The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Donal's picture

    Green Stuff

    By Donal on Wed, 11/16/2011 - 10:38pm | Technology


     
    I found a blog called Triple Pundit - People, Planet, Profit - which purports to discuss sustainable business practices. As a reflection of the difficulty of practicing both sustainability and profitability, some articles impress me and some depress me.
     
    After attending a presentation by BMW’s Manuel Sattig at Opportunity Green 2011, a guest author rethinks some reservations TriplePundit has expressed about other EVs in The BMW i3: Advancing Automotive Sustainability: 

    Topics: 
    Technology
    Michael Wolraich's picture

    The Trouble with Banks

    By Michael Wolraich on Wed, 11/16/2011 - 8:18pm | Business

    It's hard out there for a bank. Last year, retail banks lost a major revenue source when the government regulated overdraft charges. This year, they took another hit when the government capped the debit card fees. And amidst an anemic credit market, they're having trouble finding investment opportunities for their deposits.

    Topics: 
    Business
    Ramona's picture

    Eyes on the Prize, Occupiers. The 99-Percenters are counting on you.

    By Ramona on Tue, 11/15/2011 - 8:29pm | Politics, Social Justice
     

     For a couple of months now, we on the left have been marking the heady, exhilarating, organic spread of the Occupy Wall Street Movement and getting it that something unstoppable seems to be happening.  Think of it: The dedication, the precision, the impossible successes coming from a movement organized by ordinary hoi polloi.  No backing by agenda-driven billionaires, no pseudo-intellectual input from think-tanks, no take-over by shady cabals.  It's the stuff of miracles.  

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Social Justice
    Michael Wolraich's picture

    Racism in Paradise

    By Michael Wolraich on Tue, 11/15/2011 - 1:41pm | Social Justice

    Yesterday,  I received an email from Adam Falk, president of Williams College, a liberal arts college in western Massachusetts. Mr. Falk had written to inform me--and every other alumnus on the mailing list--about an incident of racist hate speech on campus. Someone had scrawled, "All N****** Must Die," on a dormitory wall.

    Topics: 
    Social Justice
    Donal's picture

    Fuel me twice

    By Donal on Mon, 11/14/2011 - 10:06pm | Technology

     
    In 2007, Time Magazine dubbed the Prius design team, Heroes of the Environment. By contrast, I recently posted a Mother Jones news item about the dirty secret that making hybrids, EVs and a lot of other gizmos requires rare earths that are about as nasty to refine as tar sands. 
     
    Over at TTAC, Bertel Schmitt first interviewed the leader of that team, Toyota Chief Engineer Ogiso Satoshi (in the center, above) about the effort that led to the Prius: 
     
    “Look, when we started the Prius project in 1993, we did not even think of a hybrid system for the Prius. We did not set out to build a hybrid. We studied what was needed for the 21st century, and two things were certain: The need to protect the environment, and the need to bring consumption down. That’s all we knew, and you did not need to be a clairvoyant to know it.”
    Topics: 
    Technology
    Michael Maiello's picture

    The Rorschach Of The New York Times

    By Michael Maiello on Mon, 11/14/2011 - 5:53pm | Politics

    In The Watchmen graphic novel, the vigilante hero Rorschach is inspired by news of the real-life murder of Kitty Genovese, which occurred in public, while the residents of outer Queens neighborhood Kew Gardens watched from their apartment windows.  Nobody went out to the street to help her or called the police.  Some say nobody heard her screams for help, some say it's an example of the bystander's syndrome -- we tend to walk past the unpleasant.  Driven by a total lac

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Michael Maiello's picture

    Brooks vs. Destor23, A Smackdown

    By Michael Maiello on Fri, 11/11/2011 - 11:55am | Politics

    The Inequality Map, a Rebuttal

    David Brooks vs. Destor23

    DB: Foreign tourists are coming up to me on the streets and asking, “David, you have so many different kinds of inequality in your country. How can I tell which are socially acceptable and which are not?”

    D23:  There is no way this has actually happened to you.  Try again.

    DB: This is an excellent question. I will provide you with a guide to the American inequality map to help you avoid embarrassment.

    Topics: 
    Politics
    Donal's picture

    In Loco Parentis

    By Donal on Fri, 11/11/2011 - 10:23am | Personal

    When it rains, it pours. I attended and graduated from GP in the 1970s:

    Former priest put on probation for fondling two Georgetown Prep students

    A former priest was sentenced to five years of supervised probation Thursday for fondling two students at Georgetown Preparatory School, where he taught from 1989 to 2003, as prosecutors compared the school’s initial response in the case to the scandal unfolding at Penn State University.
    Topics: 
    Personal
    Ramona's picture

    A Simple Plea: Do Not Lay Hands Upon Our Children

    By Ramona on Thu, 11/10/2011 - 1:47pm | Social Justice
     

    Every hour of every day, children in our keep are being harmed.  Throughout the history of the world, adults have used their size and their physical and psychological power as weapons against our most precious assets--our children.

    Hurting them is not accidental, it's the goal, but all it takes to muddy the waters is the argument about degree.  Is spanking abuse?  Is yelling?  Is fondling?  If there are no cuts and bruises how bad is it, really?

    In the past few weeks the stories have been coming at us, fast and furious.

    Topics: 
    Social Justice

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