Hau moris (I'm alive)

[tcpip]

Well, that dengue fever is really something special. Four and a half days of an absolutely thumping headache, the feeling that every bone in your body is being crushed and frozen along with sweat pouring off your body.

Thanks to everyone who wished me a speedy recovery. Much appreciated believe me.

In other news apparently the ICIAM paper was a success. A certain Professor Lyudmila Kuzmina from Kazan State University in Russia is interested in a follow-up publication, linking with the works of Ilya Prigogine. That should be quite a challenge (I mean, count the honorary doctorates the guy received, sheesh!).

Oh, and anti-independence militia apparently have been running around threatening people in Bobonaro district. Never a dull moment here.

Comments

[caseopaya.livejournal.com]

I doubt you have ever experienced a dull moment anywhere LOL

Glad that you are better and that the ICIAM went well even without your presence :) Now you have even more things to work on.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I doubt you have ever experienced a dull moment anywhere

Well that's true enough. I'm sure if I was stuck in the void I'd find something to do...

Now you have even more things to work on.

I know, and I wasn't even trying this time! :P

[horngirl.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Glad you're feeling better, I never got the chance to post a "Get well soon" comment, but I was thinking about you.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thanks sweetie, much appreciated... I've just read your recent posts, sounds like you've been having quite a time as well.. Hope the situation improves on the homefront.. If there's anything I can do (if only be an a virtual ear) you know how to contact me...

[lefae.livejournal.com]

*squishy hugs from afar*

[angel80.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued by the Centre for Constructive Capitalism at the University of Austin, Texas. Seems to be an implication in the title of destructiveness in actually existing capitalism. Must look it up!

I'm glad you survived the fever, but I figure you'll be feeling pretty fatigued for quite a while. So take it easy if you can!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, that little think-tank... You'll be intrested in this article.

On a related note, and something I didn't mention in my original post, is apparently some people from DSTO were also interested in the paper.

I'm not sure yet whether I should be worried or pleased.

I will be taking it easy over the next few days. That fever really took a lot out of me. Just hope I don't make too many coding mistakes in the latest update on the website....

[angel80.livejournal.com]

That's funny! I guess the 'constructive' part of the title looked a bit funny in the context of Star Wars.

I didn't read the article too carefully yet, but it seems to spray a lot of bullets about. For example, the idea of 'commercialising technology' seems like a good idea - in that it should enable the publicly funded institutions to get more money back from innovative work they do. Until universities started worrying about this issue, the corporations really had open slather to rip off publicly funded research. We had a case recently in my institution where a professor (and his team) invented something. He then left the university and set up a private company to develop and manufacture the new technology. Not many years later he was bought out by one of the huge American corporations for $250 million. The taxpayers funded his research and they got precious little out of it. The university made a very paltry percentage and chiefly got kudos. The lesson they learned was to tighten up on the IP agreements they have with academics who invent things that can be patented.

The article seems more appropriate where it worries about the social context of the technology (the links to DoD and the Star Wars project - very "constructive" indeed!!!) rather than throwing mud at commercialisation as such.

Commercialising technology

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

... corporations really had open slather to rip off publicly funded research

I actually prefer that model.Universities should be about producing knowledge for free access for all. Whatever they come up with should remain in the public domain for any who care to make use of it.

Likewise, their funding should come from general revenue.

The commercialisation of university research is an enormous step towards the colonization of knowledge-production by sectional business interests.

After all, what would it have been like if the TCP/IP protocol suite was produced under the guise of "commercialised technology"?

Re: Commercialising technology

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Maybe there are exceptions like the one you mention, but most research-generated technologies require investment capital before they can become useful products. This is an inescapable fact. In capitalist societies that investment capital has historically come from the private sector. Indeed one could make the argument that in countries like Australia, universities have historically substituted for commercial R&D departments. While they have also tolerated more independent forms of thought, they are not, on the whole, bastions of free thinking.

after effects of dengue

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Btw, I have a close friend who had dengue some years back. She adopted your approach and didn't let herself recover properly. Now she is suffering! She gets very easily fatigued and has stiff joints a lot of the time.

[erudito.livejournal.com]

Think tanks generally try to have neutral/positive names.

'Creative destruction' is a famous characterisation of capitalist dynamics by Schumpeter.

Good your back

[erudito.livejournal.com]

Good to see you back on deck.

On the depressing front, the oil-resources make East Timor a high-risk for civil war. A famous study (no link, alas since I can't remember title or authors) found that developing countries with high income from fixed resources were wildly disproportionately likely to be the site of civil conflict. Creates spoils to be gained.

Re: Good your back

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thanks muchly.

You're right about the oil. I take you your well aware the recent coup in that former Portuguese colony Sao Tome

Re: Good your back

[angel80.livejournal.com]

Hasn't Timor set up some kind of trust fund for the oil revenue? I hope so!

Re: Good your back

[erudito.livejournal.com]

No I wasn't, but it follows an all-too-familiar pattern.