Monthly Archives: July 2004

House of Commons and Scientific Publishing

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The BBC reports on a study by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee:

It advises the government to consider allocating funds to universities and other organisations to create online repositories where their research can be stored, and viewed by the public free of charge.

This is one solution to the problem, but not necessarily the best one. It is going to take some gradual change to make this happen. What I find refreshing about this story is that it really is an issue to the House of Commons and that the government in the UK is really looking after its own interest, which is to say the public interest, rather than jumping into bed with big business from the outset. The government pays for this research through taxpayer money and the elected officials actually show an interest in looking after their investment. Compare that to the culture of corporate subsidy and handouts we have here in the US.

Of course, who knows what is going to happen with this report…

ham jello

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This is seriously funny. Even more so because I recall as an undergraduate some discussion of excess ham at Networks being used to make ham smoothies. After reading this I will always think of the dinosaurs being killed off by a giant fat man on fire crashing into the earth.

Update: On poking around, I see that this has been posted on Crooked Timber as well.

sweatshop athletes

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Via CraigBlog (of Craigslist fame):

The theme of the 2004 summer Olympic Games is “celebrate humanity,” yet the workers who make the gear and clothing for the upcoming Olympics suffer terribly inhumane working conditions and have few rights. Workers in official Olympic manufacturer Fila’s factories endure forced overtime, get fined for mistakes they make, and are intimidated out of joining trade unions. This is no way to celebrate humanity!

You can read Oxfam’s view and see how companies took the news, and then sign the petition if you so feel like it.

slum economies

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I read an article in today’s BBC news about a magazine by and for slum dwellers in India. It’s different from the Street Spirit/Spare Change/other publications by the homeless that you see in the states, because the target audience is not the guilt-ridden middle class. It reminds me of a paper I read about “Serving The World’s Poor, Profitably, which made the claim that slums have functional economies on their own and that companies, rather than treating slums as a problem to be solved by the goverment, can instead provide services and goods to slum dwellers, improving their standard of living, while at the same time making (some) profit. When I first read it, it seemed exploitative, but now I’m wondering if market forces really can make substantial differences in the quality of life for the urban poor.

Part of what helped change my mind was hearing a talk about Project Impact, which tries to develop cheaper manufacturing methods for medical technologies and spin those off to companies in India. These things make me wish I did more socially redeeming engineering work.