Since fB is a corporation, shouldn’t (it) be saying “I’m” working on it, not (it) is working on it . Facebook corporation is a *person* after the Supreme Court ruled corporations are a person – except they aren’t exactly – not a person you can see, hear, touch or feel like a person.

Like “a person” in terms of rights, not responsibilities. Atz the beauty of Pro Business logic at the GOP level. it makes no fing sense what so ever, yet, there it is at the Supreme Court ruling. and here it is manifested.

A 3 year lack of respect for user’s privacy. 100 billion dollar corporation manifests its ‘self’ against people and their rights. its a crazy mixed up Supreme Court and wacky fB oligarchy of (apparently) post high-school millionaires flipping the bird at their users. “shaddapaboutit already Mom, eyes a millionaire, whatdayya want, go get me some red-bull, i have a headache.”

http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2012/02/nearly-3-years-later-deleted-facebook-photos-are-still-online.ars

“Tell Congress not to censor the internet NOW! – fightforthefuture.org/pipa

PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.”

from: http://vimeo.com/fightforthefuture

How to protest SOPA

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/protesting-sopa-what-you-can-do.ars

Contact San Juan County’s elected Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?State=WA

Contact San Juan Islands Congressional representative http://larsen.house.gov/contact/

Petition: http://www.google.com/takeaction/

Deregulation That Helps Small Businesses

The bill heads to the Senate next. It currently allows business owners to raise up to $2 million from an unlimited number of individuals who can invest as much as $10,000 each.

Right now, all sorts of do-gooder causes get donations through engines like Kickstarter.com. But because of a securities law born of the Great Depression to prevent fraud, for-profit businesses can’t ask strangers to invest.

Congressman Patrick McHenry introduced the bill. “What we’re doing is changing a regulation, eliminating a regulation, so that you can let capitalism be free in this country,” he said at a small victory rally last week.

The North Carolina Republican says a fellow Republican told him the bill “should be renamed the Obama-McHenry Friendship Bill.” In fact, a version of the crowdfunding bill is also in the jobs plan President Obama is urging Congress to pass.” – more details here..

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s that time of year again, when parents, grandparents, and friends begin to prepare holiday toy shopping lists. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wants consumers to know that while safety should be at the top of everyone’s toy list, stronger federal rules are making a positive impact and restoring confidence in the safety of toys.

New toy safeguards include: establishing the lowest lead content and lead paint limits in the world; setting a stringent limit on the use of certain phthalates; converting the voluntary toy standards into mandatory standards; requiring third party testing and certification of toys designed or intended primarily for children 12 and younger; closing in on new limits for cadmium in toys; and working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to track shipments in transit from other countries, thereby increasing seizure of dangerous imported toys.

These safeguards, along with safety-conscious steps taken by many toy makers and sellers, have contributed to a continued decline in toy recalls since 2008. There were 34 toy recalls in fiscal year 2011. This is down from 46 toy recalls in fiscal year 2010, 50 recalls in 2009, and 172 recalls in 2008. In 2011, toy recalls related to lead declined to 4, down from 19 in 2008.

“Strong toy standards support the production of safer toys in the marketplace,” said Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “Parents and toy shoppers also always need to be vigilant by choosing age appropriate toys and keeping small parts, balls, and balloons out of the hands of young children.”

Toy-related deaths to children younger than 15 increased to 17 fatalities reported in 2010, up from 15 reported in 2009. Nearly half of these toy-related fatalities were attributed to choking on balloons, small balls, and rubber balls.

A new report (pdf) released by CPSC today also notes that about 181,500 children younger than 15 years of age were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments due to toy-related injuries in 2010. Nonmotorized scooters continued to be the category of toys associated with the most injuries. Frequently these injuries involved lacerations, contusions, and abrasions to the child’s face and head. Importantly many of the incidents were associated with, but not necessarily caused by, a toy.

Here are some safety steps that consumers can take while shopping this holiday season:

• Balloons – Children can choke or suffocate on deflated or broken balloons. Keep deflated balloons away from children younger than 8 years old. Discard broken balloons at once.
• Small balls and other toys with small parts – For children younger than age 3, avoid toys with small parts, which can cause choking.
• Scooters and other riding toys – Riding toys, skateboards, and in-line skates go fast, and falls could be deadly. Helmets and safety gear should be worn properly at all times, and they should be sized to fit.
• Magnets – For children under age 6, avoid building or play sets with small magnets. If magnets or pieces with magnets are swallowed, serious injuries and/or death can occur.

Once the gifts are open:

• Immediately discard plastic wrappings or other packaging on toys before they become dangerous play things.
• Keep toys appropriate for older children away from younger siblings.
• Charging batteries should be supervised by adults. Chargers and adapters can pose thermal burn hazards to young children. Pay attention to instructions and warnings on battery chargers. Some chargers lack any mechanism to prevent overcharging.

Along with educating the public, CPSC is committed to working with foreign and domestic toy manufacturers, importers, and retailers to help them understand and comply with U.S. toy requirements.

—

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of the thousands of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $900 billion annually. CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters and household chemicals – contributed to a decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, go online to: www.saferproducts.gov, call CPSC’s Hotline at (800) 638-2772 or teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270 for the hearing impaired. Consumers can obtain this news release and product safety information at www.cpsc.gov. To join a free e-mail subscription list, please go to https://www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx.

Salt making is one of the oldest arts around. In India, Ghandi led a walk to the sea to make salt defying an English law which forbade the making of salt, many decades ago. But here, its not defiance that produces this new substance, but rather a simple, small business.

The ad in San Juan Islands Buy Sell Trade reads:

For sale SJI: Salish Sea Salt! Great stocking stuffer! I have made sea salt from the waters of the San Juans. The seawater was harvested at Cattle Point on an incoming tide then evaporated in my greenhouse. 3.5 ounce jar for $10

About 1,500 San Juan Islanders belong to a local buy sell trade group on Facebook, where scores of postings can go up each day, offering swaps, services, new and old products. Everything from tools to expiring ferry tickets, the local buy sell trade group works a little community magic – driven by good nature and the desire to build community commerce. Its read by many simply because it reminds us of how a small town works together to reduce off-island consumption, share items we no longer use or need, and build relationships among those who otherwise might not see or connect with one another.

Salish Sea Salt looks interesting. I have yet to try it.

For more information Contact Steven Gutmann

http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/63983#.Tsx5SRRahxM.facebook

“Google Inc has abandoned an ambitious project to make renewable energy cheaper than coal, the latest target of Chief Executive Larry Page’s moves to focus the Internet giant on fewer efforts.

Google said on Tuesday that it was pulling the plug on seven projects, including Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal as well as a Wikipedia-like online encyclopedia service known as Knol.”

its funny, in an odd, disconnected way, how this parallels Steve Jobs return to Apple and ‘cleaning house’ on projects that weren’t profitable, or that many have been distracting to the top people. However, Google is *not* Apple. Google is an *advertising* company, and as such, has a social obligation to work to invest in renewables. 

Google is not a product company, never has been. If refocusing Google means focusing on Advertising, we’re all damned. Lubricating the wheels of sales by extracting money out of the supply chain is fine. Goog-nix (Android) and Gmail, G+, don’t need billion dollar budgets. 

They are all 10 creative person projects. Goog-nix, if it gets to be a 100 person project, is too large. When it grows too large, with too much of a budget, it no longer is an open source project. It has its own political ambitions, its own weight. 

If Google becomes an organization that drives toward assuring privacy while at the same time being an advertising company, it will need to do that in some magical, yet unknown way. 

I don’t like my Gmail being read by Google. I don’t like everything I search for being compiled. I don’t like G+ being a social ‘graph’ to more effective sales. Is there anything I can do about it? Not today.

These are linking commercial interests – as fB does, to *social* concepts. Dragging the best ideas of humanity – sharing – into the worst ideas of humanity – conning people into acting or buying things, not because they are the best things *for* them, but because the folks wanting to sell those things pay Google and fb *to sell them*. 

How in the world that disjointed set of philosophical and social obligations is resolved has *not* so far yielded good results. People are furious with the indiscriminate introduction of privacy invading pushes by FB, and Google to a lesser degree. 

So, as Google pulls away from investing in humanity directly, the reveal a sadder truth, they are bound to their investors, and those who pay Google’s bills – advertisers, and to their rules and demands. They have the money Google needs to operate.

The notion that Google should be or fB should be building Operating Systems, as advertising company which they are, is totally at conflict. If that isn’t obvious, the world is blind.