Life

How to Foster Cooperation

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Recently I have came across the book titled Why Society is a Complex Matter by Phillip Ball (Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012). Chapter 8 of the book is titled Love Thy Neighbour: How to Foster Cooperation. Ball states: “Society is a collaborative effort: it works to the extent that we can get along with our neighbours, agree on common goals, and accept shared responsibilities….Yet that seems to conflict with the supposed Darwinian imperative of competition, in which every individual is out for themselves. Long before Darwin’s theory, some philosophers insisted that the only way to avoid the rapacious state of affairs that followed from humankind’s greed and desire for power over others was to impose the restraining authority of the state. Others had more faith in humanity: they felt that God had made people inherently good and rational, and that this … Read more

Graduated College Students Having a Tough Time

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I have previously discussed how college students today who graduate are having a tough time. See for example the post Medical School Student Costs in the U.S. are Affecting Mental Health,the post College Conspiracy and United States Hyperinflation, the post Astroturfing And How Your Thoughts Are Being Manipulated by Corporate Interests, and the post Let’s Give our Kids a Chance to Succeed. Below is a nice infographic that helps to describe the problem in more detail. Created by: Collegeathome.com

Ed Leedskalnin on Education

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Here is a very intersting quote by Ed Leedskalnin on education I came across from http://www.leedskalnin.com/  “You know we receive an education in the schools from books.  All those books that people became educated from twenty-five years ago, are wrong now, and those that are good now, will be wrong again twenty-five years from now.  So if they are wrong then, they are also wrong now, and the one who is educated from the wrong books is not educated, he is misled.  All books that are written are wrong, the one who is not educated cannot write a book and the one who is educated, is really not educated but he is misled and the one who is misled cannot write a book which is correct. The misleading began when our distant ancestors began to teach their descendants.  You know … Read more

Michael Arrington Forced Out of Techcrunch

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The popular blog Techcrunch was founded in 2005 by Michael Arrington. He then sold Techcrunch in 2010 to AOL for somewhere around $30 million. Now he has been forced out of his own blog which is now owned by AOL with a statement posted earlier today on Techcrunch located at http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/deciding-to-move-on/ Here is another article that expands on the events http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904265504576566694092557886.html “I Sold My Company (to a Bunch of Idiots) and Expected to Still Maintain Control Over It.” -Michael Arrington Here are some videos of AOL back when it literally seemed like everyone was using it in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Source: http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2010/09/28/aol-acquires-techcrunch-a-good-day-for-arrington-a-bad-day-for-his-readers/

Big Media Monopoly

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I recently read the book titled The New Media Monopoly: A Completely Revised and Updated Edition With Seven New Chapters published in 2004 by Beacon Press and written by Ben H. Bagdikian. I think it is well worth the read and provides some interesting perspectives even though it is now slightly dated due to the continued rise of the internet. Some interesting quotes provided in the book by past leaders in the United States of America: “Nothing can now be believed, which is seen in a newspaper” -Thomas Jefferson, 1807 “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.” -James Madison “The first essential in determining how … Read more