Will chimps soon have human rights? | World news Tommy, 26, lives on a trailer lot in Gloversville, New York, with only a television for company. Tommy is a chimpanzee, and if the organisation seeking to free him and move him to a sanctuary wins a lawsuit it filed today, the result could have implications for how we view – and treat – our closest animal relatives. Tommy is one of four chimps the Nonhuman Rights Project will be representing. Kiko, also thought to be 26, lives in Niagara Falls, and has been trained in martial arts, though his sparring partner Charlie, "the karate Chimp", is now dead. The other two, Hercules and Leo, are "being held" at a university, where they are used for biomechanical research. The Nonhuman Rights Project was set up by a legal scholar, Steven M Wise, in 2007, with the aim of conferring "personhood" on animal species. He has two arguments – one of liberty, and one of equality.
33 Unbelievable Places To Visit Before You Die – Earth Is So Amazing Salar De Uyuni, Bolivia Source: earthporm.comDuring the rainy season, the world’s largest salt flat becomes the world’s largest mirror. The Salar was born when several prehistoric lakes joined into one. Tianzi Mountains, China Source: michaelyamashita.comThese unqiuely tall and thin mountains are so alien that they were used in James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Source: michaelyamashita.com Sentinels of the Arctic, Finland Source: niccolobonfadini.comniccolobonfadini.comThese sentinels are actually giant trees covered in snow and ice. Source: apod.nasa.gov Reed Flute Caves, China Source: rootfun.net Source: natureflip.comThis 240-meter-long cave system has been one of Guilin, China’s most popular attractions for over 1200 years. Source: amusingplanet.com Skaftafell Ice Cave, Iceland Source: all-that-is-interesting.comIce caves are temporary structures that form at the edge of glaciers when flowing water melts a hole into glaciers. Source: amusingplanet.com Antelope Canyon, Arizona, United States
the poststructural anarchist Todd May interviewed by Richard Marshall. Todd May is the poststructuralist anarchist who thinks anarchism is more than just a critique of the state, that there is more than one struggle, that Foucault, Deleuze and Lyotard are important, that postructuralism is elusive, that anarchism is bottom-up and liberalism is top-down, that ‘how might one live?’ is the down and dirty question, that Foucault’s thought will remain standing when the dust is settled, that what it means to be human is a matter of practices, that Ranciere gets him emotionally, that friendship offers a different model from neo-liberalism and that his conception is about resistance not cohesion. High Five! 3:AM: What made you become a philosopher? Todd May: Many philosophers I talk with seem to get their start in philosophy from a teacher, often a college professor, that turns them on to the subject. 3:AM: You’ve written about and are associated with ‘poststructuralist anarchism.’ TM: Poststructuralism is an elusive term.
How and when to book a cheap flight | Travel It's the classic traveller's dilemma. When is the best time to book a flight for the cheapest deal? Do you bag a flight as early as possible or risk leaving it until the last minute? The answer, according to flight comparison website Skyscanner, is to wait, but not for too long. After an epic piece of number crunching of two million flight searches over three years Skyscanner has come up with the ideal time to book 10 summer sun destinations. Flights to Spain, for example, are at their cheapest (£153 for a return) five weeks before departure, while the cheapest flights to Greece (£228 return) are available just three weeks ahead. However, Filip Filipov of Skyscanner advises that while five weeks is the average, the optimum time to book your flight can vary significantly between destinations. The best time for flights to Turkey, for example, is 13 weeks before departure, while the US should be booked five months (21 weeks) ahead. Ryanair Seats released for sale 8-12 months in advance.
MEGA Marx: Berfrois Interviews Jonathan Sperber by Russell Bennetts Jonathan Sperber is a social historian and Curators’ Professor of History at the University of Missouri. His most recent publication is Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life. Russell Bennetts is the editor of Berfrois. Berfrois Was Karl Marx an anti-Semite? Sperber Historians are notoriously reluctant to give yes-or-no answers to any question, and this one is a particularly apt candidate for an ambivalent response. There is another side to Marx’s attitude, though. In order to understand Marx’s position, we need to see that being Jewish in mid-nineteenth century Europe was regarded primarily as a matter of religious and cultural affiliation. A good example of Marx’s attitude can be seen in a letter he wrote to Engels concerning a trip he took in 1875 from London to Karlsbad (today’s Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic). How did his personal relationship with Fredrich Engels develop over the years? The two collaborated intellectually and politically over the next four years.
Here's What a 9.2 Earthquake Can Do to a City Having just lived through 10,000 quakes and aftershocks I can tell you that you better get your shit together if you live in a quake prone area. Work out where you will meet important people as chances are the cellular system will be overloaded (and on a related note don't get rid of your landline). Have an old cell phone with good battery and topped up SIM in it as smartphones suck in emergency. Something like an old Nokia that will last for days and days without a charge. The bike is your friend in a state of emergency, cars suck... all petrol stations close, all roads get blocked and in some cases (like ours) there is crazy amounts of flooding. Bikes can go way more places. Don't have any stupid heavy stuff on your walls unless extremely well secured. Make sure you have a decent supply of booze (and other stuff like food, but booze is key!!). Get a battery powered radio, keep a torch by your bed (you won't want to suck up your phone battery, trust me). Get to know your neighbours.
Shoring Against the Ruins | Artist Show Us What Celebs Would Like If They Lived Normal Lives With the wonders of Photoshop and the subtle artistic skills of artist Danny Evans, we are now able to see what some famous Hollywood stars would look like if they had lives the hum drum life the normal “man on the street” has lived, instead of following their glamorous lifestyles. As we all know, celebs go under lots of different treatments including fancy diets, personal trainers, tooth whitening, breast enlargement, hair removal, hair transplants, you name it, they do it. The thing with all these treatments is that they require stacks of cash. Without the millions of dollars these celebrities earn they would be left to fact up to life like the rest of us. These images below are so clever in showing us how they may look without having spent all this money. Starting off, we have Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Source for image
MINDFUL PLEASURES: Poetry after Auschwitz: What Adorno Really Said, and Where He Said It Gore Vidal remarks somewhere upon the irony that George Santayana is remembered today only for his warning about forgetting. (All who remember Santayana are doomed to repeat that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it.) Theodor Adorno seems to have suffered a similar fate, remembered by most nonspecialists only as a German gloom-meister who pronounced that after Auschwitz, poetry could no longer be written. Few realize that what Adorno actually wrote was more complex and subject to revision in his later work. The original quote (always taken out of context and rarely footnoted) occurs in the concluding passage of a typically densely argued 1949 essay, "Cultural Criticism and Society," reprinted as the first essay in Prisms. The more total society becomes, the greater the reification of the mind and the more paradoxical its effort to escape reification on its own. It's a difficult passage from a difficult essay, made more difficult by being wrenched out of context.