locus communis

azspot:

Heavy Weather, Megacities… A Failed Future. Opt Out.

1 day ago

May 23, 2013

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One of the greatest threats we face is, simply put, bullshit. We are drowning it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research; in social media’s imitation of human connection; in legalese and corporate double-speak. It infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth, making it harder to achieve anything.

— Jon Lovett’s commencement address to Pitzer College. (via theatlantic)

3 days ago

May 21, 2013

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Michael Wines, An Underground Pool Drying Up
Portions of the High Plains Aquifer are rapidly being depleted by farmers who are pumping too much water to irrigate their crops, particularly in the southern half in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Levels have declined up to 242 feet in some areas, from predevelopment — before substantial groundwater irrigation began — to 2011. (via An Underground Pool Drying Up - Graphic - NYTimes.com)

Michael Wines, An Underground Pool Drying Up

Portions of the High Plains Aquifer are rapidly being depleted by farmers who are pumping too much water to irrigate their crops, particularly in the southern half in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Levels have declined up to 242 feet in some areas, from predevelopment — before substantial groundwater irrigation began — to 2011. (via An Underground Pool Drying Up - Graphic - NYTimes.com)

4 days ago

May 20, 2013

reblogged via

morningamp:

Legal scholar and developer of the Creative Commons licenses that have opened up access to intellectual property old and new, Lawrence Lessig has also been focused on the corrupting influence of money on American elections and politics. Earlier this month he “retired” his popular lecture about this issue and spoke with AMp hosts Brian Babylon and Molly Adams this morning about his hopes for transforming Legislator’s dependence on funders’ money and not on voter’s opinions.

4 days ago

May 20, 2013

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asmu:

A fascinating map of the world’s most and least racially tolerant countries

Read the Washington Post article here.

4 days ago

May 20, 2013

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streetetiquette:

Favorite photo series of Miles Davis.

(Source: findmelazlo)

4 days ago

May 20, 2013

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Maligned as a bunch of shiftless, tech-addled children raised to think they’d all get trophies, Millennials are trying to build careers out of the ruins of a job market. Amid a group that’s supposed to be a bunch of entitled kids, all I see around me are young people juggling multiple jobs and unpaid internships while trying to blot their (trigger warning!) student debt from their minds.

— Matt Bors, Millenials Aren’t Lazy: They’re Fucked (via stoweboyd)

2 weeks ago

May 11, 2013

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everydayafrica:

Beautiful Camilla, 8, followed us around the crowded Meshenti Market under the hot sun smiling for photos while ensuring we werent overcharged for oranges. When we gave her pens and a notebook she apologized that we spent any money on her. Her only request, a photo with her and her grandmother. Bahir dar, Ethiopia. Photo by Jane Hahn @janehahn #bahirdar #ethiopia #beautiful #grandmother #market #love #family #iphoneonly

2 weeks ago

May 8, 2013

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http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/31231/large/teaser_(44).png?1367897403

2 weeks ago

May 7, 2013

Along with all of the other rising inequalities we’ve become so familiar with — in income, in wealth, in access to politicians — we confront now a fundamental inequality of accountability. We can have a just society whose guiding ethos is accountability and punishment, where both black kids dealing weed in Harlem and investment bankers peddling fraudulent securities on Wall Street are forced to pay for their crimes, or we can have a just society whose guiding ethos is forgiveness and second chances, one in which both Wall Street banks and foreclosed households are bailed out, in which both inside traders and street felons are allowed to rejoin polite society with the full privileges of citizenship intact. But we cannot have a just society that applies the principle of accountability to the powerless and the principle of forgiveness to the powerful. This is the America in which we currently reside.

— Chris Hayes, quoted by Ta-Nehisi Coates (via ayjay)