tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-113310102012-02-08T13:39:44.137-08:00Essays too long for Anomaly UK, where all the good stuff is.AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.comBlogger111100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1133611299918247732005-12-03T03:46:00.000-08:002005-12-03T04:01:39.936-08:00

The ippr think-tank has published a paper "Markets in the online public sphere" on Intellectual Property issues. (Author William Davies).The paper is an attempt to identify the questions involved, rather than answer them, and as such is worthwhile but not particularly exciting. The main new idea is to classify information transfers in the digital realm according to temporality, classifying

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1133199573206903022005-11-28T09:26:00.000-08:002005-11-28T09:39:33.226-08:00

I've been struck by this question a few times, lately.First there was this article, which I already praised, insisting that the internet is not a separate place, and that activities carried on using the internet are still subject to (in this instance) the tax laws of an actual geographical place.Then there was this piece from Eric Raymond, insisting that the internet is a place.Now there is this

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1126192089628966162005-09-08T08:03:00.000-07:002005-09-08T08:08:09.640-07:00

Some points from the argument between Tim Worstall and Jesse Taylor over "price-gouging".To recap: John Stossel made an argument, with a hypothetical example, to the effect that if you pay a high price for some essential, you should be glad that the price was set high, because had it been set low the vendor would have already sold out and you wouldn't have it at all.Jesse Taylor attacked this

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1125842280912069232005-09-04T06:56:00.000-07:002005-09-04T06:58:00.920-07:00

The media here in Britain seem to be a bit geographically challenged when it comes to assessing the relief efforts on the Gulf of Mexico. They seem to have, consciously or not, transposed the damage from a map of the USA to a map of Britain without taking note of those funny "scale" markings in the corner, and they imagine that what has happened is something like Bristol being destroyed by bad

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1122826678089801692005-07-31T09:11:00.000-07:002005-07-31T09:17:58.100-07:00

Chrenkoff asks, since there are 250,000 Iraqis living in Britain, how come none of them are doing suicide bombings?Separately, Judith Klinghoffer points out that two of the suspects are from Somalia, where the invasion by Westerners was carried out at the urging of the U.N., but was abandoned in the face of strong resistance.At the same time, the anti-war Neil Craig reminds us of some of the

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1122723544780809432005-07-30T03:12:00.000-07:002005-07-30T11:03:52.470-07:00

Our ability to keep our private business private has been declining steadily for decades, but it's not often recognised that the decline takes two quite separate forms.One is that information that was available to the public, but only easily available to a relatively small number, is now very easily available to anyone who wants it. That is a simple result of information technology that makes the

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1121604597391925602005-07-17T05:39:00.000-07:002005-07-17T05:49:57.400-07:00

The conclusion I previously drew from the London bombings is that the terrorists are weakening.I will go further than that: the whole of modern Islamist terror is a sign of the weakness, and indeed of the death throes, of what could be called "primitive" Islam.I leave aside the nationalist struggles that have produced terror - the Algerian conflict, for example, had nothing to do with "primitive

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1121439558944504022005-07-15T16:00:00.000-07:002005-07-15T07:59:18.970-07:00

In my essay on the Structure of Terrorist Movements, I examined different participants in a terroist movement and their roles and motivations.Looking at the information that is coming out about the London bombings, there are striking hypotheses that immediately emerge.Firstly, there is no coherent visible political leadership to the movement. When dealing with the IRA, or even Hamas, there is an

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1112000023797485242005-03-28T00:44:00.000-08:002005-03-28T02:59:58.393-08:00

Two years ago yesterday, I posted the following as my view of the Iraq war. I'd like to revisit it.Why the UN is to blame for the 2003 Iraq War Responsibility for this war lies squarely with the UN, despite the last-minute chickening-out. If the UN Security Council had wanted to establish peaceful relations between Saddam Hussein and the rest of the world (which would have been a Good Thing),

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1111330231931205092005-03-20T06:49:00.000-08:002005-03-20T06:50:31.940-08:00

A few ideas to bring together on dealing with a first-past-the-post electoral system.Assuming you're not one of the few lucky people who have a major party thatshares your policies, you have several choices: Ignore politics (most popular option by a long, long way) Vote for the party nearest your views and count that as enough Vote tactically against the party furthest from your views and

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11331010.post-1110363845638684302005-03-09T02:22:00.000-08:002005-03-09T02:46:58.000-08:00

Fascinating article on the Northern Bank robbery, from the ObserverWhen I originally wrote my article "The Structure of Terrorist Movements", my plan was to follow it up with two sequels; First, a recent history of the IRA, and second, a piece on international terrorism. My overall intent was to challenge Eric Raymond's "Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto" on what I saw as its one flaw: the lumping

AMcGuinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10664826295127502774noreply@blogger.com1