Posts from — August 2004

Highwire to host Oxford journals. Starting in January 2005, Highwire Press will host the entire line of Oxford journals. This will not affect the access policies of the journals. For details see today's press release. [Open Access News]

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well this is good new….

A Word on Word. We advocates of free software don't have many friends, particularly among those fine people that would likely be our nearest and dearest save for that one fatal point of contention; we “get” open-source, free software, the importance of not only supporting this vital and progressive movement but actually learning to use the damn stuff. Our good neighbors “get” only what they pay for, and not many of our fine and noble administrators who dole out hundreds of thousands of the tax papers' hard-earned dollars want to think heretical thoughts against Microsoft, aka digital catholocism (I'll never endanger my soul by speaking ill of Pope Gates, the infallible). Microsoft must be doing something right, even if it's ensuring that the rest of us do something wrong. [Kairosnews - A Weblog for Discussing Rhetoric, Technology and Pedagogy]

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word wasn't microsofts invention, it was bought, so it wasn't with gates from the beginning…..

The correct way to argue with Milton Friedman.

I’m pretty sure that it was JK Galbraith (with an outside chance that it was Bhagwati) who noted that there is one and only one successful tactic to use, should you happen to get into an argument with Milton Friedman about economics. That is, you listen out for the words “Let us assume” or “Let’s suppose” and immediately jump in and say “No, let’s not assume that”. The point being that if you give away the starting assumptions, Friedman’s reasoning will almost always carry you away to the conclusion he wants to reach with no further opportunities to object, but that if you examine the assumptions carefully, there’s usually one of them which provides the function of a great big rug under which all the points you might want to make have been pre-swept.

A few CT mates appear to be floundering badly over this Law & Economics post at Marginal Revolution on the subject of why it’s a bad idea to have minimum standards for rented accommodation. (Atrios is doing a bit better). So I thought I’d use it as an object lesson in applying the Milton Friedman technique.

[Crooked Timber]

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actually, i've found that denying any economists first principles and/or assumptions pretty much ends the conversation. if you can't agree with their assumptions about human nature or society, then everything they've modeled based on those, or argued based on those, fail miserably, as they generally do in the face of the broad body of empirical evidence in the world except in the most general cases.

Republic or Empire.

Gary Hart: The New Caesars. The United States cannot be simultaneously republic and empire. For evidence, see Rome (circa 65 B.C.). We salute the flag of the United States of America “and the Republic for which it stands.” Since the time of the Greek city-states, republics have shared certain immutable qualities: civic virtue or citizen participation, popular sovereignty, resistance to corruption (by special interests) and a sense of the common good. Empires consolidate power in the hands of the few; seek expanded influence, by force if necessary; export centralized administrations to foreign lands; dictate terms to lesser powers, and manage foreign occupied peoples for their own political and commercial advantage.

[Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

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more people should read thucydides…. i've taught thucydides 4 times, and i have to say, more and more people should realize that empire is antagonistic toward democracy, and thucydides makes this argument pretty clearly in his representations of certain dialogues (go look em up, you'll find em).

as explained by red vs blue.

don't miss… you could hit this…

Sigh…. Everything I know about schools and “education” was already common knowledge to Leo Tolstoy…

…when it has been decided somewhere that such and such a subject has an educational value, and the teacher is instructed to teach, and the students to listen — the teaching accomplishes the very opposite results: the … By Julia (mailto:spamthis@youidiots.com). [Flailing in the Surf!]

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this is why it is called classic literature, to prevent people from reading it, so they don't realize that they will learn from reading it. tolstoy knew about education, and it is why i don't teach, but i create, as best as a i can, a structured learning environment, where i allow students to find the answers they want, with me providing guidance, when needed.

Service Providers Put Up Their Guards. Worms, viruses, spam, denial of service attacks. Addressing the litany of network security issues these days is scarier than watching the local news. So service providers increasingly are stepping in to help „?ustomers figure out how to best guard themselves… [InternetPolicy.net]

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well, this is good, they do have a responsibility to their users, but also to the larger community of users. the more that realize this, the better.

i like them, and i read them, and people wonder why i know wierd things.

“Science and Citizenship in a Global Context”. “Political and economic changes are altering the contexts, spaces and ways that people perceive and act on citizenship rights, as are scientific and technological changes and the new risks and opportunities they present… In this paper we begin to explore… [InternetPolicy.net]

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worth the read, i think.