Jonathan Brun

Agreements with Natives in Canada and Australia

Natives.

The way we (Canada) treat (some of our) natives:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070813.wnunavik13/BNStory/National/

And the Australians:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/22/news/outback.php

The Australians seem set on ‘telling’ the aborigines what is good and bad. Their hard handed approach smacks of colonialism and the white man’s burden to transfer our glorious way of life to the locals.

Canada, has made significant steps to transferring genuine authority to the natives in the hopes that they will slowly develop the skill set which is required for a civil society and self-governance. We have also started giving ‘one-time’ transfers of cash and ruling out future transfers; thus, forcing the natives to become self-reliant. This is the most logical and low-cost method of dealing with the natives in Canada.

Perhaps helping their communities enter the 21st century will absolve some of the crimes we committed.

Another Thought on Open-Source

Is regular society a form of knowledge sharing? The difference between general society and open-source is the ease with which you can obtain information.

If we break down Leadbeater‘s assertions on the essential components of successful open-source software we can draw the following parallels:

• Ease of access to information = schools, universities, libraries…
• Central network to create links = rule of law, courts
• Ability to test theories and be accepted by the community = capitalism, supply & demand…

Though we may not realize it, we are all indirectly contributing to the forward movement of society. Ultimately it is not a zero-sum game, meaning that regardless of appearances we are actually making progress.

Even apparent steps backwards – war, genocide, famine – are actually contributing to the forward movement because we learn from our mistakes and better our behaviour (usually).

The access to telephone service is a fundamental factor to economic growth and thus the improvement of society. One of the driving forces behind Africa’s improvement (yes, they are improving) is the cellular telephone. Here we see the number of telephones per 1000 people in relation to Income per capita. There is a very strong trend of increasing GDP per capita with more access to information and communication (telephones). Not the other way around – more telephones with more GDP.

Internet Users with relation to Life expectancy. We see the tremendous growth in access to internet – perhaps the best tool for information transmition – between 1990 and 2004. In the similar vein to telephones, internet is tied to GDP and to other forward movements – democracy, life expectancy, low child mortality…

Everything is connected.

The Insane Artist

Just saw the Bruce Nauman exhibit in Montreal.

Very cool stuff. I repeatedly fail to understand modern art. It seems to be the sane observing the insane artist with little hope of truly understanding their madness that created the ‘art’.

Can a doctor understand, or worse – cure – insanity? What do I understand of Nauman, Kerouac, Duchamp, Ginsberg, …. except that they existed over the edge and looked back at us.

That being said, Nauman’s work is definitely worth seeing and you should check out the exhibit before it closes.

More Global Warming Zealots

Building on Dyson’s Heretics article, here is a piece about the various players who hate global warming skeptics (read NOT deniers).

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/15/opinion/edjacoby.php?page=1

Interesting article on P/E Ratios

Here is an interesting article on Graham and Dodd's (Warren Buffet Mentor)
P/E ratio philosophy. They argue the ratio should be taken over a longer
period than the current 12 months. This fits well with Nicholas Taleeb's
philosophy of being fooled by randomness.

Long Term Long Term Long Term.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/14/business/view.php?page=1