THE KAPLINSKY REPORT

Socially conscious, tech savvy – these are some of the words often used to describe the generation that has grown up in the digital age. They are often viewed as more sophisticated than previous generations in their ability to connect  globally with people from different walks of life and cultures. Over the past few years, the net generation have shown their ability to galvanise themselves using technology. The election of Barack Obama has topped all events so far as a moment in history that created an awakening of political interest among the net generation and showed their ability to collaborate in all sorts of ways using the internet.

The question is, has this social consciousness created social responsibility, besides the creation of facebook groups where people can simply click Like without making much of a difference in the real world?  Some social commentators believe that the youth of today are more politically active than the generation that protested against the Vietnam war. There is the belief in some quarters that the younger generation of today has moved from “civic action to political action”.

There is no doubt that the social networking revolution has transformed the way younger people interact and express their opinion about issues they feel strongly about.

The recent Green protests  that took place in Iran were  largely mobilised by social networking and it was through this medium that the mainstream press were able to gather information on events in that part of the world. The 2009 G20 summit in London is a good example of how people were able mobilise support and to share ideas on protest tactics using twitter and facebook.

While the transformative effect of social networking on young people is clear, it can be argued that most of the activism in the so-called “net generation” era is confined to the convenient and risk-free, push of a button on their Smart gadgets. Not many of them take to the streets to express their discontent on issues of a political matter. Even though there is evidence to show that more youths are involved in volunteering within their communities, their online activities still do not translate to real activism that could bring about change in many aspects of life.

Without underplaying the significance of how the web has positively transformed the general behaviour of the net generation, the internet and face book in particular, are full of groups for all sorts of causes with very few followers actively doing something for the groups they join. Many activists with groups on social networking sites face challenges in getting their followers to actually affect change in the real world.

On the other hand, young people in most societies tend to be the vehicles for change. The power unleashed by globalised communication through social networking has provided a platform that could in the long run lead to real change in parts of the world were leaders try to suppress and subjugate information.

Useful Web Links:

Mia takes on google, You Tube, and Wikipedia

Lennox on positive thinking about HIV

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Ever since the Internet became more accessible to the general public in the mid-nineties, we have seen a steady increase in the availability of free content. From free downloadable software like Adobe Reader,  realplayer, google’s Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, to Spotify’s endless music, we have become spoilt for choice and conditioned to acessing free Internet content.

Behaviourally,  peoples’ habits have changed  tremendously with this avalanche of free material and the ubiquity of cheaper laptops, net-books and smart phones has made free content accessibility even easier than it was in the 20th century. As a necessity, we all consume vast amounts of information on a daily basis that is relevant to our particular needs.

Go to: eMusic’s FREE Daily Download!

Local library were the place we laboriously sifted through the aisles and stacks of dusty old books; well gone are those days. Now all we have to do is just Google it and wahla! At the hit of a button we can get a quick video-lecture on how to prepare roast duck or stream hours of music videos of our favourite artists. The possibilities seem limitless and what’s even better is that the content is mostly available for free.

Listen to: FREE: The Future of a Radical Price

Online culture in its current state of evolution expects online content to be free. Creating a paywall system like Rupert Murdoch’s Times Online experiment, will, I guess, generally be met with indignant resistance. Of course, some will argue that the current free for all access to the quality content model is unsustainable and that the only hope of survival is to charge its readers.

From a business point of view this is a do or die kind of era for publishers who have seen the demand for their hard copiy product declining with the advent of the digital/online age. It makes sense that some of them have reacted this way; but then again it will be an uphill task for them to create a sustained appetite for their price tagged content that was once given away for free.

The reaction to the paywall system will no doubt include anger. It’s akin to handing away free opium to millions of people every day, getting them addicted to it and then suddenly with very little warning, asking them to pay for it.

The outcome looks bleak with an ensuing protracted digital and online war that will see many fighting to tear those paywalls back down. As Chris Anderson puts it, “Freemium” is the model of the future.

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London Evening Standard to go Free

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For the past 10 years, it has been a growing trend for the UK’s suburbia to mercilessly cut down their obtrusive, old fashion, front hedges and sacrifice their lush green front garden lawns – once the pride of British gardeners –  at the alter of brand new paving bricks to show off their spanking new 4x4s.

I have long resisted the temptation to imitate this brutal act of nature-genocide and prefer to keep things natural.

Not only do I have a 7 foot high front hedge screening my house from nosey neighbours, but also, a Weeping Willow that only a few years ago, was a knee high fragile lawnmower-endangered seedling, now proudly towering above the roof-top.

The fashion has also been to knock out gaping holes through living room and kitchen walls to create a more spacious habitat at the expense of the grass adorned backyard.

Again, I have resisted the temptation to encroach on the greenery of my back garden. It is both a play haven for my kids and local grey squirrels and a place of solitude and relaxation for my wife and I when the weather permits.

Now it appears that my green-idiosyncrasies might have paid off after all. Researchers at the university of Essex claim that spending just five minutes of exercise in any green space can have beneficial effects on our health; especially if there’s a body of water like a lake or river at the location.

Young people and the mentally ill, in particular, were shown to experience the positive effects of engaging in short duration outdoor activities including horse-riding, gardening, fishing and walking.

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Inversely, green-exercise activities of a longer duration – that is, lasting more than 5 minutes – were shown to have smaller benefits than green-location activities that lasted for a shorter period of time.

Employers in stressful industries are now being urged to encourage their workers to take outdoor breaks and engage in “green exercise”  activities in park-like environments. It might also be a good idea if such employers invested some money in installing green-rooms – with real grass and shrubs – in city offices blocks where park or nature trail facilities might not be proximate.

Useful links: ‘Green’ exercise quickly ‘boosts mental health’ – BBC

Two drinks that may keep your blood pressure down

Seven most effective exercises – Boots WebMD

Watch that prostate and eat more Tomatoes

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Do you ever find yourself wondering what life is all about? Or do you sometimes find yourself looking up to the stars at night and questioning humanity’s place in the scheme of things?

Well rest assured, you’re not alone. According to scientists, the known universe is packed with an amazing 100 billion galaxies and the chances of life existing beyond Earth is high.

But renowned British scientist, Stephen Hawking, has warned that we shouldn’t be too keen on contacting ET any time soon.

Hawking’s thinking on life beyond Earth is much in line with the growing resistance to the arrival of aliens in the remake of the hit TV series V - he warns that we shouldn’t trust them so easily because we might just be a food source to them much like chickens and Cows are to us. (Read: Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking – Times Online)

However, on the other side of the alien-believers’ coin, there are multitudes of people who just can’t get enough of seeking out our galactic relatives. One such group call themselves  the Disclosure Project and you can view scores of their videos on YouTube.

What makes them so convincing is the range of high profile individuals who have risked public scorn and ridicule by coming out to give compelling testimony about their UFO experiences.

UFO eyewitnesses from Mexico to Russia, from airline pilots to Naval Commanders, even respected retired NASA astronauts, have all come out and told anyone bothered to listen, about their personal experiences and belief in beings from other worlds.

Listen to Dr Edgar Mitchell’s stunning radio interview.

A few years back, and I wouldn’t have given a second of my time to such ‘Area 51′ nonsense; however, after sifting through tons of videos on YouTube, I have to admit that a few of them do stand out. My gut instinct is telling me that something is definitely going on but I can’t put a finger on it, yet.

What we do know is that since the 50′s numerous governmental agencies have been investigating the veracity of these UFO sightings being reported all over the world.

Take a look at: The National Archives

This in itself does not prove the existence of beings from other planets. However, it does show that our governments are taking the matter seriously; especially when it involves unidentified flying objects moving at incredible speeds, doing turns at right angles in mid-air, or as Nick Pope – a former Ministry of Defence employee – put it in a Fox News interview, engage in ” virtual dog fights,” with the British Air force.

Useful links:

The Disclosure Project

SETI Institute

See what people are saying about the Disclosure Project on Twitter

Nick Pope

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Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating things a little. For obvious reasons, Nick Clegg – the youngish leader of the Liberal Democrats - cannot be compared to Obama. He’s not black, or mixed race, for starters; and secondly, he doesn’t come close to being in the same league as the worlds’ top three orators: Clinton, Blair and now Obama.

But in other departments, Mr Clegg’s, almost futile struggle to become prime minister, can be compared to President Obama’s herculean battle to occupy the White House.  Like Obama, Mr Clegg entered into last night’s debate as an underdog in the race for 10 Downing street’s  and was considered by the press and political giants – the Labour and Conservative parties – pretty much the same way an elephant would consider an ant.

To many commentators, Nick Clegg was way out of his league and extremely lucky to be granted a third ticket to debate among the heavy weights. If anything, they viewed Clegg’s presence as side entertainment or distraction that wouldn’t dent the real battle to be waged between Gordon Brown, the prime minister and his more esteemed opponent David Cameron.

HOW WRONG THEY WERE. Last night’s historic debate turned all that thinking upside down. For Nick Clegg, it was a kind of Iowa Caucuses moment to win the debate that most expected Cameron to effortlessly and decisively trounce.

But just like Obama stole Hillary’s thunder, Cameron’s thunder was snatched by an underestimated political nobody. He was denied his moment of victory and how bitter it must have tasted.  In the same way Hillary Clinton was viewed as the anointed Democrats’ front-runner, David Cameron, the conservative leader, was equally tipped to win the debate and lead them into Downing street for the first time in fourteen years.

That may still be the case, however, Clegg has gone from being the insignificant underdog, to being the one whose political decapitation has now taken on a new sense of urgency among the political Goliaths. The smell of fear in both the Labour and Tory camps is palpable.

Strangely, this change of tact may be to Nick Clegg’s political advantage. If you remember America’s elections well, then you will no doubt remember that Obama only grew stronger when attacked by the Hillary Clinton machine.Through every trial and battle he came out more resilient and I suspect that it will be the same for Nick Clegg.

What Mr Clegg must do now until polling day, is show the British electorate that he truly believes that he can be an effective prime minister that can steer this economically beleaguered country through the turbulent times ahead.

He needs to solidify his argument (clarifying both his European and immigration plans) and continue to take his message – as he did during the debate – to the grass-root level of people who saw in him a candour that was not present in PM Gordon Brown or Cameron.

For the first time in what seems like an eternity, British politics has finally become entertaining, engaging and dare I say, popcorn worthy. Nick Clegg’s chances of becoming the next British prime minister may seem infinitesimally slim, but going by last night’s performance – and if the British electorate has truly caught the fever of change that started across the Atlantic in 2008 -  he may just give everyone a big surprise on May 6. (Take a look at: About my vote)

See what people are saying about Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats on Twitter

Useful links:

Nick Clegg’s Lib Dems ‘under scrutiny’ after TV debate – BBC

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1. Fat is in, thin is out: Gone are the days when men would lust after the then fashionable heap of walking bones dangling about in zero sized jeans.

Today, the general movement of male eyes is to scan the streets for flesh and lots of it. Men want meaty women who give volume to their trousers and don’t look like anaemic ghosts in desperate need of hydration.

2. Natural is in, rose bush is out: Unless you’ve been so unfortunate to have fallen into a sewer and smell of putrefying excrement, it’s best women stay off the perfume for a while. And by that I mean the tons of anti-environment chemicals that some women dump on their bodies these days.

Not only is it a huge turn off – because whenever you pass by men are wondering what unforgivable odour you are trying to mask – it is also an effective male repellent, rather than an attractor. Men are animals and prefer your natural body odours; the trick is to strike the right balance between the real you smell and your favourite perfume.

3. Control your facebook aggression: As in the real world – where men like to hang out with their pals – online, men also want to feel free on Facebook and twitter. It’s very easy to get jealous and misunderstand his intentions, especially when you see he has more female than male facebook friends.

Rather than plotting to pop cyanide capsules into his gin and tonic when he’s not looking, if it’s really a problem to you that he has so many females as friends,  it’s better to tell him exactly how you feel about it. If you’re hurting and jealous, tell him.

In a way, he see this as your way of telling him that you genuinely care about him, and if he really cares about your feelings, then he’ll start to hit the delete button at some point. Give him reasonable time to do this and don’t expect immediate results. Listen to

4. Keep your eyes on him: Never, and I mean never, try to show too much interest in another man while you’re out and about with him. You may not think he notices it, but every time your eyes wander off to the face of another good looking man, he’s onto you. Yes, men are hypocritical and insecure creatures, no matter what you may have heard. If a man shows you no concern or hint of jealousy, then you’ve got a serious problem.

5. Be yourself: Besides the obvious, a man is also more interested in getting to know the real you and not the countless layers of creams and unctions that occludes your personality and inner beauty. Don’t be afraid to be yourself around him as opposed to being pretentious and laughing at his every flat joke. Men see right through it and prefer women to be honest about their reactions towards him.

6. Control your emotions: Okay, he’s just done something that really annoys you, but the last thing to do is to go completely nuclear on him. Sometimes a man’s actions may not have been intended to anger you in any way.

If he says he’s sorry and didn’t mean it the way you took it, then it’s best to leave things right there and not let it build up into a full blown relationship crisis. As impossible as it may seem, try and smile it off and enjoy the rest of the day with him. If it’s something that’s really affected you, then by all means feel free to discuss it with him at another time when emotions are less likely to flare up. Listen to

7. Teach him: It is a fact that most men find women a complete mystery. Forget the solid shaved facade of supreme male confidence – it’s all fake. Even Mr Casanova was once a novice. The truth is that men are constantly trying to decipher the  actions of the opposite sex like astrologers trying to understand the constellations.

Help him to understand something about you one bit at a time, chapter by chapter, and if he’s a good learner, you’ll see that he will start to open up to you as well. Men are like pets – love them and they’ll love you back. Book flight + hotel and SAVE UP TO $465 on Orbitz!

Useful links: Women’s Intimates-$15 & Under, Under-Eye, Women’s Myrtle Leg

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As technology advances offering myriad ways to exploit our voyeuristic instincts, many of us will forget what it means to have privacy. With mediums such as twitter that have altered the way we communicate, people are revealing more and more information about themselves. There is no escaping our fascination with ourselves as we embrace the toys of the moment ranging from the ipad right down to Ford cars that can read our twitter feeds.

The emergence of elegant and dazzling technology continues to bring us close to what matters most in the 21st century – networking and interacting. As social networking becomes an extremely important online activity allowing people to socialise and share information, concerns about data protection are rising.

Consequently, most people may feel the need for a privacy consultant – much like having a lawyer or an accountant – WELCOME TO A NEW AGE. (Trend Micro Internet Security 2010 protects you and your family against cybercriminals and inappropriate content without slowing down your computer. Learn More!)

Technology, has to a large extent, merged with culture; from the echelons of power in Washington where we have president Obama hooked on his Blackberry, right down to a herds man in some remote part of the world, haggling the price of his animals on a mobile phone.( )

This intoxication with technology has transformed the world in many positive ways, but it also leaves us in a vulnerable position. For unscrupulous people who engage in unlawful activities or white collar crimes, the data that is now readily available to them online, makes it easy for them to assume false identities and to also steal and misuse our digital property. (see:)

Our experience with modern technology may make us yearn for the anonymity we once enjoyed in the past when technology was low tech.

In the coming decades, as technology hyper-accelerates, tech-sector experts will be faced with the challenge of managing the storage of the vast flow of information as it accumulates. More sophisticated technology will have to be developed in order to deal with some of the new problems created by technology itself.

(Watch Jonathan Zittrain’s video about the Internet)

Useful links:

Microsoft Store. Hundreds of software titles available to download now.

Ford cars to read your Twitter feed – CNN.COM

Google and Facebook’s privacy illusion – Forbes

Our obsession with technology

See what people are saying about the ipad on Twitter

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The twenty-first century citizen really has it made. Let me see, we have got the ipod, the iphone and now the ipad and to sound innovative these days, every new product launch must be prefixed with the small letter i.

We are ten years deep into the digital renaissance and already spoilt for choice with thousands of android and iphone apps guiding almost every aspect of our lives, from finding the nearest ATM machine with an app called aloqa to visually superimposing a more augmented reality layer over the dull bricks and mortar that constitute our world through the Layar reality browser.

There has never been a time like ours, billions of email and text messages zip-zap across the digital hemisphere every single day, and like the fictional world created by the writer E. M Forster in his short story – The Machine Stops – the millennial generation would rather exercise with a wii avatar in their stuffy living rooms than take the risk of having a brisk walk in the park. (Listen to )

The pressures of living in this 21 first century world can be enormous too. First, you have the pressure of choosing the right kind of phone. For those who take this contract-renewal period seriously, facebook posts comes in handy. So we reach out digitally to our multitude of digital friends spread out across the digitally flattened world, from New York to Lusaka, asking them to help us make a life changing decision:

“Ppl, what kind of phone should I choose?  A Blackberry, an iphone, or an Android?”

It can be a time of intense debate, of digital introspection; comments will come thick and fast, all ascribing the pros and cons, the pluses and minuses of the different formats. It goes to illustrate just how digitally divided we have become; from the  digital democratic freedoms given to Android app developers to the almost draconian measures imposed by Apple over the apps  allowed into their app store.

What is becoming apparent from all this digital entanglement, is the emergence of a an entirely new form of  language; take a look at your facebook and twitter posts, your phone texts, people are creating new ways of communicating.

Digital dialects, slang and etiquette, vary from one geographical region to another, and if you stay away for too long, you will notice that when you log back into your facebook or twitter account, you need to catch up with the new phrases, expressions and acronyms being used. It took me a while to understand what a digital contact meant when he said he had just DMened someone in China.

Whatever way we choose to interpret our current times, we can generally agree that we are collectively experiencing a major upheaval, and believe it or not, as technologically enhanced as we may think we are, these are still early days in the digital renaissance. (Read from wired.com – Colleges Dream of Paperless, ipad-centric Education or watch the ipad and education video)

Useful links:

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

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We live in very dramatic times indeed. Over the last fifteen years we have felt and seen the seismic impact of the internet. And if you are a digital ancient like me, then you will no doubt still remember the good old days when a picture on a web page would have taken an eternal ten minutes just to load up. There was no such thing as emails, corporate website, let alone spam.

And did we vent our fury and pull our hair out back then? No, we were internet cavemen stunned with awe and rapture at the transformation of our once boring screens inhabited and populated by college essays, into portals leading to other worlds beyond the limited shores of our desks.

That was the internet’s big bang epoch and boy, have things been rapidly expanding at a blinding rate ever since then. Carl Sagan, the renowned scientist, would probably say that the internet universe is going through its own kind of inflation.  Anyone still using dial-up – and believe me there are some still out there – is frankly seen as weird, and should go get a life in the high speed lane.

But there is more, another big bang is in the making and this time it is happening to the ever evolving hand-held devices. The launch of Apple’s ipad has kicked off what will be a very competitive and frenzied period of time for booksellers, publishers and the mighty Amazon.

Of course, we know by now that Amazon, since the launch of its innovative Kindle – an e-reader – has been trying to do to the publishing industry what itunes did to music industry. And to a degree, Amazon has achieved some measure of success; it currently has the biggest share of digital book downloads and the price of the Kindle continues to fall. (Listen to )

The coming months and years, will see a multitude of tablet computers being launched, all fighting for a piece of the digital pie. This in effect, augurs the last days of paper being used as a medium to record and convey information to the masses, and a complete transformation of how we consume and interact with information.

Traditional offline Newspaper publishers are taking note of this, as they witness the drop in sales of  their hard copy content  and a mass migration online to their digital counterparts. Timesonline recently announced that as from June this year, they will start charging their readers to access content. Whether this new business model works remains to be seen as surfers have generally become accustomed to accessing news content for free. (Free Download: Single of the Week. Only on iTunes)

What is exciting, though, is this shift away from paper to a more dynamically exciting format. To remain competitive and prevent the downward pressure on prices, publishers are planning to enrich their e-book content with videos, games and a host of other exclusive material.

Last January, Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, gave the world a fore taste of what the ipad is capable of doing – and that is being able to keep our eyes and fingers busy for long stretches of time – and hopefully those creative geniuses who are currently locked up in their labs, will be working on some more digital candy that will feed the cravings of our e-addiction.

Yes, people still buy traditional hard copy newspapers, books and magazines – if only for sensory reasons and to act as a  reminder that the world beyond the e-universe still exists – and on any given weekday, train carriages are strewn with discarded Washington Posts and free London Evening Standards, however, in a decade or so, a whole new generation of children, could be asking their mums, dads, and teachers this question: What is paper?

Useful links:

Free Business Magazines

Apple ipad hits shops in America (BBC)

‘No one really needs an ipad, but it turns the web into what we wanted’(Timesonline)

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How many times have you ever read a moving story or report in a newspaper or magazine article, and found you really connected with it, only to find out a few months or years down the line that it was a load of hog-wash? (Watch: Millenium bug Listen: BBC hits out at the Millennium Bug Read: Britain to close swine flu unit as pandemic fades).

Every single day we are incessantly bombarded with information, from TV adverts trying to sell us everything from pet insurance for our beloved cats, to mountains of fried chicken brimming in deep KFC buckets. What’s clear is that we are in many ways being herded like consumerist cattle from cradle to grave by an endless stream of information that subtly controls every aspect of our lives.

In a way, this system or method of control, operates best when it is invisible to the general public. It is sold to us under the guise of freedom of choice; our ability to choose from  a range of conveyor belt choices that is constantly presented to us in numerous ways – be it in the form of an innocent looking billboard ad displaying an unnaturally slim model wearing nothing but a bra or a short text message with a free offer. The collective effect is unseen and has a powerful hold on our lives. Some have been able to lift this veil, to discover this entire infrastructure of collusion among big money and media.

As if awakened from a coma, it finally dawned on this small group of the enlightened, that in reality we do not have the freedom to choose our paths in life. We do not have the freedom to marry who we want to, we do not have the freedom to wear want we like, we do not have the freedom to say what we really think, we do not have the freedom to work where we want. The list could go on forever, the truth is, our order from the menu has already been made by others.

Freedom – as in the case of privacy (Listen to ), is an illusion. One good example is the recent launch of the ipad. Over the past few months, we have been globally groomed to desire, to salivate over, to covert, to lust after this impressive piece of technology.

It has been touted as the next evolutionary step in computing and bridges our addiction to entertainment with our desire to touch the objects in our app infested electronic universe. After many months of fever pitch speculation, we are now left with no other option but to satisfy the hunger and craving to own this demi-god called the ipad, if only to satisfy momentarily, our artificially created addiction.

Another example of this illusion of freedom is this new 3D craze that’s been sweeping through the movie thearters. It started with Cameroun’s Avatar, and now we’re being made ready for the introduction of 3D into our homes. 3D? We’ve only just begun to get used to HD.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being an old fuddy-duddy, innovation can be beneficial to society at large; where would corporate texting be without our beloved Blackberry or our heaps of CDs without the ipod? But that’s not really the point. We embrace change when we are a part of the process, however, unlike president Obama, whose dynamic of change many welcomed with open arms, what really is important, is the way these movements or shifts in society are sold to us like we are responsible for these dramatic changes in our lives.

Kids only became addicted to cell phones because it was forced on them. Kids have become couch ridden zombies attached at the brain to xboxes, playstations, and wiis. We are subtly given the impression that we can get sufficient weekly exercise and calories by just dancing in front of our wii’s avatar. We are told there is sufficient nutrients to get us through the day by just munching on nutri-bar and diet Cokes. That, for many, is their idea of freedom.

We are so busy with ours lives that we just go with the flow. We numb the pain and reality of our predicament by bombarding our attention with electronics, chemicals and debt. Rarely do we ever find the time and solace to ponder the mystery of our existence and our place in the universe. What do you think would happen to this world if the plug was suddenly pulled? A very scary thought indeed. (Listen to: The Machine Stops by E. M Forster)

Useful links:

South Korea couple tried over’web neglect’ baby (BBC)

Online Gamers Anonymous

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