"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations."
— George Orwell (via philphys)
(via emergentfutures)
To those who Occupy: We stand with you.
We, the Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors, compelled by our personal convictions and our Company’s mission and values, wish to express our deepest admiration to all of you who have initiated the non-violent Occupy Wall Street Movement and to those around the country who have joined in solidarity. The issues raised are of fundamental importance to all of us. These include:
- The inequity that exists between classes in our country is simply immoral.
- We are in an unemployment crisis. Almost 14 million people are unemployed. Nearly 20% of African American men are unemployed. Over 25% of our nation’s youth are unemployed.
- Many workers who have jobs have to work 2 or 3 of them just to scrape by.
- Higher education is almost impossible to obtain without going deeply in debt.
- Corporations are permitted to spend unlimited resources to influence elections while stockpiling a trillion dollars rather than hiring people.
We know the media will either ignore you or frame the issue as to who may be getting pepper sprayed rather than addressing the despair and hardships borne by so many, or accurately conveying what this movement is about. All this goes on while corporate profits continue to soar and millionaires whine about paying a bit more in taxes. And we have not even mentioned the environment.
We know that words are relatively easy but we wanted to act quickly to demonstrate our support. As a board and as a company we have actively been involved with these issues for years but your efforts have put them out front in a way we have not been able to do. We have provided support to citizens’ efforts to rein in corporate money in politics, we pay a livable wage to our employees, we directly support family farms and we are working to source fairly traded ingredients for all our products. But we realize that Occupy Wall Street is calling for systemic change. We support this call to action and are honored to join you in this call to take back our nation and democracy.
— Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors(via Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream)
American indignados, raise!
(via emergentfutures)
"Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It’s expected to be there, but it’s not that important."
— John D. Carmack
"I can’t go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu."
— Donald Knuth
rms on free software, social networks, porn and media sharing
"It’s stupidity. It’s worse than stupidity: it’s a marketing hype campaign."
— Richard Stallman
Some text
This is a text post
One SMS here, one tweet there. Our collective knowledge holds the key to what is really going on in our communities. Ushahidi enables the citizens of Atlanta to report crimes for the whole city to see. And the remarkable combination of map, mobile and social media unveils the truth about Atlanta’s neighborhoods.
Just another Ushahidi project - changing the world, one map at a time.
"Ocurre lo mismo en el caso de la probabilidad de las causas que en la del azar."
— David Hume
Quantum computer chips pass key milestones
From ACM TechNews
University of California, Santa Barbara researchers have developed a quantum computer design based on superconducting electrical circuits that adds a more sustainable method to completing quantum calculations. Previously, quantum systems using photons or trapped ions as qubits have had the most success in solving advanced calculations, but the Santa Barbara researchers used tiny, superconducting wires to build the system. The researchers, led by Matteo Mariantoni, used a chip embedded with tiny loops of wire made from aluminum and rhenium. The researchers cooled the wires to a temperature very close to absolute zero, creating electrons coupled into “cooper pairs.” The pairs were forced to resonate in unison, making them act like qubits. The researchers were able to move some quantum information from one qubit wire to another, thus entangling the qubits. The researchers also were able to use the system to develop a Toffoil OR phase gate, which is an important step towards building codes that perform quantum error correction. “The beautiful thing about a solid circuit is that it’s something you can write using lithographic technology,” says University of Queensland researcher Andrew White.
(Source: newscientist.com)
