The Latest from Boing Boing |
Thoughtcrime Experiments: Remixable, CC-licensed science fiction anthology Posted: 27 Apr 2009 03:14 AM PDT Thoughtcrime Experiments (Thanks, Sumana!) |
Vernor Vinge predicts singularity by 2030 Posted: 27 Apr 2009 12:21 AM PDT I'm on record as being a skeptic about this stuff, but man, Vernor's fun to read. Singularity 101 with Vernor Vinge (Thanks, Destiny!) |
MBAs: Most Bloody Awful, Aussie radio documentary on the problem with biz-school Posted: 26 Apr 2009 10:03 PM PDT In this superb Australian public radio documentary, "MBA: Mostly bloody awful," the idea of "scientific management" and "professional management" is subjected to an extremely critical look and comes up wanting. Focusing on the Harvard Business School and the circumstances that gave rise to it (America: "a corporation founded by a corporation"; "scientific" Taylorism and its focus on quantifying the unquantifiable, the fad to quantification in management, such as Meyers-Briggs). It looks at the difference between MBAs and real entrepreneurs, looking at all those successful founders who didn't get MBAs (Gates, Jobs, Bezos, etc), and at the pants-wetting insecurity on display in the number of times the word "leader" and its associated terms appear in the bumpf for management programs ("every leader needs to have a bunch of followers -- do we want a world of followers?"). This is extremely meaty stuff, funny and engrossing and refreshing at once. Definitely worth the listen. MBA: Mostly bloody awful (via Justine Larbalestier) |
Can game-design promote human rights? Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:57 PM PDT The Council of Europe has released a set of guidelines on the human rights of video-game players, calling on game-creators to design systems that encourage freedom of expression and creativity (many online games actually put up an "agreement" every time you patch them in which you promise not to assert your right to either). On the academic games blog Terra Nova, Ren Reynolds points out problems with this approach and sets out a course for improving it. Providers (designers and publishers) of online games design and make available products which can promote the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the freedom to express, to create and to exchange content and communications while respecting the rights of others. Designed and provided in an appropriate manner, games can be powerful tools to enhance learning, creativity and social interaction, thereby helping users to benefit from the information society.Human rights & the 'online game provider' |
Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:52 PM PDT Carsten sez, "On May 5, thus in only two weeks, the politicians in Brussels will vote on a package of laws regulating the Internet in EU countries. This is the so-called telecoms package. If the lobbyists' and bureaucrats' version is adopted, ISPs will be able to arbitrarily block sites to their customers, and governments will be able to impose three-strikes measures without involving the judiciary. A group of MEPs, among them the Swede Eva-Britt Svensson, are proposing some amendments which will effectively table a set of digital 'Citizen's Rights' which will effectively prohibit filtering and cutoffs unless as decided in a courtroom with adequate cause/proof. If the Citizens' Rights amendments are accepted, Europeans will gain important safeguards, if not, lobbies and governments and Network Neutrality-bashing ISPs will get a free ride." Tell the European Parliament to vote against conditional access to the Internet! (Thanks, Carsten!) |
500 million Indians prove their vote by flipping the bird Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:50 PM PDT Rishab sez, "India's election commission has a sense of humour. It has insisted that when about 500 million Indians vote in the general elections this summer, they will be marked on their middle fingers with indelible ink to prevent double voting. The photograph shows the Chief Minister of Maharashtra state (and his wife) showing their middle fingers to the camera, apparently only realising later what it looked like." Voters will now show middle finger (Thanks, Rishab!) |
Posted: 26 Apr 2009 09:42 PM PDT Irene sez, "On April 24th, an Air France flight from Paris to Mexico had to make an unscheduled stop in Martinique when US air traffic controllers notified the jet that it would not be receiving permission to fly over US airspace. The plane was not en route to the US, just passing over some of it. On board the plane was Colombian Journalist Hernando Calvo Ospina, who works for the French left-wing journal Le Monde Diplomatique and wrote about US involvement in Latin America. Ospina and his publisher said they will sue for compensation." What makes the whole incident even more interesting is that Air France had only sent its passenger manifest to the Mexicans, but now it is clear that Mexico shares this information with the United States.Air France jet diverts after being told to stay clear of US airspace (Thanks, Irene!) |
Canadian music pirates of 1897 Posted: 26 Apr 2009 11:44 AM PDT This NYT article from 1897 about Canadian music piracy is awfully familiar sounding -- search-and-replace "Canadian" with "Swedish" and "post office" with "ISP" and you get... |
Magnetic poetry-writer automaton Posted: 26 Apr 2009 08:38 AM PDT Today in London's Spitalfields Market, I was blown away by this wonderful little automaton, a tiny mechanical poet who writes graceful magnetic poetry when you spin a magnet beneath him. The proud maker -- who goes by Alefs in Wonderland -- let me shoot a little video of it (apologies for the crummy focus later in the shoot). |
Economy will get a lot worse -- The Economist Posted: 26 Apr 2009 07:17 AM PDT Think the economy is showing signs of recovery? The Economist says it's going to get a lot worse, for a long, long time, before it gets better. Read it and weep. Thanks to massive--and unsustainable--fiscal and monetary transfusions, output will eventually stabilise. But in many ways, darker days lie ahead. Despite the scale of the slump, no conventional recovery is in sight. Growth, when it comes, will be too feeble to stop unemployment rising and idle capacity swelling. And for years most of the world's economies will depend on their governments.A glimmer of hope? (via 3 Quarks Daily) |
Posted: 26 Apr 2009 07:14 AM PDT Danelle Eckert, the mother of Colin Byars, a 24-year-old teacher who died after being punched in the head, is being harassed by Colin's former landlord, who wants to impose an "early termination" fee on her because her son died before his lease ran out. The landlord is CCRT Properties in Brookfield, WI. Landlord demands dead victim's late rent, fees (via Consumerist) (Image: KENOSHA NEWS PHOTO BY KEVIN POIRIER) |
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