March 2009
“What if the Chinese have perfected a neo-Confucian system (with surprising...”
– Thom Hartmann
The poetry of Glenn Beck →
“The cost of direct US military operations - not even including long-term costs...”
– Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes
“Hard times have also meant that consumers are passing up the nonessential items...”
– The vanishing shopping mall
The Bald Salesman →
“So that in the nature of man, we find three principal causes of quarrel. First,...”
– Thomas Hobbes
Building on Richard Stallman's Greatest... →
“One of the paradoxes of solitary confinement is that, as starved as people...”
– Hellhole
Google Ventures Launches with “We May Steal Your... →
“And I find it astonishing that Simon would present the IMF as the voice of...”
– Dani Rodrik
Why aren't you (really) good at graphic design? →
“Dow 36,000″ and your pension →
So in 2007 the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation — which stands behind corporate pensions — switched from bonds only to lots of stocks, buying in at, natch, the peak of the market. Oops. And this is big stuff: the Bush administration may have left us all a gratuitous loss of hundreds of billions.
Why did this happen? I’m sure we’ll find some nasty stuff, but at least part of the reason was...
“Americans think that it’s healthcare that produces health, when there really is...”
– Dr. Stephen Bezruchka
TALES OF CHRISTIAN TAILGATERS
A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy street. Suddenly, just in front of him, the light turned yellow. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman was furious and repeatedly honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the...
Review: Skype for iPhone. Verdict: Awesome. →
“Democracy is not my faith. And American democracy is not my idol. To see the...”
– Cornel West
Ancient cannabis →
Archaeologists have found a 2700-year-old burial in China that contains, among other burial goods, a supply of marijuana.
“It is not terribly surprising that Zach Synder’s film adaptation of Alan...”
– Kevin Boyd
“Nobody, for example, ever thought of interpreting the first chapter of Genesis...”
– Karen Armstrong
Mysteries of logical reasoning →
(1) Anyone who favors marijuana legalization just wants to get high without being hassled, and anyone who favors drug decriminalization generally is or wants to be a drug user.
(2) Anyone who opposes a return to alcohol prohibition is almost certainly an out-of-control drunk.
(3) Anyone who cares about gay marriage or advocates for equal rights for gay couples is a closet homosexual who just...
Western internet censorship: The beginning of the... →
“Government lawyers made wild assertions that showed a profound ignorance of the...”
– Chris Hedges
What are video games good for? Possibly improving... →
The Living Robot →
Researchers have developed a robot capable of learning and interacting with the world using a biological brain.
Are Atheists Smarter? →
“What’s going on now is nature’s way of telling you that America’s standard of...”
– Jim Kunstler
Hungry shrimp eat climate change experiment →
It is another nail in the coffin of using ocean fertilisation to cool the planet. Early results from the latest field experiment suggest the technique will fail.
“I think we are seeing the last gasps of ocean iron fertilisation as a carbon storage strategy,” says Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University.
Earlier this month, the controversial Indian-German...
When eyes deceive →
“Many Americans want to believe because they think that returning to...”
– William Greider
Mr. Taleb Goes to Washington: A black swan meets... →
“Many of these governments have honed their Internet strategies beyond censorship...”
– Evgeny Morozov
Will there be blood? →
America may be witnessing the return of an old-fashioned version of populism, driven by economic anxiety and directed at economic interests. The people who gave the name to “populism” in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were worried about a prolonged agricultural depression and furious at the vested interests in Wall Street and Washington who, they thought, were responsible for that...
The genius behind Google’s web browser →
“Religion-motivated efforts to derail serious biological enquiry, and therefore...”
– Why Evolution is True
Google is Evil →
Republican politicians called for a sweeping new... →
“Alan Greenspan had a brief moment when he seemed capable of being redeemed, when...”
– Yves Smith
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Monopoly Killer — Perfect German Board Game... →
“…the Post Office began in the United States primarily as a distribution arm for...”
– Robert McChesney
Let's kill the idea that companies are tied to... →
IBM has only 29% of its workforce in the US (down from 35% in 2006). Why do we persist in calling/thinking about it,and other multinationals, as American companies?