A World Worth Reading

"If we, as a society, as a people, are to make a stand against the governments which cut taxes on the..."

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:14:25 -0400

“If we, as a society, as a people, are to make a stand against the governments which cut taxes on the rich and corporations and then plead poverty as they dismantle our society, our communities, it will be here. If we, as a society, as a people, are to make a stand against the governments which cut taxes on the rich and corporations and then plead poverty as they dismantle our society, our communities, it will be here. If a line in the sand will be drawn, it is here, in the streets of Quebec. The battle for a better world starts in this city. This glorious, madcap city whose joie de vivre flows through the veins of each and every one of us like a river. Join us, speak your solidarity from the rooftops, call out our name. Because here in these streets, has started a revolution. A fire which burns for a better world. Call me an idealist, call me a dreamer, call me anything you like. But this is a moment in time we will tell our children about. Together, we can start something here that spreads like wildfire across this continent. What happens next is up to us.”

- In Quebec, A Revolution of Love, Hope and Community | Common Dreams

sebastianburton: Keep Calm and Bang Along

Sun, 27 May 2012 21:34:52 -0400

sebastianburton:

Keep Calm and Bang Along

This dazzle-camoflage will be useful for the upcoming...

Fri, 18 May 2012 11:12:19 -0400

This dazzle-camoflage will be useful for the upcoming facial-recognition security police-state.

CV Dazzle: ITP Thesis Demo Look #1 (after) (by Adam Harvey)

Chicago / NATO is coming up!

Tue, 15 May 2012 00:09:12 -0400

Chicago / NATO is coming up!

"Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:35:28 -0400

“Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle. The legislation, essentially bipartisan, drives new fiscal policies and tax changes, as well as the rules of corporate governance and deregulation. Alongside this began a sharp rise in the costs of elections, which drove the political parties even deeper into the pockets of the corporate sector.”

- Tomgram: Noam Chomsky, A Rebellious World or a New Dark Age? | TomDispatch

"Conceived of as a way to help people reduce waste, the Repair Cafe concept has taken off since its..."

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:19:32 -0400

“Conceived of as a way to help people reduce waste, the Repair Cafe concept has taken off since its debut two and a half years ago. The Repair Cafe Foundation has raised about $525,000 through a grant from the Dutch government, support from foundations and small donations, all of which pay for staffing, marketing and even a Repair Cafe bus.”

- Amsterdam Tries to Change Culture With ‘Repair Cafes’ - NYTimes.com

thepoliticalnotebook: Picture of the Day: A Palestinian...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:16:00 -0400

thepoliticalnotebook:

Picture of the Day: A Palestinian protester from the University of Birzeit covers her face during smoky clashes over the continued hunger strike of prisoners in Ofer Prison.

News: Clashes also broke out in Jerusalem between settlers and protesters over the eviction of a family of 14 from Beit Hanina on April 18th.

Credit: Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images. Via.

View more Picture of the Day posts. Submit a photo.

clitc0mmander: woah that’s sick

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:15:11 -0400

clitc0mmander:

woah that’s sick

"The security boom is unaffected, or perhaps even fuelled, by the global crash, as wealthy and..."

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:46:15 -0400

“The security boom is unaffected, or perhaps even fuelled, by the global crash, as wealthy and powerful elites across the world seek ever-more fortified lifestyles. Essentially, it is about defence and security corporations building huge new income streams by systematically exploiting three linked trends: the lucrative possibilities created by post 9/11 fears; widening privatisation and out-sourcing in the context of deep austerity programmes; and the desire of big city and national governments to brand themselves as secure destinations for major global events.”

- Olympics 2012 security: welcome to lockdown London | Stephen Graham | Sport | The Guardian

Sometimes its worthwhile to read the “Sports” section.

"Occupy and open-source models illuminate a new possible reality, in which the democratic civic..."

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:06:54 -0400

“Occupy and open-source models illuminate a new possible reality, in which the democratic civic sphere, productive commons and a vibrant market can co-exist for mutual benefit: At the core of value creation are various commons, where innovations are open for all to share and to build upon; These commons are protected through non-profit civic associations, which empower that social production; Around the commons emerges a vibrant commons-oriented economy comprised of ethical companies, whose legal structures tie them to the values and goals of the commons communities, not to creating private profit. Where these three circles intersect, citizens decide on the optimal shape of their provisioning systems.”

- ‘Occupy’ as a business model: The emerging open-source civilisation - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

"we do not want to pay for our memories. The films that remind us of our childhood, the music that..."

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:10:03 -0400

“we do not want to pay for our memories. The films that remind us of our childhood, the music that accompanied us ten years ago: in the external memory network these are simply memories. Remembering them, exchanging them, and developing them is to us something as natural as the memory of ‘Casablanca’ is to you. We find online the films that we watched as children and we show them to our children, just as you told us the story about the Little Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks. Can you imagine that someone could accuse you of breaking the law in this way? We cannot, either.”

- ‘We, the Web Kids,’ The Atlantic (via somethingchanged)

(The network is our memory, sorry, you don’t own that.)

"All is not well, of course. Afghanistan’s east was 20 percent more violent statistically in..."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:40:57 -0400

“All is not well, of course. Afghanistan’s east was 20 percent more violent statistically in 2011 than in 2010, as insurgents belonging to the infamous Haqqani network and others wreaked havoc, and international forces remain underresourced there.”

- Mission Incomplete - By Bruce Riedel and Michael O’Hanlon | Foreign Policy

"Pinterest is rarely about appreciating the beauty of coastline or the craftsmanship of a painting..."

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:24:17 -0400

“Pinterest is rarely about appreciating the beauty of coastline or the craftsmanship of a painting for what it is, but instead about listing it as something the pinner desires to possess.”

- The Devil and God in Pinterest | EchoDitto

"According to the Pew Research Center, the proportion of young adults living at home nearly doubled..."

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:41:13 -0400

“According to the Pew Research Center, the proportion of young adults living at home nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008, before the Great Recession hit. Even bicycle sales are lower now than they were in 2000. Today’s generation is literally going nowhere. This is the Occupy movement we should really be worried about.”

- The Go-Nowhere Generation - NYTimes.com

"Not only are the police disrupting people’s rights to free expression,” Mr. Pawar said. “They are..."

Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:01:12 -0400

““Not only are the police disrupting people’s rights to free expression,” Mr. Pawar said. “They are taking pre-emptive steps by arresting people who might be just thinking about exercising their rights.””

- Occupy Wall Street Protesters Complain of Police Monitoring - NYTimes.com

"According to Desai, the idea of market-based compensation is “intellectually flawed” and “a..."

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:56:16 -0500

“According to Desai, the idea of market-based compensation is “intellectually flawed” and “a foundational myth.” That’s because in implementing market-based compensation, there is a failure to distinguish results due to sheer luck (beta) from the results due to skill (alpha). Thus when someone is running an oil company while the price of oil is skyrocketing, it doesn’t need a lot of skill to generate high profits: such executives shouldn’t receive outsized compensation from a rising tide that lifts all boats.”

- HBR Blows The Lid Off C-Suite Over-Compensation - Forbes

"ALEC’s priorities for the 2011 session included bills to privatize education, break unions,..."

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:21:11 -0500

“ALEC’s priorities for the 2011 session included bills to privatize education, break unions, deregulate major industries, pass voter ID laws and more. In states across the country they succeeded, with stacks of new laws signed by GOP governors like Ohio’s John Kasich and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, both ALEC alums. The details of ALEC’s model bills have been available only to the group’s 2,000 legislative and 300 corporate members. But thanks to a leak to Aliya Rahman, an Ohio-based activist who helped organize protests at ALEC’s Spring Task Force meeting in Cincinnati, The Nation has obtained more than 800 documents representing decades of model legislation. Teaming up with the Center for Media and Democracy, The Nation asked policy experts to analyze this never-before-seen archive.”

- ALEC Exposed | The Nation

“They pray four times a day, they pray five Whose ways is...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:09:14 -0500

“They pray four times a day, they pray five
Whose ways is strange when it’s time to survive
Some will go of they own free will to die
Others take them with you when they blow sky high
What’s the difference? All you get is lost children
While abortion shit up behind the desk it costs billions
To blast humans in half, into captured arms
Only one side is allowed to have bombsIt’s like making a soldier drop his weapon
Shooting him, and telling him to get to steppin’
Obviously, they came to portion of his fortune
Sounds to me like that old robbery/extortion”

“They pray four times a day, they pray five Whose ways is...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:06:51 -0500

"The indiscriminate release caused unease among some members of Anonymous, with a statement..."

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:03:23 -0500

“The indiscriminate release caused unease among some members of Anonymous, with a statement purportedly from a disenchanted group (for it’s impossible ever to say what is officially Anonymous policy; the group’s inchoate structure means there’s no such thing) declaring that a silent majority was growing uncomfortable with this new and inaccurate meaning for Anonymous. It said that the hacks are actually not the work of Anonymous: “Yet again, the corporate or government provocateurs at #Antisec have continued their smear campaign to ruin the name of Anonymous by using it for increasingly destructive action.” AntiSec, however, has remained unapologetic. “When justice cannot be found in the courts, it will be found in the streets – or in this case, the internet,” says a hacker involved in the attack on Puckett and Faraj, adding that the group still has access to a private email account used by Neal Puckett, the firm’s founder. “Generally, we do work to redact information on bystanders – for example, in all of our police attacks, we have carefully redacted prisoner/parolee information. [But] it is the firm’s responsibility to protect the information of their clients.””

- Anonymous splinter group AntiSec wages war on ‘profiteering gluttons’ | Technology | guardian.co.uk