Archive for July, 2007
squareCircleZ » Zipf Distributions, log-log graphs and Site Statistics
Sunday, July 29th, 2007Bonobo Swingers?
Friday, July 27th, 2007Arts&Letters Daily pointed to this fine essay by Ian Parker in The New Yorker. It really is an interesting and entertaining blend of anecdote, history, and good science reporting.
Even the New Yorker Gets it Wrong
Friday, July 27th, 2007ok, This may be a picayune comment in the context of a serious issue, but in David Remnick’s Letter from Jerusalem: The Apostate: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker he refers to Avram Burg’s “flouting of the fact that he holds a French passport”. Of course the common ignorami more often go the other way and have angry demonstrators “flaunting authority” so at least favouring the more hi-toned word is consistent with the New Yorker’s self-perceived station in the world. But perhaps this flaunting of editorial incompetence may encourage others to flaut the magazine’s presumed authority.
Revisiting the Potential of Free Content ~ Stephen’s Web ~ by Stephen Downes
Thursday, July 26th, 2007Privileged Peer Review – Whose Opinion Counts? ~ Stephens Web ~ by Stephen Downes
Thursday, July 26th, 2007AlterNet: Environment: What to Say to Those Who Think Nuclear Power Will Save Us
Wednesday, July 25th, 2007AlterNet: has reprinted an article from ‘Orion’ magazine by someone called Rebecca Solnit who claims to be giving advice on: What to Say to Those Who Think Nuclear Power Will Save Us though what she is really arguing is not just that nuclear power is not a panacaea, but that it must be excluded at all costs – and the tone of her argument (as with many on the climate bandwagon) makes it plain that she is more interested in using the threat of global warming to justify the imposition of behavioural constraints than she is on actually doing everything possible to reduce our emissions of CO2. Unfortunately she has nothing new to add to the debate, but some of the exchanges in the comments are more interesting. Much of the discussion on both sides is sufficiently vacuous and polemical as to strain one’s faith in democracy, but at least some of it is decent and it is up to the reader to assess which of the commenters appear to have the more credible arguments. Personally, I come down pretty firmly on the side of those who see a substantial increase in nuclear power generation as an essential component of any strategy for the mitigation of our environmental impact. But even with it, and with everything else we can possibly do, we’re headed to where snowballs have no chance unless the other big unmentionable, population control, is also pushed hard and fast.
CRIA’s a liar
Thursday, July 19th, 2007Michael Geist – CRIA’s “Unprecedented” Decline points out that the decline in sales bewailed by the Canadian Recording Industry Association in 2006 was due to the departure of several independent labels from the organization and not to file sharing as claimed by the association. But it should be no surprise that the thieves who steal a royalty fee from anyone buying blank media to store personal photos would also stoop to outright lies in order to influence the public.
The Chronicle: 7/13/2007: Banishing the Ghosts of Iran
Saturday, July 14th, 2007Commenting on the arrest of Haleh Esfandiari in The Chronicle: 7/13/2007: Banishing the Ghosts of Iran, Fatemeh Keshvarz says “We all wish Esfandiari to be freed, but the danger is that we will color all of Iran…” and goes on to harangue Azar Nafisi for not mentioning enough contemporary Iranian women writers in her story of the travails of an occidophilic women’s reading group in post-revolutionary Tehran. As if the readers of ‘Reading Lolita ..’ will not see the protagonist as well as her oppressors as the ends of a spectrum which includes many other categories in between. Perhaps ‘Reading Lolita..’ is a bit two dimensional (but it certainly allows for more than one!) but is concern about this issue is the most appropriate response to the arrest? Don’t get me wrong. I am interested in trying to see and understand a broader range of Iranian experience, but the context of this complaint is really rather dissonant.
Dawkins: How dare you call me a fundamentalist
Wednesday, July 11th, 2007In How dare you call me a fundamentalist the Times online presents an excerpt from Richard Dawkins’ introduction to the paperback edition of ‘The God Delusion’ in which he responds to some critics of the hard cover edition. (more…)
Video Debate on Nuclear Power
Thursday, July 5th, 2007Peter Bradford, Patrick Moore and Jim Riccio debate the future of nuclear power
and why nuclear power cannot solve the climate crisis.
The actual debate linked to from Nuclear Information and Resource Service – NIRS is quite interesting, but the intro (including the above description) and the powerpoint style summary notes alongside the video are a disgrace. They accurately summarise the points made by Riccio and Bradford but distort or contradict those made by Moore. In fact Bradford was the most credible presenter followed pretty closely by Moore with Riccio being just totally unimpressive. I think I’ll cancel my Greenpeace support.
Telus Lies to Force Images off YouTube
Monday, July 2nd, 2007Telus Cleanses Image on YouTube :: News :: thetyee.ca
Although requiring a court order before penalties apply to the carrier would help avert this kind of abuse, the most important thing to do to protect public domain property (as well as that of those without the financial resources to defend what is their own) is to VASTLY increase the penalties for falsely claiming ownership.