Ineffable. — American Dreamers
These lights will make you feel brand new. Burning Man, it’s something that could never happen anywhere than American. It’s most powerful expression of the individual and its potential, the quintessence of the American lifestyle. There is a deep humanism, a faith in the human being that we are able to build magnificent things. Be Amazing. I always thought that an intense expression of individuality would never be livable in society but it’s actually ok. I was born in Morocco, a magnificent country but filled with tons of taboos, coercive rules and society principles that are pretty strict. Oh, I would have never thought staring at more creation, seeing more value in giant mushrooms on fire than the whole Wall Street district.Since my college times, I really had a hard time enjoying beauty for what it is and completely stop to see things in an utilitarian way. The Temple of Whollyness. What a punch of emotions. La Reina De Los Muertos.
Your Labor Day Syria Reader, Part 2: William Polk - James Fallows
Many times I've mentioned the foreign-policy assessments of William R. Polk, at right, who first wrote for the Atlantic (about Iraq) during Dwight Eisenhower's administration, back in 1958, and served on the State Department's Policy Planning staff during the Kennedy years. He now has sent in a detailed analysis about Syria. Polk wrote this just before President Obama switched from his go-it-alone policy and decided to seek Congressional approval for a Syrian strike.
Now Is The Time For All Good Nerds To Come To The Aid Of The Internet
The Internet is broken. It is burning. Facebook and Twitter fiddle while it smokes and we, the sapped members of the Internet class, watch the flames and wonder what’s next. Ignore this moment at your peril. How can we start? Encrypt your hard drive. Require transparency and control of your service providers. Support open source. Don’t consent to be identified or use hardware that does. The absence of privacy is tragic and dangerous. One way of beginning to understand privacy is by looking at what happens to people in extreme situations where it is absent. You are all smart people.
They’re Taking Over! by Tim Flannery
Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean by Lisa-ann Gershwin, with a foreword by Sylvia Earle University of Chicago Press, 424 pp., $27.50 It’s become fashionable to keep jellyfish in aquariums. Behind glass they can be hypnotically beautiful and immensely relaxing to watch. Box jellyfish have bells (the disc-shaped “head”) around a foot across, behind which trail up to 550 feet of tentacles. In 2000 a somewhat less venomous species of box jellyfish, which lives further south, threatened the Sydney Olympics. Most jellyfish are little more than gelatinous bags containing digestive organs and gonads, drifting at the whim of the current. The Irukandjis are diminutive relatives of the box jellies. It’s now known that the brush of a single tentacle is enough to induce “Irukandji syndrome.” It’s difficult to know how many victims the Irukandji have claimed. Jellyfish are among the oldest animal fossils ever found. Even nations can be affected by the power of the jellies.
Lettre d'une pigiste perdue dans l'enfer syrien
Ce texte sur son expérience syrienne a été publié le 1er juillet 2013, sur le site de la 'Columbia Journalism Review', par Francesca Borri, journaliste indépendante italienne, par ailleurs auteur d'un livre sur le Kosovo et d'un autre sur les rapports entre Israéliens et Palestiniens intitulé 'Quelqu'un avec qui parler' (Manifestolibri, 2010). Il a suscité de très nombreuses réactions, auxquelles Francesca Borri a elle-même répondu sur le site du 'Guardian'. Il nous a semblé qu'il méritait d'être traduit en français. Il m’a finalement écrit. Le même jour, dans la soirée, j’ai retrouvé le camp rebelle où je vivais, au beau milieu de cet enfer qui s’appelle Alep, et dans la poussière et la faim et la peur, j’ai espéré trouver un ami, un mot compatissant, un geste tendre. Du reporter freelance, les gens gardent l’image romantique d’un journaliste qui a préféré la liberté de traiter les sujets qui lui plaisent à la certitude d’un salaire régulier. Et puis, bien sûr, je suis une femme.
Top 5 Pens — The Pen Addict
(Updated 10/14/2013) I get asked what my favorite pens are all of the time. While that is generally an easy question to answer, what the reader often means is "what pen should I buy?" That is a much more difficult question because of the sheer number of variables involved. With my Top 5 lists, I try to capture what pens I am currently using the most in each category. Not what pens are the best of all-time, or what pens you should rush out and buy. Use these lists as guidelines. Top 5 Pens - Overall (Updated Oct. 2013) TWSBI 580 - Hard to beat the value and versatility.Sakura Pigma Micron - My go-to Field Notes pen.Uni-Ball Signo DX 0.38 mm - Vibrant, smooth, and consistent.Ohto Graphic Liner - Still amazed how good this pen is.Uni-Ball Jetstream - The pen of the people, and me if it is 0.5 mm. Top 5 Micro Gel Ink Pens (Updated Oct. 2013) Top 5 Pens In The Store Uni-ball Jetstream - Stay away from the 1.0 mm.Uni-ball Signo 207 - "But what can I buy at Staples that is good?"
Compagnies aériennes: jusqu'où iront Ryanair et les autres rois du low cost pour réduire les coûts?
Face à la concurrence qui fait rage, Ryanair et les autres compagnies aériennes sont prêtes à tout pour faire des économies. Parfois, les mesures prises ressortissent à la plus pure radinerie, même si, au final, elles se traduisent par des millions de dollars d'économies chaque année. Mais parfois, elles peuvent aller à l'encontre de l'exigence de sécuriité. Revue de détail. Le champion du monde des réductions de dépenses tous azimuts est Michael O'Leary, le patron de Ryanair, qui ne ménage pas son temps pour produire des idées lui permettant d'économiser et... accessoirement de faire parler de lui. A l'occasion d'une interview accordée au Républicain lorrain, il avait ainsi carrément annoncé qu'il souhaitait supprimer des toilettes dans ses avions : "N’en garder qu’un sur quatre suffit largement, nos trajets étant en moyenne d’un peu plus d’une heure. Et cet Irlandais qui dirige Ryanair depuis près de 20 ans a de la suite dans les idées.
The Delicious Irony of “Dark Money”
It turns out that the liberal think tank Center for American Progress gets its funding from evil corporations just like everyone else. Among the top donors are multi-national corporations and industries such as Google, Northrop Grumman, and NBCUniversal. Not a day goes by without some big-government lefty railing about “dark money.” Just last week, Sen. U.S. The left’s preferred narrative is simple, easy-to-understand and has a ring of truth. But the fact that corporations also fund big-government organizations raises questions about this narrative. The truth is that most regulation is written by and for incumbent businesses to erect barriers to entry and to buy advantages over their competitors. Earlier this year, Center for American Progress donor Citibank hired lobbyists to literally write 70 out of 85 lines of a bill regulating derivatives trading which passed the House. There are three main reasons corporations like Citibank write their own legislation. U.S.
