Category: politics
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A Presidential Debate on Science
Science Debate 2008 is a small group of people who, in 2007, began working to “restore science and innovation to America’s political dialogue”. Enlisting the help of over 38,000 people they gathered a total of 3,400 pressing science questions from nearly every major American science organization, dozens of Nobel laureates, elected officials and business leaders,…
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Books to Understand the Current Economic Climate
The Washington Post recently asked a host of ‘smart people’ for recommendations on what book will help us make sense of the current economic climate. Those asked include Peter Orszag (Director, Congressional Budget Office); Greg Mankiw (professor of economics at Harvard University); and John Allen Paulos (author and mathematics professor at Temple University). However, my…
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Banning Film Posters Glamorising Guns
With the recent ASA ruling that the posters advertising the Jolie crapfest that is Wanted should be banned due to its glamorisation of guns, The Guardian presents us with 8 more classic movie posters that should be banned if these asinine rules were rigidly applied. The Man with the Golden Gun Naked Killer Hitman Gunslinger…
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Web Design: Obama vs. McCain
I feel the political commentary is contrived and unnecessary, but this comparison of the McCain and Obama campaign websites is worth a look; if only to see how not to design a website. The now-retired web designer inside me loved every minute of it. via Link Banana
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Global Catastrophic Risks
The University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute recently held a conference on Global Catastrophic Risks. There’s an upcoming book which might be worth a read but what I’m more excited about is that soon all of the conference’s lectures will be made available for free. Global catastrophes have occurred many times in history, even…
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Children Can’t Differentiate Between Toys and Nutritional Items
“Children can’t differentiate between toys and nutritional items” No, it’s not a classic piece of ‘Onion‘ reportage; it’s a quote from Miriam Gruß, a member of the German parliamentary children’s committee, on why the Germans plan on banning Kinder Eggs (are these available in the US?). Charlie Brooker’s characteristically hilarious retort is best placed here.…
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Voting America, 1840–2008
Voting America consists of a series of animated and interactive maps (with commentary) visualising how Americans have used their votes since 1840. Voting America examines the evolution of presidential politics in the United States across the span of American history. The project offers a wide spectrum of cinematic visualizations of how Americans voted in the…
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A 14-Year-Old and John Lennon Discuss Peace
In December 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono held one of their famous “bed-in for peace” protests at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. This was when a 14-year-old Jerry Levitan sneaked into their hotel room and secured an interview with Lennon on the topic of World Peace. 38 years later Levitan produced an animated…
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Commanding Heights
I recently watched all six hours of Commanding Heights; a great documentary that attempts to trace the rise of free markets during the last century, as well as the process of globalization. It acts almost like a primer on 20th century economics. I have just re-discovered the PBS supplementary website for Commanding Heights and am…
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The Millionaire and the Squatter
Originally an idea for “professional philanthropic development”, Michael—a multi-millionaire who’s giving away $78m over a 10 year period—lived with a homeless Chicago man for one weekend. Freakonomics covers the story in Michael, Meet Curtis: Philanthropy Gets Personal. Curtis cooked another plate of chicken and beans. He was about to eat it, but once again he…