society - Is this thing on?

Posts tagged with "society"

Crisis, what crisis?

Friday, 13. June 2008, 18:18:20

So the Irish vote was "Lisbon nil points". An interesting state for this virtual superstate I'm living in. The Lisbon treaty isn't necessary for the EU to continue, which may be seen as a good thing as Lisbon is dead.

The only way it can be revived is if the Irish somehow decide to change their collective minds. How likely do you think that is? Discussion at the forum.

While constitutionally the EU treaties isn't getting anywhere fast, the European countries and people are growing more integrated. Maybe it is time for the EU to swap the bike for a more stable vehicle,

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The evolution of language

Thursday, 10. April 2008, 08:55:33

society, past, culture, literacy ...

There have been many language threads and digressions; I should know, I have participated in most of them. Maybe it's time to start talking about talking: What is language, where did it come from and for what reason? How do languages compete, cooperate, coopt each other? Where are they going? Is one language better than another? What about dialects, sociolects, idiolects, jargon?

Follow the discussion here

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More science, religion, ethics, and peer reviews

Saturday, 15. March 2008, 16:05:21

internet, society, science, the forums

It seems to be science week at the Debates & Discussions forum, and of course I couldn't resist butting in, be it peer-reviewed sinful science, or the study of armageddon.

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2nd Annual Street Conversion Design Contest

Wednesday, 26. September 2007, 09:00:13

architecture, society, city

I wonder how cities will change in the 21st century, and believe that it will generally be for the better. That is a good thing given that most people will be city dwellers. One problem which I expect to be solved is traffic as an environmental problem. As travel becomes relatively cheaper and more convenient (which I think it will in the long run) people will travel longer and more often, so the time spent travelling won't decrease even though the injury caused by it hopefully will.

Assuming that the car will retreat from ever-larger parts of our cities, that gives us an interesting problem, what shall we do with the spaces thus liberated? If you go to a city like Copenhagen many central streets seem curiously overdimensioned when the cars are largely gone. Of course there were streets long before there were cars, but in the middle part of last century the city plans were often designed for the car. What can best be done with streets like this when vacated by cars? The traffic and pollution might be gone, but the street is still not an integrated part of the city, and cities abhor empty spaces.

That makes some rationale for a design competion.

The value of human-scaled carfree areas is increasingly appreciated, both among urbanists and the general public. Yet how can we transform existing areas to create lively people-oriented spaces free of traffic?

Through our 2nd Annual Street Conversion Design Contest, we are challenging architects, artists and ordinary citizens from around the world to design carfree spaces from formerly car-oriented spaces. And where possible, we're also encouraging people to realise the designs on the ground. Update: Thanks to a grant from Artists' Project Earth, we are able to do further global outreach to announce this year's contest more widely. Therefore the deadline has been extended to November 15, 2007. The grant has also allowed us to offer cash prizes of €100-200.

The principle is that street space was once used for both transport and human interaction. But with the arrival of the automobile, street space has become monopolised by cars and other vehicles, resulting in a loss of community and livability. This competition aims to reintroduce a level of humanity to the streetscape, both on paper and by encouraging lasting on-the-ground initiatives.

We are asking participants to design carfree spaces from formerly car-oriented spaces, in three categories

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How the Internet has changed

Friday, 5. May 2006, 07:16:55

past, culture, technology, network ...

A Debates & Discussions forum thread:

How has the Internet changed (or changed your life)? How will it change in you lifetime?

I can recall as a kid in the seventh grade, in Montreal Quebec, in our computer science class we had access to a time-sharing computer based somewhere else in the country. The method of data input/output was an enormous Telex teletype machine that sounded like a jackhammer when printing. [...] My vision of the future for Internet is not all rosy. [...] What I'm sure of is that the Internet will continue to become part of our lifestyle and those who are Internet illiterate will slowly be left behind as progress marches steadily on. [...] I invite any and all to send their ideas.

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More revolution or evolution

Wednesday, 24. November 2004, 20:45:30

Europe, society, Ukraine

It was too tempting to stay away from and nobody has been able to. An election where the liberal pro-Europe candidate was predicted the winner by the exit poll, but the incumbent is declared the winner in a process where the election itself got the most of the attention, leaving the country split by geography. On deeper inspection the candidates aren't as different as presented by their propagandists, but the differences that remain are still real.

Ukraine is the biggest country in Europe by area (if you disqualify Russia as Eurasian) and among the largest by population. Even though it has been peripheral in the grand power schemes of the continent (as its name indicates), it is simply too large to ignore.

The fall of the Soviet Union did not mean a fall in corruption. Ukraine has been more thoroughly pillaged than Russia, and is now seen as the 19th most corrupt country in the world according to one index. Elections are never completely fair anywhere, among other things they usually favour the incumbent, and if they can be manipulated they will. But in this case the system isn't just bent, it is crooked, and the Ukrainians deserve better.

I think these last months have been good for Ukraine, on the principle of "one more push". Ukraine and even Russia have conditional democracy, democracy with flaws. There may not be a velvet or rose revolution, but discounting a Yugoslavia breakdown and doubting a Belorus path, any change will be for the better.

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It's Prague Gypsy week

Thursday, 27. May 2004, 14:00:46

Czechia, society, nations

Or to be far more accurate, World Roma Festival. This is the same week Lidové Noviny had a notice that the recently published book Psychologie Romů (The Roma psychology), which among other things claims that Roma have smaller brains than non-Roma, is under police investigation for racism. And Týden in an article on Czech likes and dislikes (for inexplicable reasons illustrated with two semi-nude girls) quoted a 2001 STEM poll
"Who would you consider as problem free neighbours?" with the following results:
Slovaks: 90%
French: 71%
Americans: 64%
Jews: 57%
Czechs*: 48%
Germans: 48%
Russians: 22%
Vietnamese: 15%
Roma: 9%
Big city Czech were more neighbourly, while communists were more hostile.
* The Czechs weren't Czechs in general, but from re-immigrants from the Czech minority in Ukraine, and seemingly just as bad as Germans and five times as likely to be troublesome as Slovaks, the Czechs' favourite neighbours.

Strikingly, but not surprisingly, only 1 in 11 would be untroubled with Roma neighbours. Czechs have always topped anti-Roma sentiments in all European polls (though neither Czechs nor Hungarians have much anti-Semitism; unlike the Poles and Slovaks). I believe the figures hide huge regional differences, that the sentiments in Prague neighbourhoods like Žižkov or Harfa are much more relaxed than you would find in Northern Czechia.

On another tack, the Roma were to blame for the Bohemian reputation of Bohemia (which is the English name for the Czech part of the Czech Republic, the non-Czech Czechs are Moravians or even Silesian, though most Silesians are Polish). When the Roma arrived in France, they were believed to come from Bohemia, and they were believed to be free-moving spirits, and not like most Czechs farmers staying very much put. Then the name Bohemia itself is a result of migration. The Romans named the Celtic tribe that used to live here the Boii. The Celts have long passed away, but the name remained even when the Slav and German tribes entered the scene.
The French were not the only ones that were confused, the English believed them to come from Egypt, thus Gypsy, and the Roma themselves believed they came from Romania, where most Roma live, thus Roma. Current, and better founded, orthodoxy pegs them as refugees from India. Maybe they more appropriately should be called Indian, a name that has never confused anyone before.

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