Posts tagged…Ideas
How the deal was done
Mon, Dec 28 2009
Official Chinese account of the negotiation of the accord at Copenhagen, emphasising, of course, their own role:
The Copenhagen conference has put China on a higher and broader world stage. China has reason to be proud and China will work even harder! Verdant mountains cannot stop water flowing; eastward the water keeps on going.
The report provides a detailed account of Premier Wen's movements…
Read more…Aliens vs Censors
Mon, Dec 07 2009Vlad the Impaler—the lengendary Transylvanian prototype of Dracula—did not, appparently, consider that someone could be impaled on their own head. (Have that image in mind? Shame on you!)
Remarkably, the Australian Classification (i.e. 'censorship') Board has managed to do it to themselves. They have 'banned', a computer-console game that has been passed without cuts in the USA and UK, apparently…
Risk and liberty
Sat, May 23 2009
Interesting new book "What Price Liberty" from UK academic, Ben Wilson. You can download the book from the publishers (Faber & Faber) from now until 4 June for whatever price you think it's worth.
Nowadays states regard the individual as a potential troublemaker, a selfish economic actor who puts personal gain first: a risk in other words.
There is no such thing as a self-regarding act. Every…
Razzing the Congress party
Thu, Apr 16 2009"[The Indian election] exposes the do-nothing, zero-reform record of Manmohan Singh, prime minister, and his government. More generally, it lays bare India’s huge reform gaps and its brittle, decaying institutions. Finally, it deflates the ‘India hype’ peddled by smooth-talking upper-caste politicians, ambassadors, businessmen, management consultants and some academics"
Extract from an Op Ed by…
Life in rural China
Thu, Apr 16 2009
This is the most fascinating and engaging writing I've seen on the web in a long time.
It's a translation of several blog posts by a Shanghai resident, Xiao Sanliang, who returned home to his village for the Spring Festival (January 26 this year).
"Lu Xun said: ‘Dig out your heart, and know its taste.’ This is what I see in my village. And it makes me sigh."
Extract from the China Labor…
Australia’s information deficit
Wed, Apr 15 2009
Australia is falling behind on access to data, thanks to apparently indifferent government at the Federal and State level—and it has nothing to do with proposed NBN. The United States, however, is moving ahead wth plans for the creation of a government-wide data access facility.
data.gov will be managed by Obama's 'Chief Information Officer', Vivek Kundra. Here is an example of what he has…
Evidence and muddling through
Wed, Apr 15 2009The difference is that 'muddling through' is a strategy bound to evidence, evaluation, and adaptation. In policy as in business entreprise, grand visions and definitive models, like 'settled science', call for commitment and resist new enquiry or contrary fact.
"Prof Lindblom contrasted what he called the ‘root’ method of decision-making with the ‘branch’ approach. The root method required…
Business and precaution
Tue, Apr 14 2009The difference between private and public reaction to uncertainty (as opposed to risk) is that firms aren't tempted to take outlandish steps in the name of the 'precautionary principle'.
"[A] famous distinction that the economist Frank Knight made between risk and uncertainty. Risk describes a situation where you have a sense of the range and likelihood of possible outcomes. Uncertainty describes…
Micro-macro
Sun, Apr 12 2009Tim Harford—discussing the dissing of macro—quotes P J O'Rouke:
"[M]icroeconomics concerns things that economists are specifically wrong about, while macroeconomics concerns things that they are wrong about generally" Extract from Tim Harford in the Financial Times
Time, void? They’re 4-letter words!
Fri, Apr 10 2009Is there such a thing as taking the simplification of science too far? Of course there is! Relatively oulipian; a marvellous—but mildly monontonous—monosyllabary.
"Say you woke up one day and your bed was gone. Your room, too. Gone. It's all gone. You wake up in an inky void." Extract from Relativity explained in words of 4 letters or less
French internet law blocked, for now
Fri, Apr 10 2009In a coup de théâtre, the opponents of the internet surveillance bill managed to block it in the Senate on 9 April. But not for long, it seems:
"L'UMP semble vouloir effacer cet affront en faisant revoter au plus vite le projet de loi. 'Le vote négatif de l'Assemblée nationale retarde l'adoption du texte, ça ne le bloque pas. On va repasser le texte avec une lecture à l'Assemblée et une lecture…
Piracy and privacy
Thu, Apr 09 2009Although the governments negotiating the ACTA treaty deny that it will propose sanctions for personal copyright violation, there's an increasing supply of that sort of thing, from those same governments.
The French Assemblée Nationale is today expected to adopt a uniquely invasive measure authorizing a 'High Authority' to monitor the Internet use of individuals for copyright violation.
"The law…