So I’ve been meaning meaning to do this review for some time and I finally got a chance. A few months back I purchased the Minotaur MTAC Holster from Comp-Tac to replace my Infidel holster. The Infidel is a good, quality holster but with only one belt clip and the hard kydex a bit uncomfortable when sitting/driving, I decided to see what else was out there.
So as I begin to hit my 1/3-life crisis, I have been in search of the things that used to bring me joy and happiness as a youngster. Fishing…well, not for a few years given that I’m about 350 miles from any ocean. Archery, yea, I have a bow and recently bought a target, now I just have to set up the range in my backyard! Roller Hockey, yea, I bought the gear but the RollerPlex recently changed management and are closed for construction until May. Badminton, yea, I never stopped playing but the scene in this Phoenix shit hole sucks. So what is left you may ask? Street skating!!!! Rollerblading or inline skating for you older folks.
Yea, so I know the activity has taken a serious dive from the heights of its popularity in the 90’s but there are still a lot of people who do it. So in another judicious attempt to spur our failing economy, I bought some skates and gear and will be rollerblading around downtown Phoenix to get to school. While I have yet to see a single person rollerblading over the two years I have lived in this horrible state (ok, I did see one chick skating around in Chandler), I am, once again, rebuffing all that fits conformity and will be tearing it up urban style in downtown Phoenix, ASU Tempe, and up in Peoria. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: inline, phoenix, rollerblade
I stumbled across this GREAT religion test. Take it and see how much you know!
Religion 101: Final Exam
by Terrence KayeThe author gratefully acknowledges the inspiration provided by E.T. Babinski, Dan Barker, George Carlin, Richard Dawkins,, Sam Harris, Judith Hayes, James Haught, Robert Ingersoll, Adam Lee, John Stuart Mill, Pablo Neruda, Blaise Pascal, Seneca, Julia Sweeney, Jethro Tull, Mark Twain, and Mark Vuletic.
- Which of the following is the most compelling evidence for the existence of an intelligent and loving Designer?
Brandon Ching
12-7-09
PAF 591 - ePA
Net Neutrality and Censorship: Will the Telecommunications Industry Become the Nations Censors?
The issue of network (net) neutrality is a confusing and complex topic that involves technology, law, economy, and ideology. While much of the content and use of the Internet has evolved dramatically over the past 40 to 50 years, the fundamental workings of it have not. Based upon the TCP/IP suite of network communications protocols, the architecture of the Internet, while being greatly expanded, has actually changed very little. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: censorship, Internet, net neutrality, technology
For a long time I have been of the opinion that there is a global ethic that underlies all of humanity. I am a staunch supporter of the idea that morality is a biological and evolutionary construct rather than a religious one. As such, I feel that what Prime Minister Brown speaks of is a very real and actionable cause. He is absolutely right in that the information age has pushed the global ethic to new levels of understanding and appreciation, and as scholars and practitioners of government, it is our responsibility, our ethic, to promote this ideal. Read the rest of this entry »
Taken from: http://www.b937online.com/Tom-Answers-the-Tough-Questions—The-McDonalds-An/1266458
I know a girl who broke up with a guy and she told him she wanted to “still be friends.” He said, “No thanks.” She wondered why he couldn’t fall back to being just friends after they had a romantic relationship. I came up with the “McDonalds Analogy” to try and explain it in a simple way that would help all women understand this tough question.
Imagine if you went to McDonalds a lot and ordered a Big Mac Combo meal. A Big Mac, Large Fries and a Coke. You really like this meal. One day, you pull up to the drivethrough and order the Big Mac Combo meal and the girl tells you, “I’m sorry - you can have the Big Mac and the Coke, but you can’t get fries with that anymore.” You think about this for a moment, and sure - the Big Mac is the centerpiece of the meal, but McDonalds has some really good fries and you like their fries with your meal. So you say, “I’ve been able to get fries with that before, why can’t I have fries with my Big Mac combo anymore?” The girls says, “Well, I just think it is better if you only have the Big Mac and the Coke from here on out.”
At this point, a lot of guys are going to go to Wendy’s or BK and see if they can get fries with their combo at that drivethrough window. But there are some guys who REALLY like McDonalds Big Macs and they might think, “If I keep coming here and ordering the Big Mac and Coke, maybe she’ll change her mind and give me some fries with that later.” So they will keep on getting the combo without the fries until the deal breaker happens: One day that guy is going to order the Big Mac and Coke and then he’s going to pull up a little bit to pay, and someone else is going to pull up to the drivethrough speaker and order the “Big Mac Combo” and he is going to hear the girl say, “Would you like fries with that?”
That’s why guys don’t like to be friends with a girl who breaks up with them.
Tags: breakup, girlfriend, mcdonalds
15
Nov
Book Review - Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power by Sandra Braman
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Loading ...Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power
Sandra Braman
MIT Press
569 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0262513241
In Change of State: Information, Policy, and Power, Sandra Braman presents a wealth of information on perspectives of viewing, interpreting, and managing information policy. Her central thesis is that the United States is evolving from a bureaucratic welfare state into an information state and that this transformation is having negative impacts on citizen interests. Braman details the dynamics of this shift over 500 pages of legal, social, and political analysis all through the frame of information policy as an avenue of power in historical and modern terms. At its base, information is the precursor to power and Change of State makes it clear that information policy is truly the politics of modern power. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: administration, Book Review, braman, change of state, information policy, law
Each of the government web sites in this week’s actions are quite unique. Some seem to be very helpful while others just seem to leave me dazed and confused. The dissemination of government information is not an easy task and the role that these web sites play is rather important. However, as a web developer myself, I have come to take a rather critical view of web sites; especially those whose sole job is to distribute information (as opposed to being interactive). Read the rest of this entry »
Group 2 did our paper on how local government can increase civic participation in the community.
Getting citizens active in civic affairs has been a challenge for many years. Many Americans born into citizenship take the liberal approach to the definition of what it means to be a citizen. Namely, that citizenship is simply a bestowal of rights and liberties. However, the original republican definition of a citizen was self-government or participative governance. Republican citizenship was seen as duty based and forms the backbone for seeking greater civic participation in our communities. Our research looked into how technology can play a role in increasing this civic duty to participate in government and the community.
We began by looking at virtual town hall meetings. Virtual town hall meetings have a number of advantages over traditional meetings in physical space in that there are little facility/space, safety, and time constraints. “Meetings” can last for an indefinite amount of time allowing for greater participation from people who either can or could not attend a physical meeting (e.g. the disabled, elderly, families, etc).
Virtual town hall meetings also allow for a more egalitarian and collective approach to participation and problem solving. Architecture and code for these virtual meetings can be constructed such that each person can contribute their voice to the whole and the information gathered can be easily processed by council members for later consideration.
Another way to increase communication and participation is through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The City of Chandler maintains and is active in both Facebook and Twitter. This has allowed them to engage the community of Chandler in decision making and information distribution. Informal communication is something that was generally not seen very often between government and citizens but as the City of Chandler reports (through personal interviews with one of our group members), social networking sites has permitted this type of highly effective and social capital bridging method of communication.
Finally, e-voting system are another way that technology is engaging citizens. Much recent speculation and research has suggested that the digital revolution and our networked world has the potential to usher in a new ear of e-democracy and even a potential return to direct democracy. While e-voting systems make the job of managing vote counts easier, they also bring the potential for completely online voting systems in the future. Withdrawal from the physical requirements of poll voting, like virtual town halls, allow for a greater number of people to become active civic participants despite our increasingly busy lives. The advent of Internet based e-democracy and possible direct democracy are world changing possibilities and the our position as academics in this evolution of human government is exciting indeed.
Technology has the potential for great good and great evil. But implemented inline with fundamental ideals like the regulation influences outlined by Lessig and backed by normative and scholarly debate by individuals like ourselves, it is exciting to think about the potential that Internet technologies can bring to a new page in greater civic participation.
Article Review
The article I have chosen to briefly talk about this week is regarding the privacy of Google’s Book search. There article is here; it’s short but the issue has been in the news for a few months now and certainly touches on the personal, professional, and private spaces of everyone who will use it (and by my judgment, I would say that a good many people would). The issue at hand is regarding a project by Google to catalog and make searchable/readable as may books as possible online. This includes out-of-print books from hundreds of years past as well as modern best-sellers. Read the rest of this entry »
