Have you ever introduced a group of people to information new to them and found your audience going to sleep on you? I’ve noticed that when introducing people to facts which challenge their assumptions about “how things work”, or simply an overabundance of data which is completely outside of what they’ve been accustomed to experience or think about, they my audience may nod right off to sleep on me.
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Robert B. Laughlin, Department of Physics at Stanford University gave this talk at the Xerox PARC Forum on October 23, 2008.
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< previous post: Internet “Driver’s Licenses” – a very, very bad idea
People ask me why I won’t let my kids buy an XBox. I explain our family policy: “Our family doesn’t support Microsoft. In any way.” Many hearing this think my view is seriously radical (not to mentioned extremely flawed). After all, XBox graphics are great and the games are cheap. “But, buying a kids’ gaming system? That’s not supporting a company!”
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< previous post: 10 Stupidest Laws
An ‘incredibly dangerous concept’
In several articles written in his typically clear style, internet user advocate Lauren Weinstein explains why he opposes the idea of ‘Internet Driver’s Licenses’, which he refers to as an, “incredibly dangerous concept. . . . I’m disappointed, though not terribly surprised,” Lauren comments, “especially in light of Microsoft’s explicit continuing support of Chinese censorship against human rights — to hear a top Microsoft executive pushing a concept that is basic to making the Internet Police State a reality.” He frames his opposition in an earlier article(January 2010).
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Sir John Sulston, Nobel Laureate, explains a phenomenon which merits thoughtful consideration.
Ownership rights pose a real danger to scientific progress for the public good
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< previous post: Real-time news with WordPress and RSS Cloud feed
I admit that my title is misleading. I wasn’t offered a million dollars for junking my car today, but relative to its cash value what one company did offer me seemed like almost that much.
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< previous post: Hunger & Charity Now Crimes in the US?
Today a revolution occurred both in the way millions of web users can receive news and news portals and bloggers can push information out to followers and the web. Dave Winer’s RSS Cloud feed makes the information exchange happen in realtime. Today WordPress enabled all of its blogs with the technology.
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< previous post: Disney: The Plasticizing of America
A friend sent me this link to a fascinating and distressing op-ed piece in today’s New York Times on the increasing criminalization of poverty. An excerpt: (more…)
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