Posts Tagged politics
“Rabbits FTW” – The Mark Cuban Stimulus Package Needs Meat
Posted by admin in carbon, entrepreneurs on February 23rd, 2009
Most of my (non-work-related) thinking these days circles around how we, as a species, a culture, or a geographical collection of human flesh, can make a smooth recovery from our petroleum addiction. I read a fair bit on the subject, from the “Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook”
As is often the case with the large, complex issues facing humanity, most of our effort is (dare I say it?) wasted on trying to fix the wrong things. Like changing our lightbulbs. Even changing our cars is, most of the time, the wrong thing. Why? Read the rest of this entry »
When to Pause, When to Push
Posted by admin in entrepreneurs on February 12th, 2009
It’s now 11pm on Wednesday night. Tomorrow morning, at 10am, I will be presenting my Project Plan to execute $6M worth of custom software development over the next 36 months.
That Project Plan doesn’t really exist yet.
It’s been a busy week. LAST night, at 11pm (roughly), I filed a Notice Of Intent, to bid on a DIFFERENT multi-million dollar, multi-year contract. Oh, yesterday was also my oldest daughter’s 6-year-old birthday.
There’s a point, in here, somewhere. We’ll wind our way towards it.
Technically, these days I’m an “Information Worker”. What I think that means, is that I get paid for thinking about things. At least, that’s how I choose to interpret it. My clients probably prefer to think I get paid for the OUTPUT of my thinking – but I’m all too keenly aware of how directly the quality of my output, is related to the quality of my thinking. Read the rest of this entry »
<N> Reasons Why Open Standards, more than Open Source, Really Matter
Posted by admin in entrepreneurs on February 10th, 2009
There have been some great articles on the dangers of, either no standards, or closed standards. However, no one has really talked about how almost EVERYTHING we have accomplished as a race of people, has been to the credit of open standards of information exchange and interface. So let’s take a walk back through the ages, and look at the wonderful things that open standards have brought us.
1. Numbers
Regardless of the language they use, or even the character set they use for writing it, most countries on the planet now use the “decimal positional notation” for all numbers and mathematics. This public, open standard for notation has allowed the development of relatively friction-free international commerce, and was the successful basis for… Read the rest of this entry »
Ruby on Rails causes Global Warming
Posted by admin in carbon, entrepreneurs on October 31st, 2008
I use a laptop. Which means, as I peck away at my keyboard in the waning hours of the evening, I can smell the slow charring of my wool pants (mixed with the redolent odor of singed leg hair) as the tiny fan embedded in my computer tries desperately to keep this multi-thousand-dollar device, from melting into a pile of slag.
As a self-taught engineer, I tend to notice the glaringly-obvious – perhaps more than many of my well-educated peers. And there’s one obvious lesson in this – if solid state electronics are getting HOT, they’re wasting using a fair amount of power.
In a nuclear reactor somewhere out there, an atom died for the pixels on my screen. Another few drops of precious oil, or a few tons more gasified coal, were spilt for those extra minutes of Microsoft Word (or perhaps “Grand Theft Auto 4″).
Moore’s Law has shown us how the steady change of computing SPEED (doubling), and COST (halving), has reliably powered our advancing Information Age. Yet nothing in Moore’s Law has halted the seemingly inexorable increase in ENERGY requirements, of these most devious of machines.
This is not a problem that we’ve address head on – in our subsidized energy economy, there has been no real motivation to do so. In fact, as our dependency on computing infrastructure has deepened, we’ve made it WORSE. Here’s how it works: Read the rest of this entry »
Live Blogging from MooseCamp 2008 – Northern Voice
Posted by admin in entrepreneurs on February 22nd, 2008
Sitting in the “Blogging for Political Activism” session right now – kicked off as a doctoral thesis project by the speaker, M. Kathleen Milberry
The Progressive Economics Forum – Chief Economist / Blogger, Andrew Jackson. Marc Lee. So far just talking simple technology of setting up blogs – DreamHost, picking a theme, getting a domain name. Nothing specific about motivating activism yet.
Extent of “ripple effect” is limited to Technorati, and promotion to”Progressive Bloggers“.
700-1000 page views per day avg.
Intersections with Mainstream media – “A number of times when I’ve made a post, have led to mainstream media contacting for an interview. It just happened, not promoted. No mediaroom section on the blog.”
If you want media coverage of your blog, put that all in the mediaroom. Make it easier to capture.
Watch the Comments on the posts (via RSS, etc.), sometimes the first comment can derail the whole thread.
The DMCA is being used to shutdown dissenting voices in the US. Hosting companies will generally shut down the blog first, ask questions later.
TAKEAWAY: Use a Canadian web host to avoid the DMCA, or try:
What about using Reddit/Digg for collecting Canadian political content? Try using the Canadian Reddit section.
5 Ways to Make People Do What You Want
Posted by admin in entrepreneurs on February 15th, 2008
Ever since we came down from the trees and started waving around our opposable thumbs, humans have been struggling with “ethics”. At its core, the idea is very simple – if I can make you do what I want, should I?
There are dozens of aphorisms around this theme:
- Might makes right
- The ends justify the means
- The meek shall inherit the Earth
And, of course, my personal favorite: The Golden Rule.
Now, there are a couple of problems with the Golden Rule – firstly, it’s often misquoted, which gives it an ugly twist. Before we dive into where things go wrong, here’s the version I prefer: Read the rest of this entry »
How to Win the War – Personifying the “Enemy” of Carbon Output
I’ve been reading “Confessions of an Economic Hitman
The sad fact is, we’re hardwired to deal with emergencies. We’re biologically programmed to run from tigers. But when it comes to slow-moving, inexorably advancing walls of ice (like heart disease, greenhouse gases or even obesity), we’re basically useless.
Why? Because they don’t have a face. Read the rest of this entry »
An honest politician?
Posted by admin in entrepreneurs on January 8th, 2008
The good folk of Jefferson County, Iowa let us know how they won the primary for their county. This should be the “National Ron Paul Grassroots Playbook” – and best of all, it’s featuring one of my very best friends (and co-founder of BountyUp), Samara Burnes. Mind you, I spent 3 years living in Jefferson County, Iowa, and I can tell you it’s not really like anywhere else on the planet.It may be one of those places where honesty and principles still go over in politics.
C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations – New York Times
Posted by admin in entrepreneurs on December 7th, 2007
The videotapes showed agency operatives in 2002 subjecting terror suspects — including Abu Zubaydah, the first detainee in C.I.A. custody — to severe interrogation techniques. They were destroyed in part because officers were concerned that tapes documenting controversial interrogation methods could expose agency officials to greater risk of legal jeopardy, several officials said.
The recordings were not provided to a federal court hearing the case of the terror suspect Zacarias Moussaoui or to the Sept. 11 commission, which had made formal requests to the C.I.A. for transcripts and any other documentary evidence taken from interrogations of agency prisoners. C.I.A. lawyers told federal prosecutors in 2003 and 2005, who relayed the information to a federal court in the Moussaoui case, that the C.I.A. did not possess recordings of interrogations sought by the judge in the case.
I have only two questions:
1. What is the difference between “Severe Interrogation Techniques”, and Torture?
2. If the CIA doesn’t report to Congress, who do they report to?
C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations – New York Times
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