“Our goal is to facilitate the transfer of people and cargo to other planets, and then it will be up to people if they want to go,” said Musk

Almost no independent media outside the Internet exist in Belarus, and unbiased, Web-based news agencies often suffer attacks by hackers.

It’s a beautiful moment when an assault against the world order is set in motion.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined civil liberties and privacy groups in criticizing a proposal from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission that would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID’s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request. If adopted, these rules would pose a grave threat to the rights of freedom of association, due process, and privacy in San Francisco.

We Tribe-of-the-Strange ride in the bus marked “Further!” Where the only faith that is held is that things will change. That the only answer to questions is inevitably more questions.

Whose only beliefs are that what we see is just a glimpse afforded to us by cobbled together tool-kits that must be continually re-examined; questioning its contents… discarding, adapting, modifying…

Forever moving forwards.

This is the never-ending journey towards a horizon on which sits the glimmering, twin mirage cities of Truth & Knowledge. One cannot chose to make this grand expedition unless it has already been begun.

This is a true quest which can never be halted, but respite can be found in the discovery of fellow travelers. Join together, lighten the load for the whole party. Seek out one another! Share and swap partial maps of this infinite territory.

There are no dragons in this land, only the friendly ghosts of the departed that will aid in combating the invisible demons of Falsehood & Deception.

Leave the best trail possible! Light signal fires when able, that others may hasten to follow.

Good luck! May you forever be almost there.

The law, which is part of a complete restructuring of the Bolivian legal system following a change of constitution in 2009, has been heavily influenced by a resurgent indigenous Andean spiritual world view which places the environment and the earth deity known as the Pachamama at the centre of all life. Humans are considered equal to all other entities.

…

Ecuador, which also has powerful indigenous groups, has changed its constitution to give nature “the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution”. However, the abstract rights have not led to new laws or stopped oil companies from destroying some of the most biologically rich areas of the Amazon.

Bolivia is struggling to cope with rising temperatures, melting glaciers and more extreme weather events including more frequent floods, droughts, frosts and mudslides.

Research by glaciologist Edson Ramirez of San Andres University in the capital city, La Paz, suggests temperatures have been rising steadily for 60 years and started to accelerate in 1979. They are now on course to rise a further 3.5-4C over the next 100 years. This would turn much of Bolivia into a desert.

Most glaciers below 5,000m are expected to disappear completely within 20 years, leaving Bolivia with a much smaller ice cap. Scientists say this will lead to a crisis in farming and water shortages in cities such as La Paz and El Alto.

Evo Morales, Latin America’s first indigenous president, has become an outspoken critic in the UN of industrialised countries which are not prepared to hold temperatures to a 1C rise.

Frankly by far the biggest risk in a city like Cairo, Calcutta or Chongqing is being involved in a traffic accident, and this is an issue that is omnipresent every time you travel to an interview, cross the street. Cairo is still far safer for violent crime than Chicago, NYC or LA, comparable with many sleepy European cities.

The debt was incurred when Britain and the Netherlands compensated their nationals who lost savings in online ‘Icesave’ accounts owned by Landsbanki, one of three Icelandic banks that collapsed in late 2008.

Icelandic lawmakers in February backed the repayment plan agreed with creditors in December but the president refused to sign the bill, triggering the vote.

Iceland rejected an earlier Icesave repayment blueprint in a referendum last year.

Many Icelanders say taxpayers should not have to bail out irresponsible banks.

…

Policymakers and economists have said solving the Icesave issue would help Iceland, whose economy fell into deep recession after its banks failed, get back into foreign credit markets to fund itself.

That is a condition for it to remove controls on capital flows it imposed in 2008 to stabilise a tumbling currency.

The controls have left an estimated equivalent to a quarter of Iceland’s gross domestic product in the hands of foreign investors, many of whom are expected to want to pull out when controls are lifted.

Ratings agencies follow the vote closely. Moody’s has said it may lower its credit rating on Iceland in case of a ‘no’.

…

Britain’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said he was disappointed that Icelanders had again rejected the debt deal, adding that the issue would now probably go to the courts.

‘It is obviously disappointing that it seems that the people of Iceland have rejected what was a negotiated settlement,’ Mr Alexander told BBC television.

‘Of course we respect the will of the Icelandic people in this matter and we are going to have to now go and talk to the international partners with whom we work, not least the government of the Netherlands. It now looks like this process will end up in the courts,’ he said.

Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said he was very disappointed that Icelanders had rejected the deal.

‘I am very disappointed that the Icesave agreement did not get through. This is not good for Iceland, nor for the Netherlands. The time for negotiations is over. Iceland remains obliged to repay. The issue is now for the courts to decide,’ Mr de Jager said in a statement.

He added that the Netherlands will consult with Britain about taking further steps.