Category: politics
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The Future of Food Policy
Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, discusses the future of U.S. food policy. Michael Pollan: A lot of people talk about the elitism of the food movement. And they think about Whole Foods and people shopping at upscale farmers markets. But there is another face to this food movement. There is a…
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Obama’s Presidential Rhetoric
The Guardian presents an analysis of Obama’s campaign trail speeches, noting particularly how they recall ancient Greek imagery and skills from great Roman orators. During the Roman republic (and in ancient Athens) politics was oratory. In Athens, questions such as whether or not to declare war on an enemy state were decided by the entire electorate (or…
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Interview With a Somali Pirate
A pirate boss speaks to The Guardian We give priority to ships from Europe because we get bigger ransoms. To get their attention we shoot near the ship. If it does not stop we use a rope ladder to get on board. We count the crew and find out their nationalities. After checking the cargo…
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Time’s Year in Review
In the most unsurpsing move of the year, Time has announced Barack Obama as Person of the Year, 2008. But it’s the other parts of the Year in Review issue that interest me the most. People Who Mattered tells the story of those who have changed the course of science, politics and science in 2008: some for…
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The Future of Education
Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, talks to The Telegraph about his views on the future of learning. The old-fashioned model of education still prevalent in today’s schools, involving remembering facts ‘off pat’, was designed for the industrial age. […] This might have been good for the mass production economy, but it doesn’t deliver for the…
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The Global Baby Trade
Foreign Policy looks at the international adoption trade and the corruption that has made it a lucrative industry. Westerners have been sold the myth of a world orphan crisis. We are told that millions of children are waiting for their “forever families” to rescue them from lives of abandonment and abuse. But many of the infants…
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What’s the Difference: Shia vs. Sunni
What’s the difference between Shia and Sunni Muslims? An article reprinted from the mental_floss book, What’s the Difference? Like Christianity, Islam is home to a spectrum of sects espousing different beliefs and practices. And just as Christianity can be divided into two large groups – Catholic and Protestant – from which other subsects have emerged,…
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Gaza’s Underground Economy
Foreign Policy has a fascinating photo essay on Gaza’s (literal) underground economy. Except for basic humanitarian supplies, Israel has blockaded the flow of goods into Gaza since June 2007, when Hamas, a militant Islamist group committed to Israel’s destruction, ousted its more secular rival, Fatah. The blockade has led to a new economic structure—a literal underground…
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Why Local Content Matters
Google.org on helping technologically developing countries in Africa gain a global voice: allowing them to be producers, not just consumers, of knowledge. Today, Swahili books online for example, number in the hundreds compared to the hundreds of millions of books in English available online. What message does this send to young people about the relative…
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Five Physics Lessons for Obama
Foreign Policy presents five physics lessons for Obama, written by Richard Muller, lecturer and author of Physics for Future Presidents (the book, the website, the lecture series and podcast at UC Berkeley). There are lessons on terrorism, energy (oil), nuclear energy, space and global warming. via Kottke