Niikkärin kolmonen on ilmestynyt. Teemoina vapaus ja Kojéve. Kansi on koree.
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arkisto – archives
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Newman: Socialism
Monday, October 6, 2008
These Very Short Introductions are often very handy. Almost as good as the Bluffers Guides. Newman’s intro to Socialism is very informative and well written. What makes it really interesting is the choise of examples. After a historical introduction, Newman analyses socialist politics in the context of Sweden and Cuba. It is especially nice to read about Sweden from a British perspective.
Another surprising thing is how much Newman devotes attention to André Gorz. Have to start finally reading Gorz.
Revolution or reform debate
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Reformers of the copyright system
… or lazy nerds who want everything for free?
Turning artificial scarcity into abundance
… or stealing from the starving artist?
End of creativity
… or the start of a global IPR revolution?
REVOLUTION OR REFORM
– debate on pirate movement and copyright reformism
Tuesday 21st of October, 18.00-20.00
at KTH Library Building (Osquars backe 31), Stockholm.
Free attendance.
Speaking:
Rickard Falkvinge, Pirate Party
Rasmus Fleischer, Bureau of Piracy
Peter Sunde, Piratebay
Karl Sigfrid, Moderaterna
John Buckman, Magnatune.com
Tere Vadén, University of Tampere (chairman)
Organized by Helsinki Institute for Information Technology and VINNOVA Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Communications. In co-operation with Nordic Cultural Commons Conference.
“Where there is a sea, there are pirates.”
– Greek proverb
Uusia kirjoja
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
niin & näin on julkaissut pari uutta kirjaa. Toinen on Tuukka Tomperin ja Hannu Juuson toimittama Sokrates koulussa, joka koskee filosofisen, dialogisen ja yhteisöllisen oppimisen kysymyksiä. Toinen on Juha Varton Tanssi maailman kanssa, jonka kansi tuossa ohessa näkyy.
Takakannessa lukee näin:
Yksittäisellä ihmisellä ei 1900-luvun maailmassa ollut todellisuutta: hän oli korkeintaan abstraktio tai satunnaisuus, joka saattoi olla tiellä, kun pohdittiin edistystä.” Filosofi kirjoittaa runoilijan täsmällisyydellä. Suomalaisen fenomenologian voimahahmo Juha Varto tutkii yksittäisen ihmisen olemista. Kulttuurikritiikki puree tiedettä, kasvatusta ja taidetta, joka hukuttaa yksittäisen kokemuksen kuvitelmiin ja yleistyksiin. Varto hioo uutta ajatusta ihmisestä taitavana, haluavana ja lihallisena. Hän hakee esimerkkinsä kirjallisuudesta ja kuvataiteesta. Tavoitteena on luova paluu vanhaan viisauteen: merkityksellinen kokemus ilmenee kohtalona, omassa mitassa, omassa paikassa.
Juha Varto työskentelee professorina Taideteollisessa korkeakoulussa. Hän on julkaissut kymmeniä teoksia aiheinaan muun muassa elokuva, antiikin ja keskiajan ajattelu, tieteellinen tutkimus ja modernin filosofian klassikot. niin & näin on julkaissut häneltä aiemmin teoksen Syvä laulu (2006,
yhdessä Hakim Attarin kanssa).
Come Christmas
Sunday, September 28, 2008
I’ll just copypaste the whole thing. Have been following Automatic Earth and Ilargi for years. In this post there is a melancholy, almost nostalgic, birds-eye-view that crystallizes the past years and the following months. Maybe it’s also a goodbye for me; time to stop reading, say thank you and take the eyes off.
Ilargi: Longtime Santa look-alike peak oil writer Professor Ken Deffeyes said when he perceived the peak moment had arrived, as he had predicted, that he had changed from a forecaster into a historian.
I was thinking about Deffeyes because I think something similar is happening with me and Stoneleigh. Only, amid the similarities, there is a different twist as well, and I’m not so sure I’m comfortable with it. You see, the energy ploy is one that unfolds relatively slowly, and Deffeyes has it easy. The credit and finance one is definitely not.
For me, that means I’m starting to feel like a two-bit beat reporter sent out to do a play-by-play in the most godawful traffic accident the world has ever seen. And as the vehicles and dead and dying bodies are piling up, and the desperate cries for help fill the air along with the stench, the smoke and the fires, I don’t have enough eyes to follow all that goes on, and I’m losing my voice trying to describe it, and think I had perhaps better get out of the way, to take care of myself and those closest to me.
The US may reach an accord on a plan to pour what will eventually be trillions of dollars into its economy. I think all involved in the talks understand that they need to come up with something by Sunday night. I do not think, however, that it will do anything but buy more than a few more days or weeks of borrowed time, and I mean that literally. If time is money, than borrowed money, in the end, can buy you nothing but borrowed time.
The credit markets are dead and gone. The plan being negotiated in Washington is aimed at reviving them. But it will do nothing to solve the problems that have started, indeed caused, the demise of credit. In order to accomplish that, it would have to force all funny casino paper, all securities and derivatives, to be put on the table in broad daylight, valued at current market prices, and sold at those prices. If a buyer could be found at all.
The reason they are so reluctant to do that is that it would be the end-all for most banks, pension- and money market funds etc. Not a pretty sight, for sure. It would, for one thing, wipe out most of those who are around those tables today. So they’re looking for an alternative. The problem with that is that there is, as far as I can see, no alternative. All there is is lipstick.
The credit market, in the last few days, has gotten much worse and was rushed into the emergency room, as evidenced by the violent surges in Libor and TED spreads, both of which mainly signal banks’ fear to lend to each other.
An adapted Paulson plan will try to address that issue by buying up frozen assets, and the idea is that that will make banks whole again, and take away the fear. But that can’t be done with $700 billion, it can’t even by done with $7 trillion. There is far too much of that funny frozen paper in the world, it’s more like $700 trillion, and it is indeed all over the world, which compounds the problem, for all intents and purpose, to infinity and beyond.
The plan inevitably will give a species of dictatorship the power to choose who shall live and who must die in the US banking community. And it will do so at a more than enormous cost to US citizens, who are already in dire financial straits. The people around the Wasington tables are first of all afraid for their own positions, but there are now a few who realize the gravity of the situation, and whose conscience tells them it would not be appropriate to use what little money their constituents have left, on a gamble that has virtually no chance of succeeding.
Republicans want “protection” of troubled homeowners in the plan, but by now it has gotten through to them that such protection is useless if real estate values go down another 20%; there’s a limit beyond which no help does actually help. They also know that the probability of such an additional price drop is very high. Make that inevitable.
There are two kinds of people in those talks: the ones that are all set and ready to make a killing off the disaster, and the ones who only just now are starting to realize how bad that disaster is. And they will end up deciding to take that gamble with your money, because they see no other way out.
But the derivatives monster is about to be let loose on the planet, gaining strength with every single bank failure, like a virus feeding off weakened hosts. The UK government is about to nationalize another Northern Rock, in Bradford and Bingley, Belgian giant Fortis Bank is on life-support (its liabilities are three times the GDP of Belgium), and in the US Wachovia may have been sold as we speak.
We haven’t even started. And when the monster is done, we will have very few banks, if any at all, left. Not a lot of jobs either, for that matter. Retirement funds? You go to be kidding. By Christmas, you’ll be lucky if you recognize the town you live in.
Jalanjälki
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Huomenna, ympäristöpäivä Jalanjälki Vanhalla ylioppilastalolla Helsingissä.
Siellä on myös Linkola kirja esillä:
KLO 10.30
JALANJÄLKI SUURENEE – PUHEENVUOROJA YMPÄRISTÖN TILASTA
klo 10.30
Pasi Toiviainen: Ilmastonmuutos. Nyt. Haastattelija: Jari Lyytimäki.
klo 10.50
Ilkka Hanski: Monimuotoisuuden väheneminen
klo 11.15
Olli Tammilehto, Salla Tuomivaara ja Tere Vadén: Linkolan ajamana
Keskustelua vetää Tuomas Rantanen.
Bensan säännöstely
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Kun Tuomioja kirjoitteli bensakupongeista, hän joutui pian perumaan puheensa ajatusleikeiksi.
Nyt asialla on Shellin entinen pomo:
John Hofmeister, the former president of Shell Oil Co. and one of the most influential voices in the oil industry, called for short-term gasoline rationing by introducing odd-even purchases based on an automobile’s license plate and by limiting the amount of gasoline drivers can purchase.
“Meltdown Monday” sulatti öljyn hinnasta useamman dollarin pois, mutta tuskin se kovin pitkään kovin paljon alle satasen per tynnyri menee, koska OPEC jo ilmoitti, että satanen on mukavan pyöreä ja heille sopiva summa.
“Koodi vapaaksi” vapaaksi
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Tämä copyleftattu kirja ilmestyi jo 2002 ja on saatavilla painettuna; nyt on aika senkin päästä autuaammille digilaitumille vapaana pdf’nä.
Koodi vapaaksi. Hakkerietiikan vaativuus. Koko kirja PDF-muodossa
Vadén Tere & Richard S. Stallman
Laajuus: 131 s.
Julkaisuvuosi: 2002
ISBN: 951-44-5206-2
Kustantaja: Tampere University Press. TUP
Informaatioteknologia on hyvä ja paha, aina tapauksesta riippuen; koodin vapauttaminen omistajuuden kahleista on hyvän puolella pahaa vastaan. “Hakkereiden kuninkaan” Richard Stallmanin esittämä ajatus ohjelmistojen vapaasta levityksestä ja muokattavuudesta on saanut aikaan paitsi merkittäviä teknologisia innovaatioita kuten gnu/Linux, myös räjähtävää eettistä potentiaalia. Tuloksena on esimerkiksi uusi käsite “copyleft”, joka toimii kuten “copyright”, mutta päinvastoin: se ei rajoita jakamista, vaan velvoittaa siihen. Hakkerieettinen vaatimus koodin vapaudesta ei ole ensisijaisesti tehokkuuden vaan yhteisöllisyyden vaatimus. Koodin tulee olla yhtä vapaata kuin sanan, jotta luovuus ja sosiaaliset arvot eivät jää rahan vallan jalkoihin. Tämä vapaus ylittää suuryhtiöiden asettamat rajat samaan tapaan kuin globalisaatio ylittää kansallisvaltioiden rajat. Siksi se on myös kriittinen työkalu, kun pohditaan demokratian ja informaatioyhteiskunnan suhdetta.
Sisältö:
Hakkerien vapaudenkaipuu (TV)
Miksi ohjelmistojen pitäisi olla vapaita (RMS, käännös TV)
Richard M. Stallmanin haastattelu: hakkeriyhteisö ja eettisyys (RMS ja TV)
Vapaus, avoimuus ja vaativuus – huomioita informaatioteknologian filosofiasta (TV)
Topsy turvy
Sunday, September 7, 2008
US socializes/nationalizes/takes into “conservartorship/public ownership the two huge banks Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. That is not all however. The republican McCain is for the socialization and the democrat Barack Obama against:
Paulson had briefed presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain over the weekend about the plan. McCain gave it his immediate backing but Obama said he would reserve judgment until he saw further details, adding that determining the future of the companies would be a top priority if he won the White House.
“We have to protect taxpayers and not bail out the shareholders and management,” he said.
ROFL!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
This is just too funny: Yale Researchers Find “Junk DNA” May Have Triggered Key Evolutionary Changes in Human Thumb and Foot
I told you so: genes do not exist.
