Make Advantageous Into a Feature Film!

Director Jen Phang is turning her short film, Advantageous, into a feature film and needs your help. Please support her campaign on kickstarter to fulfill this project. The short film was beautifully done and provocative. Not many sci-fi films approach themes of personhood and workplace pressures the way Jen did with Advantageous. You can see the short on-line for free, then contribute to her campaign, which is end ... continue reading

The open data Web site is a good initiative. Now if they can just make it extend further so that open…

The open data Web site is a good initiative. Now if they can just make it extend further so that open government becomes meaningful. The article quotes Tracey Lauriault of Carleton University on how open the Conservative government is: “Not if you’re muzzling science, not if you’re cancelling the census, not if you’re practically closing and undermining your archive, not if you’re tur ... continue reading

A right for privacy is getting confused with…

A right for privacy is getting confused with a “right” to censor. I think there is a point when a person puts something into the public’s grasp that it ceases to adhere to that person’s control. This article on French archivists makes a case against extending some types of privacy control. That’s not to say that we don’t need better privacy rules. A lot of information gets abused ... continue reading

China’s architectural trends involve a lot of copying (to varying degrees) of Western buildings and,…

China’s architectural trends involve a lot of copying (to varying degrees) of Western buildings and, I’ve read, even whole towns. Some of the comments at the end of this article, point out that the pattern has occurred in the past with other rising economies. Faking It in China by Ian Johnson | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books ... continue reading