Doubls Bind Messages

Double bind messages are extremely effective.
For example in Nicaragua the Sandinistas were seen as the personification of the evil. Demonization was the tool to make the U.S.-population to believe that. And the propaganda, called "Operation Truth", succeeded - and is successful until today. The Sandinistas are still considered an enemy in the head of the people. The media played the role of spreading propaganda - nearly without any criticism.
By the end of the 1980s the USA even paid Nicaraguans for voting other parties than the Sandinistas.

El Salvador was a similar case. Again the guerrilla got demonized. The difference was the involvement of the Catholic Church, which was highly fought against by the ruling parties of El Salvador - and those again were financially and organizationally supported by the USA. The elections in the 1980s were more or less paid by the USA.
U.S.-politicians were afraid El Salvador could end up being a second Cuba or Nicaragua. Every means was correct to fight this tendency, no matter what it cost.
On the 21st of September 1996, the Washington Post published several documents proofing an old rumor: not only that Central American soldiers had been educated in a U.S.-army school (the SOA), they also were taught to use torture as a method against revolutionaries. Some of the Salvadorian "students" of that school became very famous for being extremely cruel, one of them being General Roberto d'Aubuisson (35), the person who ordered the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980.

TEXTBLOCK 1/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611661/100438658752
 
Advertising and the Content Industry - The Coca-Cola Case

Attempts to dictate their rules to the media has become a common practice among marketers and the advertising industry. Similar as in the Chrysler case, where the company demanded that magazines give advance notice about controversial articles, recent attempts to put pressure on content providers have been pursued by the Coca-Cola Company.

According to a memo published by the New York Post, Coca-Cola demands a free ad from any publication that publishes a Coke ad adjacent to stories on religion, politics, disease, sex, food, drugs, environmental issues, health, or stories that employ vulgar language. "Inappropriate editorial matter" will result in the publisher being liable for a "full make good," said the memo by Coke advertising agency McCann-Erickson. Asked about this practice, a Coke spokes person said the policy has long been in effect.

(Source: Odwyerpr.com: Coke Dictates nearby Editorial. http://www.odwyerpr.com)

TEXTBLOCK 2/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611652/100438657998
 
1970s: Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)

Since the 1970s there had been a growing trend towards the use of computer programs in manufacturing companies. Especially functions related to design and production, but also business functions should be facilitated through the use of computers.

Accordingly the CAD/CAM technology, related to the use of computer systems for design and production, was developed. CAD (computer-aided design) was created to assist in the creation, modification, analysis, and optimization of design. CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) was designed to help with the planning, control, and management of production operations. CAD/CAM technology, since the 1970s, has been applied in many industries, including machined components, electronics products, equipment design and fabrication for chemical processing.

To enable a more comprehensive use of computers in firms the CIM (computer-integrated manufacturing) technology, which also includes applications concerning the business functions of companies, was created. CIM systems can handle order entry, cost accounting, customer billing and employee time records and payroll. The scope of CIM technology includes all activities that are concerned with production. Therefore in many ways CIM represents the highest level of automation in manufacturing.

TEXTBLOCK 3/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659495
 
Basics: Rights Recognized

Copyright protection generally means that certain uses of a work are lawful only if they are done with the authorization of the owner of the copyright. The most typical are the following:

- copying or reproducing a work
- performing a work in public
- making a sound recording of a work
- making a motion picture of a work
- broadcasting a work
- translating a work
- adapting a work

Under certain national laws, some of these rights, which are referred to, as "economic rights'" are not exclusive rights of authorization but in specific cases, merely rights to remuneration. Some strictly determined uses (for example quotations or the use of works by way of illustration for teaching) are completely free, that is, they require neither authorization of, nor remuneration for, the owner of the copyright. This practice is described as fair use.

In addition to economic rights, authors enjoy "moral rights" on the basis of which they have the right to claim their authorship and require that their names be indicated on the copies of the work and in connection with other uses thereof. They also have the right to oppose the mutilation or deformation of their creations.

The owner of a copyright may usually transfer his right or may license certain uses of his work. Moral rights are generally inalienable and remain with the creator even after he has transferred his economic rights, although the author may waive their exercise.

Furthermore there exist rights related to copyright that are referred to as "neighboring rights". In general there are three kinds of neighboring rights: 1) the rights of performing artists in their performances, 2) the rights of producers of phonograms in their phonograms, and 3) the rights of broadcasting organizations in their radio and television programs. Neighboring rights attempt to protect those who assist intellectual creators to communicate their message and to disseminate their works to the public at large.

TEXTBLOCK 4/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611725/100438659584
 
biotechnology summary

The fusion of flesh and machine is trend which, although inscribed in the history of modern technology from its beginnings, has reached a unprecedented momentum in recent years as a result of crucial advances in information technology, biology, and the development of global networks. Consequently, doubts are emerging concerning the viability of a distinct and definable human nature. Historical and social theories and concepts are being unhinged by the spread hybrids and by new forms of artificial life which are likely to trigger social changes escaping the grip of calculation. Attempts to defend an essential human nature against technical hybridisation, rather than strengthening the human subject, may have further blurred the question of historical subjectivity. Large amounts of money are invested into research and development of artifical biology, making some of the predictions of AI and robotics experts about radical and far reaching changes a matter of time.

TEXTBLOCK 5/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611777/100438658143
 
Commercial vs. Independent Content: Human and Financial Resources

Concerning their human and financial resources commercial media and independent content provider are an extremely unequal pair. While the 1998 revenues of the world's leading media conglomerates (AOL Time Warner, Disney, Bertelsmann, Viacom and the News Corporation) amounted to US$ 91,144,000,000 provider of independent content usually act on a non-profit basis and to a considerable extent depend on donations and contributions.

Also the human resources they have at their disposal quite differ. Viacom for example employs 112,000 people. Alternative media conversely are mostly run by a small group of activists, most of them volunteers. Moreover the majority of the commercial media giants has a multitude of subsidiaries (Bertelsmann for instance has operations in 53 countries), while independent content provider in some cases do not even have proper office spaces. Asked about their offices number of square meters Frank Guerrero from RTMark comments "We have no square meters at all, because we are only on the web. I guess if you add up all of our servers and computers we would take up about one or two square meters."

TEXTBLOCK 6/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611734/100438659145
 
The 17th Century: The Invention of the First "Computers"

The devices often considered the first "computers" in our understanding were rather calculators than the sophisticated combination of hard- and software we call computers today.

In 1642 Blaise Pascal, the son of a French tax collector, developed a device to perform additions. His numerical wheel calculator was a brass rectangular box and used eight movable dials to add sums up to eight figures long. Designed to help his father with his duties, the big disadvantage of the Pascaline was its limitation to addition.

Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, a German mathematician and philosopher, in 1694 improved the Pascaline by creating a machine that could also multiply. As its predecessor Leibniz's mechanical multiplier likewise worked by a system of gears and dials. Leibniz also formulated a model that may be considered the theoretical ancestor of some modern computers. In De Arte Combinatoria (1666) Leibniz argued that all reasoning, all discover, verbal or not, is reducible to an ordered combination of elements, such as numbers, words, colors, or sounds.

Further improvements in the field of early computing devices were made by Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar, a Frenchmen. His arithometer could not only add and multiply, but perform the four basic arithmetic functions and was widely used up until the First World War.

TEXTBLOCK 7/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611663/100438659397
 
Commercial vs. Independent Content: Power and Scope

Regarding the dimension of their financial and human resources commercial media companies are at any rate much more powerful players than their independent counterparts. Still those reply with an extreme multiplicity and diversity. Today thousands of newsgroups, mailing-list and e-zines covering a wide range of issues from the environment to politics, social and human rights, culture, art and democracy are run by alternative groups.

Moreover independent content provider have started to use digital media for communication, information and co-ordination long before they were discovered by corporate interest. They regularly use the Internet and other networks to further public discourse and put up civic resistance. And in many cases are very successful with their work, as initiatives like widerst@ndMUND's (AT) co-ordination of the critics of the participation of the Freedom Party in the Austrian government via mailing-lists, an online-magazine and discussion forums, show.

TEXTBLOCK 8/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611734/100438659198
 
The Secret Behind

The secret behind all this is the conception that nothing bad could ever be referred to the own nation. All the bad words belong to the enemy, whereas the "we" is the good one, the one who never is the aggressor but always defender, the savior - not only for ones own sake but also for the others, even if they never asked for it, like the German population during World War I and II.
The spiritualization of such thinking leads to the point that it gets nearly impossible to believe that this could be un-true, a fake. To imagine injustice committed by the own nation gets more and more difficult, the longer the tactic of this kind of propaganda goes on. U.S.-Americans voluntarily believe in its politics, believing also the USA works as the police of the world, defending the morally good against those who just do not have reached the same level of civilization until today.
To keep up this image, the enemy must be portrayed ugly and bad, like in fairy-tales, black-and-white-pictures. Any connection between oneself and the enemy must be erased and made impossible. In the case of Slobodan Milosevic or Saddam Hussein this meant to delete the positive contact of the last years from the consciousness of the population. Both had received a high amount of money and material help as long as they kept to the rules of the Western game. Later, when the image of the friend/confederate was destroyed, the contact had to be denied. The media, who had reported that help, no longer seemed to remember and did not write anything about that strange change of mind. And if any did, they were not really listened to, because people tend to hear what they want to hear. And who would want to hear that high amounts of his taxes had formerly gone to "a man" (this personification of the war to one single man is the next disinformation) who now is the demon in one's mind.

All of this is no invention of several politicians. Huge think tanks and different governmental organizations are standing behind that. Part of their work is to hide their own work, or to deny it.

TEXTBLOCK 9/9 // URL: http://world-information.org/wio/infostructure/100437611661/100438658637
 
Intellectual property

Intellectual property, very generally, relates to the output that result from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary and artistic fields. Traditionally intellectual property is divided into two branches: 1) industrial property (inventions, marks, industrial designs, unfair competition and geographical indications), and 2) copyright. The protection of intellectual property is guaranteed through a variety of laws, which grant the creators of intellectual goods, and services certain time-limited rights to control the use made of their products.

INDEXCARD, 1/9
 
SIGINT

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) is a category of intelligence comprising, either individually or in combination, all communications intelligence, electronics intelligence, and foreign instrumentation signals intelligence, however transmitted. The intelligence derived from communications, electronics, and foreign instrumentation signals.

INDEXCARD, 2/9
 
UKUSA

In 1948 the former alliance of USA, UK, Canada, Australia an New Zealand established in World War II was formalized into the UKUSA Signals and Intelligence agreement to aim primarily together against the former USSR, although readers of the agreement say, that it is definitely only signed by the United States and Britain. A number of other countries' SIGINT agencies also participate in the UKUSA community, including those of Germany, Japan, Norway, South Korea, and Turkey. These countries are sometimes described as "Third Party" members of the agreement. In addition, some countries, such as China, host UKUSA SIGINT stations or share SIGINT on a more limited basis.

INDEXCARD, 3/9
 
Convergence, 2000-

Digital technologies are used to combine previously separated communication and media systems as telephony, audiovisual technologies and computing to new services and technologies, thus forming extensions of existing communication systems and resulting in fundamentally new communication systems. This is what is meant by today's new buzzwords "multimedia" and "convergence".

Classical dichotomies as the one of computing and telephony and traditional categorisations no longer apply, because these new services no longer fit traditional categories.

INDEXCARD, 4/9
 
Viacom

One of the largest and foremost communications and media conglomerates in the
world. Founded in 1971, the present form of the corporation dates from 1994 when Viacom Inc., which owned radio and television stations and cable television programming services and systems, acquired the entertainment and publishing giant Paramount Communications Inc. and then merged with the video and music retailer Blockbuster Entertainment Corp. Headquarters are in New York City.

INDEXCARD, 5/9
 
blowfish encryption algorithm

Blowfish is a symmetric key block cipher that can vary its length.
The idea behind is a simple design to make the system faster than others.

http://www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html
http://www.counterpane.com/bfsverlag.html

http://www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html
http://www.counterpane.com/blowfish.html
INDEXCARD, 6/9
 
Henry Ford

b. July 30, 1863, Wayne County, Michigan, U.S.
d. April 7, 1947, Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.

American industrialist who revolutionized factory production with his assembly-line methods. Celebrated as both a technological genius and a folk hero, Ford was the creative force behind an industry of unprecedented size and wealth that in only a few decades permanently changed the economic and social character of the United States. Once Ford realized the tremendous part he and his Model T automobile had played in bringing about this change, he wanted nothing more than to reverse it, or at least to recapture the rural values of his boyhood. Henry Ford, then, is an apt symbol of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial America.

INDEXCARD, 7/9
 
Frederick Taylor

b. March 20, 1856, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.
d. March 21, 1915, Philadelphia

American inventor and engineer who is known as the father of scientific management. His system of industrial management has influenced the development of virtually every country. In 1881, he introduced time study at the Midvale plant. The profession of time study was founded on the success of this project, which also formed the basis of Taylor's subsequent theories of management science. Essentially, Taylor suggested that production efficiency in a shop or factory could be greatly enhanced by close observation of the individual worker and elimination of waste time and motion in his operation. Though the Taylor system provoked resentment and opposition from labor when carried to extremes, its value in rationalizing production was indisputable and its impact on the development of mass production techniques immense.

INDEXCARD, 8/9
 
Jürgen Habermas

Jürgen Habermas (b. 1929) is the leading scholar of the second generation of the Frankfurt School, a group of philosophers, cultural critics and social scientists associated with the Institute for Social Research, founded in Frankfurt in 1929. The Frankfurt School is best known for its program of developing a "critical theory of society". Habermas was a student of Adorno, becoming his assistant in 1956. He first taught philosophy at Heidelberg before becoming a professor of philosophy and sociology at the University of Frankfurt. In 1972, he moved to the Max-Planck Institute in Starnberg, but in the mid-1980s, he returned to his post at Frankfurt.

INDEXCARD, 9/9