February 2011
44 posts
Fire the Rich
by David Macaray, from CounterPunch
Not only has the so-called trickle-down theory of economics been revealed to be a cruel hoax, but most of the good industrial jobs have left the country, the middle class has been eviscerated, the wealthiest Americans (even in the wake of the recession) have quintupled their net worth, and polls show that upwards of 70 percent of the American...
6 tags
Aspartame is not the only thing in diet cola that can kill you
BY Tom Philpott
16 FEB 2011 2:08 PM
What evil lurks in that can of refreshment? Photo: Jeff Golden
Turns out, it’s not just the fake sweetener in Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke that might cause cancer; it’s also the coloring agent. The cans these beverages come in aren’t so healthy, either.
Modern-day...
Robert Reich: The Republican Shakedown →
robertreich:
You can’t fight something with nothing. But as long as Democrats refuse to talk about the almost unprecedented buildup of income, wealth, and power at the top – and the refusal of the super-rich to pay their fair share of the nation’s bills – Republicans will convince people it’s all about…
5 tags
SPOTLIGHT: WENHONG LI, DUKE UNIVERSITY
Linking ‘big weather’ to global warming
BY Seth Shulman
23 FEB 2011 2:59 PM
Most people are understandably confused about the relationship between global warming and natural variability in the weather. After the huge snowfalls in the northeastern United States over the past few months, for instance, many people can’t help but wonder: With a...
5 tags
Feast Your Eyes: The Atlas of Genetically Modified Crops
NICOLA TWILLEY Food Editor
February 23, 2011 • 2:30 pm PST
Yesterday, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, a nonprofit organization funded in large part by the biotech industry, issued a new report on the status of genetically modified crops around the world.
The Economist has used...
2 tags
Blessed Aphrodisiac, Murderous Curse
by Jamie James, from New Internationalist
As twilight falls across the snowy peaks of western Nepal, just over a steep ridge from the iconic Annapurna trekking trail, a herder scans the shadows with binoculars, searching for a lost yak. From a perch high above the tiny, cliff-clinging village of Nar, he spots a stealthy movement in a desolate meadow just...
8 tags
Knowledge for Sale
By Chris Dodge
Are America’s public libraries on the verge of losing their way?
Before joining the Utne staff in 1999, Chris Dodge worked for 19 years in a suburban Minneapolis library system, helping the activist librarian Sandy Berman reinvent the art of cataloging. Long before search engines swept the Web, Berman and his team created a network for searching the...
9 tags
Bring the outliers inside
“Positive deviants” - innovative individuals who do things differently and succeed against the odds - can help communities solve seemingly intractable problems.
Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin and Monique Sternin | September 2010 issueBy experimenting with seedlings that thrive in water, Rosario Costa Cabral showed that agriculture in the Amazon delta is...
Loading… The Huffington PostFEBRUARY 21, 2011Like231KThis is the print preview: Back to normal view »
The Net Worth Of Every American President, From Washington To Obama: 24/7 Wall Street
First Posted: 02/21/11 10:56 AM Updated: 02/21/11 01:48 PM
By 24/7 Wall St: George Washington,the nation’s first President, was also one of the wealthiest men to hold the office. His...
Robert Reich: The Republican Strategy →
robertreich:
The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class – pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don’t believe these programs will be there for…
Robert Reich: The Coming Shutdowns and Showdowns:... →
robertreich:
Wisconsin is in a showdown. Washington is headed for a government shutdown.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker won’t budge. He insists on delivering a knockout blow to public unions in his state (except for those, like the police, who supported his election).
In DC, House Republicans won’t…
Blacks, Latinos and women lose ground at Silicon Valley tech companies
By Mike Swift
mswift@mercurynews.com
Posted: 02/13/2010 04:00:00 PM PSTUpdated: 05/27/2010 04:42:07 PM PDT
The unique diversity of Silicon Valley is not reflected in the region’s tech workplaces — and the disparity is only growing worse.
Hispanics and blacks made up a smaller share of the valley’s...
Exclusive
Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war
• Man codenamed Curveball ‘invented’ tales of bioweapons • Iraqi told lies to try to bring down Saddam Hussein regime • Fabrications used by US as justification for invasion Read the full story of how the US was duped
Martin Chulov and Helen Pidd in Karlsruhe
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 February 2011 12.58...
BRETT ARENDS’ ROI
June 29, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EDT
The three biggest lies about the economy
Commentary: The truth about jobs, the market and U.S. socialism
By Brett Arends, WSJ.com and MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The counter-revolution is underway.
The G-20 calls for members to slash their budget deficits. The U.S. Senate ices further aid for the unemployed. The head of the...
South Dakota Moves To Legalize Killing Abortion Providers
A bill under consideration in the Mount Rushmore State would make preventing harm to a fetus a “justifiable homicide” in many cases.
— By Kate Sheppard
Tue Feb. 15, 2011 3:00 AM PST
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South Dakota’s legislature is strongly tilted against abortion rights, which makes...
Wisconsin Governor Threatens To Replace Union...
State workers in Wisconsin are protesting a statement by Republican Governor Scott Walker that, union reps say, amounts to a threat to use the National Guard to help break the public union.
Citing a $137 million budget deficit, Walker announced a plan last week which would essentially take away the public union’s collective bargaining rights and slash benefits for state employees....
February 16, 2011, 2:22 PM
When the Battle With Cancer Can’t Be Won
By PAULA SPAN
“A diagnosis of advanced cancer is usually difficult for you and your family,” the booklet says. There’s an understatement.
But since the very word “cancer” can cause ears and brains to shut down, this 24-page guide from the American Society of Clinical Oncology strikes me as both honest and helpful.
“Advanced...
Robert Reich: Budget Baloney (1): Why Social... →
robertreich:
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican presidential hopeful, says in order to “save” Social Security the retirement age should be raised. The media are congratulating him for his putative “courage.” Deficit hawks are proclaiming Social Security one of the big entitlements that has to be…
Eat the Future
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: February 13, 2011
On Friday, House Republicans unveiled their proposal for immediate cuts in federal spending. Uncharacteristically, they failed to accompany the release with a catchy slogan. So I’d like to propose one: Eat the Future.
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman
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Blog: The Conscience of a...
Robert Reich: Why We Should Raise Taxes on the... →
robertreich:
My proposal to raise the marginal tax to 70 percent on incomes over $15 million, to 60 percent on incomes between $5 million and $15 million, and to 50 percent on incomes between $500,000 and $5 million, has generated considerable debate. Some progressives think it’s pie-in-the-sky. Here, for…
World’s total CPU power: one human brain
By John Timmer | Last updated about 5 hours ago How much information can the world transmit, process, and store? Estimating this sort of thing can be a nightmare, but the task can provide valuable information on trends that are changing our computing and broadcast infrastructure. So a pair of researchers have taken the job upon themselves and tracked...
Desktop Virtualisation
Skinning the DV cat
Not all approaches are created equal
By Danny Bradbury • Get more from this author
Posted in Desktop Virtualisation, 10th February 2011 11:45 GMT
Desktop virtualisation The IT sector is at once innovative and cyclical, throwing up new technologies that are updated variations on hoary old ones.
Virtualisation is a good example. Server...
Chandra Captures Giant Ring of Black Holes
by NANCY ATKINSON on FEBRUARY 9, 2011
Arp 147 contains a spiral galaxy (right) that collided with an elliptical galaxy (left), triggering a wave of star formation. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/S.Rappaport et al, Optical: NASA/STScI
From a Chandra press release:
Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes a new image of a ring — not of jewels — but of black...
What’s the Real Unemployment Number?
ByCHARLES HUGH SMITHPosted 11:00 AM 02/09/11Economy,Careers Last week’s surprisingly sharp decline in the unemployment rate from 9.4% to 9%and equally surprising anemic job growth — 36,000 new jobs — left a lot of investors scratching their heads. How could the unemployment rate plummet so significantly while a such atrivial number of...
Time for Reform of Unemployment Insurance
By L. Randall Wray Benzinga Columnist February 09, 2011 11:39 PM L. Randall Wray
I have been working my way through the Financial Crisis Inquiry Report (the final report of the National Commission on the Causes of the Financial and Economic Crisis in the United States). Call me old-fashioned, I bought the book—a steal at fifteen bucks. I have seen...
Robert Reich: Why the Republican Attack on... →
robertreich:
Republicans aim to end all “job-killing regulations” — especially those that, according to House Speaker John Boehner, are “strangling” business with detailed requirements over health, safety, the environment, corporate governance and finance.
Here’s another instance of where the White House’s…
Environment
Conservation
Pavlovsk seed bank faces destruction
‘Priceless collection’ in Russia was never registered so is therefore worthless and does not officially exist, say developers • Russia launches inquiry into Pavlovsk after Twitter campaign • Kew Gardens hits target for ‘Noah’s ark’ seed bank with a pink banana • In pictures: The Kew Millennium Seed...
February 8, 2011
The German Model
How to Reduce Unemployment and Revive the Economy
By MARK WEISBROT
As President Obama begins the second half of his term with a campaign for “jobs and competitiveness,” we would do well to consider how he might achieve these worthy goals. It is jobs that matter most to the vast majority of Americans, and unemployment remains at 9.4 percent – about...
From: www.itworld.com
Speed up Windows by stripping it down
by Lincoln Spector
February 2, 2011 —
Windows can do all sorts of amazing things, some of which you might actually want it to do. Unfortunately, the things you don’t want it to do can slow it down. By turning off unnecessary programs, processes, and services, you can unburden Windows and help it live up to its full potential.
...
Robert Reich: Why the Republican Budget Plan is a... →
robertreich:
The federal budget is $3.8 trillion.
The Republicans have just come up with their plan to cut the federal budget. They’ve found $32 billion of cuts.
Their fiery campaign rhetoric, fierce determination, righteous indignation, and bloviated anger have summoned forth a hairball.
What happened to…
Robert Reich: The Jobs Report, and America's Two... →
robertreich:
At a time when corporate profits are through the roof, the Dow is flirting with 12,000, Wall Street paychecks are fat again, and big corporations are sitting on more than $1 trillion in cash, you’d expect jobs be coming back. But you’d be wrong.
The U.S. economy added just 36,000 jobs in January,…
Robert Reich: The Jobs Report, and America's Two... →
robertreich:
At a time when corporate profits are through the roof, the Dow is flirting with 12,000, Wall Street paychecks are fat again, and big corporations are sitting on more than $1 trillion in cash, you’d expect jobs be coming back. But you’d be wrong.
The U.S. economy added just 36,000 jobs in January,…
Robert Reich: The Individual Mandate in the Health... →
robertreich:
The Republican vote to repeal the new health care law is purely symbolic. But there’s one provision of the law that Republicans are likely to try to defund, and they may have the public with them on this. It’s the so-called “individual mandate” – the requirement that everyone purchase health…
Robert Reich: Obama's Deal with the U.S. Chamber... →
robertreich:
“We can, and we must, work together,” the President told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today. “Whatever differences we may have, I know that all of us share a deep, abiding belief in this country, a belief in our people, a belief in the principles that have made America’s economy the envy of the…
Cloud CIO: How cloud computing changes IT staffs
Window
From: www.itworld.com
by Bernard Golden
February 1, 2011 —
My recent post, The Internet of Things and the Cloud CIO of the Future garnered a lot of attention and comments. One tweet by @abbielundberg said “agree w priorities but there’s more to CIO role.” Abbie, by the way, is former Editor-in-Chief of CIO Magazine, so she definitely knows whereof she speaks.
A good...
Nothing Grows Forever
by Clive Thompson, from Mother Jones
Peter Victor is an economist who has been asking a heretical question: Can the earth support endless growth?
Traditionally, economists have argued that the answer is yes. In the 1960s, when Victor was earning his various degrees, a steady rise in gross domestic product (GDP)—the combined value of our paid work and the things we produce—was seen as crucial...
Robert Reich: Stocks Up, Houses Down, And What... →
robertreich:
Put your ear to the ground and you can almost hear the bulls stampeding. The Dow closed above 12,000 Tuesday for the first time since June 2008. The Dow is up 4 percent this year after increasing 11 percent in 2010. The Standard & Poor 500 is also up 4 percent this year, and the Nasdaq index, up…
