Society

The Great Divide Between Government and the Governed

While viewing a few more amazing RSA Animations with friends, I found this 10 minute segment of a lecture by Stein Ringen, a professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Oxford, assessing the New Labour government and the state of the British constitution.

About Empathy (and a cool video)

What an interesting presentation! The RSA Animate collection takes a short audio lecture clip and "animates" it with coordinated time-lapse video of a whiteboard sketch artist. What a wonderfully engaging experience! I've watched several of these and "The Empathic Civilisation" [sic] caught my interest—enough to spawn this post!

The Inevitable Outcome of Socialized Parenting...Er, "Education"

First off, I was home schooled, K through 12. It was a wonderful experience, but not the topic of this post. Being raised outside of the public school system, I often see it with "new eyes" and not a little suspicion. The idea that a central authority could trump my parents bothers me. It all comes down what I call unalienable responsibility. Much like unalienable rights, there are some responsibilities that cannot be subsumed by society, government, or other third parties.

Persuasion, Correction, and Righteous Influence; a How To

The following is an excerpt from a post to the MormonVeg email list that I helped moderate several years ago. After a major upheaval over post topics, conflicting opinions, and accusations of apostasy (in both directions), I wrote a studied response which really summed up my feelings about righteous influence and persuasion, while respecting an individual's agency.

Originally posted Mon Apr 22, 2002 12:22 am, I have added some links and edited a little here and there to apply the message generally.

Do You Belong In Your Zip Code?

The New York Times recently published a web service showing the movie rental habits, by zip code, of 12 major cities over the past year. The data comes from Netflicks movie rentals for 100 movies. I initially visited the site just to see how they presented the information (very well) and it really made me think. This is a great example of how data is only what you make of it. And, that no matter how unbiased you try to be, just collecting and presenting data induces inacuracy or bias.

Free Markets Are Not Usually Fair Markets

During our recent stay in Ethiopia, my wife and I visited "the Merkato"—supposedly the largest outdoor market in Africa. We also shopped in a variety of places during the week and we observed a spectrum of trading methods, prices, and products.

Frugal Families Are Happy Families

One of the best outcomes of this adoption was a unified monetary policy in my family. We saved every penny before spending it. This was extremely challenging, but more rewarding than I expected. I discovered quickly that most of my stress in life relates to money (particularly with someone else spending it). But with a plan in place, stress is reduced, fear is gone, and life is simplified and happier.

BYU Removes YouTube Ban

BYU announced the following this morning:

YouTube is now available on the campus of Brigham Young University. Given the educational information and materials available on the video-sharing service, the University determined to make the service available on campus. The press has been following this issue quite closely, and Carrie Jenkins has released this information to them earlier this morning.

Free Issues of Solar Today!

As a birthday present in 2006, my wife gave me a subscription to the Solar Today magazine. She knew I was very interested in solar energy and renewable energy at large. I may yet start a business related to that.

Twitterpation Emancipation

I have a Twitter account. It's relatively new; I created it in December for the DIWD conference. At first, it was enigmatic—strangely liberating in its strict limitations. But I didn't know what to do with it.

The DIWD conference illuminated one good use for it. And then the conference ended and so did my use of Twitter, for a while. When I had people listening to me, and me to them, in an immediate social environment, it made sense to have immediate "shout-outs" of public messages, thoughts and questions. But I still wasn't sure what to do with it.