The Becker Blog

When I was writing my thesis I looked for examples of dissertations to get some ideas about how to formulate my own – you know general style, chapter organization, etc. It was suggested that I go to my school’s library and look at the theses that had been completed there in the last several years. It was a good idea. I did that. It didn’t help me even a little.

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I’ve always told people that they should assume that anything they put on the web should be considered public, whether it is on a public site or not. If you don’t want the information known, then don’t put it out there.

Thanks to modern data mining techniques, we can now predict whether or not you are gay by looking at your friends on Facebook.

That’s kind of interesting, though personally, I don’t really care if someone is gay or not. It doesn’t (or shouldn’t) affect their ability to be a decent person.

On the other hand, I am FAR more interested in finding out whether they are honest or not;  loyal or not; bullies or not. THAT would be useful. I wonder if looking at someone’s FB friends can tell us that?

I have now lost track of how many people I *thought* were my friends, who have let me down by not standing up for honesty and integrity and for treating people decently and fairly. They always have an excuse, but the truth is, it is easier to lie than to be honest, and it is easier to be indifferent than decent. Cowardly, but definitely easier.

One thing I have learned is that people who defend someone who is dishonest or mean are a bad risk.

A righteous man is cautious in friendship, but the way of the wicked leads them astray. – Proverbs 12:26

At MIT, an experiment identifies which students are gay, raising new questions about online privacy.

Now, I’m a big fan of Serious Games, but I’m also quite sure that this is one of those cases where more is not necessarily better. What is important is balance. I suppose it may be difficult to make sure students have exposure to natural things too, given that they are in Manhattan (http://q2l.org/), but I am quite convinced that ultimately, a lack of connection with nature and living things will have far more negative consequences than spending too much time online.

I’m talking negative on an epic scale.

Here is the article:

New York Launches Public School Curriculum Based on Playing Games

I have often suspected that many Americans see their Constitution as a ’sacred’ document, written by ‘prophets’.

I have now seen it admitted on a semi-public social site – this person said they had always believed the founding fathers to be divinely inspired. To be fair, this person re-defined “divinely inspired” to simply mean “idealistic”, but there is no denying that many Americans have an idolized (and pathological) attachment to their Constitution, Founding Fathers, and The Office of The President (and with it, the White House).

What about separation of church and state? Don’t you believe in that too? That seems to be a concept either lost or forgotten for at least some (a very vocal some, it seems). Those of us who are not American see a different perspective: I daresay all the other free countries have no such reverence for their governments. A healthy skepticism is a good thing.

Newsflash: the US Constitution is NOT sacred. The founding fathers were HUMAN.

Granted, collectively, they were pretty bright, but the constitution would never have seen the light of day if it had been created in any kind of democratic way. It was written by a group of like-minded men. For a country of 13 states.

The world was a different place then.

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I don’t usually talk about political stuff online, but I am starting to get really tired of the American “Health Care Debate”.

Much of the rhetoric is, to be honest, ridiculous, and does little more than show the rest of the world just how ignorant (as in, uninformed and, apparently quite proud of it) many Americans really are.

Wake up.

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