The US Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa) are proposed to be debated by Congress in a week. The legislation would allow the Justice Department and content owners to seek court orders requiring search engines to block results associated with piracy. The bill is too broad and so badly written …
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Category:Risk and Terror
We love factory food.
Factory farming is bad. The new movie Contagion, based on the book Viral Storm, dramatises the kind of risk we nurture with intensive farming techniques. The kind of techniques that deliver the variety and volume of food at such low prices that we demand. From The Ecologist: Viral storm: why factory farming is bad for …
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Victory! Or shame?
Gaddafi is gone. That’s good. And right. Gaddafi is dead. Maybe that’s not right. Almost inevitable in this world. But it was not the best we could have done. The evidence streamed around the world of a battered, bloodied old man, interspersed with rejoicing is an embarrassing show of primitive instinct. All male. Guns. Blood. …
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Watch the dead cat bounce.
or here. The Western Economic System (capitalism?) is the cat. 🙁
The passion of dissent – Aung Sang Suu Kyi
Aung Sang Suu Kyi talks about her life and work as a political reformer. Listen to her on Radio 4 here. Hope without delusion. Suffering by choice. The spirit of change. Download the Reith Lectures podcast Read the transcript of Lecture 1
Ireland’s future depends on breaking free from bailout
Ireland’s future depends on breaking free from bailoutIreland’s future depends on breaking free from bailout by Morgan Kelly in teh Irish Times: WITH THE Irish Government on track to owe a quarter of a trillion euro by 2014, a prolonged and chaotic national bankruptcy is becoming inevitable. By the time the dust settles, Ireland’s last …
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The arctic ice is gone.
Well, nearly. The latest models indicate ice-free summers in the arctic this decade. We won’t have to wait 100 years for the effects of climate volatility. They are here now. BBC: New warning on arctic ice melt
The smell of a nuclear bomb!
It was late in the evening. I had nearly forgotten that I was going to read to the boys. So, I ran upstairs and into their room. I lay down next to Jaz and before I could look at the book, was attacked by a powerful aroma. The foul stench of special naughty boy fluff …
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20% of plants risk extinction.
If that doesn’t sound bad, then its worse. No plants = no animals. Normally we migt be shocked to hear that 20% of mammals face extinction, even though they tend to be less resilient than plants. Hearing that 20% of plants are at risk is a loud warning – that kind of hole in the …
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Banking, Budgets, Inflation, Food prices
Four degrees of separation? I just browsed through three links that interested me and suddenly noticed that they drew the banking crisis and the food crisis (which is barely on many people’s radar) together. Here it is: US banking system ‘open to abuse’ One of the US’s top fraud investigators is warning that America’s policing …
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