filtercake

"The European Super Highway of Debt"

2012-01-31

Zero Hedge pints to a really interesting infographic on demonocracy.org:

one would need a 13 lane highway, filled with trucks bumper to bumper, stretching for about 3 kilometers to represent the €2.91 trillion in total amounts owed by the PIIGS and their citizens

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/european-bailout-inforgraphic-presenting-truckloads-cash-needed-rescue-insolvent-piigs

Have a look at The European Super Highway of Debt.

Imagine… a government not so easily bought

2012-01-31

Lawrence Lessig asks on The Nation: “After the Battle Against SOPA — What’s Next?”

We need a system that is not so easily captured by crony capitalists. We need a government that is not so easily bought.

I admit, today this hope seems like a pretty far-fetched dream. But I can assure you that a decade ago, the idea that millions would have rallied to stop Hollywood from pushing an “anti-piracy” bill through Congress was also little more than a dream.

A dream that hundreds of activists have now made real.

http://www.thenation.com/article/165901/after-battle-against-sopa-whats-next

Why Ship It When You Can Make It?

2012-01-30

Tim Maly on Technology Review approaches 3D-printing with the distance it probably still deserves, arguing it is in its very early stages. Still, he concludes with the same thought I have had myself recently:

Something interesting happens when the cost of tooling-up falls. There comes a point where your production runs are small enough that the economies of scale that justify container ships from China stop working. There comes a point where making new things isn’t a capital investment but simply a marginal one. Fab shops are already popping up, just like print shops did.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/guest/27533/

Welcome to Every Single Moment of Your Future

2012-01-30

Charlie Brooker wonders about the obsessive default auto-sharing of apps like Spotify in the The Guardian:

If the Walkman had, by default, silently contacted your friends and told them what you were listening to, not only would no one have bought a Walkman in the first place, its designers would have been viewed with the utmost suspicion.

You know how annoying it is when you’re sitting on the train with a magazine and the person sitting beside you starts reading over your shoulder? Welcome to every single moment of your future. Might as well get used to it. It’s an experience we’ll all be sharing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/29/sharing-obsession-revealing-every-detail

Too Much Too Early

2012-01-30

Justin Krause makes his point on how facebook’s timeline might overshoot the mark:

People, and their online identities, change. The Timeline, by capturing and cataloging all of our past activity on the site, prevents us from ever cutting loose and starting over.

I don’t want everything I do to be catalogued forever. I just want to be able to share things with my friends, and then move on with my life. Thanks to Facebook, my online identity won’t be moving on with me.

http://remarkedly.com/2012/01/29/the-real-problem-with-facebooks-timeline/

The Drugs Don't Work

2012-01-30

L. Alan Sroufe in the NYT argues we might be entirely on the wrong track when medicating our children with substances like Ritalin:

To date, no study has found any long-term benefit of attention-deficit medication on academic performance, peer relationships or behavior problems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/childrens-add-drugs-dont-work-long-term.html

He goes on to describe how (as usual) we treat symptoms instead of causes:

Putting children on drugs does nothing to change the conditions that derail their development in the first place. Yet those conditions are receiving scant attention. Policy makers are so convinced that children with attention deficits have an organic disease that they have all but called off the search for a comprehensive understanding of the condition.

Meanwhile the award, sorry, the money goes to:

The National Institute of Mental Health finances research aimed largely at physiological and brain components of A.D.D. While there is some research on other treatment approaches, very little is studied regarding the role of experience. Scientists, aware of this orientation, tend to submit only grants aimed at elucidating the biochemistry. Thus, only one question is asked: are there aspects of brain functioning associated with childhood attention problems? The answer is always yes. Overlooked is the very real possibility that both the brain anomalies and the A.D.D. result from experience.

The feedback loop closes:

The large-scale medication of children feeds into a societal view that all of life’s problems can be solved with a pill and gives millions of children the impression that there is something inherently defective in them.

And in case you wonder who is left over in this giant apparatus of billions of credits:

Drugs get everyone — politicians, scientists, teachers and parents — off the hook. Everyone except the children, that is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/childrens-add-drugs-dont-work-long-term.html

Summa Cum McLaude

2012-01-30

Lovely one-minute-video on Mashable:

McDonalds' Promoted Hashtag Backfires, Goes Viral

Greece, Europe's Guinea Pig (update 2)

2012-01-30

Reuters reports how Greece will lose its sovereignty:

Germany is pushing for Greece to relinquish control over its budget policy to European institutions as part of discussions over a second rescue package, a European source told Reuters on Friday.

The source added that under the proposals European institutions already operating in Greece should be given “certain decision-making powers” over fiscal policy.

Under the German plan, Athens would only be allowed to carry out normal state spending after servicing its debt, the FT said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/27/us-eurozone-greece-germany-idUSTRE80Q1ZF20120127

Drumroll…

“It is clear that talks on how to help Greece get back on the right track are continuing,” the source said.

It must be great to have friends like us.

(Update)

The document is btw entitled Assurance of Compliance in the 2nd GRC Programme.

Greece has of course rejected this for now. AFP:

[Greek Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou] poured scorn over the idea, saying it was the “product of a sick imagination.”

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g04xnoQUYI8IQCXM4TkFi5gm2kyA

(Update 2)

After the Greek rejection, the German government is coming out very open with their demands for a Greek surrendering. Reuters:

Philipp Roesler became the first German cabinet member to openly endorse a proposal for Greece to surrender budget control after Reuters quoted a European source on Friday as saying Berlin wants Athens to give up budget control.

It is of note that Roesler said this to the Bild, a tabloid traditionally used to spread and strengthen conservative opinion.

A government source in Berlin said Germany’s proposal was aimed not just at Greece but also at other struggling euro zone members that receive aid and are unable to make good on their obligations.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the 27-country bloc, said it wanted the Greek government to maintain autonomy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/29/us-eurozone-germany-greece-idUSTRE80S0HO20120129

The Internet - Special "Hollywood Edition"

2012-01-29

Aarin Klein tries to give Hollywood a hint on how the internet would work according to their double standards:

Before you can do a Google search, you have to sit through five minutes of ads for Google Chrome, Chromebooks by Samsung, Android Phones by Motorola, and that amazing straight-to-video blockbuster, Google+. And oh yeah, don’t even think about trying to skip the ads. A cute little red “X” appears in the corner of your screen if you try to do that.

Microsoft Word will no longer allow you to read or edit movie scripts that are obvious takeoffs from other movies. We get the message: remixing content to make something new is wrong.

http://www.aaronklein.com/2012/01/hollywood-edition/