April 2009
“Market liberalism and advocacy of free trade are not new. What makes...”
– John Gledhill, “Neoliberialism,” in A Companion to the Athropology of Politics, ed. David Nugent and Joan Vincent (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004):340. (via chuffedlittlemuffin)
Red Flag! Muffins gone wild. (via igather)
“Pornography, like any artform, is a filter for—not a cause of—the fuckedupness...”
– Lux Alptraum via this. (via igather)
Spanish Judge Gives Go-Ahead on Torture... →
vruz:
by Nick Baumann, Mother Jones
The new investigation by Judge Baltasar Garzon (whom Mother Jones2004 and discussed again this January) comes after he was instructed earlier not to open an inquiry into six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Garzon’s latest ruling does not name specific individuals, but will “investigate both those who...
Watchamericansatori:
Terence McKenna - Alien Dreamtime (full album) • VideoSift: Online Video *Quality Control
Terence was a genius, madman, saint, angel.
Capitalism is Organized Crime →
ledgergermane:
Capitalism is a way of organizing crime in such a way that it can masquerade as something altogether different. But at bottom, they are the same. To understand this is to see that capitalism cannot be reformed; it has to be transformed into something else.
When we say this, what do we mean by “crime”? Crime is the willingness to seize whatever one can get without...
WatchTorture - Jon Stewart’s Extended Interview with Cliff May (First of three parts)
ANTIMATTER: NOT AS SCARY AS WE THINK →
The five greatest mysteries about antimatter.
“No!” Vittoria said from above, breathless. “We must evacuate right now! You cannot take the antimatter out of here! If you bring it up, everyone outside will die!”
Angels and Demons, Dan Brown, Pocket Books
The street as platform →
tsparks:
This blog post is over a year old but is still important and I would say influentential, from City Of Sound, the blog of Dan Hill, published February 2008
The way the street feels may soon be defined by what cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Imagine film of a normal street right now, a relatively busy crossroads at 9AM taken from a vantage point high above the street, looking down...
Humanity Close to Passing the Hofstadter-Turing... →
ledgergermane:
An entity passes the Hofstadter-Turing Test if it first creates a virtual reality, then creates a computer program within that reality which must finally recognise itself as an entity within this virtual environment by passing the Hofstadter-Turing Test. Spot the tricky circularity to this test? Players can only pass if they create a virtual intelligence which must then pass the...
“The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly...”
– Tom Robbins (via kinnaree) (via meganallison) (via elvira) (via hypnogoria)
Way to sum it up, Tim.
Watchabout-today:
Eels, Fresh Blood
I’ve been slambusy at work the last couple weeks plus my sister got married this past weekend, so I haven’t had much internet time. I’m just now catching up on my Google Reader. (It’s been sitting at 1000+ unread items for almost three days. I’m scared.) So I’m going to post a bunch of the cool stuff I find sans comment. So there.
Eels are great!
“For leftists, Obama has been a total bust. He’s escalated the war in...”
– Pinter to Obama: “Smash the Mirror” (via azspot)
Aging Gracefully: Napping →
People who nap generally enjoy better mental health and mental efficiency than people who do not. The quality of their nighttime sleep tends to be better as well. Unfortunately, finding opportunities to rest during daylight hours in our society is not so easy - the North American culture is actively opposed to the whole concept, bombarding us with stimulation in more and more places and times.
a study showing your brain makes something like... →
The defining moment →
retropolitics:
unburyingthelead:
One addendum to today’s column: the truth, which I think everyone in the political/media establishments knows in their hearts, is that the nine months or so between the summer of 2002 and the beginning of the Iraq insurgency were a great national moral test — a test that most people in influential positions failed.
The Bush administration was obviously — yes,...
Swine Flu in Mexico Linked to Poorly Managed... →
Investigations now reveal that the swine flu epidemic that began in Mexico and spread worldwide is probably connected to pollution caused by unsanitary pig breeding farms in the region.
Public Collectors →
Here’s one way inquiring minds educate themselves:
Public Collectors is founded upon the concern that there are many types of cultural artifacts that public libraries, museums and other institutions and archives either do not collect or do not make freely accessible. Public Collectors asks individuals that have had the luxury to amass, organize, and inventory these materials to help...
End the University as We Know It - GRADUATE... →
Talk about radically conservative - no institutions are as conservative as those that vend education. Here are some great ideas for reform. Good fucking luck!
Take Back the Economy Protest - April 28th →
Join April 28th actions across the country, and sign our “taxpayers’ proxy card” and we’ll deliver it to Bank of America’s shareholder meeting the next day.
JOE WILSON WANTS DICK CHENEY TO LET IT ALL HANG... →
Ever the fan of cherry-picking, former Vice President Dick Cheney has called for the declassification of select intelligence he claims would polish his torture legacy. Whistleblower extraordinaire Joe Wilson says the “most secretive individual in American politics” shouldn’t stop there—why not air all of the Bush administration’s dirty laundry once and for all?
Five Congressmen Arrested At Darfur Protest →
MSNBC is reporting that five congressional representatives have been arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy after headling a Darfur protest. Those arrested were: Donna Edwards (D-MD), James McGovern (D-MA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and John Lewis (D-GA). They were bound with zip-tie handcuffs and driven away in a large white van.
The U.S. Treasury would own at least a 50 percent... →
Under the outlines announced yesterday, the federal government would take an equity stake of at least 50 percent, the United Auto Workers would take as much as 39 percent, the company’s bondholders would get 10 percent and the existing shareholders 1 percent.
None of the debt-for-equity swaps have been formally reached, however, and it is still possible that the company will be reorganized...
“Either you are very spiritual but don’t care so much for social justice...”
– the Jesus Manifesto (via azspot)
The main reason that I can’t call myself a Christian, beside the difficulty in believing lots of ancient Hebrew fairy tails, is that it’s just too hard. I’ve only met one or two Christians in my life.
As Economic Turmoil Mounts, So Do Attacks on... →
I am always amazed at the radical conservatism (meaning deeply persistent over long time periods) of ethnic hatred. Gypsies have been hated seemingly forever. Nearly as long as the Jews (masses of whom, we remember, Hitler murdered as well). These hatreds can smolder unremarked for eons, but when the lid comes off some control mechanism or when pressure rises, the hatred bursts again into flame.
Why the Wicked Witch Isn't Dead →
retropolitics:
By Johann Hari
The first witch I ever met was 14 years old and shivering. Clarice was brought before me—tiny, frozen, and swaddled in a wide white cardigan—in a church in the wreckage and rubble of the Congo war, as irrefutable proof of the cause of the catastrophe unfolding all around us. Her priest, Papa Enoch Boonga, explained before a gravely nodding congregation that the...
Former Intelligence Committee Chair on Torture...
vruz:
By Jeremy Scahill
Former CIA Director Porter Goss should be investigated for his role in the torture scandal, but he still makes an important point about the role of some Democrats
It has been known for years that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Jay Rockefeller and other leading Democrats were briefed on the US torture program in real time in 2002. This may be one reason why the...
“We live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media,...”
– PHILIP K DICK (via hypnogoria)