Category: ethics

blogging and online comments

On By Rick McIn audiocasts, blogs, ethics, internetLeave a comment

I listened to an excellent audiocast:

Hosts: Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt

Best known as a prominent blogger, and Vice President and Chief Evangelist of Expert Labs, Anil Dash is this week’s guest.

Triangulation

Three of the smartest internet gurus, together.

Of greatest interest to me was Anil’s opine on why true blogging (better) was eclipsed by microblogs like Twitter & Facebook (inferior). The true blogging platforms (e.g. WordPress & Blogger) are still too much work. Tumblr is better.

Next … the pros and cons of online comments.

Gurus MG Siegler and Anil, amongst others, recently turned comments off on their sites.

Matt Gemmell did too. Then posted the most detailed commentary I’ve seen on online comments – Comments Still Off

Personally, I have few enough hateful and ignorant comments on my blogs not to feel compelled to turn them off. The value — especially comments correcting my many errors — outweigh the negative Karma.

Issues regarding comments come up about once a week or so on my Gymnastics blog. I try not to delete or edit, but am forced to occasionally.

My advice, as always — DON’T READ COMMENTS.

LOVOS – Lifestyles of Voluntary Simplicity

On By Rick McIn ethics, humour, philosophyLeave a comment

Thanks Kate.

My personal philosophy now has a catchy acronym – LOVOS.

… oriented to health and sustainability; and … critical of consumption and consumerism. …

Unfortunately it doesn’t really dovetail with my new religion, the Missionary Church of Kopimism.

“In our belief, communication is sacred.”

why I can’t vote Obama

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, product complaints3 Comments

Firstly, I’m Canadian.

But if I could vote in the USA, I don’t think I could get past Gitmo — promise #1.

“I DON’T want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantánamo.” So said Barack Obama in January 2009, giving himself a year to do it.

Economist – How to close Guantánamo

… Despite promises to close Guantánamo and reverse the illegal policies of the Bush administration, President Obama has attempted to legitimize them. He has signed an executive order formalizing indefinite detentions at Guantánamo, resumed illegitimate military commissions, and refused to hold U.S. officials accountable for torture. …

CNN – Gitmo: 10 years of injustice and disgrace

Read Lakhdar Boumediene’s story and tell me YOU wouldn’t have freed him long ago, regardless of the political consequences.

I don’t care if the President didn’t have the power to close Gitmo. If you can’t deliver, don’t promise.

I’m reading Game Change, the story of what happened exactly 4yrs ago in the American election.

(via Kottke)

Filipina with Western (older) man

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, humour, travel1 Comment

On the resort island of Boracay in the Philippines you see many of these culturally and age mismatched couples.

I don’t blame you for jumping to conclusions.

You’re probably right. 🙂

Yet some of these couples are in Boracay to be married. Many men of European ancestry, past their prime, look for younger Asian brides.

It’s not always the case that the rich dirty old man is taking advantage of the young, naïve woman from a developing country, more interested in the bulge of his wallet than anything else.

There’s a perfectly innocent story behind some of these photos.

paint ball New Years

On By Rick McIn ethics, friends, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Dave Adlard has his own paintball course and gear. I joined in the annual tradition of doing unto others before they do unto ME.

Here’s why you ALWAYS wear a face shield.

Andy Dec. 31st, 2011

That was a fluke shot. Right?

Here’s Andy Jan. 1st, 2012.

A paintball can suck the eyeball right out of the socket.

More paintball photos.

Rick Perry is finished

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, internetLeave a comment

He should resign from the campaign right after he fires the guy who recommended he post the most hated video in the history of YouTube.

Check the numbers … 9,576 likes, 403,251 dislikes (as I post).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Pandering to his Christian, Family Values base, he underestimated the power of a viral meme gone wrong.

Amber Mac has a good write-up on the issue – Should Rick Perry’s YouTube ad be banned as hate speech?

… perhaps not “hate speech”. But he’s certainly got some of his ‘facts’ wrong.

I’m not happy with the job Obama’s done as President. But when the alternative is a nob like this cowboy, or — worse — the Newt — ‘merica is in trouble.

Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got

On By Rick McIn ethics, governmentLeave a comment

Last February, a 19-year-old, self-described sixth-generation Iowan stood before an Iowa legislative panel to argue against a state constitutional amendment. The teenager, Zach Wahls, stood up at the podium and gave a three-minute speech about his life in a two-mothers home. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

After the video was posted to YouTube, Wahls became an Internet celebrity, praised for his eloquent and impassioned speech. …

… the Iowa senate was considering an amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in one of the six states in the United States that legally recognizes it. …

The publicity also helped kill the proposed amendment. …

Washington Post

When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

OK, lets say you’re like this guy:

… I’ve been a Republican all my adult life. I have worked on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, at Forbes magazine, at the Manhattan and American Enterprise Institutes, as a speechwriter in the George W. Bush administration. I believe in free markets, low taxes, reasonable regulation, and limited government. I voted for John ­McCain in 2008, and I have strongly criticized the major policy decisions of the Obama administration. …

I can respect that.

I’m a fiscal conservative myself. Unfortunately the USA has no Party that’s proven itself fiscally conservative.

But what the Republicans have done since the rise of the Tea Party movement is simply wrong. And terribly wrong for the USA.

Historians will look back on this era as one of the low points of American history, especially if Obama wins again and they get another 4 years.

When this lying, evil scumbag is the voice of moderation in the field of candidates, you haven’t got much to choose from.

It’s worth reading David Frum … before you go on FOX TV and call him a closet Liberal.

NY Magazine – When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

Thanks Tom for the link.

torturing and murdering seafood

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, food2 Comments

… apologies for all the (delicious) dead animals on this blog of late. Yet here are more creatures put in pain for our pleasure.

I’d avoided the usual Japanese tourist “attractions” — fish markets … until Hokodate.

At that seaport it’s near impossible for a passerby to avoid the cruelty zoo.

Crabs and squid seem to object more strenuously than the rest.

The shark tried to make a run for it.

_____

Let’s say you believe in trying to reduce global warming. Like this guy:

… There’s not a single person who’s done more to fight climate change than Bill McKibben. Through thoughtful books, ubiquitous magazine contributions, and, most notably, the founding of 350.org (an international non-profit dedicated to fighting global warming), McKibben has committed his life to saving the planet. For all the passion fueling his efforts, though, there’s something weirdly amiss in his approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: neither he nor 350.org will actively promote a vegan diet. …

… as a recent report from the World Preservation Foundation confirms, ignoring veganism in the fight against climate change is sort of like ignoring fast food in the fight against obesity. Forget ending dirty coal or natural gas pipelines. As the WPF report shows, veganism offers the single most effective path to reducing global climate change. …

read more on Freakonomics – Agnostic Carnivores and Global Warming: Why Enviros Go After Coal and Not Cows

SOPA sucks … American legislators are criminals

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, internetLeave a comment

Proponents of the latest disastrous IP bill , the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) insist it only targets the “worst of the worst”: so-called “rogue” foreign websites that profit from pirating U.S. intellectual property. But the broad definitions and vague language in the bill could place dangerous tools into the hands of IP rightsholders, with little opportunity for judicial oversight. One very possible outcome: many of the lawful sites you know and love will face new legal threats. …

Etsy
Flickr
Vimeo

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Anybody who thinks about SOPA for more than 15sec will realize it’s an idiotic idea.

… It’s a power play from big corporate media companies — the sort of legislation that nearly everyone strenuously opposes but which might pass because the money is on the wrong side. …

Daring Fireball by John Gruber

American legislators are mostly bought off by old media. How does that happen. Here’s one painfully obvious example just brought to light by 60 Minutes, a show that aired Nov. 13, 2011:

… The next national election is now less than a year away and congressmen and senators are expending much of their time and their energy raising the millions of dollars in campaign funds they’ll need just to hold onto a job that pays $174,000 a year.

… Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave Washington – if they ever leave Washington – with more money in their pockets than they had when they arrived …

(Peter) Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and selling stocks.

Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical, I think it’s highly offensive, and wrong.

Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?

Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market. If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to apply.

Congress: Trading stock on inside information?

Implicated are Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner and many other heavy hitters. If they were anyone other than the group of people writing the laws, they’d be in prison.

There is some hope this criminal behaviour can be slowed – Measure to ban Congressional insider trading gains steam