Category — Social Policy

PCs to developing world ‘fuel malware’ | The Register :
Programs to send PCs to third world countries might inadvertently fuel the development of malware for hire scams, an anti-virus guru warns.

Eugene Kaspersky, head of anti-virus research at Kaspersky Labs, cautions that developing nations have become leading centres for virus development. Sending cheap PCs to countries with active virus writing cliques might therefore have unintended negative consequences, he suggests.
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the law of unintended consequences…..

Net Neutrality Song:
A new, downloadable song by Kay Hanley, Jill Sobule, and Michelle Lewis in favor of net neutrality. Nice, but the chorus sounds too much like it’s going to be “Hey Mr. Tambourine Man.”

And coming on the heels of this gloomy analysis of the congressional vote — heck, they even got Alcee Hastings to vote against it! — it does put one in mind of Tom Lehrer’s Folk Song Army (”they may have won all battles, but we had all the good songs”).
in favor of net neutrality

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i think it does sound a bit like mr. tamboruine man… but it is at least it is an interesting take on a musical protest against the powers-that -be changing the rules about the internet.

Pro wrestler miffed by pregnancy tests – Yahoo! News:
A professional wrestler claimed Friday that the state is intruding on her privacy by requiring her to provide proof from her doctor that she is not pregnant within a week of every match.

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i think this is true, it is an intrusion of privacy, and more importantly. it is an intrusion upon her person and the right to her body. when will it become the case that women can’t perform physical labor without certified lack of pregnancy? because that is what this law basically is.

The Stranger | Seattle | Columns | Savage Love | Savage Love:
New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves—and to be treated by the health-care system—as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon,” reports the Washington Post. “[T]his means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control… [I]t’s important that women follow this advice throughout their reproductive lives, because about half of pregnancies are unplanned and so much damage can be done to a fetus between conception and the time the pregnancy is confirmed.

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yes… we know what they think is best for women….. and somehow i think what they think is best is likely a very pernicious nostalgic fiction.

Patent reform hearing:
The Senate’s i.p. subcommittee (of the Judiciary Committee) held a hearing today on patent litigation reform. The hearing focused on the contours of a new post-grant opposition system. c|net has a recap.
If you want to get up to speed on recent patent reform efforts, the Patent Reform Library at J. Matthew Buchanan’s Promote the Progress is a great place to start.

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this patent reform library looks to be an excellent resource.

:: Douglas Rushkoff – Weblog :::
Faith = Illness. Why I’ve had it with religious tolerance.
4/30/2006 12:48:00 PM | Link

So what’s a nice Jewish boy like me writing such a seemingly sacreligious comic book for Vertigo? My last column in Arthur magazine may cast some light on this issue.Okay, so let’s get into this God game. I think it’s time to get serious about the role God plays in human affairs, and evaluate whether it’s appropriate to let everyone in on the bad news: God doesn’t exist, never did, and the closest thing we’ll ever see to God will emerge from our own collective efforts at making meaning. Maybe I’m just getting old, but I no longer see the real value in being tolerant of other people’s beliefs. Sure, when beliefs are relegated to the realm of pure entertainment, they pose no real danger. So, a kid believes U2 is really a supergroup on par with The Beatles or The Who. That’s *his* problem, and it doesn’t really do a lot of harm to anyone except those of us who still stop by MTV occasionally to see what might be playing.

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This is worth a read.

FOCUS ON SPY-CAM LANDLORDS By LEONARD GREENE – New York Post Online Edition: news:
y 1, 2006 –
Landlords are resorting to a new weapon in their war with tenants over rent stabilization – hidden cameras trained on an occupant’s door “The whole building is paranoid now,” said Bryan Lurie, who last week found a camera hidden inside an electrical box outside his $360-a-month West Village studio apartment. “My friends told me I should have my apartment swept for bugs.”
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the growth of surveillance culture is amazing. sure the landlord owns the building, but… does he have a right to look into your abode with a spycam?

Nuclear Bunker Buster (RNEP) Animation:

The Nuclear Bunker Buster
Robust Nuclear Earth Pentrator

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you have to wonder where our government gets its ideas. this seems right out of the 60’s, any non-moron can see what the UCS says is a likely and even highly probably prediction of events. So…. Why?

UNESCO’s Basic Texts on the Information Society:

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some interesting key unesco texts.

nightmare science:

In short, the elite that has been created by practice of the scientific method uses the concomitant power not just to express the results of particular research initiatives, but to create, support, and implement policy responses affecting many non-scientific communities and intellectual domains in myriad ways. In doing so, they are not exercising expertise in these non-scientific domains, but rather transforming their privilege in the scientific domains into authority in non-scientific domains. Science is, in other words, segueing back into a structure where once again authority, not observation, is the basis of the exercise of power and establishment of truth by the elite. But the authority in this new model is not derived from sacred texts; rather it is derived from legitimate practice of scientific method in the scientific domain, extended into non-scientific domains. Note that this does not imply that scientists cannot, or should not, as individuals participate in public debate; only that if they do so cloaked in the privilege that the scientific discourse gives them they raise from the dead the specter of authority as truth.

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there is a difference between authority, truth and power. my famous example is the use of the idea of hell in the bible…. what purpose does it serve, who does it empower, and why are there so many bibles produced that never mention hell? where did it come from and where is it going, for whose benefit?