A World Worth Reading

fuckyeahanarchopunk: design by unmundofeliz

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:04:32 -0500

design by unmundofeliz

Cory Doctorow: On Little And Big Brother

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:13:32 -0500

MP: You said that you left the US because you didn't want to have to regularly subject yourself to biometrics...But in the UK there's even more surveillance.
CD:Oh, yeah. You can't escape it anywhere. It's a race to the bottom all around the world right now. Canada, Germany, the US, and the UK, as well as the rest of the EU, are basically locked in a race to see who can implement 1984 the fastest. The US -- obviously now you've got indefinite detention for American citizens on US soil. In Canada we're on the verge of getting this lawful intercept bill that's as bad as anything anywhere else in the world. In the UK we have the Digital Economy Act and widespread biometrics. In Germany the police just got caught deploying what they've called the 0zapftis Trojan, the government trojan where when people cross the borders and they examine their laptops they covertly put spyware on their computers so they can watch them after the fact. I mean really, at every turn there's somebody doing this, so it doesn't matter where you live. It really doesn't at this point. That's one of the things that I've really come to realize, the fight is global.

Video

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:11:46 -0500

Graeber vs Hedges on the Black Bloc

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:49:00 -0500

Me: This is an ongoing dialog between Chris Hedges and David Graeber over Hedges' use of inflamatory language calling out the Black Bloc in the Occupy Wall Street movement as "a cancerous tumor"
Hedges: http://www.truth-out.org/black-bloc-cancer-occupy/1328541484
Graeber: http://nplusonemag.com/concerning-the-violent-peace-police

"plurality of the public (41%) believes young adults, rather than middle-aged or older adults, are..."

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:19:06 -0500

“plurality of the public (41%) believes young adults, rather than middle-aged or older adults, are having the toughest time in today’s economy. An analysis of government economic data suggests that this perception is correct. The recent indicators on the nation’s labor market show a decline in the unemployment rate. Nonetheless, since 2010, the share of young adults ages 18 to 24 currently employed (54%) has been its lowest since the government began collecting these data in 1948. And the gap in employment between the young and all working-age adults—roughly 15 percentage points—is the widest in recorded history.1 In addition, young adults employed full time have experienced a greater drop in weekly earnings (down 6%) than any other age group over the past five years.”

- http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/02/09/young-underemployed-and-optimistic/?src=tumblr

Video

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:38:41 -0500

"Few individuals outside advertising know about the power of the new media- buying system: its..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:29:45 -0500

“Few individuals outside advertising know about the power of the new media- buying system: its capacity to determine not only what media firms do but how we see ourselves and others. They don’t know that that system is working to attach marketing labels to us based on the clicks we make, the conversations we have, and the friendships we enjoy on websites, mobile devices, iPads, supermarket carts, and even television sets. They don’t know that the new system is forcing many media firms to sell their souls for ad money while they serve us commercial messages, discounts, and, increas- ingly, news and entertainment based on our marketing labels. They don’t realize that the wide sharing of data suggests that in the future marketers and media firms may find it useful to place us into personalized “reputation silos” that surround us with worldviews and rewards based on labels marketers have created reflecting our value to them.”

- A Guide to the digital advertising industry thats watching your every Click

Photo

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:15:07 -0500

deleteyourself: Samsung’s superbowl ad was another disaster in...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:10:06 -0500

deleteyourself:

Samsung’s superbowl ad was another disaster in their “make fun of people with iPhones” campaign. I get what they are trying to do, but it’s hard to convince everyone you’re ahead of the curve when your phone has a stylus.

They are trying really hard to show the world that Android is hip, so much so that the phone in the ad has a map of Williamsburg Brooklyn on it. Check out the above screen grab. The stylus is right over my old apartment.

originofcool: Feel Safer With Camera Birds

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:55:36 -0500

originofcool:

Feel Safer With Camera Birds

Video

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:44:33 -0500

"Soros goes on to say that as the crisis in the Eurozone only worsens, the American financial system..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:20:30 -0500

“Soros goes on to say that as the crisis in the Eurozone only worsens, the American financial system will continue to be hit hard. On the way to a full-blown collapse, he cautions, Americans should expect society to alter accordingly. Riots will hit the streets, says Soros, and as a result, “It will be an excuse for cracking down and using strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order, which, carried to an extreme, could bring about a repressive political system, a society where individual liberty is much more constrained, which would be a break with the tradition of the United States.””

- George Soros predicts riots, police state and class war for America

"I believe in copyright. I benefit from it. I don’t want it to go away. I love that we have..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:44:22 -0500

“I believe in copyright. I benefit from it. I don’t want it to go away. I love that we have laws and people to enforce them. But if I had to give up one thing, if I had to choose between copyright and the wild west, semi-lawless, innovation-fest that is the internet? I’ll take the internet every time.”

- Jonathan Coulton Destroys The Rationale Behind The Megaupload Seizure With A Single Tweet; Follows Up With Epic Blog Post

mehreenkasana: Just heard a huge blast. My windows shook. What’s going on?

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:41:51 -0500

mehreenkasana:

Just heard a huge blast. My windows shook. What’s going on?

"Can social unrest be the next step after more or less peaceful OWS, Occupy Wall Street. (Even the..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:12:55 -0500

“

Can social unrest be the next step after more or less peaceful OWS, Occupy Wall Street. (Even the Council on Foreign Relations had an exploration of OWS’ significance this week.

There is no debate over the generally accepted finding that over the last 30 years “the fruits of economic success have become increasingly unevenly distributed in the U.S.” The latest figures show that there is “rising income inequality, very slow economic growth and high unemployment.” If 1% of Americans now take 25% of the nation’s income– double the amount of 25 years ago in the mid-1980s– then you can understand the rise of Occupy Wall Street and the depressing spectacle of 45 million people on food stamps and below the poverty cutoff line ( less than $22,000).

”

- http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/11/17/capitalism-at-a-tipping-point/

"Admonishing CEOs (and investors) to ignore the expectations market and refocus on delighting the..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:54:40 -0500

“Admonishing CEOs (and investors) to ignore the expectations market and refocus on delighting the customer isn’t going to work, says Martin. It’s as likely to be “as effective as admonishing frat boys to stop chasing girls.””

- http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/28/maximizing-shareholder-value-the-dumbest-idea-in-the-world/3/

"“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value,” says..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:44:09 -0500

“

“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value,” says Martin. “The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”

If you take care of customers, writes Martin, shareholders will be drawn along for a very nice ride. The opposite is simply not true: if you try to take care of shareholders, customers don’t benefit and, ironically, shareholders don’t get very far either. In the real market, there is opportunity to build for the long run rather than to exploit short-term opportunities, so the real market has a chance to produce sustainability. The real market produces meaning and motivation for organizations. The organization can create bonds with customers, imagine great plans, and bring them to fruition.

”

- http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/28/maximizing-shareholder-value-the-dumbest-idea-in-the-world/2/

"Although Jack Welch was seen during his tenure as CEO of GE as the heroic exemplar of maximizing..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:42:05 -0500

“Although Jack Welch was seen during his tenure as CEO of GE as the heroic exemplar of maximizing shareholder value, he came to be one of its strongest critics. On March 12, 2009, he gave an interview with Francesco Guerrera of the Financial Times and said, “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy… your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products. Managers and investors should not set share price increases as their overarching goal. … Short-term profits should be allied with an increase in the long-term value of a company.””

- http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/28/maximizing-shareholder-value-the-dumbest-idea-in-the-world/2/

nationalpost: Peter Goodspeed: If sanctions against Iran fail,...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:33:56 -0500

nationalpost:

Peter Goodspeed: If sanctions against Iran fail, war may be inevitable
The European Union joined the United States Monday in launching an economic war against Iran to force it to abandon a suspected nuclear weapons program.

By imposing an embargo on Iranian oil exports and freezing assets of its central bank, EU members hope to cut so deeply into government revenues Tehran will agree to accept international safeguards on its nuclear program.

But the sanctions themselves may be the penultimate step before a possible military attack.

Western leaders like Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, have insisted stiff economic sanctions are necessary to avert a possible war with Iran.

But if sanctions fail, war may inevitable.

(The Nimitz-class aircraft carriers USS John C. Stennis, left, and USS Abraham Lincoln. Photo: REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth Abbate)

"The “real market,” Martin explains, is the world in which factories are built, products are designed..."

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:27:46 -0500

“

The “real market,” Martin explains, is the world in which factories are built, products are designed and produced, real products and services are bought and sold, revenues are earned, expenses are paid, and real dollars of profit show up on the bottom line. That is the world that executives control—at least to some extent.

The expectations market is the world in which shares in companies are traded between investors—in other words, the stock market. In this market, investors assess the real market activities of a company today and, on the basis of that assessment, form expectations as to how the company is likely to perform in the future. The consensus view of all investors and potential investors as to expectations of future performance shapes the stock price of the company.

”

- http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/28/maximizing-shareholder-value-the-dumbest-idea-in-the-world/