tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56939752011-08-01T21:33:07.366-05:00Dialectics, interconnection, networks, complexity, etc., with special emphasis on social, economic, political and environmental implications. Contributions and suggestions welcome.jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.comBlogger1841100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-7712079230151674572011-03-20T10:37:00.005-05:002011-07-14T11:48:14.730-05:00

Some interesting articles in the NYT today on the economics of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan:Stress test for the global supply chain, by Steve Lohr (3/19/2011)"Chain" is misleading, because it really is a network, or a system ("Modern global supply chains, experts say, mirror complex biological systems like the human body in many ways"). Where there is redundancy and resilience, the disruptions

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-84632051713983132011-03-06T14:21:00.003-06:002011-03-06T15:44:13.632-06:00

I continue to be fascinated by the ways in which computers (and new technologies in general) change the terrain in so many (all?) fields. Dylan Loeb McClain's chess column in the March 5, 2011 New York Times, titled "Still No. 1 in the World, by the Thinnest of Margins", comments on the fact that the world's three top-ranked players are only separated by a range of 9 points (out of 2,800 points)

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-44010406602979705932011-02-27T10:34:00.003-06:002011-03-06T14:20:14.419-06:00

The latest Wired (19.03) has an interesting article on small to midsize U.S. manufacturers returning production to the U.S.These days, labor, while an important cost, is often not the critical one to determining where to produce, due to continuing advances in automation and robotics. With China's rising labor costs, currency revaluation and quality control problems, the overall cost of making

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-69771448672254875132010-10-03T15:19:00.002-05:002010-10-03T15:31:39.511-05:00

Here is a link to an excerpt from a just-published book, The Shadow Market: How a Group of Wealthy Nations and Powerful Investors Secretly Dominate the World, by business writer Eric Weiner:http://www.ericjweiner.com/shadow-market-excerpt.htmlShadow markets defined by Weiner:[t]he shadow market is a collection of unaffiliated, extremely wealthy nations and investors that effectively run the

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-23134139055343515522010-08-22T11:02:00.003-05:002010-08-22T11:25:55.922-05:00

An article from the New York Times: "Income Inequality and Financial Crises".New technologies, the rise of speculative capital, the polarization of wealth ("income inequality" sounds a bit gentler) are all correlative, and arise together in the hothouse of capitalism. And speculative capital can have a small stabilizing effect, or a major destabilizing one if the sloshing of speculation gets so

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-58972992967398341132010-08-15T11:48:00.002-05:002010-08-15T12:10:11.381-05:00

Here are two almost completely unrelated stories (they do both involve computers though):The First Church of Robotics: A column by Jaron Lanier (remember "virtual reality" anyone?), about the fetishization (or religification) of computers and robots, criticizing the devaluation of thought that takes place when people talk about "artificial intelligence," and reminding us that we "must instead

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-13761197993163557622010-08-11T17:10:00.002-05:002010-08-11T17:25:42.729-05:00

Here is a link to a Pretty Neat New York Times article:In a Video Game, Tackling the Complexities of Protein FoldingBasically, someone turned a software application that looked for ways to fold proteins into a video game, so humans could take a crack at folding strategies. Understanding how long amino acid chains fold into proteins is important to understanding the functions different proteins

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-82835557631107371192010-08-09T08:30:00.002-05:002010-08-09T10:20:09.263-05:00

The PBS series Frontline aired a deep investigation of for-profit higher education last May, called College Inc. The tagline from the website gives an accurate hint of the show: "Investigating how Wall Street and a new breed of for-profit universities are transforming the way we think about college in America..."An important element of capitalism always has been the hunt for new sources of

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-34452706762175426692010-07-30T12:53:00.001-05:002010-07-30T12:53:23.281-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/nyregion/30tests.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=ySent from my iPad

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-92225195938295235862010-07-22T12:45:00.002-05:002010-07-22T13:02:21.900-05:00

Inception spoiler alert! Do not read on if you plan to see the movie!I think the movie Inception works because it works so hard to provide a coherent theory to hold the various plot twists and turns together. The first Matrix was more or less coherent, although the sequels, imho, were less and less coherent and, well, not as enjoyable. The coherent theory allows the willing suspension of

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-51873869220503640862010-07-06T08:03:00.001-05:002010-07-06T08:03:26.549-05:00

Another NYT article on high tech manufacturing in China, and also how the dynamics of capitalism grind on. jdhttp://nyti.ms/av0hSiSent from my iPad

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-80725340938918102092010-07-02T07:55:00.001-05:002010-07-02T07:55:59.402-05:00

Good description of how the nature of manufacturing is changing, from today's (7/2/10) NYT:http://nyti.ms/9ICCpKjd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-63510676108262653122010-06-28T09:53:00.001-05:002010-06-28T10:01:33.545-05:00

As an indication of the role of speculative capital in industrial corporations, note the high percentage (20% or $2 to $3 billion) of its profits that BP took in from it's trading operations.jd From The New York Times:BP Loses Trading-Floor Swagger in Energy MarketsThe future of BP's trading unit is uncertain as oil spill costs mount and rival firms try to lure away traders.http://nyti.ms/

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-16663517821424624392010-06-20T11:50:00.004-05:002010-06-20T12:34:32.013-05:00

Interesting article that shows how the universe of possibilities expands as technology develops -- cheaper, faster, more, more, more. And that it enables hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of people to add to information Out There.jd MAGAZINE | June 20, 2010 Smarter Than You Think: What Is I.B.M.'s Watson? By CLIVE THOMPSON The category is artificial intelligence. This

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-3820271797717698232010-06-17T18:19:00.001-05:002010-06-17T18:19:22.803-05:00

From The New York Times:THE GENOME AT 10: Awaiting the Genome PayoffThe Human Genome Project has not produced the promised cornucopia of new drugs.http://nyti.ms/dm9RBiA couple of observations:1. A revolution in the instruments of production is at the same time a revolution in the instruments of science. 2. Perhaps one of the problems is reducing the human being to a chemical machine. jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-758108678027602012010-05-31T17:14:00.000-05:002010-05-31T17:15:08.617-05:00

It is impossible to overstate the tragedy that is spreading over the Gulf of Mexico, now in its second month, and likely to continue through the summer. There are no surprises there, sadly, either. It was not a question of "if", but of "when". Drill in hard to reach, risk-prone areas, with a more and more precarious chain of technology, with a built-in drive to cut corners -- not if but when.The

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-66998335251124986662010-05-14T21:46:00.002-05:002010-05-14T22:07:54.398-05:00

Check out the recent New York Times article, "In Job Market Shift, Some Workers Are Left Behind" (5/12/10) for an insightful (I think) description of the changes in work pushed along by new technologies in the current economy, and the social wreckage that that entails.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-47434167583182791262010-04-10T12:18:00.002-05:002010-04-10T12:24:47.295-05:00

Another episode on This American Life about the Big Meltdown, this one about the hedge fund Magnetar and its deals both contributed to and profited from the mortgage security market collapse:Inside JobThe program will shortly (Sunday 4/11 7p) be available from iTunes or the link above.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-45630794411809292752010-03-26T17:27:00.003-05:002010-03-26T17:31:29.704-05:00

As a kind of follow-up to my previous post on synthetic biology, here is a link to a very good (I think) discussion of the mechanical thinking behind the synthetic biology field: How to Manufacture the Notion of Synthetic Life, by Steve Talbott (whose work I very much like).jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-44337149258822897752010-02-15T12:36:00.002-06:002010-02-15T12:50:24.630-06:00

Here is a link to an Interesting Article from Sunday's (2/14/10) NYT Magazine: Do-It-Yourself Genetic Engineering. The article describes the bubbling new field of synthetic biology, a a step or two beyond traditional genetic engineering -- instead of adding new genes to existing species to change their properties, synthetic biology is more about assembling new organisms from genetic legos.It's

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-68498899071769084332010-02-06T08:34:00.002-06:002010-02-06T09:39:32.453-06:00

The Fresh Air radio program recently featured Ed Thorp, mathematician and author of the classic card-counting book, Beat the Dealer, and Scott Patterson, Wall Street Journal reporter and author of the new book, The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It.From the interview, Patterson's book sounds like a re-hash of how mathematical models, supported

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-12558192202589940432010-01-25T19:08:00.002-06:002010-01-25T19:25:08.376-06:00

Check out The Chess Master and the Computer, by former chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, from the February 11, 2010 issue of The New York Review of Books. The article is very good -- insightful, reflective, maybe even inspiring. Here are a couple of quotes, but I recommend the whole thing.On the effect of computers on chess, and the quantification of the world:The heavy use of computer analysis

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-16706761384480901222009-09-27T14:09:00.003-05:002009-09-27T14:18:18.267-05:00

The NPR radio program This American Life aired an update to their "The Giant Pool of Money" program from a year ago (called appropriately, Return To The Giant Pool of Money. The producers did a nice job, I think, on the details of the collapse.The podcast is available from iTunes, and should be available from the show's website here shortly.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-53959239614835184792009-09-12T12:56:00.003-05:002009-09-13T08:14:41.369-05:00

I realize this blog has been very quiet over the past couple of years. Or rather, I have not posted very much. Despite the enormity of the financial crisis, I don't think there is anything new, or unexpected there. Yes the details of how the latest act began and played out are of some interest, and the jockeying over the possible restructuring is somewhat revealing. But overall, it was all to be

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-12574804700961535282009-04-08T14:19:00.002-05:002009-04-08T15:06:51.404-05:00

Facebook seems like a rich and obvious testbed for the six-degrees theory. And lo and behold, someone developed a facebook application to determine degrees of separation among facebook users -- see the wikipedia entry for more; and I have added a widget to this page.I am fascinated right now (for how long who knows) by facebook. Mainly because all of a sudden, various social networks that I have

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-61410424883191775162009-04-06T19:16:00.002-05:002009-04-06T19:22:10.549-05:00

More on my social networking adventure -- I am trying to figure out some general rules for having my entries on this blog show up on my facebook page. The problem is that (a) the feedback loop is fairly long (how often the facebook apps sweep the RSS feed) and (b) not too well documented and (c) I am not being very scientific about my independent variables and controls -- I get too impatient.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-77657136027863025722009-04-06T13:14:00.003-05:002009-04-06T18:00:54.772-05:00

Two articles in yesterday's New York Times highlight some of the changes in the structure of the economy that the evolving Internet makes possible.One article describes the challenge of online apps (in this case, Zoho) to mega-desktop suites like Microsoft Office. Now apps like Zoho's Writer (which I haven't used) and Google Docs (which I used quite a bit, especially the spreadsheet) are good

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-85069733951772494312009-04-05T15:09:00.002-05:002009-04-05T15:33:37.805-05:00

I suppose I am late to the game, but I have just recently been exploring some of the Web 2.0 social network tools -- RSS and Google Reader, some of the blogger widgets (mostly playing around with them on my worklife blog, Diigo, Twitter (I'm @jiidavis1), and even facebook. And I have an iPhone now, which adds a whole other dimension to the social networking challenge. The challenge I have been

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-17198412538946137432009-03-01T09:14:00.002-06:002009-03-01T09:18:52.448-06:00

This is lifted from the always excellent Scout Report of February 27, 2009:14. Frontline: Inside the Meltdownhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meltdown/The economic situation in the United States is on everyone's minds rightnow, and this provocative and thoughtful look into how it all transpired isoffered as part of Frontline's regular programming. As with most Frontlineprograms, visitors

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-34986029121726895672008-12-13T12:49:00.000-06:002008-12-13T13:06:48.968-06:00

Owen Barfield was a remarkable thinker. Two of his fiction pieces have just been re-published in book form. Here's text from an email I received.Eager Spring (written in 1989) It is OB's last work, an 'eco-novella', very insightful and topical. Most of the book is set in contemporary times, but the final third of this book is a myth-allegory of a young woman and a troubadour who confronts the

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-84184933640010604732008-02-16T11:08:00.000-06:002008-02-16T11:24:01.419-06:00

Science Friday did an interesting program on January 25, 2008 on the validity of the "six degrees of separation" idea put forth by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. The program features skeptic Judith Kleinfeld and Steven Strogatz (author of Sync. The story was prompted by Discover magazine's story, If Osama's Only 6 Degrees Away, Why Can't We Find Him?". Kleinfeld is more interested in the human,

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-35005241336898943432007-06-23T12:02:00.000-05:002007-06-23T12:04:24.482-05:00

This is good:Laboratory for a Fortressed World (from The Nation)jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-31564513661727074742007-05-16T09:17:00.000-05:002007-05-16T09:18:55.537-05:00

[Below is a re-working of a section from a paper Speculative capital and the ecosystem of globalization. I've been thinking that forms of capital are key to understanding changes in the human-nature relationship in the capitalist era.]Forms of capital and the human-nature relationshipMarx explained that Capital is not just forms that wealth takes, but that ultimately it is a social relationship.

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-66574386303513563052007-04-29T15:05:00.000-05:002007-04-29T15:07:22.765-05:00

Two items in the April 23, 2007 Wall Street Journal that, taken together, suggest the United States' slippage as unipolar world power:First, the price of West Texas crude oil -- long a standard for gauging the price of oil, has drifted further and further from the price of other, similar, grades of crude oil, leading some "market participants", quoted by reporter Ann Davis, to call West Texas

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-60583935971188036472007-04-01T10:13:00.000-05:002007-04-01T10:14:27.155-05:00

George Monbiot, the Guardian columnist, has written a powerful indictment of the disasters that occur when environmental "solutions" are forced through the sieve of our capitalist economy. His March 27 column, "If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuel" catalogs the destruction that is taking place as venture capitalists, hedge funds, agribusiness, and their paid

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-60187021001200073512007-03-24T13:17:00.000-05:002007-03-24T13:18:28.161-05:00

I have this sense about environmental discourse that treats capitalism as antagonistic to the environment, as "the enemy of nature". Well the "environment" and "nature" are two very different things, so it would be a mistake for me to conflate the two of them. "Nature" is a particular way of relating to the physical and living world around us, the environment. But the two are often conflated

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-84882702980497182552007-03-12T12:34:00.000-05:002007-03-12T12:36:18.771-05:00

This is pretty good:Swami Beyondananda’s 2007 State of the Universe Addressjd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-84129961411124938142007-03-05T10:34:00.000-06:002007-03-05T10:35:21.214-06:00

"Green capitalism" describes a kind of shift in capitalist thinking, a somewhat forward-thinking by a sector of capitalists about the limits of environmental destruction. The environment is a part of the conditions of production. Production, and hence the expropriation of surplus value cannot take place without an environment that can provide the wherewithal for production to take place, whether

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-16259943284242564002007-02-24T09:28:00.000-06:002007-02-24T10:04:07.314-06:00

Here's some YouTube video of the frolicking rats at the Greenwich Village KFC:Frolicking rat videoWhy am I fascinated by this? Maybe it is the element of insurgent nature, the way that nature asserts itself, always ready to reclaim the city. And there it is on display, through the plate glass window. Not a zoo of captured and subdued exotica, but wily rodent mardi gras, in full view.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-17848774111923785342007-02-11T12:31:00.000-06:002007-02-11T12:37:21.744-06:00

Some evolution of consciousness bits:-- Silly me. I finished a fairly long project, Globalization, Romanticism and Owen Barfield, which, among other things, is a look at globalization in the context of Owen Barfield's work on the evolution of consciousness. And thinking oh what novelty, only to find out that over the past thirty years plus there has been quite a lot of work done on the evolution

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1169919892946933412007-01-27T11:43:00.000-06:002007-01-27T11:44:53.680-06:00

Here’s a link (below) to a paper that I did that looks at the idea of a corresponding consciousness globalization to globalization. This consciousness that has been maturing for three hundred years under the general term "modernization," and the process has not matured uncontested. The Romantic Movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries provided an alternative consciousness with the

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1168187722648642952007-01-07T10:34:00.000-06:002007-01-07T10:35:31.753-06:00

First the name. The tentative name is "Romantic Union". Well it is tentative. The mission of the organism is to restore the unity of the world, of subject and object. We are trying to restore the Union: "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Or "A long long time ago, our species brought forth on this planet, a new consciousness, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1166719998682128282006-12-21T10:46:00.000-06:002006-12-21T10:55:46.176-06:00

I received some comments and questions on my Ecosystem of Globalization paper. They were good comments, and I thought I wd share my response. Comments are in italics.Sorry to be so long in replying. Some of the language was new to me, and I wish I knew more about economics, etc., but it was easy enough for me to follow a lot of it. I thought if you ever expand this, I, personally, would benefit

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1163262451503881342006-11-11T10:13:00.000-06:002006-11-11T10:27:55.086-06:00

The Illinois Green Party (ILGP) achieved an important goal in the November 7 election when their gubanatorial slate of Rich Whitney and Julie Samuels pulled 10.4 percent of the statewide vote, and in some counties over 25% of the vote. Not only were the numbers respectable in themselves, but more important, by pulling more than 5 percent of the popular vote the party attained "major party" status

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1162751000215452982006-11-05T12:16:00.000-06:002006-11-05T12:23:28.250-06:00

Here is a blog-of-note that gets a fair amount of thoughtful commentary:Feral Scholar by Stan Goff(Okay full disclosure: he put a reference / citation to something I wrote on his blog, which is what prompted be to look at it, which I appreciate. Regardless though, it's a very good, active site.)jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1159460300804332952006-09-28T11:18:00.000-05:002006-09-28T11:53:13.260-05:00

"Venture Capitalists Ignite Bitter Fight With Push for California Oil Tax" reads the headline of a Wednesday (9/27/06) page one story in the Wall Street Journal (by George Anders and Rebecca Buckman). The story describes a struggle over Proposition 87 in California, which will impose a 6% tax on oil output to pay for research and development of alternative fuels. Big backers of the proposition

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1159459848432893362006-09-28T11:09:00.000-05:002006-09-28T11:10:50.280-05:00

-- Poor Brian Hunter and Amaranth Advisors. The 31-year-old trader lost about $5 billion of the hedge funds assets "in about a week" (see e.g. The Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2006, p. A1). "Brash" trades gone bad in natural gas futures highlight the difficulties hedge funds can face. It' not quite right to say "lost" -- the firm "lost" the money to other speculators.-- Hank Paulson goes to

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1159378182636330812006-09-27T12:29:00.000-05:002006-09-28T11:48:41.466-05:00

A question came up about whether it is fair to say "While the human-made artifact is no more complex than a plant or animal or even a rock, it is no less complex either" (in a piece on Goethean science and human artifacts). The human, machine-like order placed over raw materials is no where as complex as that of a natural substance.My reply was:I was trying to address that we lose sight of where

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1159056806173361812006-09-23T16:36:00.000-05:002006-09-23T19:13:26.410-05:00

The following is an excerpt from a longer piece I did, it gives an overview of Goethe's approach to science. The numbers in parentheses are page references to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Scientific studies, translated and edited by Douglas Miller (1988). - jd Although Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's approach to science is primarily a way of knowing (Wahl, 2005), it implies at the same time a

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1158857969033585522006-09-21T11:57:00.000-05:002006-09-21T11:59:29.483-05:00

I wrote up an essay sort of thing on Goethean scienec and how it might be used in the investigation of human artifacts. Here's the link: Talking with history: Using Goethe's scientific approach with human artifactsjd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1157479910972873052006-09-05T13:09:00.000-05:002006-09-05T13:11:51.786-05:00

What is cooking if not interconnection? This recipe came from Liz. (Thanks Liz).Liz's Salsa6 jalapeno peppers1 12-oz can Hunt's whole tomatoes1/2 large sweet onion, chopped1/2 bunch of cilantro, choppedJuice of one limeGarlic powder (maybe a tablespoon?), or few cloves fresh garlic8 shakes of saltsome black pepperBoil the jalapeno peppers in water until army green (or less), remove stems.In a

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1157064793005495502006-08-31T17:51:00.000-05:002006-08-31T17:53:14.333-05:00

Barry Commoner's Four laws of ecology:1. Everything is connected to everything else. 2. Everything must go somewhere.3. Nature knows best.4. There is no such thing as a free lunch. From The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology, 1971.

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1156436143660175572006-08-24T10:47:00.000-05:002006-08-24T11:19:34.913-05:00

I assembled a research proposal on the "ecosystem of globalization", using the concept of "ecological revolution" to test the idea of globalization as an "epochal shift." The research proposal was done as, well, as homework for a research methods seminar; the quantitative research was never done, but I did do a paper, or two papers out of the literature review ("Speculative capital and the

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1156264120431330842006-08-22T11:21:00.000-05:002006-08-22T11:28:40.646-05:00

An addition to the Wikipedia entry on dialectical materialism:New discoveries in physics (including x-rays, electrons, and the beginnings of quantum mechanics) challenged previous conceptions of matter and materialism. Matter seemed to be disappearing. Lenin disagreed: 'Matter disappears' means that the limit within which we have hitherto known matter disappears and that our knowledge is

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1150084245359663662006-06-11T22:45:00.000-05:002006-06-11T22:50:57.723-05:00

"The ecosystem of globalization" is a condensed version of my "Speculative capital and the ecosystem of globalization" paper. The new paper focuses on globalization and the environment in general, and has a lot less detail on speculative capital.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1149599306013278422006-06-06T08:00:00.000-05:002006-06-06T18:53:47.803-05:00

The concept of a "dominant sector" of capital is based on the idea that power is not distributed evenly throughout a class. One or more sectors may contest for political control; political control provides that sector with the ability to re-align, or even reorganize the economy through government spending, tariffs, taxation, law enforcement, military action, regulation and all of the other

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1149447890788147392006-06-04T14:01:00.000-05:002006-06-04T14:04:51.016-05:00

President Bush nominated Henry Paulson, CEO of investment bank Goldman-Sachs as secretary of the Treasury Department last Tuesday (May 30, 2006). The June 12, 2006 Business Week called it "Mr. Risk goes to Washington." Mr. Speculative Capital that is. I have argued that speculative capital -- capital involved in the trade of financial instruments -- is a subset of finance capital in general, but

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1148659343810227172006-05-26T10:53:00.000-05:002006-08-24T11:16:38.643-05:00

Someone asked me a question about globalization and the ecosystem of globalization -- I argue that globalization as a new stage of capitalism (or an "epochal shift" in the terms of William Robinson et. al.) leads to a new ecosystem, in contrast to the ecological narrative of the "end of nature". How does such a viewpoint fit with the Malthusian idea of carrying capacity and crisis point? (For a

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1148234642898006742006-05-21T12:44:00.000-05:002006-05-21T13:04:03.270-05:00

Here are some links to more info on the carbon emissions markets (I lifted news and commentary ones from the Gristmill post and comments).News: Emissions-Trading Profits in Europe Plunge as Data Questioned (Bloomberg report)EU gives green light to pollution hike (Times of London)Data Leaks Shake Up Carbon Trade (New York Times)Commentary:EU carbon-trading market hullabaloo from Gristmill, the

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1147985866119798952006-05-18T15:20:00.000-05:002006-05-18T16:13:53.356-05:00

Here is a link to a draft of a paper I presented at the 2006 Global Studies Association here in Chicago. The paper is titled "Speculative capital and the ecosystem of globalization". It will undergo a significant re-write before I am done with it.Related to this, the New York Times carried an article in Tuesday's paper (5/16/06) called "Data leaks shake up carbon trade" by Heather Timmons (I'm

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1146071670015294492006-04-26T12:14:00.000-05:002006-05-08T11:21:23.686-05:00

The cover story in the new Wired is titled "The Next Green Revolution". Author Alex Nikolai Steffen acknowledges that "green-minded activists" were right about the problem, but wrong because the solutions they offered people were "unappealing" since they called for sacrifice: turn down the heat, give up the car, eat less meat, etc. Now, With climate change hard upon us, a new green movement is

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1145046393443734922006-04-14T15:25:00.000-05:002006-04-14T15:26:33.796-05:00

Today's (4/14/06) Wall Street Journal reports more evidence of the connection between speculative capital and electronics. An article titled "Supercomputers Speed Up Game" by Edward Taylor, Aaron Lucchetti and Alistair Macdonald reports on how faster computers are contributing the swelling of automated stock trades and consolidation among the world's stock exchanges.The use of computers in

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1144943399949305692006-04-13T10:46:00.000-05:002006-04-13T10:50:00.336-05:00

The Global Studies Association will be having its North American conference on May 12-14, 2006 at DePaul University in Chicago. The theme of this year's conference is "Alternative globalizations". The International Studies Program at DePaul is co-sponsoring the conference.For more information see the conference web site.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1144679878089525662006-04-10T09:37:00.000-05:002006-04-10T09:38:02.840-05:00

The world is in a bad [okay, need to clarify] state. An effective effort to change this state requires an accurate assessment of the problem. While current responses have been very creative organizationally [network form], the response has suffered from a theoretical poverty [in terms of fundamental processes at work, nature of process, where we are in the process]. The absence of a clear,

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1143217031025761162006-03-24T10:10:00.000-06:002006-03-24T10:17:11.260-06:00

Here are some links to The Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives resources:The P2P Wiki includes sections of the foundation itself (background, statement of purpose, links); topics and projects; and various P2P resources.The P2P Foundation blog.The P2P Foundation newsletter.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1143135578736392422006-03-23T11:38:00.000-06:002006-03-23T11:39:39.373-06:00

A brief follow-up on yesterday's post -- Forrest Claypool conceded the Cook County Board of Commissioners president race to John Stroger yesterday afternoon when it became clear that, even with many ballots still uncounted, there was no way that Claypool could win.According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Claypool acknowledged the strength of the south and westside black vote in re-electing Stroger,

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1143048712685450502006-03-22T11:29:00.000-06:002006-03-22T13:16:26.256-06:00

I did a little bit of work on the Forrest Claypool campaign for Cook County (Illinois) board president. Chicago is in Cook County; Cook County is the second largest county by population in the U.S. (after Los Angeles). The board president is the chief executive of a $3 billion county government. The county commission board president also automatically chairs the Cook County Forest Preserve

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1142283894312593602006-03-13T15:04:00.000-06:002006-03-13T15:04:54.666-06:00

From Daniel Wahl's "Zarte Empirie: Goethean Science as a Way of Knowledge" (Janus Head 8(1), 2005):It is in the process-orientated understanding of the relationship between the whole and the parts that Goethean science and complexity theory meet. Both sciences understand the cyclical rather than linear causality that makes the part and the whole depend on each other in the symbiotic

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1140284224121146802006-02-18T11:34:00.000-06:002006-02-18T11:37:04.493-06:00

A couple more short papers on my website:The Cook County Forest Preserve - somewhat timely in that the primary for Cook County board president (who also is president of the Forest Preserve District board) is coming up March 21, 2006.Green Town - an environmental fantasy about Chicago.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1138649983425507332006-01-30T13:37:00.000-06:002006-01-30T13:39:43.806-06:00

Here are links to some papers I did for an environmental issues course:BiodiversityCapitalism as an environmental issueHuman population and ecologyjd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1138031533712097462006-01-23T09:49:00.000-06:002006-01-23T09:52:14.040-06:00

"Yet as governments prepare for the 2005 UN summit, the overall report card on progress makes for depressing reading. Most countries are off track for most of the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals]. Human development is faltering in some key areas, and already deep inequalities are widening. Various diplomatic formulations and polite terminology can be found to describe the divergence between

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1137772789019564322006-01-20T09:40:00.000-06:002006-01-20T09:59:49.446-06:00

Three things to do in Mazatlan:1. Mountain-biking with Fernando Kelly. Fernando sells and rents bikes from Kelly's Bicycle Shop, Av. Camaron Sabalo #214 Local 16. He has built some very nice trails in the hills to the east of Mazatlan, and does a guided tour for 275 pesos. Email kellybikeshop@hotmail.com.2. Kayak to Isla de Pájaros. Ocean kayaks -- the unsinakable plastic ones -- rent for US$10/

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1136143047624337632006-01-01T12:54:00.000-06:002006-01-01T13:28:41.346-06:00

Apropos to yesterday's post on the practice of science, the problems in Dr. Hwang Woo Suk's stem cell research came to light after questions were raised by young Korean scientists online. Per an article by Nicholas Wade in the Dec. 16, 2005 New York Times, "Although the new disclosures are being presented as a blow to Korean science, they can also be seen as a triumph for a cadre of well-trained

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1136050934213433652005-12-31T11:41:00.000-06:002005-12-31T11:42:19.073-06:00

In his wonderful essay "The Experiment as Mediator between Subject and Object," Goethe described science as springing from "a desire to view Nature's objects in their own right and in relation to one another." Botanists, for example, "must find the measure for what they learn, the data for judgment, not in themselves, but in the sphere of what they observe." He describes his method:We may look at

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1135704824702480412005-12-27T11:22:00.000-06:002007-03-19T13:25:47.715-05:00

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on the Millennium Challenge 2002 war games: Gen. William F. Kernan and Maj. Gen. Dean W. Cash discuss Millennium Challenge's Lessons Learned - "A discussion on lessons learned from the joint integrating experiment Millennium Challenge 2002" held a several weeks after the games concluded (9/17/02). Some of Van Riper's criticisms had been made public at that point

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1135629057406994262005-12-26T11:01:00.000-06:002007-03-19T13:35:10.384-05:00

The 2002 "Millennium Challenge" war games highlight two very different approaches to the network form and its application to warfare. The 2002 games were the ones that were halted after Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper's "Red Team" (the "enemy") surprised and overwhelmed the high tech, information-intensive "Blue Team". Van Riper was assigned to head the armed forces of Red Team, in the game a rogue,

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1135308684209162472005-12-22T20:36:00.000-06:002005-12-22T21:31:24.466-06:00

One of the simplest constructions in projective geometery is to start with a line (the "horizon line"), and mark three arbitrary points on it. Draw a line through each of the points, such that the three lines now mark a triangle (i.e. for this exercise they can't be parallel). All further lines are then drawn from any of the three points through a point intersected by the other two lines. By

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1134945377764222792005-12-18T16:13:00.000-06:002005-12-18T16:36:21.180-06:00

I have transcribed two articles I did for the Lansing Star in 1976. The Star was a community newspaper in the Lansing/East Lansing, Michigan area published in the 1970s. The first issue of the Star came out I believe in the spring of 1974, and ran through the rest of the decade and into the 1980s. I worked with it from 1974 to 1978; I'm not sure when it stopped publication. The Star succeeded a

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1134749843293302342005-12-16T10:12:00.000-06:002005-12-16T10:48:27.170-06:00

The New York Times ran a story on December 9, "Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese" about the latest development in the strange interpenetration of virtual worlds and this world. Designers of "massive multi-player online role-playing games" like EverQuest, Ultima Online and Lineage, aka MMORPGs, built into the games little economies. Players are willing to pay "real" money to buy things that

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1134330656312300342005-12-11T13:20:00.000-06:002005-12-24T10:14:32.196-06:00

Recently I was googling for online references to projects I had been involved with a couple of decades ago. I had this eery feeling about the past, my past, because it wasn't there. Around 1993 or 94, material started appearing on the world wide web, but prior to that date, the continental shelf of online history abruptly stops.Of course this is not completely true. There have been a number of

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1133883701121691352005-12-06T09:24:00.000-06:002005-12-06T09:41:41.376-06:00

See pages 9 - 12 of this Italian judicial warrant regarding the kidnapping of an Islamic cleric in Milan in 2003. It describes how Italian police were able to track -- in incredible detail -- the movements of CIA operatives as they stalked Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, dragged him into a van, and drive him to the U.S. airbase in Aviano. Based on an eyewitness report that said one of the perps was

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1133731426763569472005-12-04T15:19:00.000-06:002005-12-05T10:42:36.503-06:00

The human-Nature relationship is both direct (we are Nature, we sense Nature both inside and outside of our bodies), and also mediated by our tools. As in all interconnections in Nature, the relationship is two-way. We affect Nature, Nature affects us. Humans develop in particular ways through the tools they use. The mediated relationship affects Nature in different ways, new tools change what is

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1133195314293638442005-11-28T10:10:00.000-06:002005-11-28T11:28:19.540-06:00

Pietra Rivoli's book The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade was the subject of a recent (10/19/05) IMF book forum. The transcript is available. Rivoli gives an overview of the book, as well as a fascinating look at globalization today. She uses the honored dialectical method of starting with one thing, and by exploring

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1132597810750244582005-11-21T12:21:00.000-06:002007-01-01T18:22:04.073-06:00

David Abram's remarkable book The Spell of the Sensuous (Vintage, 1996) accomplishes an amazing task. Without going beyond the perceptible world, the world of nature, the material world, he is able to infuse it with wondrous-ness, what one might call spirituality except that it is so firmly rooted in the world. As Abram has said elsewhere, "spirit is matter."Building his argument on the work of

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1132249101712813852005-11-17T11:05:00.000-06:002005-11-17T11:49:08.226-06:00

We watched the H'wood movie "Mystery, Alaska" last night, a cute and familiar story of small town rural America vs what? dehumanized, de-passionized, urbanized, corporatized America I suppose. Almost a Red State / Blue State contradiction without the false moralism (they drink and screw a lot in Mystery). The hockey players of Mystery (Nature = mystery) skate on the river and play on pond ice

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1131667424747758902005-11-10T17:50:00.000-06:002005-11-11T09:27:58.910-06:00

Some links related to the battle of darkness and ignorance vs. science:Good news from Dover, PAIntelligent Design Falls Hard: Dover, PA, reams school board over Creationist teaching (Village Voice)A Decisive Election in a Town Roiled Over Intelligent Design (New York Times)Pat Robertson: Intelligent design rejection was a vote against God: "On today's broadcast of 'The 700 Club,' Robertson told

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1131564302090945202005-11-09T13:22:00.000-06:002005-11-09T13:25:02.420-06:00

A few more notes on yesterday's post regarding speculative capital and timber:One of Marx's first political writings dealt with timber. His article "Debates on the Law on the Thefts of Wood", which he wrote as editor of the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842, defended the right of peasants to scavenge wood from what had once been common land. Wood was the main source of fuel for heating homes and cooking

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1131511276293374152005-11-08T22:33:00.000-06:002005-11-08T22:41:16.306-06:00

The second article in the Wall Street Journal's series "Awash in cash: Cheap money, growing risks" provides a fascinating look at an odd dimension of speculative capital. "U.S. Timberland Gets Pricey As Big Money Seeks Shelter" by E. S. Browning (11/4/05) looks at pension funds, endowments and real estate investment trusts buying up timberland in the never-ending quest for higher returns. On the

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1131229306157974592005-11-05T15:59:00.000-06:002005-11-05T16:22:30.606-06:00

"In the sciences ... a continual circulation takes place -- not because the objects themselves change, but because new observations produce a need in each scientist to assert himself, to handle knowledge and the sciences in his own way."But since human thought also follows a certain circular pattern, a reversal of method will always bring us back to the same point. These atomistic and dynamic

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1131041796867569812005-11-03T10:38:00.000-06:002005-11-03T12:16:36.916-06:00

On page 1 of today's (11/3/05) Wall Street Journal, an article by Greg Ip and Mark Whitehouse titled "Huge Flood of Capital to Invest Spurs World-Wide Risk Taking". I think Greg Ip is one of the WSJ's most insightful writers in capturing the content of the high tech / speculative capitalism.I think that deflation is the tendency in high tech/digital capitalism, inasmuch as price corresponds to

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1130959203416408622005-11-02T12:26:00.000-06:002005-11-02T13:21:47.556-06:00

Two bits:Regarding the "end of cheap oil": A global production line and global market means a dispersed economy; and so requires a dense web of transportation connections to sustain that dispersion. Since most transportation technology uses oil in one form or another for power, the degree to which oil prices can affect such an economy is dramatic. Whether the current high price of oil is historic

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1130633440448327542005-10-29T19:48:00.000-05:002005-10-29T19:50:40.460-05:00

"But just as idealism underwent a series of stages of development, so also did materialism. With each epoch-making discovery even in the sphere of natural science, it has to change its form." Frederich Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1128722133464480222005-10-25T06:50:00.000-05:002005-10-25T11:06:12.413-05:00

An article by Gautam Naik, "Arrowhead Case: Knapping Hits a Spot For Flint-Stone Fans" appeared in the 10/6/05 Wall Street Journal, on the modern-day hobby of "knapping" -- making Stone Age tools the Stone Age way. Naik quotes knapping superstar Jim Spears: "Every stone is different and every stone is a challenge... It helps me get into the minds of ancient people." The means by which we interact

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1130174431110260362005-10-24T12:15:00.000-05:002005-10-24T20:16:45.966-05:00

The journal Janus Head's summer 2005 issue is devoted to "Goethean science". Craig Holdrege of The Nature Institute is one of the guest editors.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1129735012434467742005-10-19T09:56:00.000-05:002005-10-19T10:16:52.516-05:00

First some links that came across a Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility mailing list today:Secret tracking codes in Xerox printers cracked: Xerox and other printer manufacturers print tracking codes on each document the user prints, ostensibly to thwart counterfeitingAdobe, others slip anticounterfeiting code into apps: Applications designed to not open certain images, again "to foil

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1129570235104895942005-10-17T12:24:00.000-05:002005-10-17T18:55:29.736-05:00

Here is a clear description of the Creative Commons license.Although not confronting the logic of "intellectual property", the license does provide a convenient way for creators to flow around existing law. Perhaps in that way the Creative Commons concept serves to undermine IP.jd

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1129147554886273292005-10-12T15:33:00.000-05:002005-10-12T15:46:02.936-05:00

Found this on Marty Kearns' fine Network-centric Advocacy blog, a reference to Yahoo's technology prediction market, Yahoo Tech Buzz. Prediction markets are based on the notion that crowd thinking in many cases is more accurate than "expert" thinking. James Surowiecki popularized this idea in his book The Wisdom of Crowds (see earlier posts on this blog). John Brunner also had something like this

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1129074054946730662005-10-11T18:15:00.000-05:002005-10-11T18:49:37.126-05:00

Richard Lewontin, co-author of The Dialectical Biologist, has a review of a couple recent books on evolution in the Oct 11, 2005 issue of the New York Review of Books. In "The Wars Over Evolution", he covers a lot of ground.He unmasks creationism dressed up as "intelligent design" ("if the living world is too complex to have arisen without an intelligent designer, then where did the intelligent

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1128647268663662982005-10-07T10:04:00.000-05:002005-10-08T12:37:12.290-05:00

"The flood control equation is the sum of many parts, and to view only one or two of those parts without consideration of their relation to the whole is to invariably reach a badly flawed conclusion." Yazoo (Mississippi) Delta Levee Board"There must always be room for coincidence, Win had maintained. When there's not, you're probably well into apophenia, each thing then perceived as part of an

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5693975.post-1128619907939449702005-10-06T11:36:00.000-05:002005-10-07T11:10:03.580-05:00

Michel Bauwens has written an interesting piece "Peer to Peer and Human Evolution": "peer to peer as the intersubjective dynamic at work in distributed networks, and how it is creating a third mode of production, peer production, a third mode of governance, peer governance, and universal common property regimes."There is quite a bit there -- p2p economics, p2p politics, even p2p spirituality.

jdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00085126297255347466noreply@blogger.com0