[Monsanto is] playing a role in Iowa’s proposed anti-whistleblower bill — a bill focused primarily on agriculture. Should the bill pass, it will become illegal to produce undercover videos at various types of agricultural facilities (as well as to get a job at a facility with the express intent of producing a video). Sarah Damian of [...]

… roughly a third of the most blatantly anti-Muslim films of the last century were made in the 1980s alone. These movies used sporadic atrocities committed by individual Islamic extremists (the Lebanon bombing, the Berlin bombing, etc.) to demonize all Muslims. Consequently, Hollywood’s go-to villain in the 1980s became the Muslim terrorist—whether it was “Iron [...]

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Worth a read. “To be honest, so much of the rhetoric around the use of social media in Egypt and Tunisia makes me want to scream — folks act like these American tools just dropped from the sky like humanitarian food rations, set to save the people from their (American-supported, natch) dictators.” http://jilliancyork.com/2011/01/27/how-are-protestors-in-egypt-using-social-media/

Came across this nice podcast questioning our priorities in education here in the US.  Mark Slouka, an English professor at the University of Chicago, talks about why he thinks our education has been “dehumanized” and why this is potentially destructive.  Right now, in a recession, everyone understands that in order to survive universities must allocate [...]

“A new report by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that the internet is not changing the fundamental socio-economic character of civic engagement in America. When it comes to online activities such as contributing money, contacting a government official or signing an online petition, the wealthy and well-educated continue to lead [...]