General
Virtual machines?
Consider a machine. Levers. Pulleys. Engines. Computers.
Each has a design that deploys rules of nature to consistently generate a result. Fuel. Flame. Combustion-> Movement. Friction. Ratios.
There are more abstract machines— social machines like organizations. There is no clear conception of “what an organization is” or natural laws on “why they work” but some do and some don’t. Just like other machines. It took many failed attempts at flight before success. But with social machines, organizations, the lack of natural laws on human interaction has led to some uncertainty.
There are even more abstract machines that exist virtually, basic ideas or logics that turn inputs into outputs, maintains order, so on. Democracy is one.
Debt limit
What happens when the debt limit becomes political? U.S. debt is not bad, it serves to stabilize international currencies as gold once did. So … enact a balanced budget and what happens to the value of U.S. debt? Placing the payoff of U.S. debt as a priority above all other things, the tax payers of the united states back the debt, with the balanced budget in place the value of our debt sky rockets as the stability of it is demonstrated to be absolute… it is a no risk bet, but the amount of it is decreasing as we are not generating more debt and are focussed on paying it back.
Changes at The New State
Hello colleagues.
I believe that most of you expressed some interest in this as some point in time… if not feel free (as always!) to ignore this message. Last year Brandon Ching created thenewstate.com as an experiment in PA blogging. Though many of us hoped to participate, well… life got in the way. We simply did not generate enough content on a regular basis to… well… consider it successful.
BUT… Brandon is working on an updated site and we are going to try it one more time. There are two reasons for this:
1) We still think it is a good idea. Considering the evolving communication industry, it would behoove us to get some practice in alternative (rapidly becoming dominant) media forms. And writing non-academese is cool. 
Why Nonprofits Should Support Obama’s Proposed Budget Plan
What are the pros and cons of President Obama’s proposed 2010 budget plan for the philanthropic and nonprofit community and society more generally? It appears that when we weigh the costs and benefits, nonprofits and citizens generally will come out ahead. Unfortunately, most of the organized philanthropic community (not necessarily representing most nonprofits) and several politicians have come out against the changes, narrowly framing the issue around what impact the proposed tax changes will have on the wealthiest donors.
Education Policy Idea
Every once in a while, I come up with an idea to solve a problem that I’m often not an expert in, but that seems to make sense. I like to run these ideas by others to get their input and hopefully come up with an even better idea. I recently started re-reading Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities. I first read this excellent book on the inequalities in the American education system when I was a sophomore in college eight years ago. At that point, I was too overwhelmed byKozol’s description of the state of schools in East St. Louis and Chicago to respond with ideas on how to change the situation. This time I approached the text with the eye of a policy analyst and I had an idea…
The lost introduction to The New State-recovered from the Internet Archives
INTRODUCTION
to the 1920 edition of The New State by Mary Parker Follett
BY
VISCOUNT HALDANE
I HAVE ventured to ask the authoress of what Professor Bosanquet has recently called “the most sane and brilliant of recent works on political theory,” to let me write a few pages introductory to the next issue of her book.
It could be worse, but –
Many people who are struggling with the current financial times take some solace in the notion that as bad as things are, they could be worse. A recent feature by cnn.com collected personal stories of difficulty during this downturn. Repeatedly, and even when the situations were very dire, some version emerged of, “we are fortunate for what we have because it could be worse”. Even locally when we here news of furloughs, cutbacks, and layoffs, they are often accompanied with this notion that it could be worse.
When Will Things Get Better?
It is natural to ask the question, “When will things get better?” However, that could be a very misleading question. It is not difficult a stretch to claim that values of consumerism were pervasive, but not sustainable. The consequence was the creation of a consumer-based economy that was dependent on people living beyond their means, supported by easy credit. As credit dried up, house values and retire accounts decreased, so did purchasing. So, when will things get better? To have purchasing power as widespread as it is now, it will take another period of irresponsible lending and purchasing. So… is that better?
How Much is A Million?
Today, approximately 2 million people covered the national mall to attend the inauguration of this nation’s 44th president, Barack Obama. There is so much to be proud of today and so much to inspire. Whether the crowds were there to view a scene of new hope, the making of history, a portion of MLK’s dream finally fulfilled, or the exit of perhaps the most unpopular president in the nation’s history; 1.4 million people braved the cold and the crowd for the chance at a glimpse at this historic moment.
