I’ve often recommended Don MacDonald‘s online comic/biography of Machiavelli. Well, he just announced that he’s going to a speaker at TEDx in Boston on June 22nd.
My presentation will be about how I’ve tried to address misconceptions about Machiavelli through my graphic novel. And how popular culture gets him wrong. So a TED talk about Machiavelli, graphic novels, and webcomics.
Niccolò Machiavelli (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He’s promised to provide a link when the talk gets posted. Stay tuned.
Ethics in the workplace, particularly in the government, is an interesting subject to me since so much of bureaucracy is about taking away individual responsibility, agency and initiative. So, it’s both heartening and disappointing to hear about Cate Jenkins (no relation to Leroy, I assume) who is a chemist at the EPA and has been fighting with them over her reporting that the agency falsified data about the environmental dangers to those around ‘Ground Zero’ in New York. She’s reported this to anyone who will listen (the EPA Inspector General, FBI and Congress) and, in return the EPA tried to fire her (they failed) and are still exploring ways to get rid of her. This interview with her is a great lesson about how doing the right thing isn’t necessarily going to be the easy thing.
The New York Times has a great blog called ‘Borderlines’ about quirky places on the map. Check out this post about the two enclaves that exist in Switzerland. These little bits of land are owned by Italy and Germany and are totally contained within Swiss borders.
The great part is this story about the Italian enclave…In 1917, the Italian government tapped into their strategic reserves of awesomness and built a casino in this little strip of land…
…with the explicit intention of being a “listening post” — to extract sensitive military information from foreign diplomats in a relaxed atmosphere.
As you read that, admit it, you’re thinking of this, right?
You know how I’ve been talking about how much I dig various crowdfunding schemes? Well, here’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of helping me to relocate TwShiloh HQ to more appropriate digs. If you all will just reach into your pockets for a very modest 17.5 million dollars I can begin blogging from my very own secret mountain lair. But this wouldn’t be just for me, dear readers. Your generous donation would entitle you to free lodging in TwShiloh World HQ and a position in my organization bent on world domination. Pretty good deal, no?
