Interesting Links for 30-08-2012

[andrewducker]

• Some great discussion here about mainframes, and what they're still useful for.
  (tags: mainframe computers )
• For poorer children, living in a high-cost area hurts academic development
  (tags: poverty inequality education )
• Harvard creates cyborg flesh that’s half man, half machine
  (tags: cyborg technology biology thefuture )
• The 5 1/4 inch

Comments

[danieldwilliam]

I thinking a kickstarter for the rape testing kits might be a useful cross over.

[andrewducker]

See, part of me thinks "That would be great! People could club together and make things better!"

And then part of me thinks that this is what tax is _for_, and that getting good-hearted people to pay for work our police-forces should be doing as standard doesn't fix things in the long-term.

[nancylebov]

The outcome of a kickstarter would be hard to guess, but kickstarters might work as a clue to governments about what people really want, and what's worth supporting as a way to get elected.

[andrewducker]

True in some ways. But biased to people with spare money to spend on such things.

[danieldwilliam]

Yeah, it’s a bit of cleft stick.

Getting people to, in effect, voluntarily pay extra taxes really opens up a free rider issue in the long run.

In the short run tho’ I wonder if it would make an effective political protest.