Ming the Mechanic
The NewsLog of Flemming Funch

Tuesday, December 16, 2003day link 

 Copyright-free Sharing
picture Wired has a story about University of Maine's Still Water new media lab, which has a new project called the Pool. Which is a collaborative online environment for creating and sharing images, music, videos, programming code and texts. And the interesting part is that it is a COPYRIGHT-FREE zone.
"We are training revolutionaries -- not by indoctrinating them with dogma but by exposing them to a process in which sharing culture rather than hoarding it is the norm," said Joline Blais, a professor of new media at the University of Maine and Still Water co-director.

"It's all about imagining a society where sharing is productive rather than destructive, where cooperation becomes more powerful than competition," Blais said.
Now, imagine that. Teaching sharing. Out in the open. That's wonderful. The only sad part is that anybody at all might consider that to be a somewhat provocative thing to do. That we have to stretch our minds a bit and glance over our shoulders in order to imagine a society where sharing is productive rather than destructive, where cooperation becomes more powerful than competition. I mean, OF COURSE IT IS!! Or, rather, it is the wrong way to put it. Competition is not the opposite of cooperation. They have a sort of synergy. Free copyright-free products are competing or cooperating depending on what makes the most sense. The enemy is not competion, but monopoly ownership of *anything*. Monopoly ownership of ideas and designs in particular is the enemy of cooperation, competition, sharing and freedom of choice.
[ | 2003-12-16 09:59 | 5 comments | PermaLink ]  More >

 Saddam captured; desert blooms
picture Well, I didn't really know what to say about Saddam Hussein being captured, as I'm not sure I believe the whole scenario. But in the spirit of celebration, getting rid of the bad guys, new beginnings, and general unreality, this piece that I received in the mail today seems to capture it well.
BAGHDAD (Plausible News Service) -- The apparent arrest of Saddam Hussein brought a traumatic chapter in the millennia-long history of Mesopotamia to an end earlier today, with immediate and wide-ranging effects being felt throughout the country. Flowers spontaneously erupted across vast stretches of Iraqi desert. Power and water service were restored to millions of Iraqi homes, some of which have never had it in the first place.

"My cable is working again! I can get Bravo channel now! They must have arrested Saddam!" cried a jubilant Walid al-Jibra, dancing in the street in front of his formerly bombed-out store, which was found miraculously restored moments after the announcement. Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis alike were seen joyfully embracing in Basra, while a number of children previously thought to have been killed during the invasion were found to be alive and perfectly healthy. Hospitals reported increases in stocks of medicines, "but hey, we don't need them anyway, half our patients just got up and walked away," according to one staffer.

A statement released by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden acknowledged the defeat for the radical Islamic movement signified by the Saddam arrest.

"Oh well, we might as well just hang it up, as you say," said the emaciated terrorist leader on a video broadcast by al-Jazeera television shortly after the arrest announcement. "This just shows that you can't mess around with the ol' US of A."

Troops met the news with relief. "Well, I am sure enough glad that's all over with," said Sgt. Paul Tarbabe of Tuskeegee, as he began packing his gear for the return home. "Just in time, too -- we oughta all be able to get back home for Christmas now. I've got a six-month-old daughter to meet!"

Donald Rumsfeld and senior Pentagon officials have indicated that with Saddam out of the picture, "our work here is finished," as Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a press briefing at the Pentagon early this morning. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and other officials, for whom the planning and execution of the Iraq operation has been an obsession for years, intend to retire next week and "set up a think tank in Samoa or someplace like that," Wolfowitz said.

The forecast for Baghdad for today and the foreseeable future is sunny, with bright blue skies, a few fluffy white clouds, warm but comfortable temperatures, and copious birdsong.

[ | 2003-12-16 13:45 | 4 comments | PermaLink ]  More >

 The little guy versus Cede & Co
picture Remember DTC, the little known 20 trillion dollar company that holds most stocks in the world in the name of its subsidiary "Cede & Co"? Well, this fellow just found out about them when he was trying to locate $600 worth of stocks he thought he owned, after he was told that they had been transferred to Cede & Co. And he actually called them up, trying to get some answers. Without very much luck, as he's just an individual, rather than a "participant". Anyway, he continues looking for more information on the net. And finds good things, like this letter concerning a group of stock brokers and stock transfer companies who tried to withdraw from their contract with DTC,, and found out that they couldn't. DTC is a monopoly. And apparently they run it a bit like a black box, where even brokerage houses can't really learn all the details about what happened with their stocks. There are irregularities like stocks being oversold, meaning that more are being offered than all the actually outstanding shares of the given companies. Very interesting letter.
[ | 2003-12-16 18:20 | 23 comments | PermaLink ]  More >

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