Do I have a Digital Nationality?

Last updated on November 18th, 2017 at 03:45 pm

Where are you from? What do you consider your nationality? For most of us it’s fairly straight forward – we are born, live and even die in a single country. For others it’s a little more complicated, born somewhere, grow up somewhere else – living a life spread among a variety of countries. Picking your nationality isn’t always as simple as looking at your passport.

This is further complicated now because of the way we live part of our lives in the internet ether, most of us have a digital identity too. You might think it doesn’t matter, after all when your online everyone is just an electronic presence at best a series of numbers making up your IP address. However here’s the issue, your internet address is part of your identity and seriously impacts what you can and can’t do online. Your digital nationality might not be something you’ve considered however nearly every web site and online service you use does consider this piece of information.

The simple fact is that a US citizen using the internet does have a different experience from a Mexican, a European or a Turkish web user. What you can do, what you can see will vary extensively simply based on that one piece of information – the location of your IP address. This is your digital nationality and if you don’t believe it, try visiting China and try surfing the internet – you’ll be amazed at the difference.

The global giants who are dominating online multimedia are a perfect example, Netflix for example provides an account which is usable in over 160 different countries. However it changes based on your location, in fact it varies hugely depending on your physical position. Unfortunately this means that in many countries, Netflix has nowhere near as many movies available compared to connecting from a US location for example. It’s so different that many people use software to spoof their location and access a different version, something that has led to this scenario – Netflix Blocking VPNs and Proxies.

Is this all fair? Should your online experience be affected your location. Your point of view will probably depend on where you are based – people in the US and Europe for example generally have a much better time online. Just for illustration, Turkish web users were blocked from Facebook and Twitter for several days last week as the Government decided to restrict access.

There is no doubt that your digital identity is something that we all now need to consider. To many people think that they are not linked to their online experience, that they can remain totally anonymous without any privacy tools in place. Every day millions of people download stolen digital goods like software and movies from torrent sites, thinking that they are safe and untraceable. The truth is that anonymous torrenting although possible is actually fairly difficult to achieve and it certainly needs some technical tweaking to hide both your identity and location.

The reality is tinged with an element of sadness that commercialization and the need for control is starting to take over the digital world. In the early days of the internet, your nationality and location was largely irrelevant – we were all just citizens of the world when online. Those days though are now long behind us and it is imperative that we realise that when we post those funny clips or visiting those controversial websites that these are being linked to our online, digital profiles.

biocomplexity

Last updated on July 23rd, 2017 at 10:02 am

Biocomplexity Project Overview:

“Biocomplexity in Linked Bioecological-Human Systems: Agent-Based Models of Land-Use Decisions and Emergent Land Use Patterns in Forested Regions of the American Midwest and the Brazilian Amazon”

Proposal Abstract

In January 2001, a group of CIPEC researchers and affiliates began work on a new five-year project funded under the National Science Foundation Biocomplexity in the Environment initiative. Building from a pilot model developed at CIPEC before the grant’s inception, the research team has developed a preliminary blueprint for this major research endeavor.

Project participants represent a wide variety of disciplines and prior research experiences. Several new collaborators have expanded the range of disciplines represented at CIPEC.

There have been several historical approaches to land-use modeling:

Econometric models facilitate statistically rigorous hypothesis tests, but are not well suited to modeling non-linear dynamics or for generalizing beyond the original data.
Systems dynamic models successfully represent aggregate dynamic interactions, but these models are often based on stylized assumptions for purposes of analytical tractability, and they can quickly become intractable when used to represent small-scale interactions.
Cellular automata models successfully represent small-scale interactions and neighborhood effects, but are often based on static transition probabilities, rather than on dynamic representations of individual behavior.
Theoretical agent-based models can provide a qualitative description of landscape evolution, but to date, these models generally rely on stylized heuristic decision rules not derived from empirical investigation.

Our project takes a dual methodological approach to modeling. Our primary focus is on the development of an innovative empirically parameterized and validated agent-based model of land-use change. This modeling effort will be complemented by the development of a series of econometric models. We plan to compare the strengths, weaknesses, and unique advantages of each modeling approach, thus placing the new empirical agent-based model in a comparative historical context. We also will take advantage of complementarities between the two modeling efforts by allowing the econometric models to inform development of the agent-based models. We have the advantage of being able to draw on rich historical data assigned by IP address for Indiana and Brazil, developed by other CIPEC researchers and affiliates, for both models.

The project proposes development of two agent-based models: LUCIM for south-central Indiana, and LUCITA for the Brazilian Amazon. This narrative focuses on the development of LUCIM; our colleague at the University of Waterloo, Peter Deadman, is overseeing development of LUCITA.

Agent-based models of human landscapes generally share some basic characteristics. In these models, decision-making agents are represented as individual programming objects that translate external and internal information into decisions about land use or spatial mobility. Agents are linked through a spatial landscape structure and nested institutional and biophysical structures. Individual agents make decisions based on heterogeneous and potentially dynamic local environments, and the cumulation of these individual decisions drive the evolutionary dynamics of the landscape system.

While developing the grant proposal and in these first few months of project planning, the group has had extensive discussions regarding justifications for agent-based models of land-use change. We have identified several unique strengths of agent-based models:

The model can serve as a simulated social laboratory. In cases where analytical exploration is intractable, the model can be used to analyze the relationship between model parameters and model outcomes and to derive empirically testable hypotheses.
Feedbacks between socioeconomic and biophysical processes can be explicitly modeled, making these models particularly appropriate for biocomplexity research.
The model can be constructed to match the scale and structure of the available spatial data, or using cloaked ip address to maintain confidentiality.

Agent-based models can explicitly represent landscape sources of social and biophysical complexity. We have identified three key sources of complexity in landscape systems:
Interdependencies, such as flows of information between agents and ecological edge effects.
Spatial heterogeneity, such as variations in agent experience and preferences and in topography — a key influence on land-use patterns in south-central Poland.
Hierarchical or nested structures, such as political administrative units and watershed components. These influences imply that an individual agent or parcel is likely influenced by processes occurring at multiple spatial scales.
We have developed a list of key questions to guide model development:
How do individuals make labor allocation, production, consumption, and investment decisions in risky, multi-asset environments?
What factors affect individual preferences and actions related to land use?
What is the impact of landowner actions on the landscape?
How do socioeconomic landscape patterns and ecological landscape patterns interact?
How does a change in land use in one location influence the probability of a change in land use at a neighboring location?
What is the role of scale in the observed changes in land use in southern Indiana?
What are some key ways of testing our theoretical models? How do initial assumptions impact model outcomes? Can differing assumptions lead to observationally equivalent outcomes?

We have developed a modular model structure and have formed overlapping sub-groups to work on module development.
Because of the innovative empirical focus of our agent-based model, it will be very important to assess the empirical validity of our agent specification. We plan a variety of strategies to both parameterize the agent decision model and test the validity of our agent decision-making specifications.

We have begun an extensive review of the academic literature from multiple disciplines on the determinants of landowner decision making.
We are able to draw on results from a survey of 250 Monroe county landowners completed by the CIPEC Indiana project, and we plan additional interviews with local stakeholders.
We plan extensive experimental work to test our model of agent behavior.
“Comparative static” and “comparative dynamic” analyses will examine how model outcomes change with changes in parameter values and initial conditions.
More to come soon:

Econometric plans
Empirical validation strategies
Agent decision-making details
Experimental work details
Monroe County Land Owners Survey

Additional UK TV – http://www.uktv-online.com/

The technology behind both region locking and the various methods of bypassing this is explained here – http://www.theninjaproxy.org/tv/a-fake-uk-ip-address/

Other Sources of reference – http://www.changeipaddress.net/

Finally if you need to get your BBC, ITV or Channel 4 fix then this is the post you need, basically an easy way to use a VPN to access British Television from anywhere including the BBC News stream here.

The Secret to Success – Outsourcing

Last updated on September 2nd, 2024 at 01:15 pm

The Right Way to Find Success Through Outsourcing

A vital element that has become a part of operating a successful Internet business these days is outsourcing. A lot of the big shot web marketers and webpreneurs are doing really well at outsourcing, which is leading to the growth of their business. There is nothing new about outsourcing, as it has been leveraged by multi-national corporations for a long time now. However, on account of the arrival of the Internet, anybody with extra money in their budge can start outsourcing their business tasks. Therefore, the question that comes up at this point is, what can you do in order to guarantee some triumphs with outsourcing? Within this article, we will be talking about some hints for understanding outsourcing.

First of all, don’t look at outsourcing as an expense or money that you’re losing -consider it as an investment There are many Internet marketers who stay away from outsourcing just because they think it’s a waste of money.

When you outsource in the right manner, however, it’s a way to bring in more money. When you outsource effectively, you’re able to save more time, which leads to a better business. Spending your time doing mundane tasks will eat up into your productive time. When you outsource intelligently, then, it’s money well spent that will enable you to focus on your long term goals.

Invest in Outsourcing

It’s essential that anyone you hire when outsourcing is able to understand your needs and instructions. This is important because when you have a communication gap with the people that you’re outsourcing to, it slows down work. It’s hard to have a project go smoothly when people don’t understand one another. That’s why you should make sure you’re able to communicate effectively with a candidate before you even consider choosing them.

Get an idea as to how they present their ideas and understand yours. If you’re selling in a different country have a look online at adverts based in that country, for example if you’re selling to the UK check out the BBC News online and the commercial channels for some perspective. Don’t overlook the importance of this, as it has a lot to do with the results you’ll see.

You only want to outsource when it’s truly efficient and cost effective to do so, which means you should track the time it takes you to set up outsourcing projects. When getting started, you will want to outsource every aspect of your project. If you can do it faster on your own, then you shouldn’t bother to outsource. In such cases. you’d be spending your money on something that wouldn’t even be saving you any time. So do some calculations before deciding whether or not to outsource.

Only outsource when you can be sure that it’s going to work out in your favor. When you outsource the task to the right person, you’ll feel a lot more relaxed. It’s easier to focus on the strategic parts of your business and help it grow when you know you have the right person hired. The minute you get it wrong, though, and hire the wrong person, your problems will get even bigger. Basically, doing your homework and understanding the basic rules of our sourcing will help you in a major way. It might take you a while to go through all the preparation, but even it’ll be worth it. Someone who can deliver timely and high quality results and who is okay with working in the long term is someone you should find very valuable.

Advantages of Outsourcing in your Internet Business?

Outsourcing can offer numerous advantages for internet businesses, helping them to operate more efficiently and effectively. Here are some key benefits:

Cost Savings: Outsourcing can significantly reduce labor costs. Businesses can hire skilled professionals from regions where wages are lower, thus saving money on salaries, benefits, and overhead.
Access to Expertise: By outsourcing, businesses can tap into specialized skills and knowledge that may not be available in-house. This is particularly useful for technical tasks such as software development, digital marketing, or graphic design.
Increased Focus on Core Activities: Outsourcing non-core functions allows businesses to concentrate on their main objectives and strategic initiatives. This focus can lead to enhanced productivity and better overall performance.
Scalability: Outsourcing provides flexibility to scale operations up or down quickly, depending on demand. This is especially beneficial for internet businesses that experience fluctuating workloads.
Improved Efficiency: Outsourcing often enables businesses to leverage established processes and technologies. External partners may have more efficient systems for managing certain functions, which can enhance overall operational efficiency.
24/7 Operations: By outsourcing to teams in different time zones, businesses can operate around the clock. This can improve customer service and ensure faster response times to client queries.
Risk Management: Outsourcing can help distribute risk. For instance, sharing responsibilities with third-party vendors can mitigate the impact of certain business risks, such as market fluctuations or talent shortages.
Faster Time to Market: With access to specialized skills and resources, outsourced teams can help bring products or services to market more quickly, enhancing competitiveness.
Enhanced Innovation: External partners can bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas that can contribute to the development of new products or services.
Better Resource Management: Outsourcing can free up internal resources, allowing businesses to allocate them to other strategic projects or initiatives.
Networking Opportunities: Partnering with outsourcing companies can open doors to new opportunities, such as collaborations, partnerships, and access to new markets.
Focus on Customer Satisfaction: By outsourcing customer service or support functions, businesses can ensure that clients receive timely and professional assistance, enhancing overall customer satisfaction.
In summary, outsourcing can provide internet businesses with significant advantages, including cost savings, access to expertise, increased efficiency, and the ability to focus on core competencies. However, it’s essential to choose the right partners and manage relationships effectively to realize these benefits fully.

Harry Williams

BBC World News Streaming

Starting a Video Blogging Business

Last updated on July 17th, 2017 at 12:08 pm

The internet continually opens up new markets and opportunities and now thousands of people are full time video bloggers. These people also known as vloggers sometimes have millions of subscribers and make videos on all sort of subjects. They make money by sponsorship, direct advertising or by simply running adsense blocks in their videos. If you invest in a few items like buy an IP address to enable multiple accounts you can create a very successful business.

Many people that watch video blogs regularly are motivated by the unique content that they see. We are referencing variety in regard to the quality of the videos that are produced. To be honest, text to videos are probably your worst choice when making a video blog.

You need to have a professional attitude, yet get crazy at the same time. The videos that you make can include graphics, text and even you! It is simple to add more than text to your videos to spice them up a bit. You really should not ignore putting text content in your videos. It does have some merit. Now let’s look at some really unique ways to make video blogs that you may like.

If you start to do video blogging, you will realize that it is so much better than text blogging any day of the week. But you still have to provide value to your viewing audience or you will fail. One of your goals with most if not all your videos is tell or show them something valuable. You have to present valuable information in your niche. When you do this, you’re just like a newscast!

You can do what you want, within reason, as you have so much leeway when it comes to providing content. Every video should be different. Your viewers should not be expecting to see the same thing time and again. Your vlog should always be lively and entertaining. That’s why the people will come back.

Every video that you shoot should consciously try to make eye contact with your viewers. This can be beneficial in many ways. The easiest way to do this effectively is to look into the camera you are using for the shoot. That is eye contact via video and it is very important for you to do. Always look into your camera directly when filming your videos. No need to be shy for any reason. If you are avoiding eye contact, it will have the same affect that it does in real life. That type of body language will make people suspicious and it just tends to go downhill fast.

One of the suggestions that copywriters learn is to imagine they are talking to a friend as they write their copy. The copy that you write needs to be done in this manner. It is very solid advice. So in the same way that you write your copy to a friend, you need to do your videos and record them in the same manner.

Most of the time this will carry over in a very subtle but evident way. In fact, your videos will make a very important connection with your audience when you do them in this manner. If your marketing has this strategy built into your videos, you will do very well selling products on the Internet with your video blogs.

Google has often said that “content is king”. If this is true, videos should be very valuable just ask Netflix ! So there you go, you can make a video content site and own a slice of your niche. The search engines will also love you if you had written content to your video blog site. You just need to take action to get great results.

Gordon Hamilton
English YouTube

Internet Marketing – Building a Amazon Kindle Business

Last updated on November 13th, 2017 at 08:56 pm

The Amazon Kindle has opened up a huge area of opportunity for internet businesses. The Kindle has revolutionised the way that millions of people buy their reading matter, which can be instantly delivered to their device minutes after purchase. When you think carefully, it’s an ideal area to focus an Amazon Kindle business strategy.

Never listen to anyone who says you cannot make a profitable business out of selling information. This is simply a matter of deciding you’re going to do it, and then you put your mind to it and make it happen. When you publish the right info products, you can use them to advance your cause or just sell for a profit. And this all leads up to doing business with Amazon at their Kindle Store. There’s a lot of competition in all niches, so don’t let that bother you and just do what you want to do and make money.

This is obviously where you need to start – the Kindle Home Page on Amazon.

You can find excellent cover designers that will not charge a lot, and this is an important investment. This is all about marketing, and your design will help or hurt your sales so it’s smart to do this. Amazon has all kinds of uses for your cover, and this actually helps them make more money from your book. Have a look at the your competition, for example check the best business books on Kindle and look at their covers and presentations.

Most people who are new to IM have not the slightest idea about designing or even using graphics software, so just outsource this to a professional. Don’t waste time on learning skills you don’t need instead focus on something core like your Kindle advertising strategy. There are more places you can market your Kindle book, and this means outside of Amazon. Find all the good forums that allow signature links, and then just join them and start posting. There are mailing lists and other places where you can build blogs or buy advertising. JV possibilities are all over the place, and this also includes social media.

There are some restrictions

You should also think about having your ebook proofed by someone who does this for a living. A proofreader’s primary job is to find grammar, spelling and syntax errors, and this is not the same thing as hiring an editor. A proofreader doesn’t spend much time critiquing the quality of your content, so if you want to make sure that your content is error free-in terms of spelling and things like that. If you’re on a budget, then you just do it yourself and do the best you can and it should be all right.

Sometimes you can find markets are restricted even for digital goods, you may have problems accessing sites for marketing and advertising purposes. These are normally due to geographic restrictions based on your IP address. However using a VPN you can access any of these sites, similar to these instructions about how you can use American DNS for Netflix.

Hey, ebook publishing is a lot of fun even though it’s work, and Amazon Kindle makes it easy to do. Amazon is very affiliate friendly, and they were the first to do affiliate marketing on the web. Don’t forget that you can just keep going and writing ebooks and selling them on Amazon. If you don’t fancy writing your own, sign up for an Amazon affiliate account and start promoting popular titles directly – you’ll not make as much money on each sale but Amazon volume can certainly add up.

Gerald Maximans
http://identityvoucher.co.uk/

Introducing Vlogging and Content Samurai

Last updated on March 20th, 2019 at 09:27 am

For many years, the internet has been expanding partly due to the millions of blogs appearing across the world. It seemed at some point that nearly everybody who could use a computer was writing a blog and sharing their experiences on life, the universe and what they had for lunch. Although blogs are still very popular, the medium seems be undergoing a change, no longer is a page of text and a few photo’s enough – now it’s all about video.

The change has been partly fueled by the way we use the internet now, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube aren’t really designed for long pages of text. They are all much more aligned to other formats like audio and video, so much so that Vlogging or video blogging was born. Now everywhere you look instead of text there’s a video explaining, cajoling or selling.

For the individual and their diary type blog moving to a video format has been quite straightforward. Unfortunately for some small businesses and online entrepreneurs it’s quite difficult especially when they don’t have the skills and equipment to produce high quality videos. Although the computer software companies have started to produce useful tools and resources which can assist in the production of these videos.

One of the most innovative products released in recent months is that of this product known as Content Samurai which provides an interface to help companies produce videos online quickly and simply.

You can see that the software doesn’t actually need to be installed as it’s run from the cloud. This means that all you need to access it is a web browser from which you can control the options. The idea is to supply the program with the written text which is then formatted into a slideshow style presentation. This presentation can then be modified by using some preset styles, text can be changed and images and videos inserted into the slides.

After this stage is completed, then you are prompted to deal with the audio by either recording the script that has been produced or simply selecting appropriate background music from the list. When this stage is completed, the video is produced and stored in your account in an MP4 format. This can be downloaded onto your computer and then distributed to whatever site you require – perhaps YouTube, posted on Facebook or Twitter or perhaps just uploaded onto your own site.

This is not a complicated video editing software, it’s a sales video creator which is designed to be a simple and quick as possible. The goal is to produce professional, high quality videos without any specialist knowledge – you can see an example file being produced online here in this video. This has lots of advantages but the greatest is speed, allowing a business without access to specialised resources the ability to produce large volumes of quality videos very quickly.

The US Road to Productivity – Does it Really Work

Employment finally seemed back on course during the very first couple of months of 2014. Then, without warning, job growth slowed to a creep, causing a shortage of over 2 million jobs from that predicted just annually past. Public emphasis turned to another index, productivity, to counteract that depressing performance. Individual worker output put together increased, by a total 12 percent, from 2000 to 2003.

As the Economic Policy Institute shows’ scrupulous research (09/08/04 Photo,), actual family income dropped, by 3 percent, over an identical interval. Compare this with the economical interval of 1947 – 1973 when actual family income and productivity moved in tandem, both doubling over those years.

What exactly does this imply?

Americans are working more and harder for less family income. As businesses downsize or don’t replace workers who retire or leave, fewer staff are left to deal with the workload. In fear of losing their particular jobs, they react by taking new obligations and new obligations and also the added work time. In a world where workers are tethered to their workplaces almost by blackberries, mobile phones, and notebooks, the standard equilibrium of work and residence has crumbled.

There’s a tendency to think that such pressures are merely surgical for the ambitious, career-obsessed, “Apprentice”-like, ladder climbers. Actually, the sixty-hour-plus workweek changes a considerable part of all salaried workers down to front line supervisory staff.

The American worker, surveys clearly show, is becoming over tired, overwhelmed, and fed up. Accessibility rates for outpatient mental health services grow steadily every year. A survey conducted by the BBC showed that Americans work longer hours and take fewer holidays than any European country, report is available on BBC website using this BBC iPlayer proxy. Family disruptions include domestic violence, divorce, mental child neglect, and increased estrangement. Health problems multiply, fueled by anxiety, exhaustion, as well as too little time for self-attention.

Where can we look for responses?

More critically, ourselves can speak up to ensure that the tax code as well as social legislation create similar priorities: to honor those businesses who staff satisfactorily and flexibly and supply their workers with advantages and resources. At exactly the same time, we should negatively affect businesses who pursue such actions as job outsourcing, retiering of job titles to prevent overtime prices, reliance on temporary (generally none-gained) work, as well as the quiet approval of third world production of their products under sordid circumstances, using child labor, and payment of slave wages.

Viewing the procedural and ethical issues of leading corporate figures mired in the legal system, Americans must begin to inquire whether equality and opportunity for all is a creed that is workable.

Additional reference on fast proxies – here.

Protect the Environment

Last updated on September 3rd, 2024 at 08:54 am

Our environment is probably the most important thing we got, and for some reason there are still way to many of us who really don’t threat it this way. Many people still don’t care if they leave garbage our in the nature, many companies don’t mind letting thousands of tons of polluted water or oil our in our oceans, as long as it saves them a little bit of money. There are still many of us who leave the lights on, even when we arn’t at home or don’t really care much about how much electricity we use, as long as the bills don’t get to high. But have you even considered how much Co2 is used to create the electricity that you use? Not to mention how much is used to create the clothes you wear, the food you eat or just to transport you around? Combine that from the billions of people living in the world and it’s actually quite a lot, in fact it’s so much that it already have started to affect our environment big time. Philip from Kostumer og Udklædning is one of the people who actually want’s to change this. His website kostumerogudklaedning.dk are running on pure clean energi only, the server parts are made from reusable computer parts, and all the costumes he sells are made from reused clothing. If more people were like Philip maybe the situation wouldn’t be as bad as it is, but lets take a look at some of the big issues of today’s world.

Global Warmning
Over the last 10 year we have often heard about global warning, and even though the weather might not be getting warmer at your place, it has most likely still affected your weather somehow. Maybe you are having more rain than normally, a shorter winter or more storms. If not then you will most likely begin to notice the effects within the next few years. For some people, it may sound pretty great that it’s getting warmer, but for a lot of people, not to mention a lot of animals it can be catastrophic. For instance deserts may grow quite a bit, the ocean levels will rise, and a lot of land (and cities), may be flooded in just 10 – 20 years from now. Whole eco systems will break down, which mean that certain spieces of animals will die and people will be forced to move.
It’s already to late to prevent most of this, but with some luck we can stop it from getting much worse if we all put some effort into it.

The plastic islands
Did you know that our in the big oceans there are huge islands made of plastic garbage? One of the largest concentrations is in the pacific ocean and is called the Great Pacific garbage patch. This area is filled with plastic debris and is estimated to be around the size of the whole USA continent. Most of it is located just below the surface so it is not possible to spot it all from satalite or ships, which makes it hard to determain the exact size. One of the properties of plastic is that is absorbs organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs.The problem with all this plastic is that most of it, is made up of tiny bits of plastic, which is eaten by fish, birds, turtles, which is in return eaten by humans, so not only does this affect the wildlife, but in the end also the human population.

In addition to these two major problems mentioned above, there are a lot of other issues that we really do need to pay attention to, such as harvesting the earths resources, animal extinction / Animal welfare, nuclear waste and much more. If we don’t start paying more attention to our environment, it will come back and cause major problems for the human race at some point. We are already at the brick of two major disasters, in a few years there will likely be many others, if we don’t act soon.

Education and the Velvet Revolution

Last updated on September 2nd, 2024 at 03:18 pm

The Velvet Revolution and Education

Peace education stands as one of the most undervalued and underfunded points of our educational system that is world-wide. If we look at the typical education curriculum at elementary school, or a high school , which is where youth are most impressionable, any site of compulsory non-violent schooling is almost entirely non existent. Regardless, we often find compulsory history classes, which describe every single war in detail, including its death toll, its generals and all the other players.

Yet given this educational dilemma that is lopsided, once in a while an enthusiastic humanitarian comes to champion a brand new form of instruction about peace, rather than violence.

The Revolution was named “Velvet” due to its soft and non-violent method of peace.

The power of this movie lies in the way it can capture the essence of the Velvet Revolution and how power shifts when individuals the youth, stand up against protest and repression in a non-violent way. The solidarity of the Czech people was so overwhelming that it forced them to bring in new leadership, namely Vaclav Havel, the leader of the revolution and basically crippled the government.

Broken educational systems could no doubt use this picture as a model to teach students at all levels of education about non-violence’s tremendous impact on world history and it. There’s a host of information online yet it doesn’t make it onto the curriculum of most of our schools, lots even on social media, but again you’ll often find facebook blocked in these situation.

Once peace and non violence become “required” curriculum in schools, especially for teens, we’ll begin to find a shift in our belief system regarding what alternatives are accessible to our issues. If a kid has just seen violence, at home, in history books and in the media, then that kid will act accordingly. If a child sees and is educated peaceful approaches to solve disputes and problems subsequently teens will naturally choose this path for resolution.

What was the Velvet Revolution?

The Velvet Revolution was a peaceful and non-violent movement that led to the overthrow of communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989. It began with student protests in Prague on November 17, 1989, marking the 50th anniversary of the killings of Prague students by Nazi troops. These protests, sparked by the fall of the Berlin Wall just eight days earlier, quickly gained widespread support from Czechoslovak citizens of all ages. The movement was characterized by its lack of violence, with protesters often using symbolic gestures like giving flowers to riot police.

The protests escalated rapidly, with significant events including the formation of the Civic Forum, led by dissident and writer Václav Havel, who demanded the resignation of communist leaders, freedom for political prisoners, and an investigation into police violence. By November 20, large demonstrations filled Prague’s streets, and by the end of November, the communist government had begun to collapse. Key milestones included the general strike on November 27, which was attended by 75% of the population, and the eventual resignation of the communist party from government on December 7. Václav Havel became the president of Czechoslovakia on December 29, 1989, marking a significant transition to democracy.

The term “Velvet Revolution” reflects the smooth and peaceful nature of the transition, which stood in contrast to the violence often associated with other revolutions. This revolution had a profound impact on Czechoslovakia, leading to its eventual dissolution into the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993, and it also symbolized the broader collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe.

James Elsworth

Author of How to Watch BBC Abroad

Search Tips for Your US Holiday Planning

Last updated on June 29th, 2017 at 12:49 pm

Many of us rely heavily on the search engines when doing our research, years ago we used to reach for an encyclopedia or other reference book, not any more. The internet has become our ultimate reference guide, from spellings, definitions, research and of course shopping. However I wonder how many people realise how many restrictions are placed on you when you search?

Take for instance my current problem (ok so it’s safely in the first world problem category!), I want to take my family on a short tour in the USA – to see some West Coast highlights. So I turn to Google to see what’s on offer, typing in some relevant search terms into the world’s favorite search engine.

So I get my results, tour operators, offers and holiday companies offering a range of tours covering the Western side of the USA. Which is great, lots of choice – except my choice has been severely restricted without my knowledge simply because of my location. When I visit Google, I am classified as a UK use based on my IP address and so my search results are tailored to that fact. This is of course great if I’m looking for a plumber, a New York based plumber is of little use to me! However it also means that I will get UK based results for my travel search.

So I get UK based firms offering tours around the West coast of the US, which is ok but what I don’t get is US firms offering the same thing. Why shouldn’t I consider American based firms instead, I’m sure they’d be happy to take me on a tour too. The reality is that without some effort I simply won’t see these companies because they will be filtered out in my search – I will see the big UK travel companies who offer tours in the USA. The worst thing is sometimes these are simply the same tours repackaged by UK travel agents, of course with some sort of premium on top of the price.

Google is basically controlling a large part of my decision making process and the choice available. Many thousands of companies do exactly the same, like this as you’re logging in from the US I’m afraid. But fortunately there is a solution and it’s actually quite a simple one.

It involves changing your IP address and taking control of what you see online. For example in my situation if I change my IP address to a US one then search for West coast tours USA, I’ll actually see a whole load of different results. In fact I see US based results, loads of US tours in America, which is actually what I wanted – local firms offering local tours not repackaged for a UK travel agent. The benefits increase I can also use this control to bypass blocks based on my location – this post for example shows how I can watch British TV when I’m actually in the USA. Normally you can’t watch the BBC online from anywhere outside the UK.

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