R. Buckminster Fuller foresaw a need for a world peace game as an antidote for war games, and it’s eventually lead to osGame’s “Global Simulation Workshop.” Twenty teams, representing geopolitical regions, multinational corporations, and non-profit organizations, work together or in competition to manage the earth’s resources.
o.s. Earth: The Global Simulation
See also: Buckminster Fuller’s World Game
“Big business doesn’t always mean bad morals. Shift.com looks at eight e-businesses that are donating time or money to good causes.”
A pair of authors suggest that the rise in mental illness since the 18th century is due to biological factors, possibly a virus: “Growing population and urbanization allowed the infectious agent — a virus or parasite — to spread more rapidly in the densely populated cities, they say.” Or it could just be increased diagnosis, rather than increased occurrence.
Seattle PI: Virus behind insanity, authors suggest
(via Post Atomic)
See also: Is Schizophrenia Caused by Retroviruses?
Fortean Times published an interesting history of wild and feral children:
Note Levi Strauss’s qualifying phrases “most of” and “almost all”; some of the case histories refuse to be explained away in this fashion, particularly those of Victor of Aveyron, Kaspar Hauser and the Midnapore wolf-girls Kamala and Amala, described in detail by persons of standing – respectively a doctor, a lawyer and a priest. As with all strange phenomena, it only requires one case to be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt to allow the possibility that many of the others are also true.
I’ve just re-discovered Anders Transhuman Page, an extensive collection of links and resources on life extension, cryonics, nanotechnology, physical and mental enhancements, consciousness, etc.
Newtopia Magazine is a “modern sociological-culture review that examines how our politics and policies are reflected in our arts, government, and humanities.” It’s got columns, fiction, and features, including a new one from New World Disorder editor Jason Lubyk called “Generation U.” And a really nice design to boot.
An excellent snap-analysis of the corporate world’s stranglehold on public opinion (in response to a man being fired from the Houston Chronicle for running a pseudonymous blog):
It seems to me that although blogs and other means of publishing give people the opportunity, in theory, to express their views and concerns, especially ones of political value, very few people have that freedom in practice because of their employers.
Consider e.g. someone who works for a software company, is opposed to software patents and could speak from experience about their flaws…
Unions protect the interests of some workers as it relates to their terms of employment, but who protects the interests of employees as individuals entitled to engage in asserting their influence in a supposedly democratic environment?
Ok, some people would argue that you can always work elsewhere and even if not, you are still free to vote according to your own judgement, but considering that most people are not in a position in which they can choose where they work, this is yet another mechanism by which corporations and money have more influence than individuals. Effectively, lobbyists not only get to represent the interests of corporations, but speak on the behalf of all of their employees.
Plastic: Blogging Reporter Gets Fired For Practicing ‘Gonzo Journalism’
See also: Nick Denton: the First Blog Martyr
Who first said “Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music”? Was it British comedian Marcus Brigstocke? Was it Kristian Wilson of Nintendo Inc in 1989? Or was it Karen Price of Nintendo in the same year? Or perhaps it was the design portal k10k?
Charlton Heston has announced that he may have Alzheimer’s. I’ve always wanted to hang-out with Cheston, and it now looks like I may never get the chance. Well, not while he’s sane anyway. Further, it looks like the president of the NRA may loose his guns.
Just came across Hyperreal’s Technoshamanism archive, which I’ve never seen before. Very interesting.
Hyperreal: Technoshamanism – Spirit of Raving
(via Barbelith)
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