Category — General

what do you call a dept. or section that has over a period of years or under reorganization managed to end up with everything that was whittled away to 1 person or 2 person jobs previously? in the past, i've heard it called 'island of broken toys”, but i was thinking that 'department of nobody cares” is also appropriate..

Lessig “Where is the political party that demands respect for principles that I thought were fundamental.” [Scripting News]

It must be time to hand out copies of Nietszche again, because some people still seem to think that principles are fixed and not mere functions of transvaluation… Lessig though has some points in his short essay that are worth considering on your own as he is comparing soviet systems to our current state, which in my opinion is looking more and more alont the lines of stalinism than anything else, but who knows what tomorrow brings.

Free will, not arrogance. Bill Joy had some doubts to voice about Linux. Of course, like so many others he immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion. “The open-source business model hasn't worked very well,” he says.

Open source doesn't need a business model. [Advogato]

actually no software needs a business model, that should be clear from the hisotory of software… likewise with communities, they don't need business models either

The Briscoe Syndrome. No court order required [The Register]

should do is always a different set than will do… this should be clear.

Video Game Hard Knocks Pain NFL. The National Football League has its jockstrap in a bunch over bone-crunching tackles, violent hand gestures and fisticuffs on the virtual playing field. Most recently, it asked Midway to revise NFL Blitz. By Brad King. [Wired News]

violence in video games take 23564324, action…

Obscure Animal Quiz. You're an animal and you're obscure - that much is clear. But which one are you? Perhaps you're an obscure band? Or a strange being? Or just some punk? Either way, I think we should know. [MetaFilter]

fun stuff

Re-education at Georgia State. At NoIndoctrination.org, a student posts an unfavorable review of Georgia State's Sociology 1160, “Introduction to Social Problems”: When [the professor]… [Critical Mass]

This might not seem obvious to many, but one thing that students often forget they are learning is how to consider and present viewpoints that they may not be comfortable with or agree with. Indeed, that is part of learning as much as anything else. If a student comes into class and continually belabors an ideological viewpoint, and never considers the opposing positions, can we really say they are learning? have they learned anything? will they ever?

There is much more to learning than 'content', there is learning to think about ideas, learning how to present topics, learning to give credit where it is due, learning the merits of ideas, etc. etc.

I wonder more and more about why anyone would think that they are freely thinking if they only ever think from one position… It seems to me that the more positions that you are able to argue counter to your position, the more likely that you are to know the strengths and weaknesses of your ideas, no? In knowing those strenghts and weaknesses, you then have the capacity to locate yourself with the field of ideas and then you can make progress. Most students don't see this, and i think the above post exemplifies that type of blindness.

Enough penance for corporations?. Public ire and lawmakers' fury in '02 led to broad reforms – and more are coming. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

why do half efforts always seem bigger in corporate media? heck i couldn't even find this story in my other feeds…

Rumsfeld 'offered help to Saddam'. Declassified papers leave the White House hawk exposed over his role during the Iran-Iraq war. [Guardian Unlimited]

why, isn't this surprising?

well i just got an email from the organizers of this conference saying that i could still submit a proposal, so I am working on that now.

THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK

Cairns, Australia, 22-24 April 2003

http://www.Book-Conference.com

the questions surrounding the book are somewhat central to some of the questions surrounding the future of academia in general. I'm interested in all of these questions, and I've proposed some ways of dealing with it before. Hopefully, I'll head off to OZ, and see what others have to say.