Internet: The future of the Internet: experts weigh in - power of governments deminishing

By 2025, the Internet will flow through our lives “like electricity,” according to experts polled on the future of the Internet. Mobile, wearable, and embedded computing will be linked in the so-called Internet of Things so that people and their environment can tap into artificial intelligence-enhanced cloud-based information storage and sharing, reports Pew Research Center. The report on “Digital Life in 2025” is from the U.S.-based think tank to mark the 25th anniversary of the creation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who wrote a paper on March 12, 1989 proposing an “information management” system. That paper evolved into framework for the web.

“With mobile technologies and information- sharing apps becoming ubiquitous, we can expect some significant improvement in the awareness of otherwise illiterate and ill-informed rural populations to opportunities missed out by manipulative and corrupt governments. Like the Arab Spring, we can expect more and more uprisings to take place as people become more informed and able to communicate their concerns.”

All 7-plus billion humans on this planet will sooner or later be 'connected' to each other and fixed destinations, via the Uber(not Inter)net. That can lead to the diminished power over people’s lives within nation-states. When every person on this planet can reach, and communicate two-way, with every other person on this planet, the power of nation- states to control every human inside its geographic boundaries may start to diminish.”

Read more: The future of the Internet: experts weigh in | Toronto Star

Vatican:: Pope Benedict 'complicit in child sex abuse scandals', say victims' groups

For the legions of people whose childhoods and adult lives were wrecked by sexual and physical abuse at the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy, Pope Benedict XVI is an unloved pontiff who will not be missed.

Victims of the epidemic of sex- and child-abuse scandals that erupted under Benedict's papacy reacted bitterly to his resignation, either charging the outgoing pontiff with being directly complicit in a criminal conspiracy to cover up the thousands of paedophilia cases that have come to light over the past three years, or with failing to stand up to reactionary elements in the church resolved to keep the scandals under wraps.

From Benedict's native Germany to the USA, abuse victims and campaigners criticised an eight-year papacy that struggled to cope with the flood of disclosures of crimes and abuse rampant for decades within the church. Norbert Denef, of the NetworkB group of German abuse victims, said: "The rule of law is more important than a new pope."

Read more: Pope Benedict 'complicit in child sex abuse scandals', say victims' groups | World news | guardian.co.uk

Welcome to Berlin, Europe’s cool new capital - by Gideon Rachman

Berlin does not feel like an imperial city. The new government buildings — the chancellor’s office, the Bundestag and the foreign ministry — have all been designed with plenty of glass and natural light, to emphasise transparency and democracy. The finance ministry is, admittedly, housed in the old headquarters of the Luftwaffe. But most of the grandest architecture is a legacy of the Prussian kings. Modern Berlin presents a more welcoming face, and has become a magnet for tourists and teenagers.

Yet while the German capital has deliberately eschewed the trappings of imperial power, Berlin is increasingly the de facto capital of the European Union (EU). Of course the EU’s main institutions — the commission and the council — are still based in Brussels. But the key decisions are increasingly made in Berlin.
Will Greece have to leave the euro? Ultimately, it will be Germany’s call. Will politicians support further bail-outs for southern Europe? The vital debates will take place in the Bundestag in Berlin, not in the European parliament. Who does the International Monetary Fund call about the euro crisis? The most important conversations take place with the German government and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt — not with the European Commission.

This shift in power from Brussels to Berlin has been accelerated by the euro crisis. Naturally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel still has to go to summits in Brussels and strike deals. But the euro crisis means Merkel is now incomparably the most important leader at the table.

For different reasons, the leaders of all the other big EU nations arrive in Brussels in a weak negotiating position. Spain and Italy are struggling with their debt crises — and so they have become supplicants. The British have opted out of the single currency and the new structures that the eurozone is putting together — so they have become marginalised. The Poles are also not in the euro, and have a relatively small economy.

That leaves France. By tradition, a Franco-German partnership is at the heart of any EU deal.

That kind of power can lead to arrogance. In Berlin last week I heard occasional exasperated references to arrogant Spaniards, haughty Brits, delusional Frenchmen and corrupt Greeks. But the general tone of discussion is serious, patient and responsible. The Germans insist that they are completely committed to the euro and to the EU.

The problem is that life is too sweet in Berlin. Germany is prosperous and Berlin is a pleasant and fashionable city. The struggles of Greece or Spain seem a very long way away. That detachment from the rest of the eurozone — rather than any "will to power" — is why Berlin remains a peculiar capital for Europe.

Read more: Welcome to Berlin, Europe’s cool new capital | Columnists | BDlive

Europe's far-right steady increase of power must be stopped before its too late

There are dark clouds above Europe and they are not only of an economic nature. Far worse, it is a political cancer Europe already has experienced before and its called far-right totalitarianism.

In France Marine Le Pen wants to bust the French political system -- and people across Europe and beyond should take note.  Her stunning score in the first round of French presidential elections won her anti-immigrant National Front a place in the Europe-wide march of nationalist -- sometimes extremist -- parties toward seats of power.

Le Pen's rage will be on millions of voters' minds, both her critics and fans, as they elect a president Sunday.

On that same day, Greek citizens, strapped by austerity measures in a nation crushed by debt, could vote in about a dozen lawmakers from the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.

In the upcoming September Dutch elections, Geert Wilders, Muslim hater and populist right wing proponent is also seen as a potential threat to the stability of the Netherlands political and economic system, by most of his political colleagues in the Dutch Parliament.

Bit by bit, far-right parties from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia are gaining momentum among the populace and getting a foothold in their nations' power structures.

"This must be stopped before it becomes an avalanche", said a moderate EU Parliamentarian.

EU-Digest