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Monthly Archives: March 2013
Enlightenment, endarkenment, Private Eye and the end o’ the world
Two quotes- one from Private Eye, one from the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (as you do). Alas, he is a journalist, not a scientists or a philosopher king, and thus takes the journalist’s now standard route to enlightenment, … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, apocalypse, competence
Tagged AIDS, Anne Ehrlich, climate change, endarkenment, enlightenment, Malcolm Gladwell, Paul Ehrlich, Private Eye
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Juking the Stats: #TheWire for real, yo?
NYPD on Trial: Police Say They Are Forced to Harass Kids in Order to Meet Quotas NYPD whistleblowers say quotas are forcing them to make bogus, racist stops, summonses and arrests. March 27, 2013 | Last week, NYPD whistleblowers Adhyl … Continue reading
Posted in activism, bureaucracy, competence, politics
Tagged juking the stats, NYPD, The Wire
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China crisis – 38% reduction in food production at 2C temp rise #climate #china #food #doomed
Hat-tip to Sam. Emphasis added. http://www.straight.com/news/358181/gwynne-dyer-why-chinese-government-wants-carbon-tax Gwynne Dyer: Why the Chinese government wants a carbon tax March 4, 2013 Last week’s announcement by China’s Ministry of Finance that the country will introduce a carbon tax, probably in the next two … Continue reading
Cooperation versus Collaboration – hat-tip to Harold Jarche
I run a site called “Intellectual Self-Defence”. Some intermittently interesting stuff (usually other people’s!) Mostly about distinctions between concepts that are regularly conflated, like capitalism and democracy, or progress and growth, or competence and Steering Group. Here’s a link to … Continue reading
Posted in activism, competence
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Under pressure(d)
I am hopeless at practical tasks. Metalwork and woodwork classes were a nightmare at school. I can now, closer to the end than the beginning, just about drive a nail and cook a meal (for one). And, when confronted with … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge
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Better to be conventionally wrong than unconventionally right
It’s a Keynes observation from somewhere (I will come back and dig it up – if I find it now I will be late for the job I love oh-so-much). People like predictability. Even if you are predictably wrong, that … Continue reading
Posted in activism
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Dilbert on job satisfaction; “what people feel right before they die from stress-related problems”
The full strip is here.
Posted in a little self-knowledge, humour, internet culture
Tagged Dilbert, job satisfaction, TADJ
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The media, Iraq and the melting Arctic
Ten years on from the murderous and illegal invasion of Iraq, and none of the perpetrators have been punished. Cheney, Bush, Blair, Howard etc. all walk free. And now, in one of those cheap-to-produce retrospective (Ctrl C + V on … Continue reading
Posted in apocalypse, climate, death, fear
1 Comment
Chomsky: after the Guardian hatchet job, read the Salon piece
If you read that pathetic hatchet job from the Guardian (they somehow didn’t find space to mention the apology they had to write about him in 2005), then I suggest you wash out the taste from your mouth by reading … Continue reading
Anthropologist: “Empire tells great stories” Awesome article! #Eritrea #Academia #Ritual
You can’t do excerpts on something this good. You have to just put in a hyperlink and leave the click decision to your reader(s). http://thedisorderofthings.com/2013/03/18/in-praise-of-question-marks-reflections-on-critical-methodologies-narrative-voice-and-the-writing-of-the-political-the-limits-of-language/ Hat-tip to Mrs Towers.
Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism, bureaucracy, death, politics
Tagged academics, Eritrea
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