First ever solar sail is successful: “HAYABUSA Completed TCM-4 operation, precise guidance to WPA – JAXA would like to announce that TCM-4 operation was successfully completed (15:00 June 9th, 2010 (JST)). By this operation, Hayabusa spacecraft was precisely guided to WPA in Australia. Hayabusa system is going well.”
Let corporations run for political office: “[...] In a recent quiz, I asked students to give an advantage and a disadvantage of letting corporations run for political office, relative to the status quo. Most gave an advantage I had described in lecture, that firms could develop a consistent brand and reputation on which voters could rely. I hadn’t mentioned any disadvantages in class, but 80+% spontaneously said that a disadvantage is elected firms would support self-serving policies.
Wow. Even GMU econ undergrads, not especially inclined to see the bright side of politicians, see corporations as more intrinsically selfish and corrupt than politicians. The idea of firms as dark untrustworthy aliens is indeed buried deep in our psyche. Xenophobia lives.
Added: I guess I need to spell this out. Humans evolved concern for others because this enabled individual humans to better survive and reproduce, especially by being better respected and liked by others. Similarly, firms who hoped to succeed in the industry of running for office would seek to create and maintain a clear positive long-term brand, one that voters could respect, like, and embrace. It is crazy to assume firms will always hurt their customers for any temporary gain just because some paper somewhere declares firms must seek profits.
Added 1p: Consider an ordinary politician who hopes for 15 more years on the job, versus a firm now holding 100 offices that hopes to continue for another fifty years. Which one is more scared that news of a corrupt act would destroy their future political popularity? Which will try harder to avoid such acts?”
http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/05/unselfish-politicians.html
Cf.:
“[...] it is my high honor to nominate one of our newly enfranchised corporate citizens. A citizen that has shown, in this hour of need, that it is able to create jobs. That understands how to invest and grow and meet a payroll. That has the character to stand up for freedom and justice at home, in China, and around the world. And that has pledged, above all, “don’t be evil.”
It is with great pleasure that I nominate this fine citizen, Google Inc., for the presidency of the United States.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=a4mv6q80zqVY
Cf.: http://theunitedpersons.org/blog/420 and http://theunitedpersons.org/blog/partition-is-necessary-and-sufficient-for-equivalence
“In April last year Sweden’s Internet traffic took a dramatic 30 per cent dip as the country’s new anti-file sharing law came into effect.
“Prior to this, Sweden, the home of the Pirate Bay, had been a hotbed of illegal trade in movies and music.
“But several months later traffic levels started to surpass the old levels. Consultancy firm Mediavision found that the accessing of illegally shared movies, TV shows and music simply recovered. But there was with one crucial difference. Much of the internet traffic was now encrypted.
“In other words, the very laws the entertainment industries had lobbied politicians to pass in order to protect their industry, had created the even bigger headache of untraceable file sharing.
“For them, this will be the legacy of the Digital Economy Bill.
“But a worse legacy will be the wrongly accused (without the presumption of innocence) and the technology innovators discouraged from innovating, and thus actually creating the new digital economy the Government continually lauds with words but not, it turns out, with actions.”
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