During his current 12-day stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Guy Laliberté’s unique social/humanitarian mission will have one clear purpose: to raise humanity’s awareness of water-related issues.

The first Poetic Social Mission in Space is a symbolic moment for Laliberté. After 25 years, Cirque du Soleil will be introduced to Russia, the country where Laliberté is training for his voyage and from where the Soyuz TMA-16 rocket will launch him and the Expedition 21 crew into space. The timing could not be more appropriate!

If you think the global financial crisis is bad, think again. The looming environmental collapse associated with global warming will make the current depression in global greed seem like child's play.

Earth Hour 2009 aims to give a voice to all people across the globe and invites everyone to participate in the creation of a stunning and vivid image of our home planet with its lights turnedd off. Be part of the message!

VOTE EARTH!!!
Saturday, March 28, 8:30-9:30pm.

Switch off your lights (and everything else for that matter: tv, radio, ipod, and yes, your computer, too) for just one hour, enjoy the silence, do something in the dark (ideally something that raises our collective consciousness, the choice is yours ... ), and join the world for Earth Hour.

Few things are changing as rapidly and dramatically as the Internet. A recent Pew Foundation sponsored study shows that the global use of digital networks continues to grow at an amazing pace.

The study offers some interesting insights, especially in comparison to the Elon University / Pew Foundation project Imagining the Internet: A History and a Forecast, which aims to map the social, cultural, economic, and technical evolution of networked communication systems in an attempt to chart how the accelerating impact of these technologies will change our lives and our world.

Here a few anonymous quotes from participants in the history and forecast surveys:

More than a third of the world’s people live in countries where there is no press freedom.

Fourty-two media professionals lost their lives in 2003 for doing what they were paid to do — keeping us informed.

More than 130 journalists around the world are in prison simply for doing their job. In Nepal, Eritrea and China, they can spend years in jail just for using the "wrong" word or photo.

Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure.

Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.

Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation.

"I'm not just another pretty face. I am supported by artificial intelligence. I am more than just a talking 3D bot. I act just like a real girl -- I laugh, I cry, I flirt, I chat, I argue -- I can even blow you kisses ...

Let's get to know each other. Download me and let's get started." Vivienne

Meet Vivienne, a 3G girlfriend

By Keith Bradsher
The New York Times

Friday, February 25, 2005

HONG KONG For men who are tired of spending the time, trouble and expense of having a real girlfriend - or who are irritated by the difficulty of finding a new one - Hong Kong now has a technological solution for lonely hearts.

Meet Vivienne, a virtual girlfriend created by Eberhard Schöneburg, chief executive of the Hong Kong software maker Artificial Life.

Vivienne likes to be taken to movies and bars. She loves to be given virtual flowers and chocolates, and she can translate six languages if you travel overseas. She never undresses, although she has some skimpy outfits for the gym, and is a tease who draws the line at anything beyond blowing kisses.

If you marry her in a virtual ceremony, you even end up with a virtual mother-in-law who really does call you in the middle of the night on your cellphone.

We wish you a wonderful holiday season filled with peace and joy, and a great and successful 2005!

THE SINGLE most important fact about the birth of Jesus, as recounted in the Gospels, is one that receives almost no emphasis in the American festival of Christmas. The child who was born in Bethlehem represented a drastic political challenge to the imperial power of Rome. The nativity story is told to make the point that Rome is the enemy of God, and in Jesus, Rome's day is over.

The information revolution is leading to the rise of network forms of organization, with unusual implications on the ways in which societies are organized and conflicts are conducted.

"Netwar" is an emerging consequence. The term refers to societal conflict and crime, short of war, in which the antagonists are organized more as sprawling "leaderless" networks than as tight-knit hierarchies.

The purpose of the C-TIP is to create a place where knowledge and intelligence are confronted and able to be complete by one another. The C-TIP gather private persons as well as representatives of companies willing to participate in the promotion, the success and the development of the new communication and information tools the technology provide. The members of the C-TIP will generate, support and promote, locally, within their own immediate environment, one or several projects or events.

The Club TIP has initiate several other projects of international range: