Transcend Media

English: Aung San Suu Kyi meets with crowd after house arrest lift on 14 November 2010. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

TRANSCEND MEDIA SERVICE
Solutions-Oriented Peace Journalism
“Getting Away with Murder”
June 8, 2015 5:51 PM
is the title of Susan George's (as usual) brilliant analysis of the banking situation after the US banking 9/11, the 2008 crash.
Nuclear Weapons Labs Hit with Sizable Fines for New Security Violations
June 8, 2015 5:36 AM
Two Nuclear Weapons Labs Accidentally Spilled Bomb Secrets for Years - A classified material was missing for years before anyone noticed, and a lab official's public slides included bomb design data.
8 June: World Oceans Day
June 8, 2015 5:31 AM
The ocean is the heart of our planet. Like your heart pumping blood to every part of your body, the ocean connects people across the Earth, no matter where we live. It regulates the climate, feeds millions of people, produces oxygen, is the home to an incredible array of wildlife, provides us with important medicines, and so much more!
Trade Agreements like TISA, TPP and TTIP Will Sideline National Laws, WikiLeaks Says
June 8, 2015 5:27 AM
The Trade in Services Agreement exposed in a 17-document dump by WikiLeaks on Thursday [4 Jun] relates to ongoing negotiations to lock market liberalisations into global law.
Edward Snowden: The World Says No to Surveillance
June 8, 2015 5:21 AM
Two years ago today, three journalists and I worked nervously in a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been making records of nearly every phone call in the United States.
US Imperialism and the FIFA Corruption Investigation
June 8, 2015 5:15 AM
On Wednesday [3 Jun], the FBI stated that its investigation now encompasses allegations of corruption, bribery, and vote-rigging related to FIFA awarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar. This is a political move against the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin and is conceived of as a vital propaganda adjunct of the ongoing US-led NATO encirclement of Russia.
“Combat Proven”: The Booming Business of War in Israel
June 8, 2015 5:13 AM
The wars in Gaza have devastated the population, but they’ve benefited weapons manufacturers looking to market their products. Inside an Israeli arms expo.
(Italiano) Un avvertimento contro l’argomentazione di Kaplan per cui “È tempo di riportare l’imperialismo in Medio Oriente”
June 8, 2015 5:09 AM
Piuttosto li si aiuti a creare un califfato con le migliori qualità del suo predecessore ottomano: la tolleranza, i millet per le minoranze, addirittura la saldatura potenziale dello squarcio fra sunniti e sciiti. Si usi il peacekeeping militare per proteggere, difensivamente, le minoranze esposte e minacciate. Si negozi uno spazio per Israele. Ma non ci si perda in sterili rivalità di potere militari; già perse dagli USA.
(Deutsch) Musik gegen den Strom: Selbstorganisierte Praxis des Singens und Spielens
June 8, 2015 5:03 AM
"Wer sprechen kann, kann auch singen" lautet eine Grunderkenntnis der Natural Voice-Bewegung. Die Recherche für diesen Schwerpunkt hat das mit vielen Beispielen belegt. Auch, dass eine starke Kraft im gemeinsamen Singen und Musizieren steckt. Es geht dabei um Empowerment von Individuen ebenso wie von Gruppen.
No Progress on Nuclear Weapons Control – As Planned
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
US Leadership Vetoes Steps toward Nuclear Weapons-Free World
The Human Rights Issue a Nobel Laureate Doesn’t Want to Touch
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
2 Jun 2015 - It's not often that the Dalai Lama calls out a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate. But that's what happened last week when he was asked about Aung San Suu Kyi, who has declined to speak out on the worsening plight of the Rohingya minority in her homeland of Myanmar.
FIFA Scandals Are Worse Than Bribes
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The Palestinian Soccer Association was persuaded by Blatter to drop its charges, with a renewal of previously empty pledges to ameliorate conditions confronting Palestinians coupled with a surely ironic plea to keep ‘politics’ from intruding on ‘the beautiful game.’ As if the humiliations and constraints imposed on the Palestinian teams were not political!
Film: Costa Rica Abolished Its Military, Never Regretted It
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
In 1948 Costa Rica abolished its military, something widely deemed impossible in the United States. This film documents how that was done and what the results have been. I don't want to give away the ending but let me just say this: there has not been a hostile Muslim takeover of Costa Rica, the Costa Rican economy has not collapsed, and Costa Rican women still seem to find a certain attraction in Costa Rican men.
Noam Chomsky: Buzzfeed and Vice Are ‘Distorting Free Media’ with Native Advertising
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
"Commercial media are businesses. And a business produces something for a market. The producers are major corporations," he said. "The market is other businesses – advertisers. Their product is readers (or viewers), so these are basically major corporations providing audiences to other businesses, and that significantly shapes the nature of the institution."
Nuclear Fuel Cycle Cost Calculator
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Discussions of the future of nuclear power often focus on safety, proliferation, waste storage, and carbon emissions - accepting cost as a given. This tool breaks the cost of investing in nuclear power into its component parts and considers the price of three configurations of the ‘fuel cycle.’
Exclusive: Two Years after Snowden Revelations, Glenn Greenwald Talks about Impacts on Surveillance State
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
2 Jun 2015 - In a recent interview with Occupy.com, journalist Glenn Greenwald said a lot has changed in the two years since he exposed secret NSA surveillance programs through whistleblower Edward Snowden, foremost the sense that "Internet companies like Facebook, Google, Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft are really petrified that if they don't demonstrate a commitment to their users' privacy and eliminate this perception that they've been collaborating with the NSA, it's going to destroy their future business prospects.”
U.S. Shoots Itself in the Foot by ‘Accidentally’ Arming ISIS
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
• 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles @ $70,000 per copy. Total: $161 million. • 40 M1A1 Abram tanks @ $4.3 million per copy. Total: $172 million. • 52 M198 Howitzer mobile gun systems @ $527,337 per copy. Total: $27.4 million. • 74,000 Army machine guns @ $4,000 per copy. Total: $296 million.
Costa Rica: A BOLD PEACE – Documentary
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Over 60 years ago, Costa Rica became one of the only nations in the world to disband their military. 'A Bold Peace' juxtaposes the national policy of demilitarization with their investment in education, health, and the environment. Pointed parallels and contrasts are made with recent U.S. debates over the national debt, healthcare, the environment and the escalating cost of U.S. militarism.
The Difficult but Necessary Road to Negotiations in Yemen
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The continued aggression of Saudi Arabia against civilians in Yemen, and the use of cluster munitions (in violation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions), highlight the crucial links between human rights, arms control, and the resolution of conflicts through good faith negotiations.
( What sort of negotiations are there between bombers and targets ? )
Breaking the Promise to Russia
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
President Bill Clinton decided to expand NATO’s membership to former members of the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact. George Kennan, America’s elder statesman on Russian issues, characterized it as the most dangerous foreign policy decision that the US had made since the end of the Second World War.
June: This Month in Nuclear Threat History
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
June 3, 1980 – President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski was awakened by his military assistant, General William Odom, around 2:30 a.m. and informed that NORAD’s computers had detected a launch of 2,200 Soviet ICBMs heading for U.S. targets. The incident was one of many so-called “false warnings.”
Israel Signals It’s Ready to Destroy Hezbollah – Include Iran as a Twofer?
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Yet, with all of Israel’s swelling international legitimacy problems, the Zionist regime still occupying another country, Palestine, can sound its bugle, which having no valves or other political pitch-altering complications, blast-summons its agents in Washington and elsewhere to get busy and circle the wagons.
The Era of the Great Transformations
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
We live in the Era of the Great Transformations. There are many, but I will mention just two: the first relating to the economy and the second to the realm conscience.
The Rohingyas: UN and Bangladesh Making Them Easy Prey to Traffickers and Terrorists?
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
That the UN and the Government of Bangladesh have been making the Rohingyas easy prey to the traffickers and terrorist groups and further that the fleeing Rohingyas have turned into perpetrators of human rights violations on the indigenous Jumma peoples of Bangladesh have been consistently ignored and/or overlooked. ( Why not say encouraged ? )
This Week in History
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
June 8-14 - QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “My strength didn’t come from lifting weights. My strength came from lifting myself up every time I was knocked down.” - Unknown
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Report and the Crimes against the Native People
( War Crimes, no ? )
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The century-and-a-half policy of forcibly removing aboriginal children from their families and communities and herding them into faraway schools run mainly by the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches, amounted, said the report, to nothing less than a “cultural genocide.” At the height of the program in 1931 there were 80 residential schools across the country with 15,000 captive native children.
Barcelona Election Puts Social Movements in Control of the City
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Barcelona has decided that for the next four years it will be governed not by a party, but by the legitimacy we built as a radical democratic movement.
Obama’s Cuba Legacy May Run through Venezuela
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The Cubans made it clear to Obama that normalization of relations would be limited if Washington was unwilling to normalize relations with Venezuela. The president has taken steps to normalize relations with Caracas but faces resistance at home.
How Private Contractors Have Created a Shadow NSA
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
A new cybersecurity elite moves between government and private practice, taking state secrets with them.
(Português) Cuba: Uma Nação Altiva
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Cuba vinha recebendo em média 2,5 milhões de turistas por ano. No primeiro trimestre de 2015, já chegam a 1 milhão. No entanto, em uma visão impressionista, circulando alguns dias por Havana é possível perceber que a contaminação turística não tirou dos cubanos a altivez cunhada numa longa história de lutas em busca da soberania nacional.
As Nobel Winners Gather to Speak Out About Rohingya, Where is Myanmar’s [Nobel Peace Laureate] Suu Kyi?
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The meeting featured video statements from Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu, José Ramos-Horta and Mairead Maguire, and others like philanthropist George Soros, who escaped Nazi-occupied Hungary.
Wind Energy vs. Fossil Fuels: Hurdles and Hopes for a Renewable Future
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
5 Jun 2015 - The colossal oil spill in Southern California last month spurred many to wonder why we have not abandoned fossil fuels for wind and other sources of renewable energy. The fossil fuel industry receives billions in taxpayer subsidies as the wind industry fights to take flight.
Post-Earthquake to Relief Fund: Roles of Aid Agency, Nation in Nepal
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
About six-dozen nations-states assisted on humanitarian aids and supplies in post-quake survivors. Among them, military with sniffer dogs from 18 countries arrived soon in Nepal. Nepalese Government failed to assure and maintain disaster aid diplomacy. Aid agency’s lost hope shall only be regained if a new national Government is formed soon.
Status of Palestine in 2015
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
- It has been 67 years since the occupation of 78% of Palestine in 1948. - It has been 48 years since the occupation of the other 22% of Palestine (WB and Gaza) that started 1967.
Fighting to Save Nature and Culture
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The fact that the US ignores the voices of 80% of the Okinawan people and plunges ahead with devastating base expansion indicates the obvious colonial status of the island people.
HSBC Pays Out £28m over Money-Laundering Claims
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
4 Jun 2015 - HSBC has been ordered to pay a record 40m Swiss francs (£28m) (US$43m) (€38m) for money laundering in the bank’s Swiss subsidiary. The settlement means the Swiss will not prosecute HSBC or publish the findings of their investigation into alleged aggravated money laundering.
Thrust into Freedom
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
A husband and wife in the city of Medellin, Colombia, had a cow on a small plot of grass land in front of their house, and they barely subsisted by feeding some of her milk to their children and selling the rest.
WikiLeaks Releases Documents Related to Controversial US Trade Pact
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
WikiLeaks on Wednesday [3 Jun 2015] released 17 different documents related to the Trade in Services Agreement (Tisa), a controversial pact currently being hashed out between the US and 23 other countries -- most of them in Europe and South America -- day after organization put $100,000 bounty on documents from series of US trade treaties.
Now the Truth Emerges: How the US Fuelled the Rise of Isis in Syria and Iraq
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The sectarian terror group won’t be defeated by the western states that incubated it in the first place. American forces bomb one set of rebels while backing another in Syria.
Assange on the Untold Story of the Grounding of Evo Morales’ Plane during Edward Snowden Manhunt
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
During the U.S. hunt for Snowden, Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane was forced to land in Austria for 14 hours after Spain, France, Portugal and Italy closed their airspace under pressure from the United States over false rumors Snowden was on board. Assange gives the inside story on why that plane was targeted.
Albert Einstein, Scientist and Pacifist
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our ways of thinking, and thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophes.” “I don’t know what will be used in the next world war, but the 4th will be fought with stones.” -- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
New Snowden Documents Reveal Secret Memos Expanding Spying
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The Obama administration has stepped up the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program on U.S. soil to search for signs of hacking.
Imperium?
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Our nation's efforts, cruel and chronic, to reign supreme and hegemonic
The Rohingya – Adrift on a Sea of Sorrows
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
When is genocide not really genocide? When the victims are small, impoverished brown people no one wants or cares about – Burma’s Rohingya.
The Silly Reason the Chinese Aren’t Allowed on the Space Station
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
China has been barred from the ISS since 2011, when Congress passed a law prohibiting official American contact with the Chinese space program due to national security. “National security,” of course, is the lingua franca excuse for any country to do anything it jolly well wants to do even if it has nothing to do with, you know, the security of the nation. But never mind.
The Real Naqba
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
6 Jun 2015 - Three weeks ago was Naqba Day – the day on which Palestinians inside and outside Israel commemorate their "catastrophe" - the exodus of more than half of the Palestinian people from the territories occupied by Israel in the 1948 war. Each side has its own version of this momentous event. Both these versions are utter nonsense - a mixture of propaganda, legend and hidden guilt feelings.
Daniel Ellsberg Credits Edward Snowden with Catalysing US Surveillance Reform
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden should be thanked for sparking the debate that forced Congress to change US surveillance law, Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, said Monday [1 Jun 2015].
( Uh - huh. Note new-snowden-documents-reveal-secret-memos-expanding-spying above. Some 'reform' is not a lessening of the practice. )
Global Psychosocial Implication in the Pentagramma Mirificum
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Clues from Spherical Geometry to "Getting Around" and Circumnavigating Imaginatively - The question here is whether there are clues to be found from the insights which have enabled spherical navigation over recent centuries. To what extent do those insights reflect understandings of relevance to getting "around" a global information-based society?
Why Hardly Anyone Dies from a Drug Overdose in Portugal
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
5 Jun 2015 - Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it -- possession and use of small quantities of these drugs are a public health issue, not a criminal one.
WikiLeaks Launches Campaign to Offer $100,000 “Bounty” for Leaked Drafts of Secret TPP Chapters
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
2 Jun 2015 - TPP will fuel inequality, kill jobs, and undermine health, environmental and financial regulations. The negotiations have been secret, and the public has never seen most of the deal’s text. Well, this morning the whistleblowing group WikiLeaks launched a campaign to change that.
The High School Valedictory Address You Weren’t Supposed to Hear
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
4 Jun 2015 - Evan Young was the valedictorian of this year’s graduating class at Twin Peaks High School, but Principal B.J. Buchmann told him he was not allowed to give his speech. “On a more serious note, there is something I would like to reveal to you. You may have already suspected this, but I hope this does not change your opinion of me: I am gay,” Evan said in his speech.
Nuclear Weapons: Grand Bargain Is Not So Grand
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The five nuclear-armed countries that are parties to the NPT (US, Russia, UK, France and China) appear more comfortable working together to maintain and modernize their nuclear arsenals than they do to fulfilling their disarmament obligations under the treaty. Their common strategy appears to be “nuclear weapons forever.” The US plans to spend $1 trillion on modernizing its nuclear arsenal over the next three decades.
(Deutsch) IS-Terror Made in USA
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Ein am Wochenende bekanntgewordener, bisher streng geheimer Pentagon-Bericht beweist, dass die USA die Terrormiliz »Islamischer Staat in Irak und Syrien« (ISIS bzw. IS) geschaffen haben. Der IS sollte danach Washington als Werkzeug zum Sturz von Syriens Präsidenten Baschar Al-Assad und als Vorwand für die Rückkehr des US-Militärs in den Irak dienen.
Cognitive Dissonance and the Psychopharmaceutical Industry
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
George Orwell understood the whistleblower’s dilemma when he said: "The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.” And that is where the concept of cognitive dissonance comes in. Being willfully blind, willfully uninformed or in denial is the easy path to take when confronted by new unwelcome truths that may lead to becoming ostracized by fellow humans.
The Twisted Legacy of Colombia’s Aerial Cocaine Crop Spraying Program
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
After 30 years of dubious results and loud protests, the flagship of the supply-side drug war in North America has finally been brought to ground.
Independent Report Finds Sri Lankan Government Systematically Violating Human Rights of Tamils, Other Minorities
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
28 May 2015 - Investigation Exposes Military Occupation and Colonization of Tamil Land in Sri Lanka
Greenpeace Releases Confidential IAEA Fukushima-Daiichi Accident Report
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
The International Atomic Energy Agency report fails to accurately reflect the scale and consequences of the Fukushima disaster.
India: Call to End Imposition of Death Penalty
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
2 June 2015 – Report released today called for an end to imposition of death penalty by majority view of the judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. “The ratio of differences of opinion among the judges whether somebody convicted for offences punishable with death should die or live in most cases in India is 2:1. When this difference of opinion is also between acquittal and death sentence, imposition of death penalty by majority opinion becomes legally untenable and morally unconscionable.”
How a Corporate Cult Captures and Destroys Our Best Graduates
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Universities should defend students against lovebombing by banks and consultancy firms – before it ruins their lives. Undergraduates must rely on their own wavering resolve to resist peer pressure, the herd instinct, the allure of money, flattery, prestige and security. Students, rebel against these soul-suckers! Follow your dreams, however hard it may be, however uncertain success might seem.
Sick
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
A little boy did not want to go to school.
Dude, Where’s My Humvee? Iraq Losing Equipment to Islamic State at Staggering Rate
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
4 Jun 2015 - Iraqi security forces lost 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles when Islamic State overran Mosul in June 2014. In addition , Iraqi forces previously abandoned significant types and numbers of heavy weapons to IS. The United States is effectively supplying IS with tools of war the militant group cannot otherwise hope to acquire from its patrons.
That 1914 Feeling
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
A forced Greek exit from the euro would create huge economic and political risks, yet Europe seems to be sleepwalking toward that outcome. The allusion to Christopher Clark’s recent magisterial book on the origins of World War I, “The Sleepwalkers,” is deliberate.
Burma’s Stateless Muslims: The World’s Most Persecuted Minority
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
In Burma, thousands of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority are fleeing persecution from Buddhists. Abused by smugglers, they are being turned away from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti — and Built Six Homes
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Even as the group has publicly celebrated its work, insider accounts detail a string of failures. The Red Cross says 91% of donations went to help Haitians. That’s not true. The Red Cross says it provided homes to more than 130,000 Haitians. But they didn’t. Where did the half billion raised for Haiti go? The Red Cross won’t say.
Why ‘National Security’ Is a Fallacy
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
From the UK to Saudi Arabia, states are using this term to justify a clampdown on political dissent.
Washington Politicizes Football
June 8, 2015 5:00 AM
Whether or not FIFA decisions are tainted by bribery, the purpose of the “investigation” is to cast doubt on the decision to hold the World Cup in Russia. The World Cup is a global spectacle and conveys prestige on the host country. Washington intends to deny this prestige to Russia. That is what the “investigation” is about.
New Strategic Calculus for the Balkans (I)
June 1, 2015 5:44 AM
18 May 2015 - The Balkans have returned to the forefront of European geopolitics as a result of the New Cold War, with the US and Russia facing off in a proxy war over the planned Balkan Stream pipeline through the region.
New Strategic Calculus for the Balkans (II)
June 1, 2015 5:36 AM
Since the general idea and genesis behind the Central Balkans have been discussed, it is now time to turn towards their three most important strategic characteristics.
John F. Nash Jr., Math Genius Defined by a ‘Beautiful Mind,’ Dies at 86
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
John F. Nash Jr., a mathematician who shared a Nobel Prize in 1994 for work that greatly extended the reach and power of modern economic theory and whose long descent into severe mental illness and eventual recovery were the subject of a book and a film, both titled “A Beautiful Mind,” was killed, along with his wife, in a car crash on Saturday [23 May 2015] in New Jersey. He was 86.
Fowl Deeds – Faeces, Bacteria, Toxins: Welcome to the Chicken Farm
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
The astonishing, multiple crises caused by chicken farming. Whether it’s welfare standards, environmental impact or the emerging threat to human health, we’ve got to change our insatiable greed for this meat. Nor does free range solve the feed problem: the birds are usually fed on soya, for which rainforests are wrecked.
The Full Text of the Oslo Communique on Myanmar (Burma)
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Today (28 May, 2015) the Oslo Conference to End Myanmar’s Persecution of the Rohingya ended. It was held at the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Voksenaasen. The call made by Archbishop Desmond Tutu to end Myanmar’s genocide is supported by six additional Nobel Peace Laureates: Mairead Maguire, Jody Williams, Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, and Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
Decipherment of Indus Valley Seals: Vedic Human Genetics & Cytology
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
The quest of creation is quest of human mind from dawn of the Civilization on the earth. The discovery of the double helical structure of the DNA by the Watson and crick 1953 has brought the revolution in the field of Biotechnology. The same echo is coming from the well developed Indus Valley Civilization. The pictographic symbols on the seals are cytological models for teaching; they explore the cellular genetic evolution on the earth with genetic recombination.
Judith Miller’s Comeback
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
The disgraced reporter's memoir: 400 pages of dogs eating 400 pages of homework. I'd say this will be a no-holds-barred review, but I promised myself I wouldn't compare this book to ‘Mein Kampf’ for at least 500 words. So it's not completely without restrictions.
Nuclear Realism
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
27 May 2015 - There’s a category of political intellectuals who proudly proclaim themselves “realists,” then proceed to defend and advance a deeply faith-based agenda that centers on the ongoing necessity to prepare for war, including nuclear war. These intellectuals, as they defend the military-industrial status quo (which often supports them financially), have made themselves the spokespersons for a deep human cancer: a soul cancer.
(Français) Palmyre : sous les palmiers, la rage
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Quand il s’agit du Moyen-Orient, les dirigeants politiques, les intellectuels autoproclamés et les militants européens, de gauche comme de droite, n’ont que faire des « musulmans » ou des « Arabes » de chair et de sang. Ce qui parvient à les mobiliser comme un seul homme, c’est la préservation du patrimoine antique et, surtout, anté-islamique et pré-arabe. « Leur » sang, « leurs » pierres, ils peuvent se les garder. Du moment qu’on ne touche pas à « notre » sang et à « nos » pierres.
The Pre-charge Punishment of Julian Assange
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
No charges, no trial, no ability to defend yourself ... don’t even have the right to documents, because you’re not even a defendant.” His skin is pale from years without sunlight, matching his prematurely white hair. But his resolve is unbroken, and the leaks he originally sought to publish when he founded WikiLeaks almost 10 years ago are still reaching the light of day.
House Arrest & Disobedience – A Review
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Although Grover is rooted in his own Indian culture there is a painful universality about the revelations in his poems. In every poem Grover writes he is holding up a mirror and asking us, the readers and his community, to dig inside our souls. That is the true role of poetry; Grover’s poems are true to the art. Book Launch: 13 June 2015, Poetry Café, Covent Garden London.
Laissez Faire Water Laws Threaten Family Farming in Chile
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
May 27 2015 - Family farmers in Chile are pushing for the reinstatement of water as a public good, to at least partially solve the shortages caused by the privatisation of water rights by the military dictatorship in 1981.
In Myanmar [Burma], Muslims Arrested for Joining Terror Group That Doesn’t Exist
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
The crackdown is part of a wave of anti-Muslim persecution in the Buddhist country, this time under the cover of the U.S. war on terror.
The Escalation of Global Financial Parasitism
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
The rise in stock markets expresses not the health, but rather the deepening sickness, of the global economic order. The imposition of financial dictatorship is not a hypothetical issue—it has already been implemented in Greece, impoverishing millions of people.
Our Dogs Can Read Our Minds: The New Neuroscience of Animal Brains and Understanding
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Understanding emotion in others is basic to survival, grounded in evolution. Animals have the skill just as we do.
World’s First Ocean System Targeting Plastic Pollution to Launch in 2016
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
29 May 2015 - The world's first system designed to rid the oceans of plastic pollution will be deployed near Japan in 2016, with the aim of eventually capturing half of the plastic found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a large concentration of marine debris located between Hawaii and California.
Pave Paradise, Put Up a Naval Base: South Korean Activists’ Extraordinary Struggle to Save Jeju Island
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
After a long journey to cross the DMZ from North to South Korea with a group of 30 peace women, some of us -- including Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire and retired Colonel Ann Wright -- stopped on Jeju Island and fell in love with this community of farmers, fisherpeople, city officials, small shop owners, florists, artists, poets, students and grandmothers.
Emails Reveal Dairy Lobbyist Crafted “Ag-Gag” Legislation Outlawing Pictures of Farms
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
28 May 2015 - Across the country, legislatures are responding to whistleblowers and activists who have exposed inhumane and at times unsanitary practices at farms by passing laws that criminalize the taking of photos or videos at agricultural facilities... But the groundwork was laid by Dan Steenson, a registered lobbyist for the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, a trade group for the industry.
Yes to Development, No to Environmental Degradation
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
The emphasis of India today is on economic growth and development. Mahatma Gandhi often said, “Nature produces enough for peoples’ needs but not for their greed; characteristic aspect of modern civilization is an indefinite multiplicity of wants”, etc. Thus, let us have development and create jobs but not at the expense of our environment and biodiversity.
The Olive Jar
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
A merchant in 8th century Baghdad went on a long trip to the orient.
Leaked Internal Documents Show U.N. Ignored CAR Child Abuse
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
May 29 2015 - Leaked United Nations documents show high-level staff knew of abuses by soldiers in the Central African Republic and failed to act, all while planning the removal of U.N. whistleblower Anders Kompass.
A Warning against Kaplan’s Argument That “It’s Time to Bring Imperialism Back to the Middle East”
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Rather, help them create a Caliphate with the best qualities of its Ottoman predecessor: tolerance, minority millets, even potentially bridging the Sunni-Shia gap. Use military peacekeeping to protect, defensively, exposed and threatened minorities. Negotiate space for Israel. But do not get lost in sterile military power rivalries; already lost by the USA.
The Map on the Wall
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
History shows us that there are (at least) two kinds of peace agreements. One kind, the stupid one, is based on power. The other, the intelligent, is based on common interest. The most notorious of the first kind is the Treaty of Versailles that followed World War I.
US Kneejerk Support for Israeli Nukes Torpedoes UN Disarmament Talks
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
24 May 2015 - After four weeks of negotiations, a revised UN treaty on nuclear disarmament has been torpedoed by the US. In running interference for Israel’s estimated 400 warheads, the US has made the world a more dangerous place. Guess which country has requested further meetings at the UN in hopes of reviving the revised NPT? Iran.
Women Peace Activists Cross North-South Korea Border
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
May 23, 2015 - Group of 30 women cross heavily militarised DMZ by bus after being denied by authorities to walk across the border.
Non-Proliferation Treaty: Nuclear Weapons and Tension Areas
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
A major difficulty of moving to good-faith negotiations on a Middle East Nuclear-weapon Free Zone is the absence of a regional organization involving all States in the wider region. I believe that there is an urgent need to take steps toward creating a broad security and cooperation zone which has conflict resolution, arms control, human rights, and economic cooperation dimensions.
Vincent – Starry Starry Night (Music Video of the Week)
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch post-Impressionist painter who had syphilis and was believed to have mental problems; he committed suicide on July 29, 1890. With this beautiful song Don McLean pays a tribute to the marvel and wonder Vincent left behind, notable for its rough beauty, emotional honesty and bold color – a contradiction to his troubled existence.
INSURGE’s Pentagon-Gulf States-Turkey-ISIS Axis Report Makes National Headlines in Germany
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
28 May 20125 - Last week, my crowdfunded investigative journalism project, INSURGEintelligence, was able to break into the mainstream a story about startling assertions contained in a just released declassified Pentagon intelligence report, confirming that the West, the Gulf states and Turkey had, essentially, created ISIS through their support for Islamist militant rebels in Syria.
The Militarization of Development Aid
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
How War Makes USAID a Dirty Word - Most of the initial criticism focused on [new head of USAID] Gayle Smith’s close relationships with various African despots and her belief that aid is the vehicle for obtaining foreign policy concessions. Humanitarian aid must not bear hidden agendas, and accepting assistance should not come at the cost of cowing to imperialism.
Rotten Science: How We Got Duped by Fake Chocolate Science
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
On Retraction Watch, a site dedicated to tracking scientific papers that are retracted, newly debunked studies are piling up. The reason we keep getting duped is that science isn’t just science anymore. It’s Big Business. And it’s time we start thinking about it that way because, as in any big industry, there are some disturbing things going on that most people outside of scientific circles don’t know about — but should. After all, these missteps affect our lives.
In France, Post-Charlie Debate Hits a New Level of Vitriol
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
The marches were an act of “domination” and a warning to marginalized members of society to stay in line. They were the act of a deeply insecure elite reclaiming as “its highest priority the right to spit on the religion of the weak.” All the talk of freedom of expression, Mr. Todd concludes, was a “sham.”
What It Was Like to Glimpse John Nash’s Beautiful Mind
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Nash taught me that even geniuses need other people to correct their thinking and vet their ideas (as he had done in interacting with Von Neumann). Most importantly, however, Nash taught me that anyone's mind can be beautiful if it focuses on producing beautiful ideas.
Correlating a Requisite Diversity of Metaphorical Patterns
June 1, 2015 5:00 AM
Entuning the Dynamic of Cognitive Eases and Diseases - This is an exploration of a methodological possibility of dynamically interweaving disparate threads which might thereby offer integrative insight.

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