Now the future is a kind of attenuating peninsula; as we move out on it, one side drops off to catastrophe; the other side, nowhere near as steep, moves down into various kinds of utopian futures. In other words, we have come to a moment of utopia or catastrophe; there is no middle ground, mediocrity will no longer succeed. So utopia is no longer a nice idea, but a survival necessity. "Remarks on Utopia in the Age of Climate Change," from Kim Stanley Robinson.
Previously.
posted by gerryblog
on Dec 22, 2011 -
15 comments
Seattle mourns the passing of
Electron Boy, otherwise known as Erik Martin. Erik died at home on Friday, from a rare form of cancer called paraganglioma. He was 14.
Previously on Metafilter.
posted by Sublimity
on Sep 18, 2011 -
34 comments
She agreed to be filmed for 90 days. A woman with AIDS is filmed briefly, every day, for 90 days, and the changes she undergoes are dramatic. The very end may make you weep, but perhaps not for the reasons you expect...
[Link is a single video hosted on Vimeo.]
posted by Slap*Happy
on Aug 27, 2010 -
51 comments
Among American Jews today, there are a great many Zionists, especially in the Orthodox world, people deeply devoted to the State of Israel. And there are a great many liberals, especially in the secular Jewish world, people deeply devoted to human rights for all people, Palestinians included. But the two groups are increasingly distinct. Particularly in the younger generations, fewer and fewer American Jewish liberals are Zionists; fewer and fewer American Jewish Zionists are liberal. One reason is that the leading institutions of American Jewry have refused to foster—indeed, have actively opposed—a Zionism that challenges Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and toward its own Arab citizens.
The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment
posted by y2karl
on May 18, 2010 -
105 comments
Speaking in Tongues is a terrific piece of writing by
Zadie Smith. It's a little bit about
Barack Obama. Mostly, though, it's about
"world"-traveling and polyvocality. (pdf)
The first stage in the evolution is contingent and cannot be contrived. In this first stage, the voice, by no fault of its own, finds itself trapped between two poles, two competing belief systems. And so this first stage necessitates the second: the voice learns to be flexible between these two fixed points, even to the point of equivocation. Then the third stage: this native flexibility leads to a sense of being able to "see a thing from both sides." And then the final stage, which I think of as the mark of a certain kind of genius: the voice relinquishes ownership of itself, develops a creative sense of disassociation in which the claims that are particular to it seem no stronger than anyone else's. There it is, my little theory—I'd rather call it a story. It is a story about a wonderful voice, occasionally used by citizens, rarely by men of power.
posted by anotherpanacea
on Feb 26, 2009 -
16 comments
In 1972, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were convicted of murdering a prison guard in Louisiana's notorious maximum-security prison, Angola. The warden sentenced them to solitary confinement, where they remained for the next 36 years. Until March 2008, the men had spent at least 23 hours per day in cells that measured only 6 x 9 feet.
Woodfox's conviction was recently overturned, evidently through a federal
habeus proceeding, and he is awaiting a new trial. NPR did an outstanding job of tracking down people involved and telling a riveting story:
Part I,
Part II,
Part III. No doubt that much of the attention brought to the case is due to the efforts of Jackie Sumell and her
Herman's House project.
[more inside]
posted by ajr
on Nov 9, 2008 -
8 comments
Privacy is dead - get over it [
part 2] is a talk by private investigator Steve Rambam. It's a talk he has been giving for a number of years where he shows how privacy is being taken away, not by sinister plots but because people are giving it away. With people putting up everything and nothing on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and so on, as well as a growing quantity of data held in private databases, he shows how easy it is to find out enormous amounts of data on just about anyone.
[more inside]
posted by bjrn
on Sep 2, 2008 -
65 comments
Adam Savage's talk at The Last HOPE: Fascination with the Dodo Bird
parts:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C
(YouTubeFilter with a great audience Q&A session)
[more inside]
posted by Chuckles
on Aug 29, 2008 -
37 comments
Dear God is a global project for people around the world to share their innermost hopes - and fears - through prayer. Some photos NSFW.
posted by ColdChef
on Apr 13, 2008 -
39 comments
At
rivertrout.com, the goal is to bring together people who nurture a passion for an old, and yet exquisite, form of literature: The writing of letters.
posted by netbros
on Aug 28, 2007 -
12 comments
Salt: Not just a condiment, salt is a
major force shaping our world. In Australia,
what do you get when you combine ancient salt-pans with European farming practices? In one state alone, we're losing a football field an hour to the salinity crisis.
What do you farm when all you have is salt?
posted by ninazer0
on Nov 25, 2006 -
33 comments
The Ballad of Big Mike. “Where are you going?” he asked. “To basketball practice,” Michael said. “Michael, you don’t have basketball practice,” Sean said. “I know,” the boy said. “But they got heat there.” Sean didn’t understand that one. “It’s nice and warm in that gym,” the boy said. As they drove off, Sean looked over and saw tears streaming down Leigh Anne’s face. And he thought, Uh-oh, my wife’s about to take over. ... “One night it wasn’t going so well, and I got frustrated,” Mitchell says, “and he said to me, ‘Miss Sue, you have to remember I’ve only been going to school for two years.”’
posted by caddis
on Sep 24, 2006 -
40 comments
xFamily Values. A collaborative work by former members documenting
The Family/
Children of God religion/cult. Uniquely reflecting the
sexual revolution, they encouraged
prostitution as a means of gaining
converts and
offerings (
Flirty Fishing).
Plus they had
comic books for the
kids. But in concordance with other cults,
abuse,
incest,
mind-control,
secrecy,
charismatic leaders and
leaderettes,
insanity, and
irreparable harm were in
full swing. (No more inside. There may be PDFs involved. Please note that much of this material is not safe for work, or anywhere else.)
posted by cytherea
on Feb 10, 2006 -
34 comments
Have you ever had
one of those times where you lose your job, then your VA benefits are cut (even though you were wounded seven times in Vietnam), then your son dies in Iraq and homophobic protesters hold up a sign at his funeral that says
“Thank God for Dead Soldiers”
then just after Christmas the candle you light for your dead child burns your house down and your family (including your grandchildren) is homeless, and your wife needs surgery for gallstones?
Yeah, that’s tough when that happens.
But sometimes
people come through for you.
posted by Smedleyman
on Jan 31, 2006 -
154 comments
The
conference at
Wannsee occurred on January 20, 1942.
The Holocaust had been going on for at least one year; the camp at Dachau had been in operation for several years. The
Final Solution was already underway. At issue at Wannsee, in the relaxed and distinctively
upper middle-class atmosphere of that SS guest-house for the fifteen highly placed Nazis was the
best strategy for genocide.
Less than one year after the conference a little girl who had been hiding in Holland is sent to the Bergen camp in northern Germany. She spends more than six years looking for
four perfect pebbles
posted by Smedleyman
on Jan 18, 2006 -
16 comments
Stuck Like Chuck - A Philadelphia writer's sad, brief but captivating observations of another's seemingly constant return to self-destruction; in turn, unflinchingly relating his own struggle.
posted by AlexReynolds
on Feb 4, 2005 -
10 comments
