Archive for the 'Elite' Category
3 Major Publishers Sue Open-Education Textbook Start-Up
April 10th, 2012I’d love to know the mechanisms by which students come to be required to buy, say, a calculus textbook for over $200. What has to happen to get a racket like that up and running? Suitcases of cash? Prostitutes? All-expenses-paid-conferences/colloquia-as-vacations? Horse heads tucked into beds with people? Via: The Chronicle of Higher Education: Open-education resources […]
Radioactive Particles from Fukushima Disaster Were Detected in Kelp Off Southern California
April 10th, 2012Via: San Francisco Chronicle: Kelp off California was contaminated with short-lived radioisotopes a month after Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant accident, a sign that the spilled radiation reached the state’s coastline, according to a new scientific study. Scientists from CSU Long Beach tested giant kelp collected off Orange County, Santa Cruz and other locations after […]
Situation at Fukushima Has Potential to, “Destroy the World Environment and Our Civilization”
April 8th, 2012Via: Akio Matsumura: Japan’s former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei Murata, was invited to speak at the Public Hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on March 22, 2012, on the Fukushima nuclear power plants accident. Before the Committee, Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4—with […]
JPMorgan Illegally Let Lehman Bros. Count Customers’ Funds As Its Own
April 7th, 2012Via: Washington Post: JPMorgan Chase illegally allowed Lehman Brothers, the investment bank whose 2008 bankruptcy brought the financial system to the brink of collapse, to count customers’ money as its own, according to federal regulators. The arrangement boosted the amount that Lehman could borrow from JPMorgan, where the customers’ money was deposited, regulators charged Wednesday. […]
“Merchant of Death” Viktor Bout Sentenced to 25 Years; Trial Ignored His Ties to U.S., Dick Cheney
April 7th, 2012Via: Democracy Now: Notorious arms smuggler Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death,” has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiracy to commit terrorism. Our guest, former United Nations arms trafficking investigator Kathi Lynn Austin, says the case allowed American companies to avoid exposure of their collusion with with the U.S. government […]
Hunger: Britain’s Silent, Scandalous Epidemic
April 7th, 2012Via: Independent: Chris is 10. He and his brother are so malnourished that their skins are pale and they have rings under their eyes. Their older brothers have such an unhealthy diet that they have lost their adult teeth. They live in the sixth-richest city in the world – London. The boys are just four […]
Majority of Landmark Cancer Studies Cannot Be Replicated
April 6th, 2012Mmm hmm. Via: Slashdot: “During a decade as head of global cancer research at Amgen, C. Glenn Begley identified 53 ‘landmark’ publications — papers in top journals, from reputable labs — for his team to reproduce. Begley sought to double-check the findings before trying to build on them for drug development. Result: 47 of the […]
Michigan: Owning Certain Kinds of Pigs Could Land You in Jail for 4 Years
April 4th, 2012Via: Alternet: Owning certain kinds of pigs — namely the ones not raised on industrial hog farms — could land you in jail for 4 years. … The traditional white swine favored by Big Ag doesn’t run any risk of falling under the ‘feral’ classification. They’re raised indoors by the thousands, so no need for […]
Britain: Obese Mothers Drugged in Attempt to Produce Smaller Babies
April 2nd, 2012It’s tough to know where to begin on this one… Via: Herald Sun: In a world first trial, 400 overweight pregnant women in the UK and Scotland will be prescribed metformin – a drug that has been used for decades to treat diabetes and is cleared for pregnancy. Researchers are hoping that taking metformin from […]
Foxconn: Students Told to Man Production Lines If They Want to Graduate
April 2nd, 2012Via: Guardian: Apple’s factories in China are employing tens of thousands of students, some of them on forced internships, according to campaigners lobbying for better labour conditions at Foxconn plants, which assemble iPhones. Some students could be as young as 16. The Foxconn chairman, Terry Gou, head of China’s largest private-sector employer – with 1.2 […]
