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RIP Howard Zinn
28 Jan2010
Howard Zinn passed away on Wednesday at age 87.
Zinn was a popular activist and author of People’s History of the United States, a frequently updated review of history from the perspective of groups traditionally unrepresented in popular national consciousness.
People’s History of the United States sought to give an alternative view of American history against the cheery, do-no-evil history of America taught in school and media at the time. It supposedly introduced content and discussion of past national misdeeds into primary and secondary education. The work has been adapted to an audio series and a graphic novel.
I cannot imagine any other nation on the planet where a work parralel to People’s History of the United States would be published without severe consequences to the author and readers. Even in India, the largest democracy in the world, works critical of the national idols Nehru and Gandhi leads to dire consequences. The most recent episode was Jaswant Singh’s expulsion from government for his book Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence and banning of the book in Gujarat. Again, this occurs in a democratic nation. Imagine how things are in countless other nations where free speech and democracy not professed.
Zinn also expected that Obama’s promise of change would only be fulfilled by popular grassroots pressure on the establishment. At this point, the Right in this country has reinforced their popular base and hijacked the moderate discourse to derail reforms promised in 2008. If more Democrats on the street listened to Zinn’s prescription, things may be better off at this point in Obama’s first term.
Howard Zinn 1922-2010
links for 2010-01-28
28 Jan2010
- In: ∅
iPod Touch Rex
27 Jan2010
All the blogs and my classmates are gushing over the iPad, Apple’s tablet device announced today. It seems at first glance as an enlarged iPod Touch. I’m not likely going to purchase it as I am not the target audience. I have an antipathy for Apple’s battery-dependent devices since the batteries cannot be removed or exchanged without breaking open the device. The iMacs, however, I desire.
Gizmodo lays out one important reason why iPad is not ideal.
No Multitasking
I and my friends tend to share streaming video links through instant messaging. Even paltry netbooks iPad seeks to replace are capable of this.
Apple’s application selection for iPhone –expected to work on iPad– is pretty robust despite constant policing and hostility towards independent publishers. Below is a list of sofware I recommened a while back for the iPhone with new additions.
- Mint
- Kindle for iPhone
- Evernote
- Skype for iPhone(might work with iPod touch too)
- Oregon Trail
- Meditation Timer
- Civilization Revolution
- Uniwar
- R.U.S.E
- Stanza
links for 2010-01-27
27 Jan2010
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Humans and computers contemplate the heat death of the universe
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Rusbridger described universal paywalls as "a hunch" and said that the newspaper industry would learn valuable lessons from trying different business models, including staying generally free while charging for specialist content or asking readers to pay on different platforms, such as mobile.
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It's just in the larger historical context – slavery, lynchings, beat-downs in Birmingham – that the enduring trend seems, uh, tasteless. (There is an online petition calling on B&G Foods, the owner of Cream of Wheat, to remove Rastus from its packaging.) I mean, Sambo's restaurant had to change its logo. And as Kern-Foxworth notes, the terms "Aunt" and "Uncle" are loaded, since Southerners used them to address older slaves who were denied the use of courtesy titles. ("They call me Mister Ben!") And while the model for Uncle Ben was a Chicago maitre d' who the owners of the Uncle Ben's Converted Rice Company considered a friend. But in the sixties, when the use of a lot of racial imagery was called into question, protestors and academics objected to the image of blacks as servants, rather than someone with a place at the table.
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links for 2010-01-25
25 Jan2010
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China's hackers subverted the access system Google put in place to comply with U.S. intercept orders. Why does anyone think criminals won't be able to use the same system to steal bank account and credit card information, use it to launch other attacks or turn it into a massive spam-sending network? Why does anyone think that only authorized law enforcement can mine collected Internet data or eavesdrop on phone and IM conversations?
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Half of the participants were tasked with simply getting the highest score possible, while the other half was given a series of tasks that forced them to improve their skills in different areas. The researchers found that those with a larger nucleus accumbens learned faster and excelled at the early stages of the game regardless of which group they were in. Participants with larger caudate nucleus and putamen did best on the variable priority training exercises, where they had to focus on different aspects at various times throughout the training.
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links for 2010-01-24
24 Jan2010
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This has the ability to export iCALs consisting of your favorite show times.
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links for 2010-01-23
23 Jan2010
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And you’d think that fellow nerds, regardless of race and gender, would understand given that our status as freaks and geeks and outcasts would give us some humility and common ground to stand on. Unfortunately, this is not often the case. Try bringing up issues of race, class, gender, and homophobia on a video game message board and see the vitriolic response you get, no matter how diplomatic you try to be
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This personal Web access, called the Crew Support LAN, takes advantage of existing communication links to and from the station and gives astronauts the ability to browse and use the Web. The system will provide astronauts with direct private communications to enhance their quality of life during long-duration missions by helping to ease the isolation associated with life in a closed environment.
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Peace is the presence of justice
18 Jan2010
On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.
MLK — 31 March 1968
- In: Politics