Obama-Trump voters are a counter-intuitive phenomenon, given that, on a superficial level at least, the two presidents have very different styles. Obama had the positive vibe ("Yes we can"), whereas Trump spent a lot of time on the paranoid, racist fantasy that Obama was born in Kenya. Speaking in October 2016, Noam Chomsky pointed out that... Continue Reading →
Naomi Klein has spent decades recording and analysing the darker edges of neoliberal capitalism. No Logo focused on the way that corporations use branding to convince people to buy things that we don't really need. The Shock Doctrine looked at the way 'disaster capitalism' engineers crises and then profits from them, imposing what Klein describes... Continue Reading →
As the near-impossibility of putting a practical Brexit into action becomes increasingly clear, public support for a second referendum on EU membership is increasing. A protest in London last month calling for a second referendum (a 'People's Vote') attracted a reported 700,000 participants. The Brexit campaign was led mainly by former private schoolboys, including the... Continue Reading →
Jordan Peterson is one of the most famous academics of our age, having made his name through his YouTube channel and a mega-best-selling self-help book 12 Rules For Life. However Peterson has his critics, including the biologist PZ Myers. Among other things, Myers has been critical of Peterson's false claim to be an evolutionary biologist.... Continue Reading →
On Sunday Brazil voted to make Jair Bolsonaro their next president. He's what the media euphemistically call a 'controversial' figure, who many fear could become a fascistic leader. There have been various compilations of his quotes circulating online during the week, some of which I've compiled onto the infographic above. As most of the quotes... Continue Reading →
In 2017, the American Society of Civil Engineers released a report titled Report Card for America's Infrastructure, giving America a D+ in terms of the quality of national infrastructure. The 2013 ASCE report made the case for investment, saying that "Capital investment needs for the nation’s wastewater and stormwater systems are estimated to total $298... Continue Reading →
The above quote is taken from a 2014 report commissioned by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, written by Mario Molina et al, entitled What We Know: The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change. The quote continues: "Average global temperature has increased by about 1.4° F over the last 100 years. Sea... Continue Reading →
Happy Sisyphus 