… Russia’s Syrian game; Middle East’s new players; Dilma Rousseff’s troubles; China special it’s the economy stupid; brave new countryside; climate special report Paris talks must not fail; ‘reality rift’ between facts and words; disputed future of northern territories; gas fields in the eastern Med; bye bye bayou; Google under EU scrutiny; before big data; supplement solidarity for kids… and more…
Can we, as adults, grow new neurons? Neuroscientist Sandrine Thuret says that we can, and she offers research and practical advice on how we can help our brains better perform neurogenesis—improving mood, increasing memory formation and preventing the decline associated with aging along the way.
“It’s like having a global 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year search warrant running on whole societies, including Australia.”
Senator Scott Ludlam
Australia accessed private internet data gathered by the NSA even more than Britain, according to a previously unreported document released by Edward…
As Mental Health Week 2015 draws to a close, here’s an enaging and succinct short on Mindfulness…
“Australia is one of the most vulnerable developed countries in the world to climate change impacts. This is already posing very significant challenges to food production. Food prices will continue to go up, the quality of food could be compromised and the seasonality of food could change as the climate continues to warm and weather patterns become more unpredictable. Many of our favourite foods, including milk, fruit, vegetables, wine and beef are already being affected by climate change and these impacts will grow as weather extremes get worse.”
The Climate Council’s Professor Lesley Hughes
Climate change represents a clear and growing threat to Australia’s food security, according to a new report from The Climate Council. Titled Feeding a hungry nation: climate change, food and farming in Australia, the report shows that rising temperatures and lower rainfall have already affected crop yields, and both yields and quality will continue to decrease as climate change drives more frequent and intense extreme weather events, such as bushfires and drought. As agricultural commodities are worth roughly $50 billion a year, and the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector employs 2.6 per cent of all Australians, the impact on Australia’s economy will likely be great – particularly if action to address climate change remains inadequate. The Climate Council warns that strong, urgent action to transition to a low carbon economy is needed, and if undertaken will – like more efficient use of water resources and protection of farmland from coal mining – help Australia secure its food supply while tapping into the vast co-benefits of climate action.
Amid a last minute scramble, leaders from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries announced Monday that they had reached agreement on a sweeping trade deal, one that critics, including US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, say will slash standards and protections for both consumers and workers—with impacts to be felt across the globe.
The agreement, known as the Trans Pacific Partnership (or TPP), which would tie together as much as 40 percent of the world’s economy, has for nearly 8 years been negotiated in secret. Though details of the compromise were not yet revealed early Monday, critics said that—minutia aside—the global trade pact will certainly be a boon for corporate power…
“TPP is a deal for big business,” said Nick Dearden, director of the UK-based Nick Dearden,Global Justice Now.
“Wall Street and other big corporations have won again. It is time for the rest of us to stop letting multi-national corporations rig the system to pad their profits at our expense.”
– Bernie Sanders
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was also quick to condemn the deal. Saying he was disappointed but not surprised by the “disastrous” agreement, Sanders added: “Wall Street and other big corporations have won again. It is time for the rest of us to stop letting multi-national corporations rig the system to pad their profits at our expense.”
The compromise was reached after five days of round-the-clock negotiations in Atlanta, Georgia. U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly “spent recent days contacting world leaders to seal the deal.”
The negotiations had been extended after talks got stuck over the issue of how long a monopoly period should be allowed on next-generation biotech drugs. The compromise reportedly reached between the U.S. and Australia “is a hybrid that protects companies’ data for five years to eight years,” the New York Times reports, falling short of the 12 years desired by U.S. negotiators…’
Climate change is unfair. While rich countries can fight against rising oceans and dying farm fields, poor people around the world are already having their lives upended — and their human rights threatened — by killer storms, starvation and the loss of their own lands. Mary Robinson asks us to join the movement for worldwide climate justice.
Mary Robinson served as president of Ireland from 1990 to 1997, and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997 to 2002. She now leads a foundation devoted to climate justice. Full bio
“Australia needs to get our planes out of Syria. We’re only adding to the chaos and confusion, and putting more lives at risk. The Liberal Government couldn’t articulate a strategy or exit plan when this involvement first began, and this mess we’re in is the result.
“There is no clarity around this alliance. Nuclear-armed states with an already strained relationship are proceeding on an ad-hoc basis. Already we’ve seen the consequences of this, with Russian bombs seemingly striking US-backed rebels, not ISIS.
“This is a tinderbox set to explode. Airstrikes from all sides must cease until the anti-ISIS forces have a shared understanding of how they’ll proceed.
“Australia could play a key role in bringing those parties together, instead of participating in uncoordinated airstrikes in Syria.
“It was heartening to see the Labor party highlight the need for a debate about the attacks on Syria. Perhaps next time they’ll give our servicemen and women their due and join the Greens in making this point before our forces are deployed, instead of rubber stamping every Coalition misadventure overseas in an effort to avoid being labelled ‘weak’ on National Security.
Russia and the United States agree to call urgent military talks to head off the risk of clashes between their forces after Moscow’s dramatic entrance into the Syrian war and its claimed assault on the Islamic State group.
… Syria’s nearby refugees; Corbyn, Labour’s lightning rod; Japan, what next for Okinawa? China’s modern-day emperor; UN, getting fit for the 21st century; Ivan Maisky remembered; Disneyland, behind the fantasy; streaming wars; Zapata westerns; Mercator supplement…
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Refugees Left Stranded As EU Faces ‘Crisis of Political Will’ by Andrea Germanos “You aren’t going to solve these problems by closing borders.” |
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‘Foolish and Mean-Spirited’: US House Votes to Defund Planned Parenthood by Deirdre Fulton Both measures are opposed by women’s health organizations, the White House, and a majority of the American public. |
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Citing Abuses, US Commission Demands Release of Refugee Families by Sarah Lazare The violations are so egregious that all families should be released, detentions reduced, and alternatives to incarceration fostered. |
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Up 72 Perecent From Just Six Years Ago, Organic Farm Sales Soar by Nadia Prupis Americans are increasingly hungry for naturally-grown and healthier foods. |
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Facing South, Bernie Sanders Ramps Up Outreach in SC and Beyond by Deirdre Fulton David is rising against Goliath, with a grassroots campaign meant to increase Sanders’ exposure among minority voters in the Bible Belt and across the South. |
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According to New IEA Chief, Arctic Drilling Is Stupid Business by Sarah Lazare Birol’s statements come amid growing calls to place people and the planet over profit by leaving fossil fuels in the ground. |
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New Orleans Running ‘Modern Debtors Prison,’ Lawsuit Charges by Nadia Prupis Orleans Parish has resurrected unconstitutional “debtors’ prisons” by routinely jailing the region’s poorest residents over their inability to pay court fees and other fines. |
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Obama’s Fateful Syrian Choice by Robert Parry He can either work with Russia’s President Putin to stabilize Syria or he can opt for a confrontation that could lead to an open-ended war. |
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The Fed Gets It Right. Now Let’s Move to Full Employment by Isaiah Poole “The case for raising short-term interest rates is extraordinarily weak. That is not the economy we have today.” |
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Open Homes, Open Borders: A Dispatch from a German Village Sheltering 400 Refugees by Melody Ermachild Chavis There is no end to the long line of human beings underway tonight. |
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Standing With Ahmed and All Children of Color by Sonali Kolhatkar If Obama truly wants America to be great, as his tweet to Ahmed suggests, he can begin by making it a country that treats its Muslim citizens without suspicion. |
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Resisting the Lure of Intervention by John Feffer With each nuclear weapon, jet engine, and space rocket we deploy, we venture further into the Orange Zone, heading blindly, if not boldly, toward the point of no return. |
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The Republican Foreign Policy Consensus: Lunacy by Robert Borosage If you want a president to lead us into constant wars “anywhere in the world,” Republicans have your man. |
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Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), multinational corporations will be able to sue the Australian Government in secret corporate courts over laws that protect our health, environment and workers’ rights.
Australians voted for the government to run our country in the interests of the public, not corporations. Don’t let them hand sovereignty of our country over to foreign corporations.
Learn more about the TPP here: www.getup.org.au/tpp
That increasingly common end-of-day feeling: of physically leaving the office, only for it to tag along home. Thanks largely to technology, our availability – to clients, bosses and co-workers – extends into our evenings, weekends and even holidays. Getting a clear account of what this means for us isn’t easy, as jobs that intrude more into leisure time are also distinguished by higher pace and further factors known and unknown, making it hard to pinpoint what harmful effects, if any, are specifically due to our constant availability.
A new study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and led by Jan Dettmers at the University of Hamburg, takes a fresh tack on this, investigating workers who have two types of free-time: on-call periods where they are free to please themselves but must remain available for potential work demands, and other periods where they are truly off-duty. For each individual participant, this set up keeps job-role demands and responsibilities equal while varying the need to be available. The data suggest that extended work availability has a negative effect: dampening mood and also increasing markers of physiological stress.
UNHCR’s Global Trends report shows that in 2014 alone 13.9 million became newly displaced – four times the number in 2010. Worldwide there were 19.5 million refugees (up from 16.7 million in 2013), 38.2 million were displaced inside their own countries (up from 33.3 million in 2013), and 1.8 million people were awaiting the outcome of claims for asylum (against 1.2 million in 2013). Alarmingly, over half the world’s refugees are children.
“With huge shortages of funding and wide gaps in the global regime for protecting victims of war, people in need of compassion, aid and refuge are being abandoned,” said Guterres. “For an age of unprecedented mass displacement, we need an unprecedented humanitarian response and a renewed global commitment to tolerance and protection for people fleeing conflict and persecution.”
Syria is the world’s biggest producer of both internally displaced people (7.6 million) and refugees (3.88 million at the end of 2014). Afghanistan (2.59 million) and Somalia (1.1 million) are the next biggest refugee source countries.
Even amid such sharp growth in numbers, the global distribution of refugees remains heavily skewed away from wealthier nations and towards the less wealthy. Almost nine out of every 10 refugees (86 per cent) were in regions and countries considered economically less developed. A full quarter of all refugees were in countries ranking among the UN’s list of Least Developed nations…
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Test scores tell one story, and residents tell another. A three-month investigation by In These Times reveals the cracks in the education reform narrative.
BY COLLEEN KIMMETT
A response to my critics and the case for a guerrilla war within the Eurozone.
BY SLAVOJ ZIZEK
American voters are mad as hell, and the rise of Sanders shows that they’re not going to take it anymore.
How long-time residents feel about the new Louisiana purchase.
BY FATIMA SHAIK
He also endorsed, perhaps not surprisingly, himself for the general election.
BY MICAH UETRICHT
In a post-Ferguson America, David Simon’s Show Me a Hero feels sadly dated.
BY MAYA DUKMASOVA
The fall of West Virginia’s coal mono-industry leaves the area without its peaks and forests.
BY LAURA GOTTESDIENER
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| WORKING IN THESE TIMES |
| IKEA Says It’s “Socially Responsible.” So Why Are Workers Accusing It of Union-Busting?
A potential strike deadline is looming at one of IKEA’s largest U.S. warehouses.
BY BRUCE VAIL
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| RURAL AMERICA |
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When it comes to healthy eating, instant abundance has some unintended cultural consequences.
BY JOHN COLLINS
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“Having escaped accountability for the Iraq War disaster, U.S. neocons are urging the use of more military force in the Mideast, in line with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demand to block the Iran nuclear deal. From their important perches of power, these war hawks also twist the history of their catastrophic misjudgments…” writes ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar.
“Now the Republican presidential candidate who is the front-runner for the nomination among those whose name is not Trump has joined in the promoting of the Iraq War myth.”
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence Agency, rose to be one of the agency’s top analysts. He is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security studies.
The author and pioneering University of Texas psychologist explains how awareness of your own thoughts and feelings can lead you to be kinder toward yourself—and why this self-compassion brings a host of mental and physical health benefits.
More about Kristin Neff.
via GreaterGood
A former CIA officer described as the latest victim of the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers has issued a scathing open letter to civil rights groups asking, “Where were you?”…
In the letter published at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jeffrey Sterling, who is black, specifically calls out the NAACP, National Action Network, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and Congressional Black Caucus, writing “I saw you when other black faces were either killed or mistreated.” But, to these civil rights groups, he writes, he is “invisible.”
In a case that relied on circumstantial evidence, Sterling was convicted in January on nine separate felony charges, including seven counts of espionage.
He was given a 42-month sentence in May, which Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and coordinator of whistleblower advocacy organization ExposeFacts.org, described as “the continuation of a war on whistleblowing and journalism, to clamp down on the absolutely essential flow of information for democracy.”
::: click here or banner for piece in full @ CommonDreams :::
blurb…
Contemporary art always encompasses various disciplines. As art becomes a central part of mainstream culture in China and elsewhere, our plea is that it can contribute in a subcultural sense—not necessarily as the politically vigilant gadfly it was once imagined to be, but as a challenger of a new type. LEAP 33’s cover package “the Ends of Culture” stems from our observations on subculture. The premise is simple: rather than approaching art through cultural and conceptual matrices, we read it through its objects, artifacts, and images. In this cover package, we provide a cluster of keywords that act as a conduit towards the edge of the cultural imagination; like the catalysts and enzymes that encourage a system to grow from within, we hope to create the conditions for the creation, misinterpretation, disruption, and total collapse of an entire cognitive structure.
In addition to the cover feature’s 43 entries of subcultural keywords, this issue’s middle section includes the inaugural edition of LEAP Forum. LEAP Forum / Venice 2015: New Pavilions for a Global Asia brings together artists, curators, and other participants in projects across Venice—from the international exhibition to the national pavilions and collateral shows—to discuss and explore the rapidly changing state of Asian visual culture in the world today. Also featured are two in-depth artist profiles. Colin Siyuan Chinnery analyzes the ways artist Wang Yin incorporates Chinese avant-garde theater and modern culture into his paintings, drawing up a narrative of contemporary China’s cultural ideology and national memories. Matthew Shen Goodman offers an incisive account of recent Hugo Boss Prize winner Paul Chan’s practice, and his tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the art world.
Sea Shepherd, August 10, 2015:
The newly unveiled logo for Sea Shepherd’s Operation HenkakuThe Campaign, to be Called ‘Operation Henkaku,’ Translating to ‘Metamorphosis’ or ‘Transformation,’ Reflects Sea Shepherd’s Evolving Efforts to End the Capture and Slaughter of Dolphins and Small Whales and the Growing Global Opposition to this Brutal Hunt…
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and its team of Cove Guardians will officially launch the sixth consecutive season of Sea Shepherd’s Dolphin Defense Campaign on Sept. 1, 2015 in Taiji, Japan. Titled Operation Henkaku (Operation Metamorphosis), preparations are underway for the campaign, during which Sea Shepherd will once again have an international team of volunteer Cove Guardians stationed along the infamous cove, documenting and live streaming the brutal capture and slaughter of dolphins and pilot whales for the world to see.
In the drive hunt conducted by the Taiji Fishermen’s Union, typically spanning from September until March, more than a thousand cetaceans are driven into the cove each year – some ruthlessly killed before the eyes of their family members and others torn away from their family pods to be sold to captive facilities in Japan or overseas. As Sea Shepherd has documented time and time again, the captive selection process occurs simultaneously to the slaughter – and the lucrative international trade in live dolphins for captivity is the economic fuel that drives the hunting boats in search of pods…
…more @ seashepherd.org
…special report: Greece, Germany and the EU; who is a jihadi and why? North Korea, consumers on the move; gridlock in Moscow; Guadeloupe remembers slavery; Ebola, and corruption, in Sierra Leone; Frank Gehry’s monument to money; Armenian art at Venice Biennale …
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A California judge affirmed that it’s illegal to detain children, and ordered their mothers released, too.
BY JOSEPH SORRENTINO Attendees at parties across Iowa say that Bernie is “the guy we need right now.” BY DAVID GOODNER Andrew Highsmith charts the rise and fall of Flint, a city deserted by industry and divided by segregation. BY DANIEL HERTZ The cure for planned Apple-escence. BY KENDRA PIERRE-LOUIS The vision of the socialist organizer remains inspiring.
BY MAURICE ISSERMAN U.S. media commentary on the accord portrays U.S. global military supremacy as natural and desirable.
BY GREGORY SHUPAK Critics who simply claim that “Coates is no Baldwin” are ignoring what can be a comparison that allows us to understand both writers more deeply. BY ANDY SEAL On postwar anti-communist surveillance in Britain.
BY JANE MILLER Continually policing the ways women talk will further reduce them to silence. BY MAX BLUMENTHAL |
| WORKING IN THESE TIMES |
| As Nabisco Ships 600 Jobs Out of Chicago to Mexico, Maybe It’s Time To Give Up Oreos
Chicago is poised to lose 600 well-paying jobs on the city’s Southwest Side. BY MARILYN KATZ |
| RURAL AMERICA |
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In his new climate encyclical, Pope Francis seeks to rekindle ecological consciousness. BY DAYTON MARTINDALE
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The coal industry’s misleading attempts to brand itself as a poverty fighter continue to unravel, with a new report from Oxfam demonstrating that renewable energy is the easiest, cheapest, and most effective method to give people life-changing energy access. The Powering Up Against Poverty report shows that given its heavy health and climate impacts, coal is an ill-conceived solution to bring power to one billion people around the world and, as 84 per cent of the energy poor live in rural areas, the cost of extending electricity grids to those rural areas is prohibitively expensive. Oxfam has also warned the Australian Government – which has been aggressively parroting coal industry rhetoric – that it is time to end its love affair with coal, as it’s risking not only the global climate, but its economic and political future, given the growing emphasis on renewable energy in China, India, Africa and major economies like the US.
Renewables are the best and only choice to address energy poverty in the developing world. Oxfam notes that four out of five people without electricity live in rural areas that are often not connected to a centralised energy grid. Renewable energy solutions offer them a much more affordable, practical and healthy solution than coal. Coal’s so-called ability to lift them out of poverty is a PR exercise, as the health, climate, and economic consequences that come with coal do far more harm than good. Fossil fuels cost society US$105-$122 per tonne of carbon dioxide – two to nine times their total revenue – according to a University of Cambridge study. Companies like Peabody Energy have a net negative economic contribution to society and, as this becomes clearer, it is little wonder why the transition to clean, renewable energy is picking up steam faster than many imagined.
Climate change is hitting poor communities first and hardest, and coal is the biggest single contribution to climate change.Addressing climate change and reducing poverty go hand in hand. From an energy access point of view, renewables offer the cheapest, fastest, and healthiest way to increase energy access, which is why the world is shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy faster than most had predicted. With its heavy environmental, health and economic impacts, coal is a major threat in the fight against hunger and poverty.
Coal is not “good for humanity”, and it’s not even good for coal companies. The changing energy landscape globally has seen coal giant Peabody Energy’s stock price sink like a stone. The company has lost just over a billion US dollars in three months, making it one of the world’s most high-profile examples of the ongoing death of fossil fuels. It may think that it can save its skin by rebranding itself as a poverty fighter but, as Oxfam notes: coal companies make heavy indirect contributions to climate change and the floods, drought, cyclones and changes to food patterns it brings. They also contribute directly through air pollution problems and displacement of communities as coal mines force them off their land, leaving them with poor access to food and water and struggling to make a living. Simply put, coal companies have no moral argument for poverty alleviation.
Adam Goodes is a proud Adnyamathanha man. He celebrates his Indigenous culture and calls out racism when he sees it.
We stand with him.
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To mark the 800th year of Magna Carta, the Australian Human Rights Commission has released an animation, interactive infographic and teachers resource on the story of our freedom.
Transcript is at https://www.humanrights.gov.au/magnacarta/video/transcript.html
Animation produced by The Explainers.
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We know what politicians from the U.S. to Israel think about the Iran nuclear deal. How about asking some opponents of Iran’s regime?
BY DANNY POSTEL The rebels in Greece are waging a patient guerrilla war against financial occupation. BY SLAVOJ ZIZEK How to make Americans accept that their country was built and sustained on white supremacist plunder? Write like Ta-Nehisi Coates. BY SALIM MUWAKKIL How can we turn up the heat on Washington?
BY KATE ARONOFF A collective in Saugerties, New York, is trying to live by the teachings of 19th century Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin.
BY POLLY HOWELLS For the past two years, the Crown Heights Tenant Union of Brooklyn has used collective bargaining strategies to win victories around rent control and tenant protection laws.
BY ETHAN COREY Before homes are even rebuilt in the ruins of the Gaza Strip, another war looms. BY MAX BLUMENTHAL Thanks to relentless student pressure, more than a year of rallies, protests and sit-ins proved too much to ignore. BY DAYTON MARTINDALE Corporate tax loopholes have been very effective at draining at least a billion dollars a year out of public funds and redirecting them into idle private profits. BY JAMIE MERCHANT Underneath the Laughs, ‘Trainwreck’ Is Just Another Regressive Rom Com For all its wit and unabashed vulgarity, Amy Schumer’s film follows a tired formula. BY EILEEN JONES Trump is not the only presidential hopeful willing to make utterly mind-boggling statements. BY DAVID SIROTA |
| WORKING IN THESE TIMES |
| Did ICE Violate Its Own Deportation Guidelinesin Arresting Chicago-Area Unionized Meatpackers?
ICE apprehended immigrant workers after they went on strike, even though the agency has rules against interfering in workplaces that are in the midst of labor disputes. BY YANA KUNICHOFF |
| RURAL AMERICA |
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Conflict between New Englanders and the region’s indigenous inhabitants runs deep into history. BY DAYTON MARTINDALE
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
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TOP STORIES THIS WEEK
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| The Political Genius of Bernie Sanders’ Socialism
Bernie’s socialism isn’t a “charade.” It’s a provocation-and a brilliant one, at that.
BY THEO ANDERSON To the Troika, the election of Syriza, the referendum vote and the basic principles of democracy are meaningless. BY ALEXANDROS ORPHANIDES The message being sent by the U.S. government is that when frightened women and children come to America seeking sanctuary, we will imprison them. Dr. Willie Parker is bracing for a week of potentially violent protests in his hometown of Birmingham.
BY STEPHANIE GILMORE
History will view drone warfare as the Obama administration’s signature approach to military engagement. BY MUHAMMAD IDREES AHMAD
Which campaign matters more: Bernie Sanders’ or Jill Stein’s? BY JOEL BLEIFUSS America’s most dangerous nonprofit has a stranglehold on public policy. BY SUSAN J. DOUGLAS The flag may be wiped from state grounds and license plates, but its ideals live on in the GOP agenda. BY SALIM MUWAKKIL Activists who wanted Elizabeth Warren to run for president took a poll and decided to endorse Bernie. Should other progressive organizations do the same? BY MICHAEL PAYNE The Confederate general and KKK “grand wizard” was one of the most vile white supremacists in American history. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that power companies can pump large levels of mercury and other toxins into the air. BY KAMIL ASHAN A coalition of farmers and vintners, doctors and lawyers, clean energy companies and reluctant do-it-yourself activists are fighting for the future of the Finger Lakes region. Despite the fact that retailers and political figures are calling for its removal, history might be too prominent for the extinction of the Confederate flag. After Greece cuts a quarter of its budget, WaPo asks if it’s willing to ‘trim spending.’ BY JIM NAURECKAS |
| WORKING IN THESE TIMES |
| Faced With I-9 Immigration Raid During Negotiations, Chicago Meatpacking Workers Walked Off the Job
Over 100 workers go on strike to protect their jobs. BY YANA KUNICHOFF |
| RURAL AMERICA |
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The ill effects of partially hydrogenated oils are clear enough for the FDA that they will be removed from the food supply within three years. BY MAIA WELBEL
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Irving K. Barber Learning Centre Lecture presented by the Vancouver Institute. Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Naomi Klein is the author of the critically acclaimed #1 international bestsellers, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism and No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies which have each been translated into more than 30 languages. She is a contributing editor for Harper’s Magazine, a reporter for Rolling Stone, and a syndicated columnist for The Nation and The Guardian.
Naomi Klein is a member of the board of directors for 350.org, a global grassroots movement to solve the climate crisis. Her new book is This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate (September, 2014). This lecture is co-sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 350.org and Green College.
V.S. Ramachandran, PhD is looking to solve life’s big questions by taking a different path. In studying the oddities and anomalies of the brain he hopes to illuminate the mysteries of normal brain function. A pioneer in the study of phantom limbs, Ramanchandran joins William Mobley, MD, PhD to discuss his fascinating career and his scientific process.
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
C21 hereditary tyrant
'If artists betray the social conscience and the basic principles of being human, where does art stand then?' Ai Weiwei
chamber of horrOrs...
jellybellypolies of the very recent past
the interpretOr 