March 2010
To the florists!
2 tags
Crappy Easter
Today I enter my second week of carlessness. The car in question, my lovely to drive but temperamental ‘97 Merc, sits marooned on the drive by some unfathomable computery fault affecting the alarm/central locking/immobiliser. Only a main dealer can identify the fault, apparently, much less fix it. Breakdown truck man called me back yesterday, to tell me that he had crashed and would be...
Office technology: Productivity boost or time... →
infoneer-pulse:
The dirty little secret of office technology is that no one can agree on how exactly to measure white-collar productivity. That means, in turn, that no one can prove definitively that PCs and other technologies contribute anything to productivity.
What the experts have figured out is how to track what office workers actually spend their time doing. The results indicate that —...
1 tag
The Moving Sidewalks - I Want To Hold Your Hand
Gravity Emerges from Quantum Information, Say... →
buffleheadcabin:
vruz:
h/t @brainpicker
The new role that quantum information plays in gravity sets the scene for a dramatic unification of ideas in physics
One of the hottest new ideas in physics is that gravity is an emergent phenomena; that it somehow arises from the complex interaction of simpler things.
A few month’s ago, Erik Verlinde at the the University of Amsterdam put forward...
Watchcriticalculture:
The Crisis of Neoliberalism (the Real News)
When we speak of neoliberalism, we speak of contemporary capitalism. Neoliberalism, it’s a new stage of capitalism which began around 1980. It began in big countries like United Kingdom and the United States. Then it was implemented in Europe, and later in Japan, and later around the world in general. So this is a new phase of...
“In a 24/7 entertained society frenetic with sound bites, Blackberries, iPods,...”
– Attention Deficit Democracy - by Ralph Nader (via afghanibanani)
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“America is controlled by what economists call rent-seeking behaviour. Virtually...”
– Ian Welsh (via azspot)
Just remember that most of the world doesn't get...
Yes, I am looking at you.
proustianmemory-deactivated2010 asked: I'm digging your new layout (new to my eyes, anyway, since I've returned from a mini-hiatus, and this is the first I've laid eyes on it). It's bombastic, yet also constrained. Good job.
“Am I the only one who senses it might be America’s turn to go nuts? I don’t mean...”
– James Howard Kunstler (via azspot)
I’d be more inclined to take JHK seriously if he didn’t predict Armageddon every Monday.
Global downturn hits Africa's poverty target →
vruz:
—via abbyjean:
Africa is the only continent not on track to meet the U.N. millennium development goal of halving poverty by 2015 because of the impact of the global economic downturn, a U.N. agency said on Thursday.
vruz: for africa there’s no targets, not even hope right now unless the rest of the world give them a helping hand. and we’re too busy staying cosy and giving our money to...
“Barack Obama, presently, is the brilliant, charismatic, smiling, friendly face...”
– Cornel West (via crowth)
Mar-Keys - About Noon
If this has you jigging...
Why are all you young people playing ukeleles...
What’s all that about?
2 tags
A Bomber Jacket Doesn't Cover the Blood →
Says the man with a dinosaur for his avatar...
and not even a real one!
“Since Obama was supposed to be their [Financial Industry] man in Washington, the...”
– Globalization Marches On - Noam Chomsky (via poortaste)
The anti-Venezuela election campaign | Cif |... →
crowth:
There’s no need for conspiracy, since the principal actors all know what to do. Occasionally some will be off-message due to lack of co-ordination. A fascinating example of this occurred last week when Senator John McCain tried to get General Doug Fraser of the US Southern Command to back his accusations that Venezuela supports terrorist activities. Testifying before the Senate armed...
@tristn: how?
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Marxism: An Extremely Brief Introduction →
newleft:
This was the first question on my midterm for History of Socialism & Communism. I think it answered the question, but may not be a suitable introduction to Marx’s thought for its length.
unburyingthelead:
It is remarkable that the word “terrorism,” which clearly qualified a particular figure of the exercise of state power, has succeeded, little by little, in coming to signify exactly the contrary. Indeed, for a long time now the word “terrorist” has been used by states to designate all violent and/or armed political adversaries precisely in view of their non-state character. We...
2 tags
“According to an American general, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan is...”
– John Pilger: Have a Nice World War, Folks (via kateoplis)
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“One of the more popular definitions of brand is “what is left when the product...”
– Wolff Olins Blog: Extra margin should not be a brand’s ambition
“And so we arrive at the present moment, in which the people are not asked to do...”
– The Vanishing Liberal (via azspot)
minou: I’m writing lecture notes about a text... →
I’m writing lecture notes about a text toward which I feel complete indifference. Which is fine, except that I have been teaching this text for years and every time it comes up I somehow manage to avoid writing decent lecture notes on it and so every time it comes up I have this “oh shit, I have…
Ha. I know exactly the feeling. Enthusiasm for/interest in the topic is directly...
“WikiLeaks editors, including Assagne, have spent substantial time of late in...”
– Glenn Greenwald (via azspot)