Following the news you cannot help but believe the world has gone insane. Depending on which end of the political spectrum you follow, there are these lunatics or those dangerous people, not to even mention the geo-political and economic crises (plural) that are constantly plunging from one into the next. Recently, some older politicians have […]
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The words “piracy” and “theft” are being used by copyright holders as deragatory terms for copyright infringement. Of course, they are used wrongly, misappropriated from other contexts to evoke emotions that the sterile correct terms, such as “copyright infringement” or “unauthorized copying” do not. However, there is one condition in which the term “theft” actually […]
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For much of human history, government was bequeathed to the sons (usually) or daughters of those currently in power. Either they were kings with a direct lineage, or a relatively small aristocracy where while the actual distribution of responsibilities was subject to change, those in power were usually selected for being in power by the […]
~ read more ~N.N. Taleb, author of has a fantastic proposal for avoiding the next financial crisis. Fantastic due to its simplicity: End Bonuses for Bankers is his idea, and since it was posted in nothing less than the New York Times, it will certainly receive some public discussion. Of course, the comments are already all over the […]
~ read more ~While it doesn’t live up to its title “The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen“, this article in the british Guardian deserves to go high and wide. It has two vital key points. First, the claim of the super-rich that they have earned their wealth are in general nonsense […]
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Following the Occupy Wall Street movement has been interesting. Following the media coverage doubly so. It is revealing to see how quickly the media loses interest, and how shallow most reports are. But the main issue I feel the need to write about is this “what is your demand?” thing. And hats off to Occupy […]
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The official SEC report on the top ten rating agencies is making some news here in Germany. Less than it ought to be, but most of the mainstream press is over it. A few of the headlines tell you the story (all articles in german): SEC finds faults with rating agencies SEC accuses rating agencies […]
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Once again, the James Randi Educational Foundation has picked the yearly recipients for their anti-rewards. That made me think about how much nonsense and known errors we face in our lives. JREF focuses on some prominent examples, but there are many more that are more widespread and provide less of a focus for attack. What […]
~ read more ~It seems I was on track with my earlier assessment of politics. The Guardian posted a short piece on saturday about trial-runs of political programs, with many links to the papers. All of them conducted in developing countries where money for these kinds of programs is sparse. Counter-intuitively, the best way to spend scarce money […]
~ read more ~“Intelligence has largely moved out of politics” titled an article in the german online magazine Telepolis recently. And indeed, if you have been following german politics for the past few years, there is no intelligence to be seen, our current “leaders” are mostly busy staying in place. But if you thought that is a personal […]
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