quarry.html
Topicality: Latest
provocative topics in the news --- and much more!
"The
conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and
opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an
invisible government, which is the true ruling power of our country.
. . . We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed,
our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. . .
In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of
politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking,
we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons . . . who
understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It
is they who pull the wires which control the public mind. . ."
Edward
C. Bernays, Propaganda, 1928 This page represents the start, not
necessarily the end, of your search for a suitable topic.
If
you can not find an interesting topic below, suggest one of your own,
bearing in mind that we must discuss how you intend to develop your
topic. Remember: suitable topics require a quantifiable action
step. Also, remember that an effective strategic organization
considers the rule
of threes and benefits from appealing to the ethos,
pathos, and logos of the people in your audience. Consider
wikipedia as a
useful starting point for most topics, but please remember my caveat
that this resource is often bogus !
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Sullivan
for my favorite example.
Useful Topic Choices FOLLOW Research Tools
Research Tools
Views
from Other Cultures UNIVERSAL, CULTURAL, OR PERSONAL:
MAKING OBSERVATIONS
Jane’s Walk 2024 weekend is May 3rd, 4th, and 5th. During the weekend, the simple act of exploring the city is enhanced with personal observations, local history, and civic engagement. Jane’s Walk NYC encourages people to share stories about their neighborhoods, discover unseen aspects of their communities, and connect with visitors and neighbors alike. You can view photos from Jane’s Walk 2023 weekend on our Flickr page. Questions for the Jane’s Walk NYC team? Email janeswalknyc@mas.org.https://www.mas.org/janes-walk-nyc-2024/
Downtown is for People From The Exploding Metropolis (1958) by Jane Jacobs : http://innovationecosystem.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/63349251/DowntownisforPeople.pdf
http://worldtraining.net/Baluchis.html : Independence, anyone?
R U being gaslighted ?
Has Media Literacy Been Hijacked? March 19, 2019 By Nolan Higdon and Ben Boyington https://www.projectcensored.org/has-media-literacy-been-hijacked/
Useful Research Links an introduction for researching the internet.
Additional
useful research links
Managing
Your Online Research
Links for advertising and
marketing research, logos, branding, etc.
Alternative News Sources: Not Necessarily Better, But Different
Pronunciation
Guides for Proper Names and Technical
Terms
(mispronouncing a term may undermine your
credibility!)
North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns
Top Ten Lists of Almost Everything
14 Roots: Latin root words that help you find the meanings of 14K English words
Bookmarks for Grammar, Style and Spelling
Historical Statistics of the United States
The Inflation Calculator: adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, from 1800 to 2012.
A genetic atlas of human admixture history
List of computer term etymologies
Bookmarklets are small applications you can place as browser’s bookmark bar and they each perform a specific function, depending on what they are coded for. Bookmarklets are usually written in Javascript (be careful! ) and they are extremely easy to install or remove.
10x10: Process - Every hour, 10x10 scans the RSS feeds of leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in their top news stories. After this process, conclusions are automatically drawn about the hour's most important words. The top 100 words are chosen, along with 100 corresponding images, culled from source news stories…
Cell Scale and Relative Size :A useful interactive widget that allows you to explore the relative size of things in the Universe, from the size of the known Universe at 1027 meters down to the Planck length, the shortest possible quantum mechanical distance, at 10-48 meters (a dot followed by 47 zeroes and a 1) It is a Flash widget, so no iPads or iPhones, sorry. Also doesn't work on Kindle Fire, or anything else that doesn't have Adobe Flash.
Consider using a GigaPan ? Gigapans are gigapixel panoramas, digital images with billions of pixels. They offer you huge panoramas with fascinating detail, all captured in a single brilliant photo. Another terrific attention-getter can be found at Air-Pano for incredible panoramas such as this one of Mount Everest!
Consider FlashEarth or AirPano instead of Google maps. Both are useful but have different options.
Using
Mnemonics and
Paraphrasing to
improve the effectiveness of your speech.
Two
works on remembering to remember… Francis
Yates has
created a detailed examination of memory
techniques
and
their evolution over the course of generations and Jerry
Lucas has a popular work on memorizing faces and names.
A logical fallacy is a flaw in reasoning. Logical fallacies are like tricks or illusions of thought, and they are often unethically used by politicians and the media to fool you. This website helps you identify and challenge the validity of what you recognize as dodgy logic wherever it may raise its ugly, incoherent head.
This documentary discusses the significance of body language in communication.
This article lists the body language "Tells" That [Can] Ruin Your Job Interview and includes a discussion of “tells.”
Some possibly useful news sources, but ---- caveat lector!
Some
reasons why Fox News lacks credibility?
Jon
Stewart's 50
Fox News lies slowed down to one minute.
Who Wants To Know This website provides a concise, reliable introduction to vital information of which few are aware, specializing in providing news articles and summaries of major cover-ups and corruption which impact our lives and world. [More here.]
R
U a Tool? Watch
why you buy junk you don’t need.
Video on persuasion and
ethos By Professor J. Kroth
Moon Landing Myth : They could have used logic alone to dispel this “conspiracy theory” but now we also have presumably “faked” pictures from India’s Chandrayaan-1. Main fallacy: “begging the question,” that is assuming as a fact the premise that our scientists, etc., could deceive ALL scientists in Russia and China that astronaut video transmissions came from the moon and not a film set in Nevada! [ India's first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, captured images of the landing site of the Apollo 15 craft, debunking theories that the US mission was a hoax. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2009-09-indian-satellite-moon-scientist.html#jCp ]
Bookmarklets are small applications you can place as browser’s bookmark bar and they each perform a specific function, depending on what they are coded for. Bookmarklets are usually written in Javascript (be careful! ) and they are extremely easy to install or remove.
Cell Scale and Relative Size : two useful interactive widgets that allow you to explore the relative size of things in the Universe, from the size of the known Universe at 1027 meters down to the Planck length, the shortest possible quantum mechanical distance, at 10-48 meters (a dot followed by 47 zeroes and a 1) It is a Flash widget, so no iPads or iPhones, sorry. Also doesn't work on Kindle Fire, or anything else that doesn't have Adobe Flash. Here is the second cosmic widget itself, if you want to fill the whole browser window.
Consider
using a GigaPan ? Gigapans are gigapixel panoramas, digital
images with billions of pixels. They offer you huge panoramas with
fascinating detail, all captured in a single brilliant photo.
Another terrific
attention-getter can be found at Air-Pano for incredible
panoramas such Shanghai
or Mount Everest!
Consider
Flashearth or AirPano
instead of Google maps.
All are useful but have
different options.
Virtual
Museum of Optical Illusions – Often a good source for an
attention-getter, use only if appropriate.
Flickr - an online photo management and sharing application has two goals: to help people make their photos available to the people who matter to them; to enable new ways of organizing photos and video. https://www.flickr.com/explore
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Choose Images, Charts, and Templates Wisely
“A
democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the
language of the
image into a stimulus for critical
reflection — not an invitation for hypnosis.” Umberto Eco, 1979
Visual Techniques for Gaining Attention and Interest for Your Topic
Edward Tufte Guide to Graphic Excellence
Slide
Show on Graphics
Shrinking
Dollar Example
Graphic
MILESTONES
The
Palm Beach, Florida Ballot Controversy
Minard
Map Example
More
Views of Tufte
Includes
the the best graphic
How to Give a Presentation ( Old School Archive – somewhat interesting)
Colors and Worldwide Preferences
http://deadword.com/site1/pay/komar_melamid/index.html
Color Images have a Persuasive Influence
Colors, Culture and Communications (graphic design and words lost in translation)
IT Glossary is your trusted guide to exploring technology terms and definitions, from the world's leading IT research and advisory company
Democracy: Electronic Voter Fraud and Tell Congressional Leaders: Democracy isn't for Sale Five years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down one of the worst decisions in our nation's history, Citizens United. Senator Russ Feingold said it best: “Speech doesn't corrupt, money corrupts. And money isn't speech.” Click here to register.
Counting Votes 2012: A State by State Look at Election Preparedness
Data Is not Information -- Until You Make Sense Out of It
Some Useful Topic Choices
You will be able to persuade with topic of “meatless Monday” --- one day a week eating only plant based protein. You inform about veganism but with a baby step. You can not persuade many 18-24's to go whole vegan but most are willing to accept the step for one day a week. [Action Step: sign pledge to observe weekly meat fast]
Seaweed, the colorful macroalgae that grows in the ocean, is a food source for marine life and humans. Each type of seaweed has a unique set of nutrients and can boost vitamin and mineral intake if eaten regularly. [Source ]
Take us on a walk. You are, or will be, paying more than your fair share for the pleasures and treasures of Manhattan in taxes anyway. An oral culture uses song as the most efficient way to remember and transmit large amounts of information; the Web is our technological society's closest equivalent. Each Songline follows a single pathway, whether it goes by one name or several; the streets go from river to river, while the avenues stop at 59th Street, which is an upper limit for the time being on this site. Why not expand on it? [Action Step: request student email address to send specific information on meeting for a group tour or simply to request additional details..]
Consider advocating for a significant park or museum: A major Park (e.g., Central, High Line, or Prospect produces verifiable benefits OR a propose a “field trip” to your favorite Museum (e.g., Metropolitan, Brooklyn, Moving Image, etc.) – research shows many benefits for both. [Action Step: collect email address for advance notice of new exhibit, event, etc. ] Parks remain a neutral public gathering place where community members can meet, collaborate, and become empowered. Parks and museums represent opportunities to amplify economical, meditative, energizing, recreational, educational, social — the benefits list is seemingly endless. You need only develop three ways parks OR museums are beneficial with ample, visual examples of what you are trying to communicate. [Action Step: request student email address to send specific information on an upcoming event or exhibition, or urban event of interest to a typical Baruch student.]
For
finance majors:
A New York state
bank could mean NO taxes for you.
[Action
Step:
petition to Governor Hochul recommending a state-owned bank for New
York residents.]
Culture Pass: a program for cardholding patrons ages 13 and older of Brooklyn Public Library, The New York Public Library and Queens Public Library. Using their library card, New Yorkers can reserve a pass and get free admission to 80+ NYC cultural institutions: museums, gardens, theaters, and more. https://culturepassnyc.quipugroup.net/?NYPL [Action Step: request student email address to send specific information on applying for the Pass. Note: Do not disclose some actions steps until the final closing statement.]
Globalization ? Or “creepy socialism?” The combined market cap of the world’s top 50 companies was proportional to 27.6% of global GDP in 2020, up from just 4.7% of global GDP in 1990. [Action Step: request students sign petition to Congressional representative for a tax increase to correct “poorly researched” tax proposals .]
Devastating
honeybee loss reported across United States expected to impact
food prices;
New York State could help! [Action
Step Example:
Go Local!: Buy locally-sourced honey from Union Square Market ] Extra
benefit: locally-sourced honey helps manage allergies ]
Recommended
Viewing of Documentaries, et al. (selections must be approved in
advance)
Action Step for topics where you are persuading us to
view a significant, neglected film:
Request the email address so
you can forward to them the URL to view the documentary for free.]
The
Banking Crisis Today and Inside
Job: PREVIEW a definitive documentary on the banking scandal; you
will not see this on the MSM soon! VIMEO
DOC HERE [
Documentaries : Food Inc., Death on a Factory Farm, Fresh; search Google to view videos of animal cruelty on factory farms. [Action Step: request email address so you can forward the URL to view the documentary.]
Chasing
Ice– Jeff
Orlowski’s film is glacially paced. BUT, “glacial pacing” ain’t
what it used to be. Glaciers are moving along (“retreating”,
technically) at a pretty good clip. According to nature photographer
(and subject of Orlowski’s film) James Balog, “The story…is in
the ice.” [Action
Step:
request email address so you can forward the URL to view the
documentary.]
An
Inconvenient Truth–
I
re-watched this recently; I hadn’t seen it since it opened in 2006,
and it struck me how it now plays less like a warning bell and more
like the nightly news. It’s the end of the world as we know
it. Apocalyptic sci-fi is now scientific fact. Former VP/Nobel winner
Al Gore is a Power Point-packing Rod Serling, submitting a gallery of
nightmare nature scenarios for our disapproval. [Action
Step:
request email address so you can forward the URL to view the
documentary.]
Koyannisqatsi–
In
1982 this genre-defying film quietly made its way around the art
houses; it’s now a cult favorite. Directed by activist/ex-Christian
monk Godfrey Reggio, with beautiful cinematography by Ron Fricke (who
later directed Chronos, Baraka,
and Samsara)
and music by Philip Glass (who also scored Reggio’s sequels), it
was considered a transcendent experience by some; New Age hokum by
others . The title (from ancient Hopi) translates as “life out
of balance” [Action
Step:
request email address so you can forward the URL to view the
documentary.]
Manufactured Landscapes– A unique eco-documentary about photographer Edward Burtynsky, who is an “earth diarist” of sorts. While his photographs are striking, they don’t paint a pretty picture of our fragile planet. Burtynsky’s eye discerns a terrible beauty in the wake of the profound and irreversible human imprint incurred by accelerated modernization. [Action Step: request email address so you can forward the URL to view the documentary.]
Queen
of the Sun- this
documentary
about honeybees will make you laugh and cry- Taggart Siegel’s 2010
film does that. Appearing at first to be a distressing examination of
Colony Collapse Syndrome, a phenomenon puzzling and dismaying
beekeepers and scientists alike with its increasing frequency over
the past decades, the film is a sometimes joyous, sometimes humbling
meditation on how essential these tiny yet complex social creatures
are to the planet’s life cycle. [Action
Step:
request email address so you can forward the URL to view the
documentary.]
Films that could change your life:
Ikiru
by Akira Kurosawa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6GkFP_-loU
Silent Running– In space, no one can hear you trimming the verge! Bruce Dern is an agrarian antihero in this 1972 sci-fi adventure, directed by legendary special effects wizard Douglas Trumbull. Produced around the time “ecology” was a buzzword, its message may seem a little heavy-handed today, but the film remains a cult favorite. Dern plays the gardener on a commercial space freighter that houses several bio-domes, each dedicated to preserving a species of vegetation (in this bleak future, the Earth is barren of organic growth). [Action Step: request email address so you can forward the URL to view the documentary.]
Soylent
Green–
Based
on a Harry Harrison novel, Richard Fleischer’s 1973 film is set in
2022, when traditional culinary fare is but a dim memory, due to
overpopulation and environmental depletion. Only the wealthy can
afford the odd tomato or stalk of celery; most of the U.S. population
lives on processed “Soylent Corporation” product. [Action
Step: request email address from audience for access link to online
source.]
Battle of Algiers (1966): gripping documentary by Costa-Gravas on the fight against French colonialism inNorth Africa. Reported to be, at one time, required viewing for counter-insurgency experts in the Pentagon. [Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
2001: A Space Odyssey : Arguably, the first film that redefined cinema as an art form that does not have to be pure entertainment (although I do find the film entertaining – lol). [Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
Jojo Rabbit (2019) : A beautiful comedy-drama that takes place during the latter part of World War II, when Nazi Germany was at its diminishing point. [Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
Into the Abyss. Documentary by Werner Herzog. May switch your viewpoint on capital punishment. The fact that this documentary forces you to humanize those on death row makes you realize people make mistakes and often are a product of their environment.[Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
Reefer Madness 1936): The Classic for hysteria: “Classic Propaganda film that relates the story, as told by the pontifical high school principal Dr. Carroll to parents at a PTA meeting, about the scourge of agricultural hemp, renamed “marijuana,” in order to make hemp, a plant cultivated by humans for millennia, sound seductive, exotic and dangerous. [Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
IDIOCRACY: Budget: $2,400,000 Box office: $495,303: Despite being in theatres for five weeks, the futuristic comedy was unable to recoup more than a quarter or so of its budget at the box office after Rupert Murdoch refused topay for marketing a film that insulted his most loyal viewers. Later on, when the movie was released on TV and DVD, comedy fans discovered it and elevated it to cult status. Mentions of the film skyrocketed again during the 2016 US election, with the screenwriter tweeting: “I never expected #idiocracy to become a documentary.” about Trump's presidential run. Its relevance is continually being referenced, with the idiotic dystopian future looking more and more familiar. [Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
NETWORK: The Film https://moviesanywhere.com/movie/network As relevant today as it ever was, Sidney Lumet's brilliant, multiple Oscar-winning satirical exposé of the men and women behind the television networks stars Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, William Holden, Robert Duvall, and Ned Beatty. When Howard Beale (Finch), the dean of newscasters at the United Broadcasting System, is forced to retire, network executive Max Schumacher (Holden), Howard's best friend, must deliver the bad news. Beale can't stomach the idea of losing his 25-year post as anchorman simply because of age, so in his next broadcast he announces to the viewers that he's going to commit suicide on his final program.[Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
Food, Inc./Supersize Me; Morgan (recently deceased at 53, “star” of Supersize Me) Spurlock’s recent death underscores the medical risks in consuming fast food ultra-processed “products” from the fast food industry.[Action Step: request email address from audience for access link to online source.]
It's
a Wonderful Life (1946) : a
box office failure. The film saw a loss of at least $500K (which
almost bankrupted RKO), mixed reviews from critics, and a FBI memo
suspecting that the film may be communist propaganda due to its
demonization of American capitalism and bankers. [Action
Step: request email address from audience for access link to online
source.]
Are
GMOs actually safe, as proponents
and supporters of biotechnology claim, or are they not?
[Action
Step: compel product labelling or ban outright GMO products.
]
High
Five: Final Five Voting is a Big Improvement on
NYC's Current
Ranked Choice Voting System.
Ranked
Choice Voting is already a step in the right direction. But, "There’s
a serious problem: As implemented here, RCV applies only in closed
partisan primaries, not in general elections. "Those contests —
which in our overwhelmingly Democratic city almost always determine
the November victor — are typically low-turnout affairs, and even
if they weren’t, they bar anyone from outside the party from
participating. "And so, while 3.5 million city Democratic voters
can choose our leaders this better way, 525,000 Republicans and more
than a million unaffiliated voters are left on the outside looking
in. They’re free to cast a ballot in the general election, but
they’ve had no say in the one race that really counted."
Ranked Choice Voting IS a great start. But it doesn't allow NYC's one
million Independent Voters to participate in the primary process at
all, and it only gives incentives to elected officials to be held
accountable only to the most polarized party voters. How would our
city, state, or country change if elected officials were held
accountable to ALL Americans -- not just the ones who vote in the
closed party primaries? If you believe in cooling down the extreme
partisan division in politics, chip in to their movement to get it
done: https://donorbox.org/new-yorkers-for-competitive-elections
[Action
Step: request email address from audience for access link to online
source.]
TAKE JUSTICE BACK IS ABOUT ACCOUNTABILITY: Powerful corporations have spent billions to evade accountability when they hurt and kill Americans. Take Justice Back is a public education and grassroots campaign to restore accountability, promote safety and ensure Americans have access to justice. The fact is, our environment is cleaner, our medicine is better and our cars are safer today, thanks to Americans who stood up to big corporations and held them accountable in court. Take Justice Back uses straightforward facts to directly take on the myths and propaganda pushed by corporate front groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The campaign encourages Americans to join the fight to protect their rights. Action Step: Persuade fellow students to sign up. http://takejusticeback.com
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INTERNET FREEDOM AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS ISSUES
A caveat on the Freedom of Information Act: When accessing government sources: You never know to whom you will become “a person of interest.” For example, you have a right to know if the government is keeping a file on you for whatever reason. Unfortunately, the major way people get a file created for them by the government is to request their file!
Google Guide: Lists search operators for each Google search service.
NSA Guide to Searching on the Internet: Wired Magazine posted a link to NSA's manual for its own Internet researchers, released under FOI legislation. It's a lot of interesting information for anyone using the Internet for something more than mindless consumerism. https://www.wired.com/2013/05/nsa-manual-on-hacking-internet/
Kevin
Parkinson: Death of Free Internet is Imminent
While this article needs to be updated, it date suggests how determined the The Powers That Be (TPTB) are to stop your only free access to uncensored news and views. The plan is to convert the Internet into a cable-like system, where customers sign up for specific web sites, and then pay to visit sites beyond a cutoff point. ... Be aware that we will all lose our privacy because all websites will be tracked as part of the billing procedure, and we will be cut off from 90% of the information that we can access today. [Action Step: ]
BUILDING
CREDIBILITY: TOPICS FOR ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE MAJORS
The
Tax Foundation’s Tax Maps: Providing
journalists, taxpayers and policymakers with basic data on taxes and
spending is a cornerstone of the Tax Foundation’s educational
mission. We’ve found that one of the best, most engaging ways to do
that is by visualizing tax data in the form of maps. Every week, the
Tax Foundation releases a new tax map that illustrates one important
measure of state tax rates, collections, burdens and more. If you
enjoy their weekly tax maps, help them continue this work and more by
making a small contribution here
Some MORE Useful Topic Choices
You will be able to persuade with topic of "meatless Monday" --- one day a week with only plant based protein. You inform about veganism but with a baby step. You can not persuade many 18-24's to go whole vegan but most are willing to accept the step for one day a week. [Action Step: sign pledge to observe weekly meat fast]
Richard K. Moore: Escaping the Matrix : Don't read this if you wish to remain cocooned within the illusion of a consensus reality. But do read it if you want to know what "globalization" really means. This essay is the clearest explanation that can be found on the web of the huge difference between virtual reality and your reality.
Research Superfoods: https://www.realsimple.com/health/nutrition-diet/healthy-eating/top-superfoods-according-to-dietitians [Action steps involve judgment in offering appropriate samples of topics where “score” is based on acceptance of a free sample.]
garlic:
turmeric:
olives:
(offer two most popular types for action step)
olive oil :
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-a-single-drop-of-olive-oil-led-to-a-great-leap-forward-in-physics?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
blueberries:
acai berries:
apples: (offer two most popular types for action step)
green tea:
yogurt:
kimchee:
Pulses: a category of legumes—they're actually the edible seeds harvested from inside a legume plant (vs. other types of legumes that we eat whole, like soybeans, peanuts, and fresh peas).
Nuts: walnuts, esp.
Appeals to Pathos: Adopt a dog or cat (preferable for urban New Yorkers)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/17/animal-shelters-overcrowded-housing-crisis
Taxation Without Representation ? [Action steps vary with topic choice – all require an action step. Science News: Study: 147 Entities Really Do Control The World’s Finances
Tax Evaders or Citizens of the World ? Have the rich deserted the US?
Credit Crisis: The Result of Greatest Financial Crime in World History. Where are the convictions ?
The Democratization of Banking? California Legislature Passes Bill to Study State-owned Bank Why Not New York ? Also, a state bank could mean NO taxes.
The War on the Poor ( and here you were wasting your sympathy on the rich!)
The United States Isn't a Country — It's a Corporation! At least according to Lisa Guliani
Think you know Jack? II Commonly held false ideas about business data.
Think you know Jack? III MORE Commonly held false ideas about business data.
The
Cross of Gold Speech by William Jennings Bryan
Note:
That cross is now plastic, so who stole the gold ?
Read Ubik by Philip K. Dick wrote numerous novels and short-story collections. The Man in the High Castle (on Amazon) and ten of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, Minority Report, Paycheck, Next, Screamers, and The Adjustment Bureau. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923. Read it here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22590. Ubik
Reviews of two significant explorations of the politics of history textbook writing, publishing, and textbook adoption. These studies help to show how the politics of history and class affect you through our educational system.
American Governance: Two systems concurrently exist today. However, the corporate system has been gaining predominance since 1870. Many Sovereigns (We the people - You) have contracted with the corporate system unknowingly, unintentionally, and or without full disclosure given on their part. Too bad for you.
Perfidious Albion: The Abandonment of Hong Kong by William McGurn: When Britain agreed to "restore" Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1984, British spokesmen explained that the Chinese were reforming and would allow Hong Kong to continue its dynamic capitalist ways. But the suppression of the protest in Tiananmen Square in 1989 made it clear that Beijing does not tolerate even potentially rival centers of power. McGurn examines the background of the 1984 agreement and the current plight of Hong Kong's million citizens. Although they hold British passports, the British government has refused to allow most of them in. McGurn, a former Bush 43 speech writer, former editor at the Wall Street Journal, and currently editor at The New York Post, urges the United States to open their doors to those who want to leave Hong Kong, not only as a humanitarian act but also to infuse our own society with their talent and dynamism.
Some More Useful Topic Choices
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Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady: This book breaks down the "secrecy industry" as the title says, and examines each part and how they all interact. It also looks at the key players in government, past and present, and how they arrived at their views of state secrecy and came to shape policy. It reads a lot like a real-life Tom Clancy novel, with minor characters making small decisions with big consequences down the line, and obscure programs adding up to the shadowy machine we have today. The NSA and cyber war chapters will make you lose sleep at night. A great read for history buffs and fans of thrillers. (Download here )
What do Men Look For? Then And NOW
Shop
Till You Drop Also a Problem for Men
From voter fraud and
suppression to smear campaigns, personal attacks and media
manipulation, Dirty
Tricksters have been using the same strategies for more than a
hundred years.
The 10 worst chemicals in cosmetics and personal care products The entire cosmetic industry is in a buyer beware state of alert, thanks to the latest additions to the melting pot of chemicals and pollutants in skin care, above and beyond the usual parabens. [Pick one nasty chemical (or one nasty category of chemicals such as petroleum)
(Highly topical as the EU has banned cosmetics using animals for testing.)
High
Fructose Corn Syrup:
Too
stupid to live? Excess dietary fructose can harm your body by setting
up the conditions for diabetes, obesity, and fatty liver, but what
does it do to your brain?
A new UCLA study is the first to show
how a steady diet high in fructose can damage your memory and
learning. Sweetums:
A Miracle Product ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Op-GGYPTM
Action Step: recommend or promote healthier alternatives — even
Mexican Coca-Cola is preferable since it avoids high fructose corn
syrup by using cane sugar (not optimal but still preferable to HFCS).
Soda Sizes - Parks and Recreation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ish8NBunrQU
Build Goodwill - List of Health related Topics on Toxic Waste
The 5 Most Horrifying Things Corporations Are Taking Over (Besides your Life)
How the Rich Get Richer : Meet the Global Ruling Class and their new BFF’s:
How
the Rich Get Richer :
Meet
the Global Ruling Class . . . why not call or write to
them!
Agitprop
or Not? The Bohemian Grove Confusion
Alternatives
to Money
Waiting
for the Apocalypse -- Then and Now
Your
Growing Debts - 1
The 6 Insane Conspiracies Hiding Behind Non-Profit Groups
Uncle
Sam, Your Banker Will See You Now : Sage predictions from
2007.
Resilience
is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity,
trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress –
A visual
representation of this quality.
Five Hollywood Secrets That Explain Why So Many Movies Suck – Anyone see “John Carter”?
Encyclical
Letter HUMANAE
VITAE of the Supreme Pontiff Paul VI on contraception, condoms,
et al.
See #14-17, where even condoms are sinful.
The Consequences Of Rabid Republican Conservatism : American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips
The Grand Story of Humanity By Richard K. Moore
One of the great mysteries of our evolution is our intelligence. Why are our frontal lobes and our cognitive intelligence — so much more developed than in any other species?
Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies by Noam Chomsky Chomsky reminds us that the majority of the populace rely on the various media institutions for their information about political affairs; both domestic and foreign. One can only hold an opinion on a topic if one knows about the topic. So, for example, the popular myth of the 'persistent Soviet veto' at the UN during the cold war. Why do people believe the USSR was constantly vetoing any and every Security Council Resolution? Simple! When they did, it generated front-page condemnation. When the US or the UK exercised their right of veto: silence. As Chomsky notes, during the years of 1970 and 1989 the former Soviet Union vetoed 8 resolutions. The US vetoed some 56. This is what Chomsky refers to as Thought Control. Unless the public examine the factual record of the UN themselves, they will never come by this information, (at least not in the mainstream press). (from Amazon review)
Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions Buy the Paperback
by Fredric Jameson : In an age of globalization characterized by the dizzying technologies of the First World, and the social disintegration of the Third, is the concept of utopia still meaningful? Archaeologies of the Future, Jameson’s most substantial work since Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, investigates the development of this form since Thomas More, and interrogates the functions of utopian thinking in a post-Communist age. The relationship between utopia and science fiction is explored through the representations of otherness … alien life and alien worlds … and a study of the works of Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson and more. Jameson’s essential essays, including “The Desire Called Utopia,” conclude with an examination of the opposing positions on utopia and an assessment of its political value today.
Who Wants You Dead ? An excellent summary of threats to your middle class dreams.
Say Goodbye to Social Security; Really? Then Say Hello to Mom and Dad Moving in — Forever
Are you Smarter than an Eighth Grader, circa 1895 . . . possibly not even smarter than an eighth grader in 1912!
10 Things You May Notice About America When Traveling Abroad
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-Building Goodwill - The Hemp Controversy: Much more here
Hemp plastic is the number one material of the future. Hemp grows prolifically, making it an extremely efficient crop for these sustainable plastics known as 'bioplastics'. ... They are lightweight, biodegradable and can replace many petrochemical plastics (oil-based plastics). Info
HISTORY
OF HEMP IN US [Apparently,
the only rational reason you should avoid using hemp is that it is
illegal.]
Cui Bono? There is an old saying: if you want to get to the root of a problem, follow the money.
This holds true for hemp. If cannabis became as free as clover, millions of farmers across America could plant a (now[rare strain once known as Kentucky hemp (see documentary: Hemp For Victory (1942) [video here] ) which produces around 8,500 lbs of seed per acre. This would supply up to around 144 billion gallons of seed oil based bio-diesel by using currently unused and subsidized lands. This could COMPETE with fossil fuels, instead we reward a near-monopoly [See cartel ] controlled by the oil industry protected by a government supposedly committed to capitalist competition. [Action step: Petition to remove tax subsidies, rebates, etc., for oil industry OR petition to increase benefits for alternative fuel resources.]
Can Hemp Save The Planet? In his classic work, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, Jack Herer asserts that hemp can save the planet. http://www.jackherer.com/ . Herer asserts that hemp grows easily anywhere, including marginal land, with little water and no fertilizers or insecticides. Hemp had to be criminalized as hemp processing became more efficient and threatened oil company profits. [Action step: Petition to remove tax subsidies, rebates, etc., for oil industry OR petition to increase benefits for alternative hemp resources.]
Henry Ford also promoted the industrial use of hemp as a bio-fuel and alternative to steel (hemp fiber asserted to be 10X stronger) in his automobiles. [Note comments at end of article showing trolls in action discrediting sources thereby discouraging hemp use.] [Action step: Petition to recognition Henry Ford’s sabotaged contribution to progress by developing hemp-plastic auto parts.]
Build
Goodwill II : The Medical Marijuana Controversy
“Millions
of people have died horrible deaths and in many cases, families
exhausted their savings on dangerous, toxic and expensive drugs. Now
we are just beginning to realize that while marijuana has never
killed anyone, marijuana prohibition has killed millions.” ( Source
)
Factions Against Hemp Legalization
Who benefits from hemp prohibition ?
Big Oil Can Not Compete w/o government “welfare” aid
Why
Cotton is Still King BUT How long would you spend picking cotton
using this downloadable app that allows you to experience –
somewhat — the exploitation
of child labor in Uzbekistan? This game comes originally from a
news article on the UK Guardian website that reported on the scandal
of cotton picking by children in Uzbekistan that are used to make
clothes, supplied to you. This
is about forced labor – children are taken out of school and forced
to work while adults are condemned as lazy as no work for adults is
available.
[Action
Step: collect email addresses to forward downloaded app.]
Profits
Found in Treatments, Not Cures:
Do
the Feds Know Hemp Kills
Tumors Cancer Cells ? It would
seem YES.
Reefer Madness 1936): The Classic for hysteria: “Classic Propaganda film that relates the story, as told by the pontifical high school principal Dr. Carroll to parents at a PTA meeting, about the scourge of agricultural hemp, renamed “marijuana,” in order to make hemp, a plant cultivated by humans for millennia, sound seductive, exotic and dangerous.
Uses for Industrial Hemp? (petition to regulate and allow industrial hemp to be grown for ethanol fuel).
Does Punishing Pot Smokers Save Children?
Prison Blues: How America's Foolish Drug Sentencing Policies Endanger Public Safety
Are
We Winning Yet ? Who is really winning in the Drug War
?
Self-harming
Behaviors By Teenagers
https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/hemp-the-perfect-brain-health-food.77372/: Few natural food sources have withered as much confusion, controversy and misinformation (and lack of information) as hemp – which is unfortunate, and even ironic, given that it is one of the world’s most perfect foods. Actually, it goes far beyond food, as this super-plant has also been used for centuries as a wonderful source of fibers for clothing and accessories, soaps and oils, and much more. It's even rumored to be the world's “oldest food” consumed by humans.
Drugs
and Rights (Cambridge Studies in Philosophy and Public Policy) by
Douglas Husak.
This timely
and important book is the first serious work of philosophy to
address the question:
Do
adults have a moral right to use drugs for recreational purposes?
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“YOU
CAN NOT PETITION THE LORD -- WITH PRAYER !”
Jim
Morrison, Soft Parade (1969) You
can, however, petition corporations
and government entities on
issues vital for you: Sometimes it works!
Why
and How to Write a Letter to an Advertiser : Now that you know,
why aren’t you writing?
Also,
contains a model for a useful petition.
Why not a “GI Bill” for you? Like the NASA program, student aid pays for itself as an investment and social commitment to meritocratic principles. Look where it is being proposed and look who currently benefits the most. (Who benefits from student aid? ) https://www.defense.gov/explore/story/Article/1727086/75-years-of-the-gi-bill-how-transformative-its-been/
Why
not celebrate a Peter
Zenger day in New York City?
[Action Step: Petition to City
Council for official day recognizing
freedom of the press, a
freedom that started here!]
Why
not celebrate a Stone
House Revolution Day in New York City?
[Action Step: Petition
to City Council ] (More
appropriate than “misremembering”
the Alamo as the Alamo was a battle to create a Republic of Texas
where “free” whites could own slaves as slavery was forbidden in
Mexico. )
BTW: You should know the most commonly used arguments by the oil lobby, “useful idiots,” the woefully misinformed, and doubters regarding global climate change and how to answer them. For example, rising seas seem clearly evident in Norfolk,Va., along the SC coast and Gulf of Finland. Here are other useful links: Physicist John Cook has done us a great service by posting good one-line responses, which I repost with links below. For instance, if somebody raises the standard talking point that the climate has changed before, you can say, “Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at any given time; humans are now the dominant factor forcing change.” You should know as much of the science behind those rebuttals as possible, and a great place to start is SkepticalScience.com and http://www.grist.org/article/series/skeptics
Want to contact the CEO of a company? Is "Customer Services" not working out for you? Are you not getting replies but not getting the replies you want? Time to take it to the top! Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are reluctant to publish their e-mail addresses, so reach out!
How
New York Compares With USA
What
Values People in the World Affirm from Scientific American
How
People Look at the World : Asian versus American Cultural Views
?
An Appealing
Authority: Quotations from Albert Einstein and Others:
If
you’re going to name drop, why not go for one of the best?
Welcome Back to 2001 Now notice the latest news "spin" in action.
Welcome Back to 2002 A mixed bag of blogging, from the right and left, now get informed.
How The "Gang of Five" Manipulate Your News and Infotainment
Their professionals, they know how to
sell, whether its soap or stupid ideas.
Their techniques are
obvious and effective, perhaps
explaining why Alexander truly was “The Great.”
Build Credibility
and Confidence to Succeed in Business and Life
If you think the word “gullible” is in the dictionary, maybe you need to think about this also.
Take
the Test! Just
how gullible are you as part of the iPod generation ?
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Additional
Topics to Consider
Caveat: Many articles are out of date – you
must exercise due diligence.
Energy Related Topics: Fossil Fuels and Alternatives
Top 10 Trends for the Next 10 Years in Internet Marketing.
Solar Sphere is dedicated to ensuring that customers go green and energy independent! They have solar power kits for nearly any application, and if you don’t see it here, they can make one customized for your needs. Build goodwill by promoting their products (very topical after Sandy) and you can offer their free book as your action step.
More details on the most interesting synthesis of urban myths that I have encountered on “fringe” web sites as well as a spectacular book promotion.
A Brief History of the New World Order by Richard K. Moore - another view of history you can persuade us to read
By the way, who owns the world?
Who Runs the World ? And Who Runs the Runners at Bilderberg?
By the way, who is the richest “person” in the world (and it’s not Slim or Gates)? The Crown
[Hey, this was a “person” long before other “corporate entities” were] . . .
That pesky Crown again. What did Prince Andrew's superiors in the Royal Navy call him?
And just what is Queen Elizabeth’s last name? [Answers here]
The
New Robber Barons?
Oil
for Peace or Something Else ?
What
is riba
(usury
) and Why Do Muslims Resent It ?
[Action
Step: Propose
that banks stop charging interest and instead become investing
partners in new businesses.] ]
The
Tyranny of Good Intentions - discusses examples of how your
government
treads on freedom through ill-willed prosecutions and
a faceless bureaucracy. . . . Hey, just kidding !
Put
and Call Options Explained : Why nobody claimed millions in Wall
Street profits after 9/11.
The
New Social Contract You probably didn't vote for a war,
either.
The
Selling Out of the US The president who oversaw the biggest
deficit increase in the 20th century was Ronald Reagan.
The deficit increased a whopping 184% under his watch. Obama
increased the deficit by 23% (less than Bush I and Bush II).
And the source of that information is the non-partisan Congressional
Budget Office.
"The
Control of Oil" By Dr. John M. Blair: a brilliant look at
how the price of crude oil was determined by giant petroleum
companies (the so-called seven sisters) and a dozen members of the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
The Oil Field Wars: Maybe illegal, but it’s a gas! ( . . . if you are a defense contractor).
Big Oil & Their Bankers In The Persian Gulf: Four Horsemen, Eight Families & Their Global Intelligence, Narcotics & Terror Network: This book exposes “a centuries-old cabal of global oligarchs, whose control over the global economy is based on hegemony over the planet's three most valuable commodities: oil, guns and drugs- combined with ownership of the world's central banks.”
PRWatch:
Case Studies
How
the public relations industry sold the FIRST Gulf War to the US
Public
Nayirah
Testimony: Refers to the controversial and false testimony given
before the non- governmental Congressional Human Rights Caucus on
October 10, 1990, appealing to the sentiments of Americans to invade
Iraq and save Kuwait.
Poultry in Motion; The Iran PR Blitz
Two Trillion Here, There What a THREE (updated) Trillion Dollar Peace Bonus Could Have Bought.
Truck You, America Where NAFTA etc., leads to, and why you want to stay home.
Security and Prosperity Partnership Of North America Your Future: The NAU
Security
and Prosperity Highway Through North America Your NAU Future II
Spp.gov:
According to wiki, “In August 2009, the SPP website was updated to
say: "The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
(SPP) is no longer an active initiative. There will not be any
updates to this site."[21] Subsequent to this the website link
does not connect and the cache website links do not work.”
The Earth at 100M : Why the NAU Highway will become Main Street, USA
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(HOW THE ) MEDIA RULES
Top
25 Censored Stories of 2008 : 1.You Lost Your Right to Be
Free
Top
25 Censored Stories of 2007 : 1. You Lost Your Right to
Information –
That day on October 17, 2005 was a Monday
THE TOP 25 MOST CENSORED STORIES OF 2021-2022 from Project Censored
https://www.projectcensored.org › top-25-censored-ne...
The
Top 25 stories of
2021-2022 have
been selected from several hundred
candidate stories submitted
by 207 student researchers from ten US college and . . . .
How
Many Americans Think if not the iPod generation.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Example: Why the Post Office does not earn a profit.
Self-Fulfilling
Prophecy Example II: Georgia
Stones : A Model for Population Control ?
Food
Poisoning Costs America Over $77 Billion A Year :
Guess the
FDA budget of the FDA, i.e., the “useless” government that
inspects your food.
THE
HALF HAS NEVER BEEN TOLD: Slavery and the Making of
American Capitalism
By
Edward E. Baptist. Baptist breaks new ground in his
emphasis on the centrality of the interstate trade in slaves to the
regional and national economies and his treatment of the role of
extreme violence in the workings of the slave system. [ See also
http://worldtraining.net/slavery.htm
]
Get your copy of the 2011 Weston A. Price Foundation Shopping Guide. This little pocket guide is loaded with useful information about where to find the healthiest foods and which foods to avoid. Dr. Weston A. Price was a dentist and researcher who traveled around the world to find the healthiest people on the planet, and study what they were eating. The Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) is a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing the knowledge of what a healthy human diet really looks like through education, research, and activism. https://www.perfect-supplements.com/weston-a-price/
Beware online 'Filter Bubbles' : author Eli Pariser discusses secret censorship on the Internet, and read his accompanying blog post below following up on his talk.
Why journalists call their readers “sheeple.” “ … A crowd, as a rule, is in a state of expectant attention, which renders suggestion easy. The first suggestion formulated which arises implants itself immediately by a process of contagion in the brains of all assembled, and the identical bent of the sentiments of the crowd is immediately an accomplished fact." Gustav Le Bon
Some people call students sheeple. Agree or disagree?
Why not put grade school students in charge of elections? At least they can count.
The Zogby Poll When The Big News Story is Not News
Zogby Analytics provides custom research and insight to leaders of businesses and communities, as well as to individuals, empowering you to achieve your most pressing survey research goals.
Execute
Surveys Not People ! Even today, a majority of
Americans support capital punishment.
Outsourcing of Your Future? "No matter how cynical you get, it's almost impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
John
Ridley : The Death of Oswald and the Birth of Conspiracies
24/7
US
'War Hawks' Become Iraq War Critics
Pearl
Harbor: Rewritten History ? Why Now?
Your
Chances after Graduating
Does
the Times Get It Right ? Scott
Fitzgerald said
it best in his novel, The
Crack-Up,
"The
test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed
ideas in mind
at the same time and still retain the ability
to function."
JFK
on the Federal Reserve . . . from the JFK Archives at the JFK
Library (Scroll down to Executive Order 11110)
Baluchistan Anyone ? Another War In a Place You Never Heard Of . . .
Your
kingdom for a pipeline …..: The
Port of Gwadar
News
Not Fit to Print-- or Broadcast :
You will lose
the freedom of the internet. Wake up!
US
13 Trillion in Debt - Who should Pay ? - 1
Who
Pays Taxes? Hint, You do, and you will pay
more.
Financial
futures BLEAK for the iPod generation.
Why
Mad Max Was Mad The Coming Water Crisis
POMO:
Postmodernism Defined 1 : One view of the
term.
Postmodernism
Defined 2 Another view of the term.
Reign
of Charity Highbrow Blogging on Religion and Atheism
The
End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot
Chemtrails: What are they doing to the atmosphere, if anything? What Congress acknowledges.
Can
IT Happen Here ? Insights from that ol’ troublemaker Naomi
Wolf.
Is
'Do Unto Others' Written Into Our Genes?
Is
to translate us to betray us ? I More
on the Latin insight: To Translate is to Betray.
No
Enemy but Peace. Ooops. Other Equivocal Declarations.
The
Areopagitica by John Milton Free Speech Good for Everyone —
except Papists.
History
of Apocalyptic Declarations The end has never been so
rapturous.
Arguing
about the Gods Intelligently Well, somewhat intelligently.
Conservative,
Liberal, Conservative: What do they mean?
How
Risky is the World Some statistics from www.wired.com
Is
Beauty only Skin Dope Or, Is The Beauty Of A
Sculpture In The Brain Of The Beholder?
How
safe is genetically modified corn? GMO
Monsanto
admits their genetically modified technology doesn’t work!
What’s up? Monsanto’s Best-Selling Herbicide Roundup
Linked to Infertility: (There are too many of you
air-breathing, carbon-based bipeds around anyway.)
Work-at-home
but do not get scammed : Common Job Scams
Risks
using Artificial Sweeteners Also, links at end to other
health issues
How
to Succeed at a Trade Show. A Guide to Working the Big
Room.
Info
Resources and Case Studies in Public Relations Strategy :
PRSA homepage
How
to Thank People for Business
Hyperstories:
Get Serious or at Least Fake It
Sick
and Tired of HMOs ? We pay more for one of the worst.
. . .
Six
Charts with typical errors
Ultimate
Hard Sell - One :
What
might actually cause the Next War The Zagros oil
belt
How
the World of the Web Looks
How
the World Will Look I - in your Lifetime.
How
the World Will Look II-- in your Lifetime. Forget retiring in
Florida.
The
New World Numerical Order: Giga, etc.
China,
Korea and Japan at Night
Tufte,
et al., regards this chart by C.P. Minard as the most effective ever:
This
one is also interesting as an animated gif:
Projected
Map for a New Middle East
Who
Funds What: The Few Who Pay for those Think Tanks (to download
PDF)
Who
Funds What The jpeg for this chart.
Earth
in the Days of Yore : Gondwanaland
How
Efficient is Coal as an Alternative Energy Source ?
(Schematic Chart) Not very.
Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke – Wired Magazine: 12/2009
How Efficient is Thorium as an Energy Source ? Very, but you can’t make bombs from it.
China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium: We used to “blaze trails” now we just make movies about it.
Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium
Why
Not Fusion as an Alternative Energy Source ? Not very
likely, says Mr. Peabody.
PR
Today: The Aspartame Controversy : Did you know that Aspartame
was banned by the FDA twice?
How
is this product legal now? Chart
Correlating Rise in Aspartame Use with Rise in Autism Diagnoses
Caveat: Correlation
does not necessarily imply causality, but some times.... .
The
BP Plastics Controversy: Going Sterile ?
The
Future for Electronic Commerce
Outsourcing
of the Federal Government Giving Away the Store
Caveat lector: http://worldtraining.net/vaccines.htm
More
caveats:
Fake News and
Propaganda: Shaping Your Reality
The
Tele Gate Crisis : Stop Electronic Surveillance Before Another
Presidential Election is Stolen
Problems
with Surveys We Berate, You Deride . . . The DemandDebate.com
survey on the scientific consensus surrounding global climate change.
Corporate
Social Responsibility Reporting
Who
Rules America ? Four Power Networks by G. William Domhoff
Who
Rules America? Power, Politics, and Change by G. William
Domhoff
Jim
Crow-Style Justice in the "New South"
The
Bill Maher Controversy Good or Bad PR for Corporate Interests ?
And Crooks
Suing Comedians 2.0
Caveats
Regarding the History Channel
Use
of Depleted Uranium
Daddy,
where does oil come from? (Fossil versus Abiotic origins of
oil)
The
New Robber Barons Stay healthy or else . .
Calculating
Casualties : Statistics do not lie - and they have the numbers to
prove it.
Why
you Should Skip the Tuna Melt : Scientists found the first proof
that dangerous levels of mercury in fish come directly from
coal-fired power stations and factories.
The
Outsourcing of Your Future I
Is
it still Misprision if no one reads anymore?
PR:
The Amazon Success Story
PR
Success Story: Internet Interactive Model
Put
Up With Your Taxes or Shut Up?
Some
Info on Katrina that you likely did not hear or
see.
Making
Credit a Public Utility - - After the Crash
US
18 Trillion in Debt - Who Should Pay ? - 2
The
Myth of the Rational Voter
PR
Today: Verizon, AT&T broadband policies
PR
Pros on the Dole Calculating the military
opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the
modern media offer.
"Bin
Laden . . . he dead?" . . . He was according to 2001
Fox News. And still
is!
But he said, No he said…. is “finance capitalism” really capitalism? Ask Jeb Bush!
More than you want to know about our oil lust.
Some
reasons why the New York Times Gets It Wrong so Often :
"Your
true sucker is a vain fellow, who can never accept the evidence of
his own gullibility and
who therefore regards each
successive purchase of the Brooklyn Bridge as a sound
investment..."
More
Reasons Why the Times Gets It Wrong So Often
How
the CIA Paid for Judith Miller's Stories
Factors
Keeping American Public Unresponsive To Corruption:
One
person’s views, still a good discussion of filters.
'Deferred
Maintenance' and Tumbledown Bridges follow Grover Norquist's
dictum of reducing government until it's small enough to drown in the
bathtub. And passing out massive tax cuts, mostly to people who
need them least.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The Final Frontier: Closed Until Further Notice
Mankind needs 3 more earths to preserve current consumption : Or pie in the sky.
Majority Sees U.S. Leadership in Space as Essential; Shuttle Program Viewed as Good Investment; (5 Jul 2011) Fifty years after the first American manned space flight, nearly 60% of Americans say it is essential that the U.S. continue to be a world leader in space exploration and a majority say it has been a good investment for the country. Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
The High Frontier, by Gerald O’Neill. This book blurb and reviews describe The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. Like the GI Bill, our NASA investment (not an expense) resulted in economic benefits that were from 5 to 15 times the cost of the program. The return on investment (ROI) for just one NASA invention, aerogel insulating foam for space shuttles and satellites, is alone greater than the entire cost of the NASA program. Of course this invention mostly saved us from using expensive energy sources such as oil probably the real reason we stopped. According to every poll on the issue, most Americans, on the right AND left, want the US Government to maintain our leadership in space: Why aren’t we? An encouraging answer to those who worry about overpopulation, global warming, and environmental degradation, space exploration challenges us to expand our thinking and seek solutions to most of our problems by thinking "out of the box" -- the box that is our planet, earth. This book and others below represent a type of topic choice with an action step of allowing the audience member to chose to buy the book you are discussing or not. See also Project Icarus What’s happening on Phobos. Are we “afraid” to go there?
All
for a “mess of pottage” Why
The US Stopped Going To The Moon, and the Chinese Will Be I
Why
The US Stopped Going To The Moon, and the Chinese Will Be II
.
. . . and
the Chinese Will Be III (details on the unlimited
mineral
wealth in space, including the quadrillion dollar metal asteroid,
Psyche,
that will be appropriated by corporate interests despite its
discovery by our
US
Corporation. ).
The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy - What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny; Strauss & Howe – 1996 [Click title to order from Amazon] First came the postwar High, then the Awakening of the '60s and '70s, and now the Unraveling. This audacious and provocative book tells us what to expect just beyond the start of the next century. Are you ready for the Fourth Turning? Strauss and Howe will change the way you see the world--and your place in it. In The Fourth Turning, they apply their generational theories to the cycles of history and locate America in the middle of an unraveling period, on the brink of a crisis. How you prepare for this crisis--the Fourth Turning--is intimately connected to the mood and attitude of your particular generation. Are you one of the can-do "GI generation," who triumphed in the last crisis? Do you belong to the mediating "Silent Majority," who enjoyed the 1950s High? Do you fall into the "awakened" Boomer category of the 1970s and 1980s, or are you a Gen-Xer ( most likely your parents) struggling to adapt to a splintering world? [ BTW, you are a Millennial or Gen Y ] Whatever your stage of life, The Fourth Turning offers predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for America's next rendezvous with destiny.
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Bread and Circuses: The American Way
Did
you think that free
sports programming was really free?
. . .
close your eyes, you are getting sleepy….it’s the
Olympics ! This is always an opportunity for the “great powers”
to … demonstrate that their claim to world dominance is underpinned
by an implicit [ideological] biological and/or racial superiority.
This is one of the impetuses behind the prestige of holding the games
– an orgy of conspicuous consumption that validates the host nation
as a major power, whether it can afford it or not!
Three Views on Sports from the Right and Left : Sport institutes a bodily order founded on the management of sexual drives and aggressive impulses; insofar as it seems that sport is a form of social appeasement, social integration, reducing violence, allowing fraternity; this type of discourse to me is a load of muddled illusions and mystifications. [Jean-Marie Brohm , Sport: A Prison of Measured Time, Pluto Press, 1987 ]
and presumed Center: Why Americans Know So Much About Sports But So Little About World Affairs
Sports
and Capitalism: Measure up or Die with the Minors “Sport
is popularly considered as a sphere separate from 'important' aspects
of social and political dynamics. Sociological and anthropological
studies have proven the opposite: both active
and passive involvements in competitive sports take part in shaping
and undermining collective identities, as well as in political
mobilization around these identities.”
Tamir Sorek “There is, of course, a great deal more to human play
than expressive freedom, peak experiences or transcendental fantasy.
While play certainly has its apparent unreality, its sense of
abstract form, the nature and meaning of this form are greatly
influenced by different social structural relations and cultural
formations.
When
people organize their play in order to play with or against others
they create rules whose expressed purpose is to define standards for
playing that are binding on all the players and insulate the activity
from the society at large. These rules are not spontaneous individual
creations, rather they are cultural products that stem from the
collective social experiences of the participants. Thus, while one of
the purposes of rules is to separate play from reality, the very act
of rule construction has the effect of embedding play deeply in the
prevailing logic of social relations and thereby diminishes its
autonomy. For this reason, the study of play is haunted by a
fundamental paradox.
Play gives the impression of being at once both an independent and spontaneous aspect of human action or agency and a dependent and regulated aspect of it.” Richard Gruneau in Journal of Sport & Social Issues also Sports Capitalism: The Foreign Business Of American Professional Leagues by Frank Jozsa
BOOK
CHOICES SUITABLE
FOR ASSIGNMENTS (ADD YOUR OWN
DISCOVERY):
Tom Clancy and His Secret History : In this novel by a bestselling author, the United States government is so deeply in debt that it has long ago run out of sufficient gold with which to collateralize the debt. Starting during the Nixon administration, public lands were declared off limits to the general population and set aside as collateral on the loans held by foreign interests. In order to conceal from the public just how dire the situation truly was, this land collateralization process was concealed behind a cover of "environmentalism". The E.P.A. was created at the very start of the land collateralization process, and has since been joined by various other programs with names such as "Heritage Rivers", "Wet lands", "Biosphere Reserve", etc. By using a large number of such fronts, with each only grabbing a "small" amount of land, the United States government has tried to conceal the true scale of the land collateralization process (AKA “Giving away the store”) from the public.
Abroad, to put it simply, American control of the world's remaining major oil resources, both the middle east and Central Asia, would bail the US government out of its financial woes as nothing else can. Indeed there appear to be no other options open. It's "grab the oil" or collapse under the accumulated debt of decades of "wishful spending" by the government. There are clear indications that such a planned grab for the oil-wealth of Central Asia lies at the heart of current US foreign policy. In 1998, Congress discussed removing the government of Afghanistan to make way for an oil pipeline. This is hopefully the last move in what has been termed “The Great Game,” played and paid for with blood for control of central Asia.
The
Power Elite by C. Wright Mills. Mills
examines the old moneyed classes in the United States, how the
powerful and wealthy set up networks of influence through elite
schools, and how the power elites recruited new members through such
institutions as corporations and government service
… The
first part of this book tends to move slowly, and isn't nearly as
interesting as the second half when Mills discusses the rise of the
military, government, and corporate hierarchies. According to Mills,
these three institutions now form a contiguous whole as far as
managing the country goes. Moreover, people inhabiting any of these
three structures often move between them with seeming ease. Isn't it
funny that Colin Powell, a lifelong military officer, suddenly finds
himself in the political world as Secretary of State? Or how Dick
Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld move between the
corporate and political worlds with such ease ? … the three
hierarchies of power in the United States are interlocking, and the
people at the highest levels of these institutions look after one
another and do each other favors because they share the same
experiences, backgrounds, and aspirations. They all share the same
attitudes, the same sense of "sound judgment" necessary to
manage society.
Also
of interest:
White
Collar: The American Middle Classes by C. Wright Mills
Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History by Norman O. Brown Readers ranging from Jim Morrison to Norman Podhoretz found this 1959 book to be a “ powerful challenge to Freud's doctrine that human possibilities were inherently and insurmountably limited.” If the question "What is the human animal?" is on your mind, read this book . . . . Life Against Death ranks among the most important modern contributions toward an understanding of the human condition. It is on the same short list as Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and Camus' Myth of Sisyphus. Like these works and indeed the subject, it is not an easy read.
Who
was Nichola
Tesla ( Persuade us to read his biography ) and why is no
one talking about him ? We
know that he was undoubtedly persecuted by the energy power brokers
of his day -- namely Thomas Edison, whom we are taught in school to
revere as a genius. Tesla was also attacked by J.P. Morgan and
other "captains of industry." Upon Tesla's death, broke and
alone in Manhattan in 1943, the U.S. government moved into his lab
and apartment in the New Yorker Hotel confiscated all of his
scientific research, and to this day none of this research has been
made public. We would do well to remember that technology is never
the true enemy; it is the misuse of technology that can enslave
rather than free mankind from its animal-level, induced scarcity and
survivalism. Examine what Nikola Tesla has actually given to the
world. For better or worse, with credit or without, he changed
the face of the planet in ways that perhaps no man ever has.”
Encyclopedia Britannica lists Tesla as one of the top ten most
fascinating people in history. So why is he virtually unknown to the
general public? This program is a penetrating study of the life and
mind of a scientific superman who, against all odds, dedicated his
life to the task of designing and improving technology for the
service and advancement of humanity. Video (about 43 mins):
Nikola
Tesla: The Untold Story
This
topic could result in a petition for a statue to Tesla in Bryant
Square Park recognizing Tesla the inventor as an action step.
[ Model: For
Three Suffragists, a Monument Well Past Due On Aug
6, 2020, The sculptor Meredith Bergmann was putting the finishing
touches on her suffragist sculpture, presented in Central Park on
Aug. 26. It will be the park's first
— and so far only —... ]
Who was Thorstein Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen produced a landmark study of affluent American society that exposes, with brilliant ruthlessness, the habits of production and waste that link invidious business tactics and barbaric social behavior. Veblen's analysis of the process sees greed as the overriding motive in the modern economy, and with an impartial gaze he examines the human cost paid when social institutions exploit the consumption of unessential goods for the sake of personal profit. Fashion, beauty, animals, sports, the home, the clergy, scholars--all are assessed for their true usefulness and found wanting. Indeed, Veblen's critique covers all aspects of modern life from dress, class, the position of women, home decoration, industry, business, and sport, to religion, scholarship, and education. The targets of Veblen's coruscating satire are as evident today as they were a century ago, and his book still has the power to shock and enlighten.
Who was Alan Turing … and why are so few talking about him. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades--all before his suicide at age forty-one. In Alan Turing: The Enigma, author Hodges also tells how this work was directly related to Turing's leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph critical to Allied victory.
Who
was Smedley
Butler. . . and why are so few talking about him.
War
is a Racket: The Profit Motive Behind Warfare, The Antiwar
Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier: Marine Corps General
Smedley D. Butler. When "War is a Racket" was first
published in 1935, Butler was the
most decorated American soldier of his time,
one
of only 19 men to twice receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Butler had lead several successful military operations in the
Caribbean and in Central America, as well as in Europe during the
First World War. Despite his success and his heroic status, however,
Butler came away from these experiences with a deeply troubled view
of both the purpose and the results of warfare. Butler's
central thesis is that regardless of the popular rhetoric that often
accompanies warfare, it is waged almost exclusively for profit.
He advances this argument in three examples in this little known
critique. A version of the events regarding a failed coup that Butler
thwarted is the excellent film written by Rod Serling and directed by
John Frankenheimer: Seven
Days in May, apparently available for free viewing.
Who is Naomi Klein . . . and why are so few talking about her and confusing her with Naomi Wolf : The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Review of the acclaimed book by Naomi Klein that received little support from the mass media. If you wonder what happened to the middle class, why poverty is on the rise and what the economies in a democracy, dictatorship and "communism" have in common, you'll find food for thought in Naomi Klein's THE SHOCK DOCTRINE. Tracing the rise of the “Chicago Boys” laissez-faire economic beliefs, their impact on South America, China, Russia, Poland and South Africa and how it impacted their form of government, Klein makes a compelling argument for the flaws in Milton Friedman's economic “science”. Klein's book looks at the conflict between Milton Friedman's “laissez-faire” approach to business and government where business is largely unregulated running itself and government is little more than a bare bones system. [Read Adam Smith instead and make up your own mind !] Friedman believed that the economic theories he espoused would be perfect and that any problems with it would be due to outside forces interfering with his free market world. His approach was in complete contrast to Keynes who believed that the prime mission of politicians and economists was to prevent unemployment and avoid a depression or recession by regulating the market place. Economists like John Kenneth Galbraith, heir to Keynes mantle, believe that government was to keep our capitalist system fair and prevent business from recreating disasters like the Great Depression and 1929 stock market crash. It is the conflict between these two economic philosophies that our world lives and flourishes.
Who
is Howard Zinn . . . and why are so few talking about him:
“A
People's History of the United States” by Howard
Zinn a different, uncensored
version of American history. this book has its faults… It does
sometimes omit factual points that do not support its line of
argument… It does sometimes verge on equating the misdeeds of
American leaders with the horrific malevolence of the leaders of
totalitarian states… It does romanticize its heroes. For
all that, though, this book is an excellent introduction to U.S.
history if read as a contrasting voice to more traditional
narratives. It is a fine and vigorous antidote to the excessively
reverent tone of many high school textbooks. It conveys a sense
of moral passion that is often lacking in these texts, which are
typically take great pains to offend no one, particularly regarding
events within living memory.
Not
all contemporary texts are this bloodlessly terrible, but many are.
One of the best things about Zinn's histories is that he leaves in
the drama that the standard texts insist on draining out. "A
People's History" begins with a bold thesis, and keeps it at
center stage--namely, that those with power and wealth consistently
extend it to others only when the situation has reached the level of
deep crisis, and only with the minimum and uppermost fraction of the
discontented needed to co-opt them and defeat the dissent of the
remainder, often also turning otherwise natural allies into
antagonistic contenders for "table scraps" from the banquet
in the process.
Kings
or People: Power and the Mandate to Rule by Reinhard Bendix
It's
a thematic history of the evolution of the European and East Asian
governments; it specifically addresses the motivations of the elites
and the decisions they took that led to the development of democracy
(or not!). The nations examined include Japan, Germany, Russia,
England, and France. . . . What distinguishes this book and makes it
so worthwhile is that it outlines rival currents of thought on
political transitions; and supplies Bendix's extraordinarily
insightful discussions on the basic social process underway.
“One
of the truly powerful ventures in comparative historical sociology to
have appeared in recent years."-- Clifford Geertz
Who was Upton Sinclair . . . and why are so few people talking about him: The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition by Upton Sinclair, some of the goriest descriptions of the meat packing industry in the last century. Dated History? OK, enjoy your pink-slime burger.
Who
was Albert O.
Hirschman . . . and why are so few talking about him:
Albert
O. Hirschman: The Passions and Their Interests How
Greed became Good.
Hirschman illuminates the ideological transformation that occurred,
wherein the
pursuit of material interests -- long condemned as the deadly sin of
avarice --was assigned the role of containing the unruly and
destructive passions of man.
Hirschman
here offers a new interpretation on the rise of capitalism, one that
emphasizes the continuities between old and new orders. Among the
insights
presented here is the ironical finding that capitalism was originally
supposed to accomplish exactly what was soon denounced as its worst
feature: the repression of the passions
in
favor of the "harmless," if one-dimensional, interests of
commercial life. Get
book here.
Lying
by Sissela Bok: Discussion and Link to classic book (Buy
it here.))
on
deception and its consequences; other views regarding “Gaslighting”
(for Wiki entry).
Through references, contrasts, and scenarios, Sissela Bok challenges
the reader to consider the effects of lying on the individual,
relationships and society. The author covers the spectrum of lies
from “little white lies” to avoid an unwanted dinner invitation
to the arguably moral lies required to survive in a totalitarian
state - taking the reader step by step through a journey of
increasingly complex moral questions.
The
book argues that lying, as it is often conducted in society, lacks
the moral basis of those few cases where it can be justified.
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber “a founding text in economic sociology and sociology in general. Max Weber wrote that capitalism in northern Europe evolved when the Protestant (particularly Calvinist) ethic influenced large numbers of people to engage in work in the secular world, developing their own enterprises and engaging in trade and the accumulation of wealth for investment. In other words, the Protestant work ethic was an important force behind the unplanned and uncoordinated mass action that influenced the development of capitalism. This idea is also known as the "Protestant Ethic thesis."
Nietzsche: 'On the Genealogy of Morality' and Other Writings: (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) by Friedrich Nietzsche: Regarded in philosophical circles as the first "postmodern" philosopher, Nietzsche is very critical of all of modernity's philosophical attempts to create a scientific or rationally based approach to ethics. Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals is in part a refutation of Kant's ethical theory, arguing that Kantian ethics as well as other modern ethical theories were more interested in defining ethical values and not concerned with questioning their usefulness or whether they were derived from what Nietzsche believed were irrational psychological forces feeding people's illusions.
Ressentiment Defined - Max Scheler : This monograph (order here) constitutes a response to the criticisms of Christianity outlined in Nietzsche's GENEALOGY OF MORALS, in which Nietzsche argues that Christianity is a "slave revolt" of the weak—an attempt by the impotent to bring down the vitality of a capable nobility. Scheler's response is multi-faceted but centers on Nietzsche's failure to understand the nature of Christian love.
Jared
Diamond: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Jared Diamond in his book adds self-inflicted environmental
degradation, climate change, disastrous trading relations, and unwise
responses to societal problems. Fun Reading!
The
Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
Hearing
voices in your head? Here is one theory book by Julian Jaynes -
note that the author taught at Princeton University (he died in
1997), so his theories ought to have received a hearing. But
apparently the follow-up book he intended was never published, and he
was considered somewhat of a maverick, if not quite a crackpot. This
website offers some perspective: http://www.julianjaynes.org
/ His theory, in simplest terms, is that until
about 3000 years ago, all of humankind basically heard
disembodied voices. The voices were actually coming from the other
side of the brain, but because the two hemispheres were not in
communication the way they are now for most of us, the voices seemed
to be coming from outside. The voices seemed, in fact, to be coming
from God, the gods, or Satan.
The
Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition, by Charles Darwin,
Introduction
by Julian Huxley. The
original book by Charles Darwin is a classic that should be on
everyone's reading list. There are ample reviews here which address
it, praise it, and I am completely in agreement with them. Darwin's
Origin of Species is a true masterpiece of Englis prose.
Unfortunately,
this review is to help readers and buyers realize that there is a
'vandalized' version which has been published, and to tell you how to
avoid it and get the real thing. To explain; there is yet another
edition also called "The Origin of Species, 150th Anniversary
Edition", put out by Christian Fundamentalist Ray Comfort in an
attempt to discredit evolutionary theory and Charles Darwin, and it
has some extra 50 pages of unintelligible drivel about creationism,
as well as having ABRIDGED Darwin's original text. If you want to
read about creationism, find another book. If
you want the facts, read ALL of what Darwin has to say, and please
don't give any money to Comfort by accidentally buying his ABRIDGED
version. Note that he used the EXACT same name as the 'real'
anniversary edition -- "The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary
Edition by Charles Darwin".
You can easily tell which version you're getting by who
wrote the introduction - go with Julian Huxley,
NOT Ray Comfort, and you'll have the correct and complete version.
Also, note that Amazon reviews are mixed between the books (normally
not a problem at all) - I hope they are straightening this out, but
currently that's not the case.
Sadly, the negative reviews of the Comfort version are bringing down the rating of the 'good and real' book.” (from Amazon review) Recent study of resistance to ideas on evolution here, and here read the latest study suggesting recent positive adaptations to an environment. This study explores the unique US resistance to Darwin and science in general. This deliberate “dumbing down” of the American electorate is the obvious goal of those determined to undermine our democratic values of transparency, due diligence and free inquiry.
Did
you love Downton Abbey ? Question critically that rosy depiction of
English Country Life.
In
Search of a Past by Ronald Fraser: This
is a different
take on the upstairs-downstairs world portrayed in the popular PBS
series, Downton Abbey. “The master of oral history recreates a
vivid picture of a vanished interwar world.
Ronald Fraser, the internationally-renowned oral historian, turns his
attention to his own origins in this remarkable memoir. In
Search of a Past gathers the recollections of the servants who worked
at the manor house outside London where Fraser grew up.
It
was the place where his parents—one American, the other
Scottish—learned to embrace the lifestyle of the idle local gentry.
Fraser paints a vivid picture of a vanished interwar world.
Sensitively recorded, the words of his family’s former employees
capture the texture of English "county" life as seen from
below, woven into a background of their personal lives, their work
and the social antagonisms they experienced. Beneath their stories,
however, the author glimpses another unspoken narrative—that of his
own childhood. He submits to a course of psychoanalysis and delves
into a past riven by confusing emotions and conflicting class
allegiances. The result is an innovative, honest, and beautifully
written account of the search for lost time, one that defies literary
categorization.” From the Amazon review.
Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler by Antony C. Sutton: Or, What did you do during the war, grandpa ? Is a question that will go unanswered too often as the “greatest generation” and their brain cells fade away. This from the Amazon review: “The contribution made by American capitalism to German war preparations can only be described as phenomenal. It was certainly crucial to German military capabilities...Not only was an influential sector of American business aware of the nature of Nazism, but for its own purposes aided Nazism wherever possible (and profitable) - with full knowledge that the probable outcome would be war involving Europe and the United States'. Penetrating a cloak of falsehood, deception and duplicity, Professor Antony C. Sutton reveals one of the most remarkable but unreported facts of the Second World War: that key Wall Street banks and American businesses supported Hitler's rise to power by financing and trading with Nazi Germany. Carefully tracing this closely guarded secret through original documents and eyewitness accounts, Sutton comes to the unsavory conclusion that the catastrophic Second World War was extremely profitable for a select group of financial insiders. He presents a thoroughly documented account of the role played by J.P. Morgan, T.W. Lamont, the Rockefeller interests, General Electric Company, Standard Oil, National City Bank, Chase and Manhattan banks, Kuhn, Loeb and Company, General Motors, the Ford Motor Company, and scores of others in helping to prepare the bloodiest, most destructive war in history. This classic study, published in 1976 - the third volume of a trilogy - is reproduced here in its original form. The other volumes in the series study the 1917 Lenin-Trotsky Revolution in Russia and the 1933 election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States.”
Silent
Spring by Rachel Carson Rachel Carson’s Silent
Spring was first published in three excerpts in the New Yorker in
1962. The book appeared in September of that year and the outcry that
followed its publication forced the banning of DDT and spurred
revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water.
Carson’s passionate concern for the future of our planet
reverberated powerfully throughout the world, and her eloquent book
was instrumental in launching the environmental movement.
It
is without question one of the landmark books of the twentieth
century. In 2013 we invite you to consider this topic in celebrating
the 57th anniversary of its publication.
“Over
increasingly large areas of the United States, spring now comes
unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are
strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird
song.”
