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For the Global Thinker

Friday, December 25, 2009

The Christmas Truce of 1914




..."At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man's-land, calling out "Merry Christmas" in their enemies' native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but...."
Read more at:

http://www.history.com/content/christmas/christmas-truce-of-1914

Thursday, December 24, 2009

World's Most Useless Facts




Did you that earthworms have five hearts? That a blink lasts approximately 0.3 seconds? That Cleopatra married two of her brothers? There are millions of incredibly strange facts you may not know, and you probably don't really need to know, but might be interested in learning anyway.
Check out a slideshow of useless facts:

http://wcbstv.com/slideshows/bizarre.facts.20.1164266.html

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Experience: I fell 6,000 feet and survived


James Boole: Fell 6,000ft and lived to tell the tale.

Excerpt: "Quite suddenly, I realised I could see the texture of the snow and ice, meaning I had two or three seconds before I hit the ground. I can't have been more than 20 metres up. Terror gripped my heart and stomach, the darkest of darkness. Then I had a clear thought of my wife and three-month-old daughter, and was overwhelmed by sadness as I felt the..."
Read more here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/dec/19/fell-6000-feet-survived

Monday, December 21, 2009

In praise of hybridity Globalization and the modern western paradigm


The division of the world into "the West and the rest" is a misrepresentation, writes Ales Debeljak. Cultural globalization is not the transplantation of western ideas and technologies across the planet, but the adaptation of these according to local requirements. Hybridity, the product of a longue durée, is at the heart of the contemporary western paradigm.

http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2009-11-23-debeljak-en.html

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Excerpt:

In North Korea at the time, girls weren’t supposed to ride bicycles. There was a social stigma—people thought it unsightly and sexually suggestive—and periodically the Workers’ Party would issue formal edicts, making it technically illegal. Mi-ran ignored the rules. From the time she was eleven years old she would set out on the family’s only bicycle, a used Japanese model, on the road to Ch’ongjin. She needed to get away from her little village, to go anywhere at all. It was an arduous ride for a child, about three hours, uphill mostly, on an unpaved road. Men cursed her for her audacity—“You’ll tear your cunt!”—and teenage boys would try to knock her off the bicycle. Mi-ran screamed back, matching obscenity with obscenity, and she kept pedaling.

Read more here:

http://www.theparisreview.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5950

Thursday, December 10, 2009

The Funniest Facebook Mistakes of All Time


Ever complained about your boss to your boss? Told your son you're getting divorced through a wall post? Lied about your grandma dying only to be called out by your own electronic trail? If not, you're lucky and you're obviously not using Facebook enough.

Check out more here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/08/the-funniest-facebook-sna_n_383847.html

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Negotiators at Climate Talks Face Deep Set of Fault Lines




Divisions that will make an agreement difficult include rich versus poor nations, carbon taxers versus carbon traders, and areas of Europe versus others.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/weekinreview/06zeller.html?ref=global-home

Thursday, November 26, 2009

How did we get here? Evolution Vs. Intelligent Design


The famous "pillars of creation" as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Photo: National Geographic.



On the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, an intelligent design advocate and an evolutionist weigh in on six natural wonders often cited as evidence against Darwin's theory.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/photogalleries/091123-origin-species-darwin-150-intelligent-design/index.html

Shattering Canada's collective myths


Peacekeepers give way to warriors in Afghanistan, and a nation open to immigration becomes one that bans permanent residents.


http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/canada/091124/goodbye-peacekeepers-and-permanent-residents

Friday, November 20, 2009

"Human Fat" Killers arrested in Peru




Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8369674.stm

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Is Asia Racist?


When the biracial U.S. President Barack Obama visits South Korea tomorrow, he will be visiting a country grappling with its prejudices about race.

South Korea:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/11/17/the_president_the_professor_and_the_wide_receiver

Japan:
An independent investigator for the UN says racism in Japan is deep and profound, and the government does not recognise the depth of the problem.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4671687.stm

China:
''Chinese students do not like most African students,'' a young Chinese man, an electronics student at Beijing University, said with typical bluntness. ''The Africans usually are not high quality people. They have a bad attitude, and they do bad things.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/30/world/black-africa-leaves-china-in-quandary.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

Thailand:
Don't think you could ever play this commercial in most countries..anyway..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2EE6Uil40





Saturday, November 14, 2009

EDWARD BURTYNSKY: OIL



Edward Burtynsky has traveled internationally to chronicle the production, distribution, and use of the most critical fuel of our time. In addition to revealing the rarely-seen mechanics of its manufacture, Burtynsky captures the effects of oil on our lives, depicting landscapes altered by its extraction from the earth, and by the cities and suburban sprawl generated around its use. He also addresses the coming "end of oil," as we confront its rising cost and dwindling availability.

Edward Burtynsky: Oil is the definitive photographic documentation of this hotly debated subject.”
- Paul Roth, Senior Curator of Photography, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

SEE THE GALLERY BELOW:

http://www.corcoran.org/exhibitions/press_burtynsky/

Sunday, November 8, 2009

You are being lied to about Somali Pirates


In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Photographs of the Afghan War



For the past seven years, David Guttenfelder has witnessed and documented the changing landscape of Afghanistan. Although mostly embedded with coalition troops, he has also covered the presidential elections, bodybuilders in Kabul, the state of Afghan prisons and daily life in the country. Guttenfelder is the chief Asia photographer for The Associated Press and over the past seven years has offered the general public a close-up, intimate look at the lives of troops fighting in the mountains and remote regions of Afghanistan.
http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2009/10/30/photographer-collection-david-guttenfelder-in-afghanistan/

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Divided Soul


David Allen Harvey talks about his new photography book...Divided Soul...photos of Cuba, Brazil and Mexico......


"Passion. It is all about the passion. But the sensuality on the surface often masks a political undercurrent and a reckoning with history. A microcosm of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism, abandoned or overthrown, remains - but modified, altered and skewed. A 'New World' 'discovered' and exploited. And the consequence is hybrid people with an independent spirit, without independent means. So the music takes over. Insignificant moments become treasures. Sky, music and time blend, creating an acceptance - a peace. The influences of the Iberian peninsula are eventually modified or nullified by indigenous spiritualism and the African tribal drum. ....

Read more and check out the photos at:

Six Ideas for Re-thinking the War in Mexico



Excerpt:

"In Juarez soldiers are seen futilely strolling down the sunny streets. They are seen pulling over drivers because they aren't wearing their seatbelts. They have been seen making a U-turn over a traffic island in order to avoid confrontation with a convoy of narco vehicles.
One night in Juarez, I saw how the soldiers took shelter in a hotel, with explicit orders to do so, while narcos were shooting at each other in the street."


In English:



In Spanish:

Thursday, October 22, 2009

How TV Can Still Save The World




It's not Twitter or Facebook that's reinventing the planet. Eighty years after the first commercial broadcast crackled to life, television still rules our world. And let's hear it for the growing legions of couch potatoes: All those soap operas might be the ticket to a better future after all.

Read more here...

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Anti Corporation advertisements








We are a global network of artists, writers, and cultural dissidents who have joined forces to change the world. We want to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power and the way meaning is produced in society.

Check out....
https://www.adbusters.org/

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Mexican immigration....two stories.






For Mexicans seeking to cross the US border, it's not just about jobs anymoreNew surveys find the recession has reduced Mexican immigration, but that millions still want to come to the US – and some more for safety than for jobs.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0925/p06s13-woam.html



Most Mexicans See Better Life in U.S. – One-In-Three Would Migrate
http://pewglobal.org/



Sheriff Joe Arpaio: I don’t take orders from anybody.

Refusal by ‘America’s toughest sheriff’ to stop immigration sweeps fits into the career of a controversial populist.
http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/10/17/sheriff-joe-arpaio-i-dont-take-orders-from-anybody/


The 19th annual World Report


The 19th annual World Report summarizes human rights conditions in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. It reflects extensive investigative work undertaken in 2008 by Human Rights Watch staff, usually in close partnership with human rights activists in the country in question.

http://www.hrw.org/world-report-2009

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Is America ready to admit defeat in its 40-year war on drugs?


A wave of decriminalization sweeps South America

Excerpt:
At El Paso at the end of the month, experts from the US and Mexico will gather to take stock and thrash out alternatives. El Paso stands cheek by jowl with its twin city, Ciudad Juárez, across the Rio Grande. There, last Wednesday, the day after the Argentinian court ruling, cartel gunmen broke into the El Aliviane drug rehabilitation centre, lined 17 young people against a wall and cut them down with a fusillade of machine-gun fire. Troops last night captured the suspected killer, Jose Rodolfo Escajeda, considered one of the most brutal hitmen in Chihuahua and one of the leaders of the Juárez cartel. The executions, coming shortly after the killing of 40 people over three days in Juárez two weeks ago, take the death toll to about 1,400 this year, making it the most dangerous city in the world.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2009/sep/06/war-on-drugs-latin-america

Friday, October 16, 2009

Rape case to force US defence firms into the open


Another strike against Halliburton...it was only a few months ago in which they were convicted of bribery of Nigerian government officials and now this...

Senate passes measure prompted by case of woman prevented from suing over alleged rape by Halliburton/KBR colleagues

Excerpt:

In legal papers Jones, who was 20 at the time, says she was fed a knockout drug while drinking with KBR firefighters.

"When she awoke the next morning still affected by the drug, she found her body naked and severely bruised, with lacerations to her vagina and anus, blood running down her leg, her breast implants ruptured and her pectoral muscles torn‚ which would later require reconstructive surgery. Upon walking to the rest room, she passed out again," the papers say.

Read more at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/15/defence-contractors-rape-claim-block

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Rethink Afghanistan


http://rethinkafghanistan.com/videos.php

Rethink Afghanistan is a ground-breaking, full-length documentary focusing on the key issues surrounding this war. By releasing this film in parts for free online, we are able to stay on top of news of the war as it continues to unfold.

Many Cool How-to..Videos




Many cool bar tricks and other cool How To's like....


Here's the link:
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-open-a-beer-bottle-with-a-dollar-bill-201386/