current events as a learning experience

Just listening to a discussion on CBC Radio One regarding a recent announcement that the US is considering pre-emptive nuclear strikes against 9 countries in the world (three of which -- Iran, Iraq and North Korea -- are included in Bush's so-called Axis of Evil). Among other things, this statement appears to signify that the US is going against the spirit of a statement of intent issued by the United Nations Security Council in 2000 regarding the total elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide.

But that last part doesn't bother me as much as does the spirit of the statement itself. For example, by including countries such as Russia on this list (which has recently made great contributions to Russo-American relations since September 11th), it appears that Bush and Cheney are living in the past. I mean, we're supposed to be friends with Russia now, aren't we? The Cold War is over now, for God's sake - what's making them disregard the inherent reality of this situation?

Maybe I shouldn't phrase it like that - it connotes that I have an understanding of the "inherent reality of this situation" that they do not. I don't think that's true. But I do think that Americans should give some serious thought to how they vote the next time they go to the polls (as have hopefully the members of the Canadian Alliance last week). Due to the power of the USA, Americans have a responsibility to the world to elect their leaders more carefully than they did in the past election. Hopefully in the next election, the government will be elected by a clear majority as opposed to a 50% split like last time. (By the way, has anybody seen the results of the Florida recounts from the last presidential election? Oh yeah, that's right - the networks decided not to do it in the end, didn't they? I guess it wasn't in the public interest to know, either.)

At any rate, that election is another few years away, and we all know how much easier it is to be elected as an incumbent - particularly when something really big goes down during the term (I think September 11th qualifies). Instead, I think I'd like to take this opportunity to observe a moment of silence in order to return to the present moment. Thinking about the rest of my day today, I know I have a number of things to do before I go to bed tonight, so I'm going to start working on those right now. I won't give much more thought to the news after writing this. For me personally, the news doesn't reflect what's happening in my own day-to-day life, so I don't like to make it a primary attention focus.

Having said that, it's sure interesting to follow as a pastime. It also provides a wealth of real-life situations to use as development tools for our critical thinking skills. I'll no doubt want to discuss politics with our own children in large part for that reason. Hopefully, these exercises could also help them learn how to be emotionally detached in life. God knows that listening to Bush's speeches reminds me of the value in being detached. He's certainly not detached.

That, or else he's just a blooming idiot.

vyoma's on fire; new vision for Flooz

Don't miss vyoma's most recent article here. I correctly identified it as ATOB, aka A Thing Of Beauty. What you'll read is good enough to pay for.

Pay for, pay for... Could we create a new electronic currency that was somehow tied to content on the web? For example, when you upload content to the network you get credited, and when you download it, you get debited? Participants could agree to have their content subjected to a rating and weighting system (designed by a statistician) that would assign appropriate values to different types and amounts of content. Participants in the system could then "purchase" services or information via the web from the "content credits" that they had previously earned through other means.

Okay, now don't tell me what's wrong with this idea. Tell me what could work about it. Would you use it? How would you address copyright?

URL for article re Florida recounts

Here's a link to one of the first hits about this topic:

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/florida.ballots/stories/main.html