Icelanders hand in draft of world's first 'web' constitution

By Agnes Valdimarsdottir

REYKJAVIK — A group of 25 ordinary citizens on Friday presented to Iceland's parliamentary speaker a new constitution draft, which they compiled with the help of hundreds of others who chipped in online.

The group had been working on the draft since April and posted its work on the Internet, allowing hundreds of other citizens to give their feedback on the project via the committee's website and on social networks such as Facebook.

"The reaction from the public was very important. And many of the members were incredibly active in responding to the comment that came through," Salvor Nordal, the head of the elected committee of citizens from all walks of life, told reporters. Katrin Oddsdottir, a lawyer who had shared her experience on the committee through micro-blogging site Twitter, said she believed the public's input was "what mattered the most" in preparing the draft. "What I learned is that people can be trusted. We put all our things online and attempted to read, listen and understand and I think that made the biggest difference in our job and made our work so so so much better," she said.

Iceland's constitution was barely adapted from Denmark's when the island nation gained independence from the Scandinavian kingdom in 1944. "Since then, a holistic re-examination of the constitution has always been on the agenda, but always halted because of political infighting in the parliament," committee member Eirikur Bergmann, a political science professor at Iceland's Bifroest Unioversity who also tweeted his way through the committee's work, told AFP. But after Iceland's economic collapse in 2008, which triggered massive social movements, pressure mounted for a revamp of the constitution and for the process to be led by ordinary citizens, he said. The committee's website (www.stjornlagarad.is, in Icelandic and English) quickly became an incubator for comments, with more than 1,600 propositions and comments on the suggested text.

.....Parliament's speaker Asta Ragnheidur Johannesdottir said the draft would be examined by a parliamentary committee starting October 1.

"I'm grateful for your work," she told the members. "It is my hope, that in time, Icelanders won't only have a constitution that they accept, but one which they are proud of," she added.

Alex Jones And David Icke - Bonkers? +

Interesting perspectives to say the least. You decide.

Local Scientists At UWE Have Confirmed "Pee Power" Potential

Urine-based biomass touted as way of reducing harmful impact of animal wee
We each produce 2.5 litres of the stuff a day and a total of 6.4 trillion litres globally, but until now it has been widely regarded as a rather unpleasant waste product. However, a team of UK scientists reckon they may have found an extremely useful application for urine by turning it into electricity.

Dr Ioannis Ieropoulos and his team of scientists at the University of the West of England, Bristol, published research this week investigating whether urine could be used in microbial fuel cells. The paper concludes that urine is rich in chemicals that can effectively be used in the cathode half of a fuel cell to react with bacteria in the anode.

The initial tests confirmed that urine-powered fuel cells are technically feasible, and the team now hopes to scale up a prototype system capable of powering homes, businesses or even a small village. The researchers are particularly interested in using the 38 billion litres of urine produced each day by farm animals, which can have an adverse effect on the environment if not properly managed.

The fuel cells would effectively clean the urine so that it could be safely discharged into the environment, removing the need for costly andenergy-intensive treatment by wastewater companies. Ieropoulos explained that, while the team managed to produce only a small amount of power during trials, it is now looking at stacking up the fuel cells so that the stream of urine runs through the system and produces more power. "The impact of this could be huge, since it enables us to think of 'waste' in a new way, and offers great potential for the future," he said.

Glastonbury festival founder Michael Eavis has said that he would consider using urine produced by festival-goers to generate electricity for the event. Source

Existential Nightmare - Doug Casey

Doug Casey says it's all bad and a long depression but the good news is "Individuals and Advances... Existential Nightmare... 
Bearish On Europe..."

Europe's Economy Needs a Reboot - Rogers

Move to Asia as the economies in the west are getting "worse and worse."

Dictators by Nature: 'EU enters death agony'

Comments here go to the heart of the euro dictatorship. The People are being overruled by the wizards behind the curtain. The Wizards of (fiat currency) Ponz. 

Turkey Quake Caught On CCTV

'We will see violence!' Students march in London

RANT: With such articulate exponents, it surprises us that the people have yet to rise up against the clear repression by our government. I wish someone would help us overthrow our terrible dictators who suppress student demonstrations as described above and make bloody murder on the rest of the world too! I am afraid our regime is so out of control that we (UK, 51st state of the USA - M.I.C.) should definitely not be allowed to have nukes, forget Iran!

Max Keiser on Ireland and SilverFuturist Update

...While we were in Ireland the government decided to transfer 750 million euros of taxpayer funds to unsecured Anglo Irish bondholders. To paraphrase Max Keiser from his first evening at Kilkenomics, "what part of 'unsecured' don't you understand?  It means f%^k you!" 

The response to this wealth transfer from citizen to private corporation, needless to say, did not go down well with the Irish population. Such wealth transfer is, we all know, happening globally, rapidly and blatantly at the moment. But history demonstrates that this lack of recourse for populations unable to stop the blatant theft and wealth transfer - never ends well.  And we see that in the global financial and political systems spiraling out of control. Leaders across Europe are falling.  Only to be replaced with another front man for the same frauds. Germany and France are now talking of downsizing the eurozone. Why, however, would Germany want to be in any union with France which will require $416 billion on their exposure to Italy's bad debts? Then there are the bad debts of Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the US, sitting on the books of Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and other French banks. Teaser:

SilverFuturist Update

Papandemonium: 'NWO chokes world'

Dr. Burzynski's Cancer Research Institute Threatens Big Pharmaceuticals

Mike Adams from NaturalNews.com, reporting for Infowars.com visits the Burzynski research institute and speaks with Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski, founder of the research institute and clinic. Dr. Burzynski talks about how his invention of gene-targeted cancer medications called Antineoplastons has shown much greater success rates for ridding the body of cancer than any conventional method. Dr. Burzynski also explains that while his invention should be applauded by the medical industry as a whole, it actually made him a target of scrutiny and many indictments.

Economic Progress one Funeral at a Time? Steve Keen

Many modern economists missed the financial crisis and the economic problems we've seen since then, such as the eurozone debt crisis. Why? Well according to economics professor and author of Debunking Economics Steve Keen, they're not really experts on the economy but experts on a model of the economy. The great tragedy according to Keen is that the model is almost completely irrelevant to the system we actually live in. And despite the learnings of the financial crisis, not much has changed. Keen says the problem is Neoclassical economics, which economists are traditionally trained in. As for the solution? Well we may just have to wait for the economists in charge to die off. In the meantime, should people be occupying the economics departments of universities along with Wall Street? Keen says absolutely.

Additional: Wall Street Wankers

Make Money, Make War: UK Profits From Libya Mess

NATO may have ended its operations in Libya, but the Western presence is far from over, with big companies replacing the warplanes. The countries that bombed the oil-rich state are now getting lucrative contracts to rebuild it.


First, British bombs tore it apart. Now, British companies will get paid to put it back together. Libya is open for business, and UK firms are being encouraged to join the gold rush... “We bomb, we destroy, and then we get the contracts to rebuild afterwards,” he told RT. “For us [Britain], it’s always been about those commercial interests ever since BP and Shell went back into Libya after the sanctions were lifted 10 years or so ago. For us, it’s got this commercial edge to the entire thing.” Journalist John Pilger says there was evidence of bartering before NATO even got involved. “The west is establishing another client in Libya. Libya is the source of more oil than any other country in Africa, including Nigeria,” he said. “The National Transition Council told the French that if they sent in their airplanes they would give Total 35 per cent of the oil reserves. There’s so much evidence for what the thing really is.” 

Source

Nigel Farage Sittingbourne Meeting

Nigel Farage In a meeting on 11/11/2011 in sittingbounre. Anyone who wants freedom and true change in the UK must watch this. (Suggests source kobayashimaru26)

Italy Stares Into Recession Abyss

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi makes final preparations to say “arrivederci,” but even those discontented with his policies appear less than certain that the new captain will manage to steer the Italian mega-yacht to a safe haven. Italy is rushing through painful austerity cuts aimed at averting a worst-case scenario in the EU's third-largest economy. A vote in the Senate is expected on Friday.

Approval by both houses of parliament will finally end the era of Silvio Berlusconi, who has promised to resign as soon as new laws are passed.

But many in Italy doubt the new government will bring relief to the struggling country. Source

CIA Admits Monitoring Twitter and Facebook

Greece Crisis is A "Crime Scene" - BBC's Greg Palast

Alex talks with Greg Palast, the New York Times-bestselling author and a freelance journalist for the British Broadcasting Corporation as well as the British newspaper The Observer. Palast will talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement, the government's addiction to GPS tracking, and other related issues.