Notes & Asides
By Lamont — March 15th, 2008
The Vatican has added seven modern mortal sins to the old list of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. According to Bloomberg News, Bishop Gianfranco Girotti says that the new sins, brought about by the phenomenon of …
By mejuan — February 28th, 2008
The Neoconservative Agenda to Sacrifice the Fifth Fleet – The New Pearl Harbor
by Michael Salla…
By Cultural Shifts, Daniel Tubb and Elui — February 26th, 2008
The Institute of Political Economy at Carleton University is holding its 9th annual graduate studies conference this week. In coming weeks, Cultural Shifts will be posting a selection of papers from the event.
If you are in Ottawa, Canada, and would like to attend, the conference …
By mejuan — February 18th, 2008
Taken for a Ride whose “point of view” is perfectly clear is a scenic tour of how General Motors, beginning in 1922, dismantled urban mass transit across the United States and made mobility contingent upon the gas engine. By buying up trolley systems through its …
By mejuan — February 13th, 2008
This passionate message was posted by “niggaz4ever” on fotolog.net (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
The posted item highlights the issue of Brazilian clear cutting for the production of beef.
In Spain there is little or no mention of this sort of news.
It’s 6 billion hectares!!! How …
By Matthew Lymburner — February 11th, 2008
Some political scientists and psychologists believe that there is a close relationship between the politics that we practice and our genetic makeup. While not entirely disregarding the “non-natural” world in the formation of our political values, they posit that genes may play an important …
By D. T. Cochrane — January 28th, 2008
Although it has been met with stiff resistance in its efforts to offer banking services in the US, Wal-Mart has succeeded in opening a bank in Mexico. It plans to open 80 more by the end of 2008. Located within their …
By Eliot Che — January 27th, 2008
There is a short animated documentary called Money as Debt worth checking out. The video, which goes through a brief history of monetary and banking systems, raises a number of questions that relate to the US subprime crisis, not to mention the global financial …
By D. T. Cochrane — January 25th, 2008
A trader with the French bank Société Générale has been implicated in fraud that cost the bank $7.3 billion. Knowledgeable of the various security mechanisms meant to prevent this sort of fraud, Jerome Kerviel was able to hide his transactions from controllers. It …
By mejuan — January 23rd, 2008
Obey Plagiarist Shepard Fairey: A critique by artist Mark Vallen.
The link above, in my opinion holds some powerful ideas that defeat any carcass counter debate to try to salvage the great ICON, Sheppard Fairey’s OBEY GIANT “reputation”.
Perhaps Obey’s humble beginnings with his sticker street …
By Lamont — January 18th, 2008
CTV is reporting that the Canadian government has added the United States to the list of countries that use torture as an interrogation technique. Canada added the US to the list, which also includes Iran and Syria, after the whole debacle with the extraordinary …
By Eliot Che — January 12th, 2008
The Financial Times is reporting that the US may lose it’s triple-A credit rating due to the nation’s rising healthcare and social security spending. The change would be the first since 1917.
Of course, FT goes on to contend that the triple-A rating doesn’t …
By Archie Techne — January 12th, 2008
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act does not apply to detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, “effectively ruling that the detainees are not persons at all for purposes of …
By Matthew Lymburner — January 10th, 2008
Phil Agee, the famous former CIA agent who defected some 40 years ago, died on Monday Jan. 7th in Havana at the age of 72. Phil gave wonderful insight into just what the agency was involved in throughout his time there, and carefully documented U.S-sponsored …
By Archie Techne — January 6th, 2008
Before modern, computerized techniques in image manipulation, Philippe Halsman shot this photograph of Salvador Dali suspended in mid-air. While today this image could easily be replicated in Photoshop, it wasn’t possible in 1948. Taking 28 attempts, it was over four hours before Halsman was …
