Various...
Occasional *travelogue of places I've been.
I've been tracking Companies that Suck. It's a modest list, but unfortunately continues to grow.
Who is this Guy?
Alaskan. Wife Ilana and I moved to Alaska in 2003. We both work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she in Rasmussen Library, me at the *Arctic Region Supercomputing Center.
Musher. We have *rather a few dogs, for dog sledding on the trails around our home in Two Rivers, Alaska, the finest mushing on earth.
Vegan & Pacifist. I'm against all war. Against eating or exploiting animals. People ask me why I'm vegan. Here are reasons why I am a vegan. In favor of social reform that creates opportunity for people, with literacy a key part of creating opportunity. Visit Yahoo's Vegan pages; the Vegan FAQ (one of several) is especially informative. Don't be duped by the billions of dollars spent by meat industry every year to make you think meat has benefits. For a great case in point, read all about McDonalds in mcspotlight.org. Don't worry about being alone - take a look at this list of famous vegetarians & vegans.
More than war, racism or even imperialism, the global economy depends on the exploitation of non-human life. [...] The modern death culture cannot tolerate a philosophy that values life over wealth and power. "Peter," in EF!J Eostar 2006 p. 19.
Need more? Here is an article by Peter Singer from the September 11 2006 issue of The Nation: Don't Buy Factory-Farm Products.
More on the pacifist theme: Here is one of many great articles by Naomi Klein from The Nation (July 21, 2008) on Disaster Capitalism. Thesis: "today's preferred method of reshaping the world in the interest of multinational corporations is to systematically exploit the state of fear and disorientation that accompanies moments of great shock and crisis."
Anti-Corporate Media. Radio and Internet. I co-founded (with Ann Bishop) *Prairienet, the community network of Urbana-Champaign Illinois. I've also been active with iBiblio, the Public's Library, in Chapel Hill. I've had a life-long passion for music and gadgets, and a good place to put them together is radio. I did The Lone Rhinoceros Show and lots of other stuff (music & programming, engineering and events) at WEFT, community radio in Champaign. I was on the air for a couple of years, and involved with radio production, at WXDU, Duke University's community radio station. These days, I can be heard Thursday mornings from 10am-noon on KSUA, UAF's student-run radio with my show, Notes from the Underground. Yes, there are non-commercial alternatives, and they are great!!!
Environmentalist. How many environments do you have to live in? What's happening to the one we share? Get educated about environmental issues - visit Envirolink or get informed about the environmental movement - try Earth First! Journal. Some easy steps to help: become *paperless.
Teacher. I started teaching university classes about the Internet in 1988, and though my current job doesn't have regular teaching duties, I'm still teaching in many other ways. See *my old UNC pages for links to classes and other items, or local copies of my INLS187 Information Security class.
Hacker and security expert. I've been active in organizing hacker conferences including HAL 2001 and 2600's H2K, H2K2, The Fifth HOPE, and The Last HOPE. I believe that hacking is ethical, and even presented some ideas for a *teaching hacker ethics and a *hacker's code. I'm a certified information security professional (CISSP) with several papers and conference proceedings on information security, data integrity and privacy.
Note: Items with a *are my own pages or projects; others are external links.
