rights

Seven Kilometers per Minute

This week I began my interviews. Basically I am going to conduct between 25-30 interview at university libraries all over Sweden. First up were Borås on Wednesday, Linköping on Thursday & Jönköping on Friday. The interviews went very well and it was fun to visit the libraries (pictures on my Flickr account)

The problem with travel in Sweden is that the distances are most easily covered by train and buss but there are too many lakes to be able to travel in straight lines. I have been to places that I have never heard of. This means that:

  • Wednesday – an easy stretch (total 2 hours)
  • Buss: Göteborg – Borås
  • Train: Borås – Göteborg
  • Thursday – delays due to a derailed train (total 8 hours)
  • Train: Göteborg – Katrineholm
  • Buss: Katrineholm – Norrköping
  • Train: Norrköping – Linköping
  • Train: Linköping – Norrköping
  • Buss: Norrköping – Katrineholm
  • Train: Katrineholm – Hällsberg
  • Train: Hällsberg – Göteborg
  • Friday – too much travel, not a happy traveler (total 4 hours)
  • Train: Göteborg – Falköping
  • Train: Falköping – Jönköping
  • Train: Jönköping – Göteborg

The final two hour stretch was sitting next to a young man who smellt really bad, drank beer and had bad teeth. Boy was I happy to get home. At an estimate I have traveled 1400 km in 14 hours over three days for 3,5 hours of interviews. That works out to seven kilometers per minute of interview… Science is an arduous task.

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Some help for the geographically challenged

Posted on by mklang

Sports, Politics and Resistance

Tommie Smith was the winner of the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico. His teammate John Carlos came third.

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“The two American athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty…” Both the americans and the silver medalist wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges. “Carlos had forgotten his black gloves, but Norman suggested that they share Smith’s pair, with Smith wearing the right glove and Carlos the left. When “The Star-Spangled Banner” played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture which became front page news around the world. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd.” Wikipedia

This is a classic image in symbolic resistance which has been an inspiration to all those who struggle.

The coming Chinese Olympics have already been the target of political campaigns. The Chinese civil rights record is a natural target for acts of civil disobedience – whether symbolic or not.

In order to prevent any such things the British Olympic chiefs are going to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China’s appalling human rights record – or face being banned from traveling to Beijing. (Daily Mail)

OK, so maybe there cannot be any official positions taken from the participating countries but to prevent individuals from protesting is going to far. The Chinese naturally see the Olympics as a perfect opportunity to present their position and of course this has not gone unopposed – for example AOL video, RSF, and Yahoo.

Posted on by mklang

The fish in you

Sometimes we focus too much on the advantages or perfection of evolution so that we forget the bits that are left behind. Neil Shubin, head of the University of Chicago’s anatomy school, argues in his new book Your Inner Fish (great title!) the rason we have hiccups is because we’re descended from fish. Here is a quote from a review of the book:

Spasms in our diaphragms, hiccups are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem. Amphibian brain stems emit similar signals, which control the regular motion of their gills. Our brain stems, inherited from amphibian ancestors, still spurt out odd signals producing hiccups that are, according to Shubin, essentially the same phenomenon as gill breathing.

(via Collision Detection)

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Photo: Ålesund Aquarium blue 2 by mrjorgen (CC AT-NC-SA)

Posted on by mklang

Paperless? I think not.

The New York Times has published an article about the demise of paper. The article suggests that the change is not only imminent but it is already here. The usual approach of quoting experts is used in an attempt to show that paper is gone and that only wasteful employees are still printing.

The biggest expert is the family of an engineering director at google and the chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The latter however sort of diminishes the general upbeat article by admitting that scanned books are not as pleasant as the old fashioned alternative.

So yes we like paperless tickets and nobody understands why we need to kill forests to print telephone books (but not many seem to be complaining about the Ikea catalogue) but does this mean we are paperless? Looking around my desk I think not. Maybe I am not representative. Looking around the office I still don’t think so. Maybe we are not representative? Looking around the places I live and hang out – I still don’t think so…

Somehow the paperless office still has not made it. It never did. And I doubt that it ever will. Yes, lots of people are prepared to read books on their palms but not all (read excellent article on this here). Lets face it, paper is here to stay. It simply has the best traits…

The article is not all bad though and it does bring up the environmental issues involved with changing from paper to all the electronic gadgets.

Others who have commented on the article are Question Technology, Treehugger and LifeHacker

Posted on by mklang

Web2.0 & Resistance

It is easy to recognize the potential social benefits of web2.0 networking sites. This may be why when they are flooded with pointless, time-consuming trivia the frustration of some is quick to rise to the surface.

This is why, despite (or maybe because of) widespread popularity people tend to question (I have written here) the value of Facebook and other sites, for example Hodgkinson of the Guardian, have argued eloquently against it on a wide range of arguments.

And yet occasionally it is interesting to see that the organizational potential of these site are put to a use beyond the goal of replacing quality with quantity, deep friendship with networks.

The idea of the protests against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, was born less than a month ago on the social networking Web site Facebook, and more than 100,000 people in 165 cities around the world confirmed their participation. (CNN)

Their are many stories told of the utility of social networking sites and some of them are bound to be true. And yet it is difficult to keep from becoming cynical. An apocryphal tale I heard recently was about a conversation between two young adults overheard on a bus:

First young adult: I have joined Amnesty.

Second young adult: Thats great! Is that a cause or a group*

—

* If this makes no sense to you then you are probably not on Facebook

Posted on by mklang

Charges against the Pirate Bay

Almost two years after the raid on the Pirate Bay the prosecutor is now pressing charges against four of the people behind the operation. They are charged with aiding copyright violation and preparing to aid copyright violation. The four are being sued for over 1 million Swedish crowns reports IDG.se (in Swedish).

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the Pirate Bay logo today

Posted on by mklang

Interns to the Open Rights Group

The Open Rights Group is looking for summer interns. If you have the time and inclination this is a really worthwhile pursuit.

Are you a student thinking ahead to the long summer months? Are you itching to contribute to an exciting and socially beneficial cause? If you fit this bill and are interested in computer science, politics, law or culture online then come and intern for Open Rights Group.

The Open Rights Group works to  raise awareness in the media of digital rights abuses and to protect digital rights online.

Posted on by mklang

Eight hours

Eight hours lecturing in two days. My mind is going, my feet hurt, my throat is raw… This is why lecturing is a cool sport.

No energy left for real blogging so I will leave you with this picture of another sign I saw in Brussels…

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picture fundamental right by Klang (CC by)

the sign is intriguing since it this was the only fundamental right they seemed to feel the need to inform the passers by about…

Posted on by mklang

Back to the boob tube

Since moving into my new apartment in April last year I have been without a television. It has been an interesting experience. I cannot say that I have grown intellectually and developed new pursuits. What I can say is that it’s a pain to watch films on a laptop all the time.

Yesterday I finally left the non-tv owning quasi luddite group and became mainstream. I bought a tv!

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the shiny boob tube

Today I began paying my tv license and supporting public service again…

Posted on by mklang