Blog
Does the “Sharing Economy” Create Community, or Profit From the Lack of It?
When our kids were little, we lived in an Eichler suburb in south Palo Alto. Every house on the block had a 6-to-7-foot fence around it. In the year that we lived there we rarely saw a neighbor. It was eery. One day, while mowing our lawn, I had a revelation: Our market system has a vested interest in our individual...
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A Beautiful Moment From a Beautiful Movie: “Pride”
For years I’ve kept a mental collection of movies that contain forgiveness. I dunno why. Maybe because we are all so often in need of it ourselves. Places in the Heart. Enchanted April. Love Actually. Happy Thank You More Please. And now — after watching it today on Amazon streaming — Pride, based...
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The End of Old Artic Sea Ice in Three Minutes (video)
“Decades ago, the majority of the Arctic’s winter ice pack was made up of thick, perennial ice. Today, very old ice is extremely rare. This animation tracks the relative amount of ice of different ages from 1987 through early November 2014. Video produced by the Climate.gov team, based on data provided...
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Timelapse Video of Planet Earth from Space
Explanation of video from YouTube posting: Watch Earth roll by through the perspective of European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst in this six-minute timelapse video from space. Combining 12,500 images taken by Alexander during his six-month Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station this Ultra...
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Je Suis Charlie
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Internet’s Impact on Print Media Only Part of the Story
Playwright Alena Smith, describing the faded fortunes of American playwrights, notices that the impact of the Internet extends far beyond the print media: This is what happens to “old media,” after all — new media rise up and displace them. We are clearly in the midst of such a conflict right now, as the internet...
[Continue reading: Internet’s Impact on Print Media Only Part of the Story]Best Headline in Today’s Union
Best headline in today’s Union: “Nevada City woman arrested for stealing friend’s car, evading police under the influence” I don’t steal cars, but I agree that it’s best to avoid drunk cops.
[Continue reading: Best Headline in Today’s Union]The Evil Wolf vs The Good Wolf Inside Us All
This “old Cherokee story” continues to make the rounds on the Internet. I saw it most recently on Facebook, posted like this: Some thoughts: As much as I love this old story — and I do love it — I think it’s important to understand and accept that we can’t ultimately defeat and...
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Carl Sagan’s Words Are More Powerful Than Ever
Carl Sagan’s beautiful riff on our “Pale Blue Dot” is an incredible amalgam of science, philosophy and some kind of word jazz, and has inspired more than one video treatment (just search for “pale blue dot” in YouTube and you’ll see what I mean). Here’s the best treatment I’ve...
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Maureen O’Hara
By Don Pelton As a pre-teen pre-pubescent sprite I was in love with actress Maureen O’Hara. It’s still a mystery to me. Maybe due to the effect of movies in the 1940s, I was in love with lots of things in movie theaters, including the tall brunette usherette at the Saturday matinee, and the Abba Zaba bars...
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Articles
Right-to-carry gun laws linked to increase in violent crime, study shows
Stanford research reaffirms that right-to-carry gun laws are connected with an increase in violent crime. This debunks – with the latest empirical evidence – earlier claims that more guns actually lead to less crime. BY CLIFTON B. PARKER Vartanov...
Fish still contaminated with phased-out Scotchgard chemical
Reprinted from Environmental Health News under a Creative Commons License Smallmouth bass are one of many freshwater fish species contaminated with PFOS in U.S. rivers and the Great Lakes. By Brian Bienkowski A persistent chemical formerly used in Scotchgard...
Eric Holder: The Reason Robert Rubin Isn’t Behind Bars
Reprinted from The Center for Economic and Policy Research under a Creative Commons License By Dean Baker The big news item in Washington last week was Attorney General Eric Holder decision to resign. Undoubtedly there are positives to Holder’s tenure...
Evidence Mounts of Hidden Fracking Hazards
Reprinted from Common Dreams under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License “We need strong state action to protect the public health from yet another troubling side effect of the unprecedented wave of shale gas development,”...
How the New York Times Enables Economic Illiteracy (Austerity)
Reprinted from the New Economic Perspectives blog at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Editor’s Note: William K. Black, author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One,” is Associate Professor of Law and Economics at the University...
When Hope Becomes Revolutionary: Change in a Time of Climate Change
Reprinted from TomDispatch.com Editor’s Note: Rebecca Solnit, is one of the best writers in America because she’s one of the most original thinkers. Here she reminds us of the revolutionary power of hope, and how hope overturns old regimes...
Feds Set to Open Fracking Floodgates in California Based on One Flawed Study
Reprinted from Common Dreams under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License Report raises grave concerns about fracking pollution’s threat to state’s air and water, say opponents, and also highlights fact that government officials...
The Twin Plagues of ISIS and Ebola
Reprinted from Foreign Policy in Focus (FPIF) under a Creative Commons License The Plague The twin plagues of ISIS and Ebola thrive on the breakdown of the existing order. By John Feffer In his novel The Plague, Albert Camus describes how death...
“We’re in a golden age of investigative journalism”
Reprinted with permission from TomDispatch.com The Fall and Rise of Investigative Journalism From Asia to Africa to Latin America, Muckrakers Have Corrupt Officials and Corporate Cronies on the Run By Anya Schiffrin In our world, the news about the news...
To Terrify and Occupy: The Militarization of America’s Police
Reprinted from TomDispatch.com How the Excessive Militarization of the Police is Turning Cops Into Counterinsurgents By Matthew Harwood Jason Westcott was afraid. One night last fall, he discovered via Facebook that a friend of a friend was planning...
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Reviews
Free Book: “The End of Loser Liberalism: Making Markets Progressive”
By Dean Baker Progressives need a fundamentally new approach to politics. They have been losing not just because conservatives have so much more money and power, but also because they have accepted the conservatives’ framing of political debates. They...
Richard Tuttle A day or so ago I received this email from our friend, Dave Comstock, publisher of Comstock Bonanza Press, concerning a “book launch” on October 15th in the Nevada City Council Chamber … of judge Richard E. Tuttle’s...
Devastating New Ron Susskind Book on Obama and his Dysfunctional Economic Team
Larry Summers Napping In excerpts below from their discussion, Frank Rich and Adam Moss talk about Ron Susskind’s new book Confidence Men — published tomorrow — about president-elect Obama’s choice of his economic team in 2008,...
GOP Rule is More Dangerous to Our Health, Study Proves (100 Years of Data)
Professor James Gillligan has spent his professional life studying violence. In his latest book, “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others,” he summarizes his study of a whole century of data, proving that all forms of violence...
Yes, the Latest Right-Wing Paean to Sociopath Ayn Rand Is Really, Really Awful
by Brad Reed Take Lisa Simpson and combine her with Gordon Gekko and the obnoxious child-android from “Small Wonder,” and you get the perfect Rand hero. The year is 2016. Eight years of Obammunism have transformed the former capitalist paradise known...
Simplicity Bistro: Excellent New Restaurant in Grass Valley
I learned something from our three meals at Simplicity Bistro over the last week: I learned that I have a burgundy beef need that can apparently only be satisfied by recurring dinners at Simplicity Bistro. I’m a bit worried, though, because...
Rich People Things: Ayn Rand, La Dolce Vita Redubbed and the Plutocrapocalypse!
Who’s suffered most in the Great Recession? Why, it’s the rich, the affluent, the meritocracy, of course! So says — satirically — Chris Lehmann in his new book, Rich People Things. From the publisher’s description: It’s...
Farming Was His Life, Until the CAFOs Came
I heard Thom Hartmann interview David Kirby, author of Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment. This could be one of those watershed environmental books, like Rachel Carson’s...
Corporations Have Become More Dangerous to Democracy Since Reagan
Barry Lynn, Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, talks about his book, Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction. According to Lynn (speaking in the video below), “in 1981 the Reagan administration changed...
Amazing Buzz on New Book: Eating Animals
I’ve never seen this kind of buzz on a new book before, and since I’m a sucker for book buzz and hype, and I haven’t actually read the book yet, I’ll just pass on some of the buzz and hype about Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran...
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ALTERNATE WARMING SCENARIOS (CLICK FOR DETAILS)
