Archive for 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »One Laptop Per Starving Child
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 28, 2009 by admin in Technology
Monday, September 28th, 2009Although it seems like a positive program on the surface, there might be better uses for the money spent providing Kenyan schoolchildren with laptops from the One Laptop Per Child program.
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could easily provide schoolchildren in Kenya with cheap, solar-rechargeable laptops? Of course it would. But you might want to feed them first. While on the surface, it may seem like the recent delivery of One Laptop Per Child devices to Kenya would be a fantastic thing, this article sums up some of the many reasons why, in fact, it really might not be. At a time when Kenya is suffering one of the worst droughts in years and continuing to absorb tens of thousands of Somali refugees, making sure all the kids have Facebook access is probably a low priority. While I’d like to put some sort of positive spin on the OLPC program in Kenya, I simply can’t; although this concept may be an excellent idea in other countries with better-established educational infrastructure, at this point in time in Kenya, it’s kind of like giving a starving man a microwave. The unfortunate thing in a case like this is that people who understand the flaws in this kind of top-down rather than sustainable approach were offering intelligent criticism as early as 2005. There are lots of examples of this feelgood approach to aid in struggling countries; if you really want to do good in Kenya, consider giving to smaller, hands-on NGO’s like Amara Conservation or sustainable programs like Kiva. Read the rest of this entry »
God vs. Atheism: Um, Are There Maybe Other Choices?
[ Comments Off ]Posted on September 27, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Sunday, September 27th, 2009Is it just possible that science is as much a faith as religion? Or that there’s a place between atheism and biblical literalism?
It’s interesting how theism vs. atheism has become such a hot topic over the past decade or so. It’s such a heated topic for some people that I, for one, am pretty sure I have a couple of friends who aren’t speaking to me because they don’t take the time to understand why I think rigid atheism is as ignorant and dangerous as religious fundamentalism. The WSJ piece Man vs. God – in which Karen Armstrong and Richard Dawkins take turns discussing their respective beliefs – is one of the most rational discourses I’ve read in a while. As a person who believes in reason and science but who also has a certain sort of belief in a greater consciousness that I find convenient to call “God”, I’m repeatedly befuddled by the two extremes of this debate. If you’re taking a truly rational, scientific point of view, you simply cannot legitimately deny the existence of God, or even Santa Claus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, for that matter. You simply cannot prove empirically that they don’t exist. That doesn’t mean you have to believe in them, it’s just a simple fact that you can’t absolutely deny their existence. And if you’re using science as the basis for your beliefs, you’ll also have to accept the fact that the theory of evolution is just that: A THEORY. On the other hand, if you’re a rabid creationist or some other kind of fundamentalist, you’re kind of in luck, because with your utter lack of reason and magic fairy thinking, ANYTHING is possible. Heck. You might even believe you’re Jesus and get away with it when your concept of reason is that lax. So what do you think? Absolute Atheist? Somewhere in Between? Or Was The Earth Absolutely Created In Seven Days? Take the poll below… Read the rest of this entry »
Best Sites For Watching TV On Line
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on September 26, 2009 by admin in Popular Media
Saturday, September 26th, 2009Video Killed The Radio Star, but NOTHING seems to be able to kill TV. If you’re ready to surrender, here are 7 great sites for watching TV on line.
Although in general I might rather watch TV On The Radio than watch TV on the Internet, I still do it on occasion. The convergence of The Web and television is an idea that’s been around for ages (anybody remember Microsoft’s early feeble attempt?) but has taken a remarkably long time to catch on. My first bet was on Joost, one of the first web TV services that worked exceptionally well right out of the gate. Alas, America always makes weird choices driven by marketing rather than logic (anybody remember Betamax vs. VHS?) so one of the first pervasive services stateside was Hulu. If you really want to watch a TV show (or even full-length movies) bittorrents might be the way to go, but you have to be a bit of a nerd to figure the whole thing out, and if you want to watch the content as a stream or if you have any respect for those arcane documents that comprise copyright law, bittorrents probably aren’t for you. So back to the point: where can you watch TV on line? Below is a list of sites that actually have worthwhile content and seem to function reasonably well. If you have trouble with getting decent streams on any of these major services, check a few things before you start blaming the service. Aside from having enough RAM or a decent video card, you might try checking your firewall settings, updating your version of Flash, or get your butt off of sites like Facebook that hog system resources and bandwidth. Read the rest of this entry »
Would You Vote For A Third Political Party?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on September 25, 2009 by admin in Politics
Friday, September 25th, 2009Are you one of the many that feels that neither of the two dominant parties represents your values accurately?
I’m what you might call a reluctant Democrat. Although I felt good about voting for Obama, I’m experiencing some consumer remorse, and I cringed as I voted for Kerry, Gore, and Dukakis. Worthy of note is the fact that voting for Dukakis started a long tradition of voting only to avoid having a George Bush in office, and that prior to that I was a cynical young punk that considered himself more or less apolitical. Which brings me almost full circle. I’m so cynical at this point that I have almost come to the conclusion that I think Washington is so corrupt and self-interested and that the two parties are so similar that there’s almost no point in voting. Before I do that though, I decided with some resolve recently that I’m going to “throw my vote away” if necessary in the next presidential election. By that I mean vote third party if the two major candidates reflect my values as poorly as they have for several election cycles. As I explored my thoughts on all of this recently, I came to a disturbing decision. I may just be a Libertarian. Although something about the political party that calls itself Libertarian gives me the willies with their restrained cowboy capitalism, a lot of the principles that can be described as Libertarian (as in this Wikipedia entry) are right up my alley. We’ve talked about Red vs Blue both jokingly and semi-seriously in the past, but we’d love to know: If there were a third party that represented your values, do you think you might vote for it? Vote below and let us know if you think we’re adequately represented by a two party system. Read the rest of this entry »
Does Listening To Music Improve Productivity?
[ 3 Comments ]Posted on September 24, 2009 by admin in Music
Thursday, September 24th, 2009Well, not if you’re a terrorist and someone’s playing Metallica and The Barney Song 24 hours a day.
 Apparently Chatter Blocker Also Makes You Spontaneously Levitate In Your Cubicle |
I got into a conversation yesterday with some of my smarty-pants friends about whether or not music in the workplace improves performance. The answer we arrived at, after a lot of pseudo-science was tossed around? Yes. If listening to music improves your performance. Although playing Metallica and Sesame Street music at high volume 24 hours a day will reliably make just about anybody insane, and playing music and feeding beer to cows will cause them to produce more milk*, most things about the experience of music are extremely subjective, and hard to research because of “self-reporting bias”. A classic example is that although mp3′s intrinsically suck as an audio format, they are actually preferred by many of today’s listeners. So if music doesn’t drive you crazy while you work, go for it. Apparently the Mozart Effect has some scientific basis. If you’re looking for some interesting alternatives, this LifeHacker article offers up some ideas. It’s where I found the Buddha Machine Wall, which I listened to while I typed all of this, and it’s also where I discovered Chatter Blocker, which, while an interesting piece of software, would probably be more useful for creating walla for your next movie than improving your productivity. By selecting the “Cypress Goats” and “Male/Female Chatter” settings, I was totally convinced I was at a Turkish Bazaar haggling over the price of my wife-to-be, rather than sitting at the computer. LifeHacker also mentions ambient music like Brian Eno’s Music for Airports
