Harnessing social activism with the power of open source. Bringing together creativity, science and web geekery to make an impact.

I've been talking a lot with the people behind this, and excited to see their commitment to collaboration and doing things the open source way is deep and genuine. For one thing, they've recognized early on that a ( Read more... )

Looks like I'll be writing an irregular column in Free Software Magazine.

Note that's not freeware - the free in Free Software refers to freedom (to do what you want), not "doesn't cost you anything" (though that's usually true too). Free software is the original term for open source software, more or less, but with a more ideological emphasis and ( Read more... )

Back in Jakarta. Planning to get out of town more though - the air is quite polluted here, and when indoors, there's generally either cigarette smoke or "air freshener" - and I have a low tolerance for chemical smells ( Read more... )

A friend asked on Facebook about identity theft, and how to respond to friend requests from people you don't know well. Here are my thoughts ( Read more... )

Talking with my brother about power, politics and influence in Indonesia, I'm again reminded of Lord Acton's famous quote:

"All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men..."

Sydney is now represented by women at every level of government:

• Mayor of Sydney
• NSW State premier
• Australian prime minister
• Governor General (technically the head of government, depending who you ask)
• The "Queen of Australia," the foreigner and welfare recipient, Queen Elizabeth II.

In the very early 2000s I looked up the NSW Greens policy on the Built Environment, and the version that I found was rabidly anti-developer, more from an activist perspective than a planner's perspective. Now, I agree that developers are a big problem, but saying developers must pay for so many different things (restricting their profit) and ( Read more... )

Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? - Self-identified liberals and Democrats do badly on questions of basic economics. - a professor of economics writes in the WSJ.

I expected to find that the researcher used really biased questions where someone with a left-wing perspective would be judged wrong. But looking at the questions, it sadly seems ( Read more... )

Sydney was shocked recently by the murder of a young woman, 18 years old, after she met a man on Facebook. The man assumed an identity to appeal to her good nature and her aspiration of working in national parks.

That it's a tragedy is clear. But is it an avoidable tragedy? Was it simply a case of doing something stupid and dangerous? I've heard ( Read more... )

On the theme of "all things in moderation"... green beans are actually slightly toxic. I think you'd have to eat a lot before it became a problem, though, e.g. green smoothies loaded with green beans on a regular basis.

• Full blog post at "Pollanesque".
• Appropedia's "green beans" page: Mildly toxic when raw. (If you can improve it, click edit on that ( Read more... )