The final ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon, which changes the allowances for the number of members of European Parliament for some nations in the EU, is expected to be annexed to the original document in Rome this month. The changes will be active December 1st, 2011.

The Lisbon Treaty, in which the rules governing the European Union were last modified, limits the number of MEPs to 750 plus one president and tweaks their allocation among member states after the massive enlargements of 2005 and 2007.

Twelve countries are to gain one or more representatives – Spain: 4; Austria, France, and Sweden: 2; Bulgaria, Italy, Malta, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, and the UK: 1 – whereas Germany is set to lose three of them.

One of those 18 additions includes elected MEP of Sweden, Amelia Andersdotter of Piratpariet (Sweden’s Pirate Party). Sweden should consider itself lucky to have such a passionate, well informed representative who genuinely cares about the well being of the people of Sweden.

The Pirate Party platform revolves around three important issues which are not prejudice to race, class or any group less than the sum of all citizens. These issues are copyright and patent reform, less intrusive commercial and government surveillance (right to privacy) and increasing freedom of speech.

The people have spoken and elected Miss Andersdotter to represent them in these areas way back in 2009. Andersdotter has continued to stay active in Swedish politics in spite of not being on the payroll. You’ve heard of starving artists? Well, you might be able to call her a starving politician. On the bright side, she is probably more prepared and sharper than she has ever been to represent the people of Sweden.

Now Sweden’s citizens, including Amelia, are no doubt excitedly awaiting official announcement of when she will take her seat at parliament. Congratulations and best of luck to you all!

Update: The following e-mail message is from an excited Amelia Andersdotter to her supporters, friends, family and all.

Dear all,

It appears that me and my 17 Lisbon Treaty MEP colleagues will finally get to be inaugurated during the Strasbourg session in December 2011. The 2,5 years it has taken the European institutions and member states to sign a paper enabling the further democratization of the union, equal in number the amount of years I will be able to actively work towards a democratization of the union.

There have not been any official callings of me to the parliament yet – apparently such notifications will be sent out only after the Belgian government have had their ratification approved by the depository of treaty documents in Rome. That means, that should such notification from the Belgian government and subsequent approval by Rome take more than 12 days from today, my inauguration will instead occur during the January plenary in Strasbourg.

Certainly my perspectives on bureaucracy, democracy and their many interactions have developed during these 2 years, but for the remainder of this legislature I’ll do my best to advance this union )

Goodnight and till tomorrow,

Amelia

Once again, ActivePolitic is the first to let me know! Thanks.

To those who wish to make a living by distributing creative content under copyright licensing, here is a recent quote from Mike Masnick; an adult who realizes his own responsibility to make a living in the modern world.

I put “labor and time and money” into Techdirt, and then it’s my job to figure out how to make a living out of it. It does me no good to sit around and say “but I worked hard — now pay me.”

Now here’s one from me, your average, unabashed non-commercial file-sharer (‘pirate’ for short):
(more…)

Get your .tel domain instantly!

Until very recently, I had never heard of the .tel domain. What is it?

In short, .tel is a top level domain (tld), geared mainly toward business owners & sales people (but suitable for anyone), to make sharing contact info with clients as simple as possible. #video_related

Click to discuss this topic at Suprbay.org!

.

Here are a few points that sold me on the .tel domain:

• Business cards are now obsolete!
  You meet a potential client. You give them your business card. You are now left with a few uncertain variables: Will they throw the card away? Will it get lost in a drawer full of other people’s cards? Will they take the time to manually enter your info into their phone? That’s a lot of what-ifs just to solicit a response. No response means no sale. Not to mention the money you spent to print those discarded cards.
  • Solution: For a fraction of the cost of a year supply of business cards, you can eliminate these variables and get your contact info into your prospective clients’ phones in one easy step. As a business owner, anything that cuts costs and makes it easier for your clients to respond is probably going to be well received.
• Who needs a website!
  Many small business owners and sales people either don’t require a personal website or don’t want to spend the time and money to create one. Of course, you can’t benefit from this age of social networking and online advertising without some sort of domain name of your own.
  • Solution: Your .tel site is already set up for you. All you have to do is enter your contact info and you are ready to begin sharing it with the world (wide web). Furthermore, those of you who do have a website(s) will, of course, be able to include links via your .tel page.
• The Green Thing To Do!
  As mentioned, business cards are often lost or discarded. Even the ones that people hold onto still require natural resources to produce them. Each one that isn’t recycled is just more waste to add to the ever growing pile.
  • Solution: Although it may be the printer’s bane, a .tel domain can be shared with an unlimited amount of people without ever requiring  any more resources than is consumed by hosting your site. Use a nice, green, wind powered host like Hosting Cove and you feel justified in bragging to your clients about what a Captain Greenpants you are. Considering I am blogging on a domain that I intend to dedicate to green tech solutions, it’s no surprise that this was a big selling point for me.
• Availability!
  It seems like 90% of the time a domain or account name I would like to use is already taken.
  • Solution: Because the .tel domains are fairly new (available as of March 24th 2009), it seems that there is still great opportunity  to secure the .tel domain you want. I personally don’t expect this to last once they really hit the main stream, considering it took a couple of years for twitter to really blow up and, aside from being free, it doesn’t even compare as far as what it offers in the way of marketing. Nevertheless, feel free to add your twitter account to your .tel profile so your clients can read about that piece of steak you can’t seem to lodge from between your teeth.
• Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy!
  Ordering cards, setting up a web site, clients entering every bit of e-mail, phone, address, website, etc. into their phone… that’s all behind us now.
  • Solution: These things were mentioned already, but I just want to emphasize the time saving, headache reducing benefits offered by using a .tel. You set it once and you’re done. Update as you please. Your future clients enter it in their phone and, boom, they have your contact info with them wherever they go.
    One stop access to all of your social networking marketing gimmicks!
    Long story short, a .tel domain makes life easier for everybody.
• Low Cost!
  Why pay for a website and business cards?
  • Solution: At the low cost of $18/yr (less than 5 cents a day) the money you save will be instant. Chances are, the first sale generated through your .tel site make it profitable. Each one after that is money in the bank y’all! As if that deal isn’t good enough, my good buddies at Hosting Cove are offering 10% off (as of the time of this posting) when you use the promotional code: teltube4 #Go ahead and have a cup of coffee on Hosting Cove.
    

    For those of you interested in a .tel for personal use, this video gives a pretty good preview of how it works.

    

    Secure your .tel domain now!