January 2012
97 posts
5 Underreported Stories of 2011
joshsternberg:
As we close the books on 2011, here, in totality, are five underreported stories (as put together by me) for Current.com:
More troops commit suicide than die in combat
Big business behind solar power
Food prices trigger revolution
U.S. military infiltrates social media
Number of homeless children highest in American history
December 2011
75 posts
Watchthebrooklynpolitics:
Vinnie Gentile criticizes NYPD smartphone undercover operation
12:56 pm • 29 December 2011 (permalink)
NYT’s City Room explains Councilman Vinnie Gentile’s request to New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly that the NYPD review an undercover sting operation it has been engaged in:
To combat a surge in the theft of handheld electronic devices, which contributed to a high...
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“Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky ...”
– excerpt, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock T.S. Eliot (via digitalspank)
The FJP: Censorship, Surveillance and Hackers →
futurejournalismproject:
A great article in Forbes on Telecomix, a group of hackers that have aimed their sites, and hacking chops, on free-speech starved countries. The group has also exposed western (mostly American) technology firms whose products have (knowingly or unknowingly, depending on who you…
“Under SOPA, websites can be blacklisted and removed from the Internet if they...”
– Alicia Eler, ReadWriteWeb. How SOPA Would Kill Art & Creativity Online.
In related news:
Technology Review argues that antipiracy legislation such as SOPA and PIPA will weaken Internet security.
Ars Technica writes that conservatives are beginning to line up against SOPA.
GoDaddy is still...
“Americans are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, places it can...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (via playingwithdanger)
“Women cannot be expected to struggle alone against the forces of discrimination...”
– Benazir Bhutto in a 1995 speech in Beijing at the World Conference of Women. This is a beautiful speech, go read all of it. (via thepoliticalnotebook)
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xcopy:
got sunburnt yesterday. pretty crazy when you think about it… light from the nearest star, so strong that it started to cook me.
YOU MIGHT FIND YOURSELF: Louis CK's Shameful Dirty... →
youmightfindyourself:
viafrank:
I’ve been thinking about Louis CK lately. I’m a fan of his show on FX, and I’m so happy his recent adventure in distributing his newest comedy special himself has been a rousing success. But my thoughts are going elsewhere to wonder why he has blown up in popularity in the…
Kinsey vs The Europeans →
youmightfindyourself:
Sixty years ago, Alfred Kinsey, a professor of zoology at Indiana University, published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, an 804-page tract documenting impressively high rates of non-normative behavior among ordinary Americans, including widespread premarital intercourse, marital infidelity, homosexuality, and masturbation. The report made a ponderous pretense at being...
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Watchcenterforinvestigativereporting:
America spends over $500 billion every year so that elderly Medicare patients can get the care they need. But as health care costs rise, many are taking a closer look at what exactly we’re paying for. We’ve been conducting a yearlong investigation into a prominent hospital chain in California that is reporting unusually high rates of serious diseases. Watch...
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Contractor earns $46M to dispose of all that crazy... →
ageofperil:
Fireworks. Medical needles. Insect spray. Cooking fuel. Flammable gas torches. Ammunition. Yes, people forget they have cooking fuel in their travel bags. Or, amazingly, they thought it was acceptable in the first place to take cooking fuel onto an airplane.
So what happens to all that bizarre crap security screeners have to confiscate? It doesn’t just disappear, after all....
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Alex Payne on Obligation →
youmightfindyourself:
Back in March, I wrote (and subsequently removed most of) a ham-fisted post about the obligation that smart, privileged people should feel to work on things that might make a difference to other people. This was discussed in the context of questioning whether so-called lifestyle businesses are a good idea for entrepreneurs and society at large.
I’ve mulled over the idea of...
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mostly harmless: there are still good guys in the... →
mostlyharmless:
there are still good guys in the world. exhibit a:
my grandfathers wake was on friday. he was 89, on dialysis and his passing probably came as a surprise to no one but us. at the wake were all of the expected: his grandkids, his children, his wife, and our friends extending their sympathies.
…
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“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the...”
– Helen Keller
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Foreign words that are difficult to translate into...
Toska Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it...
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notdeathniggadeaf:
I’m high as fuck watching The Diary of Anne Frank on Netflix and I just keep looking at all the Christmas decorations in my living room feeling mad guilty and shit what the fuck is in this weed though, seriously.
“It’s my view that if you put the best scientists, science communicators, and...”
– Fiona Fox, Slate. What If There Were Rules for Science Journalism? (via futurejournalismproject)
“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool...”
– Ray Bradbury
This is beautiful
(via violent-buddhist)
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Bukowski
A poem is a city a poem is a city filled with streets and sewers filled with saints, heroes, beggars, madmen, filled with banality and booze, filled with rain and thunder and periods of drought, a poem is a city at war, a poem is a city asking a clock why, a poem is a city burning, a poem is a city under guns its barbershops filled with cynical drunks, a poem is a city where God rides naked...