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Commondreams.org story on a California court decision that Nike's PR blitz about its subcontractors' sweatshops violates a law against deliberate deception (via Blogdex). "Corporations are non-living, non-breathing, legal fictions. They feel no pain. They don't need clean water to drink, fresh air to breathe, or healthy food to consume. They can live forever. They can't be put in prison. They can change their identity or appearance in a day, change their citizenship in an hour, rip off parts of themselves and create entirely new entities. Some have compared corporations with robots, in that they are human creations that can outlive individual humans, performing their assigned tasks forever." Reminds me of this: REESE (slow, but intense) Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can't be reasoned with, it can't be bargained with...it doesn't feel pity of remorse or fear... and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.
posted by palancik at 6:25 PM PST - 33 comments

'Low-fi.org has aggregated some fresh new net.art projects, loosely curated with the premises that the works are good and interesting, and are in varying stages of completion.'
[via rhizome]
posted by hama7 at 5:57 PM PST - 5 comments

Shooting the messenger. "The Bush administration, under fire for its handling of the economy, has quietly killed off a Labor Department program that tracked mass layoffs by U.S. companies." (via madamjujujive)
posted by four panels at 4:41 PM PST - 38 comments

UN warns food aid to N Korea is drying up 7 million North Koreans face starvation. You are the American president. What do you suggest be done? (note: America was the biggest supplier of food till recently.) Do you tell them No food till you give up nukes or do you feed them what you can and try to negotiate? Or do you sit back and say: not my problem.
posted by Postroad at 3:44 PM PST - 24 comments

"This is getting ridiculous!" complained one veteran programmer on USENET a bit over two years ago... after being out of the workforce for a while, he was having trouble getting back in the door. While there's no way to put yourself in his prospective employers shoes and make a real judgement, it looks like he had the chops. Wonder how he's doing today...general conditions don't seem good, and I know several people with the same problem. The longer a period of unemployment goes, the worse your resume looks, and the harder it is to get a job. How do you break the cycle (from either a policy or a jobseeker standpoint)?
posted by namespan at 1:37 PM PST - 29 comments

The course of power ultimately changes only if there are forces present to oppose it.
posted by semmi at 12:45 PM PST - 9 comments

The Burden. In a lengthy piece in tomorrow's NYT magazine (reg. req.), historian Michael Ignatieff explores the costs and benefits of America's shift from republic to empire.
posted by xowie at 12:24 PM PST - 16 comments

ill take some Xhoba with that shake "Hunters would cut a slice, munch it, and within minutes hunger and thirst would evaporate, leaving a feeling of strength and alertness. They could travel for days eating nothing else" guardian.co.uk i hope the kalahari do receive some compensation if this is effective as it sounds.
posted by specialk420 at 12:10 PM PST - 16 comments

Dee Dee Ramone and Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby passed away with 24 hours of eachother last spring. One death, obviously, got way more notice. This recent article by Chuck Klosterman (author of Fargo Rock City) looks into the reasons why and, entirely unironically, talks about why Crosby's death was significant. I don't 100% agree with Klosterman here, but he makes some points. Plus it's worth reading simply because it questions some of the underlying assumptions of most modern music writing.
posted by jonmc at 6:48 AM PST - 52 comments

Guide for Becoming a Modern Day Philosopher 12 essential techniques.
posted by Voyageman at 12:05 AM PST - 13 comments