floccinaucinihilipilificate

Nicholas Carr, ever the optimist, uses Eric Raymond's The Cathedral and the Bazaar [PDF], to sermonize on the limitations of the open source model for innovation, in strategy+business magazine. If you're not familiar with Raymond's paper, Carr summarizes it as follows: Traditionally, sophisticated programs had always been "built like cathedrals, carefully crafted by individual wizards or small bands of mages working in splendid isolation." An open source project, in contrast, was the product of a large and informal community of volunteers who in aggregate "seemed to resemble a great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches." What was amazing, Raymond wrote, was that "the Linux world not only didn't fly apart in confusion but seemed to go from strength to strength at a speed barely imaginable to cathedral-builders." With the advent of the Internet, an efficient vehicle for information exchange, the bazaar took off. Innovati...

Russian dictator-in-the-making, President Vladimir Putin, is stirring up international unrest by laying claim to large portion of the Arctic in order to secure rights to untapped oil, gas and mineral wealth. Putin has been pushing his luck lately, as his one party state has gained more international confidence due to its new found oil wealth. While it's always fun watching someone mess with George Bush, as Putin did during the last G8 summit, this latest move is going far beyond pissing off Bush -- it has the potential to wreck havoc on one of the last pristine environments left in the world, and give the finger to the international community. What's with the mental midgets that continue to make the world a dangerous place?

Why is America shipping military gear to Iran ? A good question that should be asked, since America has been rattling sabres since GW got tingle for Mahmoud . The answer is not one that most Americans will care to hear, nor interested in doing much about. It comes down to the mixing of commerce and war. When the two meet, only horrible things can result. America's defense department apparently has a lot of surplus and legacy equipment -- the over capacity no doubt a result of defense contractors pushing Uncle Sam to buy more. Through a series of third parties, the defense department moves equipment out to civilian hands, from where it skips the country and tend to end up in the hands of the highest bidder. Playing this out to ultimate end will find surplus American military gear in the hands of enemies on a battlefield. American made equipment being used to kill American soldiers, fighting wars triggered by politicians, at the behest of military contractors. If the present...

Back in the day, when fighting music piracy wasn't the primary goal of record companies -- record companies actually liked their customers. Liked them so much, that in some vinyls released in the 1970s and 80s, they included bonus material. The bonus material that came shipped on the rare vinyls were computer code embedded in audio, to run on the Sinclair Spectrum home computer (my first computer was the Timex Sinclair ). Some of the code that was secreted on vinyls, included simple computer games. As Kempa.com points out, some of the games and emulators to allow you to play them on your computer, are available. If you missed the gems the first time around, you can still give them a spin.

Group work in the business world wouldn't have been if it wasn't for Edith and Charlie Seashore . Since the 1950s, the Seashores have been espousing the value of the group in solving problems and bringing change to organizations. Chances are, you've practiced some of the techniques they pioneered with like-minded fellows of the National Training Laboratories: ... giving feedback, conducting "check-ins" to begin meetings, sitting in circles, using flip charts, scribbling on big pieces of paper taped around the room, collaborating on visions for the future, and forming "fishbowls," or groups set up in the center of a larger circle to interact while those around them observed what they were doing. If you throw a group of people together, conflict is inevitable. Hiding from conflicts however, doesn't make them go away. Instead, they fester, and eventually infect those around them. The Seashores teach that good leaders don't avoid conflict, but...

The Bible defines Pi as 3. A whole number, as pointed out at the Gospel of Reason . So just how do fundamentalist Christians reconcile the Biblical proclamation with Mathematics? Well, a helping hand. I Kings 7:23-26 references something "circular in shape" -- not a circle. So really, it wasn't a circle. Just more evidence of God testing the faithful.

Harvard has an Implicit Association Test (IAT) online, to measure the association with white and black Americans. The IAT is used social psychologists "to measure the strength of association between mental representations of objects in memory. The IAT requires the rapid categorization of various stimulus objects, such that easier pairings (and faster responses) are interpreted as being more strongly associated in memory than more difficult pairings (slower responses)." The aggregated responses from those who've taken the test online is captured in the image above. Take the test and see where you land. The result doesn't necessarily reflect racial prejudices towards whites or blacks -- but definitely a bias -- although there is controversy in the use of the test.

The Citarum [PDF] is the garbage dump for nine million living in Jakarta. Their household waste; their factory refuse. The river is so polluted , you can't see the water. Garbage covers the entire river surface. Below the garbage covered surface, the river is poisoned by chemicals flowing from factories -- most of them textile factories. The river flows into an irrigation system that supplies water to rice paddies and local families. The Citarum is the story of human desecration of the planet. We should be ashamed of ourselves. Just before you think you're innocent of this travesty, you should check your closet to see where your clothing comes from.

Humans have had a short and spectacular history on this planet. Short. Extremely short. To some of the species we're busily taking to extinction, we've just barely blinked into existence. We're quite the surprise for the planet. Follow this link for an animated view of how we took over the planet. In a brief period of time, we've forced frightening changes on our world -- but the planet has seen its share of disasters. It has bounced back from mass extinctions . It will survive the one we're bringing. Will we?

In research just published , scientists have found that microorganisms with the melanin pigment, have a natural hunger for radiation, and may be using the pigment to consume radiation in much the same way that chlorophyll converts solar radiation in plants. Organisms studied, the fungi Cryptococcus neoformans , Cladosporium sphaerospermum and Wangiella dermatitidis , all consumed high levels of ionizing radiation, resulting in exponential growth – sometimes even when they were not in a nutrient rich environment. The ability of melanin to confer protection against radiation is well known. Melanin is responsible for our skin pigmentation, and has been found in organisms inhabiting extreme environments. Melanized microorganisms have been found in high altitudes, Arctic and Antarctic regions, and recently, colonizing the walls and surrounding soil of the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor. There is also fossil evidence that suggests that melanin has been around for some time, conferri...

LibriVox is a cool site for both the literati and the podcasters. The site's mission is the "acoustical liberation of books in the public domain." For the podcast generation, this is one great community powered project aimed at introducing books in the public domain to those who would not otherwise indulge and engage their minds. In addition to providing free audio books, the project also looks for volunteers who would like to lend their voices to the cause. If you fancy yourself an orator, love books and have some free time to spare, check out the site and volunteer.

Back in 2002, Scientific American published 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense -- an attempt to rebut "some of the most common "scientific" arguments raised against evolution." Having to refute creationists arguments against evolution isn't a new thing. As SciAm points out, Charles Darwin was similarly challenged in his day by scientists, until evidence from numerous scientific disciplines mounted a bulwark against "creationist nonsense." Today of course, science faces a the challenge of misunderstanding, misinformation and just plain lies. Even the informed is challenged to face the barrage of idiocy. Here's some help then. 15 common arguments that creationists raise, and answers you could wield to knock them back to the dark ages (let's face it, some will never see the light). Evolution is only a theory. It is not a fact or a scientific law. Natural selection is based on circular reasoning: the fittest are those who survive, and those...

Mark Morford of the SF Gate has written a biting commentary on the impending (or not so) death of the Hummer -- comparing its representative excesses and false American machismo to that of the Bush Administration, and the "bloated, arrogant, offensive," and dead, Jerry Falwell. It's an absolute pleasure to read. Check it out.

The UK's Channel 4 news show, Dispatches , filmed a documentary of extremist Islam being practiced in British mosques. While they publicly talk moderation, Dispatches "finds preachers condemning integration into British society, condemning democracy and praising the Taliban for killing British soldiers" in their mosques. The extreme views may be coming from a few, but those Muslims that do nothing to counter them are just as guilty. Watch the video and be afraid.

Australia's Herald Sun is carrying an interview with Trent Reznor, in which he harangues the music industry, music fans, himself and the illegal downloading of music. Here's an excerpt, in which Reznor is confronted on why his latest CD goes for $34.99 at the local HMV. Well, in Brisbane I end up meeting and greeting some record label people, who are pleasant enough, and one of them is a sales guy, so I say "Why is this the case?" He goes "Because your packaging is a lot more expensive". I know how much the packaging costs -- it costs me, not them, it costs me 83 cents more to have a CD with the colour-changing ink on it. I'm taking the hit on that, not them. So I said "Well, it doesn't cost $10 more". "Ah, well, you're right, it doesn't. Basically it's because we know you've got a core audience that's gonna buy whatever we put out, so we can charge more for that. It's the pop stuff we have to discount to get ...

Just when you think it couldn't get much worse ... it gets much worse. There seems to be no end to the travesty that is the Bush Administration. The latest comes from one of the political lackeys of King George, who was appointed to the Interior Department. Julie MacDonald filled the role of deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, until she resigned last week -- a week before Natural Resources Committee launched an investigation into inappropriate actions on the part of MacDonald. MacDonald it appears was busy harassing scientists of her department and removing fish on the endangered species list. Inappropriate in itself -- but far more inappropriate when you realize that MacDonald was making a cool $1 million annually from her fish farm that profited from the extinction of said fish. [Read more .] Can this woman be shot?

Rouge Government is carrying a post exposing the Bush Administration's National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive , that effectively makes the President of the United States a dictator, should a "catastrophic emergency" occur. Section 2b) defines such an emergency in really vague terms: "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions. Should Americans be afraid at this point? Yup. Should Americans challenge this trampling of their fundamental rights? Yup. Are Americans afraid of this? Mostly, no. Are Americans going to doing anything about this? Nope. They're way too busy watching American Idol to care.

Africa is dry, and climate change is going to make it even more so. It has been suggested that the current conflict in Sudan, is not just a manifestation of religious and ethnic animosities -- it's also a conflict of too few resources to meet the demand of the existing population. If the world is serious about ending the genocide in Sudan, it will also have to address the problem of dwindling resources, exasperated by the Sahara pushing further south, down the continent. It is another perspective on climate change. Our consumption habits in the developed world is being paid for, in part, by the lives of Africans -- by the genocide happening in Sudan. This perspective begs for urgency in addressing climate change. The conflict and resulting genocide in Sudan may be an early warning sign of the coming consequences of climate change. It won't happen fast, but ancient hatreds around the world, currently held at bay by economic and social prosperity, will certainly ignite wh...

The latest on intellectual property protection south of the border, comes courtesy of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Bush Administration. They are seeking to ensure that their friends of the old guard can continue to milk profits from content, regardless of fair use rights. Copyright infringement is already against the law, but Gonzales is now proposing that attempting to commit piracy should also be a crime, punishable by America law. Considering that close to 80% of internet traffic is from file sharing activities -- and just making a wild guess to say that at least half of those people are partaking in copyright infringement, exposes a whole lot of people to potential jail time. Is it just me, or is there a huge disconnect with reality on the part of the Bush Administration and their business supporters? Believe it or not, a whole lot of people aren't looking for jail time, but neither are looking for draconian measures on how they can consume content they'...

Viktor Mayer-Schönberger has penned an interesting paper that goes against our natural tendency to preserve our past. In Useful Void: The Art of Forgetting in the Age of Ubiquitous Computing [PDF], Mayer-Schönberger argues that in the digital age, a comprehensive trail of our actions, words and beliefs is being preserved for posterity, and aided with distributive and recovery capabilities of the internet, could inadvertently pose a danger to society. In effect, our technology-aided ability to recall everything is creating panopticon world that threatens to stifle the public discourse that fuels the engines of our democracies. Technology evolved fulfilling our retention desires, with default to retain, rather than delete. Mayer-Schönberger wishes to reset the default; to enable our technology to forget. Already, there has been growing concerns with the retention and use of private, historical information. Just about all of our public, and increasingly private transactions are bei...