Monthly Archives: March 2004

A FEW LINES FROM CHARLES BARSOTTI

Readers of the New Yorker will know Charles Barsotti as the cartoonist with the one-liners on the psychaitrist’s couch, and the naive-but-wise sayings of his floppy-eared white puppy character. Barsotti is able to communicate volumes with a few words and … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 1 Comment

DISASTROUS US EMPLOYMENT REPORT FOR FEBRUARY

Even the pessimists didn’t expect the horrendous February employment report issued by the labour department today. Employment grew by an insignificant 21,000 people, compared to the increase in the labour force of 150,000, and the forecast just last month from … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works | 4 Comments

BLOGGING AS CONVERSATION: NO ECHO HERE

In his recent article in Salon, David Weinberger responds to suggestions that the blogosphere is an echo chamber: Cliques of like minds parroting each other and nodding virtually, cementing their unenlightened perpectives and ignoring different points of view. David makes … Continue reading

Posted in Using Weblogs and Technology | 7 Comments

SEX AND THE COUNTRY

There’s a clever new video out from NARAL. Take a look at it here. Then sign up for the April 25 March for Women’s Livesto protect women’s right to choose, and to have exclusive domain over their own bodies. Or … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works | 4 Comments

PUBLISHING YOUR OWN BOOK

The New York Times recently wrote a story about self-publishing, noting that it’s come a long way from the old, expensive, disreputable ‘vanity publishing’ scams of a few years ago. Some major publishing houses now have a stake in the … Continue reading

Posted in Our Culture / Ourselves | 6 Comments

THE POPULATION STRESS INDEX, AND SOME SOLUTIONS

In order to test Edward Hall’s hypothesis that population stress is the fundamental cause of human violence and war, I decided to see if there was a correlation between the state of civil unrest and the density and growth of … Continue reading

Posted in Collapse Watch | 18 Comments

THE VICIOUS CYCLE OF ILLIBERAL ‘DEMOCRACY’

In his book The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria argues that democracy cannot be imposed on countries that have no foundation of constitutional liberalism. Without such a foundation, he says, there are not sufficient self-imposed checks and balances to prevent … Continue reading

Posted in How the World Really Works | 1 Comment