Tag Archives: education

Wikipedia says no to censoring

wikipedia logoWikipedia, that great resource for all sorts of information, is refusing to censor itself to gain an audience in China. The site was censored by China in October of last year because it has bad things to say about the country according to the Chinese leadership.

The founder of Wikipedia has “challenged other internet companies, including Google, to justify their claim that they could do more good than harm by co-operating with Beijing.”

“We’re really unclear why we would be [banned],’ Wales told The Observer. ‘We have internal rules about neutrality and deleting personal attacks and things like this. We’re far from being a haven for dissidents or a protest site. So our view is that the block is in error and should be removed, but we shall see.'”

Dropping Knowledge

This has got to be the coolest thing ever! Dropping Knowledge is getting ” 112 of the world’s most compelling thinkers, artists, writers, scientists, social entrepreneurs, philosophers and humanitarians from around the world” and seating them around the world’s largest table in Berlin. It’s happening in three days on the ninth of September. I wish I could be in Berlin for this.

“Using dropping knowledge’s question-rating system, the public identified 500 questions as those most likely to initate open dialog on a social topic of most relevance to them. This group of questions will yield the final 100 Questions — representing a truly global sampling of cultures, themes and ideas — to be asked at the Table of Free Voices and beyond.”

Some sample questions:
“why is clean water more expensive than gasoline in many countries?” joshua dharma , 34, suratthani, Thailand

“Self serving global corporations are not held accountable in any real sense of the word for their actions, how can this be changed? ” David Anderer , 60, Albany, Oregon, USA

“What is the real reason we punish criminals through a court system?” Mathijs Koenraadt , 25, Oosterhout, Netherlands

Two Dads are Rad!

Nursery school teachers in the UK are being urged to promote acceptance of homosexual families. There is concern from the National Union of Teachers that children of gay couples aren’t being treated kindly and that children are being forced into stereotyped gender rolls. Encouraging openness and acceptance of all genders and people will help curb intolerance.

“The NUT said: “It is particularly important to begin to make three to five-year-olds aware of the range of families that exist in the UK today”. That would includes families with single parents or those with “two mums” or “two dads”, the union said.

The union added: “There will be parents who are gay or lesbian who will want to be reassured that that their children will be safe in the setting.””