The “War on Terror” Is a Great Success!
Posted on February 25th, 2008 at 5:21 pm by Steve

Edward S. Herman and and David Peterson break it down: there is no “War on Terror.”

Money quotes:

Failure to end terrorism is not a failure of the “war on terror,” it is a necessary part of its machinery of operation.

It is widely argued now that the war on terror has been a failure. This also is a fallacy, resting on the imputation of purpose to the war’s organizers contrary to their actual aims — they were looking for and found the new “Pearl Harbor” needed to justify a surge of U.S. force projection across the globe.

Eating the Past
Posted on February 25th, 2008 at 4:51 pm by Steve

A long and thoughtful article in the German magazine Der Spiegel, from November, details the causes and potential consequences of the collapse of the U. S. dollar:

The Americans are eating their past for breakfast and devouring their future for dinner

Massive Stats Visualized
Posted on February 23rd, 2008 at 3:19 pm by dr.hoo

Here is some amazing new work from Seattle artist Chris Jordan. Jordan creates massive collages of items that help to visualize the massive numbers from statistics like ” 32,000 Barbies, equal to the number of elective breast augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006.” and “213,000 Vicodin pills, equal to the number of emergency room visits yearly in the US related to misuse or abuse of prescription pain killers”

We had one of his cell phone dump prints at our UN World Environment Day art show in SF in 2003.

Are you Mission Focused?
Posted on February 18th, 2008 at 10:41 am by lulutsg

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I found this ad for adventure at bostondotcom.

Exciting!

ugh

 [#2]

Daily Speculations & Bo Keely
Posted on February 13th, 2008 at 5:18 pm by necco

 I’ve been wanting to share this blog with you all for a while.  I’ve been reading it for the past four months or so and have found it to be continually interesting.  It’s a blog run by Victor Niederhoffer, a semi-famous Wall Street trader who was written up in the New Yorker recently (which is how I found out about him).  Wikipedia says this about him:

Victor Niederhoffer, a well known hedge fund manager, champion squash player and statistician, studied statistics and economics at Harvard University (B.A. 1964) and the University of Chicago(Ph.D. 1969). He was a finance professor at the University of California, Berkeley (19671972).

He’s lost all his money (and his clients’ money) two times, but has recovered both times.  People aren’t sure what to think about him.  His blog primarily offers insights into how any natural phenomenom relates to the market, but you’ll find just about anything there.

http://www.dailyspeculations.com/

One of his best friends is this guy named Bo Keely who has had a life so incredible that he almost seems mythical to me.  Although of the pedigree, he lives his life as the antithesis of a Wall Street trader (literally in a hole in the desert).  Check out one of his posts on his life and his blog:

http://www.dailyspeculations.com/wordpress/?p=2445

http://www.dailyspeculations.com/keeley/hobo_index.html

Train Riders Make Better Pundits
Posted on February 13th, 2008 at 10:59 am by Steve

Picked up a great post on one of the reader blogs over at Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo. It’s too good not to share:

When I arrived to the subway station, a college student was at the top of the escalators handing out Obama literature and encouraging people to vote. I passed on the literature, stating that Barack already had my vote. The young man thanked me and I took the stairs down to the train stop.

That’s when I noticed something far out of the ordinary for my morning routine. My fellow commuters, who I see every morning and afternoon, were engaged in conversation with each other…

[snip]

All of this was inspired by the young man at the top of the station encouraging votes for Obama. It appeared to me that a majority of my fellow commuters were receptive to that encouragement. People were shouting, “Yes We Can!” Others asked each other if they’d voted yet and if they knew where to do so…

[snip]

A stylish older black man with a cane, the sort of character you see on the train and wish you’d brought a sketch pad, grabbed me by the arm and smiled. “You see this? That man, (Obama) has inspired all these people to get active in politics. I haven’t seen anything like this since the civil rights movement. You say you’re a writer. You write about this today.”

“I’ll have a venti lowfat mochaccino. Oh, and one of those waterboards.”
Posted on February 12th, 2008 at 10:30 pm by Mutt

Okay, first of all, there’s a Starbucks at Guantanamo Bay. Once you’ve gotten past that little bit of cognitive dissonance, there is the fact that FBI interrogators have used rapport-building techniques, including delicious caffeinated beverages from everyone’s favorite multinational coffee chain, to extract essential information from the alleged illegal combatants, supposedly without the use of coercion.

Well, nevermind that the CIA already used coercion on the same people.

But, seriously, could I make this up? (Tip ‘o’ the hat to The Lede.)

¡Muy Interesante!
Posted on February 12th, 2008 at 2:48 pm by Steve

The Independent Press Association of New York features a compendium of news articles from the city’s “ethnic papers” translated into English. Very cool!

Baby Steps
Posted on February 11th, 2008 at 5:31 pm by Steve

A Washington Post Magazine article details the ongoing clinical trials of MDMA as a therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Evolution of Tech Company Logos
Posted on February 8th, 2008 at 9:30 am by dr.hoo

Here’s a great post on Neatorama on the history of many of the tech company logos we are familiar with today.


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