May 2012
50 posts
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Until it moved sideways unto the field of nationalism, Quebec was often a leading force for social change in the country. Many progressive thinkers are hoping that its unexpected embrace of the NDP last spring was a prelude to a return to that role. From the perspective of social peace, that may be a best-case scenario.
What is certain is that the roots of the current Quebec crisis are...
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Bowen recalls the first time she met Daniel: “He was just a delight, eager, happy, outgoing—in those days even more so than now, because of his isolation.” He showed her his room, which he shared with 20 other people, and his dresser, which was nearly empty, because everyone wore communal clothing. “I remember very clearly trying to respond with happiness, but it was very hard, because there was...
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“What I’ve seen in Canada is a system that presents barriers for the poor to access nutritious diets and that tolerates increased inequalities between rich and poor, and aboriginal non-aboriginal peoples,” Olivier De Schutter, the UN right-to-food envoy, said Wednesday.
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“This is a country that is rich but that fails to adapt the levels of social assistance benefits and its minimum...
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The wrong Carlos: how Texas sent an innocent man... →
A few years ago, Antonin Scalia, one of the nine justices on the US supreme court, made a bold statement. There has not been, he said, “a single case – not one – in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit. If such an event had occurred … the innocent’s name would be shouted from the rooftops.”
Scalia may have to eat his words. It is now clear that a person was...
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Watchtheatlanticvideo:
The Trippy Physics of Bubbles in Microgravity
Don Pettit, an astronaut on board the International Space Station, continues his ongoing educational video series with a demonstration of antibubbles.
You can smoke pot on the ISS?
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Technology and individualism →
I recently re-read C.J. Chivers book The Gun, a history of the Kalashnikov (the AK-47) and its American-made rival, the M-16. Basically the story goes like this: the USSR produced a weapon of hideous destructive power, an automatice rifle capable of shooting a LOT of bullets very quickly. It was made all the more hideous by the fact that it was incredibly rugged and dependable. It...
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“I know there are supposedly happy people in this world. I never believed it, but...”
– Maurice Sendak on depression. [complete interviews here] (via nprfreshair)
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Shocking new photos from BP disaster unearthed by...
Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones writes about a trove of new photographs documenting the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico two years ago.
In the midst of the disaster, BP and its contractors did everything they could to keep people from seeing the scale of the disaster. But new photos released Monday offer some new...
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Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments for Teachers
Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority...
