IT and World destruction!

29Apr06

While reading through Behr, Kim and Spafford's Visible Ops piece, I came across this amusing quote they attribute to Borenstein (of MIME fame): "The most likely way the world will be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents." – Nathaniel Borenstein

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Net neutrality amendment fails

27Apr06

SFGate: Panel dumps Net neutrality Verne Kopytoff, Chronicle Staff Writer Internet carriers would have a free hand to charge the likes of Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and eBay Inc. extra for faster delivery of services to consumers under a bill approved by a House committee Wednesday.The vote, 42-12, brings a two-tier Internet one step closer [...]

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Great Ape Project traction in Spain

27Apr06

IOL: Spain urged to grant rights to apes Spain urged to grant rights to apes April 27 2006 at 05:53AM Madrid – Spain's governing Socialist Party is promoting a controversial parliamentary initiative to grant rights to great apes on the basis of their resemblance to humans, news reports said on Wednesday. If the initiative is [...]

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Indian lit cuteness wears off

26Apr06

From Schopenhauer (serious) to the Beatles (trivial), the West has demonstrated a fitful fascination for things Indian. The latest (not counting the return of Yoga) has been Indian English literature — by which I mean not the modestly illuminating works of someone like R.K. Narayan, bot more the cutesy stuff such as the exotic prose [...]

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Asexuality as an orientation

24Apr06

 Interesting bit on Alternet: AlterNet: Asexuals Unite Asexuals Unite By Traci Hukill, AlterNet. Posted April 24, 2006. A small but growing movement believes that asexuality is an orientation as valid as straight or gay. [...] On the one hand our (by which I mean all of society) liberal disposition accepts and encourages this sort of [...]

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On what unites us in populist struggle

17Apr06

Here's something from the Nation's blog on a response from a Lesbian/Gay activist to the ongoing immigration reform controversy:   Marriage Myopia Richard Kim If you want to see the pathologies plaguing the gay marriage movement in action, you need look no farther than this article penned by Jasmyne Cannick. Titled "Gays First, Then Illegals," [...]

Filed under: Activism, Human Rights, Pomo, Solidarity   |  5 Comments

A bicycle is not enough

16Apr06

  I was re-reading Philip Kitcher’s comprehensive critique of SocioBiology over the weekend. Titled "Vaulting Ambition" its a serious and detailed work that  works through the arguments and the models. The book has the convincing mathematics inside; I will stop at posting the more simple and emotional appeal in the introduction:  A Bicycle Is Not [...]

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The Christian War on Yuppies!

16Apr06

Roundabout 2pm I pulled the Volvo around and we tooled on over to The Grove, but blimey, the Banana Republic was closed!! J. Crew? Same! No, not the GAP!!!! But yes, the Gap too had been filled shut. All I want to know is, when did Christianity overtake Consumerism as the dominant religion of the [...]

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The spectre of Malthus

13Apr06

On many left lists, in the West in particular, if you talk about the unsustainability of current human population and consumption, you are often labelled a "neo-Malthusean" and further, an enemy of the common folks and an advocate of population control of the worst kind. A popular modern version of this debate is the Simon-Ehrlich [...]

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Mozilla makes money?

13Apr06

I bet the rest of the world knew this a while ago, but its news to me:  Firefox (Mozilla Corporation/Mozilla Foundation) made $72M last year?! – The Jason Calacanis Weblog UPDATE: I know a lot of folks are coming here from DIGG and other memetrackers. The $72M someone told me at BarCampLA and I have [...]

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