May 2011
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Welcome to the 21st-Century Food Wars: The... →
Welcome to the new food economics of 2011: Prices are climbing, but the impact is not at all being felt equally. For Americans, who spend less than one-tenth of their income in the supermarket, the soaring food prices we’ve seen so far this year are an annoyance, not a calamity. But for the planet’s poorest 2 billion people, who spend 50 to 70 percent of their income on food, these soaring prices...
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Daniel Ellsberg & Bradley Manning →
We speak to Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg about President Obama’s comments last week on accused U.S. Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning. Speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Obama openly declared that Manning—who has been accused of leaking classified military documents, but has yet to stand trial—has broken the law.
Obama was also asked to compare the actions of...
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April 2011
110 posts
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I was leaving campus this morning to go home for lunch and coffee — and cars were backed up six-deep in on Magnolia waiting for the Chick-Fil-A parking lot. I understand that your beloved house of chicken and sweet tea is closed on Sunday and this is the last chance you’ll get until Monday to savor the sweet flavor of factory farmed chicken. But geez.
So I was thinking… Those...
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Extreme weather costs lives, health, economy—and... →
These extreme events included supercell thunderstorms in Iowa, severe drought and record wildfires in Texas, and heavy rains across the United States. The recent Southeastern storms and tornados took at least 297 lives across eight states. And heavy rains in the Mississippi River valleycould cause the most severe, damaging floods there in nearly a century.
This extreme weather, though record...
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“I think there are good reasons for suggesting that the modern age has ended....”
– The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World
Here Vaclav Havel is clear sighted as always. This resonates with my own thinking around how the world is reorganizing itself around new organizational principles based on new communication possibilities. The deep question if the life forms...
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“Yes, it was a stupid thing to burn the Koran, but guess what? The lion’s share...”
– Bill Maher via friendlyatheist
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A Dad Testifies for His Transgender Teen Daughter →
In Maine, proposed bill LD 1046 would allow the operator of a restroom or shower facility in that state to decide who can use which gender’s restroom based upon “biological sex.” One father of a transgender daughter spoke before the Maine Judiciary Committee about this bill:
My name is Wayne Maines, I live in Old Town. I have a 13-year-old transgender daughter. In the beginning, I was not...
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Higher Education’s Toughest Test →
Today, however, the credentialing provided by universities is becoming decoupled from the knowledge and skills acquired by students. The cost of obtaining learning materials is falling, with OpenCourseWare resources from MIT and iTunes U leading the charge. Classes can be taken online on sites like Udemy and eduFire, either for free or a fraction of the cost to learn similar material at a...
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Watchvruz:
“The Billionaires’ Tea Party” in its entirety
—via brooklynmutt
The Tea Party movement has taken American politics by storm. But is this truly a populist uprising or one of the greatest feats of propaganda ever seen? Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham sets out answer this question, finding that behind the movement’s rhetoric of ‘freedom’ versus ‘socialism’ lies a highly co-ordinated...
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NASA Satellite Photos Show Coal Mining Destroy a... →
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Libya: All About Oil or All About Banking? →
Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank – this before they even had a government. […]
According to a Russian article titled “Bombing of Lybia – Punishment for Ghaddafi for His Attempt to Refuse US Dollar,” Gaddafi made a similarly bold move: he initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the...
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