Archive for the ‘critique’ Category
Revisiting the 2011 Predictions, Part 2 – tecosystems
Revisiting the 2011 Predictions, Part 2 – tecosystems.
I think that Stephen is more right than wrong and probably if anything needs to be bolder in his predictions. I’d also love to see investigation of the use/development of apps outside of the already-developed markets.
Modern Monetary Theory Primer – New Economic Perspectives
Comments (1)Modern Monetary Theory Primer – New Economic Perspectives.
Stephanie Kelton in particular is worthwhile following. The fun thing about modern economics is that, like other efforts to formally describe simple actions that are then repeated into complexity, it can become bewildering counterintuitive. Which is why math is so useful: we don’t have to keep on thinking about negative things that persist on having positive effect, we let the symbols operate as they are ruled to.
Disability Rights: An Important Test for Open Society | Open Society Foundations OSF
An important test of an open society is whether or not people with disabilities are actually included in the mainstream. Working on disability rights in societies that are not fully open, can help open up space to work on many other issues. For example, as you raise the expectations of parents about the inclusion of their children in the education system, you’re helping to raise expectations around a whole host of other issues like ensuring that as their children grow in adults they can assume productive lives and also be agents of their own change in the democratic process. From that point of view, I see the disability issue almost as a vanguard in creating open societies. It makes people face the mirror, and face the contradiction between their professed universal values and how they’re actually implementing them on the ground.
via Disability Rights: An Important Test for Open Society | Open Society Foundations OSF.
The evolutionary origins of modularity
[1207.2743] The evolutionary origins of modularity.
Seems to be a fairly strong argument for Agile development–and a clean description (as it were) of how work gets done fast and with little waste: by small groups working together.
btw, if you don’t normally follow arxiv.org, well, your loss.
An interesting and programmatic takedown. I’m still not entirely persuaded, as the account of France’s interest in Niger’s uranium seems persuasive: Niger and Mali abut each other. But the point made in this article is a good one: failure of state as a casus belli.
Since the French military intervention in Mali, known as Operation Serval, began last week, the internet has been buzzing with talk about its motives. Is France really only trying to contain a terrorist threat, as it claims? Or do major world powers have other, more sinister interests at stake? At its root, what is the conflict in Mali about?
This discourse, generated largely by journalists, analysts and activists unfamiliar with Mali, has been far too speculative for my tastes. Let’s consider what we do and don’t know about the causes and effects of international interest in Mali.
1. Mineral rights
Many sources say that the main reason France, and Western countries more broadly, are getting involved in Mali is that these major world powers covet the country’s mineral resources. The website globalresearch.ca expresses this view bluntly: “the goal of this new war is no other than stripping yet another…
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newspeak 