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J K Rowling speaking at Harvard Commencement
I wasn't a J.K Rowling fan, until now. I may never read a word or watch one second of any Harry Potter but Video of J K Rowling's Commencement Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” is powerful and moving.
Given at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association on June 5th 2008. In this wise, yet also funny speech she talks about her time working for Amnesty International, her personal experiences with failure and the power of the imagination to allow us to empathize with others. I wasn't a J.K Rowling fan, until now. I may never read a word or watch one second of any Harry Potter but Video of J K Rowling&#... more -
How industry’s assault on science threatens your health
In his new book, Doubt Is Their Product, David Michaels chronicles the “tricks of the trade” that mercenary scientists and product defense firms employ to delay or prevent regulation of chemicals that kill. Their tactics put them in the good company of cigarette companies and global warming deniers.
It’s a sordid story that’s been repeated too many times over many decades. Independent scientists identify a chemical or environmental hazard that threatens public health. Industry-funded researchers question the results of these studies and call for more research, delaying regulatory action that will protect citizens. The classic case is the long war waged by the tobacco companies. An internal memo from 1969 explains the aims of an industry that mastered the art of manufacturing uncertainty: “Doubt is our product since it the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.” In his new book, Doubt Is Their Product, David Michaels chronicles the “tricks of the trade” that mercenary scientists and product def... more -
Why Is Bush helping Saudi Arabia build nukes?
Here's a quick geopolitical quiz: What country is three times the size of Texas and has more than 300 days of blazing sun a year? What country has the world's largest oil reserves resting below miles upon miles of sand? And what country is being given nuclear power, not solar, by President George W. Bush, even when the mere assumption of nuclear possession in its region has been known to provoke pre-emptive air strikes, even wars?
If you answered Saudi Arabia to all of these questions, you're right. Here's a quick geopolitical quiz: What country is three times the size of Texas and has more than 300 days of blazing sun a year?... more -
David Davis... voice of the people?
The mainstream media fell over themselves to ridicule David Davis' resignation, and were at pains to point out that voters 'wouldn't understand the point he was making', but it's becoming apparent that kind of top down patronising opinion doesn't seem quite so cut and dry. The maverick Tory is more in tune with popular feeling than 'insiders' think. Admittedly there's much to laugh over with his lack of opposition, Rupert Murdoch has sent in the clown, Kelvin MacKenzie, and Davis's planned one-issue by-election could become democracy's equivalent of topless darts.
Despite Murdoch's spoiler, at best, or attempt to gain further political leverage (as if Murdoch even needs it) at worst, when you tune in to the radio, browse the internet and eavesdrop in pubs and cafes and you get the impression that he's really touched a nerve. People are admitting that, even though they've never thought of voting Tory, they agree with Mr Davis: in a slow but unstoppable process the Government has sacrificed too much of our individual liberty in the name of reducing petty crime and safeguarding national security. The Prime Minister, grateful for the diversion from his own troubles, has denounced Davis's action as a farce, and the pantomime theme is reinforced by the will-he, won't-he threat of Kelvin MacKenzie standing in the forthcoming by-election.
This is not a simple scenario that might split the Tories at a time when Labour is in the doldrums and needs all the help it can get. Mr Davis has made a stand that resonates with a lot of ordinary people. Opinion polls may show that the majority of voters support extending the period of time terror suspects can be detained without trial – but I'm not entirely convinced that this means we want to have laws of detention that are unparalleled elsewhere in Europe or America.
(a section of this commentary was taken from Janet Street-Porter in the Independent on Sunday, 15 June 2008) The mainstream media fell over themselves to ridicule David Davis' resignation, and were at pains to point out that voters '... more -
Bush shuts centre of London
Hundreds of demonstrators from the Stop the War Coalition will converge on Parliament Square from 5pm today, Sunday 15th June, to protest against the president, who is visiting London as part of a farewell tour of Europe before he leaves the White House next January.
About 1,000 Met police officers will be deployed each day during the twoday visit. A Met spokeswoman said there would be a highly visible uniformed presence as well as a "large amount of covert work".
Scotland Yard would not reveal the cost of the security operation, but it is believed to be over £1million. It rivals the £746,000 police operation around the Olympic Torch relay in April.
The amount of coaches crammed full of armed riot Police in the city centre was staggering yesterday. God knows what it will be like today. Hundreds of demonstrators from the Stop the War Coalition will converge on Parliament Square from 5pm today, Sunday 15th June, to prot... more -
Money is an Illusion Say Benetton.
Colors Magazine is essentially the propaganda wing of The Benetton Family, who own and operate numerous clothing brands including United Colors of Benetton and Killer Loop. If you can suspend your disbelief for a moment and view the magazine not as one giant Benetton advertisement and focus on its exceptional editorial content, Colors is one of the few magazines on the rack actually worth its asking price. The latest issue, which opens with the sentence “Money is an illusion, a psychological relationship between an object and a value that has been given to it”, is an impressive achievement in content & design semblance that makes your average periodical look grotesquely unsophisticated in comparison. If you've never checked this publication before their back catalogue is well worth hunting down.
Colors magazine is a multilingual quarterly magazine developed in Italy by Fabrica, Benetton's research center. There are three editions published: French/English, Italian/English, and Spanish/English. Each issue has a theme and covers the topic from an international perspective. The magazine is known for its photoessays and features a sardonic point of view, similar to Benetton advertising.
Tibor Kalman and Oliviero Toscani created the magazine in 1991, and it was produced at Kalman's design studio, M&Co, in New York City until 1993, when the magazine operations moved to Rome, Italy. For the first three years, the magazine was published in five editions: French/English, Spanish/English, Italian/English, German/English, and Japanese/English.
Issue 4, released in spring 1993, covered the topic of race, and created an international uproar by running full-page photos of the face of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain doctored to look like a black woman, filmmaker Spike Lee as a white man, Pope John Paul II as Asian, among others.
Issue 7, released in early 1994, covered AIDS in a bluntly straightforward manner, something no other form of media had been willing to do until that time. It also caused a huge uproar because it featured a full-page photograph of the face of former US president Ronald Reagan doctored to look like an emaciated AIDS patient with Kaposi's sarcoma lesions.
You get the picture. If money is an illusion can I have a free sweater or two please Mr? Colors Magazine is essentially the propaganda wing of The Benetton Family, who own and operate numerous clothing brands including Unit... more
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