Thailand’s military government has scrapped a plan to create a single Internet gateway, a deputy prime minister said on Thursday, putting paid to a system aimed at allowing authorities to monitor content.
The plan to consolidate Thailand’s 10 Internet gateways into one central government-controlled point had been one of the government’s least popular ideas since it came to power following a bloodless coup last year.
Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, a former finance minister, said the plan had been halted.
“We will not talk about this any more. If we say we won’t do it, we won’t do it,” Somkid said during an a economic forum in Bangkok.
The single gateway plan was approved in August. Some feared the proposal would destroy competition and was reminiscent of the most authoritarian measures to stifle free speech.
The plan also triggered concern that Internet speeds would plummet, which would almost certainly hurt online business and anger Internet users.
Some believe the government will revive the plan.
“At this moment they have to say that they have scrapped it because the reception to this idea is not good. But once people forget about it then they might revive the idea again,” Yingcheep Atchanont, project manager of internet dialogue at iLaw, a Bangkok-based legal monitoring group, told Reuters.
Internet traffic in Thailand is already heavily policed and those deemed to be using the internet inappropriately can be charged under the controversial 2007 Computer Crimes Act, which provides for sentences of up to five years for offences against “the Kingdom’s security.”
Activists have staged online acts of opposition to the single gateway, also dubbed the “Great Firewall of Thailand” in a nod to the strict controls China has over its Internet.
[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (AP) — If you’re looking for a device to track your fitness, alert you to incoming messages and occasionally let you buy stuff with a scan or a tap, there’s no shortage of computerized wristwatches to choose from.
To commemorate the birth anniversary of freedom fighter and independent India’s first Education Minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has asked all schools to celebrate November 11 as National Education Day by recalling his contribution to the cause of education. “On National Education Day (NED), schools affiliated to the board should organise seminars, symposiums, essay writing and elocution competitions, workshops and rallies on the importance of literacy and the nation’s commitment to all aspects of education. Schools (should) also organise sustainable long-term programmes to promote skill building among students,” stated a notification issued by the CBSE.There has been a distinct paradigm shift in the education sector of new India, said the notification, adding that the theme of NED celebration will be ‘skill-awareness and empowerment’. Schools have been asked to nominate a teacher and a student, who have been consistently and extensively involved in projects related to building of sustainable skills within the system and in enhancing skills in the community around them. They will work on themes like sanitation, inclusive education, entrepreneurship, promoting health and well-being, empowering the girl child, adopting a school, gender sensitisation, environmental issues, and 21st century skills in their respective schools. The celebration aims to ensure that students are exposed to a number of projects that strengthen their sustainability in the existing environment, enhance thinking, social and emotional skills and become self-motivated learners, said a CBSE official. As part of the celebration, the schools can also organise sustainable long-term programmes to promote skill-building among students. “Community outreach, entrepreneurial projects, vocational skills, life skills and industry-based projects are also being integrated into the school curriculum. There is a distinct paradigm shift emerging in the education sector of new India,” stated Sugandh Sharma, additional director (research and innovation), CBSE, in a recent notification.
Improving educational opportunities to shrink income disparities depends on increasing the resources available to school districts. But funding alone is not enough to equalize access to a quality education. Schools need new and innovative approaches to turn resources into student results that beget success in the world beyond the classroom. A look back at historical challenges to education access demonstrates how far the U.S. has come, and highlights the obstacles facing students today compared with those of prior generations.
These are the reasons you should keep security as a primary concern:
Sometimes the images were mock-ups of neuroscience papers. The trick was that these ‘papers’ were customized for each neuroscientist, to make it look as if they had written it themselves. So for instance, the author list was made to feature the participant’s own name. The title and text were based on his or her research interests. The final touch was that the ‘papers’ were made up in the style of either a low-ranking journal, a moderately ranked one, or a highly prestigious one.
