Yes, the Utopian World Championships are real: utopianwc.com/info/main.asp
Scary.
Here’s an review I recently wrote about “Utopia in Four Movements,” which recently came to my local, tax-supported theater.
Daily Archives: 10 March 2012
Academic publishers have become the enemies of science: yet more real piracy
This is the moment academic publishers gave up all pretence of being on the side of scientists. Their rhetoric has traditionally been of partnering with scientists, but the truth is that for some time now scientific publishers have been anti-science and anti-publication. The Research Works Act, introduced in the US Congress on 16 December, amounts to a declaration of war by the publishers.
The USA’s main funding agency for health-related research is the National Institutes of Health, with a $30bn annual budget. The NIH has a public access policy that says taxpayer-funded research must be freely accessible online. This means that members of the public, having paid once to have the research done, don’t have to pay for it again when they read it – a wholly reasonable policy, and one with enormous humanitarian implications because it means the results of medical research are made freely available around the world.
But, due to lobbying by academic publishers, “If passed, the Research Works Act (RWA) would prohibit the NIH’s public access policy and anything similar enacted by other federal agencies, locking publicly funded research behind paywalls.”
What we have here is a lobbying effort to take work out of the public domain and put it behind a copyright-like wall.
(Read more)
Elderly Israeli Fighter Talks About 1948 Genocide
Electronic Intifada‘s Benjamin Doherty shared a video from “Nakba”-awareness group Zochrot – “Remembering” – of a former Palmach fighter who participated in the expulsion of unarmed Palestinian Arabs from their villages in Southern Israel. Amnon Neumann casually describes that he helped kill people, burn their villages, and chase off women and children. He regrets his actions but notes he is one of the few to admit his crimes; even so, he is loath to talk about the details of the atrocities.
In one grimace-inducing moment, Neumann talks of the Palestinians who didn’t quite realize they wouldn’t be coming back, who sneaked out of Gaza refugee camps at night to tend their villages’ grapevines. There, says Neumann, they were gunned down. (Read more)
Harry Reid doesn’t believe rich people create jobs
Netherlands joins growing chorus for burqa ban
The Dutch government today promised to ban face coverings, including burqas or niqabs, by next year, Reuters reported.
The minority Liberal-Christian governing party denied, though, that the law is religiously motivated. The ban will also apply to such things as balaclavas, ski masks and helmets with shields worn inappropriately in public.
“People should be able to look at each other’s faces and recognize each other when they meet,” a statement from the interior affairs ministry said, according to Reuters.
The coalition government that rules the Netherlands, however, includes the pro-Dutch Freedom Party. (Read more)
DA: Robbery victim, 65, justified in shooting of teens on trail
A 65-year-old man was justified in shooting two of three teenagers who were attempting to rob him as he rode his bicycle along a popular river trail Wednesday morning, authorities announced Thursday.
The ordeal unfolded shortly before 11 a.m. on the Thun Trail in Cumru Twp., Berks Co.
The teens knocked the man off his bicycle and onto the ground in their third random robbery attempt in about an hour’s time, said Berks County District Attorney John Adams.
Two of the teens were assaulting the man when he pulled out a gun and shot them, police said. (Read more)
Divers find large, unexplained object at bottom of Baltic Sea
A team of salvage divers has discovered an unexplained object resting at the bottom of the Baltic Sea near Sweden.
“This thing turned up. My first reaction was to tell the guys that we have a UFO here on the bottom,” said Peter Lindberg, the leader of the amateur treasure hunters.
Sonar readings show that the mysterious object is about 60 meters across, or, about the size of a jumbo jet. And it’s not alone. Nearby on the sea floor is another, smaller object with a similar shape. Even more fascinating, both objects have “drag marks” behind them on the sea floor, stretching back more than 400 feet. (Read more)
Great Las Vegas DUI Checkpoint Refusal!
Inspiring.
Campaign to end “slut-shaming”
Medicare cheats the young
Wealthy Seniors benefit from medicare: