July 2011
48 posts
Metal Organism Designed only for Cuddling - MODOC:... →
I like this Science Fiction ebook. Have you read it?
June 2011
48 posts
5 tags
Michele Bachmann’s Holy War
The Tea Party contender may seem like a goofball, but be warned: Her presidential campaign is no laughing matter
Illustration by Victor Juhasz
Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don’t laugh.
It may be the...
4 tags
Notorious Hacker Group LulzSec Just Announced That...
Joe Weisenthal | Jun. 25, 2011, 7:06 PM | 100 |
Just announced by LulzSec, the hacker group that’s been on a tear for the last several days, hacking companies and even the state of Arizona, an announcement that it’s finished.
The following note was pubbed here, and tweeted from the @lulzsec account.
—-
We are Lulz Security, and this is our final release, as today marks...
14 tags
Roundup: Birth Defects Caused By World's...
Lucia Graves Huffington Post First Posted: 06/24/11 09:04 AM ET Updated: 06/24/11 01:07 PM ET
WASHINGTON — The chemical at the heart of the planet’s most widely used herbicide — Roundup weedkiller, used in farms and gardens across the U.S. — is coming under more intense scrutiny following the release of a new report calling for a heightened regulatory response around...
6 tags
Climate of Denial
Can science and the truth withstand the merchants of poison?
Illustration by Matt Mahurin
The first time I remember hearing the question “is it real?” was when I went as a young boy to see a traveling show put on by “professional wrestlers” one summer evening in the gym of the Forks River Elementary School in Elmwood, Tennessee.
The evidence that it was real was...
7 tags
Sex, Race and Diversity in Corporate Leadership...
Corporate Diversity Posted by Harrison on Feb 11, 2010 • 1 Comment
Wanted: CEO for Fortune 500 Corporation. White Males of at Least 6-Foot Height with Slightly Menacing Facial Features Preferred.
You think that’s politically incorrect? It gets worse.
“Baby-faced African-American males with chubby cheeks, small noses and large foreheads will be considered over less cuddly black colleagues...
5 tags
Pentagon gets cyberwar guidelines
LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has signed executive orders that lay out how far military commanders around the globe can go in using cyberattacks and other computer-based operations against enemies and as part of routine espionage in other countries.
The orders detail when the military must seek presidential approval for a specific cyber assault...
5 tags
Johann Hari: Cheap meat, MRSA and deadly greed
Independent.co.uk
If they aren’t stopped soon, the WHO warns we are facing a ‘doomsday scenario of a world without antibiotics’
Friday, 17 June 2011
Here is a news story that could determine whether you live or die. Many of the world’s scientists are warning that one of the mightiest weapons doctors have against sickness is being rendered useless – so a few people can get...
6 tags
As the sun awakens, the power grid stands...
Back to previous page
By Brian Vastag, Monday, June 20, 12:33 PM
The sun is waking up.
And on June 7, it woke up Michael Hesse. At 5:49 a.m., the solar scientist received an alert on his smartphone. NASA spacecraft had seen a burst of X-rays spinning out from a sunspot. The burst was a solar flare — and a “notably large one” at that, Hesse said later.
The sun has been quiet for years, at the...
8 tags
What’s Eating You?
July-August 2011
by Brendan Buhler, from California
Matt Mignanelli / www.mattmignanelli.com
Bugs have always been in our houses and on our persons.
Truly, the arthropods shall inherit the earth. Or they would if they weren’t already running the show: Insects outnumber us 200 million to 1. Ants alone may account for as much as one-third of all animal biomass on earth, according to an...
7 tags
How the West Was Lost: The American West in Flames
How the West Was Lost: The American West in Flames
By Chip Ward, Tomdispatch.com Posted on June 16, 2011, Printed on June 18, 2011 http://www.alternet.org/story/151316/how_the_west_was_lost%3A_the_american_west_in_flames
To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here.
Arizona is burning. Texas, too. New Mexico is next. If you...
Robert Reich: The Growing Desperation of the... →
robertreich:
The much-vaunted Republican pledge not to raise any taxes is crumbling. Today 34 Senate Republicans voted to end the special tax breaks for ethanol.
According to no-tax-increase purists like Grover Norquist, this is tantamount to a tax increase.
The truth is, Republicans are divided between…
3 tags
If You Eat Cows, Why Not Golden Retrievers, Too?
CORD JEFFERSON Senior Editor
June 16, 2011 • 7:00 am PDT
Things are easier said than done, or so the old adage goes, and we couldn’t agree more. That’s why we do The GOOD 30-Day Challenge (#30DaysofGOOD), a monthly attempt to live better. Our challenge for June? Go vegetarian.
Dr. Melanie Joy is a social psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of...
3 tags
Gartner: IT Should Be Planning, Moving to Private...
From: www.cio.com
Gartner: IT Should Be Planning, Moving to Private Clouds
– Ellen Messmer, Network World
June 15, 2011
ORLANDO — If speedy IT services are important, businesses should be shifting from traditional computing into virtualization in order to build a private cloud that, whether operated by their IT department or with help from a private cloud provider, will give them that...
3 tags
4 tips for using Facebook legally to conduct...
Print Close WindowFrom: www.csoonline.com
4 tips for using Facebook legally to conduct background checks (includes video)
Facebook and social media can offer a wealth of beneficial information when vetting job applicants. But heed this advice before logging on to check out a candidate’s background
by Joan Goodchild, Senior Editor, CSOJune 15, 2011
As more people create Facebook profiles...
4 tags
I Am a Husband and a Mother
BRAINSTORM
The Chronicle Review’s blog on ideas and culture
June 14, 2011
By Laurie Essig
Because American politics aren’t thoroughly woven enough into our Victorian sexual culture, Tim Pawlenty pulled the threads a little tighter last night by introducing himself at the GOP Presidential Candidate debate with this line: “I am a husband.”
In case you haven’t been paying attention to the...
1 tag
Robert Reich: Why the Republican War on Workers'... →
robertreich:
The battle has resumed in Wisconsin. The state supreme court has allowed Governor Scott Walker to strip bargaining rights from state workers.
Meanwhile, governors and legislators in New Hampshire and Missouri are attacking private unions, seeking to make the states so-called “open shop” where…
Robert Reich: Of Snake Oil, Puff Balls, and the... →
robertreich:
Today the President met with business leaders on his “jobs and competitiveness council,” who suggested more public-private partnerships to train workers, less government red-tape in obtaining permits, and more jobs in travel and tourism, among other things. The President then toured a…
4 tags
Maria Popova: In a new world of informational abundance, content curation is a new kind of authorship
Editor’s Note: Maria Popova is the editor of Brain Pickings, a curation of “cross-disciplinary interestingness” that scours the world of the web and beyond for share-worthy tidbits. Here, she considers how new approaches to curation are changing the way we consume and share information.
Last...
Zombie apocalypses are so inconvenient →
I like this Science Fiction ebook. Have you read it?
Robert Reich: Why the President Must Come Up With... →
robertreich:
“I am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we’re on is not producing jobs as fast as I want it to happen,” President Obama said Tuesday, amid the flood of bad economic news, including last Friday’s alarming jobs report. Does this mean we’re about to see a bold package of ideas from…
Jamie Dimon's Bizarre Idea About Why The Recovery...
robertreich:
According to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, the recovery has stalled because of strict banking regulation.
I’m not making this up.
At a financial conference today, Dimon told Fed chief Ben Bernanke there’s no longer any reason to crack down on Wall Street. “Most of the bad actors are gone,” he said. “[O]ff-balance-sheet businesses are virtually obliterated, … money market funds...
2 tags
House GOP Unanimously Passes Anti-Abortion Bill...
BY ERIN NANASI – MAY 5, 2011
POSTED IN: NEWS
In a 251 to 175 vote this evening, 16 anti-choice Democrats joined every House Republican present in passing H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act. A chief weapon in the House GOP’s “comprehensive assault” on women this bill proposes some of the most radical and draconian restrictions on women’s rights. They include:
– Redefinition Of...
5 tags
Why Washington Isn't Doing Squat About Jobs and...
Robert Reich Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley; Author, ‘Aftershock’
Why Washington Isn’t Doing Squat About Jobs and Wages
Posted: 06/ 5/11 08:28 PM ET
The silence is deafening. While the rest of the nation is heading back toward a double-dip, Washington continues to obsess about future budget deficits. Why?
Republicans...
5 tags
Cloud CIO: Yes, your job is at risk
Cloud CIO: Yes, your job is at risk
June 06, 2011, 12:49 PMBy Bernard Golden, CIO Left unsaid—typically, anyway—in most discussions about cloud computing is the implicit threat that it will be the cause of job losses. The clamorous suspicion that many IT groups display toward public cloud services seems to have a large emotional component to it, and highly-charged negative emotions...
3 tags
Tears show in the fabric of an empire
Larry Elliott
June 7, 2011
Empires decline for many reasons but certain factors recur. Photo: Frank Maiorana
The US may have one problem too many, writes Larry Elliott in London.
AMERICA clocked up a record last week. The latest drop in house prices meant that the cost of real estate has fallen by 33 per cent since the peak - an even greater tumble than the 31 per cent it fell when John...
6 tags
Welcome to the Anthropocene
The geology of the planet
Humans have changed the way the world works. Now they have to change the way they think about it, too
May 26th 2011 | from the print edition
THE Earth is a big thing; if you divided it up evenly among its 7 billion inhabitants, they would get almost 1 trillion tonnes each. To think that the workings of so vast an entity could be lastingly changed by a species that...
5 tags
We’ve Now Got Depression-Level Unemployment
Washington’s Blog
June 5, 2011
Job hunters line up outside Newark City Hall in New Jersey on April 3, 1935.
The commonly-accepted unemployment figures for the Great Depression are overstated.
Specifically, government workers were counted as unemployed by Stanley Lebergott (the BLS economist who put together the most widely used numbers) … even though gainfully employed and receiving a pay...
Unemployment Rate Highlights Obama's Failed...
By MARY KATE CARY
Posted: June 3, 2011
This week’s economic news—today’s jobless numbers and the 280 point drop in the Dow on Wednesday, accompanied by dismal home sales, rising prices, and waning consumer confidence—certainly explain why a majority of the country thinks we remain on the wrong track as a nation. The tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear meltdown in Japan are continuing to affect...
Robert Reich: How to Get Washington's Attention →
robertreich:
Finally, it seems, the economic burdens of America’s vast middle class may be catching up with the Street. The Dow lost 2.22 percent today; the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down 2.28 percent. Both marked their worst declines since August 11, 2010. The Nasdaq composite index fell 2.33…
“Since your announcement to seek the Presidency you have consistently attacked...”
– The president of the American League of Lobbyists, Howard Marlowe, in a letter to President Obama opposing a proposal that would require federal contractors to disclose political contributions. Marlowe urged the president to seek “alternative, less stifling ways” of promoting transparency. (via...
Robert Reich: Back Toward Double Dip →
robertreich:
The May jobs report is a disaster — the weakest reading since September. Non-farm payrolls grew only 54,000 last month, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private employment rose only 83,000 — the smallest growth since last June. Government payrolls dropped…
WEDNESDAY, JUN 1, 2011 04:02 ET
Criminalizing free speech
BY GLENN GREENWALD WikipediaAnwar al-Awlaki
Alex Seitz-Wald of Think Progress rightly takes Sen. Rand Paul to task for going on Sean Hannity’s radio program — one week after commendably leading opposition to the Patriot Act on civil liberties grounds — and advocating the arrest of people who “attend radical...
4 tags
NETWORK INTRUSION
June 1, 2011 11:34:33 AM
Who Watches the Watchmen, Part 1: A World Gone Mad
i
By Richard Adhikar
TechNewsWorld 06/01/11 5:00 AM PT
Businesses pay a high premium to keep their systems secure, usually utilizing expertise and products from high-profile security companies. But what happens when those companies are themselves targeted? “The IT security...
Print | Close
Nearly 100 Fantastic Pieces of Journalism
By Conor Friedersdorf
These must-reads are my personal picks for the best nonfiction of 2010 Awards season in journalism is almost over: David Brooks has long since handed out the Sidneys, the Pulitzer Prizes have been issued, and the National Magazine Award finalists find out who won next week. Throughout 2010, I kept my own running list...
Robert Reich: The Truth About the American Economy... →
robertreich:
The Stalled Recovery
The U.S. economy was supposed to be in bloom by late spring but it’s hardly growing at all. Expectations for second quarter growth aren’t much better than the measly 1.8 percent annualized rate of the first quarter.
That’s not nearly fast enough to reduce our…
