04w37:1 No School and Zell Miller Posted September 6th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 37 number 1 (no school and zell miller) ——————————————————————— Against School | John Taylor Gatto http://www.spinninglobe.net/againstschool.htm “I taught for thirty years in some of the worst schools in Manhattan, and in some of the best, and during that time I became an expert in boredom. Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as I often did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were every bit as bored as they were. […]After a long life, and thirty years in the public school trenches, I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress our genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.” Article Date: Sept 2003 Sen. Zill Miller Interview | Chris Matthews & Zell Miller http://tinyurl.com/42lsd This is the interview everyone is talking about; the actual challenge occurs at a bout 06.39. Requires Windows Media Player 9 (available here for OS X) and good bandwidth. —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself to this list, go here http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Monday 06 September 2004 @ 9:01 PM
04w36:2 Posted September 2nd, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 36 number 2 Note: anyone still using tim@instantcoffee.org as my email address, please note that this address is dead dead, and that the reply-to for this email can be used instead. – Timothy——————————————————————— Hell looks an awful lot like the Republican convention | John Doyle http://tinyurl.com/5z3cu “Tuesday evening it was Arnold Schwarzenegger telling implausible stories about the Soviet menace in the Austria of his boyhood, and extolling the United States as if it was the only country with jobs, business opportunity and freedom of the press. Austria is now a member country of the European Union, with better guarantees on health care and wages than any state in America. Nobody mentioned that. Then came the Bush twins. The twins were on-stage, giggling and making a joke of their wealth, ignorance and indolence. On Wednesday morning, when MSNBC reviewed the twins’ appearance, a gossip columnist from a New York paper was interviewed about their fabulous partying. You could feel the envy in the attitude of the reporters. Next came their mom, Laura Bush. To underline the success of her husband’s policies, she cited ‘the only woman to own a tow-truck company in all of Iowa.’ Lady, women all over the world have been owning and running businesses for decades. Your country is no beacon of hope in that regard. Not that anyone among the TV reporters and analysts was going to say that.” Twin Terrors | Julia Turner http://www.slate.com/id/2106067/ “Sure, the girls threw in some praise for their dad. But mostly, they congratulated themselves on their momentous decision to campaign for him. ‘Jenna and I are NOT very political,’ Barbara said, with the odd bursts of emphasis that she and Jenna employed throughout the night. ‘But we love our dad TOO much to stand back and watch from the sidelines.’ […] To be fair, the twins almost certainly didn’t write this dreck. And the material they were given was unusually difficult: What kind of speechwriter, assigned to come up with something for two novices to deliver on live television, writes a joke-laden address that requires the comedic timing of a late-night talk show host? ” [answer:Karen Hughes]-TC —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself to this list, go here http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Thursday 02 September 2004 @ 2:46 PM
04w35:1 Posted August 26th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 35 number 1 ——————————————————————— Only the jester speaks the truth | Vinay Menon http://tinyurl.com/6x9ct “Jon Stewart claims he’s a fake newsman. But these days, his impact on politics and media is undeniably real. […] During a May appearance on Fox News Channel, the bombastic Sean Hannity asked Stewart, ‘Are you liberal or conservative or do you even care?’ Stewart: ‘I don’t care. I mean, I’m not even sure if those paradigms hold true any more.’ Or, as Stewart told Entertainment Weekly last year, ‘The point of view of this show is we’re passionately opposed to bullshit.’ In this age of spin and stupidity, where politicians and their pliable cheerleaders are the merchants of bullshit, his attitude explains why The Daily Show has become must-see TV.” Fuck New York | in8.com http://in8.com/fucknewyork/Resources/fucknewyork.mov Translating it for the kids – Quicktime MOV 9.12MB —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself to this list, go here http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Thursday 26 August 2004 @ 9:59 PM
04w29:2 The Kooky Bush Administration Posted July 13th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 29 number 2 (the kooky Bush administration) ——————————————————————— Sometimes I Hate To Be Right | Mark Federman http://tinyurl.com/3nm5b “Last fall, I gave an interview to Voices Without Votes 2004 in which I speculated about the possibility of the Bush Administration delaying the election. […] A frightening prospect indeed, especially when CNN and Reuters are reporting today that the Bush Administration is investigating ways to ‘obtain the authority to delay the November presidential election in case of an attack by al Qaeda.'” Let Them Eat Wedding Cake | Barbara Ehrenreich http://tinyurl.com/3j3ng “[The Bush administration has] been avidly promoting marriage among poor women – the straight ones anyway. […] It is equally unclear how marriage will cure poor women’s No. 1 problem, which is poverty – unless, of course, the plan is to draft C.E.O.’s to marry recipients of T.A.N.F. (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). Left to themselves, most women end up marrying men of the same social class as their own, meaning – in the case of poverty-stricken women – blue-collar men. But that demographic group has seen a tragic decline in earnings in the last couple of decades.” Bush plans to screen whole US population for mental illness | Jeanne Lenzer http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7454/1458 “While some praise the plan’s goals, others say it protects the profits of drug companies at the expense of the public. Bush established the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in April 2002 to conduct a ‘comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system.’ […] Bush instructed more than 25 federal agencies to develop an implementation plan based on those recommendations. The president’s commission found that ‘despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed’ and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for ‘consumers of all ages,’ including preschool children. According to the commission, ‘Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders.’ Schools, wrote the commission, are in a ‘key position’ to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools. The commission also recommended ‘Linkage [of screening] with treatment and supports’ including ‘state-of-the-art treatments’ using ‘specific medications for specific conditions.’ The commission commended the Texas Medication Algorithm Project (TMAP) as a ‘model’ medication treatment plan that ‘illustrates an evidence-based practice that results in better consumer outcomes.” —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself to this list, email subscribe@goodreads.ca http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Tuesday 13 July 2004 @ 3:52 PM
04w26:1 The Canadian Election Posted June 22nd, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 26 number 1 (the canadian election) ——————————————————————— Outdated democracy: We vote, they rule | Don Tapscott http://tinyurl.com/2l79x “Our country’s governing model is best described as broadcast democracy. Politicians broadcast to us — initially in campaigns — through ads and TV sound bites. We get to vote. Then they broadcast to us for four more years and we get to do it again. There is no real engagement in the important decisions that affect our lives. This division of labour — we vote, they rule –dates back to Confederation. Our ancestors didn’t have the education, time, resources or communication tools to participate in the governing process. The system worked only because public-policy issues were simple and evolved at a horse-and-buggy pace. No more. Many unforeseen issues arise between elections, and it’s not credible for the government to assert that it has a voter mandate to take specific action. Moreover, governments lack sufficient in-house policy expertise on many issues. So even if a government commissions an opinion poll to discern the public’s view, the polling process doesn’t tap into the wisdom and insight that a nation’s citizens can collectively offer. With technologies such as the Internet, we can resurrect Pierre Trudeau’s vision of ‘participatory democracy,’ but this time, actually make it happen. Citizens could become involved, learning from each other, taking responsibility for their communities and country, learning from and influencing elected officials and vice versa. “ Grow up and Vote | Globe and Mail Editorial http://tinyurl.com/2mqun “Why? Some observers say political parties aren’t addressing the issues that young people care about. Others say the young find today’s politics too partisan. Still others say the domination of one or two big parties is alienating the young, and suggest a new voting system to help smaller parties. But there’s another possibility. Perhaps young people are simply too self-absorbed to bother. […] The options for voters in this election are so varied they make the head spin. On the left, the NDP’s fresh, vigorous new leader, Jack Layton, threatens to slap an inheritance tax on the rich. On the right, the brainy new leader of the united right wants to reduce taxes to U.S. levels and below. For environmentalists, the relaunched Green Party promises to decriminalize industrial hemp production and ban the export of raw logs. For those who like things as they are, the Liberals vow to stay the course. If you live in Quebec, you can even vote for a party that wants to break up the country. […] All excuses aside, there is simply no good reason for young people like him to stand on the sidelines during election time. Their stake in who governs the country after June 28 is as great as that of any other group of Canadians, and their duty as citizens no less. Rather than strike a pose of aloof detachment, Mr. Powell should grow up, get with it and get out to vote. “ Fuck the Vote | kube http://www.sophists.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=291 “You could argue that the act of casting your vote means that you have voiced your opinion and that voting is a mode of expression. My argument is that a ballot is a weak form of expression. Who sees that opinion? No one knows who I voted for unless I tell them. It’s dropped in a sealed box. It’s just another tally mark in the end. I can voice/speak my opinion on a website and have thousands of people view it in a single day. “ Better days ahead | Garnet Fraser http://tinyurl.com/yt2u9 “You might have noticed a certain demographic trend in your crowds on the campaign trail: A lot more hearing aids than iPods, more walkers than nose rings. That Canadians under 30 don’t vote is common knowledge: Only a quarter of eligible voters under 25 bothered in 2000, and less than 40 per cent of those 25 to 29. Yet youthful vigour and excitement is the image each of you strives to project and surround himself with. Despite your best efforts to remain hip to the kids, here’s the bad news: They’re pretty sure they don’t need you.” —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself to this list, email subscribe@goodreads.ca http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Tuesday 22 June 2004 @ 4:10 PM
04w20:1 Jan Herman's 'Straight Up' Posted May 9th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 20 number 1 ( Jan Herman’s “Straight Up”) Jan Herman’s blog, Straight Up, is this selections good read. Below are links to specific entries which caught my attention, but I’m sure you’ll be prompted to browse and find things on your own. – Tim ——————————————————————— ACCUSED OF TREASON, BUT KEEP IT UP | Jan Herman http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/archives20040501.shtml#77960 WHAT LANGUAGE ARE WE SPEAKING? | Jan Herman http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/archives20040401.shtml#76539 “Which reminds me. Have you heard of the NO-CARB Diet for 2004?” DISSING FLUXUS | Jan Herman http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/archives20040401.shtml#76759 EQUATIONS AND RELATIONS | Jan Herman http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/archives20040401.shtml#77335 —————————————- http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com To remove or add yourself from this list, email subscribe@goodreads.ca emailed by Timothy on Sunday 09 May 2004 @ 10:53 PM
04w18:3 Einstein vs. Asian Boys Posted April 27th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 18 number 3 (Einstein vs. Asian Boys) ——————————————————————— From Companion’s Lost Diary, a Portrait of Einstein in Old Age | Dennis Overbye http://tinyurl.com/ys8vy “Around Princeton she was known as Einstein’s last girlfriend. She cut his hair — shocking as it might be to imagine anyone tampering with that wispy cosmic aureole. They sailed together until the doctors took his boat away. They went to concerts together. He wrote her poems and letters bedecked with jokes and kisses. And he called her several times a week to chat about the day.” NOTE:NYT articles are usually only available for a week, so read this soon if you want to catch it before it gets archived, when it becomes for sale. A Dangerous Surplus of Sons? | David Glenn http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i34/34a01401.htm “In a new book, Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population (MIT Press), Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. den Boer warn that the spread of sex selection is giving rise to a generation of restless young men who will not find mates. History, biology, and sociology all suggest that these ‘surplus males’ will generate high levels of crime and social disorder, the authors say. Even worse, they continue, is the possibility that the governments of India and China will build up huge armies in order to provide a safety valve for the young men’s aggressive energies.’In 2020 it may seem to China that it would be worth it to have a very bloody battle in which a lot of their young men could die in some glorious cause,’ says Ms. Hudson, a professor of political science at Brigham Young University.” —————————————- Long links made short by using TinyURL (http://www.tinyurl.com) To remove or add yourself from this list, email tim@goodreads.ca http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com emailed by Timothy on Tuesday 27 April 2004 @ 4:42 PM
04w13:2 Nipples Posted March 25th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 13 number 2 (nipples) ——————————————————————— Lennon art trial secrets revealed | BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3561607.stm “The newly-released papers show the initial warrant was issued under the Obscene Publications Act. And a letter from prosecuting counsel Kenneth Horn suggests a prosecution under this act would have a good chance of success. […] But the file also preserves a letter from artist PFC Fuller of Maidstone, Kent, warning of the potential impact of a guilty verdict. […] The artist even warns that the monarch could end up being prosecuted if such a precedent was set: ‘I understand that HM the Queen has some highly erotic work by Fragonard.’ ” Transatlantic cleavage | The Economist http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2405081 “This seems odd to Britons, whose smaller broadcast channels keep themselves afloat on a sea of smut. Not only tabloid newspapers, but also the Times and even the Daily Telegraph (average age of reader 55) showed the star’s spangled nipple, waving joyfully in the wind. Why the difference? Maybe because secular Britons are no longer shockable, while Americans have clung to their religion and associated puritanism. But the difference does not seem to be one of demand. Miss Jackson’s breast topped internet search subjects after the incident was reported. The structure of the media market seems a likelier explanation. Britain has ten competing national newspapers. Sensationalism jostles with pornography in the pages of the tabloids; softer versions of both infect the broadsheets. America’s papers, which tend to be local near-monopolies, can afford a loftier attitude. Newspapers set the tone for television, and the regulators’ attitudes. ” Verrocchio in Washington | Charles T. Downey http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_ionarts_archive.html#107990382323128583 “A fourth famous statue of David, by Andrea di Michele Cione (known by the nickname Verrocchio, c. 1435 – 1488), was cast in bronze around 1466. About 47-1/4 inches tall, this statue is now in the collection of the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, in Florence, but for the past several months it has made an unusual tour outside of Italy, for the first time since a trip to the United States in 1939 and 1940. It was on exhibit at the High Museum of Art, in Atlanta, Georgia, from November 18, 2003, to February 8, 2004 (their Web feature on the sculpture is remarkably well done and very informative: if it is kept online, I will assign it to my Humanities students next year); […] On a completely different note, could the attire of Verrocchio’s David (see detail at right) have been the inspiration for Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl?” —————————————- http://goodreads.timothycomeau.com To remove or add yourself from this list, email tim@goodreads.ca emailed by Timothy on Thursday 25 March 2004 @ 1:11 AM
04w11:1 Patrick Moore vs. Vandana Shiva Posted March 7th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 11 number 1 (Patrick Moore vs. Vandana Shiva) ——————————————————————— Eco-Traitor | Drake Bennett http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/moore_pr.html “Patrick Moore has been called a sellout, traitor, parasite, and prostitute […] Moore helped found Greenpeace and devoted 15 years to waging the organization’s flamboyant brand of environmental warfare. […] He derides today’s activists as philosophically unmoored and blindly technophobic, and he offers an alternative philosophy that not only accepts but celebrates humankind’s growing ability to alter the planet. […] ‘As I like to say, maybe it’s time to figure out what the solutions are, rather than just focusing on problems.’ […] When I understood sustainable development,’ he recalls, ‘I realized that the challenge was to take these new environmental values that we had forged and incorporate them into the traditional social and economic values that drive public policy. In other words, it was a job of synthesis.’ ” Battle for Biotech Progress | Patrick Moore http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.17889/article_detail.asp “The campaign of fear now waged against genetic modification is based largely on fantasy and a complete lack of respect for science and logic. In the balance it is clear that the real benefits of genetic modification far outweigh the hypothetical and sometimes contrived risks claimed by its detractors. […] For six years, anti-biotech activists managed to prevent the introduction of G.M. crops in India. This was largely the work of Vandana Shiva, the Oxford-educated daughter of a wealthy Indian family, who has campaigned relentlessly to ‘protect’ poor farmers from the ravages of multinational seed companies. In 2002, she was given the Hero of the Planet award by Time magazine for ‘defending traditional agricultural practices.’ Read: poverty and ignorance. It looked like Shiva would win the G.M. debate until 2001, when unknown persons illegally planted 25,000 acres of Bt cotton in Gujarat. The cotton bollworm infestation was particularly bad that year, and there was soon a 25,000 acre plot of beautiful green cotton in a sea of brown. The local authorities were notified and decided that the illegal cotton must be burned. This was too much for the farmers, who could now clearly see the benefits of the Bt variety. In a classic march to city hall with pitchforks in hand, the farmers protested and won the day. Bt cotton was approved for planting in March 2002. One hopes the poverty-stricken cotton farmers of India will become wealthier and deprive Vandana Shiva of her parasitical practice. ” Poverty & Globalisation | Vandana Shiva http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_2000/lecture5.stm “Who feeds the world? My answer is very different to that given by most people. It is women and small farmers working with biodiversity who are the primary food providers in the Third World, and contrary to the dominant assumption, their biodiversity based small farms are more productive than industrial monocultures. This deliberate blindness to diversity, the blindness to nature’s production, production by women, production by Third World farmers allows destruction and appropriation to be projected as creation. Take the case of the much flouted ‘golden rice’ or genetically engineered Vitamin A rice as a cure for blindness. It is assumed that without genetic engineering we cannot remove Vitamin A deficiency. However, nature gives us abundant and diverse sources of vitamin A. If rice was not polished, rice itself would provide Vitamin A. If herbicides were not sprayed on our wheat fields, we would have bathua, amaranth, mustard leaves as delicious and nutritious greens that provide Vitamin A. The devaluation and invisibility of sustainable, regenerative production is most glaring in the area of food. While patriarchal division of labour has assigned women the role of feeding their families and communities, patriarchal economics and patriarchal views of science and technology magically make women’s work in providing food disappear. ‘Feeding the World’ becomes disassociated from the women who actually do it and is projected as dependent on global agribusiness and biotechnology corporations. ” —————————————- http://www.instantcoffee.org/tim/goodreads To remove or add yourself from this list, email tim@instantcoffee.org emailed by Timothy on Sunday 07 March 2004 @ 12:48 PM
04w02:1 Goodreads Mailing List Posted January 13th, 2004 by timothy. 0 Comments Good Reads Mailing List | 2004 week 2 number 2 Hello, I am beginning an email list of some of the more interesting articles I have found on the net. I will send the links to new articles to this list. As someone who has made it into my address book for some reason, you are on this list. ——————————————————————— The first selections are: Forgery and Plagiarism | Denis Dutton http://www.denisdutton.com/forgery_and_plagiarism.htm What will happen when a national political machine can fit on a laptop? A: See below http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58554-2003Dec12?language=printer “Back in 1937, an economist named Ronald Coase realized something that helped explain the rise of modern corporations — and which just might explain the coming decline of the American two-party political system. Coase’s insight was this: The cost of gathering information determines the size of organizations. It sounds abstract, but in the past it meant that complex tasks undertaken on vast scales required organizational behemoths…” Past articles I have found are archived at http://www.instantcoffee.org/tim/goodreads To remove yourself from this list, click and send tim@instantcoffee.org —————————————- http://www.instantcoffee.org/tim/goodreads To remove yourself from this list, click and send tim@instantcoffee.org emailed by Timothy on Tuesday 13 January 2004 @ 10:15 PM
