Articles by M
We found 35727 results.
New Cold War & Looming Threats: Interview with John Pilger
Jipson John and Jitheesh P.M. – Frontline,
31 Dec 2018
John Pilger, investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, talks about the U.S.’ aggression in the Asia-Pacific region and the decline of its global dominance and says that a “new Cold War beckons isolation for the U.S. and danger for the rest of us”.
→ read full articleA Small Dark Light: The Legacy of the Tao Te Ching and What It Continues to Teach Us about Personal and Political Power 2,500 Years Later
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2018
“It is the profound modesty of the language that offers what so many people for so many centuries have found in this book: a pure apprehension of the mystery of which we are part.”
→ read full articleThe War in Afghanistan Isn’t a ‘Stalemate.’ The U.S. Has Lost
Andrew J. Bacevich – Los Angeles Times,
31 Dec 2018
19 Dec 2018 – With the sole exception of Vietnam, the ongoing Afghanistan war represents the greatest failure in U.S. military history. Today, all but a few diehards understand that Vietnam was a debacle of epic proportions. With Afghanistan, it’s different: In both political and military circles, the urge to dodge the truth remains strong.
→ read full articleInnate Talent (Music Video of the Week)
TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2018
Virtuoso
→ read full articleU.S. Limits on Coal Plant Mercury Emissions Too Costly: Trump’s EPA
Humeyra Pamuk | Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2018
28 Dec 2018 – The Trump administration today said limits on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants were unnecessary as they were too costly, sparking an outcry from environmentalists who feared the next step would be looser rules favoring the coal industry at the expense of public health.
→ read full articleCracks Found in Containment Building of UAE Nuclear Power Plant Built by S. Korean Companies
Choi Ha-yan | The Hankyoreh [South Korea] – TRANSCEND Media Service,
31 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 – There may be cracks in the containment building at the third unit at the Barakah nuclear power plant that South Korean companies are building in the United Arab Emirates. The grease inserted into the concrete walls as a lubricant has seeped into voids on the outside of the wall.
→ read full articleEngaging with Elusive Connectivity and Coherence
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Global Comprehension as a Mistaken Quest for Closure
→ read full articleHacking Nuclear Weapon Systems: A New Weakness in Nuclear Deterrence Theory
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
There are many ways a nuclear attack could be initiated. These include the four “Ms” of Malice, Madness, Mistake and Miscalculation. Of these ways of initiating a nuclear attack, only malice could possibly be inhibited by nuclear deterrence (fear of nuclear retaliation), and such an inhibition from attack would not be reliable due to psychological and communication issues that are required for nuclear deterrence to be effective.
→ read full articleA Shift: Repudiating War on Yemen
Kathy Kelly – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
The Horror of the Yemen War Is Changing Minds At Last
→ read full articleCan Yemen Be Saved?
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 – The people of Yemen have been experiencing devastating civil strife for several years. This ordeal was greatly intensive by a massive and sustained Saudi-led air attacks and other belligerent tactics that have targeted civilians, even hospitals. Several recent events hint at the possibility of restoring peace to the country, thereby averting the worst effects of a threatened mass famine, risks starvation for more than 75% of Yemen’s population of over 22 million.
→ read full articleComputer Love?
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
My computer knows me
better than I know me!
It knows my in’s and it knows my out’s.
Knows my subterfuges, knots and doubts.
Year-End Letter for 2018
S.P. Udayakumar, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
22 Dec 2018 – Our big and beautiful Planet Earth that can be likened to an airplane with limited resources has been literally hijacked by the nuclear state terrorists. I, for one, tend to think and feel that nuclearism is the single largest threat humanity faces today. And hence struggling for a nuclear-free world is a top priority task for us all. Nuclear deals, Uranium mining, nuclear reactors, radioactive waste dumps, atomic bombs and Fascist doomsday arrogance are all sides of the same killer cube.
→ read full articleABC of Human Nature: Angst, Boredom, Creativity
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Human beings are creative unlike most animals (except a few) that survive on instinct. But what boosts creativity — the urge to do something beyond living, surviving?
→ read full articleInside Banksy’s The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
We check in to Banksy’s bizarre Palestinian hotel, where the hospitality is as peculiar as the message is powerful.
→ read full articleThey Rescued Pigs and Turkeys from Factory Farms — and Now Face Decades in Prison
Leighton Akio Woodhouse, Pedro Armando Aparicio and David Zlutnick – The Intercept,
24 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 – Direct Action Everywhere engages in a practice called “open rescue.” Open rescue involves entering, without authorization, the facilities of animal-based industries, such as farms, slaughterhouses, and puppy mills, documenting the conditions within them, and removing as many animals as possible, usually from among the sick and injured. The activists don’t wear masks and make no effort to conceal their identities; they post the videos on social media for the world to see. By practically inviting prosecution, the activists aim to make a point: that the laws that regard these animals as mere property are wrong and that violating those laws is a moral imperative.
→ read full articleSpiritual Teachings: Radhanath Swami
TED Talks, London Business School – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Radhanath Swami has been a Bhakti Yoga practitioner for more than 40 years, and is one of today’s most beloved and respected spiritual teachers. He is a guide, community builder, activist, and acclaimed author. Rooted in his study of ancient India’s mystic devotional, Radhanath’s message is simple: by cultivating a genuine practice of service, we can become instruments of compassion and agents of sustainable change in the world.
→ read full articleVeterans For Peace Statement on Withdrawal of U.S. Troops from Syria
Veterans For Peace – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 – Veterans For Peace is pleased to hear that President Trump has ordered a total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, where they had no legal right to be in the first place. Whatever the reasoning, withdrawing U.S. troops is the right thing to do.
→ read full articleTRANSforming Humanity: A Challenge to Peace Linguistics Applicability
Francisco Gomes de Matos – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Continue reading…
→ read full articleIt’s the Brain-altering Drugs, Stupid: Addictive Opioids, SSRIs, Anti-psychotics, Benzodiazepines and Suicidality
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
19 Dec 2018 – The high rates of suicide among patients studied might suggest an “iceberg effect” in the general population. The numbers that come to light under the close scrutiny of the clinical trial situation indicate the extent to which attempted and completed suicides are concealed or mislabeled in the community.
→ read full articleSyria – Tell Me It Ain’t So
Michael Brenner – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
22 Dec 2018 – It is daunting to find polite words for describing American foreign policy- such is its incoherence. Purpose is obscure, logic is invisible. There is no approximation to orderly process – in thought, in deliberation, in decision. These truths have been highlighted by Trump’s stated intention to withdraw (some) American troops from Syria – and by the reaction to it. The harsh reality that it is not the White House alone that lacks anything resembling a strategy in the Middle East. That holds for their critics, too, both inside and outside the government.
→ read full articleSocialism or Barbarism in Brazil, According to Boaventura de Sousa Santos
Beverly Goldberg and Francesc Badia i Dalmases | Open Democracy – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 – What Francis Fukuyama called the ‘end of history’ after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the fight between the left and the right in the post-Cold War world, and the triumph of liberal democracy, lost its relevance thirty years later. One of the most influential modern thinkers that has positioned himself against this idea of the end of history is Portuguese sociologist, Boaventura de Sousa Santos.
→ read full articleXi Jinping’s Speech on 40th Anniversary of China’s Reforms, Opening Up–Full Text
China News Service | Xinhua – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Analysis/Highlights by Xinhua
16 Charts by the Singapore Strait Times
– 18 Dec 2018 – Comrades, friends:
This Radical Plan to Fund the ‘Green New Deal’ Just Might Work
Ellen Brown | Web of Debt – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 – With what Naomi Klein calls “galloping momentum,” the “Green New Deal” promoted by newly-elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) appears to be forging a political pathway for solving all of the ills of society and the planet in one fell swoop.
→ read full articleA Spiritual Special Ops Team’s Christmas Gift
Edward Curtin – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
24 Dec 2018 – “It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.” — Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or
→ read full articleIn the Shadow of the Bomb: Poems of Survival
Bill Bhaneja – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
This is the third book of poetry by David Krieger I am reviewing. The first, Wake Up, was a warning call; the second, Portraits: Peacemakers, Warmongers and People Between, etched the personalities of doers and their deeds; and in the latest, In the Shadow of the Bomb, Krieger confronts us with the naked reality of The Bomb. The questions he raises are: What is the value of poetry in the face of weapons of mass annihilation? Can poems awaken us to the dangers of the Nuclear Age?
→ read full articleThe Truth about Israel, Boycotts, and BDS
Mehdi Hasan - The Intercept,
24 Dec 2018
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first members of US Congress to support the BDS Movement. Mehdi Hasan debunks some of the controversies surrounding BDS.
→ read full articleWhose Child Is This?
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Whose Child is This? Whose child is this? Is this child an Iraqi . . . an Israeli . . . a Chechnyan . . . an Afghani . . . a Kurd . . . a Nigerian? Is she or he English, Indonesian, Spanish, Lebanese, Turkish, Congolese, Bosnian, Persian? Does it matter? Is this child not a daughter or son to each of us?
→ read full article(Português) Sem o consumo de carnes e laticínios, uso de terra poderia diminuir em mais de 75%
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
17 dez 2018 – Um estudo intitulado “Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers”, publicado na conceituada revista Science, afirma que se a humanidade abdicasse do consumo de carnes e de laticínios, o uso de terra para fins agrícolas poderia diminuir em mais de 75% – o equivalente as áreas dos Estados Unidos, China, União Europeia e Austrália.
→ read full articleThe Good and the Bad in the New Peace Agreement on Yemen
Osamah Al-Rawhani – Al Jazeera,
24 Dec 2018
19 Dec 2018 – More than two years after talks between the internationally recognised Yemeni government and the armed Houthi movement collapsed in Kuwait, the two warring sides finally sat down for another round of negotiations. The Stockholm Agreement marks a much-needed breakthrough but there are major issues with its provisions.
→ read full articleQuickies
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
A father told his son, “Never go to a nightclub!”
→ read full articlePoint of No Return: Erasing the Rohingya
Poppy McPherson, Simon Lewis, Thu Thu Aung, Shoon Naing and Zeba Siddiqui | Reuters – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
18 Dec 2018 – Having fled waves of violence, more than 900,000 members of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority now languish in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. A Reuters investigation has found the Myanmar government is taking steps that threaten to make the purge of the Rohingya permanent.
→ read full article‘Combat Proven’: Israel’s Thriving War Business in Europe
Romana Rubeo & Ramzy Baroud – Al Jazeera,
24 Dec 2018
Europe is increasingly sharing Israel’s racist approach to border security and adopting its deadly technologies.
→ read full articleWhat Is the Significance of Considering Colonial Settlers as “Local Residents”?
Walid Salem – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
21 Dec 2018 – On the one hand, settlers are “Israeli citizens”, but above that “the pioneers and the vanguard of the completion of the Zionist project”. The Israeli government says with full mouth that it is no longer satisfied with its control within the 1948 borders, but it wanted to claim and apply the right to all of Palestine. There is no longer any difference between what is happening in the Negev and what is going on in Jerusalem and the West Bank in this context.
→ read full articleBack to the Old Path and Returning to
Udaya R. Tennakoon – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
I was entered
Into the mythical cave
A lit up lamp
Gandhian Nonviolence Philosophy for Peace and Social Harmony
Subhash Chandra – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Nonviolence
→ read full articleThoreau on Nature as Prayer
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
“In the street and in society I am almost invariably cheap and dissipated, my life is unspeakably mean. No amount of gold or respectability would in the least redeem it — dining with the Governor or a member of Congress!! But alone in distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even on a black and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related, and that the cold and solitude are friends of mine.”
→ read full article(Português) Explosões sísmicas no oceano Atlântico ameaçam baleias em extinção
Mariana Duque - ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais,
24 Dec 2018
21 dez 2018 – Ambientalistas da Caroline do Sul processaram o governo federal na semana passada para evitar explosões sísmicas de ar comprimido. O processo, extremamente barulhento e perigoso, é usado para procurar depósitos de petróleo e gás nas profundezas do oceano, o primeiro passo em direção à perfuração offshore.
→ read full articleWhere Can the Anger Go?
Carolyn Coe – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
23 Dec 2018 – Writing from Kabul, Carolyn Coe describes experiences of frustration, outbreaks of rage and efforts to cope.
→ read full article‘Homo Implacatus’
Dr. Naresh Jotwani – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Living Economics – It may be noted that Homo Implacatus–the latter word meaning ‘discontented’–is a more suitable name for the species which has wrongly been named Homo Sapiens. A corollary of the above argument is that excessive economic inequality in human society is wasteful in a biological sense.
→ read full articleJeremy Scahill’s Top 10 Takeaways on Mattis Exit and Possible US Withdrawal from Syria and Afghanistan
Jessica Corbett – Common Dreams,
24 Dec 2018
“This is an opportunity for progressive forces to assert an alternative vision for U.S. foreign policy.”
→ read full articleBirth Anniversary of Woodrow Wilson
Rene Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born 28 December 1856 in Virginia. His father was his first teacher of writing style. “When you frame a sentence, shoot with a single bullet and hit that one thing alone”.
→ read full articleOh Holy Night (Music Video of the Week)
Il Divo – TRANSCEND Media Service,
24 Dec 2018
Il Divo with Katherine Jenkins – Merry Christmas!
→ read full articleJapan to Withdraw from International Whaling Commission in Bid to Resume Commercial Whaling: Sources
Kyodo – The Japan Times,
24 Dec 2018
20 Dec 2018 – Japan has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in a bid to resume commercial whaling for the first time in 30 years, government sources said today. However, the government is considering allowing commercial whalers to operate only in seas near Japan and in its exclusive economic zone, the sources added.
→ read full articleShould We Engineer the Climate? A Social Scientist and Natural Scientist Discuss
Rob Bellamy and Matthew Watson – The Conversation,
24 Dec 2018
17 Dec 2018 – Nations may soon be desperate enough about global warming to consider deliberately engineering the world’s climate.
→ read full articleMeanwhile, at the US-Mexico Border
Latuff – MintPress News,
24 Dec 2018
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Whatever that means…
→ read full articleU.S. Commits to “Indefinite” Occupation of Syria; Controls Region the Size of Croatia
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
15 Dec 2018 – Like the “forever war” in Afghanistan, will we be having the same discussion over the indefinite occupation of Syria stretching two decades from now? A new unusually frank assessment in Stars and Stripes bluntly lays out the basic facts concerning the White House decision to “stay the course” until the war’s close.
→ read full article(Português) A tolice do Anti-globalismo
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
9 dez 2018 – Está ocorrendo pelo mundo afora uma onda anti-globalista. Talvez haja poucas coisas mais regressivas e disparatadas no mundo atual do que esta. Por que se trata de um disparate dos mais insensatos? Porque vai diretamente contra a lógica do processo histórico irrefreável. Alcançamos um patamar novo da história da Terra e da Humanidade.
→ read full articleWinter Solstice: “The Day of the Longest Night . . .”
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
I write in awe and reverence of Time! I write with respect for ancients pursuing mastery and control of Time’s mysterious cycles, determining life and lives. On “The Day of the Longest Night,” today calendarized as December 21, uncertainty of light’s return once brought chants, prayers, and sacrifices. Shrines, columns, and monuments were erected to map the past… So, let it be written . . . so, let it be sung . . . So let us honor, Time!
→ read full articleCoordination of Wing Deployment and Folding in Politics
Anthony Judge | Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
13 Dec 2018 | Bird Flight and Landing as Complementary Metaphors of Global Strategic Coherence | Produced on the occasion of the unexpected riots of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) throughout France, with images of Paris in flames, symbolically paralleled by a UN Climate Change Summit to implement the Paris Agreement .
→ read full articleYou Have NO Choice
George Carlin | After Skool – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
George Carlin (12 May 1937 – 22 June 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and social critic. This quote is taken from his last stand up routine, “Life Is Worth Losing” (2005).
→ read full article(Français) Haiti : Crise et Solution
Fanmi Lavalas | Haiti Action Committee – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Il existe une grave crise dans la société haïtienne contemporaine, dans laquelle les masses de notre peuple s’opposent à une oligarchie déterminée à perpétuer un système d’exclusion.
→ read full article(Italiano) I Rohingya a Montecitorio
Emanuele Giordana | Lettera22 – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Le prove raccolte dal Tribunale Permanente dei Popoli andranno all’Aja alla Corte penale internazionale.
→ read full articlePost Modern Democracies or the End of History
Dr Ravi P Bhatia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
The voice of the marginalised sections of people is being ignored by the modern democratic world with its neoliberal capitalist order that is concerned with profit-making and not about increasing social and economic disparities and disorder.
→ read full articleHaiti: Crisis and Resolution
Fanmi Lavalas | Haiti Action Committee – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
There is a grave crisis in contemporary Haitian society, in which the masses of our people are opposing an oligarchy determined to perpetuate a system of exclusion.
→ read full articleJohnson & Johnson Knew about Carcinogens in Baby Powder for Decades: Reuters
Jessica M. Goldstein | ThinkProgress – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
15 Dec 2018 – Was there a carcinogen in the baby powder, all this time? The company reportedly has known about the asbestos in its signature product since the early 1970s.
→ read full articleStairway to Heaven (Music Video of the Week)
TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Flashmob – Led Zeppelin Immortal Forever!
→ read full article(Castellano) En defensa del individuo humano
Robert Burrowes, Ph.D. | Pressenza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Trágicamente, es la más sagrada de las instituciones -la escuela- que yo llamo “prisión para niños”, donde se produce gran parte del daño. Diseñada para aterrorizar a los niños para que obedezcan y se conformen, sobre la base de que “una sola talla sirve para todos”, la escuela destruye las capacidades físicas, sensoriales, intelectuales y emocionales de los niños, produciendo individuos con una capacidad casi nula de sentir algo profundo, pensar creativamente y comportarse poderosamente con integridad.
→ read full articleThe Kidnapping of Meng Wanzhou
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
16 Dec 2018 – Just as the United States once declared its independence from Britain, so Europe and the remainder of the world ought to declare independence from the United States. Clearly, insane arrogance, hubris, contempt for international law, racism and many of the aspects of fascism do not deserve to be blindly followed. Whatever moral authority the USA may once have had has evaporated in a seemingly endless series of aggressive foreign wars and drone killings.
→ read full articleThomas Piketty’s Proposal to Remake Europe: Three Comments and a Suggestion
Howard Richards – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
13 Dec 2018 – In the midst of more than one crisis, a stellar group of left-leaning intellectuals led by Thomas Piketty has written a proposal to remake Europe. It includes a manifesto, a treaty establishing what would amount to a new European legislature, and a budget. As its authors say, the greatest merit of their proposal is that it exists. Everyone is invited to comment on it and to suggest improvements. Taking them at their word, here are three comments and one suggestion.
→ read full articleOf Cockroaches and Humans
Roberto Savio | IPS - Human Wrongs Watch,
17 Dec 2018
16 Dec 2018 – Rita Levi-Montalcini, the Italian Nobel laureate honoured for her work in neurobiology, once gave a splendid conference with the title “The imperfect brain”. There she explained that man has a brain that is not used completely, while the reverse is true for the cockroach.
→ read full articleUS Genocide Resolution Welcome, but Rohingya Need More
Maung Zarni | Anadolu Agency – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
US will not intercede, and Myanmar’s neighbors see it through economic lens, so international coalition for Rohingya needed.
→ read full articleOn the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Richard Falk | Global Justice in the 21st Century – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
10 Dec 2018 – This Declaration was a notable step in the direction of asserting that persons by virtue of their humanness are entitled to protection in the exercise of a broad spectrum of rights, and hence, that sovereignty is subject to certain constraining limitations. Much progress has been made since 1948, although we live in a period of mounting pressure on human rights deriving from a surge of right-wing populism combined with the effects of an insufficiently regulated capitalism.
→ read full articleLudwig van Beethoven (17 Dec 1770 – 26 Mar1827)
Biography – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Ludwig van Beethoven was a deaf German composer and the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He was baptized on Dec 17, 1770 in Bonn, Holy Roman Empire. He was an innovator, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in a new way. His personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear.
→ read full articleA Message to Today’s Young People: Put an End to the Nuclear Weapons Era
David Krieger | Nuclear Age Peace Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Nuclear weapons were created to kill indiscriminately. That means women, men, children – everyone. Even during war, under the rules of international law, that kind of mass killing is illegal. It is also immoral.
→ read full articleWhy Do Men Stupefy Themselves? Leo Tolstoy on Why We Drink
Maria Popova | Brain Pickings – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
The cause of the world-wide consumption of hashish, opium, wine, and tobacco, lies not in the taste, nor in any pleasure, recreation, or mirth they afford, but simply in man’s need to hide from himself the demands of conscience. When a man is sober he is ashamed of what seems all right when he is drunk. In these words we have the essential underlying cause prompting men to resort to stupefiers.
→ read full articleAt 70: A Few Problems with the Human Rights Concept
Jan Oberg | The Transnational – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
10 Dec 2018 – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70 today. Thirty fine demands that, if you read them today, leaves a lot to be desired in all four corners of the world, including the Western. While people struggle to get them implemented and struggle against those who violate them, it may also be relevant to discuss the concept as such at an occasion such as this.
→ read full article(Português) Todos p’ra Rotunda
Paulo Correia | Ideia Perigosa – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
9 dez 2018 – Povos da Europa, ergam-se e ajudem-nos! O movimento francês dos « Gilets Jaunes », está a tentar ser descrito pelos meios de comunicação, controlados pelo poder neo-liberal, como um movimento social desordenado, sem voz clara, animado por um bando de extremistas. Mas o que realmente acontece é que, este movimento não é social, mas sim de insurreição. Os média ficaram confusos com o fenómeno e já não sabem como tratar o assunto. Lutemos pelos nossos direitos, por uma vida digna e contra as guerras, pois caso contrário seremos obrigados a combater numa, sabe-se lá porquê! Gilets Jaunes, Coletes Amarelos, Yellow Vests, Chalecos Amarillos – Todos p’ra rotunda!
→ read full articleFull Text of Alfred Nobel’s Will
The Nobel Prize – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Paris, 27 Nov 1895 – I, the undersigned, Alfred Bernhard Nobel, after mature deliberation, hereby declare the following to be my last will and testament with regard to such property as I may leave upon my death:
→ read full articleClimate Change Performance Index 2019
Germanwatch, et al. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
The Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) is an instrument designed to enhance transparency in international climate politics. Its aim is to put political and social pressure on those countries that have, until now, failed to take ambitious action on climate protection, and to highlight those countries with best practice climate policies.
→ read full articleIn Defense of the Human Individual
Robert J. Burrowes, Ph.D. – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
12 Dec 2018 – Tragically, it is that most hallowed of institutions – school – which I call ‘prison for children’ where much of the damage is done. Designed to terrorize children into obedience and conformity on the basis that ‘one size fits all’, school destroys the physical, sensory, intellectual and emotional capacities of children churning out individuals with near-zero capacity to feel anything profound, think creatively and behave powerfully with integrity.
→ read full articleEmployee Stock Ownership Plan
Stephanie Geller | The Next System Project – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) enables full or partial ownership of a business by its employees through a pension plan or trust.
→ read full articleGlobal Arms Industry: US Companies Dominate the Top 100
SIPRI-Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
10 Dec 2018 – Sales of arms and military services by the world’s largest arms-producing and military services companies totalled $398.2 billion in 2017, according to new international arms industry data released today by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
→ read full articleChina’s “Golem Babies”: There Is another Agenda
F. William Engdahl | Journal NEO – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
6 Dec 2018 – Gene Editing and “Genetically Modified Humans”: Just a few engineered organisms could irrevocably alter an ecosystem.
→ read full articleInstitutional and Cultural Inertia
John Scales Avery – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Politeness requires that we do not talk about issues that might be contrary to another person’s beliefs. Thus polite conversation is dominated by trivia, entertainment, sports, the weather, gossip, food, and so on. Worries about the distant future , the danger of nuclear war, the danger of uncontrollable climate change, or the danger of widespread famine seldom appear in conversations at the dinner table, over coffee or at the pub. In conversations between polite people, the situation is exactly the same as in the mass media.
→ read full article(Português) Mais de 115 Milhões de Animais São Usados como Cobaias a Cada Ano
David Arioch | Vegazeta – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
“Frequentemente, os sintomas e respostas aos tratamentos potenciais observados em outras espécies são diferentes daqueles de pacientes humanos”.
→ read full articleMeet Antonio C. S. Rosa, Pioneer in Peace Journalism – Be the Change: Enter Peace Journalism (Parts 1 & 2)
Sebastian Eck, Antonio C. S. Rosa | Galtung Institut – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Introducing the TMS editor: Peace Journalism, a new paradigm for journalists covering conflict situations.
→ read full articleBiological Annihilation: A Planet in Loss Mode
Subhankar Banerjee - TomDispatch,
17 Dec 2018
11 Dec 2018 – If you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening to the nonhuman life forms with which we share this planet, you’ve likely heard the term “the Sixth Extinction.” If not, look it up. After all, a superb environmental reporter, Elizabeth Kolbert, has already gotten a Pulitzer Prize for writing a book with that title.
→ read full articleSteps toward Governance in Yemen
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
14 Dec 2018 – Two useful steps were taken on the long road toward relative peaceful governance in Yemen. The first need of the country is an end the Saudi-led aggression and the civil war conditions.
→ read full articleAsthma Attacks
Dietrich Fischer – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
A man organized a blind date for his friend. His friend was excited, but also a little worried and asked, “What shall I do if I really don’t like the girl?
→ read full articleWhy It’s so Hard for Most Countries to Be Economically Independent from the West—Look No Further than Brazil
Justin Podur | Independent Media Institute – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Western countries insist both on “free trade” with poor countries and farm subsidies for themselves.
→ read full articleNourishing Communities
Prof. George Kent – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
There are many guidelines for dealing with specific nutrition problems. Often treatments are delivered by specialists through community-based nutrition programs. Some are initiated and designed by outside experts and are community-based only in terms of their geographic location. Some community-based programs involve local people in implementation. In some cases, nutrition programs are initiated and carried out by people in the local community. It is important to recognize that the need for such interventions is likely to be far lower when the community itself is healthy.
→ read full article(Português) Relembre grifes e estilistas que abandonaram produtos de origem animal em 2018
Julia Cortezia- ANDA Agência de Notícias de Direitos Animais,
17 Dec 2018
15 dez 2018 – Grandes marcas abandonaram peles e pelos em suas futuras coleções em 2018, marcando um grande avanço para a causa animal.
→ read full articleWilliam Blum (6 Mar 1933 – 9 Dec 2018), Renowned U.S. Foreign Policy Critic, Dead at 85
Chris Agee and Louis Wolf – CovertAction Magazine,
17 Dec 2018
William Blum died in Virginia early this morning on December 9, 2018 after falling in his Washington D.C. apartment and sustaining serious wounds 65 days ago. Blum left the State Department in 1967 and became a founder and editor of the Washington Free Press, the first “alternative” newspaper in the capital. In 1969, he wrote and published an exposé of the CIA in which were revealed the names and addresses of more than 200 CIA employees.
→ read full articleGovernments Adopt UN Global Migration Pact to Help ‘Prevent Suffering and Chaos’
UN News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
The Global Compact for Migration was adopted on Monday [10 Dec] by leading representatives from 164 Governments at an international conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, in an historic move described by UN Chief António Guterres as the creation of a “roadmap to prevent suffering and chaos”.
→ read full articleThe Foolishness of Anti-Globalism
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
15 Dec 2018 – An anti-globalist wave is breaking out around the world. This is perhaps one of the most regressive and absurd things in the world today. Why is this a senseless blunder? Because it contravenes the logic of an uncontrollable historical process. We have reached a new phase in the history of the Earth and Humanity.
→ read full articleMerck & Company and Big Pharma’s Nefarious Search for Profits
Gary G. Kohls, MD | Duty to Warn – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
An Example of how a Small-Town German Apothecary Shop Morphed into a Greedy Multinational Corporation that Disregards Ethical Principles
→ read full articleMeanwhile in Burma/Bangladesh
Stephen – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
Reality sets in…
→ read full articleThe Turn towards a Global Police State is Structurally Rooted in Capitalism’s Achilles Heel
William I. Robinson | Films for Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
17 Dec 2018
12 Dec 2018 – A global police state is emerging as capitalism descends into an unprecedented crisis, given the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the sheer scale of the means of violence deployed around the world. “Global police state” refers to three interrelated developments:
→ read full articleWashington Using Legal Cover to Conceal Economic Banditry
Finian Cunningham - RT,
17 Dec 2018
12 Dec 2018 – The blatant arrest of a Chinese telecoms executive in Canada on behalf of the US is shrouded in obscure legalistic claims. But the bottom line is clear; the US is abusing the legal process to pursue lawless economic interests. Increasingly in the eyes of the world, it is a renegade state which absurdly justifies its criminality with lofty claims of rule of law.
→ read full articleSystemic Function of Highly Unrepresentative Minorities
Anthony Judge – Laetus in Praesens – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
8 Dec 2018 – Produced on the occasion of the unexpected riots of the Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) throughout France, symbolically paralleled by a UN Climate Change Summit to implement the Paris Agreement. – Recognizing the Role of the “Dark Riders” of Social Change
→ read full article(Português) Esperança: Indignação e Coragem
Leonardo Boff – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
3 dez 2018 – Vivemos no Brasil nos últimos dois anos dois grandes golpes: o primeiro, o impeachment e a deposição de Dilma Rousseff e neste ano de 2018 a ascensão da extrema-direita com a eleição de Jair Bolosonário a presidente do Brasil. Não foi Bolsonaro que ganhou. Foi o PT que perdeu e com ele o Brasil.
→ read full articleNever Again, and Again: Can the World Stop Genocide?
The Economist – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
As the UN convention against genocide turns 70 on 9 Dec, its failures are tragically apparent… Democracy cannot be built on the bones of those who are butchered.
→ read full articleFrom Marc Lamont Hill to the Quakers, No Criticism of Israel Is Allowed
Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
7 Dec 2018 – The reactions to Marc Lamont Hill, the Quakers and Airbnb reveal that in practice there is no criticism of Israel that will be treated as legitimate – and that when it comes to the suffering of Palestinians, the only acceptable stance is silence.
→ read full articleChina – A New Philosophy of Economics
Peter Koenig | Journal NEO – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
China’s economic philosophy is a far cry from that of the west.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Permanent-War Complex
Gareth Porter | The American Conservative - TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
Nov/Dec 2018 Issue – Eisenhower’s worst nightmare has come true, as defense mega-contractors climb into the cockpit to ensure we stay overextended. The privatization of military and intelligence institutions began even before the end of the Cold War. It is a system of war that powerful arms contractors and their bureaucratic allies may have the ability to maintain indefinitely.
→ read full article(Castellano) El engaño humano y nuestra destrucción de la biósfera: ¡Ni siquiera lo estamos intentando!
Robert Burrowes, Ph.D. | Pressenza – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
3 diciembre 2018 – ¿Ha escuchado la expresión “cambio climático”? Esa encantadora expresión que sugiere unas vacaciones en un lugar con un clima más agradable… La extinción nos llama. La elección es suya.
→ read full articleThousands of Myanmar Women Forced into Marriages in China
Deutsche Welle – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
7 Dec 2018 – Over 7,000 Myanmar women and girls have been sent to China and forced into marriage and childbirth. The crisis is being fueled by problems on both sides of the border.
→ read full article(Français) Les Gilets jaunes, révélateur d’un modèle de société en crise
Alex Anfruns | Investig’Action – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
6 Déc 2018 – Il est temps de faire un premier bilan et de revenir sur les dessous de cette affaire, à la croisée des enjeux sur le modèle énergétique, l’urgence sociale, le défi climatique ainsi que la géopolitique mondiale.
→ read full articleMigrants: A UN Conference Undermined by 11th Hour Withdrawals
Thalif Deen | IPS News – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
7 Dec 2018 – When the long-awaited UN conference focusing on the rights and safety of migrants and refugees takes off in Morocco [10-14 Dec], it will be a rare, if not an unprecedented meeting, for one reason: the withdrawal of at least seven member states almost at the 59th minute of the eleventh hour.
→ read full articleThe Big Capital Formula: µ – Φ = Fascism
Paulo Correia – TRANSCEND Media Service,
10 Dec 2018
µ – φ = fascism : This is the big capital formula, applied in France, the country of the people that found a way to take the Bastille, write the Declaration of Human and Civil Rights – 1789 – and whose motto is « Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité » (“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”).
→ read full article