On Science Daily there is a report of a German study on the harmful effects on non-drinking third persons. This research shows that alcohol was involved with 45.1 percent of traffic fatalities and about 15 percent of the cases of interpersonal violence.
This study is yet another confirmation of our position that the government should discourage the consumption of alcohol as a matter of health and public security policy and that it should be treated like other controlled substances.
In this installment we will discuss paragraphs I-3 to I-4. In these paragraphs Machiavelli discusses the relationship between the plebs and the patricians, the two classes into which Roman citizens were divided. Continue reading Machiavelli’s Discourses and Space Settlements – part 3
This proposal combines Richard Stallman’s suggestion for a progressive business tax with Bernard Lietaer’s ECO-plan. We will first discuss both proposal separately and subsequently we will discuss a (possible) combination of both. Continue reading Stallman-Lietaer “Tax”
When you go outside is hard not to notice public advertisements: billboards, bus stops, on buses themselves and so on. In fact there is a lot of advertising in our public spaces. Continue reading Public advertisement
In many parliamentary democracies there is a procedure known as parliamentary inquiry. On the English website of the Dutch parliament this described as:
The parliamentary committee of inquiry is a particular type of temporary committee of the House. The parliamentary inquiry is the most powerful instrument the Dutch parliament has at its disposal to carry out its duty to scrutinize the work of the Government. Continue reading Citizen’s inquiry
Water is essential for human life and hence a primary concern for space settlements. Pure or demineralized water is not suitable for human consumption. Therefore the composition of tap water is of great importance. Continue reading Tap water composition
There is a lot of confusion on the web regarding the words illegal and criminal. Many people seem to believe that these words are synonymous and interchangeable but they are not. Especially many people are apparently clueless whether breach of contract is illegal or not.
Short answer: breach of contract is illegal. However, it is often not a criminal offense. Continue reading Illegal vs criminal
Free software advocate Richard M. Stallman is critical of the concept of software as a service (SaaS), which he instead refers to as Service as Software Substitute (SaSS). In order to understand his objections to SaaS/SaSS, we need to know the four freedoms RMS champions:
In the world of SaaS software is run on the hardware owned and controlled by the service provider. This is rather obviously contrary to the third and fourth freedom. However, there are also tensions with the first two freedoms.
As SaaS is run on a remote server rather than on the user’s own hardware, the user has little control on how the software is actually run. Depending on the provider’s policies, users might or might not be able to change certain configuration settings. Also putting one’s files on the hardware of another, creates privacy concerns.
Nevertheless SaaS has like other cloud computing concepts like IaaS and PaaS, offer certain benefits to its users. Especially in case of small and medium-sized businesses, cloud computing can offer levels of security that would be too expensive or too complicated to achieve by SMEs on their own.
Yet the fact remains that cloud computing makes business owners dependent upon a few multinational corporations. Combined with high thresholds for moving from one provider to another, will reduce consumer power to force cloud providers to change their policies.
As an alternative to current cloud solutions, we propose the establishments of cloud cooperatives. For starters a cooperative is a business that is owned and controlled by its members, either workers or consumers rather than by shareholders. In this case the cloud cooperative will be owned by its users.
User-members will pay membership fees, not unlike current subscription fees, however, unlike commercial cloud providers, the members will also be to appoint and dismiss the cooperative’s management. On its turn the management will hire people to maintain to cooperative’s infrastructure.
In contrast with commercial cloud providers the members of the cloud cooperative will own all of the infrastructure collectively. And even though most day-to-day decisions will be made by the management, the members will have the final say in all matters.
In line with our commitment to free and open source software we obviously propose that these cloud cooperatives should exclusively use FOSS. Hence a part of the funds should be used to fund the development and maintenance of software.
Ideally cloud cooperatives should be organized on a regional basis, i.e. members will be located in the same general area and its data-centers should also be located in the area where the cooperative operates. Local cooperatives could organize themselves into national or global associated in order to share the costs of certain software projects.
Science Daily reports three studies I would like to pay attention to:
The Guardian has an opinion piece by Julia Ebner on how conspiracy theories undermine democracy. She mainly focus on the role of non-transparent algorithms used by platforms like YouTube in spreading conspiracy theories. Though we agree with her on that those algorithms should be transparent and the conspiracy theories are harmful to society, we are missing a fundamental piece. Continue reading On conspiracies
