pbmus
pbmus's JournalWill the smartphone replace the ballot box?
BUENOS AIRES -- Democracy hasn't changed much since the 18th century -- at least until these two apps came along.
Speaking at a TEDx event in Buenos Aires in 2013, Pia Mancini told a rapt audience that democracy is trapped in the past. To illustrate her point, she flashed up a slide depicting a typical political scene from the '70s.
Not the decade of oil shocks, rotary phones and Bubble Yum.
The 1770s.
"Our democratic mechanisms have barely changed since the 18th century," says Mancini, an Argentine political scientist. "We go to the polls every two or four years, elect a politician -- and hope for the best. We're facing a crisis of representation."
Several frustrating years spent pounding the campaign trail on behalf of traditional parties convinced Mancini that this problem was not going to be fixed using the same old tools. So in May 2012 she and a group of like-minded people formed Net Democracy, a Buenos Aires-based foundation whose raison d'être is to develop digital tools to bridge the widening fissure between government and governed.
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/global-observer/will-the-smartphone-replace-the-ballot-box/#col=b57218c8-9f4e-4f3f-b982-3f0634b4fb01&colnm=Issue+20
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Someone finally did it Nadin, but of course not here ...
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"Europe's not perfect, but it's several steps ahead of us when it comes to food standards.
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My neighbor just left to spend the entire summer in Europe.
He's the guy with a highly restrictive diet I recently wrote about, with countless food intolerances that his "nutritionist" detected using dubious testing methods. I haven't had the heart to tell him she's a total quack. I think on some level, he wanted to hear that he couldn't eat half the foods on the planet.
But I also feel for him. He's going on the trip of a lifetime to a place with incredible food. What if he won't eat it?
The day before he left, I asked him what he'll do on the trip. He told me he plans to eat everything. He and his "nutritionist" agreed that food is better over there. Safer. More pure.
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24337-free-to-eat-whatever-you-want
Bt is not safe in the quantities we are spraying and ingesting it ..
"Our governments and big agri have decided to spray BT EVERYWHERE, in the suburbs,farms, in our forests, and preserves. I totally understand they feel this is a safer alternative than chemical pesticides, but we all know there is collateral damage to other insect species when you do the research.A Canadian study demonstrated spores were detected in the nasal passages of Canadian citizens days and weeks after spraying Bt. It only takes a few sniffs and a swallow to ingest more Bt than one would ever consume from well washed organic foods over a lifetime.
After ingesting Bt (which loves our alkaline intestines)…yes, our stomach acid may break down the bacteria, but for many stressed citizens and people who dilute their stomach acid with liquids, infection potential is present.
“B cereus infections” are on the rise and according to what I have read, in no way are doctors screening patients for Bt infections. Even so, it is difficult to detect the difference between B. cereus and B. thuringiensis in the lab. And they simply are not SCREENING for Bt infections!
Bt is found naturally in our soil BUT only in SMALL amounts. There is such a thing as flora BALANCE in soil as well as in animal guts. You simply can not start spraying Bt everywhere and not expect to upset the balance of nature.
As a scientist you should understand that ingesting too much water can KILL YOU…And Bt is a spore, capable of surviving under harsh conditions even with exposure from rain and UV…and in spite of what scientist (paid by big agri) want the ignorant public to believe we are heavily exposed to Bt and cry proteins from GMOs.
When doctors and scientists can’t explain the etiology of booming rates of infertility, autism, Alzheimer disease, irritable bowel syndromes, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, then my “theory” is the introduction of GMOs and overuse of Bt (never tested long term on humans)are triggers.
We were told for decades that DdT was safe and for over half a century by big tobacco that smoking was perfectly fine and caused no problems. Bt and GMOs will go down the same road, sadly, with tremendous collateral damage to the eco system and all wildlife, including ignorant humans and those with major hubris."
Of course, I am not suggesting that you or any of the other DUers commenting on this thread have "major hubris". These thoughts are brought to you by a much smarter scientist than I am, hence the quotation marks.
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