Science is the art of using logic and research to make sense of our world. At its best, it leads to stunning new discoveries and cutting-edge results. At its worst, it leads to mistakes that must be corrected … using…
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Whereas Enlightenment thinkers had faith in the linear progress of the human mind, attaining higher states of thinking and behavior may in fact depend in part on extreme events. But this is a far cry from saying that we should deliberately will evil in order to achieve good.
In his opening address to the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow at the beginning of November, Boris Johnson evoked the end of a James Bond movie in which the hero is “strapped to a doomsday device, desperately trying to work out which colored wire to pull to turn it off, while a red digital […]
The post ‘Arum Arum Araaaaaagh’ appeared first on The New York Review of Books.
2021 was a year that will be remembered as “The Year Where We Went To The Movies … Or Did We?” While some theaters were filled with people watching the latest offerings on the big screen, other theaters were empty…
When all is said and done, 2021 will be remembered as an extraordinary year full of challenges, breakthroughs, and triumphs. From a very young age, we grow up to eventually understand many things about the world … including years. And…
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Written By: Mark Rosendorf
RRP: £12.99 / $10.21 (Paperback) | £3.59 / $4.99 (Kindle)
Reviewed by: Sebastian J. Brook
Publisher: Self Published
Written By: Edward M. Hochsmann
RRP: £8.30 / $10.99 (Paperback) | £2.56 / $3.49 (Kindle)
Reviewed by: Sebastian J. Brook
This internal council document was only recently unearthed in our archives. It refers to a secret governmental emergency plan to "purify" the town following some kind of "infestation or plague," the details of which have now been lost.
Just announced: I'm being given the International Sociological Association's Award for Excellence in Research and Practice. This award is given once every 4 years; it's a great honour. My thanks to the ISA! And to the many, many colleagues & friends I have worked with, over the years.
The social science I value is engaged in the world, it doesn't watch from a distance. It's empirical and utopian. It's willing to explore questions ranging from personal life to global empire. It doesn't flinch from issues of violence and power. But it also asks how new and better possibilities emerge.
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Friday, December 10th, 2021 -- A global community of activists is taking part today in the Defective by Design campaign's 15th annual International Day Against DRM (IDAD) to protest use of Digital Restrictions Management, a widespread technology that places unethical restrictions on how people access digital media. Though from different backgrounds, countries, and perspectives, participants in the campaign share the common cause of opposing DRM in all of its forms. This year's target is Disney+'s streaming platform.
During the Trump days, I argued that the Trump presidency signified the waning power, if not end, of the Reagan regime. To that extent, Trump bore comparison to Jimmy Carter, whose presidency also signaled the end of another political order (the New Deal). I was wrong about that, and I explained how and why in a lengthy piece in 2019. My argument about Trump was based on two theories: one, my own, about conservatism and the right; the other, Steve Skowronek’s theory of the presidency. In the New York Times this weekend, I take stock of the Biden presidency, asking, essentially, this: if Trump turned out not to be Carter, how does that help us understand Biden? The Skowronek theory […]
I was recently invited by the The Economics Society of Northern Alberta to speak at their 2022 Outlook Conference about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on homelessness. Here’s an overview of my presentation: https://nickfalvo.ca/covid-and-homelessness-ten-things-to-know/
Another end of the world is possible
Following on from How everything can collapse, the french collapsologists now turn their attention to coping with collapse, psychologically, intellectually and even practically.
This is a thoughtful book drawing on useful experience, and covering a lot of ground in a fairly systematic way.
Audio chapters in this zip include
One of the Doctor’s most feared nemeses will be back on screens this UK New Year’s Day as Doctor Who returns for a special episode entitled Eve of the Daleks. Following the explosive series finale of Doctor Who: Flux, The Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) and friends Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop), will kick-start 2022 with an action-packed spectacular episode set to air on BBC One on New Year’s Day. Eve of the Daleks will also feature guest stars Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Living With Yourself, Quiz), Adjani Salmon (Dreaming Whilst Black, Enterprice) and Pauline McLynn (Father Ted,… Continue reading
It’s December so I suppose I should mention these books in case you might want to incorporate any of them into your Christmas shopping. ‘50 Ways to Score a Goal’ is a collection of poems, perfect for the football obsessive in your life, whether they’re aged eight or eighty (but not thirty-four for some reason).…
Annual reminder to water your tree poems this Christmas.
The MP’s posh, privileged persona has been a good cover for an untrustworthy, self-serving character
Continue reading...A lot has already been written about different aspects of why most distributed blockchain-based consensus systems are just… bad. And yet we are still able to find new such reasons. At least I think this is a new one. I have not seen it mentioned anywhere so far.
Distributed blockchain-based consensus systems, as they are currently implemented, are an energy-waste ratchet.
I am specifically talking about systems like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and any other system that:
The fifteenth International Day Against DRM (IDAD) is next week, and we here at the Defective by Design campaign are calling on you to help us send a message to purveyors of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) around the world, letting them know that DRM is unacceptable in any and all of its forms. This year's Day Against DRM will be held next Friday, on December 10, 2021.
An important area of concern among many cryptocurrency proponents revolves around the idea that the current banking and government finance systems are inherently unstable or inflationary. Ultimately all finance is about debits and credits, assets and liabilities. How would total adoption of crypto by a country change these?
She’s Got It by The Leonard Simpson Duo; Mittrom by Mach-Hommy & Earl Sweatshirt; Open the Brain by Quelle Chris; Snake Oil Scientist by Marlowe; and Aunties Steak & Rice Hold the Cabbage by Camoflauge Monk (from Chopin Prelude in E Minor by Les Baxter). #SpotifyWrapped
The post #SpotifyWrapped appeared first on Zeldman on Web and Interaction Design.
The most revealing graph presented in Wednesday’s September quarter national accounts is one showing what has happened just beyond the end of the September quarter, in the one we are in now.
Melbourne’s lockdown ended on October 27.
The graph uses anonymised bank account data to show what happened to spending in Victoria as soon as the lockdown was lifted.
Selected Victorian spending data
How much cash would you need to be paid to agree to live without a smartphone for a year?
If you are like the typical American, the answer is US$10,000 – which is far, far more than what we are actually charged for having and using smartphones.
How much would you need to be paid to live without a computer?
According to the same research, just published by Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a typical American would want US$25,000 to live computer-free for a year.
For the GPS system that lets us map where we are on all our devices, the answer is US$3,000; for streaming services such as Netflix the answer is another US$3,000.
For refrigeration the answer is US$10,000; for air conditioning, another US$10,000; and for running water US$50,000.