Category Archives: social issues

Fare-Free Public Transit

Posted on 2007-07-26 by alan

AlterNet: Environment: Fare-Free Public Transit Could Be Headed to a City Near You (and IMO it could and should be paid for with the revenue from a levy on urban auto traffic like the ‘congestion fee’ charged in London)

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CRIA’s a liar

Posted on 2007-07-19 by alan

Michael 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright | Leave a comment

Michael Geist – Canadians Speak out on Media Diversity

Posted on 2007-07-18 by alan

Michael Geist – Canadians Speak out on Media Diversity I support a policy limiting concentrated and cross-ownership of the media in Canada, and also clearly separating those who control distribution channels from those who produce, aggregate and/or distribute content. I … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and culture, canada, social issues | Leave a comment

The Chronicle: 7/13/2007: Banishing the Ghosts of Iran

Posted on 2007-07-14 by alan

Commenting 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 … Continue reading →

Posted in arts and culture, world | Leave a comment

Dawkins: How dare you call me a fundamentalist

Posted on 2007-07-11 by site admin

In 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.

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Why Dawkins is Wrong – by D. S. Wilson

Posted on 2007-07-09 by alan

Skeptic: eSkeptic: Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

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Jim Motavalli at AlterNet on the Nuclear Option?

Posted on 2007-07-09 by alan

AlterNet: Environment: Is Fear About Climate Change Causing a Nuclear Renaissance? provides a balanced review including summaries of a number of people’s positions but doesn’t really add any new information.

Posted in climate, social issues, technology | Leave a comment

Telus Lies to Force Images off YouTube

Posted on 2007-07-02 by alan

Telus 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 … Continue reading →

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mathschallenge.net

Posted on 2007-06-30 by site admin

mathschallenge.net Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic

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NYTimes Reviews Andrew Keen’s Nonsense

Posted on 2007-06-30 by site admin

In The Cult of the Amateur – Andrew Keen – Books – Review – New York Times Michiko Kakutani delivers a fawning review of Andrew Keen’s diatribe against open media. According to Kakutani Mr. Keen argues that “what the Web … Continue reading →

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On ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran’

Posted on 2007-06-29 by alan

The Common Review: Spotlight

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Wesley Freyer on Microsoft software patent implications

Posted on 2007-05-31 by alan

Moving at the Speed of Creativity » Blog Archive » Rather than innovate, Microsoft may litigate against open source

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squareCircleZ » Another semi-log graph from Alexa – imeem

Posted on 2007-05-27 by alan

squareCircleZ » Another semi-log graph from Alexa – imeem

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VQR » The Accidental Plagiarist: The Trouble with Originality

Posted on 2007-05-19 by alan

This article by Erik Campbell from the Virginia Quarterly Review (via Arts&LettersDaily) starts with Nietzsche’s “Many a man fails as an original thinker simply because his memory is too good “, and touches nicely on a number of ideas – … Continue reading →

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Media Company Thieves

Posted on 2007-05-16 by alan

Michael Geist – Canadians Overpay Millions on Private Copying Levy

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OLPC&CoL

Posted on 2007-04-30 by alan

This from Stephen Downes is, for me, a reminder to consider whether any of my stuff might be useful One Laptop Per Child and/or the Commonwealth of Learning.

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An Orthogonal Trajectory

Posted on 2007-04-27 by alan

Light and Dark These words (used in the previous post) need exploring. We are not nocturnally well adapted so naturally fear the dark. This leads to much weight being attached to the words and makes their metaphorical use a powerful … Continue reading →

Posted in psychology, social issues | Leave a comment

The Strange Death of Multiculturalism

Posted on 2007-04-27 by alan

Ian Buruma, in an article for Project Syndicate, discusses (with implied approval) the decline of “multiculturalism” as a dominant ethic in Europe (especially the Netherlands) as increasing secularism has blurred traditional religious distinctions, and some consequent challenges arising from the … Continue reading →

Posted in religion, social issues | 1 Comment

UK vs Chinese Math Tests

Posted on 2007-04-26 by alan

BBC NEWS reports British chemists as pointing out the difference between an admission test for Chinese science undergrads and a UK university’s diagnostic test for incoming students. But perhaps they are comparing Chinese apples with British oranges (or vice versa?) … Continue reading →

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The DNA of Religious Faith

Posted on 2007-04-25 by alan

David Barash reviews some theories of religion in an article in The Chronicle: 4/20/2007

Posted in biology, psychology, religion | Leave a comment