The Verge

Nice tech site with news comparable to Wired.
Very nice review section as well.

http://www.theverge.com/

Job Creators

Tom Tomorrow cracks me up. Job creators!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/05/1041572/-Class-conflict?detail=hide&via=blog_792316

Frugal Dad

Great site for financial advice and infographics on corporate malfeasance.

http://frugaldad.com/

El Mozote Massacre

I should have known about this. Perhaps I was not attentive yet to the news or it was never given airtime by our media. No wonder South and Central America want little to do with the US.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/1212/An-apology-30-years-in-the-making-El-Salvador-marks-El-Mozote-massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mozote_massacre

http://www.yesweekly.com/triad/article-13139-el-mozote-and-the-school-of-assassins.html

Millionaires Surtax

Heard a story on NPR this morning which The Daily Kos comments on below.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/09/1043704/-Republicans-cant-produce-a-small-business-person-who-is-hurt-by%C2%A0millionaires-surtax?detail=hide&via=blog_1

You wonder just how out of touch the Republicans are with the people. Do they just come up with campaign issues they field test which will win with voters without even seeing if their ideas have any merit at all?
How can they say a millionaire's surtax will hurt job creation without any real word examples?
The absurd just becomes more absurd.

Child Poverty Rates

"Nationally, 19.8 percent of schoolchildren qualify as poor – and one-third of all counties now have child poverty rates above that threshold."
"Unless the economy improves markedly, future data could be worse. Unless Congress acts, extended unemployment-insurance benefits will expire at the end of the year. So, too, will the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the child tax credit. These all aid low income families. Congress will also need to decide whether to extend the payroll tax cut, which gives about an extra $1,000 to each household."

The Republicans won't allow such tax credits to expire for the poor and middle class, right? They fight to protect the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so they will support extension of tax cuts for the poor and middle class, right?

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/1129/Rising-child-poverty-rates-could-be-a-taste-of-what-s-ahead

Occupy Wall Street on College Campuses

Article on CSM about the spread of OWS to college campuses. Interesting walk-out at Harvard on one of professors who served in the Bush administration.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1119/Occupy-protests-spread-to-US-college-campuses

Also, the pepper spray incident at UC davis. Riot gear for peaceful protests? I realize there are homeless people inter mingling with the protestors and many of them have issues they are dealing with. Doubt there are many if any homeless protesting with the students on college campuses. What sort of balance should the authorities provide in this case? Operate at the point of the lowest common denominator?
That appears to be what they are doing. Hope they keep it up.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1120/UC-Davis-pepper-spray-incident-goes-viral

and another regarding the opposition to OWS. Welcome or unwelcome representatives of the one percent?

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/1119/UC-Davis-pepper-spray-smear-tactics-Occupy-protests-face-rougher-response

Anonymous and Mexico's Zeta Cartel

One of Anonymous' members have supposedly been kidnapped by the Zeta Cartel and Anonymous is threatening to release information on all paid informants, police, government officials, etc, if their member is not released by Nov 5th. I think they should release the information regardless of what happens.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/1102/Showdown-looms-between-Anonymous-hackers-and-Mexico-s-Zeta-cartel

US Income Quintiles

Information from the Congressional Budget Office on how much incomes have changed over the past 28 years. Everyone is down except for the top quintile. The top 1% saw an average increase in their incomes of 275%.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/26/1030179/-Income-for-top-one-percent-grew-by-275-percent-in-the-past-28-years?detail=hide&via=blog_1

Occupy Wall Street vs Tea Party

Fun graphic contrasting the two movements. Seems about right on to me.

http://yfrog.com/nub9jhuj

Ignorance Gap?

CSM is always challenging everyone. They even reference Allan Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" which read many years ago. Need to keep an open mind so can maintain being as effectual as possible. Things are always changing and standing rigid may not serve oneself nor others best interests.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Walter-Rodgers/2011/1020/Class-warfare-What-about-the-ignorance-gap

Chitchat Matters

CSM is always questioning the increased role of technology in our culture.
What do we sacrifice with all these supposed productivity gains?

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/1014/Where-have-all-the-people-gone

3D Chalk Drawings

Have seen these in the past. Here are some new ones. Hope to see some in person some day.

http://visualfunhouse.com/index.php?s=julian+beaver

Steve Jobs

Can we escape the obligatory reference to Steve Jobs? Found one comment by Richard Stallman of the open source movement I thought might be appropriate. I've never given any money to the Apple conglomerate myself. If I did am sure the amount I'd have been giving would have been substantial since they seem to find a way to make their users pay for most everything.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/10/1227229/richard-stallmans-dissenting-view-of-steve-jobs

We are the 99 Percent

Interesting way to illustrate the problems real people are having out there in the real world. 74 pages so far. No reason someone should lose everything if a loved one gets sick or possibly dies. Is not the loss enough to endure?

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

Influence Score

The Christian Science Monitor explores one possible future for the introspective members of our society. Companies preach diversity but what does that imply? Is it strictly based on nationality and gender or should it also encompass personality traits?

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/1007/Introverted-talent-in-America-burried-by-the-influence-score

Occupy Wall Street

People actually starting to protest inequality here in the US. Hopefully, will lead to something positive and not just rage against almost anything and everything. Hope there are sufficient numbers to sustain this sort of thing indefinitely. Should be a very interesting Republican convention if so. This is assuming the protesters are allowed to truly protest. On occasion you see events where protesters are permitted to only be in one small space in the city and not meander around. Democrats might be more sympathetic to their right to protest so they could be more visible at the Democratic convention. Then people could possibly assume the protesters are more upset with the Democrats agenda rather than with the Republican.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Vox-News/2011/1005/Occupy-Wall-Street-Why-this-revolution-isn-t-made-for-TV

http://www.occupytogether.org/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/sep/25/occupy-wall-street-protest?fb=optOut 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/05/1022996/-Dozens-of-unions-and-community-groups-joining-Occupy-Wall-Street-for-march-this-afternoon?detail=hide&via=blog_1

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-29/give-marx-a-chance-to-save-the-world-economy-commentary-by-george-magnus.html

Warren Buffett: Heretic!

Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men in the world is calling for taxes on the wealthy to be raised. Aren't the wealthiest of us all generally the most selfish, what gives?
Statistics have shown that nations with the greatest disparity in wealth have higher infant mortality (US rank 47), lower life expectancy (US rank 50), and to quote from Paul Solman's series on economic inequality states:
"If you actually look at how people do in different societies, the chances of moving up socially for poor children are much higher in the more equal countries. And, in the U.S., the chances are particularly low. We sometimes say, if you want to live the American dream, you should move to Finland or Denmark, which have much higher social mobility."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dionne-why-conservatives-hate-warren-buffett/2011/09/28/gIQAxmne5K_story.html?hpid=z3

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec11/makingsense_09-28.html

Climate Change

Article by Mother Jones on organizations working together to discredit climate change science. If you see a spokesman for any of these groups on television or at a conference consider very carefully what they are saying. Odds are that the true reality is the polar opposite of what they espouse.

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/09/chart-climate-change-spin-cycle

Home of the Brave?

Good article about America's obsession with fear and those profiting from it.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Walter-Rodgers/2011/0927/Is-America-still-the-home-of-the-brave

More on Anonymous

A threat to national security they are! Since when is bringing light to the dark corners of our world a bad thing? Do those labeling Anonymous a threat have something to hide? What sort of world would it be with complete transparency?

http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/09/22/221207/fbi-arrests-lulzsec-and-anonymous-hackers

Medicine and Watson

Idea that has been batted around for a while now and Tom Toles throws it out there once again. The thought is with a proper search engine we could diagnose and treat the majority of our health concerns ourselves. Not even have to go to the doctor, heresy!
My biggest problem with the doctors of today is their blatant selfishness. Perhaps the system is to blame. Doctors have to go to school for many years and invest substantial amount of income and just want a return on their investment. That's why when you go to the doctor you have an initial appointment where you schedule the actual appointment, are almost always subjected to some form of procedure regardless if there is a real problem, and they also attempt to put you on at least one form of medication for life. They need that steady income coming in.
There are actually a lot of good doctors out there but their work is diminished by the majority.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/medical-mystery/2011/09/13/gIQAPd7pPK_blog.html

Gifted Students

Article on how to best teach for gifted students.
Concern is that in the day of high stakes tests the curriculum is geared towards the lowest performing students.
As a result, 10% of high school dropouts in the US are A students, dropping out of school due to boredom.
The more successful approach appears to be setting up a curriculum which is geared towards gifted students. Three year studies found that in such programs the percentage of students deemed 'gifted' rose from 10% of the school's population to 20%.


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2011/0831/Back-to-school-Are-we-leaving-gifted-students-behind

Tom Toles Out of Control

Great post by Tom Toles.
"Most Republicans have forged birth certificates and do not really support this country."
Is hysterical how he can turn things around and show people how absurd they can be.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/friday-rant-what-can-i-say-edition/2011/08/25/gIQAVNgzdJ_blog.html#comments

Invasive Species?

Article referencing couple new books which claim fighting invasive species is not in our best interest. Great line:
"Those humans that are adaptable and who explore new frontiers have long won out over those who want tradition and stability. And it is now best that we all adapt to change and not simply oppose it."
Still, some species have no benefit (i.e. Brazilian pepper and melaleuca in Florida). Believe there is no reason not to try and wipe them out. All they do is take space from productive plants.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2011/0825/Apocalyptic-contagion-and-invasive-species

US Wealth Quintiles

Interesting article on how much wealth is owned by each 5th of the population in various countries.
Pie charts contrast Sweden and the US. The top fifth of US citizens controls 84% of all the countries wealth while the bottom fifth controls 0.1%. Fair? Seems completely absurd to me.

http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/norton%20ariely%20in%20press.pdf

Rumsfeld Accountable?

Our wonderful military system at work. Wonder if this occurred during the "gloves off" time frame? Too many opt for the shoot first ask questions later approach.
Even if he is found complicit am sure he will get off with far too little accountability for his failed leadership.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2011/0808/Appeals-court-allows-US-citizens-torture-suit-against-Rumsfeld

Innovation and Worker Alienation

Interesting article on reasons the US has not been as innovative now as during the 1950-70 time period. Also, provides links to reasons for worker alienation.
Gist of article is that computers et al have not increased productivity just produced worker alienation since workers have less control over their work.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/27063/?p1=blogs

The Culture of I

Nice article by CSM once again on the culture of "I".
How the Internet is diminishing our ability to think critically.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0729/I-am-therefore-I-m-right

More on Anonymous

More on anonymous.
CSM is always fairly thorough and provides multiple views and lets you know if one is a minority view or not.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0721/Hacker-arrests-Why-Anonymous-might-not-be-so-anonymous

Anonymous and NewsCorp

Well, it appears NewsCorp may be finally getting it's comeuppance. Someone busted them for hacking various entities and paying off the police and potentially politicians in Britain. They may have well been doing the same thing here in the states and abroad. One executive has apparently killed himself as a result (or been killed).
Meanwhile, Anonymous, has hacked NewsCorp's emails and plans to release them. Today, the FBI arrests 14 people with supposed links to anonymous here in the states. Maybe some higher ups in this country are about to be implicated.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20080669-501465.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody

http://anonplus.com/

One big benefit of the internet is it is bringing on transparency albeit people are still having to hack in order to make the world a better place.

Scareware

Nice article on Scareware. If you ever see your computer throw up windows stating your computer has a virus and offer you a solution to but their product then your computer has been infected. Article includes the schemes these Russian companies and others use to steal your dollars. I've been using Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials for past few years and have been able to clean my computer in the few instances where have been infected. Beware public forums and the hypertext links therein.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/37718/?p1=A4

The Daily Show and Fox

The Daily Show is always a lot of fun. John Stewart reveals Fox news real liberal versus conservative strategy. As per FOX news, conservatives are always unfairly persecuted by liberals and liberals are a bunch of whiners. And that actually works with a lot of people.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tv-column/post/jon-stewart-vs-chris-wallace-continues-on-daily-show-video/2011/06/28/AGUn42oH_blog.html?hpid=z4

Niaspan

Story on NPR about drugs that raise good cholesterol. Study bascally found that raising good cholesterol in patients provided no benefit in regards to heart issues.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/05/28/136678665/study-boosting-good-cholesterol-with-niacin-did-not-cut-heart-risks

Also, have read that computers could supplant general physicians in the near future in regards to diagnosis issues. Computers have access to much more information than your doctor can recall. Of course, major surgeries will still require a surgeon.
I always feel uncomfortable going to the doctor. They spend little time with me (except my latest physician) and always want to perform some procedure (cut me) and prescribe some drugs. It's too much about money with most of them.

Statins: Had high triglycerides on a doctor's visit and doctor recommended putting me on blood thinners. Changed my doctor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3BzgZqFuZc

Spent Fuel Rods: Worse Problem in the US than in Japan

Another article confirming our problems with spent fuel rods.
Do wonder what effect the spent fuel rods have on the water that is continuously circulating about them.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0525/Report-Unacceptable-threat-from-spent-fuel-pools-at-US-nuclear-power-plants

Tax contribution/benefit

Interesting article on which states contribute the most taxes and benefit the most from tax dollars. Amazing, but not surprising, how most of the benefit is received by red states.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/welfare-queen-states/2011/05/17/AFzTK45G_story.html?hpid=z4

Osama

Lot of people celebrating Osama Bin Laden's death. Did not sit well with me since revenge is overrated. Was looking for a way to describe these feeling and found a fairly good one here:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0502/Celebrating-Osama-bin-Laden-s-death-is-anti-American-and-not-very-biblical

Been some interesting subjects on forgiveness on PBS and saw a movie called Triage in which a psychologist forgives fascists for killing. In one case on PBS the Amish forgave a man for killing 6 girls in their community. Were arguments for and against such approaches. Am I saying to forgive Osama, don't think so, but celebrating his death does not sit well either.

Tax Cuts for the Rich?

Tom Toles never fails to crack me up.
Damn shame the Washington Post took the link to his commentary off the front page.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/but-seriously-folks/2011/04/25/AF2g0tiE_blog.html

Sidewalk Chalk Art

Always found these drawings fascinating. Would like to see some in person someday.

http://www.google.com/search?q=sidewalk+chalk+art&hl=en&rlz=1B7GGLL_enUS426US426&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=j6KoTdmHFobmsQPr84H6DA&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1176&bih=751

Military Spending and National Sovereignty

Couple articles on interest on CSM. First comparing the US to North Korea in the
 way it handles it's defense budget. Ideally, a country should spend nothing on defense but unfortunately the world in not a perfect place. The US defense budget is far out of control and could be cut by up to 90%, I'd settle for 50%.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0414/How-the-US-is-like-North-Korea

Second is on national sovereignty. Why do western powers interfere in the affairs of smaller nations. Is it truly for human rights or other usually monetary based interests? If a country is in the midst of a civil war and outside powers interfere what tends to happen when they leave. Has progress in that country just been set back that many years? Always hear the cry for human rights but often see these calls as disingenuous especially when those calling for human rights perform their own violations.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2011/0414/Ivory-Coast-Libya-highlight-growing-rift-between-Africa-and-the-West

Tax Rates

Interesting article on US Tax Rates in CSM.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0413/Are-Americans-overtaxed

Many claim we need to cut more and will regardless of our situation.
How much cutting is too much? No safety net at all? Then what happens?

Music or Reading for Teens?

Interesting post on what is better for teens, music or reading. Not much surprising for me here.

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/04/all-the-lonely-playlists.html

Spent Fuel Rods

As previously mentioned and now written about directly in the Christian Science Monitor. No one is addressing the problem with our nuclear reactors. Spent fuel rods are packed far too densely at virtually all our nuclear power plants. The power companies would rather pack them more densely than build new pools to store the material. What would happen if the cooling system failed for one of these pools? Would the material would sink into the Earth, most likely to the core? And what would come up that hole? Devastation?

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0330/Fukushima-warning-US-has-utterly-failed-to-address-risk-of-spent-fuel

Labor Issues

Nice posting by Michael Moore. Need more like him who have no fear. Problem is we all need money and don't want to offend anyone and many even state support for those who wish to take more from us for fear we may lose the little we have.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/america-is-not-broke

Nuclear Crisis

Nice article explaining why a meltdown may occur in Japan. Am sure the nuclear power plants in the US are undergoing the same procedures which enhance their profits. Packing spent fuel rods too densely in water pools
due to the cost of creating additional pools or inability to deposit them elsewhere start fires when cooling systems fail.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2011/0316/Reports-Lax-oversight-greed-preceded-Japan-nuclear-crisis

Water Shortages

Florida is listed as one of 14 states most at risk for water shortages by 2050. Global warming could also play a factor by putting pressure on the Aquifer by increasing the risk of saltwater intrusion.

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/watersustainability/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_wars_in_Florida

and some comedy from The Daily Show. Great line where the computer and birthers references occur.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/09/954285/-Late-afternoon-early-evening-open-thread

Gross National Happiness

Have always been a big fan of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report". Too bad my cable subscription no longer includes it but can usually find excellent clips posted on the web.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/375428/february-24-2011/corporate-hacker-tries-to-take-down-wikileaks

Working on an Android application now based on the Gross National Happiness Index.
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/
Completely different take on how to view society. In the States we focus on the Gross Domestic Product which scores security and watse cleanups as positive indices since money is spent on them. Not sure how well a 7 hour workday and 8 hours of sleep per day would go over here.

Income Inequality

Interesting graphics on income inequality in the country. We need to break up the unions! :)

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph# 

Why not allow unions? Management wants all the power. Check out Germany where the employees have a 50% ownership stake and occupy 50% of the boards seats. The deciding vote is that of the CEO. Their economy is booming! When you trust one another you tend to work together better. Seems simple to me.

Education

Interesting article on best way for education system to function. I did teach for a couple years. Were a lot
of variables to consider when designing your approach to the students. One I most adhered to was high expectations similar to how many asian countries deal with their education systems. I'd work my students hard.
Rating teacher performance could have the adverse affect in that teachers just try to tow the line and not make waves. May give their students more generous grades so as not to offend parents or administrators. In doing so, students are cheated out of a superior education.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0104/To-improve-schools-stop-treating-them-like-businesses

Safety Net

More on how other successful nations handle health care.  Emphasis on the safety net that provides a foundation for citizens to succeed. Something which is missing in our society. And why is it missing? Is it the old American spirit gone awry? The wealthy who may desire high unemployment and a poorly educated workforce in order to keep their costs down? A severely dysfunctional government?
I saw a government official was being interviewed from Indonesia recently and his country emphasized full employment, free health care, and free education for all it's citizens and their economy is booming.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/1229/What-Germany-could-teach-America-about-health-care-reform-and-government-s-role