This is the most dangerous time for our planet | Stephen Hawking

4 de Dezembro de 2016, 11:33, por O LADO ESCURO DA LUA

É óbvio, mas para quem precisa ouvir de uma celebridade da ciência, aí vai:

For me, the really concerning aspect of this is that now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together. We face awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans.

Together, they are a reminder that we are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity. We now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to escape it. Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will have established human colonies amid the stars, but right now we only have one planet, and we need to work together to protect it.

To do that, we need to break down, not build up, barriers within and between nations. If…

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Russia: The Road to the Revolutions

4 de Dezembro de 2016, 11:13, por O LADO ESCURO DA LUA

sentinelblog

From Oriental Review

by Julien PAOLANTONI (France)

We continue publishing the series of Julien Paolantoni’s essays on the history of the Russian Empire. The first two related parts were The Roots of Russia : From the Early East Slavs to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and A Superpower Rises: Foundation of the Russian Empire.

Introduction

Part 2 of this series was an attempt to explain how Russia progressively asserted itself on the international stage. As for the present part, it will deal with the long downfall of tsarism during the nineteenth century which eventually resulted in the Russian Revolutions. We may use the plural here, because of the 1905 and February Revolutions, little known compared to the October one but they have been instrumental nevertheless, as it will hopefully be shown in the next part of this series.

Napoleon made a major mistake when he declared war on Russia over…

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House Quietly Passes Bill Targeting “Russian Propaganda” Websites

4 de Dezembro de 2016, 11:12, por O LADO ESCURO DA LUA

sentinelblog

Editor’s Note: Once again, Orwell proves himself to be a Prophet…

Source: Zero Hedge

On November 30, one week after the Washington Post launched its witch hunt against “Russian propaganda fake news“, with 390 votes for, the House quietly passed “H.R. 6393, Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017“, sponsored by California Republican Devin Nunes (whose third largest donor in 2016 is Google parent Alphabet, Inc), a bill which deals with a number of intelligence-related issues, including Russian propaganda, or what the government calls propaganda, and hints at a potential crackdown on “offenders.”

A quick skim of the bill reveals “Title V—Matters relating to foreign countries”, whose Section 501 calls for the government to “counter active measures by Russia to exert covert influence … carried out in coordination with, or at the behest of, political leaders or the security services of the Russian Federation…

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