Archive for the 'Elite' Category
Worse Off Than a Medieval Peasant?
September 2nd, 2013Via: Reuters: Life for the medieval peasant was certainly no picnic. His life was shadowed by fear of famine, disease and bursts of warfare. His diet and personal hygiene left much to be desired. But despite his reputation as a miserable wretch, you might envy him one thing: his vacations. Plowing and harvesting were backbreaking […]
Shocker: Israel One of the Top Spying Threats Facing U.S. Intelligence Services
August 30th, 2013The U.S. will probably punish Israel by giving it another $115 billion. Via: The Hill: The Obama administration views Israel as one of the top spying threats facing its intelligence services, leaked documents reveal. A secret budget request obtained by The Washington Post from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden lumps Israel alongside U.S. foes Iran […]
Prescription Sleeping Pill Use in America
August 29th, 2013Via: NBC: Desperate for rest in a frenzied world, at least 8.6 million Americans take prescription sleeping pills to catch some Zzzs, according to the first federal health study to focus on actual use. Between 2005 and 2010, about 4 percent of U.S. adults aged 20 and older popped popular prescription drugs such as Lunesta […]
Bayou Corne: The Biggest Ongoing Disaster In The U.S. You Haven’t Heard Of
August 26th, 2013Via: Mother Jones: What could possibly go wrong when miners, frackers, and drillers reshape the geology beneath our feet? Talk to the evacuees of Bayou Corne, Louisiana.
‘Either Write the Software that Eats the World, or Be Eaten’
August 24th, 2013Via: TechCrunch: Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everything will be fine. Maybe the “widening gap between rich and poor” is temporary. Maybe the steady growth in the proportion of jobs that are part-time and/or low-paid will soon reverse. Or maybe the idea that all the homeless need are old laptops and a few JavaScript textbooks is […]
Documentary: Terms and Conditions May Apply
August 23rd, 2013Via: Terms and Conditions May Apply: Terms and Conditions May Apply (trailer) from ro*co films on Vimeo.
The Confidential Memo at the Heart of the Global Financial Crisis
August 23rd, 2013Via: Vice: When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn’t believe it. The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak’s fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots […]
United States Military Interest in New Zealand Cable
August 22nd, 2013Via: Stuff: The United States Defence Department could help pay for a new cable linking New Zealand, Australia, the United States and several Pacific Islands, an Auckland source says. He said the department had an interest in spending about US$100 million (NZ$120m) to directly or indirectly acquire a pair of optical fibres between the US, […]
Scotland Yard Examines Claims that Diana, Princess of Wales Was Murdered by a Member of the British Military
August 18th, 2013Via: Telegraph: Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into new claims that Diana, Princess of Wales was murdered by a member of the British military. It said that it had asked specialist detectives to examine new allegations and evidence passed to it “recently”. The move was approved by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, its most senior officer. […]
Democracy Now On Amazon and Jeff Bezos
August 14th, 2013Disclosure: I have an affiliate relationship with Amazon. The Democracy Now discussion below contains some legitimate gripes about Amazon, which I’ve covered on here in the past. The most disturbing thing about Amazon (to me) is their work with CIA to build the agency’s new cloud computing infrastructure (news circa March 2013). That’s bad. But […]
