January 2009
30 posts
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John Robb on the Nation-State Protection Racket
“A core dynamic behind the emergence of the nation-state was it’s ability to run a successful protection business (aka racket). A system that has been growing since the treaties of Westphalia in the 1600s. The protection business is relatively simple:
It is a monopoly. It has exclusive ownership over the use of violence. As a monopoly, it must crush all internal competitors.
...
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U.N. crime chief says drug money flowed into banks →
The CIA’s control of Western news outlets seems to be crumbling. Previously we’d only get news like this from ‘conspiracy theory’ reporters like Daniel Hopsicker.
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An Analysis of the 2008 financial crisis, written... →
In addition to being an excellent summary of a discussion between several knowledgable bloggers, this article contains links to a weekend’s worth of fascinating reading.
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We're All Gonna Die - 100 meters of existence
“‘This image is 100 meters long (100m x 78cm).
There are 178 people in the picture, all shot in the course of 20 days from the same spot on a railroad bridge on Warschauer Strasse in Berlin in the summer of 2007.
Only a few of the people on the photograph seemed to know I was taking their picture.”
-Simon Hoegsberg, a description of his image “We’re All Gonna...
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“The role and power of metaphor is rising in our culture. Our modern digital...”
– Kevin Kelly, in his essay “As If”
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Intermittent Euphony: Bill Frisell -...
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: A Mental Space Odyssey →
An online course from MIT Open Courseware based on Douglas Hofstadter’s book.
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Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The Different... →
Martial advice for the behatted & caned gentleman.
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Daily Euphony: Ekova - Temoine from the album...
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“A sloppily set text invites being read like a first draft – with a red pen in...”
– Mandy Brown, from her blog “A Working Library”
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Daily Euphony: Moloko - The Time is Now
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The New Nostradamus? →
Can a fringe branch of mathematics forecast the future? A special adviser to the CIA, Fortune 500 companies, and the U.S. Department of Defense certainly thinks so.
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Daily Euphony: “The Way You Dream (feat....
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How Porsche hacked the financial system and made a... →
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Supermodeler: Hugh Dubberly →
It is entirely possible that Hugh Dubberly is one of the very few people in the design community who quotes easily and unself-consciously from Plato’s Dialogues. As the former vice president of Netscape’s Web Design and Site Integration Department and the recent co-founder of his own eponymous design consulting firm, Dubberly—like favorite Greek philosopher—is a professional shiner of light into...
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How do you design? →
In this book, I have collected over one-hundred descriptions of design and development processes, from architecture, industrial design, mechanical engineering, quality management, and software development. They range from short mnemonic devices, such as the 4Ds (define, design, develop, deploy), to elaborate schemes, such as Archer’s 9-phase, 229-step “systematic method for designers.” Some are...
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The $20 Theory of the Universe →
“Most people aren’t willing to lose their job for twenty bucks, but if they have something they already take for granted—a place in line, a seat, a ticket to a show they’ve already seen—they’ll jump on a twenty like a possum on a wet bag of groceries. It’s a matter of opportunity. You have to find your moments.”
- Tom Chiarella
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Highly Recommended: Radio 360 - Music for Strange...
This podcast was born from the frustration of corporate radio and it’s lack of support for good music. OUR PHILOSOPHY: DJ’s are merely musical filters. The internet is bringing to the ears of the masses music they would normally never come in contact with. Now with the beauty of new technology you have the ability to bypass the old order of media control to find new sounds. We search the world...
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“There are some who live in a dream world, and some who face reality; then there...”
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(slightly edited from this poster)
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WatchMorten Lund, Chief Ideologist of Lund XY Global Ventures, gives an erratic but heartfelt and inspirational presentation at the LeWeb conference shortly after losing €30,000,000 - all his cash assets.
His message: now is the time for startups with original ideas, as all the in-it-for-the-money people have either lost it all or have fled for more secure jobs.
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Against the State: An Introduction To Anarchist... →
Crispin Sartwell, author of Against the State: An Introduction To Anarchist Political Theory discusses his new book, which attempts “the destruction of all the traditional arguments in favor of the legitimacy of State power”.
The Edge Question of the Year: "What will change... →