and a very merry holiday to you too

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

On losing everything

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_hoffman_on_losing_everything.html

Haiti

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/510.html

From Brasschecktv:
Haiti is the only country in history where an enslaved people threw over their captors and took charge of their country.

And generations later, the global slave masters have never let them forget it.

The poorest country in the western hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world, it's been run by one band of criminals after another.

This year Haiti took direct hits from four major hurricanes.

It's rare to get news about Haiti in the US. Rarer still for Haitians to be portrayed as human beings.

How you can help

Haitian people are not short of initiative, man-power or courage.

They do need some help from the outside world following the storms. But a little, well-targeted aid to grass roots projects will go far.

Most good-sized, reliable aid organizations have projects in Haiti.

You can donate through those groups and specify that you want your donation to go to projects in Haiti.

Specific suggestions:

The Lambi catalog

More about this group:

http://www.lambifund.org/video.htm

If this group doesn't resonate with you, you may find one from this list of projects screened by Global Giving:

Check them all out:

http://www.globalgiving.com/ac/ctry00haiti1.html

One powerful perspective--a documentary on Haiti:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/513.html

This is how we do it...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20081224/geothermal-rush/

Half of infinity is still infinity

Without goals, where are you going?

Water!

DIY in Madrid

The illegal green tree

Here's something to hang an ornament on:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/505.html

Music for our times

Flow, my tears, fall from your springs!
Exiled for ever, let me mourn;
Where night's black bird her sad infamy sings,
There let me live forlorn.

Down vain lights, shine you no more!
No nights are dark enough for those
That in despair their lost fortunes deplore.
Light doth but shame disclose.

Never may my woes be relieved,
Since pity is fled;
And tears and sighs and groans my weary days
Of all joys have deprived.

From the highest spire of contentment
My fortune is thrown;
And fear and grief and pain for my deserts
Are my hopes, since hope is gone.

Hark! you shadows that in darkness dwell,
Learn to contemn light
Happy, happy they that in hell
Feel not the world's despite.

John Dowland’s ayre “Flow My Tears” (1600)
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90003323

Where the bailout $$ is going

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081222/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_corporate_jets
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081222/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_secrets
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/22/bailedout-executives-got-_n_152773.html

When will we learn?

More Slavery More Common Today than Any Other Time in World History

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4173

Remember 'the ownership society'?

NYT: White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?_r=1&hp
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004070

Wow

Animated graphics--poverty
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

Do it:
http://graphs.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=6;ti=2006$zpv;v=1$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=199;dataMax=42642$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=25;dataMax=84$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=

Fountains of Enceladus

A little moon around Saturn.
Haven't heard of it?
Tectonic plates? Subterranean water? Life??
BIG NEWS, no?
http://ciclops.org/view/1688/Fountains_of_Enceladus
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/carolyn_porco_flies_us_to_saturn.html

True Heroism

Adieu Mark Felt, better known as "deep throat," king of the whistle-blowers.
How deeply we need your spirit today.

Here's what the SEC has been working on instead:
http://www.propublica.org/article/sec-report-employees-browsed-porn-ran-private-businesses-1219#When:17:01:11Z

Food? Who needs food?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/18/major-sustainable-food-fo_n_152134.html

What the hell's an 'orderly car collapse'???

Ask our prez!



When will this guy just go away?
(I thought that about Reagan and then they started naming freeways after him. I thought that about ms. spears and...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7788954.stm

and now for a musical interlude...

You go bathroom girl!!!

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=UVqiuLJdQmc

http://it.youtube.com/user/TheBathroomGirl

Torturers are dull people

Who would you rather have lunch with?


http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004029

http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/hbc-90004059

Perhaps Cheney misunderstood the meaning of "vice" in Vice President.

is there enough tape?

It's only getting worse

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/15/second-mortgage-disaster_n_151293.html

One way to deal with the end of U.S. hegemony...

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/12/15/iraq-shoe-tosser-guy.html

The phenomenon explained:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/010871.html

The video game!

http://www.sockandawe.com/

Plus over 2000 members in the facebook group, "throw a shoe at Bush"!

That's a lot of work in 2 days!

Message on shoes revealed:
http://www.236.com/blog/w/lee_camp/shoes_thrown_at_bush_revealed_10732.php

Shoes hurled at Bush fly off shelves:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=auI050ptHyPg&refer=europe

The Future of the US Economy

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/496.html

The Future!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ray_kurzweil_on_how_technology_will_transform_us.html

Amazing Ideas for 'Dealing with It'

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912

http://www.thevenusproject.com/

It's time.

Bill Clinton: US Must Spend Its Way Out Of Crisis

No, me thinks not.

From the SnL crisis, the dot-com crash, and now to the crash of the housing bubble, spending provides a temporary respite, delaying the pain. This time is different, as none of our debts have ever been so huge (national debt, deficit, etc.). Better deflation from lack of spending, than inflation and a worthless dollar. Let the giants crash. We'll pick up the pieces and build something new. We can't spend our way to nirvana. Eventually, the day of reckoning arrives.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/06/bill-clinton-us-must-spen_n_148931.html

The Auto Bailout

After sending our jobs overseas, the auto manufacturers want more $$ to do more of the same? Why don't they ask China directly? That's where the money would come from anyways, and that's where their jobs and factories have gone.

The character issue

"My husband's parents left the U.S. when he was 9, promising him they would come back, but they never did. He never got to see those friends again. That explains a lot about his character."
"No, what explains a lot about his character is that you use this as a narrative for explaining something you like to call, 'his character.' What explains a lot about his character is that you both have decided to dwell on this nonsense."