We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Australia is not famous for higher education. Indeed, “Australia” and “Higher education” would strike most people as an oxymoron in the “French Military Victory” class.
Needless to say, the Australian Government has long tried to nudge Australia’s university system towards some sort of quality, and has permitted private Universities to be established. In addition, the government has encouraged students from overseas to pay their way through Australian universities, as a way for universities here to raise money.
Recently, the government has also allowed Australians to enter universities by paying their own way.
This move towards a more financially sustainable education system has not been well received by many members of the Australian academic ecosystem. One of whom has put together a rather amusing parody website which takes a humorous potshot at trends in Australian university education.
Underling the parody is the normal assumtion that anything in the private sector must be inferior, and that any private qualification must obviously be worthless as it can be bought.
But the site has caused a bit of a flurry of attention in various educational quarters in Australia, and one consultant has been tracking the progress of this satirical site.
This recalls to me the time, long ago now, when I was studying like a demon in order to obtain the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) qualification, back in the dark days when networking involved lots of wires. As it was, I was dating a university student at the time and she was appalled that I had to acheive an 85% score to pass and obtain the qualification. She was doing sociology or something of that ilk in a Melbourne university and told me smugly that she only needed to score 55% to pass. Easy for her, but who do you think knew their subject better? After all, Cisco had a real stake in me being proficient in knowing how to use their product.
Thanks to Professor John Kersey for alerting us to these sites.
Anatole Kaletsky, the economics journalist who, despite a fondness for Keynsianism, is one of my favourite columnists, believes Italy’s departure from the euro and possible re-creation of the lira is a real possibility, one that needs to be taken with deadly seriousness by financial markets. He says the financial fallout from an Italian divorce could be disastrous:
While detailed consideration of these arguments is probably premature, the practical implication is clear: If the possibility of an Italian withdrawal were ever taken seriously by the markets, foreign holders of Italy’s €1.5 trillion public debt would face enormous losses, big enough to endanger the solvency of many non-Italian banks. In other words, the Italian Government is now in a position to kill the euro and wreck the European banking system merely by threatening to withdraw.
I think he is correct. As I said in my last posting about Hayek’s idea of competing currencies operating inside the same country, it is folly to imagine that the cult of the all-wise central banker will not come a cropper some time or later. Many Italian entrepreuneurs might be very glad indeed of an alternate store of value if that country does indeed pull the plug on the euro.
Some scare stories deserve to be ridiculed but I think Kaletsky is on to something. Between now and the Italian national polls next year, it would be smart to keep a very close eye on the euro zone financial markets indeed.
(Thanks to the Adam Smith Institute blog for the pointer. It reaches pretty similar conclusions).
Paul Staines says Sony should welcome Brits buying Playstations before their UK release.
European video-gamers who buy the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) will be surprised to find out that Sony is suing the retailers who sold it to them.
Not yet formally launched in Europe, the eagerly awaited PSP can be bought online from Hong Kong dealer Lik-Sang.com, a leading online retailer for videogame systems. Sony, in an aggressive tactic borrowed from Big Pharma’s lawyers, is suing the parallel trader for breach of trade mark and seeks a court order that would prevent Lik-Sang.com from selling or offering systems, games and accessories to customers in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA). Sony claims “Lik-Sang’s sales are an unlawful interference with Sony’s economic interests.”
Pascal Clarysse, Marketing Manager for Lik-Sang.com says:
This is the most aggressive move against its own customers that a console manufacturer has ever taken in the 30 year history of videogames. Sony wants to completely cut hardcore gamers away from items released in Japan or anywhere else outside their own country. A very active part of the gaming community has been enjoying Japanese gaming culture for over two decades, and that’s what the Empire is now willing to destroy.
The lawsuit comes as a total surprise to Lik-Sang.com, given that the laws of Hong Kong are clear when it comes to parallel trade. Hong Kong’s legislation is based on the fact that allowing parallel and free trade will restore natural competition and benefit consumers with lower prices. Hong Kong, one of the pioneering countries respecting worldwide exhaustion of trademark rights, allows free trade once an item has entered the market for sale.
Sony wants to control its products even after it has sold them, but that is not how the globalized world works today. Sony should be pleased that the demand from UK customers is so great. Instead of acting against its fans’ interests, they should welcome the early demand.
Way to go, Pret A Manger! The food is good, too.
Odd, how the meaning of a term changes over time. To people over a certain age (which age is likely less than my own), “gaming” refers to gambling, wagering, betting, etc. To the younger set, gaming refers to video and computer games.
Which games are likely to drive a larger market than the movie industry, real soon now. Numbers are notoriously hard to come by, given Hollywood’s penchant for lying, cheating and stealing, but already the gaming industry is probably roughly on par with the movie industry, in terms of revenue.
I have had a pet theory, based as they usually are entirely on projection, that what really drives home computer sales is computer games. The vast majority of home computer users will run no software that is even remotely as demanding as a computer game, and certainly nothing that requires a dedicated sound and video card. If all I did was email/word processing/spreadsheets, I would still be using my third computer ago. Speaking from personal experience, and in the fond hope that my wife does not read this, I know what has motivated me, on at least three occasions, to announce that our current computer was junk and urgently needed replacement.
I will leave to others to expound on the social and spiritual significance of the emerging “Gamer Nation.” With the new laptop in hand, and Warhammer loaded, updated, and ready to rock and roll*, I have better things to do.
*enter birthday, play movie.
Its enough to make you believe in parallel universes colliding, or something:
Doctors fear that the identity of a mysterious mute pianist found wandering on an English beach in April might never be known, a British newspaper reported on Monday.
[snip]
The so-called “Piano Man”, a tall blonde-haired stranger thought to be in his 20s or early 30s, was found on April 7 on the beach at Minster, on the south coast of England, soaking wet but fully dressed in a black suit and tie, with no clue as to his origin.
He has not spoken since and has not responded to written appeals while being kept under observation in the psychiatric hospital.
But he has fascinated social workers, the British media and the general public over his one means of communication: playing classical piano music.
When given a pencil and paper by hospital staff, he drew a grand piano — and then, when shown a piano at the hospital chapel, he impressed his carers with a remarkable virtuoso performance.
There are no leads.
Now, I am an imaginative guy, and I work with a major inner city hospital where all kinds of strange shit comes down, but I have a hard time coming up with any scenario at all that would explain this one.
Arnold Kling has brief thoughts here about the phenomenon of air miles. The “bonus” miles one accumulates due to air travel now equate to about $700 billion of value, according to a study that Kling cites. That is a lot of money. He is not very keen on air miles, largely it seems because he dislikes the way that dinner table companions go on about them. I know how he feels. An acquaintance of mine, who shall remain nameless, would constantly brag about how many air miles he got via Virgin or whatever… zzzzzz
On a more serious note however, one can see how some people might want to treat the air miles market as a sort of parallel currency. $700 billion dollars worth of air miles could buy one a lot of goods and services, conceivably, if exchanged by barter. Clearly they are highly restricted in terms of liquidity, the key advantage of money. But during a period of high inflationary stress, I could see how air miles could become quite popular as a medium of exchange.
The idea of competitive currencies is often rightly associated with the late F.A. Hayek. The idea seems to have gone rather quiet of late. Perhaps because we currently live in a period of relatively low inflation, the fears about the dangers of monopoly money and hubristic central banks have faded. It would be highly complacent, however, to assume that the current benign low-inflation environment will last forever. These things seldom do. Hayek’s idea may be ready for a comeback.
At first sight, this story is incomprehensible.
Secret terror courts considered
Special courts sitting in secret for pre-trial hearings in terror cases are being considered by the Home Office.
Forget the justice of the process–secret hearings with Home Office-selected advocates and judges–for a moment. What would the value of this be? If an actual trial must still take place under normal conditions, what’s wrong with normal committal proceedings, which rarely require much in the way of presentation of evidence?
There must be a prosecutorial advantage to be had, now or later, or the Home Office would not consider it. Is this a staging post to something more? A piece of impossible kite-flying for some bait-and-switch? Or is it a way to evade other procedural safeguards?
(A speculative example of the last: The Special Judge says there’s a case to answer. The accused is remanded in custody. A trial will take place when the prosecution is ready. Reporting restrictions are in place, to avoid prejudicing a future trial. But further evidence-gathering takes a very long time. In effect one has indeterminate imprisonment with a radically lowered burden of proof. There may be no opportunity to test the evidence. But there can be no public disquiet. No one will care, because next to no one will know–and those who do will be bound to secrecy.)
As a scientist and a practical man, I’m against manned-space flight; as a human being I’m in favour.
– Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, interviewed on Today this morning
The Independent (or ‘Al-Independent’ as some of us like to call that bastion of Islamo-fascist apologists) has an article predicting nothing less than a full blown domestic Islamic insurgency in Britain.
Whilst clearly we have a problem, I really do not buy The Independent’s scenario as presented, implying that the 100,000 or so “totally militarised” Muslims in Britain from various hotspots are just raring and ready to make large parts of the country into no-go areas. However I guess we will know who is correct soon enough.
“So what can Britain learn from Pakistan about fighting home-grown terrorists? Newsnight interviews President Musharraf”
– Martha Kearney.
Let us hope Gordon Brown was not watching, eh?
Hate the idea of ID cards? Do not keep your views to yourself.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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