future summit day 1
Here at the Future Summit 2009 in Melbourne - interesting attendees (lots of people in suits though ;)
You can check out the Flickr photos and videos & see the twitter stream on Twemes
society
We take our freedom of speech for granted!
This news item from Techcrunch - hat tip to @jowyang for the link - makes me conscious of how precious are our freedoms of speech and association. People fought hard in the past to achieve those freedoms for us and we need to protect them.
Some bloggers in other countries are risking
What Do You Believe That You Cannot Prove?
There is some really thought provoking stuff over at esr.ibiblio.org - Armed & Dangerous - (esr.ibiblio.org/index.php?p=184 full story here), an excerpt follows below:
"I believe, but don?’t know how to prove, a much stronger version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis than is
International Aid = False Hope for Africa?
Another interesting snippet re international aid and Africa:
Tech Central Station - False Hope
"Thus, the international aid system has essentially served to reward policies that slow down development, whatever the initial intentions of its advocates. Under such circumstances, the implementation of the rule of law in Africa, necessary to
Just War?
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
One little problem with Livy's idea is that a last hope may still lead to a stupid and unnecessary war. Many wars seem
New Digital Divide?
Seth Godin makes an interesting point about a new digital divide:
"I think a new divide has opened up, one that is based far more on choice than on circumstance. Several million people (and the number is growing, daily) have chosen to become the haves of the Internet, and
Junkscience.com - "all the junk that's fit to debunk"
Junkscience.com - this site is fun to peruse from time to time.
It takes Junk science, which is defined as "faulty scientific data and analysis used to advance special and, often, hidden agendas" and debunks the the theories.
Heaven knows we need this sort of help with the