the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

As millions suffer from hunger, disease, illiteracy and grinding poverty in the Lake Chad region of West Africa, a sinister game of resource extraction and exploitation is playing out, with geopolitics at the heart of it all. by Eric Draitser Part 1 In late February 2017, Norway hosted an international humanitarian conference on Nigeria and the Lake Chad region in hopes of attracting major donors to fund relief work. As Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende explained, “ The conference has three aims: to raise awareness about the crisis, to gain more support for humanitarian efforts, and to secure greater political commitment to improve the situation. ” Brende’s concern for the region may be laudable. But no serious examination of the crisis in West Africa can ignore the political and strategic calculus that surrounds the region. As with all conflicts in Africa, questions about resource extraction and neocolonial exploitation abound, with corrupt

«Η ελευθερία μιας δημοκρατίας δεν είναι ασφαλής εάν οι άνθρωποι ανέχτηκαν την αύξηση της ιδιωτικής δύναμης σε σημείο όπου αυτή γίνεται ισχυρότερη από το ίδιο το δημοκρατικό κράτος. Αυτός στην ουσία του είναι ο φασισμός: ιδιοκτησία της κυβέρνησης από ένα άτομο, από μια ομάδα, ή από οποιαδήποτε ελέγχουσα δύναμη.» Φραγκλίνος Ρούσβελτ «Μήνυμα στο Κογκρέσο για τον περιορισμό των μονοπωλίων», 29 Απριλίου 1938 του Ιωάννη Θεοδοσίου Μέρος 3ο - Πάροδος: Τα Θαύματα των Νεοκλασικών Οικονομικών Πολιτικών Λαμβάνοντας υπόψη την πνευματική κληρονομιά που άφησε ο Keynes, αυτό το δοκίμιο δίνει έμφαση στους λόγους για τους οποίους κάποιος θα ανέμενε ότι οι πολιτικές της «κλασικής ορθοδοξίας», όπως η εσωτερική υποτίμηση, είναι ανώφελες και στην ουσία αντιπαραγωγικές όσον αφορά την αποκατάσταση της οικονομικής δραστηριότητας. Αλλά πριν από αυτό θα είναι χρήσιμο για την συζήτηση που ακολουθεί να περιγράψουμε εν συντομία τα τρέχουσα αποτελέσματα της πολιτικής εσωτερικής υ

The CIA’s vast database of software vulnerabilities has not only been putting the cyber security of millions of Americans at risk for years, it has also cost American taxpayers millions of dollars, as the agency has had to pay for a monopoly on the vulnerabilities. Considering that the CIA lost control of this database over a year ago, those dollars have essentially been wasted. Part 3 - The Cost of the CIA’s Exploit Arsenal With such a hefty price tag, one has to wonder – how much is the government spending on these exploits? Though Wikileaks doesn’t list exact figures, the known market price per exploit can give us an idea. Tech companies themselves offer rewards or “bounties” for flaws in their products, ranging up to 200,000 dollars per flaw for Apple and Google, with Microsoft offering less. However, these bounties are dwarfed by what private companies are willing to pay, with most offering well over double the amounts given by manufacturers. For most companies

WikiLeaks Part 8 - Evading forensics and anti-virus A series of standards lay out CIA malware infestation patterns which are likely to assist forensic crime scene investigators as well as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry, Siemens and anti-virus companies attribute and defend against attacks. " Tradecraft DO's and DON'Ts " contains CIA rules on how its malware should be written to avoid fingerprints implicating the " CIA, US government, or its witting partner companies " in " forensic review ". Similar secret standards cover the use of encryption to hide CIA hacker and malware communication (pdf), describing targets & exfiltrated data (pdf) as well as executing payloads (pdf) and persisting (pdf) in the target's machines over time. CIA hackers developed successful attacks against most well known anti-virus programs. These are documented in AV defeats, Personal Security Products, Detecting and defeatin

Eric Tousaint’s study of the odious debt doctrine by Eric Toussaint Part 10 - The USA’s repudiation of the debt demanded by Spain from Cuba in 1898 The USA declared war on Spain in the middle of 1898, and sent their navy and troops to liberate Cuba from the Spanish yoke. Spain was defeated and negotiations between the two countries began in Paris in order to reach a peace agreement, finally signed in December 1898. During these negotiations, the Spanish authorities defended the following position: since the United States had taken their colony, they were obliged to honour Cuba’s debts to Spain. Such were the rules of the game. And indeed the rules cited by Spain did constitute common practice in the 19th century. A State which annexed another state must assume its debts. Sack gives several examples of this. The United States refused, saying it was not their intention to annex Cuba. In substance, they declared: “ We liberated Cuba and gave assistance