All posts by Richard

Politics

It never rains…

…it pours bad news!

“The article focuses primarily on three measures: the monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI), the quarterly Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the monthly figure for the unemployment rate. Phillips convincingly demonstrates that the real unemployment rate in the United States is between 9 and 12 percent, not the 5 percent or less that is officially claimed. The real rate of inflation is not 2 or 3 percent, but instead, between 7 and 10 percent. And real economic growth has been about 1 percent, not the 3-4 percent officially claimed during the most recent Wall Street and housing bubble that has burst.”

Data Fudging 101. The History Of US Government Statistics Manipulation | MadConomist.com

It would be nice to think that one result of this mess would be real international standards for economic reporting. However, I can’t see that happening. Can you?

Technology

They’re still shipping and we don’t notice…

“OLPC has shipped over 300,000 units to kids around the world. They plan to ship at least another 50,000 more each month, and very likely more than that. It’s entirely possible that by the end of 2008, there will be a million OLPC systems deployed worldwide.”

gregdek: Fedora, meet OLPC. OLPC, meet Fedora.

Politics, Technology

New sport for the summer…

Spotting the compyright criminals on the silver screen.

“Jesse Willis went to see the new Disney/Pixar movie Wall-E and discovered that the lovable little robot is actually a dire criminal — because he undertakes a variety of copying activities”

Wall-E is a copyright criminal – Boing Boing

Politics

Can you simulate pain?

No.

“The “official lie” about waterboarding, Hitchens says, is that it “simulates the feeling of drowning”. In fact, “you are drowning – or rather, being drowned”.”

Want to know if waterboarding is torture? Ask Christopher Hitchens | World news | The Guardian

Technology

How things look different from a distance…

This one statement says something simple about how the BBC views the US and how the US views the UK. The BBC views the US as more important as it is; in return the US views the UK as class riddled. Both are right.

“I finally figured The Money Programme was interested because of vestigial class consciousness in British culture, and especially in British broadcasting. Bill Gates is viewed as a kind of industrial maharajah in some quarters, more so the further you get from the USA. In those parts people still think he makes a difference to Microsoft’s success or failure.”I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Go Home, Bill | PBS