Category Archives: Politics

Politics

A Poem by Critias

I came upon this poem in “The Open Society and Its Enemies: Part 1” by Karl R. Popper. It is of course, much older than that work, its author, Critias, living from 460 to 403 BCE.

I think one could read much into this poem these days, and it bears several interpretations.

Then came, it seems, that wise and cunning man,
The first invetor of the fear of gods . . .
He framed a tale, a most alluring doctrine,
Concealing truth by veils of lying lore.
He told of the abode of awful gods,
Up in revolving vaults, whence thunder roars
And lightning’s fearful flashes blind the eye . . .
He thus encircled men by bonds of fear ;
Surrounding them by gods in their fair abodes,
He charmed them by his spells, and daunted them —
And lawlessness turned into law and order.

How would you interpret it?

Saturday Linkblogging

I have links for you:

I think that’s enough for now.

PRISM Bullshit and Hypocrisy

I’m not the only one harping on about open access to scientific journals. I’ve linked to at least two other blogs discussing the issue, and I’m sure there are hundreds more.

I wrote in January about an article in Nature that highlighted the PR offensive being launched by the major science publishers.

That effort has apparently borne fruit. The issue is well-covered by John Dupuis. A sad but interesting twist, which made the front page of Slashdot, is that these organizations bent on protecting their copyright lock-in stole images from Getty Images for their web site. As the post in that last link notes, the onslaught of complaints subsequent to hitting the Slashdot front page convinced them to go buy the images properly from Getty.

Just as Microsoft started the FUD machine as Linux gained prominence, watch for a truckload of FUD from PRISM in the days to come.

ADDENDUM: There’s a good summary post that quotes my statement just above (and those of many other science bloggers) here.

100-Word Rants by Dave

Dave (who shall remain lastnameless) is the father of a friend and co-worker of mine. He’s a tall, friendly guy with a resonating voice who, in minutes, can have everyone at a party on their knees laughing so hard they can’t breathe.

Imagine my joy at being told some time ago that he now has a blog.

Dave writes a lot of ad copy. As he puts it in his description on blogger,

Decades of writing prose to fit the oddly-shaped blotches of greeking with which designers decorate their pages have left me with the freakish ability to write to an exact word count. Hence, the one hundred word rant. A fast-talking radio guy could read one of these aloud in thirty seconds. If you can read without moving your lips, you can do it quicker.

While not quite as side-splitting as his more prolonged in-person rants and stories, the rants so far have at the very least been amusing. It’s worth checking out for a once-a-week compressed look at a wide range of subjects. Go subscribe now:


100 word rant