Thursday, May 31, 2012
Revolt and Crisis in Greece
How does a revolt come about and what does it leave behind? What impact does it have on those who participate in it and those who simply watch it? Is the Greek revolt of December 2008 confined to the shores of the Mediterranean, or are there lessons we can bring to bear on social action around the globe? Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come is a collective attempt to grapple with these questions.
Former Security Official Unveils Mossad's Role in Assassination of Iraqi Elites
Former Iraqi National Security Advisor Moafaq al-Rubaie said that the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, has infiltrated its agents into Iraq under different guises and assassinated the country's elites.
"The assassination of Iraqi scientists and pilots was neither accidental nor a natural result of insecurity and instability in the country, rather it was a well-planned move led from behind the stage by some spy agencies, which want to destroy Iraq and keep it backward," Rubaie said.
More...
"The assassination of Iraqi scientists and pilots was neither accidental nor a natural result of insecurity and instability in the country, rather it was a well-planned move led from behind the stage by some spy agencies, which want to destroy Iraq and keep it backward," Rubaie said.
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The Aesthetics of Transhumanism
Natasha Vita-More, Hplusmagazine
The current socio-political discussion on transhumanism concerns human use of NBIC [1] technologies and sciences to enhance human biology and to radically extend human life. I address this concern by bringing art and design into the discussion.
Artists and designers have been altering the human form — perceptually, conceptually and in actuality — from existing states to envisioned, preferred states. The perception of an ideal human is evident in the construction of statuesque sculptures. The conception of an enhanced human is evident in imagined mechanism in providing electronic senses and robotic extensions. The central issue now is that both the opponent and the advocate of transhumanism realize that the actuality of altering the human form is practicable, that duplicating the mind is probable, and that extending life is feasible.
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See also:
“Transhumanism” by Julian Huxley (1957)
The current socio-political discussion on transhumanism concerns human use of NBIC [1] technologies and sciences to enhance human biology and to radically extend human life. I address this concern by bringing art and design into the discussion.
Artists and designers have been altering the human form — perceptually, conceptually and in actuality — from existing states to envisioned, preferred states. The perception of an ideal human is evident in the construction of statuesque sculptures. The conception of an enhanced human is evident in imagined mechanism in providing electronic senses and robotic extensions. The central issue now is that both the opponent and the advocate of transhumanism realize that the actuality of altering the human form is practicable, that duplicating the mind is probable, and that extending life is feasible.
More...
See also:
“Transhumanism” by Julian Huxley (1957)
UNICEF: US Among Highest Child Poverty Rates in Developed Countries
A new report released this week by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reveals alarming child poverty rates within affluent, or 'developed', nations. The US ranks second highest among all measured countries, with 23.1 per cent of children living in poverty, just under Romania's 25.6 per cent.
The report Report Card 10 shows roughly 13 million children in the European Union (plus Norway and Iceland) lack basic items necessary for their development. 30 million children – across 35 countries with developed economies – live in poverty.
Monkey Muggers in India
Gangs of rhesus macaque monkeys run riot in the Indian city of Jaipur. [BBC]
See also:
Indians Feed the Monkeys, Which Bite the Hand
As urbanization has steadily encroached on their habitat, monkeys have become the scourge of New Delhi. The solution for now: a bigger monkey.
Violent anti-science anarchists vow to strike again
From New Scientist:
It's like something out of Kafka. Anti-science anarchists in Italy appear to be ramping up their violent and frankly surreal campaign. Having claimed responsibility for shooting the boss of a nuclear engineering company in Genoa, the group has vowed to target Finmeccanica, the Italian aerospace and defence giant.
It's like something out of Kafka. Anti-science anarchists in Italy appear to be ramping up their violent and frankly surreal campaign. Having claimed responsibility for shooting the boss of a nuclear engineering company in Genoa, the group has vowed to target Finmeccanica, the Italian aerospace and defence giant.
In a diatribe sent on 11 May to Corriere della Sera newspaper on 11 May, the Olga Cell of the Informal Anarchist Federation International Revolutionary Front said it shot Roberto Adinolfi, head of Ansaldo Nucleare, in the leg four days earlier. "With this action of ours, we return to you a tiny part of the suffering that you, man of science, are pouring into this world," the statement said. It also pledged a "campaign of struggle against Finmeccanica, the murderous octopus". Ansaldo is one of Finmeccanica's many offshoots.
The cell has previously targeted nanotechnology researchers, and in 2010 it tried to bomb an IBM lab in Zurich, Switzerland. The attempt resulted in three conspirators being caught and jailed.
Anarchism in the Chinese Revolution
A talk on the Chinese revolution with a particular focus on anarchism. Also looks at the Long March and the peasant insurrections as well as the role of Mao and the Russian communist party. Recorded at a Dublin WSM meeting, August 2008
Scientists late to recognize human and giant mammal coexistence
According to Pravda:
Giant mammals roamed North America during the Ice Age, but were humans among them? A site in Vero Beach on Florida's East coast contains mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth-and human fossils. The problem is that humans were not yet supposed to have been there, according to the standard story told to generations of archaeologists.
[ ... ]
Supposedly, the earliest Americans were the Clovis peoples, who left tool caches in New Mexico caves that researchers discovered in the early and middle 20th century. However, all this new evidence of pre-Clovis peoples is finally forcing a broad scale revision of history.
More...
Giant mammals roamed North America during the Ice Age, but were humans among them? A site in Vero Beach on Florida's East coast contains mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth-and human fossils. The problem is that humans were not yet supposed to have been there, according to the standard story told to generations of archaeologists.
[ ... ]
Supposedly, the earliest Americans were the Clovis peoples, who left tool caches in New Mexico caves that researchers discovered in the early and middle 20th century. However, all this new evidence of pre-Clovis peoples is finally forcing a broad scale revision of history.
More...
Stefano Benni: The Story of First-Aid and Beauty Case
"The Story of First-Aid and Beauty Case" is highly reminiscent of cartoons; special effects and grotesques of personae chase each other from beginning to end, and the grand finale, with the whole town taking part in a merry-go-round of traffic violations, is full of hilarious exaggerations. Yet, the story is not merely a divertissement. Typical motifs of Italian comedies (and, to some extent, of Italian culture in general), like the jocular disrespect for authorities, the almost innate solidarity among the lower classes, and of course a beauty that turns every head and pierces every heart, are in action in this hyperbolic depiction of small-town life.
See also:
Misterioso - A Journey Into The Silence Of Thelonius Monk
2007 Edition of the acclaimed work written by Stefano Benni, adapted and directed by Filomena Campus.
The Genesis of Imperialism
From J. T. Walton Newbold's Egypt & the Entente:
If one was endeavouring to put one’s finger upon the specific causes which led to the breakaway from the Liberal Party of that considerable fraction of monied magnates and industrialists who formed the backbone of Liberal Unionism one would have to ignore, in large measure, the generally accepted explanation that it was occasioned by Gladstone’s Irish policy and look very much further back than 1885.
If one was endeavouring to put one’s finger upon the specific causes which led to the breakaway from the Liberal Party of that considerable fraction of monied magnates and industrialists who formed the backbone of Liberal Unionism one would have to ignore, in large measure, the generally accepted explanation that it was occasioned by Gladstone’s Irish policy and look very much further back than 1885.
The really critical year was not 1885. It was 1875. That was the year in which the approaching collapse of Egyptian finance became obvious; when the British Government, acting through the Rothschilds, acquired the Khedive Ismail’s holding of Suez Canal shares; when the Ottoman Government defaulted upon its loans. That was the year when the British Government, under pressure of the creditors, had to intervene and exercise diplomatic influence on their behalf both in Cairo and in Constantinople, but particularly in Cairo.
The diversion of shipping from the Cape route, where Britain’s power was established, to the Suez Canal route required that British influence should become paramount between Port Said and the mouth of the Red Sea.
[ ... ]
Three Men of Mystery
French capital—that of Baron Hausmann and the Société Générale de Paris—was placed at the service of the Khedive Ismail for the building of the railway across the Isthmus of Suez. French capital was also the main fund upon which the notorious Baron de Hirsch drew for his unscrupulous project of a railway to join up Vienna with Constantinople and Salonica. This Baron de Hirsch deserves more than a mere passing commentary. He was the first of three adventurers whose romantic careers have added new tales to the myths and legends of the East. He was the first of three characters, of three personalities, who, in their days and generations, were on all men’s lips. First was Baron de Hirsch. Second was Sir Ernest Cassel. Third was, and is, Sir Basil Zaharoff.
Baron de Hirsch, the herald of that great army of railway promoters, public works contractors, and shad financiers who have, at one time or another, plied their peculiar callings at Constantinople, was associated with the same financial house as Sir Ernest Cassel. Sir Ernest Cassel was associated in his manipulations at Constantinople with the same firm of armament contractors and financiers as Sir Basil Zaharoff.
There is visible a definite connection between the three “mystery” men. There has been behind each, in his time, the same lurking presence. It has been disguised with consummate skill. But conceal their tracks as they may, the most cautious of capitalists cannot mask their identity for all time from those of us who search for them with the applied science of the materialist conception of history. 
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For more on Sir Basil Zaharoff see
The Merchant of Death: Basil Zaharoff
6 Supervillains From History That Make The Joker Look Subtle