pinecore

Archive for 2010

The More You Know: Radical Redistribution

In Cheer, Domestic on February 3, 2010 at 4:44 pm

This is my favorite quote from radical economist Sam Bowles, profiled here.

“Being willing to sit in a boring classroom for 12 years, and then sign up for four more years and then sign up for three or more years after that—well, that’s a pretty good measure of your willingness to essentially do what you’re told.”

Stay in school—or not. You heard it here first, kids!

This article also features my latest iMovie experiment. Scroll to the bottom if you prefer pictures to words.

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Thanks for the pickup: Marginal Revolution, Baseline Scenario, Economist’s View, Crooked Timber, Hacker News, &c.,  &c., &c., & “my head exploded.”

Wi-Fi Woo-Woo Goes To Court

In Domestic, Fear, Foreign on January 13, 2010 at 9:44 am

This story, which I broke online last week and followed up in the print edition of SFR, has gotten a bit of play, not only in Santa Fe, but in the UK, Australia, Germany and Hungary.

[Arthur] Firstenberg previously drew notice when he organized other “electrosensitive” citizens to campaign against Wi-Fi in public buildings. Last year, he added digital television to the list of offending technologies.

Now, he wants a judge to ban [his neighbor Raphaela] Monribot from using her phone or computer. Firstenberg’s monetary demand includes $100,000 for pain and suffering; he writes that he has endured “great discomfort” by sleeping in his car this winter.

“I think you’ll find the complaint of most iPhone users in Santa Fe is that they don’t travel through adobe walls,” Christopher Graeser, Monribot’s attorney and an iPhone user as well, tells SFR.