folded back 11

It's true, when your ears are folded back, you're WAAAAY faster. Try it! [Flight of the Bumblebee music]

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Bloglines - “Default” racism

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

he defaulted himself , just by asking the darn question !!!!

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Scobleizer - Tech Geek Blogger A geek who works at PodTech and blogs about the technology industry.

“Default” racism By Robert Scoble on Human Interest Barack Obama looks like he’s going to annouce that he’s running for President (Beet.TV has a link to the news, along with news about how Barack is using online video). Already most of the press (and most political bloggers) have decided that the race for Democratic nominee is between three people: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. I’m getting pissed off about something I’ve noticed in my conversations. No, not when people tell me they either don’t know enough about Barack, or think he’s not experienced enough. That’s quite acceptable at this stage in the game. But I’m throwing a little test into the conversation. I then follow up a comment like that with this: “I think he isn’t going to get elected because of the color of his skin.” What follows my statement is what really pisses me off: I haven’t had many people disagree with me. Admittedly small sample size, but now more than 100 people. That’s what I call “default” racism. You might call it “invisible” racism. Or something else. But it still is racism. If someone says something racist to you, and you don’t disagree, aren’t you also racist by default? It’s also interesting that I haven’t seen the major political blogs, or Web sites, take on the issue of race and the 2008 candidacy. Oh, and what does this have to do with technology? Not much until I start remembering my Silicon Valley childhood when I was my son’s age. I remember a neighborhood family coming around to my parents asking “we’re thinking of selling our home to a black family and wanted to let you know about it.” I’m sick of the default. What about you? Comments

Bloglines - The Wealth of BarCamp

Bloglines user PeterDawson (slash.pd@gmail.com) has sent this item to you, with the following personal message:

this is a very good post of dave's with a good link harverst.

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David Crow Simply usable

The Wealth of BarCamp Photo by Sandy Kemsley BarCamp is a community built around the tools and ideas of an unconference. A BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. BarCamp is an interesting combination resulting in the fundamental changes in the democratization of technology, social production, and economics that has been brought on by the Internet. It would seem that BarCamp is a microcosm of the networked world. A community (or network) enabled by social, economic and technological changes to produce technology, knowledge and culture as described by Yochai Benkler’s in his new book The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. Benkler sets out with the fundamental changes in technology, economic organization and social production and the new opportunities brought about by the internet for exchange of information, for the production of technology, knowledge and culture.—Tina Guenther I’ve spent the past year trying to figure out a potential economic model for participating in this community, i.e., do I continue to participate in the community because of the social gains or economic gains? What are my own motivations? Why do others participate? How do we encourage them to continue to participate without economic or social status? Photo by Sandy Kemsley Trying to take the networks out of economic activity is like trying to think about a complex organism without a circulation system.—Brayden King The only way to eliminate the economic activity is the switch to the economics of abundance. If resources are no longer scarce does this change the value of networks and people’s reasons to participate. This has been the subject of the science fiction I’ve been reading over the past few years, Charles Stross, Cory Doctorow, Neal Stephenson, Ken MacLeod and others. Henry Farrell summarizes a panel of these authors and the difficulty of using economic analyses to understand people’s struggle for social status. Farrell’s implications that if we are “getting enough in the way of material wants, they’ll find other unrequited (social) needs to squabble about, so they can vie for position”. We’ve worked really hard to level the economics of the playing field for TorCamp by making events free, publicly announcing the events in a variety of digital method (Google Group, Upcoming, and blogs). There is the perceived cost of participation but the group is open. BarCamp is a social network. John Quiggin describes why social networks work. BarCamp is rapidly becoming a non-anonymous product. There are faces, people, relationships and reputations being built upon this community (mine included). Why then do people participate? altruism self-expression advocacy of particular political or social views display of technical expertise a desire for social interaction desire for fame Historically information production and innovation has relied on markets and bureaucracies (Quiggin, 2006). TorCamp has representatives from both of these traditional groups. Individuals or corporations acting in market contexts, i.e., those with market driven benefits, there is economic gain from the activities of the group. The benefits of participation to RadiantCore, Unspace, Firestoker and others fit the traditional participation. access to new talent advocacy of particular technical platforms (RadiantCore – Foundation; Unspace – Rails; Firestoker – Enterprise 2.0) display of technical expertise More recently thanks to the efforts of Mark Kuznicki we’ve begun to engage the traditional bureaucracy and the role that state organizations can play in the support and development of the community. Participation by TorCampers in ICT Toronto and other city level events to support local efforts and the community. The TorCamp efforts are not the result of rational bureaucratic planning but rather a bottom-up, grassroots effort that has emerged in the community using the tools, the technologies and the social norms available. If governments want to encourage the maximum amount of innovation in social production then they need to de-emphasize competition and emphasize creativity and cooperation.—John Quiggin” How does TorCamp emphasize creativity and cooperation? How do we highlight the expertise of our community members? What is the balance between being market-driven, bureaucratic-driven or social network driven? Reading What happens when the economics of scarcity meets the economics of abundance? The (Needed) New Economics of Abundance? Wikipedia entry Post scarcity The economics of abundance The tragically neglected economics of abundance The economics of abundance Down and Out in the Tragic Kingdom Crooked Timber » Benkler Seminar The Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler Why do social networks work? by John Quiggin Network Economics and Web 2.0 An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets by Donald MacKenzie

Re: good journal to read

ok heres URL :)-

http://www.startupjournal.com/

heres something that I need to digg into further. Book mark for later reading

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good journal to read

heres something that I need to digg into further. Book mark for later reading

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this is nice

Spurred by my earlier post about Arthur Silverman's tetrahedron-based sculptures, BB reader Philip Chapman-Bell points us to his beautiful stellated curved tetrahedron origami. He's posted a crease pattern so you can fold your own!
Link

Previously on BB:
• MIT origami competition Link
• Origami full-sized house Link
• All shapes in origami Link
• Robot origami Link

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google patent search

google patents ? When did this start ??

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too cute

Mer-rowr?"

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