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July 2nd, 2010
There’s a new article out from the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, which suggests that scientists don’t communicate very well with the public. Among the observations:
“Perhaps scientists are misunderstanding the public…due to their own quirks, assumptions, and patterns of behavior,” suggests [Chris Moody, a science journalist.] Laypeople, meanwhile, tend to “strain their responses to scientific controversies through their ethical or value systems, as well as through their political or ideological outlooks.”
That’s the crux of the problem right there. What’s changed is not our tendency to filter everything through our own personal strain of moral and ethical judgment. What’s changed is what that moral and ethical fibre is composed of these days: fear, cynical distrust and an assumption of dishonesty.
It’s not communication skills that we’re short on, it’s moral and intellectual honesty.
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Originally published at the Scriptorum. You can comment here or there.
Adventures in Paradise
June 25th, 2010
There’s been lots of discussion in the region recently of the recent ICT Ministers’ meeting in Tonga. In order to help things along, here’s link to the actual Tonga Declaration 2010 document.
Update:
Here’s the OCR’ed text below the cut. Any errors are mine….
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Originally published at the Scriptorum. You can comment here or there.
Adventures in Paradise
June 23rd, 2010
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root…
These are the opening lines of a song made immortal by American Jazz singer Billie Holiday. Her personal story was heroic; battling poverty, marginalisation, racism and abuse, she managed to become one of the most influential singers of the 20th Century.
‘Strange Fruit’, Holiday’s signature tune, became a hallmark of a quickening social sensitivity to the plight of black people in America. Provocative, courageous and compelling, its twelve short lines could reduce even the most jaded listener to tears.
The song’s central image is the victim of a lynching, the ‘strange fruit’ hanging from a tree. Holiday, who had been raped at 11 and prostituted by 14, and who faced a lifetime of drug addiction and domestic abuse, made it a vessel into which she poured all of her pain and suffering.
Vanuatu has its own strange fruit: Planted between the roots of a nakatambol tree lie the bones of a Tannese woman murdered, burned and discarded after 14 years of neglect by her own people. An overgrown lot in Freswota is a-flower with yellow crime-scene tape marking the place where another young Tannese woman was raped and beaten to death with a timber. Her 3 year old daughter lay strangled nearby.
Just as the mightiest tree often comes from the smallest seed, Vanuatu continues to reap this bitter harvest because, in every aspect of their lives, women are subject to coercion.
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Originally published at the Scriptorum. You can comment here or there.
Adventures in Paradise
June 19th, 2010
Glenn Greenwald builds the case that bad boy hacker Adrian Lamo deliberately duped and betrayed Spc Bradley Manning, the young soldier notorious for having leaked the ‘Collateral Murder‘ video depicting an Apache helicopter crew gunning down unarmed civilians as they tried to aid a wounded journalist in Baghdad.
In the discussion on Slashdot, someone asks if this isn’t just a distraction from the real story?
That’s what’s bugging me here as well. Who cares how the footage was released? The important thing is WHY we have soldiers killing unarmed civilians.
I do. I care a lot. Why does someone have to face a lifetime in prison just to allow us to discuss ‘WHY we have soldiers killing unarmed civilians’?
Greenwald posits that ‘distractions’ like Manning’s may actually be deliberately manifestations of Pentagon Policy.
Whatever the merits of that argument, the fact that someone had to break the law to show a commonplace incident in the so-called War on Terror can be viewed as a sad commentary on the state of censorship in our time, or (if you’re an optimist) an affirmation that, despite a culture of secrecy, information really does want to be free.
In either case, Greenwald’s conjecture is that Manning really was genuinely motivated by his conscience and that his ‘confessor’ Lamo rewarded his honesty with lies, venality and betrayal. I find his case as presented compelling but not conclusive.
Greenwald’s larger point about wikileaks, however, is, I think, irrefutable:
The reason this story matters so much — aside from the fact that it may be the case that a truly heroic, 22-year-old whistle-blower is facing an extremely lengthy prison term — is the unique and incomparably valuable function WikiLeaks is fulfilling. Even before the Apache helicopter leak, I wrote at length about why they are so vital, and won’t repeat all of that here. Suffice to say, there are very few entities, if there are any, which pose as much of a threat to the ability of governmental and corporate elites to shroud their corrupt conduct behind an extreme wall of secrecy.
As others will no doubt suggest, whistle blowers should understand the consequences of their actions, accepting the sometimes inevitable retribution that follows in order to serve the public good. That does not, however, excuse what Greenwald characterises as ‘despicable’ behaviour by Lamo. If this account proves true, then Lamo really is a sick, sorry individual.
I find this whole story compelling precisely because it demonstrates the stakes involved in something as simple as telling the truth. Secrecy and Transparency both are costly and dangerous when we wander too far towards either end of the continuum.
Stories like Manning’s allow us the opportunity to gauge where we are in that continuum and the price of remaining there.
Originally published at the Scriptorum. You can comment here or there.
Adventures in Paradise
June 18th, 2010
Oy. Neil McAllister is at it again, saving the online world by describing how Mom & Pop shops can compete with the Amazons of the world. With retail giants like Tesco and even Sears building out programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow people to buy mattresses and microwave ovens with their mobile phones (srsly. ed.) , he claims that small businesses are more vulnerable than ever.
(You know, I once thought Fatal Exception was a quirky title for a column, but now I realise it’s just an accurate description of the cognitive processes of its author.)
McAllister writes:
Ask any company that hosts an open source software project how many outsiders actually commit code changes on a regular basis and you’re likely to hear a discouraging figure.
His conclusion is that low uptake makes opening APIs a high risk activity. That’s as may be, but isn’t it equally possible that these organisations aren’t successful because they’re doing it wrong?
Unless I have some kind of moral ownership stake in the project (such as I might have if I maintained a Linux software package, for example) what incentive to I have to invest my time? I understand the reasons for it, but many large businesses today are notoriously unreliable when it comes to strategy. Driven as they are by quarterly returns and subject to the whim of an increasingly sociopathic class of managers driven by MBA culture to abstract all decisions into monetary terms, why in the hell should I, the lowly FOSS developer, want to hitch my wagon to their star?
(More accurately, they’re asking me to hitch my horse to their wagon, without giving me any say on the destination or even the route.)
There are a few organisations who really get how community relations and management work, but they are a tiny minority. The overwhelming majority baulk when they come to the realisation that FOSS means sharing ownership and control.
None of this is news to us geeks. What gets me riled up about this article is that someone who should know better spends his time chiding FOSS processes for being inappropriate to business status quo instead of explaining to business how they’ve got to adapt to a new set of circumstances.
The reason McAllister doesn’t want to say that is because he’s holding out for a new set of actors in the online world: Middlemen who build out standardised (but presumably proprietary) API and data management services for small and medium businesses so they can keep up with the Amazons and Tescos of the world without having to build their own data infrastructure.
McAllister is, in other words, trying to reinvent the Distributor in an environment that was invented precisely to remove the need for intermediaries. My only response is to apply an aphorism from another age of commercially appropriated social phenomena: ‘You’ve come a long way, baby.‘
Originally published at the Scriptorum. You can comment here or there.
Adventures in Paradise
June 13th, 2010
Amicale F.C. thrased Spirit 08 in their last match of the NSL tournament by 3 goals to 0 to claim its spot in the O-league. The win this afternoon has added point to a clear 19 on the NSL table ahead of all the NSL contenders.
Spirit 08 under coach Carlos and Veteran's Vari and Nari could not stop the Red Devil's 'Rocket', Fenedy Mausafakalo, in a battle with his opposing GK managed to chip the ball over to open the score in 16 minutes.
In the 27 minutes, Batram added on a superb goal to take Amicale leading with 2 points before he was substituted, but the line-up saw all 4 Solomon Island imports had no spot on the bench this time under coach Philemon John and Pastor William Malas.
Fijian import, Esava Samudere played for few minutes but was sent back to bench for having an arm injury he got from their last match last weekend, and it was evident that Spirit need to strengthen their defense which saw another Carlos favorite who has multi-skills to play defense and striker was positioned quickly to defense line after 08 continued to recieve goals and under heavy attack from the fast Red Devils..
In an announcement made by PVFA president after the match, Amicale F.C's status is another history in PVFA after it's rivals for topping the NSL and will be the next champion club to represent Vanuatu in the O-league.
Andrew Leong, Amicale's team manager said they are happy about their win and will be looking forward to the competition. "Now that we have fulfil our objective, I could bring more players from Solomon Islands and Australia to boost our team to another level", he said. "I will be aiming for the top title and wish to give back to the grassroots", he added.
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June 6th, 2010
1pm Match
Amicale F.C. 1 - 0 Tafea F.C.
Goal scorer: Batram Suri 40'
3pm Match
Tupuji Imere F.C. 5 - 1 Academy F.C.
Goal scorers: Rodney 21', Rodney 30', Bula 32', Rodney 74', Antonio 79', Moken [ACA] 83'.
NSL Table Classment
Amicale F.C. - 16 Points
Tafea F.C. - 11 Points
Spirit 08 F.C. - 8 Points
Academy F.C. - 4 Points
Tupuji Imere F.C. - 4 Points
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May 31st, 2010
Final score: France 1 - 1 Tunisia
Goal scorers: Issam Jimaa [TUN] 6', William Galas [FRA] 62'.
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May 31st, 2010
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| New Zealand stunned world number 15 and fellow FIFA World Cup finalist Serbia with a deserved 1-0 victory in Klagenfurt, Austria today.
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 | Shane Smeltz scores the only goal to give victory to the All Whites.
(photo: Getty Image via FIFA/Getty Image) | Shane Smeltz struck the game's only goal in the 22nd minute, cutting inside Antonia Rukavina before tucking a shot inside Vladimir Stojkovic's near post after Rory Fallon had headed Winston Reid's long pass into the path of his fellow striker.
Ranked 63 places above the All Whites, Serbia are the All Whites biggest scalp since FIFA started publishing its rankings 18 years ago, but with the FIFA World Cup the main focus, New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert was not allowing the team to get ahead of itself.
"It's always been about performance for us, but a win like this over a top class nation like Serbia is a great bonus.
The victory, just New Zealand's second on European soil, is a timely fillip given the All Whites face two European nations – Slovakia and World champions Italy – in Group F.
It also gave Herbert some food for thought selection wise, with players staking their claims for a World Cup starting spot.
"We made four changes and I thought Tommy Smith and Winston Reid, who only have three caps between them, did extremely well at the back alongside the captain. Jeremy Christie came into midfield and did well and Chris Wood in his first start against a big team was outstanding."
Two minutes after the opening goal, New Zealand almost found a second following some free-flowing build up but Stojkovic managed to beat away Fallon's shot and Smeltz's follow-up was somehow deflected to safety.
Serbia too had their chances, and Neven Subotic could have easily levelled the scores with a back post header in the 39th minute, while a pair of Mark Paston saves midway through the second half kept a deserved clean sheet intact.
Paston was called in to action again in the 73rd minute as to swat away a shot that deflected of Nelsen but substitute Jeremy Brockie almost put the game beyond doubt late in the game when he stole in between Vidic and Subotic and laced his shot into the side netting.
The match was marred by crowd disruption, with objects thrown onto the pitch and a handful of Serbian fans ghosting past pitch side security. Serbia's captain Vidic did his part to calm the guilty section of the crowd down allowing the Austrian referee to restart play and see out the final few minutes.
Goal hero Smeltz, said the team had the belief that they could get a result against top teams and that the focus remained on their World Cup opener against Slovakia on June 15.
"It's great to get a win over a nation like Serbia who some are saying are dark horses for the World Cup.
"We'll take some confidence from it obviously, but we won't be getting carried away."
Upon their return to St Lambrecht, the All Whites were greeted by a civic reception at their hotel where traditional Austrian folk dancers and bands welcomed the team.
Tomorrow the All Whites travel to Bad Waltersdorf, where they will be based ahead of Friday's friendly with Slovenia.
Many of the squad will take time out en route in Graz to watch England take on Japan.
New Zealand 1 (Shane Smeltz 22) Serbia 0
Klagenfurt, Austria
Halftime: 1-0
New Zealand: 1-Mark PASTON (GK), 3-Tony LOCHHEAD, 4-Winston REID, 6-Ryan NELSEN (captain), 7 Simon ELLIOTT, 9-Shane SMELTZ, 11-Leo BERTOS, 14-Rory FALLON, 19-Tommy SMITH, 20-Chris WOOD (22-Jeremy BROCKIE 61), 21-Jeremy CHRISTIE.
Substitutes not used: 2-Ben SIGMUND, 5-Ivan VICELICH, 12-Glen MOSS (RGK), 13-Andy BARRON, 15-Michael MCGLINCHEY, 16-Aaron CLAPHAM, 17-David MULLIGAN, 18-Andrew BOYENS, 23-James BANNATYNE (RGK), 8-Cole PEVERLEY
Cautions: Leo Bertos, Tony Lochhead
Serbia: 1-Vladimir STOJKOVIC (GK /23-Andjelko DJURICIC 46), 2-Antonio RUKAVINA, 5-Nemanja VIDIC (Captain), 20-Neven SUBOTIC, 16-Ivan OBRADOVIC (3-Aleksandar KOLAROV 21), 22-Zdravko KUZMANOVIC (21-Dragan MRDJA 59), 11-Nenad MILIJAS (4-Gojko KACAR 46), 7-Zoran TOSIC, 18-Milos NINKOVIC, 15-Nikola ZIGIC, 9-Marko PANTELIC (8-Danko LAZOVIC 66).
Substitutes not used: 10-Dejan STANKOVIC, 12-Zeljko BRKIC (RGK), 13-Aleksandar LUKOVIC, 14-Milan JOVANOVIC, 17-Milos KRASIC, 19-Radosav PETROVIC, 24-Bojan ISAILOVIC (RGK).
Story courtesy NZF Media.
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admin
May 28th, 2010
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(Pictured right: from left Rewa team manager Lawrence Nath,
Abraham Iniga and George Lui) |
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Fiji FA CEO Mr. Bob Kumar revealed that three more players have been granted their International Transfer Certificates.
Solomon Islanders Abraham Iniga (Marist FC) and George Lui (Makuru) are the latest players cleared for Rewa while Brazilian native and US based Bay Area Ambassadors player Pedro Osorio for Navua.
"I can confirm that Abraham Iniga and George Lui have been granted their ITC (International Transfer Certificate) and are free to play for Rewa. Pedro Osorio of Bay Area Ambassadors has also been cleared for Navua," Kumar said.
The 2010 Vodafone Fiji FACT starts tomorrow afternoon at Churchill Park in Lautoka.
The trio joins the line up of other international talent with the likes of Navua- Stefan Clemens (US): Nadroga- A A Akande , O Saheed A (Nigeria): Lautoka- Danny Robinson (Waitakere), Salesh Kumar, Jurteet Singh Nijjar (NZ): Ba- Tuimasi Manuca (Hekari): Labasa – Roy Krishna (Waitakere), Pita Bolaitoga (Hekari United).
On the other hand Mr. Kumar confirmed that Vodafone Chief Operating Officer Mr. Pradeep Lal will officially open the 2010 Vodafone Fiji FACT.
Mr. Kumar says everything is on track and that they were ready for the first major tournament of the year.
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