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Katherine Stewart the American journalist and author who writes about controversies over religious freedom, separation of church and state and climate science has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘The dark side of home schooling: creating soldiers for the culture war’ in which she states “Several decades ago, political activists on the religious right began to put together an "ideology machine". Home schooling was a big part of the plan. The idea was to breed and "train up" an army of culture warriors. We now are faced with the consequences of their actions, some of which are quite disturbing. According to the Department of Education, the home schooling student population doubled in between 1999 and 2007, to 1.5 million students, and there is reason to think the growth has continued. Though families opt to home school for many different reasons, a large part of the growth has come from Christian fundamentalist sects. Children in that first wave are now old enough to talk about their experiences. In many cases, what they have to say is quite alarming. …The fundamentalist home schooling world also advocates an extraordinarily authoritarian view of the parental role. Corporal punishment is frequently encouraged. …In America, we often take for granted that parents have an absolute right to decide how their children will be educated, but this leads us to overlook the fact that children have rights, too, and that we as a modern society are obligated to make sure that they get an education. Families should be allowed to pursue sensible homeschooling options, but current arrangements have allowed some families to replace education with fundamentalist indoctrination. As the appearance of HA reminds us, the damage done by this kind of false education falls not just on our society as a whole, but on the children who are pumped through the ideology machine. They are the traumatized veterans of our culture wars. We should listen to their stories, and support them as they find their way forward.”  Inspired by  Katherine Stewart, The Guardian ow.ly/lEdxF Image source Twitter ow.ly/lEdpq Traumatized veterans of our culture wars (June 25 2013)

 

Katherine Stewart the American journalist and author who writes about controversies over religious freedom, separation of church and state and climate science has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘The dark side of home schooling: creating soldiers for the culture war’ in which she states “Several decades ago, political activists on the religious right began to put together an “ideology machine”. Home schooling was a big part of the plan. The idea was to breed and “train up” an army of culture warriors. We now are faced with the consequences of their actions, some of which are quite disturbing. According to the Department of Education, the home schooling student population doubled in between 1999 and 2007, to 1.5 million students, and there is reason to think the growth has continued. Though families opt to home school for many different reasons, a large part of the growth has come from Christian fundamentalist sects. Children in that first wave are now old enough to talk about their experiences. In many cases, what they have to say is quite alarming. …The fundamentalist home schooling world also advocates an extraordinarily authoritarian view of the parental role. Corporal punishment is frequently encouraged. …In America, we often take for granted that parents have an absolute right to decide how their children will be educated, but this leads us to overlook the fact that children have rights, too, and that we as a modern society are obligated to make sure that they get an education. Families should be allowed to pursue sensible homeschooling options, but current arrangements have allowed some families to replace education with fundamentalist indoctrination. As the appearance of HA reminds us, the damage done by this kind of false education falls not just on our society as a whole, but on the children who are pumped through the ideology machine. They are the traumatized veterans of our culture wars. We should listen to their stories, and support them as they find their way forward.”

 

Inspired by  Katherine Stewart, The Guardian ow.ly/lEdxF Image source Twitter ow.ly/lEdpq

Sam Harris the 46 year old American author, philosopher, neuroscientist, and the co-founder and CEO of Project Reason has published an article on his web site titled ‘Response to Controversy’ in which he states “A few of the subjects I explore in my work have inspired an unusual amount of controversy. Some of this results from real differences of opinion or honest confusion, but much of it is due to the fact that certain of my detractors deliberately misrepresent my views. The purpose of this article is to address the most consequential of these distortions. A general point about the mechanics of defamation: It is impossible to effectively defend oneself against unethical critics. If nothing else, the law of entropy is on their side, because it will always be easier to make a mess than to clean it up. It is, for instance, easier to call a person a “racist,” a “bigot,” a “misogynist,” etc. than it is for one’s target to prove that he isn’t any of these things. In fact, the very act of defending himself against such accusations quickly becomes debasing. Whether or not the original charges can be made to stick, the victim immediately seems thin-skinned and overly concerned about his reputation. And, rebutted or not, the original charges will be repeated in blogs and comment threads, and many readers will assume that where there’s smoke, there must be fire.  Such defamation is made all the easier if one writes and speaks on extremely controversial topics and with a philosopher’s penchant for describing the corner cases—the ticking time bomb, the perfect weapon, the magic wand, the mind-reading machine, etc.—in search of conceptual clarity. It literally becomes child’s play to find quotations that make the author look morally suspect, even depraved.”  Inspired by Sam Harris ow.ly/k4j2H Image source Twitter ow.ly/k4iUP Easier to make a mess than to clean it up (May 4 2013)

 

Sam Harris the 46 year old American author, philosopher, neuroscientist, and the co-founder and CEO of Project Reason has published an article on his web site titled ‘Response to Controversy’ in which he states “A few of the subjects I explore in my work have inspired an unusual amount of controversy. Some of this results from real differences of opinion or honest confusion, but much of it is due to the fact that certain of my detractors deliberately misrepresent my views. The purpose of this article is to address the most consequential of these distortions. A general point about the mechanics of defamation: It is impossible to effectively defend oneself against unethical critics. If nothing else, the law of entropy is on their side, because it will always be easier to make a mess than to clean it up. It is, for instance, easier to call a person a “racist,” a “bigot,” a “misogynist,” etc. than it is for one’s target to prove that he isn’t any of these things. In fact, the very act of defending himself against such accusations quickly becomes debasing. Whether or not the original charges can be made to stick, the victim immediately seems thin-skinned and overly concerned about his reputation. And, rebutted or not, the original charges will be repeated in blogs and comment threads, and many readers will assume that where there’s smoke, there must be fire.  Such defamation is made all the easier if one writes and speaks on extremely controversial topics and with a philosopher’s penchant for describing the corner cases—the ticking time bomb, the perfect weapon, the magic wand, the mind-reading machine, etc.—in search of conceptual clarity. It literally becomes child’s play to find quotations that make the author look morally suspect, even depraved.”

 

Inspired by Sam Harris ow.ly/k4j2H Image source Twitter ow.ly/k4iUP

Timur Vermes the 45 year old German journalist and author is the subject of an article by Nathalie Versieux published on Worldcrunch titled ‘Why A New Book About Hitler Returning Has Become A German Bestseller’. Versieux states “He’s back. Adolf Hitler is back, in a book by Timur Vermes – a comedy in which Hitler returns to Berlin in the summer of 2011. The book, which has reached the top of the German bestseller list, is causing much controversy in a country that would rather forget it has been 80 years since Hitler rose to power... Timur Verme’s novel created much controversy in Germany. …“We don’t have too much Hitler,” says Vermes. “We have too many Hitler stereotypes, which are always the same – the monster that enables us to reassure ourselves. I too, for a long time accepted this vision of Hitler. But this vision is not enough. Hitler continues to have a real fascination. If so many people helped him commit his crimes, it is because they liked him. People don’t elect a nut job. They elect someone whom they are attracted to and that they admire." …Vermes concludes: "Often, we tell ourselves that if a new Hitler came along, it would be easy to stop him. I tried to show the opposite – that even today, Hitler might be successful. Just in a different way.” Vermes’ book shows how, in 21st century Germany, a demagogue would have a chance – the ways to conquer the masses have changed, they have modernized. But the intention stays the same. One German book critic summed it up this way: “Vermes holds a mirror to German society which, despite the laughter. shows an unflattering image.”  Inspired by Nathalie Versieux, Worldcrunch ow.ly/hLQuY Image source myspass ow.ly/hLQiL We have too many Hitler stereotypes (February 20 2013)

 

Timur Vermes the 45 year old German journalist and author is the subject of an article by Nathalie Versieux published on Worldcrunch titled ‘Why A New Book About Hitler Returning Has Become A German Bestseller’. Versieux states “He’s back. Adolf Hitler is back, in a book by Timur Vermes – a comedy in which Hitler returns to Berlin in the summer of 2011. The book, which has reached the top of the German bestseller list, is causing much controversy in a country that would rather forget it has been 80 years since Hitler rose to power… Timur Verme’s novel created much controversy in Germany. …“We don’t have too much Hitler,” says Vermes. “We have too many Hitler stereotypes, which are always the same – the monster that enables us to reassure ourselves. I too, for a long time accepted this vision of Hitler. But this vision is not enough. Hitler continues to have a real fascination. If so many people helped him commit his crimes, it is because they liked him. People don’t elect a nut job. They elect someone whom they are attracted to and that they admire.” …Vermes concludes: “Often, we tell ourselves that if a new Hitler came along, it would be easy to stop him. I tried to show the opposite – that even today, Hitler might be successful. Just in a different way.” Vermes’ book shows how, in 21st century Germany, a demagogue would have a chance – the ways to conquer the masses have changed, they have modernized. But the intention stays the same. One German book critic summed it up this way: “Vermes holds a mirror to German society which, despite the laughter. shows an unflattering image.”

 

Inspired by Nathalie Versieux, Worldcrunch ow.ly/hLQuY Image source myspass ow.ly/hLQiL

Bjorn Lomborg the 48 year old Danish author, adjunct professor, and environmental writer who became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist, has published an article on the Project Syndicate tilted ‘The End of Pasta?’. Lomborg states “…increasing temperatures will harm some crops while benefiting others. Because most crops are already grown where they do best, it is not surprising that climate models show that temperature increases will reduce yields if farmers change little or nothing. In fact, farmers will adapt, especially over the course of a century. They will plant earlier, grow more heat-loving varieties, or change their crop entirely. And, as growing wheat and grains becomes possible higher north in Canada and Russia, even more opportunities will open up. …Of course, this does not mean that global warming has no impact on crops. Production will move to new varieties and away from the tropics, implying even higher yields for developed countries, but slower growth in yields for developing countries. For wheat, it is even likely that parts of Africa simply will be unable to sustain production. But cutting back on CO2 is a particularly ineffective way to help the world’s poor and hungry. Even if we managed – at very high cost – a significant reduction, we would achieve only a slightly slower rise in global temperatures. Meanwhile, by embracing biofuels, for example, we are essentially burning food in our cars, which drives up food prices and exacerbates hunger. We could do much more good if we focused on allowing poor countries to use the benefits of extra CO2 fertilization while adapting to the problems caused by higher temperatures. That means greater investment in crop research to produce more robust and higher-yielding varieties, as well as making more irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizer available.”  Inspired by Bjorn Lomborg, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hfPhU Image source Twitter ow.ly/hfPfz 130207 The End of Pasta?

 

Bjorn Lomborg the 48 year old Danish author, adjunct professor, and environmental writer who became internationally known for his best-selling and controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist, has published an article on the Project Syndicate tilted ‘The End of Pasta?’. Lomborg states “…increasing temperatures will harm some crops while benefiting others. Because most crops are already grown where they do best, it is not surprising that climate models show that temperature increases will reduce yields if farmers change little or nothing. In fact, farmers will adapt, especially over the course of a century. They will plant earlier, grow more heat-loving varieties, or change their crop entirely. And, as growing wheat and grains becomes possible higher north in Canada and Russia, even more opportunities will open up. …Of course, this does not mean that global warming has no impact on crops. Production will move to new varieties and away from the tropics, implying even higher yields for developed countries, but slower growth in yields for developing countries. For wheat, it is even likely that parts of Africa simply will be unable to sustain production. But cutting back on CO2 is a particularly ineffective way to help the world’s poor and hungry. Even if we managed – at very high cost – a significant reduction, we would achieve only a slightly slower rise in global temperatures. Meanwhile, by embracing biofuels, for example, we are essentially burning food in our cars, which drives up food prices and exacerbates hunger. We could do much more good if we focused on allowing poor countries to use the benefits of extra CO2 fertilization while adapting to the problems caused by higher temperatures. That means greater investment in crop research to produce more robust and higher-yielding varieties, as well as making more irrigation, pesticides, and fertilizer available.”

 

Inspired by Bjorn Lomborg, Project Syndicate ow.ly/hfPhU Image source Twitter ow.ly/hfPfz

Chibundu Onuzo the 21 year old Nigerian author of her first novel 'The Spider King's Daughter' has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘Africa and the new white man's burden’, referring to China taking advantage of the Colonialism shadow still casts over the west's relationships with African countries. Onuzo states “Kipling's burden was shouldered by men who felt a calling to civilise the "half devil, half child" peoples who apparently proliferated the 19th-century world. …Things have somewhat changed in the 21st century. Many who take up the load of development do so, if not with guilt – for guilt is too unnuanced a term –, then with an acute awareness of all that has preceded their arrival among the less economically developed of the earth. …So they tread carefully, mindful of sensibilities that are both figment and real. They overlook corruption because it is how things are done in Africa. They laud substandard leaders because it is how people are ruled in Africa. To criticise or hold under too deep a scrutiny is to be accused of being an agent of a new type of colonialism. It is true that the phrases neocolonialism and neoimperialism are not obsolete. …There are cries that China's is a new imperialism. If so, at least it is new and not trapped in a stagnant history of ex-colonisers and their ex-colonies. Hearteningly, China does not hide its wish to make profit out of its dealings with Africa behind altruism or religion or paternalism. …But if China's dealings in Africa do not point to an attempt to make Beijing a metropolis, then it is better not to recast the Chinese arrival in Lagos as the second act of the British landing in Eko; it is better that history serves as merely a loose reference for dealing with foreign powers.”  Inspired by Chibundu Onuzo, The Guardian ow.ly/hdFxv Image source Twitter ow.ly/hdFrY Africa the new white man’s burden (February 4 2013)

Chibundu Onuzo the 21 year old Nigerian author of her first novel ‘The Spider King’s Daughter’ has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘Africa and the new white man’s burden’, referring to China taking advantage of the Colonialism shadow still casts over the west’s relationships with African countries. Onuzo states “Kipling’s burden was shouldered by men who felt a calling to civilise the “half devil, half child” peoples who apparently proliferated the 19th-century world. …Things have somewhat changed in the 21st century. Many who take up the load of development do so, if not with guilt – for guilt is too unnuanced a term –, then with an acute awareness of all that has preceded their arrival among the less economically developed of the earth. …So they tread carefully, mindful of sensibilities that are both figment and real. They overlook corruption because it is how things are done in Africa. They laud substandard leaders because it is how people are ruled in Africa. To criticise or hold under too deep a scrutiny is to be accused of being an agent of a new type of colonialism. It is true that the phrases neocolonialism and neoimperialism are not obsolete. …There are cries that China’s is a new imperialism. If so, at least it is new and not trapped in a stagnant history of ex-colonisers and their ex-colonies. Hearteningly, China does not hide its wish to make profit out of its dealings with Africa behind altruism or religion or paternalism. …But if China’s dealings in Africa do not point to an attempt to make Beijing a metropolis, then it is better not to recast the Chinese arrival in Lagos as the second act of the British landing in Eko; it is better that history serves as merely a loose reference for dealing with foreign powers.”

 

Inspired by Chibundu Onuzo, The Guardian ow.ly/hdFxv Image source Twitter ow.ly/hdFrY

Michael Bruce Sterling the 58 year old American science fiction author best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology helping to define the cyberpunk genre has been featured by George Dvorsky in an article published on io9 titled ‘Bruce Sterling Thinks Artificial Intelligence Has Jumped the Shark’. Dvprsky states “…if his recent comments about the potential risks of greater-than-human artificial intelligence — or lack thereof — are any indication, he's itching to start a giant fight among futurists. …Sterling penned a four paragraph article saying that we shouldn't fear the onset of super AI because a "Singularity has no business model." He writes: This aging sci-fi notion has lost its conceptual teeth. Plus, its chief evangelist, visionary Ray Kurzweil, just got a straight engineering job with Google. Despite its weird fondness for AR goggles and self-driving cars, Google is not going to finance any eschatological cataclysm in which superhuman intelligence abruptly ends the human era. Google is a firmly commercial enterprise. It's just not happening. All the symptoms are absent. Computer hardware is not accelerating on any exponential runway beyond all hope of control. We're no closer to "self-aware" machines than we were in the remote 1960s. Modern wireless devices in a modern Cloud are an entirely different cyber-paradigm than imaginary 1990s "minds on nonbiological substrates" that might allegedly have the "computational power of a human brain." A Singularity has no business model, no major power group in our society is interested in provoking one, nobody who matters sees any reason to create one, there's no there there. So, as a Pope once remarked, "Be not afraid." We're getting what Vinge predicted would happen without a Singularity, which is "a glut of technical riches never properly absorbed." There's all kinds of mayhem in that junkyard, but the AI Rapture isn't lurking in there. It's no more to be fretted about than a landing of Martian tripods.”  Inspired by George Dvorsky, io9 ow.ly/gXH7O Image source Pablo Balbontin Arenas ow.ly/gXH9v Artificial intelligence has jumped the shark (February 2 2013)

Michael Bruce Sterling the 58 year old American science fiction author best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology helping to define the cyberpunk genre has been featured by George Dvorsky in an article published on io9 titled ‘Bruce Sterling Thinks Artificial Intelligence Has Jumped the Shark’. Dvprsky states “…if his recent comments about the potential risks of greater-than-human artificial intelligence — or lack thereof — are any indication, he’s itching to start a giant fight among futurists. …Sterling penned a four paragraph article saying that we shouldn’t fear the onset of super AI because a “Singularity has no business model.” He writes: This aging sci-fi notion has lost its conceptual teeth. Plus, its chief evangelist, visionary Ray Kurzweil, just got a straight engineering job with Google. Despite its weird fondness for AR goggles and self-driving cars, Google is not going to finance any eschatological cataclysm in which superhuman intelligence abruptly ends the human era. Google is a firmly commercial enterprise. It’s just not happening. All the symptoms are absent. Computer hardware is not accelerating on any exponential runway beyond all hope of control. We’re no closer to “self-aware” machines than we were in the remote 1960s. Modern wireless devices in a modern Cloud are an entirely different cyber-paradigm than imaginary 1990s “minds on nonbiological substrates” that might allegedly have the “computational power of a human brain.” A Singularity has no business model, no major power group in our society is interested in provoking one, nobody who matters sees any reason to create one, there’s no there there. So, as a Pope once remarked, “Be not afraid.” We’re getting what Vinge predicted would happen without a Singularity, which is “a glut of technical riches never properly absorbed.” There’s all kinds of mayhem in that junkyard, but the AI Rapture isn’t lurking in there. It’s no more to be fretted about than a landing of Martian tripods.”

 

Inspired by George Dvorsky, io9 ow.ly/gXH7O Image source Pablo Balbontin Arenas ow.ly/gXH9v

 

Nick Cohen the British journalist, author and political commentator has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘Secular Britain is ruled by religious bureaucrats’ asking why is the church still such a force in our society when most of us disregard its clerics' teachings? Cohen states “The number of people who say they have no religion jumped from 15% in the 2001 census to 25% in 2011. If the remaining 75% were believers, this leap in free-thinking would be significant but not sensational. But those who say they are religious are not faithful to their creeds, or not in any sense that the believers of the past would have recognised. Church attendance is in constant decline. Every year that passes sees congregations become smaller and greyer. As striking as the fall in religious observance is the public's near total disregard for the teachings of the clerics and prelates, who could once claim to be society's moral guides. …When millions of people tell the census takers they are "Christians", therefore, they are muttering the title of a childhood story they only half remember. What is more, their spiritual "leaders" know it. …I can see no way of proving that allowing free debate proves happiness. It may well be that people are happier when their illusions and taboos remain intact. But if you prevent challenges to their beliefs, you are not treating them as adults; you are patting them on the head and saying that they cannot handle robust debates – infantilising them, in short. What applies to individuals applies to countries. Facing up to the truth about religious decline, and adapting our institutions accordingly, will doubtless cause pain to some. But it will allow Britain to become an honest and grown-up country that meets the first requirement of maturity by seeing itself as it is.” Inspired by The Guardian ow.ly/gpMLI image source Twitter ow.ly/gpMKT Britain is ruled by religious bureaucrats (January 2 2013)

Nick Cohen the British journalist, author and political commentator has published an article in The Guardian titled ‘Secular Britain is ruled by religious bureaucrats’ asking why is the church still such a force in our society when most of us disregard its clerics’ teachings? Cohen states “The number of people who say they have no religion jumped from 15% in the 2001 census to 25% in 2011. If the remaining 75% were believers, this leap in free-thinking would be significant but not sensational. But those who say they are religious are not faithful to their creeds, or not in any sense that the believers of the past would have recognised. Church attendance is in constant decline. Every year that passes sees congregations become smaller and greyer. As striking as the fall in religious observance is the public’s near total disregard for the teachings of the clerics and prelates, who could once claim to be society’s moral guides. …When millions of people tell the census takers they are “Christians”, therefore, they are muttering the title of a childhood story they only half remember. What is more, their spiritual “leaders” know it. …I can see no way of proving that allowing free debate proves happiness. It may well be that people are happier when their illusions and taboos remain intact. But if you prevent challenges to their beliefs, you are not treating them as adults; you are patting them on the head and saying that they cannot handle robust debates – infantilising them, in short. What applies to individuals applies to countries. Facing up to the truth about religious decline, and adapting our institutions accordingly, will doubtless cause pain to some. But it will allow Britain to become an honest and grown-up country that meets the first requirement of maturity by seeing itself as it is.”

 

Inspired by The Guardian ow.ly/gpMLI image source Twitter ow.ly/gpMKT

Will a continent turn its back on democracy (December 21 2012) Will a continent turn its back on democracy (December 21 2012)

Antony James Beevor the 65 year old British historian and author has published an article in The Prospect titled ‘Will a continent turn its back on democracy?’ Beevor states”…We again face the danger of a world depression and we are beginning to see mass unemployment in some countries, especially in southern Europe. Last year, Giles Paxman, the British ambassador in Madrid, pointed out how remarkable it was that despite the terrifying levels of youth unemployment in Spain, there had been an astonishingly low level of social disorder. The demonstrations of the “Indignados,” the young Spaniards who have taken to the streets to protest against austerity measures and unemployment, have been passionate but not violent. His theory is that the memory of the horrors of the Spanish civil war is acting like a nuclear threat in the background. He may well be right. Greece also suffered from a civil war, and although there have been a considerable amount of violent protests in Athens, folk memory is likely to hold the country back from outright conflict. …What are the dangers and threats to parliamentary democracy in Europe? Can the fundamental contradictions in the euro project be overcome? The dynamic of the moment seems to be that political integration must be drastically accelerated to make up for the flagrant paradoxes that existed from the euro’s very foundation and were scandalously ignored. The same foreign minister argued to me last autumn that the economic situation was so grave that Europe must adopt a presidential system with direct elections. That idea is now becoming general currency in top European circles. Economic and political control would be drastically centralised with virtually no accountability. This would be nothing less than an elective dictatorship bringing with it the threat of nationalism, the very thing the European project intended to avoid.”

 

Inspired by The Prospect ow.ly/g2byK image source Twitter ow.ly/g2bw0

How I accidentally kickstarted domestic drone boom (November 2 2012) How I accidentally kickstarted domestic drone boom (November 2 2012)

Chris Anderson the 51 year old British American author and editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine has published an article titled ‘How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom’ Anderson states “At last year’s Paris Air Show, some of the hottest aircraft were the autonomous unmanned helicopters – a few of them small enough to carry in one hand—that would allow military buyers to put a camera in the sky anywhere, anytime. Manufactured by major defense contractors, and ranging in design from a single-bladed camcopter to four-bladed multicopters, these drones were being sold as the future of warfare at prices in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In May, at a different trade show, similar aircraft were once again the most buzzed-about items on display. But this wasn’t another exhibition of military hardware; instead, it was the Hobby Expo China in Beijing, where Chinese manufacturers demo their newest and coolest toys. Companies like Shenzhen-based DJI Innovations are selling drones with the same capability as the military ones, sometimes for less than $1,000. These Chinese firms, in turn, are competing with even cheaper drones created by amateurs around the world, who share their designs for free in communities online. It’s safe to say that drones are the first technology in history where the toy industry and hobbyists are beating the military-industrial complex at its own game. …What are all these amateurs doing with their drones? Like the early personal computers, the main use at this point is experimentation – simple, geeky fun. But as personal drones become more sophisticated and reliable, practical applications are emerging.”

 

Inspired by Wired ow.ly/eKNWZ image source Twitter ow.ly/eKOh2

Perfectly easy way to rescue newspapers (October 16 2012) Perfectly easy way to rescue newspapers (October 16 2012)

David Leigh the 66 year old British journalist, author and the investigations executive editor of The Guardian is the subject of an article by Dan Hind on Aljazeera titled ‘Reincarnating the newspaper industry’. Hind states “…Leigh set out what he called a “perfectly easy way to rescue newspapers, ensure media plurality and monetise the web” – add a £2 ($3.2) monthly levy on broadband fees and thereby raise around £500 million ($807 million) a year. The money would then be distributed to news operations “according to their share of UK online readership”. …Revenues from print sales are in steep decline, he said, and paywalls won’t work in the UK, because of the BBC. …The lean pickings from web advertising on a free newspaper site will only pay for a fraction of the high-quality investigative journalism that commercial newspapers generate. We’ll just get the timid BBC on the one hand, and superficial junk on the other.” …here’s what I see as the main problem with Leigh’s suggestion. The distribution mechanism he proposes will not serve the stated aim. …While some good investigative journalism does appear in British newspapers, it accounts for only a tiny fraction of content as a whole. Much more space is given to celebrity gossip, chitchat from Westminster, lifestyle features, sports coverage, scare stories about immigrants, half-baked nonsense about the economy and similar “superficial junk”. …Leigh’s levy would go to those news operations with large online readerships, regardless of the amount of “high-quality investigative journalism” they commissioned and published. This will tend to reward, and preserve, incumbency.”

 

Inspired by Dan Hind ow.ly/emq5i image source Twitter ow.ly/emq1Y

The twin child of the Big Bang (October 9 2012) The twin child of the Big Bang (October 9 2012)

Frank Close the 67 year old British particle physicist, Professor and author has published an article in the Prospect Magazine titled ‘The twin child of the Big Bang’ discussing the first moments of the universe, how we may soon find out why matter overpowered antimatter, its mirror opposite. Close states “…We know how the energy in the heat of the Big Bang created the basic seeds of matter, and how over the eons these particles have formed galaxies of stars, including our own Milky Way and solar system. …Matter is not the Big Bang’s only child. It was born with a long-lost twin: antimatter. Matter and antimatter are the yin and yang of reality. … When the energy of the Big Bang congealed into the fundamental particles of matter, an imprint in the form of metaphorical holes, their antimatter siblings, was also formed. …Experiments have shown that quarks are the basic seeds of matter as we know it. There are also exotic forms of matter, containing what are known as strange, charm or bottom quarks, which rarely exist independently, except under very special conditions, such as briefly during or just after the Big Bang. They are unstable and their decays produce the stable forms from which our mature universe is made. …tantalising results are beginning to emerge. As data accumulate, the experiments at Cern will reveal sharper images of the processes at work in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang. Why the Big Bang happened is likely to remain an enigma. Why the universe managed to survive, and evolve, may soon be answered.”

 

Inspired by Prospect Magazine ow.ly/ebfN3 image source ow.ly/ebfdR

Sea ice at the frontline of climate change (September 28 2012) Sea ice at the frontline of climate change (September 28 2012)

John Vidal the British Author and environment editor for The Guardian newspaper has published an article titled ‘The staggering decline of sea ice at the frontline of climate change’ highlighting how scientists on board Greenpeace’s vessel exploring the minimum extent of the ice cap are shocked at the speed of the melt. Vidal states “The vast polar ice cap, which regulates the Earth’s temperature and has been a permanent fixture in our understanding of how the world works, has this year retreated further and faster than anyone expected. The previous record, set in 2007, was officially broken … a reduction of nearly 50% compared to just 40 years ago. … This year, 11.7m sq km of ice melted, 22% more than the long-term average of 9.18m sq km. …The record hasn’t just been broken, it’s been smashed to smithereens, adding weight to predictions that the Arctic may be ice-free in summer months within 20 years, say British, Italian and American-based scientists on board the [Greenpeace ice breaker] Arctic Sunrise. They are shocked at the speed and extent of the ice loss. …All over the Arctic the effects of accelerating ice loss and a warming atmosphere are being seen. The ecology is changing rapidly as trees and plants move north, new beetles devastate whole forests in Canada, Siberia and Alaska, and snowfall increases. Inuit and other communities report more avalanches, the erosion of sea cliffs and melting of the permafrost affecting roads and buildings. Whole coastal communities may have to be moved to avoid sea erosion.”

 

Inspired by The Guardian ow.ly/dPdm3 image source Twitter ow.ly/dPdkM

Our Longing for Lists (September 12 2012) Our Longing for Lists (September 12 2012)

Phil Patton the American author on design and culture has published an article in the New York Times on ‘Our Longing for Lists’. Patton states “We’re living in the era of the list, maybe even its golden age. The Web click has led to the wholesale repackaging of information into lists, which can be complex and wonderful pieces of information architecture. Our technology has imperceptibly infected us with “list thinking.” Lists are the simplest way to organize information. They are also a symptom of our short attention spans. The crudest of online lists are galaxies of buttons, replacing real stories. “Listicles,” you might say. They are just one step beyond magazine cover lines like “37 Ways to Drive Your Man Wild in Bed.” Bucket lists have produced competitive list making online. Like competitive birders, people check off books read or travel destinations visited. But lists can also tell a story. Even the humble shopping list says something about the shopper… Lists can reveal personal dramas. An exhibit of lists at the Morgan Library and Museum showed a passive-aggressive Picasso omitting his bosom buddy, Georges Braque, from a list of recommended artists. We’ve come a long way from the primitive best-seller lists and hit parade lists, “crowd sourced,” if you will, from sales. We all have our “to-do” lists, and there is a modern, sophisticated form of the list that is as serious as the “best of…” list is frivolous. That is the checklist.”

 

Inspired by New York Times ow.ly/dtykH image source Twitter ow.ly/dtyjH

Pentagon’s “New Spice Route” in Africa (August 3 2012) Pentagon’s “New Spice Route” in Africa (August 3 2012)

Nick Turse the American journalist, historian and author has published an article on Toms Dispatch titled ‘Obama’s Scramble for Africa’ where he discusses ‘Secret Wars, Secret Bases, and the Pentagon’s “New Spice Route” in Africa’. In the article Turse states “They call it the New Spice Route, an homage to the medieval trade network that connected Europe, Africa, and Asia, even if today’s “spice road” has nothing to do with cinnamon, cloves, or silks.  Instead, it’s a superpower’s superhighway, on which trucks and ships shuttle fuel, food, and military equipment through a growing maritime and ground transportation infrastructure to a network of supply depots, tiny camps, and airfields meant to service a fast-growing U.S. military presence in Africa. Few in the U.S. know about this superhighway, or about the dozens of training missions and joint military exercises being carried out in nations that most Americans couldn’t locate on a map. …operations in Africa have accelerated far beyond the more limited interventions of the Bush years: last year’s war in Libya; a regional drone campaign with missions run out of airports and bases in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and the Indian Ocean archipelago nation of Seychelles… The U.S. also has had troops deployed in Mali, despite having officially suspended military relations with that country following a coup. …engaged in a twenty-first century scramble for Africa, the possibility of successive waves of overlapping blowback grows exponentially.  Mali may only be the beginning and there’s no telling how any of it will end.  In the meantime, keep your eye on Africa.  The U.S. military is going to make news there for years to come.”

 

Inspired by TomDispatch ow.ly/czrF7 image source Radcliffe ow.ly/czrAT

White Black & catch-all Mongoloid group (July 17th 2012) White Black & catch-all Mongoloid group (July 17th 2012)

Khaled A. Beydoun the American Attorney and author has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘The business of remaking Arab-American identity’ in which he provides an overview of racial categorization within the USA. Beydoun states “Since its inception, the United States government has had a fixation with race. The judiciary was the government’s arbiter of making and molding racial designations, and subsequently, classifying new immigrant communities into the fluidly shifting and arbitrary American racial taxonomy. Racial categories were shaped, and reshaped, according to shifting demographics. Initially, three primary categories, White, Black, and the catch-all “Mongoloid” group were created to distinguish between Americans, and segregate the latter groups from full-fledged citizenship. These categories were incessantly morphed, by American courts, and new titles such as “Caucasian” and “Hispanic”, for instance, were introduced. …The first major wave of Arab-Americans, who arrived in America circa the turn of the 20th century, was largely Christian natives of the Ottoman-colonised Levant. Religion, and the physical appearance of this wave, facilitated racial passing, and American courts ruled that (this pioneering) influx of Arabs were “part of the white race”. …Arab-Americans would ultimately be racialised differently, creating a divided landscape where American courts facilitated the early wave’s pursuit of whiteness and white privilege, and established jurisprudential baselines that denied the subsequent wave of largely Muslim, “ethnic” Arabs that same path. Caucasian was a legal term imposed on Arabs-Americans, while whiteness as an on-the-ground status was only enjoyed by those Arabs the courts – and the court of public opinion – deemed worthy of inclusion.”

 

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Enid Gabriella ‘Biella’ Coleman the American anthropologist, academic and author whose work focuses on hacker culture and online activism has published an article on Aljazeera about the Anonymous Hactivitst group. In the article Coleman states “… as a masked entity bearing the name Anonymous – it relays an urgent message about anonymity to contemplate. Given the contemporary reality of a corporate and state controlled surveillance apparatus, Anonymous stands out, compels, and enchants for a very particular reason: it has provided a small but potent oasis of anonymity in the current expansive desert of surveillance, much like the one quite literally being built in the Utah desert right now by the NSA. In an era when most of our personal data is archived online – in a time when states and corporations collect, market, and monetise our plans and preferences – there is indeed something hopeful, one might even say necessary, in Anonymous’ effacement of the self, in the cloaking of their identities, in striking at legislation seen to threaten privacy, and seeking to expose the depth and extent of privatised government contractors that have rapidly emerged as a security apparatus parallel to that of the national government.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera ow.ly/aYePW image source Karora ow.ly/aYeN1

Jonah Lehrer the 30 year old American author and journalist who writes on the topics of psychology, neuroscience, and the relationship between science and the humanities has been profiled by Paul Harris for The Guardian in an article titled ‘Jonah Lehrer: the prodigy who lights up the brain’. Harris states of Lehrer “He brings an artist’s skill to the latest research in neuroscience, making him a huge success at only 30. Now his latest book aims to demystify the workings of creativity… He strives to link art and neurology: how chemical reactions within three pounds of squidgy grey matter inside our skulls actually make us love, laugh and lead our lives. That sounds profound and much of Lehrer’s writing is full of wondrous examples of brain and art colliding and collaborating. He shows how writers and painters pre-empted the insights of neuroscience; how different parts of our brains battle with decisions; how creativity is not simply a God-given gift to a lucky few but can be understood, learned and nurtured. But his goal is not without its critics. Where some see Lehrer as a genius, others might see him repackaging plain old common sense in fine prose. It is something that is a risk of the field.”

 

Inspired by Paul Harris http://ow.ly/aS6Ul image source Twitter http://ow.ly/aS6Qd

Norman Gary Finkelstein the 58 year old USA political scientist, activist and author has been profiled by Natasha Mozgovaya on the Haaretz blog in reference to his latest book that she describes as surprisingly optimistic, despite its title ‘Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel Is Coming to an End’. “In June, Norman Finkelstein will mark 30 years of criticizing Israel. He remembers the exact day – the beginning of the Lebanon war, which ended his indifference to the Middle East’s troubles. …he [says he] is “not going to be an Israel-basher anymore.” It’s not that he’s changed his mind on the conflict, he just says blaming Israel has become too easy. “Nobody really defends Israel anymore” …They’ve lost the battle for public opinion, they claim it’s because American Jews know too little – I claim it’s because they know too much about the conflict, and young liberal Jews have difficulty defending the use of cluster bombs in Lebanon or supporting the Israeli settlements. I was bashing Israel in the past because nobody else was exposing its true record. Many people are doing it now, so I switched hats from a critic of Israel to a diplomat who wants to resolve the conflict. I have not changed, but I think the spectrum has moved.”

 

Inspired by Natasha Mozgovaya http://ow.ly/aONIu image source Miguel de Icaza http://ow.ly/aOND0

Antonia Juhasz a USA oil and energy analyst, author, journalist, and activist has published an article in The Nation Magazine depicting the health issues experienced by residents of the Gulf Coast since the 2010 BP oil spill. In the article Juhasz states, “The most toxic chemicals found in oil are lipid-soluble, which means that they accumulate in organs that contain a lot of fat, like the brain. Consequently, those with the greatest exposure can get permanent brain damage, dementia, as a result… In August 2011 the Government Accountability Project (GAP) began its investigation of the public health threats associated with the oil spill cleanup… Witnesses reported a host of ailments, including eye, nose and throat irritation; respiratory problems; blood in urine, vomit and rectal bleeding; seizures; nausea and violent vomiting episodes that last for hours; skin irritation, burning and lesions; short-term memory loss and confusion; liver and kidney damage; central nervous system effects and nervous system damage; hypertension; and miscarriages. … It will take years to determine the actual number of affected people. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), with financial support from BP, is conducting several multiyear health impact studies, which are only just getting under way.”

 

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Matthew “Matt” O’Brien the USA author and journalist has published an article in The Atlantic citing ‘Spain Is Doomed: Why Austerity Is Destroying Europe’. In the article O’Brien states “Nearly a quarter of Spain’s population is unemployed. Half of its youth are out of work. And it’s only going to get worse. Spain is supposed to trim its deficit by some 5.5 percent of GDP over the next two years. That’s not a recipe for growth. Just ask the IMF, which downgraded its projections for Spain’s economy back in January. What matters for a nation is its GDP. That’s a country’s equivalent of personal income. If Spain’s GDP is set to fall for the foreseeable future — and it is — then who would want to lend to Spain? The markets gave their answer — practically nobody! — and ECB was forced to fill the void by giving Eurobanks free money to then invest in sovereign debt. Yields came down. European policymakers declared “Mission Accomplished.” …Rather than consider the possibility that the economy might work differently than they think, they have settled on a simple message: The beatings will continue. Unfortunately, morale will continue to not improve. Eventually, you have to think leaders in Europe’s beat-up countries will begin to wonder if life might be better outside the euro zone.”

 

Inspired by The Atlantic http://ow.ly/awRxF image source Business Insider http://ow.ly/awRvH

Jonathan Edward Schell the 68 year old US author in an interview with Andy Kroll for Tomdispatch tackled the question of what exactly is nonviolent action? Schell stated “…I was led to see that there were forms of nonviolent action that could unravel and topple the most violent forms of government ever conceived — namely, the totalitarian. This went entirely against the conventional wisdom of political science, which taught that force is the ultima ratio, the final arbiter; that if you had superior weaponry and superior military power you were the winner… So I asked myself what exactly is nonviolent action? What is popular protest? How does it work? …a peaceful protest led by Mohandas Gandhi at the Empire Theater in Johannesburg, South Africa, on September 11, 1906. It’s rare that you can date a social invention to a particular day and meeting, but I think you can in this case.  Gandhi called himself an experimenter in truth. He’s really the Einstein of nonviolence.…before the Occupy movement here… We didn’t know how to drop a bucket into our own hearts and come up with the necessary will to do the things that needed to be done.”

 

Inspired by Andrew Kroll http://ow.ly/9AXSQ image source David Shankbone http://ow.ly/9AYzV

Simon David Jenkins the 68 year old UK newspaper columnist and author and chairman of the National Trust has published an article in the Guardian stating “Inflation is falling, debt is rising, growth is static and credit is edgy. All these are facts. There must be an economic equation that says what to do next. So where are the economists when we need them? As usual they have taken to the hills. You cannot get a straight answer for love nor money, even … from the Bank of England. … The failure to take economic management beyond the diktats of austerity has become the great intellectual treason of today. For three years it has trapped governments, economists, bankers and media in a collective miasma of panic about inflation. Thousands of citizens across Europe are having their lives ruined and their children’s prospects blighted because a financial elite, once burned, is too shy to think out of its box. It refuses to stimulate demand merely because that is not the done thing to do.”

 

Inspired by Simon Jenkins http://ow.ly/9maiy image source twitter http://ow.ly/9man0

Chase Madar the US lawyer and author of ‘The Passion of Bradley Manning’ has released an article on Aljazeera stating “The bodycount that resulted from Pfc Manning’s leaks have amounted to zero thus far, while his accusers stand bloody.” Madar states, “Knowledge may indeed have its risks, but how many civilian deaths can actually be traced to the WikiLeaks’ revelations? How many military deaths? To the best of anyone’s knowledge, not a single one. …the “grave risks” involved in the publication of the War Logs and of those State Department documents have been wildly exaggerated. Embarrassment, yes. A look inside two grim wars and the workings of imperial diplomacy, yes. Blood, no. The civilian carnage caused by our rush to war … is not speculative or theoretical but all-too real. And yet no one anywhere has been held to much account… Only one individual, it seems, will pay, even if he actually spilled none of the blood. Our foreign policy elites seem to think Bradley Manning is well-cast for the role of fall guy and scapegoat. This is an injustice. …someday Pfc Manning will be honoured.

 

Inspired by image Chase Madar http://ow.ly/8Jm6I source Muhammad Ahmad http://ow.ly/8Jm4R

Christopher Eric Hitchens the 62 year old UK author and journalist renowned for his confrontational style bringing him to fame in left wing circles of the UK and the USA has died after an extended battle with throat cancer. Hitchen’s death was announced by the ‘Vanity Fair’ magazine for which he had contributed articles over the past two decades. The magazine’s editor Graydon Carter stated “”There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar, those who read him felt they knew him, and those who knew him were profoundly fortunate souls.” Richard Dawkins the evolutionary biologist and friend of Hitchens, stated “I think he was one of the greatest orators of all time. He was a polymath, a wit, immensely knowledgeable, and a valiant fighter against all tyrants including imaginary supernatural ones.”

 

Inspired by Aljazeera http://ow.ly/89WNL image source ensceptico http://ow.ly/89WUG

NAJ Taylor the Australian Political Science academic and author of ‘This Blog Harms’, has published a three part essay on Aljazeera that “explores an often neglected aspect of corporate responsibility: the paradox of being a “responsible” arms maker. Taylor argues “that the “negative externalities” – or the impact on society – inherent in the deployment and threat of the use of weapons makes the standard of corporate responsibility difficult to apply”. In the second part of the essay Taylor argues, “those interested in corporate behaviour should view such firms through a “corporate social irresponsibility” lens, a strategy that identifies and allows a response to be made to normative developments, through proactive engagement and divestment strategies … before engaging with the problem of institutional investment in cluster munitions” in the third part of the essay.

 

Inspired by Aljazeera http://ow.ly/82LQ4 image source Naj Taylor http://ow.ly/82LOG

Kalle Lasn the 69 year old Estonian Canadian author, activist and co-founder of the anti-consumerist Adbusters magazine has been credited with “branding” the OWS Movement by William Yardley in a New York Times article, “…as uprisings shook the Middle East and much of the world economy struggled, Mr. Lasn … felt the moment was ripe to tap simmering frustration on the American political left. On July 13, he and his colleagues created a new hash tag on Twitter: #OCCUPYWALLSTREET. They made a poster showing a ballerina dancing on the back of the muscular sculptured bull near Wall Street in Manhattan … For Mr. Lasn, they were tools to begin remodeling the “mental environment,” to create a new “meme,” the term coined by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins for a kind of transcendent cultural message. “There’s a number of ways to wage a meme war … I believe that one of the most powerful things of all is aesthetics.”

 

Inspired by William Yardley http://ow.ly/7VnB5 image source freerepublic http://ow.ly/7VogT

Daniel Hind the UK author of two acclaimed books ‘The Return of the Public’ and ‘The Threat to Reason’ has published an article on Aljazeera, speaking out on the UK’s irrational faith in capitalism. Hind the winner of the Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize, speaks in the article of a “child-like faith in market forces”, and “for decades, the advocates of free markets dominated public discussion, but the rest of us are now talking … in ways that are becoming increasingly audible … this is not an initiative of the established powers. Instead, a few thousand concerned citizens have occupied a piece of land in front of St Pauls … as a venue for free deliberation, discussion and debate … I hope … people join this conversation, on their own terms, in ways and in places that seem right to them … surely time we put more faith in each other than in markets.”

 

Inspired by Daniel Hind http://ow.ly/7zQNN image source thersa http://ow.ly/7zQST

Naomi Wolf the 48 year old US author and social critic has lashed out at American politicians following her arrest in New York during a supportive visit to the Occupy Wall Street movement in Lower Manhattan. In an Aljazeera article, Wolf claims America’s politicians “have had their fill of democracy. Across the country, police, acting under orders from local officials, are breaking up protest encampments … sometimes with shocking and utterly gratuitous violence”. Wolf states, “…most commentators have not fully grasped that a world war is occurring. But it is unlike any previous war in human history: for the first time, people around the world are not identifying and organising themselves along national or religious lines, but rather in terms of a global consciousness and demands for a peaceful life, a sustainable future, economic justice and basic democracy. Their enemy is a global “corporatocracy” that has purchased governments and legislatures, created its own armed enforcers, engaged in systemic economic fraud, and plundered treasuries and ecosystems”.

 

Inspired by Naomi Wolf http://ow.ly/7kdyB image source David Shankbone http://ow.ly/7kdNy

Joe McGinniss the 68 year old US author of bestselling nonfiction and novels has released his latest politically sensitive book ‘The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin’ to much fanfare and outrage. McGinniss had rented the neighboring Alaskan house next to Pain for over 12 months. Palin responded with a 4.2m fence to block McGinniss’s view, as they bantered online for all to see. The books release has unveiled allegations that Palin, said to be a racist had a short relationship with a black college student, an affair with a business partner of her husbands, and had used drugs. McGinniss achieved overnight success at age 26, with his bestseller ‘The Selling of the President’. The book described the 1968 marketing of Richard Nixon during his presidential campaign. While initially turned down by the Hubert Humphrey campaign, Nixon’s agreed.

 

Inspired by Rupert Cornwell http://ow.ly/6xv8I image source eurweb http://ow.ly/6xv7z

Maria Owings Shriver the 55 year old Peabody award winning journalist author has pleaded for compassion, respect and privacy in the aftermath of her marriage breakdown and separation from bodybuilder actor Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shriver a member of the Kennedy clan was responding to the painful heartbreak resulting from the media coverage to the revelation that her husband had fathered a child 10 years earlier with a long time member of their household staff Mildred Baena. The media hyped ‘love child’ was born just days after Shriver gave birth to one of Schwarzenegger’s sons. Apart from the morality of Schwarzenegger’s actions and the consequences of his secrecy, questions now arise as to the ethics, and issues of consent in the nature of a potentially coercive relationship an employer has with household staff. Inspired by Jon Bershad ow.ly/50zqg image source lifescript ow.ly/50zWP I ask for compassion, respect and privacy (May 25 2011)

Maria Owings Shriver the 55 year old Peabody award winning journalist author has pleaded for compassion, respect and privacy in the aftermath of her marriage breakdown and separation from bodybuilder actor Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. Shriver a member of the Kennedy clan was responding to the painful heartbreak resulting from the media coverage to the revelation that her husband had fathered a child 10 years earlier with a long time member of their household staff Mildred Baena. The media hyped ‘love child’ was born just days after Shriver gave birth to one of Schwarzenegger’s sons. Apart from the morality of Schwarzenegger’s actions and the consequences of his secrecy, questions now arise as to the ethics, and issues of consent in the nature of a potentially coercive relationship an employer has with household staff.

 

Inspired by Jon Bershad ow.ly/50zqg image source lifescript ow.ly/50zWP

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