Without Water, Revolution – The New York Times

The Syrian disaster is like a superstorm. It’s what happens when an extreme weather event, the worst drought in Syria’s modern history, combines with a fast-growing population and a repressive and corrupt regime and unleashes extreme sectarian and religious passions, fueled by money from rival outside powers — Iran and Hezbollah on one side, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the other, each of which have an extreme interest in its Syrian allies’ defeating the other’s allies — all at a time when America, in its post-Iraq/Afghanistan phase, is extremely wary of getting involved.

Source: Without Water, Revolution – The New York Times

The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone – The Atlantic

starting this weekend it is illegal to unlock new phones to make them available on other carriers

It’s embarrassing and unacceptable that we are at the mercy of prosecutorial and judicial discretion** to avoid the implementation of draconian laws that could implicate average Americans in a crime subject to up to a $500,000 fine and up to five years in prison.

Ubiquitous, seldom-prosecuted crimes invite arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.

Source: The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone – The Atlantic

Vernor Vinge on Technological Unemployment

Vernor Vinge is consistently one of the most interesting and conceptually dense futurists I’ve had an opportunity to listen to. While watching this excellent talk of his at Singularity University, my ears perked up at the mention of technological unemployment, the primary focus of this blog.

It’s not clear that the marketplace will actually compensate people who participate in these crowdsourcing/social networking/group mind schemes.

Source: Vernor Vinge on Technological Unemployment