Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-12-2008

[andrewducker]

• Why asset bubbles are a part of the human condition.
  Because people naturally try to beat the system, take time to realise that bad things can happen if they take risks, and throw away what they've learned if the situation changes slightly.
  (tags: research psychology finance science markets trading)
• Why the IWF was wrong to lift its ban on a Wikipedia page
  Interesting piece on OUT-LAW. Which I expect a fair chunk of you to disagree with, but it is well worth a read.
  (tags: UK internet censorship)
• NumberSpiral.com
  Made my head hurt - but in a good way.
  (tags: visualization mathematics maths tutorial numbers)
• Actor cuts throat on Vienna stage
  Acting - dngrs bsns
  (tags: acting unlikely)

Comments

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

THe IWF piece is interesting. I think the points it makes in favor of transparency and banning specific images instead of whole pages are on point.

I have a problem with censorship on the internet but, if a country's government feels as though it must be done, I'd much rather it be done with transparency and as little interference as possible by a reliable organization. The lesser of two evils, you know?

[drplokta]

The main problem with the IWF's action was not the censorship of the image, or even of the page, but that they did it in a technically ham-fisted manner that interfered with the relationship between the client and the server for every Wikipedia page loaded by every user on the affected networks. If they'd just done it properly, there would have been almost no fuss.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Technically that was the ISPs that implemented the IWF's blacklist. The IWF merely provide a list of sites to block, but yes, the whole thing was a massive technical cock-up and it's the fact that the ISPs cover up the blocking with faked 404-errors that bugs me more than the fact they blocked Wiki in particular. That and the blocks were stupidly easy to circumvent.

AS I read elsewhere (and I cringe at using the terms but..), the IWF is a Web 1.0 solution to a Web 2.0 problem.

[andrewducker]

I'm generally in agreement. If they just knocked out individual images then I'd have much fewer qualms.

If they did so in a transparent manner, making it clear that the connection had been blocked (rather than 404ing) I'd have no problems with it at all.

[meihua.livejournal.com]

Thankyou - I especially enjoyed the asset bubble article. Research on human behaviour like that routinely fascinates me. We're so daft!

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Yes, me too!

I do enjoy your psychology and economics links - you find cool stuff I'm too lazy to track down for myself.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

Those number spirals are wonderfully elegant. There's something about finding patterns in mathematics that always makes my marvel at the universe's beautiful subtleties.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

The asset bubble article was neat, I think that's the same sort of thing I was trying to get at before, about how people want in on the bubble even though they know it's coming, but tend to get cautious after they've gotten caught in the crash.

Which makes me think that's the reason why we don't see repeat bubbles for most things that aren't continuously sold assets. We might see a 2nd or 3rd tech bubble, and we'll always see housing bubbles, but we'll never again see a tulip bubble.

As for the IWF, I haven't finished thinking about it, but I think censorship offends my morality. Even on a practical level, I tend to support things that challenge laws like censorship and copyright. My attitude is probably inline with the sort of "violent revolution as a useful tool" attitudes of people like Che Guevara, but that's also because my ideas aren't yet refined. I think stealing music is great if it helps stop the copyright juggernaut.

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

Interesting article on the IWF. I agree with the point about transparency.

I think one of the key differences between censorship in a democratic society and censorship in a more oppresive regime has to be that the public by and large agrees on what is acceptable and that this is communicated. This allows for healthy debate on grey areas and ensures that the channels of communication remain open.

I'm not sure how I feel about the image in question, though I also think the album title has a bearing on this.

I had written a bit more, but it's a controverial topic, so all I'll say is that pornography and child pornography in particular is horribly difficult to define. I start from a basis that nudity is not inherently sexual in adults or children, but that does lead to a lot of grey areas.