Tag: Society

  • Science funding in Canada

    During the latest episode of CBC’s excellent national science program Quirks and Quarks (podcast) there was mention of www.sciencefunding.ca. There are some interesting documents available on that site which discuss how science is funded in Canada. The letter in this document (2005) gives some background. Also, this week’s Quirks and Quarks is the 30th anniversary…

  • The copyright loby (more of the same)

    Just before the last federal election the world found out how cozy some federal politicians involved in copyright reform were with special interest groups. Despite the change of government, it appears little has changed. Oda and the Copyright Pledge CRIA’s Lobby Effort: The Untold Story Michael Geist deserves a lot of credit for not letting…

  • RedHat summit videos

    Red Hat has posted videos of the keynotes from the Red Hat summit in Nashville. So far, I have only watched two of the three videos. Both were excellent. Eben Moglen: Discusses the philosophical and political ideas behind free software. He argues that free software is about allowing individual creativity. If you don’t ‘get’ free…

  • A Broadband Utopia

    A Broadband Utopia from IEEE Spectrum describes how a few municipalities in Utah joined together to build the high speed Internet infrastructure that for-profit telecommunication companies were not willing to. This article is definitely worth the somewhat long read. Several good points are made. The physical network duplication between the phone and cable companies is…

  • Dispatches

    CBC has recently made some of its excellent radio programming available as podcasts. You can see the list of podcasts here. Of particular note is Dispatches. This program offers short radio documentaries from reporters all over the world. The perspectives offered in these documentaries form a sharp contrast with the simplistic reporting that usually constitutes…

  • Feds Face Digital Crossroads

    Feds Face Digital Crossroads by Charlie Angus, NDP Heritage Critic. Wow, a federal politician that understands the problems in copyright reform. Bonus link: Rocking in free world

  • Net neutrality links

    Why You Should Care About Network Neutrality The corporate toll on the Internet Neutrality of the Net by Tim Berners-Lee

  • Net neutrality

    If you are interested in arguments both for and against net neutrality you should read Net neutrality, take 2 from the Washington monthly. The comments are mostly worth reading too.

  • The Vatican’s astronomer

    Quirks and Quarks is the CBC‘s weekly science and technology radio show. It is also available as a Podcast. This past week’s episode contains an interview with the Vatican’s astronomer. He has a very interesting take on the intersection of science and religion. Definitely worth listening to. Many people think that science and religion don’t…

  • Business as Morality

    Doc Searls: Business as Morality reprints an email written by Doc Searls discussing business morality. As with most of Doc’s writing it is worth reading. However, I would like to draw a little attention to one of the comments posted in response. It starts with the text “Wake the dragon”. This comment discusses the effects…