StumbleUpon | countwobble's comments & reviews

IBM Semantic Layered Research Platform

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 12:35:07 -0800

"The IBM Semantic Layered Research Platform is the collective name for the family of software components produced by the IBM Advanced Technology group to support semantics throughout the application stack. We'll be announcing the availability of these components to the open-source community over the next few months as we polish the initial versions of them and prepare the supporting materials for each."

CSI : Center for the Study of Inequality

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 06:00:58 -0800

"The Center for the Study of Inequality (CSI) fosters basic and applied research on social and economic inequalities, as well as the processes by which such inequalities change and persist."

Spiral of Violence by Dom Helder Camara

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 19:18:03 -0800

Dom H�lder C�mara's classic work of liberation theology, "Spiral of Violence" (1971), full-text

Basic Income Studies

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:12:53 -0700

"Basic Income Studies (BIS) is the first academic journal to focus specifically on basic income and cognate policies. BIS provides a forum for the discussion of theoretical issues and empirical research on the design and implementation of basic income schemes, and also aims to address broader questions regarding the future direction of universal welfare policy"

Just launched. I've been planning to read up on basic income for a long time, this issue seems a nice start (double so, if it's Erik Olin Wright's ludic writing). Coincidentally, according to a flyer, Philippe Van Parijs is giving a lecture here next month -- mental note to self...

mhenridays favorites - StumbleUpon

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 15:13:34 -0700

Very decent set of international politics & activism-related stumbles.

Rage &Hope: Critical Theory and Its Impact on Education

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:29:30 -0700

Concise site on critical educational theory (Michael Apple, Paulo Freire, et al).

Educational Policy Institute

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 13:22:22 -0700

"EPI is a collective association of researchers and policy analysts from around the world dedicated to the mission of enhancing our knowledge of critical barriers facing students and families throughout the educational pipeline."

Discovered this organisation when they published their rapport "Global Higher Education Rankings - Affordability and Accessibility in Comparative Perspective 2005". Interesting material (higher education in Belgium is relatively cheap but still unequal).

http://countwobble.stumbleupon.com/review/5578004/

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 04:31:24 -0700

Just dicovered a hidden benefit of StumbleUpon: "insider" traveltips!

My girlfriend & I are leaving for Prague tomorrow: a short message to kolmis, who's from Prague, and we get a nice set of suggestions, complete with Mapy-links and tips on how to handle cab-drivers ;-).

So if anyone is planning on traveling to or through Belgium, do ask. (But hurry up, atm. it's still shiny weather, but it will get cold&rainy fast).

Left Turn: Notes from the Global Intifada

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 05:03:26 -0700

"Left Turn is a national network of activists engaged in exposing and fighting the consequences of global capitalism and imperialism. Rooted in a variety of social movements, we are anti-capitalists, radical feminists, anti-racists, and anti-imperialists working to build resistance and alternatives to corporate power and empire."

http://www.biometricsummit.com/

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 03:26:56 -0700

[This should be a thumbs-down, but that gives an error, so...]

Brussels is but a trainstop away, I have vacation... so spending a Wednesday-morning between "suits" to visit a talk by Frank Paul (let say the "security-related IT"-guy of the European Commission) seemed like a good idea:

"European large-scale biometric systems - an update

VIS will be one of the largest biometrics systems worldwide with more than 70 million ten-print fingerprint records . This session highlights the latest developments in this area and the SIS system, the Commission's service-oriented architecture approach as well as future possible biometric applications."

Especially since I (and the rest of Belgium) was recently 'issued' a new, electronic ID, with no discernable benifits and the EU is working on security-initiatives with (possible) questionable implications, one of which is also a subject of the talk (the EU Visa Information System [VIS], see the current frontpage of Statewatch).

Trouble is, the registration cost is a whooping �1,633 -- that is, unless I made a grave conversion error -- around eur2500 or $3000! Slightly out of my budget... Who the heck pays this kind of money to get one delegate on such a conference? They got a load of industry-sponsers, what enormous cost is there to recuperate by means of entrance-fees?

Bah, mabye I'm going to apply for press credentials somehow, or try to sneak in? -- sneaking into a conference on "bioinformatics, access control and high security enviroments", that would be doubleplusgood irony.