December 2010
46 posts
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“There can be no individuality without the public and no public without...”
– Daniel Drache (via dropouthangoutspaceout)
Dec 31st
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Research links rise in Falluja birth defects and... →
White phosphorous smoke screens are fired by the US army as part of an early morning patrol in November 2004 on the outskirts of Falluja, Iraq, in preparation for an offensive against insurgents. Photograph: Scott Nelson/Getty Images A study examining the causes of a dramatic spike in birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja has for the first time concluded that genetic damage could have...
Dec 30th
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Dec 30th
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Dec 29th
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“A patriarchal bargain is a decision to accept gender rules that disadvantage...”
– Why is Kim Kardashian Famous? (via plsj) Indeed, this is what Kardashian has done, and very successfully. So, for what is she famous? For making this bargain and getting such a good deal for herself. (via unburyingthelead)
Dec 28th
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Dec 28th
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Wikipedia | Wangari Maathai →
Wangari Muta Maathai (born April 1, 1940 in Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District of Kenya) is a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization...
Dec 28th
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“Officials have not yet worked out the cost of the program, but they expect no...”
– Portugal’s Drug Policy Pays Off; US Eyes Lessons
Dec 27th
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The Big (Military) Taboo - NYTimes.com →
We face wrenching budget cutting in the years ahead, but there’s one huge area of government spending that Democrats and Republicans alike have so far treated as sacrosanct. It’s the military/security world, and it’s time to bust that taboo. A few facts: • The United States spends nearly as much on military power as every other country in the world combined, according to the Stockholm...
Dec 27th
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African Huts Far From the Grid Glow With Renewable... →
As small-scale renewable energy becomes cheaper, more reliable and more efficient, it is providing the first drops of modern power to people who live far from slow-growing electricity grids and fuel pipelines in developing countries. Although dwarfed by the big renewable energy projects that many industrialized countries are embracing to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, these tiny systems are...
Dec 26th
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“Our love of home is in turn an acknowledgement of the degree to which our sense...”
– Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness (via simcities)
Dec 26th
cuddlecorepoems asked: hey i searched with the tag "revolution" and i figure you'd like my new blog urbanfoodproduction.tumblr.com <3
Dec 24th
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Dec 23rd
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Dec 23rd
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“The right to access to information protects the right of every person to access...”
– UN Statement on Wikileaks
Dec 23rd
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AdBusters | The Per Capita Principle →
2.8 Tons In a fair world this number represents your own annual C02 emission limit – a limit necessary to maintain a hospitable climate on this planet. Right now developed nations are a long way off the mark. The average North American is responsible for about 20 tons of C02 emissions per year – seven times the per person limit. The idea that we should share global carbon emissions is...
Dec 21st
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“…a socially constructed reality presupposes a reality independent of all...”
– John Searle, The Construction of Social Reality, p. 191
Dec 20th
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“There are several disquieting things about all these attacks on realism. The...”
– John Searle, The Construction of Social Reality, p. 158 I wish I could quote all of the three last chapters, but I’ll have to settle for a few choice excerpts.
Dec 20th
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“But I think all communists agree: robots. Fucking tons of robots. Everywhere.”
– A friend of mine, on the glorious future that awaits us.
Dec 18th
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Anonymous asked: why are there disproportionately high numbers of black people in american gaols?
Dec 17th
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Dec 17th
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Dec 16th
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“It has been said many times that man’s knowledge of himself has been left far...”
– Kurt Vonnegut in his address to the graduating class at Bennington College, 1970 (via hardenthefuckup)
Dec 15th
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Dec 14th
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Polis | Interview with Peter Marcuse: Critical... →
Dec 14th
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Rich people have no idea what you're thinking →
Upper-class people are less adept at reading other people’s emotions than their lower-class counterparts, according to a new study published in the journal Psychological Science. “We found that people from a lower-class background – in terms of occupation, status, education and income level – performed better in terms of emotional intelligence, the ability to read the emotions that others...
Dec 14th
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“In retrospect I understand that this was utter insanity. Wider, faster, treeless...”
– Confessions of a Recovering Engineer - Strong Towns Blog - Strong Towns (via urbanerds)
Dec 13th
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“Coming back to capitalism is like walking into a brick wall. It’s like being...”
– Aurora Levins Morales from Shock. (via theredtree, deltafoxtrot)
Dec 13th
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Dec 11th
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“Coming out of the election, Obama will renew the drive towards bipartisanship...”
– Patrick Martin This prediction was made in early November- a quite accurate foreshadowing of Obama’s tax proposal.
Dec 10th
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Listenhungryghoast: newyorker: New Political Scene...
Dec 10th
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Why Private Transit is Destined to Fail | The Mark →
Dec 10th
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jhn brssndn!: This is what democracy smells like →
jhnbrssndn: A shocking day, alright. A day on which an unelected government, acting as a proxy for international finance capital, began its dismembering of Higher Education; on which the State set hundreds of riot cops and mounted police on students, trade unionists and schoolchildren; and on which I returned home, having pondered the media narrative that would emerge from the day’s events, to...
Dec 10th
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Wikipedia | Rede Integrada de Transporte →
Rede Integrada de Transporte (also known as RIT, Portuguese: Integrated Transportation Network) is a bus rapid transit system in Curitiba, Brazil. Curitiba has a well planned transportation system, which includes dedicated lanes on major streets for a bus rapid transit system.[1] The buses are long, split into three sections (bi-articulated), and stop at designated elevated tubes, complete...
Dec 9th
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“It is important to note, however, what Assange and wikileaks do not do. They do...”
– American Leftist
Dec 9th
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Julian Assange: 'The truth will always win' →
IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide’s The News, wrote: “In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.” His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch’s expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up...
Dec 7th
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Dec 7th
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Spanish government uses martial law to force... →
…the response to this strike is ominous for all of us. For the government, determined to crush the strike, declared a state of emergency and imposed martial law. And under martial law, the strikers could be subject to prison sentences for up to six years for sedition if they didn’t return to work. Quelle surprise, the workers have felt compelled toreturn to work. In fact, just in...
Dec 5th
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TED Blog | Why we should teach philosophy to kids →
Compared with 72 control children, the philosophy children showed significant improvements on tests of their verbal, numerical and spatial abilities. Philosophy isn’t just learning about dead Greek dudes- it’s a careful and effective mode of thinking.
Dec 4th
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glvno asked: Hi Andrew. This blog is excellent.

I've noticed a habit of mine to, upon identifying an aspect of culture that benefits/protects the presiding paradigm, assume that that particular foible of culture is preserved/held in place/perpetuated by that paradigm (e.g., how political discussion is pretty much taboo in friendly/light/'polite' conversation in the United...
Dec 3rd
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Richard D. Wolff- Deficits: Real Issue, Phony... →
Deficits have now risen, yet again, to headline status. Conservatives inside and to the right of the Republican Party frame the national debates by attacking deficits. They want to reduce them by cutting government spending. Liberals respond, as usual, by insisting that overcoming the crisis requires big government spending (“stimulus”) and hence big deficits. Most Americans watch the...
Dec 2nd
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“To employ the coercive apparatus of the state in order to maintain manifestly...”
– John Rawls
Dec 2nd
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Archive of Julian Assange's old blog →
tsparks: The current bogeyman of the media, governments and corporations, Julian Assange, his old blog can give us some insight to his thinking and motivations. Here is an excerpt: Sat 09 Jun 2007 : The United what of America? It has been frequently noted that many corporations exceed nation states in GDP. It has been less frequently noted that some also exceed them in population...
Dec 2nd
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Dec 1st
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Dec 1st
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“Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens....”
– Bertrand Russell
Dec 1st
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