Events in Korea these days remind me a fair bit of that Demosthenes/Locke subplot in Orson Scott Card’s novel Ender’s Game. If you haven’t read the novel, well, basically a couple of really smart kids hijack the world political debate by posting pseudonymously online, using personae that are, in fact, quite different from their own personalities, sometimes quite consciously, to determine the way the global debate plays out. I’ve posted in the past about the Korean internet, censorship, and the odious “Real-Name System” that has essentially eliminated all possibility of real anonymity online at many websites in Korea by requiring …
Tag: politics
Amusements
A few random amusements for you, before I toddle off to get some real work done: A terrible audio track that my friend Jack posted that WILL make you laugh. Sunset Grill is a webcomic made by my friend Kat. Anyone notice that Obama mentioned non-believers in his inauguration speech without calling them unAmerican? That was interesting.
Válka s Mloky
“Nowadays we simply cannot wait a few hundred years for something good or bad to happen in the world. Take the migration of peoples which used to drag on over several centuries: today, with our present organization of transport, it could be accomplished in three years; otherwise there would be in profit in it. The same is true of the liquidation of the Roman Empire, the colonisation of the continents, the extermination of the Red Indians, and so on. All these things could have been accomplished incomparably more speedily if they had been put in the hands of entrepreneurs with …
RIAA Stops Suing Deaf Grandmas Who Have No Computer For Downloading Music… for now
We’ll see how long it lasts. Now they’re working with ISPs instead, which means… can you say, workarounds?
Whew…
Dear America, Thank you. Given the limited choices, the narrow range of political possibilities, and all that, I figure you done pretty good. Nobody’s ideal, but in a choice between jumping deeper into a pit or, well, a few positive changes, I figure you chose the latter. And at the very least, you kept Alzheimer’s McCain out, and Prayin’ Palin and the Bibliomaniacs from getting a heart attack away from the Presidency. Your countrymen abroad, as well as my Korean students, seem overall quite pleased. Or relieved. Or both. Actually, so does much of the planet. So… now what?