September 2007
“The truth was that the native app community was the most exciting thing going in...”
– Requiem for a third-party iPhone app
Mr. Jobs, Knock Down that Firewall →
10 Reasons Why I Returned My iPhone →
What if you bought a computer that you couldn’t... →
“This iPhone 1.1.1 OS update breaks not only iToner, but also every other piece...”
– Andrew Welch, el Presidente Ambrosia Software
Why Is US Grad School Mainly Non-US Students? →
“I’ve heard some politicians say that Ahmadinejad has “blood on his...”
– Charley Reese
“If you think Jack the Ripper was a doctor in his day job, and you think doctors...”
– The Dilbert Blog
“Whoop-dee-damn-doo.”
– Clarence Thomas
If you care about your rights, don't buy an iPhone →
“Democrats’ stand on civil rights has cost them dearly since Richard Nixon...”
– Drew Westen
CIA Plane Crashes in Yucatan Carrying 3.2 Tons of... →
IBM Seeks US Patents For Offshoring US Jobs →
Doug Rushkoff on the Technologies of Persuasion
Jon Lebkowsky: In my recent Worldchanging interview with Paul Hawken and Bill McKibben, we were talking about how to transform the way people think. Some want to do this through policy, others through culture. I think the idea of "rewriting the rules" is what we were getting at, what a lot of us are thinking about, and an important theme here at Worldchanging. It's hard to change the rules when they both emerge from and reinforce a particular context – we assume a real and inflexible reality and don't necessary see, past our blinders, what we can transform. In closing, can you point to any successful instances of transformation by "changing the rules"?
Doug Rushkoff: The Israelites vanquishing the Egyptian gods, escaping a death cult, and using the new medium of text to write their own laws. That was a great example. It worked really well for a while, too, but literacy was much too limited, and its implications didn't really trickle down to the entirety of the people.
Reality Hackers (the early Mondo 2000) attempted to show people how tools like computers, networks, and plant hallucinogens are also capable of opening the rule sets to tinkering. Even just recognizing that there are rules in place is a huge step in the right direction.
But then the object of the game is not simply to scrawl graffiti on the existing rules (Adbusters style) but to get in there and change the very premise of the game. And this takes some myth-smashing.
The easiest way to start is to socialize with real people in real spaces. When it's just you and other people, many of the existing rules no longer apply. It's not about buying and selling, or "getting what you need" from someone. It's a real encounter from which an entirely new awareness can emerge.
“This says more about the evolution of the Republican party than anything. Keep...”
– Bill Clinton
“Another game to play is “What would have [been] said if Bill Clinton:...”
– David Brin
PSA: backups →
More Health Care Professionals Involved In Design,...
DOUGLAS JOHNSON: I think it’s important to understand -- and this is an example of it -- that currently in today's world there are more healthcare professionals involved in the design and structuring of torture than there are those who are involved in providing care for survivors.
AMY GOODMAN: Say that again.
DOUGLAS JOHNSON: There are more healthcare people involved in the design and the instrumentation of torture than there are involved in providing healing for the survivors.
AMY GOODMAN: In this country.
DR. STEVEN MILES: No, around the world.
DOUGLAS JOHNSON: In the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Around the world.
DOUGLAS JOHNSON: In the world. And it is, in many times, because healthcare people get engaged and confused by the same ticking time bomb theories that fuel 24 and other fantasy programs, which have unfortunately seem to be the basis of learning for many of our policymakers. It’s fantasy-driven, and it causes people to do stupid things.
AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Miles?
DR. STEVEN MILES: About 130 countries torture, but of the survivors, somewhere between 20% and 50% report seeing a health professional directly involved in supervising the torture. And that doesn’t count the ones who never see the physician who falsely certifies the cause of death as natural causes. So it’s actually around 40% of survivors actually see the health practitioner involved in the torture. And, you know, as Doug said, about 1% of the torture victims in Minnesota are actually getting treatment.
“The major reasons why sectarian leaders cannot come together to create a united...”
– Roger Owen
“First, Ahmadinejad never said he wants to wipe Israel off the map. Second, Iran...”
– The Real Words of Ahmadinejad
Confessions of an ex-publisher →
…email from a disheartened former newspaper publisher…
“Nixon was an authoritarian president. So was Reagan. Indeed, it was during the...”
– John Dean
Bush-Aznar Transcript: The War Crime of the... →
Brain-Eating Amoeba Kills Arizona Boy →
“If I develop a relationship with a blog, I don’t go searching for it through the...”
– The problem with newspaper blogs is …
“Sometimes it seems that the only way to make sense of the Bush administration is...”
– Paul Krugman
A U.S. soldier broke down in tears Thursday as he... →
“For instance, Blacks make up 14 percent of those who use drugs, yet 36 percent...”
– Ron Paul
“Using Census figures, Geoghegan discovers that the 11 percent of Americans...”
– Tyranny Of The Tiny Minority
“That is all the GOP has left — to politicize the military and claim it as...”
– Glenn Greenwald
“Mayonnaise is as it is now known a bastardization of the Sauce Mayonnaise every...”
– Steve Albini
Why Microsoft must abandon Vista to save itself →
“Our forefathers loathed Native Indians, and George Washington showed it in his...”
– A Culture of Violence
George Bush's devotion to human rights →
Universal Declaration of Human Rights →
“In September of 2003, Wesley Clark and Howard Dean led every Democratic poll,...”
– Glenn Greenwald
Turn Gmail (or any E-mail Account) Into a Social... →
(via zenera)
Dan Rather’s Last Big Scoop →
Evidence that CBS head honchos did not wish to alienate the White House, whilst they were lobbying for ownership rule changes…
“In commenting on the appearance of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Columbia,...”
– Doug Henwood
“It is not just that well-heeled corporations are buying up politicians or...”
– Bernard Dov Cooperman