• The war on WikiLeaks and why it matters. www.salon.com (2010-03-30). BBC’s “The Culture Show” Julian Assange, editor of WikiLeaks. A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France — in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan.  The Report celebrates the fact that the… (Linked Tuesday 2010-03-30.)

• This amazing photo of Earth cost only $750 to take. CrunchGear (2010-03-30). Technological civilization is awesome. (Cont’d.) (Linked Tuesday 2010-03-30.)

• Government Intercepting Secure Internet Transfers? TeamColtra, United States Pirate Party (2010-03-27). Seth Schoen from EFF has recently run an article starting with the following: Today two computer security researchers, Christopher Soghoian and Sid Stamm, released a draft of a forthcoming research paper in which they present evidence that certificate authorities (CAs) may be cooperating with government agencies to help them spy undetected on "secure" encrypted communications…. (Linked Tuesday 2010-03-30.)

• Drawing the Line. Offsetting Behaviour (2010-03-30). In which the government of New Zealand pays a staff of pollsters to trudge up and down the street cursing out randomly selected homeowners. In the interest of public policy, of course. (Linked Tuesday 2010-03-30.)

• Goshen College Bows to Nationalism. Jesus Radicals (2010-03-31). Mennonite students Vs. American theo-nationalism and its War Anthem. (Linked Wednesday 2010-03-31.)

The Census and the Social Construction of Race. Contexts Blogs: All Blogs (2010-03-31):

Social and biological scientists agree that race and ethicity are social constructions, not biological categories.  The U.S. government, nonetheless, has an official position on what categories are "real."  You can find them on the U.S. Census (source): Alvaro V. asked us to talk a little bit about the Census.  So,…

On the nationalization of culture, race and ethnicity. The closer: “The changing categories in the U.S. Census show us that racial and ethnic categories are political categories. They are chosen by government officials who are responding not to biological realities, but to immigration, war, prejudice, and social movements.” Which is exactly why any libertarianism worthy of the name ought to include a healthy skepticism towards conventional delusions about these politically-fabricated, border-bound, power-entangled categories.

Regulation of the Day 130: Roommates. OpenMarket.org (2010-03-30):

In New York City, it is illegal for four or more unrelated people to live together. At least 15,000 New York homes openly flout the rule. The ranks of lawless hooligans cut across lines of class and race. According to the New York Times, violators "include young actors and ponytailed…

Yet another way that government intervention and Land Monopoly creates sprawl, ratchets up fixed costs of living, and artificially transfers money from working folks to landlords and “developers.”

Countereconomics is already making inroads; but 15,000-odd people in New York City is only the first baby step towards freedom. A real free-market city would look nothing like the cartelized, rigidified land-grab sprawl created by the rigged markets and pervasive interventions by local governments that we have today.

Here’s some sights of some of the commonest things in the world. The commonest things in the world, seen in a new way. These are living insects, resting on plants outside, and becoming covered in the morning dew.

A common house fly and water.

A moth resting on a twig, covered in dew.

This and more from the Daily Mail Online (2010-03-26).

These photographs were taken by Miroslaw Swietek, a physiotherapist and amateur photographer who lives in Jaroszow, Poland. He takes the photos because he loves photography, and he wants to show something wonderful to the world. Sights of miracles and wonders that he can capture, and we can witness, because Technological civilization is awesome. Sights so wonderful that they look like a glimpse of another world — a world that is strange, wonderful, and new. And yet is the very world we all dwell in now. A world where creatures so common that we think of them as nothing more than annoying pests, and a substance so plentiful and ordinary that we use it to flush our toilets, can, when you catch them at the right time and look at them the right way, shine in the darkness, like creatures of light, shimmering in their living skin of diamonds.

Awesome.

(Via John Gruber @ Daring Fireball 2010-03-30.)

See also:

• GT 2009-08-17: Technological civilization is awesome. (Cont’d.)

• Turns out a lot of men look forward to the oops pregnancy. pandagon.net – we are the public option (2010-03-26). by Amanda Marcotte I know I've been writing a lot about reproductive rights and sexual health issues, but the stories I want to comment on seem to be increasing lately.  As someone who writes a lot about these issues, I've noticed something interesting over the years about the feedback I… (Linked Friday 2010-03-26.)

• ACORN’s Original Sin. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-03-26). The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, better known as ACORN, will shut its doors as a national operation next week. A wellspring of activism for four decades, the left-wing group has gotten more attention lately for a series of scandals, from an embarrassing embezzlement case at the top… (Linked Saturday 2010-03-27.)

• Zomia, the 100 million strong stateless society that's been evading states for 2000 years. Cal, Everyone's Blog Posts – FR33 Agents (2010-03-19). http://www.cornell.edu/video?videoID=625&startSecs=0&endSecs=4625 Yale anthropoligst James C. Scott, author of The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, describes the history of Zomia. Also, read about it here: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/12/06/the_mystery_of_zomia/ http://books.google.com/books?id=oiLYu2-uc8IC&printsec=frontcover&dq=art+of+not+being+governed&hl=en&ei=HEmkS96WIsH7lwff5510&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=&f=false (Linked Saturday 2010-03-27.)

• Shakesville: The Terrible Bargain We Have Regretfully Struck. shakespearessister.blogspot.com (2010-03-28). On hate, love, misogyny and trust. (Linked Sunday 2010-03-28.)

• Paying for school on $2 a day. Aid Watch (2010-03-28). Countereducation in action in rural villages and urban slums in India, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and China. “Aid agency officials and local government administrators did not receive the news warmly. Most flat out denied that such schools existed. Even if they dod exist, said the experts, they can’t possibly be any good. … The most surprising thing to those of us who harbor prejudices (hidden even to ourselves?) that illiterate, unschooled parents can't possibly know more than education experts, is that these parents were making smart, informed decisions. Not that the private schools were perfect—far from it: … But Tooley found that in low-cost private schools, across the board, classroom sizes were smaller, and teachers were much more likely to be found teaching during an unannounced visit. They are also achieving better results: the students in private schools outperformed their public school peers in nearly every subject they were tested in.” (Linked Sunday 2010-03-28.)

• Darwin 'CCTV perve' cop keeps job – Ninemsn. Nation – Google News (2010-03-29). Men in Uniform (cont’d) / Police accountability (cont’d) (Linked Monday 2010-03-29.)