too many topics,

    too little time.

Lessig “Where is the political party that demands respect for principles that I thought were fundamental.” [Scripting News]

It must be time to hand out copies of Nietszche again, because some people still seem to think that principles are fixed and not mere functions of transvaluation… Lessig though has some points in his short essay that are worth considering on your own as he is comparing soviet systems to our current state, which in my opinion is looking more and more alont the lines of stalinism than anything else, but who knows what tomorrow brings.

Free will, not arrogance. Bill Joy had some doubts to voice about Linux. Of course, like so many others he immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion. “The open-source business model hasn't worked very well,” he says.

Open source doesn't need a business model. [Advogato]

actually no software needs a business model, that should be clear from the hisotory of software… likewise with communities, they don't need business models either

The Briscoe Syndrome. No court order required [The Register]

should do is always a different set than will do… this should be clear.

Video Game Hard Knocks Pain NFL. The National Football League has its jockstrap in a bunch over bone-crunching tackles, violent hand gestures and fisticuffs on the virtual playing field. Most recently, it asked Midway to revise NFL Blitz. By Brad King. [Wired News]

violence in video games take 23564324, action…

Obscure Animal Quiz. You're an animal and you're obscure - that much is clear. But which one are you? Perhaps you're an obscure band? Or a strange being? Or just some punk? Either way, I think we should know. [MetaFilter]

fun stuff

Re-education at Georgia State. At NoIndoctrination.org, a student posts an unfavorable review of Georgia State's Sociology 1160, “Introduction to Social Problems”: When [the professor]… [Critical Mass]

This might not seem obvious to many, but one thing that students often forget they are learning is how to consider and present viewpoints that they may not be comfortable with or agree with. Indeed, that is part of learning as much as anything else. If a student comes into class and continually belabors an ideological viewpoint, and never considers the opposing positions, can we really say they are learning? have they learned anything? will they ever?

There is much more to learning than 'content', there is learning to think about ideas, learning how to present topics, learning to give credit where it is due, learning the merits of ideas, etc. etc.

I wonder more and more about why anyone would think that they are freely thinking if they only ever think from one position… It seems to me that the more positions that you are able to argue counter to your position, the more likely that you are to know the strengths and weaknesses of your ideas, no? In knowing those strenghts and weaknesses, you then have the capacity to locate yourself with the field of ideas and then you can make progress. Most students don't see this, and i think the above post exemplifies that type of blindness.

Enough penance for corporations?. Public ire and lawmakers' fury in '02 led to broad reforms - and more are coming. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

why do half efforts always seem bigger in corporate media? heck i couldn't even find this story in my other feeds…

Rumsfeld 'offered help to Saddam'. Declassified papers leave the White House hawk exposed over his role during the Iran-Iraq war. [Guardian Unlimited]

why, isn't this surprising?

well i just got an email from the organizers of this conference saying that i could still submit a proposal, so I am working on that now.
THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF THE BOOK
Cairns, Australia, 22-24 April 2003
http://www.Book-Conference.com

the questions surrounding the book are somewhat central to some of the questions surrounding the future of academia in general. I'm interested in all of these questions, and I've proposed some ways of dealing with it before. Hopefully, I'll head off to OZ, and see what others have to say.

I just submitted this blog to phdweblogs.net, yeah, i know i have yet to link up the rest of the sections of the blog, like the things specifically about my research, but, eh, time will come for that.

Ex-Marine hunts son's killers with private army [bOing bOing]

this is very disturbing, but i suppose somewhat effective… esp. if the local police aren't up to the job.

Wireless Manifesto. There's a manifesto proclaiming a “wireless commons” that has me just puzzled enough that I haven't signed it. It proclaims the virtues of wireless connectivity (using unlicensed spectrum, not Open Spectrum), and then commits the signatories to some type of support in the wireless build-out: Becoming a part of the commons means being more than a consumer. By signing your name below, you become an active participant in a network that is far more than the sum of its users. You will strive to solve the social, political and technical challenges we face. You will provide the resources your community… [Joho the Blog]

I'm tempted to sign this, but then i don't use any bandwidth that i pay for…. which puts me in a strange position in relation to such a proposal, can i give away that which is not mine to give?

RSS Heaven(s) Crossed With Geographical Meta Tags.

I can't remember who was looking for this, but Syndic8 shows a scraped RSS feed for the excellent Astronomy Picture of the Day. Thanks to Perceive Designs (aka Eric Vitiello Jr.) for providing it, along with a bunch of weather feeds (including Chicago)! (Note: I'm getting an “channeltitle” error when I try to subscribe to the Chicago feed in Radio's aggregator. Darn.)

Visiting their site also produced a link to the GeoURL ICBM Address Server, a site I hadn't seen before.

“GeoURL is a location-to-URL reverse directory. This will allow you to find URLs by their proximity to a given location. Find your neighbor's blog, perhaps, or the web page of the restaurants near you.”

Here's what you do:

1. Add meta tags
   Add the following meta tags to the <head> section of your web page:

   <meta name="ICBM" content="COORDINATES“>
<meta name=”DC.title” content=”THE NAME OF YOUR SITE“>

   Use the helper to generate your tags if you are in the US.
   Coordinates are in the form of a latitude and longitude, separated by a comma, for example: 47.98481,-71.42124. Western hemisphere longitudes and Southern hemisphere latitudes are negative.
   We'll also index Geo Tags-style “geo.position” meta tag as per their documentation
    

2. Tell the GeoURL server your page needs to be indexed.
   Use the ping form to tell us that your page has been updated.
    
3. Tell others

ome more useful as the database grows in size. Tell others about GeoURL by linking to us.

Once you are in the database, you can add a link to show your neighbors:
http://geourl.org/near/?p=http://my.web.site/blog/

So, I'm telling others, and I'm going to try adding the meta tags to my own site. I don't know if this attempt will go anywhere, but it might be an interesting way to identify Prairie Bloggers and other geographically-joined groups somewhere down the road.

[The Shifted Librarian]

ok, this is something i need to do sometime, butnot right now

the times online has an article which discusses the classic literatures the U.S. military provides for its troops when they are readied for war. In particular, i find this quote:

The writer and Vietnam veteran Tim OâBrien once wrote: ãA true war story is never moral . . . If at the end of a war story you feel that some small bit of rectitude has been salvaged from the larger waste, then you have been made the victim of a very old and terrible lie.ä This goes too far, for although the humane remnant surviving warâs carnage does not render it moral, it makes the horror bearable.

from the article to particularly interesting. I think the whole question of canon should be highlighted here… In the end, if you never tell the world about the reality of war, all you have left is the floating signification on top of war, the rhetorics of victory, etc. while leaving the rest to the public imagination, which is filled with other topics.

QuŽbecers take on America.. Plein Sud - 'A unique vision of the Americas on the Web.' If you enjoy travel documentaries, this is for you. Two French Canadians take on the Americas in this epic site cram packed with videos (for 56k and broadband), interviews, and travelogues. Originally produced for TV, you can now watch the full episodes from the site. [MetaFilter]

I just think this is interesting to see