(excerpt..) After Donald Trump’s vulgar comments about immigrants from 'shithole' countries in Africa and the global south were reported last week - the president was almost universally condemned by critics as a racist. Nearly three years after Trump announced his candidacy and began his xenophobic campaign - mainstream media outlets which until now have been reluctant to use that term to describe the president finally acknowledged what has long been obvious. 'The President of … [Read More...]
Latest News
‘world bank phases out its support for fossil fuels’..
(excerpt..) The World Bank - which provides developing countries about US$60 billion a year in financial assistance - is officially phasing out its support for the oil and gas industries. This move brings its actions more in sync with its overarching commitment to slowing the pace of climate change and keeping the Paris agreement on track. Based on my research regarding international relations I see this move — which World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced in December — as … [Read More...]
’18 things you need to stop doing in 2018′..
(excerpt..) 5. Blaming other people for the reasons you’re unhappy. One of my best friends once said 'People are made up of actions'. And that applies not only to others but to you as well. Your actions - your choices - are ultimately only determined by you. Yes — it’s normal to feel impacted or swayed by the things that happen around you. But whatever you choose to do is your choice. And your unhappiness is (usually) a direct result of your choices — not anyone else’s. So … [Read More...]
‘how uncle sam launders marijuana money’..
(excerpt..) Thirty states and the District of Columbia currently have laws broadly legalizing marijuana in some form. The herb has been shown to have significant therapeutic value for a wide range of medical conditions including cancer - Alzheimer’s disease - multiple sclerosis - epilepsy - glaucoma - lung disease - anxiety - muscle spasms - hepatitis C - inflammatory bowel disease and arthritis pain. (cont..) Source: How Uncle Sam Launders Marijuana Money | Alternet … [Read More...]
interview: ‘it’s going to take a new economy to save the planet’..
(excerpt..) AW: Before we get into your work at NEF can you talk a bit about the idea of the 'new economy'? How would you define its key attributes? The goal of the new economy is to meet the needs of all human beings while operating within ecological limits. It seeks to maximize the well-being of all species - human and other. Its proponents believe that economics is embedded in and dependent on the Earth’s ecosystems. They reject the concept of homo economicus—the notion that … [Read More...]
the bottom-line benefits of/from minimalism..
(excerpt..) Tidy house - tidy mind Amidst our hectic daily lives soft minimalism invites you to create spaces that are sanctuaries. Invest in lots of good storage solutions and de-clutter your home to help de-clutter your head. When you strip back to only the things you really love it lets a room (and you) breathe and helps create an oasis of calm at home. (cont..) Source: Soft minimalism: Clean, contemporary and liveable | Stuff.co.nz … [Read More...]
a kiwi living in denmark..
(excerpt..) 'After living with the Danes I feel like I have become more like them: more analytic and less emotional. I now find Kiwis very hard work - very emotional - always interfering in each other's lives and stressing about things they have no power to influence. .' Stevens managed to buy a 'beautiful period apartment' in central Copenhagen after two years in the city and says 'cheap' mortgage repayments have enabled her to pay off a third of her home loan in … [Read More...]
is your use of social media making you depressed..?
(excerpt...) In your smartphones - tablets and computers there is a war going on as we speak. The war isn’t violent at least not in the literal sense but is rather a war for your attention — for what feeds the modern maw of Silicon Valley is your eyeballs. The business path that the internet has carved is a model whereby the viewers of videos and readers of information are the product - rather than the consumer. This is how social media sites like Twitter - Facebook, and … [Read More...]
new zealand wealth-gap: ‘richest 1% own 30% of wealth’.. (+op-ed: what will ardern/coalition-govt do?)
(ed: this report is timely - and this snapshot of all that is wrong about 'equality' in new zealand - couldn't be clearer imperative for the new jacinda ardern led coalition labour government - could it..?) (excerpt..) The richest 1 per cent of Kiwis have bagged 28 per cent — $42 billion — of the wealth created in a single year. Meanwhile the poorest 1.4 million people (30 per cent of the population) got barely 1 per cent — $1.5b — of all the wealth created in 2017. Credit Suisse data … [Read More...]
‘we need new ways to defend human rights’..
(excerpt..) The UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein recently announced he would not be seeking a second term in office. 'To do so in the current geopolitical context might involve bending a knee in supplication... lessening the independence and integrity of my voice' he explained. His vivid words implied that human rights advocacy has become untenable and this statement of resignation – from a highly respected and effective voice – is a tragic indictment of the current state of … [Read More...]
‘have i just bought a new kitten or a basket of death?’..
(excerpt..) It’s this that I marvel at to varying degrees when I see parents with more than one child. How? How can you reconcile the threat of a pain like that? Your first child - sure. You have no idea. You didn’t know how it would feel to have your heart become one pink beating wound - how it would feel to love something like this - in a way that leaves you constantly out of breath. And how with that feeling came side effects - the most maddening of which for me is a … [Read More...]
‘how democracies die’..
(excerpt..) Blatant dictatorship – in the form of fascism - communism or military rule – has disappeared across much of the world. Military coups and other violent seizures of power are rare. Most countries hold regular elections. Democracies still die - but by different means. Since the end of the Cold War most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves. Like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela - … [Read More...]
‘art of the deal’ co-author predicts trump is about to resign’..
(excerpt..) The co-author of Donald Trump’s memoir The Art of the Deal has predicted the US President is going to resign by autumn if not sooner.Tony Schwartz - who claims to have ghostwritten the 1987 best-selling business book - argued Mr Trump is on the brink of stepping down and said he would be shocked if his presidency lasts until the end of the year. Mr Schwartz - who has been a vocal critic of President Trump and spent 18 months interviewing and shadowing him in the 1980's - … [Read More...]
did russian money fund trump golf courses..?
(excerpt..) US Congress has been questioning whether Russian money could have been used to fund Donald Trump's golf courses in the UK and Ireland. It emerged after the permanent select committee on intelligence at the US House of Representatives released a transcript of the sworn testimony of former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson. Mr Simpson - who works for consulting firm Fusion GPS, was asked to research then presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2015/16. He told the … [Read More...]
‘chickens can be wonderful friends’..
(excerpt..) Chickens live in their own waste such that the ammonia fumes burn their lungs. They have been genetically manipulated to grow many times faster than they would naturally. This causes many birds to collapse because their legs cannot hold them up. They cannot move even to get to food or water. Every year in the U.S. alone millions upon millions of these birds die - not in the slaughterhouse but from their horrible living conditions and their manipulated genetics. More chickens … [Read More...]
‘are hydrogen cars the future?’..
(excerpt..) Hugo Spowers had a privileged upbringing. His father William - an Australian - established the books department at Christie’s auction house and was an avid horticulturalist - establishing one of the country’s largest private arboretums. Spowers credits his environmentalism to weekends working in the gardens. 'I grew up wanting to make wildlife documentaries' he says. 'Then at 15 I caught the motor racing bug'. After … [Read More...]
clive james reviews ‘the crown’..
(excerpt..) The Duke of Windsor keeps popping up to show the result of trying to duck out. As portrayed by Alex Jennings the D of W is made as repellent as possible – perhaps with a judicious downplaying of his hankerings to be a catspaw of the Nazis – but he is also given a tragic sense of the magnitude of what he has renounced: life itself. You might say it was a high price to pay for winning untrammelled access to the embrace of the deadly Mrs Simpson but don’t forget people all over … [Read More...]
‘hunter s thompson: ‘godfather of gonzo’..
(excerpt..) Who killed Hunter S Thompson? Nobody killed Hunter S Thompson - nobody but himself. At 5.42pm on Sunday 20 February 2005 - he shot himself with a gun at his home of Owl Farm near Woody Creek in Colorado. But who killed Hunter S Thompson? And why do we ask? Because that’s the title of a new book from US publisher Last Gasp - edited by Warren Hinckle - the former editor of the now-defunct Ramparts magazine - who shared an office with Thompson during the 1970s and … [Read More...]
’15 damn-near perfect covers of radio anthems’..
(excerpt..) It's easy enough to do a decent cover song. Stumble through those familiar chord progressions - chant a few well-worn lyrics and you're done. Great covers however require quite a bit more. You have to steal the song from the creator - make it yours and still somehow give it back to them new - reconstituted and fresh with added meaning and value that maybe even its originator didn't know it had. Here we've got some fine examples of artists pulling off exactly that … [Read More...]
interview: ‘worker-owned cooperative is revitalizing jackson – mississippi’..
(excerpt..) In Jackson Rising Akuno helps chronicle the history - present and future of one of the most dynamic yet under-documented experiments in radical social transformation taking place in the United States. The book follows the surprising story of the city’s newly elected Mayor - Choke Antara Lumumba - whose vision is to 'encourage the development of cooperative businesses' and make Jackson the 'most radical city on the planet'. In the first part of the interview we ask Akuno … [Read More...]
‘the staggering irony of trump’s fascination with norway’..
(excerpt..) From characterizing Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers to questioning the authenticity of President Barack Obama’s birth certificate to all but saluting white nationalists in Charlottesville Virginia - President Donald Trump has never tried to mask his racism. The United States’ birther-in-chief recently lived up to his reputation for bigotry when according to Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and others he denounced Haiti - El Salvador and several African nations as … [Read More...]
‘commission ponders reeling in facebook and google’..
(excerpt..) Everywhere you look high tech is in somebody’s bullseye. Take Apple. On the inside top investors are worried about its products’ effects on children. On the outside liberal activists are grousing about its offshore billions it can now bring home under GOP tax reform. Even usually anti-regulation conservatives at the National Review are asking why Big Tech isn’t regulated like Big Oil or Big Tobacco. These examples - all recently in the news - confirm the trend but … [Read More...]
‘jared kushner’s firm tied to ‘suspicious transactions’ at german bank’..
Deutsche Bank notified German regulators - and Robert Mueller will likely be given the reports. (excerpt..) A German business magazine is reporting that Deutsche Bank - the German financial giant which is a major lender to both President Donald Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner - identified 'suspicious transactions' related to Kushner family accounts and has reported them to German banking regulators. The bank is reportedly willing to provide the information to special prosecutor … [Read More...]
‘colbert reads porn star stormy daniels sex affair with trump’..
(excerpt..) In 2011 - before she signed her non-disclosure agreement with Trump - porn actress Stormy Daniels gave a detailed account of her 2006 sex affair with Trump to InTouch magazine. During last night's airing of The Late Show - Stephen Colbert read some of the choice bits. (cont..) Source: Colbert reads porn star Stormy Daniels sex affair with Trump / Boing Boing … [Read More...]
‘linking is not copyright infringement’..
(excerpt..) A few weeks ago we were shocked to learn that Playboy had - without notifying us - sued us over this post (we learned about it when a journalist DM'ed us on Twitter to ask about it). Today we filed a motion to dismiss - asking the judge to throw out this baseless bizarre case. We really hope the courts see it our way - for all our sakes. (cont..) Source: Playboy is suing Boing Boing - but linking is not copyright infringement / Boing Boing … [Read More...]
‘we only see 5% of the universe’..
(excerpt..) Astrophysicist Katie Mack (astrokatie.com) created this startling pie-chart to illustrate the ratio of observed matter to dark matter and energy - the invisible bulk of the universe. (cont..) Source: We only see 5% of the universe / Boing Boing … [Read More...]
facebook to ask users to rank ‘trustworthy’ news-sources..(+op-ed: what about whoar.co.nz ?..)
(ed: one would hope that those who know whoar will give us a/the 'trustworthy' nod eh..?..whoar.co.nz having been a source you can trust - and an extra-bonus..!..as the archives show/prove - fake-news-free...since 2005..eh..?..) (excerpt..) Facebook today announced major changes to their 'newsfeed' which 2 billion people use monthly. Now Facebook plans to begin asking each user to rank their trust in various news organizations. CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg today said the social … [Read More...]
‘post-work: the radical idea of a world without jobs’..
(excerpt..) Work has ruled our lives for centuries, and it does so today more than ever. But a new generation of thinkers insists there is an alternative. Work is the master of the modern world. For most people it is impossible to imagine society without it. It dominates and pervades everyday life – especially in Britain and the US – more completely than at any time in recent history. An obsession with employability runs through education. Even severely disabled … [Read More...]
‘five classic songs that got sex right’..
(excerpt..) Sex has always been a staple in pop – but what artists can get away with in their songs has changed out of all recognition. Here is the evolution of getting in - on over five decades of music.. (cont..) Source: Five classic songs that got sex right | Music | The Guardian … [Read More...]
did nigel farage give julian assange data.?
(excerpt..) Nigel Farage may have given Julian Assange a thumb drive of data and was possibly a more frequent visitor than was publicly known to the Ecuadorian embassy where the WikiLeaks founder lives - according to testimony given to US congressional inquiry into the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to the Kremlin. Glenn Simpson, a private investigator whose company compiled the controversial dossier alleging a conspiracy between Trump campaign officials and Russian agents - told the House … [Read More...]