~ a group blog on a variety of topics related to anthropology, sociology, and ordinary people ~
An interesting commercial has been released in Thailand which emphasizes the importance of giving in life. As a number of Facebook friends have pointed out, it is a real tear-jerker whether you are in Thailand or anywhere else.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1439519962939897
Being Thai, this is undoubtedly inspired by Buddhist concepts of karma. But the story, for different reasons, also perhaps reflects Calvinist ideas of pre-destination, or what is sometimes called “theology of works.”…
Jay Rosen has written a fascinating article in the Guardian today about Johns Hopkin’s response to this blog post by Professor Matthew Green.
The short version of the story is that Green wrote a blog post about the NSA and cryptography on September 5th. Last Monday, Green received a takedown request from the dean of the engineering school claiming that his blog post contained “classified” information and that his use of the NSA logo was a violation of some kind.…