WDET- Detroit Public Radio: "Detroit and Berlin are iconic cities; symbols of cultural and economic domination, as well as of collapse, and (potential) rebirth. Detroit and Berlin have ideological similarities that go far beyond industrial power. As beacons of culture, Detroit and Berlin have both been on the cutting edge of arts activities. Berlin is a crossroads of European film, art, music and food; Detroit is a center of African-American culture, with global credibility in jazz, techno, and emerging cultural expressions."
Audio Preview. [more inside]
posted by HLD
on Oct 10, 2011 -
13 comments
On April 12th, prior to the Alabama outbreak and about 6 weeks before a tornado tore through the middle of mostly basement-less Joplin, MO, Colleen Bogener wrote a
short editorial on the need for public storm shelters in Joplin. There was a short bit of discussion in response.
posted by spock
on May 25, 2011 -
71 comments
How Private Is 'Private Charity'? Private charity may be
more accurately described as "private donations coupled with involuntary, tax-financed public subsidies." And
it's not fair: "very low-income people paying only payroll taxes get hardly any leverage for their donations. Very high-income people in states with high income-tax rates – such as New Jersey and New York – can through the tax code virtually double the money funneled to a charity per dollar of their own sacrifice." (
previously)
posted by kliuless
on Jan 17, 2011 -
39 comments
Shared social responsibility -
When customers could pay what they wanted in the knowledge that half of that would go to charity, sales and profits went through the roof ... Gneezy describes the combination of charitable donations and paying what you like as 'shared social responsibility', where businesses and customers work together for the public good. (via
mr) [also see
1,
2,
3]
posted by kliuless
on Jul 28, 2010 -
19 comments
Last August (2009), the "ephemeral artists" of
Nothing Happened Here staged a
mobile public reading event,
meandering around the town of San Luis Obispo, CA with
The Reading Chair, and a group of folks reading
a variety of stories, poems and tales. The group has planned
Typing in Public to take place tomorrow (May 15, 2010), in the same little town. The event is primarily focused on
people writing on typewriters around town, but people can also share comments via
Twitter,
Flickr, or texting the event coordinators. To spark some inspiration, the group has received submissions from a variety of people, including
Gerald Casale for
Devo,
Paul Frommer writing in
Na'vi (with translation to English),
Dr. James J. Duderstadt, President Emeritus, University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, writing on
the library as the poster child of the it revolution, and plenty more.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on May 14, 2010 -
8 comments
The Obama administration signaled today it is ready to entirely abandon the public option,
i.e. giving Americans the choice of government-run health insurance (
AP,
Daily Kos,
Politico,
Hill). Further, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius indicated that end-of-life counseling was "
probably off the table", presumably due to Republican "death panel" commentary.
posted by WCityMike
on Aug 16, 2009 -
491 comments
Americans like science. But they think much less highly of American scientists than American scientists themselves do. Most scientists also rate media coverage of science as only fair or poor. Yet public knowledge of some scientific facts is .... not that bad (Section 7). A Pew Research Report reveals all.
posted by binturong
on Jul 13, 2009 -
38 comments
The Medill School of Journalism's Washington Program revealed its Pentagon Travel project last week (
multimedia).
Most privately paid for travel was found to be
within the bounds of federal law, but some still show a clear
conflict of interest.
Key findings: From 1998 through 2007, sources outside the federal government paid for more than 22,000 trips worth at least $26 million. The medical industry paid for more travel than any other outside interest — more than $10 million for some 8,700 trips, or about 40 percent of all outside sponsored travel. Among the targets: military pharmacists, doctors, and others who administer the Pentagon’s $6 billion-plus annual budget for prescription drugs.
Medill acquired 10 years worth of trip data and partnered with the Center for Public Integrity to form a
searchable database which includes destination, date, sponsor, sponsor nationality, cost of trip or agency.
posted by Smedleyman
on Jun 16, 2009 -
3 comments
"It would be naïve to identify the Internet with the Enlightenment. It has the potential to diffuse knowledge beyond anything imagined by Jefferson; but while it was being constructed, link by hyperlink, commercial interests did not sit idly on the sidelines. They want to control the game, to take it over, to own it. They compete among themselves, of course, but so ferociously that they kill each other off. Their struggle for survival is leading toward an oligopoly; and whoever may win, the victory could mean a defeat for the public good. ...We could have created a National Digital Library—the twenty-first-century equivalent of the Library of Alexandria. It is too late now. Not only have we failed to realize that possibility, but, even worse, we are allowing a question of public policy—the control of access to information—to be determined by private lawsuit."—
Robert Darnton on what the proposed
Google Book Settlement could mean for the pursuit of knowledge—
Google and the Future of Books
posted by Toekneesan
on Jan 23, 2009 -
44 comments
Rethinking Public Opinion - the immense importance of public opinion polling in American politics, and the under-reported problems at the heart of the enterprise, combine to call for a serious critique of the polling industry, its assumptions, and its method
posted by Gyan
on Nov 8, 2008 -
40 comments
So Open it Hurts. Web 2.0 visionaries Tara Hunt and Chris Messina blogged and twittered about their romance to all of geekdom as if it were one of their utopian open-source projects. Sharing their breakup has been a lot harder.
[more inside]
posted by chunking express
on Jul 29, 2008 -
53 comments
When the working poor turn to addictive drugs to manage pain so they can keep working, that's
"moral weakness, not a public health problem.":
Every morning before sunup, Trapp drives 120 miles.... "This methadone makes you feel like a human being again," Trapp says. With disability rates as high as 37 percent in coal-mining areas such as Buchanan County, the region has many people with long-term pain management needs. As is the case with lots of aging miners, Trapp's addiction to pills began in a doctor's office, not a back-alley drug deal.... The clinic's counseling staff members say that many patients need to be on some sort of drug to cope with severe, long-term pain and that methadone has made them functional. And for those who lack insurance or access to more personalized care, it is often the only affordable option.
[more inside]
posted by orthogonality
on Jan 15, 2008 -
44 comments
Sorry PR, you're blocked. Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine calls out the 300+ PR "professionals" who cannot be bothered to look for the right person to send their announcements to. Then, he publishes their e-mail addresses online, for all to see. If you were thinking of using a PR firm this year, here are 300 that you might want to give a miss.
via
posted by parmanparman
on Oct 30, 2007 -
49 comments
