March 2009
CRTC Launches Online Consultation on Net Neutrality
Mar
31
![I [heart] the Open Internet](http://m.integral.virishi.net/sites/default/files/images/net_valentine2.png "I [heart] the Open Internet")
According to Michael Geist, the CRTC has launched an online consultation on net neutrality. Topics include the impact on user experience, innovation, the role of the CRTC, network management, and ISP transparency. Comments posted to the consultation will form part of the public record for the hearing on the issue this summer. Canadians have until April 30th to ensure that their voices are heard.
You can read the CRTC's press release about it and then go there and let them know what you think, right now!
Rolling Stone puts the light on financial sector's shock tactics
Mar
20
The latest issue of Rolling Stone has a brilliant article by Matt Taibbi, laying out in some detail the success of the American financial system in 'Shock Doctrining' the political system. As he notes:
... The reality is that the worldwide economic meltdown and the bailout that followed were together a kind of revolution, a coup d'état. They cemented and formalized a political trend that has been snowballing for decades: the gradual takeover of the government by a small class of connected insiders, who used money to control elections, buy influence and systematically weaken financial regulations.The crisis was the coup de grâce: Given virtually free rein over the economy, these same insiders first wrecked the financial world, then cunningly granted themselves nearly unlimited emergency powers to clean up their own mess. And so the gambling-addict leaders of companies like AIG end up not penniless and in jail, but with an Alien-style death grip on the Treasury and the Federal Reserve — "our partners in the government," as Liddy put it with a shockingly casual matter-of-factness after the most recent bailout...
Demurrage currency not usury
Mar
16
Reality Sandwich has a great article called Money and the Turning of the Age by Charles Eisenstein. At a time when the IMF is about to release a new 'super currency' as its latest attempt to halt the "downward economic spiral", Charles' article nicely lays out the difference between usury currency (based on scarcity) and demurrage currency (based on abundance).
Thich Nhat Hahn is following me on twitter
Mar
09
Well I've finally succumbed to the peer pressure of it all and started using twitter. For a short while a few years ago I shared an office with super-hacker Blaine Cook who left Vancouver to become the chief architect of the twitter service. I have great respect for Blaine's skills and politics and I probably should have paid closer attention to what he thought was important.
In any event, I've only been using it for a couple of days now and today I received the message that Buddhist monk and peace activist, Thich Nhat Hahn, is following me (on twitter). Turns out it's the staff organizing his American tour but it's still super-rad!
Wall Street on the Tundra
Mar
04
Last week I caught an evening of flamenco at Kino's Cafe where I ended up sitting across from a computer geek from Iceland. He'd been back there over Christmas and I asked how it was doing after the collapse of their currency. He told me things were very bad, many people were talking about emigrating, and that he was sad for the future of the people that live there.
I've now just finished reading Michael Lewis' hilarious and brilliant "Wall Street on the Tundra", from the latest issue of Vanity Fair, and it is easily the best article I've read since David Foster Wallace's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." I almost spit out my popcorn when I read:
Yet another hedge-fund manager explained Icelandic banking to me this way: You have a dog, and I have a cat. We agree that they are each worth a billion dollars. You sell me the dog for a billion, and I sell you the cat for a billion. Now we are no longer pet owners, but Icelandic banks, with a billion dollars in new assets.
Bloody vikings, the inherent superiority of women, Bjork, international finance, fish, elves and exploding SUVs - this article has it all and will leave you in stitches. Go read it now (warning - fairly black humour!)