CrunchyTech: The Latest from Boing Boing

Monday, March 7, 2011

The Latest from Boing Boing

Podcast of yesterday's U of Toronto iSchool talk
Revolution mixtape: soundtrack of the North African uprisings
Popular Science subscription $5 for a year
Byte This
20 lies from Scott Walker

Podcast of yesterday's U of Toronto iSchool talk

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 08:39 PM PST

Socrates from the Singularity Weblog attended my University of Toronto iSchool talk ("A Little Bit Pregnant: Why it's a Bad Idea to Regulate Computers the Way We Regulate Radios, Guns, Uranium and Other Special-Purpose Tools") yesterday and was kind enough to record and podcast it with a great write up. Here's the MP3, too! (Thanks, Socrates, via Submitterator!)

Revolution mixtape: soundtrack of the North African uprisings

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 06:42 PM PST

BB reader forteller says, "Khalas Mixtape Vol. 1 is a compilation of songs created by North African hip hop artists from Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria who have emerged as voices of recent uprisings and calls for protest. Their website is down, so I put together this torrent."

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 06:00 PM PST

Today, I received an email from Amazon announcing that a 12-issue subscription to Popular Science is on sale for just $5. That's a great deal. (Note that it is an "autorenew" subscription, which you can cancel here.)

Popular Science subscription for $5

Byte This

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 03:49 PM PST

This splendid postcard is yours for just $2.50 at Etsy.

20 lies from Scott Walker

Posted: 06 Mar 2011 05:32 AM PST

A heavily-linked and cited list of 20 lies told by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker makes for good Sunday reading. The cynicism and manipulation from Walker and his handlers has been really depressing, an attack on hard-working people who earn less than their private-sector counterparts, who made concessions, and who are in no way responsible for the budget shortfall in the state.

Walker: claims that states without collective bargaining having fared better in the current bad economy.
The truth: According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, three of the 13 non-collective bargaining states are among the 11 states facing budget shortfalls at or above 20% (Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina). Another, South Carolina, comes in at a sizable 17.4%. Nevada, where state employees have no collective bargaining rights (but local employees do) has the largest percentage shortfall in the country, at 45.2%. All in all, eight non-collective-bargaining states face larger budget shortfalls than Wisconsin.
Walker: Public employees are more richly compensated than their public sector counterparts.
The truth: According to the Economic Policy Institute, wages and salaries of state and local employees are lower than those for private sector employees with comparable earnings determinants such as education and work experience. State workers typically are under-compensated by 8.2% in Wisconsin.