages and photos, and for its own use, they imported contacts from his personal e-mail account, all of this without his knowledge.

• LISTEN TO AUDIO

Now, Schrems has lodged 22 complaints against Facebook for data protection breaches. WRS’s Dave Goodman talks to social network specialist Olivier Glassey, a senior lecturer and sociologist at the University of Lausanne, who says that he is not at all surprised.

• Germans sue Facebook over facial recognition
• Scrub your Facebook clean with Exfoliate?
  
• NJ teacher may lose job over Facebook post
• Facebook passwords must be shared in divorce case
• Facebook can't control spam attacks

What happened to this World? (Thrive)

Thrivemovement.com, Wisdom Quarterly, OccupyWallStreet.org

(WorldUnitedInPeace) Coming on 11-11-11.

Who? The Thrive Movement. What? The movie "Thrive" lifts the veil on what is really going on in our world. When? Nov. 11, 2011. Where? Online at Thrivemovement.com. Why? To uncover the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives (economic, educational, political, etc.) How? By following the money upstream, "Thrive" weaves together breakthroughs in science, consciousness, and activism. It offers real solutions, empowering us with bold and unprecedented strategies for reclaiming our lives and future.

• Occupy Wall Street continues to grow
• Boston protesters plan rush hour rally
• Los Angeles: Occupy LA begins, no arrests
  
• Occupy Wall Street protests spread across the country
  

"Peace One Day" in 3 minutes (video)

Peace One Day Concert 2011 marks the start of the 365-day Global Truce campaign leading up to Peace Day 2012! Be part of the FIRST of three concerts over the next year, including the Peace One Day concerts in collaboration with the London 2012 Festival. The O2. Tickets.

(Peace One Day) Introduction to Peace One Day created for Peace Day

Global Truce 2012 Intro

Caught in The Web ("Connected" film)

Wisdom Quarterly

(thefilminformantt, Now Playing, Sept., 2011)

Buddhist cosmology speaks of devolutions and evolutions and epochs of quiescence and chaos, after Earthlings descended from space (Aganna Sutra), genetic manipulation (usually by nagas in a kind of creationism or celestial intervention), and always more revolutions through the aeons (kalpas in an Indian context of yugas).

US teachings about Evolution vs. Creationism

How things turn and have turned may only seem comprehensible as envisioned in the Wheel of Samsara, the "continued wandering on" or cycling through rebirths (due to our skillful and unskillful karma) in countless worlds within 31 Planes [broad categories] of Existence.

But for all that, we still get excited that our mobile device (cell phone) connects us to the Web and lets us tune in and drop out by feeling "connected." Tiffany Shlain is onto something: We are interdependent.

• Review: TheFilmInformant.com
• No Escape from the 31 Planes of Existence
  

Buddhism on Campus "Wakes Up"

Carlin Green, Wisdom Quarterly, US.wkup.org, Plumvillage.org, UK.wkup.org

I'm quite busy as school starts again. My personal experience with insight-meditation scholar-practitioner Sayalay Susila is brief but has really impacted me. I met her a month before the vipassana retreat she conducted at The Bhavana Society, West Virginia. I was at her public talks around Washington, DC. Somehow I ended up being the youngest person in attendance.

Later, when I was asking Sister Susila a question, she instead asked me my age. She told me it was inspiring to her to see someone so young practicing and wanting to learn about the Dharma.

us.wkup.org (indiegogo.com)

Honestly, I have no groundbreaking insights, no inspiring anecdotes, no moving stories of dazzling lights in absorption. I'm just eager to learn, and I was in the right place at the right time to meet a Buddhist nun who knows so much.

It was beneficial for me to attend Buddhist talks in public libraries staring at Mark Twain and a raft of magazines about dieting and cooking, dating and being happy, economic news and war. It was beneficial because she spoke about things never heard before -- the "Exposition of the Elements" (Dhātuvibhanga Sutta) and the Five Aggregates in her talks.

• The Buddha's Exposition of the Elements
  

These two topics formed the basis of the insight-meditation (vipassana) instructions she gave us during the retreat, so I was glad I had been familiarized with them beforehand. If I could encourage others to hear such thing, what a change it might make in the country. But I'm only in college; what can I do?

Something To Do: Waking Up
What should we do when we feel overwhelmed by despair, despair coming from inside of us and despair about the world's situation? How can we find the energy, the strength to do something about it?

Together, there is a way (True Dedication/Vimeo)

Speaking at Plum Village in 2011, Thay uses the Buddha's own life to encourage us. Youth, let's nourish ourselves with the joyful energy of sisterhood/brotherhood and the strength of a clear aspiration to do something helpful.

• VIDEO: See the full talk at Plum Village Online Monastery

"Democracy Now!" live with WikiLeaks

In one of his first public events since being held under house arrest, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared in London Saturday for a conversation with Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, moderated by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman.

They discuss the impact of WikiLeaks on world politics, the release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, and Cablegate -- the largest trove of classified U.S. government records in history.

“From being inside the center of the storm, I have learned not just about the structure of government, not just about how power flows in many governments around the world that we’ve dealt with, but rather how history is shaped and distorted by the media,” Assange said.

Assange also talks about his new defense team, as well as U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning, the accused Army whistleblower who has been jailed for the past year.

Assange is currently under house arrest in Norfolk, outside London, pending a July 12 appeals hearing on his pending extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sexual misconduct case. He has now spent six months under house arrest, despite not being charged with a crime in any country.

• Assange was wearing an ankle monitor under his boot and Saturday’s event concluded shortly after 6:00 p.m. so he could return to his bail address by his curfew. The event was sponsored by the Frontline Club, founded in part to remember journalists killed on the front lines of war. Today we play highlights from Part I of their discussion.
• VIDEO: Kill [No] Capture: Secret Campaign to Kill Taliban
• VIDEO: Behind Taliban Lines (Afghanistan)