noosphere

Robert Reich: Global Capital and the Nation State

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:57:33 -0400

Robert Reich: Global Capital and the Nation State:

As global capital becomes ever more powerful, giant corporations are holding governments and citizens up for ransom — eliciting subsidies and tax breaks from countries concerned about their nation’s “competitiveness” — while sheltering their profits in the lowest-tax jurisdictions they can find….

theatlantic: The Real Benghazi Scandal America is far less...

Sun, 19 May 2013 01:25:25 -0400

theatlantic:

The Real Benghazi Scandal

America is far less served by the endless recitation of calls made and talking points issued than it would be by a hard look at the members of Congress that failed to provide resources, and the bureaucratic hurdles that kept the resources that were available from being deployed. The breathless search for a cover-up has only served to bury those real — and potentially deadly — problems.

Read more. [Image: Reuters]

Photo

Sat, 04 May 2013 15:11:19 -0400

wnycradiolab: etsy: Cold words get warm and fuzzy. Banners by...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 03:55:37 -0400

wnycradiolab:

etsy:

Cold words get warm and fuzzy. Banners by napkinitems.

This is causing a lot of cognitive dissonance over here.

Perhaps b/c you aren’t letting them speak to u. “Whatever” in this context turned into (for me) “whatever makes u happy”, “loser of weight”, & break up (as in river ice) is a happy, warm time in Alaska. #FreeYourMindAndTheRestWillFollow

theatlantic: This Street Art Will Blow Your Mind Since his...

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:43:57 -0400

theatlantic:

This Street Art Will Blow Your Mind

Since his first perspective drawings appeared in a Paris apartment in 1979, the Paris-based artist has been prolific. His work has appeared all over the world, in Japanese plazas, Swiss hill towns, Welsh ports, and a number of galleries, museums and universities.

See more. [Images: Felice Varini]

theatlantic: In Focus: International Women’s Day 2013 Today is...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 17:14:18 -0500

theatlantic:

In Focus: International Women’s Day 2013

Today is International Women’s Day, a day set aside to celebrate women and their economic, political, and social achievements around the world. It is also a time to focus on places and situations where women’s rights, equality, health, and safety still have a long way to go. Collected below are images of women around the world — powerful and poor, young and old — on International Women’s Day.

Read more. [Images: Getty, AP, Reuters]

explore-blog: For a moment of awe at the human spirit: Kinshasa...

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:03:59 -0500

explore-blog:

For a moment of awe at the human spirit: Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra, composed of self-taught “amateurs” in the Lovecraftian sense of the word, brings the joy of classical music to some of Africa’s poorest and most violent regions

workisnotajob: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s...

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:56:14 -0500

workisnotajob:

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” - T.S. Eliot

Happy new year everyone! Dream big, start creating, work on what you love. This is your year!

physicsphysics: Laws of Nature.

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:23:00 -0500

physicsphysics:

Laws of Nature.

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right..."

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 03:38:03 -0500

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head”

- C. S. Lewis, he of great wisdom, in The Abolition of Man. (via explore-blog)

kickstarter: Gender and justice in Bangladesh. Kristy Crabtree...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:39:38 -0500

kickstarter:

Gender and justice in Bangladesh.

Kristy Crabtree comes across countless news items in her career as a journalist — but she just couldn’t let go of this story.

“Hena was 14 years old when she was whipped to death in a town outside Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka,” writes Crabtree. “Her crime: being raped by her 40 year-old cousin.”

Hena’s extra-judicial punishment was already illegal under a High Court ruling passed more than five months before her death. Yet, despite this legal protection, it remains extremely difficult for female survivors of violent crimes to achieve justice through the unofficial system of village arbitration. Hena’s case is just one particularly tragic example.

Crabtree has lived and worked in Bangladesh, established relationships with community organizers, and speaks fluent Bengali. Her new Kickstarter project will fund a major research project on women and the justice system in Bangladesh, focusing on the dynamics of small, rural communities. Backers can help bring this underreported story into the world, while receiving photos, letters, and dispatches from Crabtree in the field.

beingblog: “A library in the middle of a community is a cross...

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:42:00 -0500

beingblog:

“A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold, rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen, instead. A human with a brain and a heart and a desire to be uplifted, rather than a customer with a credit card and an inchoate “need” for “stuff.” A mall—the shops—are places where your money makes the wealthy wealthier. But a library is where the wealthy’s taxes pay for you to become a little more extraordinary, instead. A satisfying reversal. A balancing of the power.”

~Caitlin Moran, from Libraries: Cathedrals of Our Souls

photo by Peter Davis

austinkleon: thenearsightedmonkey: Writing by hand… does it...

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:33:37 -0500

austinkleon:

thenearsightedmonkey:

Writing by hand… does it ring a bell? Does it ring and ring? (Image by Lynda Barry)

How soft the music of those village bells,
Falling at interval upon the ear
In cadence sweet; now dying all away,
Now pealing loud again, and louder still,
Clear and sonorous, as the gale comes on!
With easy force it opens all the cells
Where Memory slept.

— William Cowper- Task (bk. VI, l. 6)

Source … and other source

Filed under: handwriting

americasgreatoutdoors: At 13.2 million acres which is bigger...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 23:53:00 -0500

americasgreatoutdoors:

At 13.2 million acres which is bigger than the country of Switzerland, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve stretches from one of the tallest peaks in North America, Mount St. Elias (18,008) to the ocean. Yet within this wild landscape, people have been living off the land for centuries and still do today. The park is a rugged yet inviting place to experience your own adventure.

Photo: National Park Service

theatlantic: In Focus: Diwali: The Festival of Lights Today...

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 23:43:03 -0500

theatlantic:

In Focus: Diwali: The Festival of Lights

Today marks the start of the five-day festival of Diwali, celebrated by Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs around the world. During Diwali, originally a harvest festival, lamps are lit to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, fireworks are set off to drive away evil spirits, and prayers for prosperity are offered to Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Collected here are images of this year’s festival, as celebrants color their world, give prayers, and wish each other a happy Diwali.

Read more. [Images: AP, Getty, Reuters]

barackobama: Only one candidate in this race thought it was a...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:35:00 -0500

barackobama:

Only one candidate in this race thought it was a good idea to stand by the American auto industry.

Don’t forget to vote. It matters.

+ working, always working, living is working when you want to know what this, this mad dash through...

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 00:04:00 -0400

+ working, always working, living

is working when you

want to know what this, this

mad dash through a universe, this

varied jumble of profusion upon profusion, this

intricate illusion, that is this

life,

what this is all about; one

wishes for some

time away

to put all the pieces

together.

"I want all these young people to be getting a higher education, and I don’t want them loaded up with..."

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:14:00 -0400

“

I want all these young people to be getting a higher education, and I don’t want them loaded up with tens of thousands of dollars of debt just to get an education. That’s how we make America great.

Of course, that means all of you all have got to hit the books. I’m just saying. Don’t cheer and then you didn’t do your homework.

Because that’s part of the bargain—America says we will give you opportunity, but you’ve got to earn your success.

You’re competing against young people in Beijing and Bangalore. They’re not hanging out. They’re not playing video games. They’re not watching “Real Housewives.” I’m just saying. It’s a two-way street. You’ve got to earn success.

That wasn’t in my prepared remarks. But I’m just saying.

”

- President Obama today, keeping it real (via barackobama)

"You can’t meet someone until you’ve become what you’re becoming."

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 16:04:00 -0400

“You can’t meet someone until you’ve become what you’re becoming.”

- Nora Ephron via The New Yorker

fuckyeahfluiddynamics: This video describes how the sun’s...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 15:38:00 -0400

fuckyeahfluiddynamics:

This video describes how the sun’s energy drives wind and ocean currents on earth. As solar winds stream forth from the sun, our magnetosphere deflects the brunt of the impact (creating auroras at the poles) while the atmosphere, land masses, and oceans absorb thermal energy from the sun’s light. Because of our cycles of day and night and the differences in how land, water, and ice absorb heat, temperature differentials around the earth drive a massive heat engine, causing the circulation of water and wind all around our world. Numerical simulations like the ones underlying this video are vital for the prediction of climate and weather, as well as for developing models and techniques that can be applied to other problems in science and engineering. (Video credit: NASA; via Gizmodo)