joseph stiglitz is a columbia university professor. he was chief economist and senior vp of the world bank from 1997-2000 and became a nobel laureate in economics in 2001. you may have heard of him recently for his book the 3 trillion dollar war: the true cost of the iraq conflict. it is the clarity of his explanation of global financial crisises which lends him a spot here at www.victoor.com. in the following videos, you will navigate with him the dark meanders of the world economy and hopefully come to the same conclusion as i: a democratic overhaul of the world financial institutions is imperative.
here is part I (note that the video is in english with french subtitles):
once again i owe this one to the diligent research powers of my sister based in versailles, france. the videos were posted on dailymotion in the challenges.fr channel which presents videos from the challenges.fr french economy magazine.
my sis’ wanted me to spread the word on nos enfants nous accuserons, a movie by jean-paul jaud hitting the french projectors in the next few days. i shall oblige her. the trailer is bilingual french-english and is much more eloquent than any further introduction i could offer:
convert republicans to democracy. herculean is it not? how about evangelizing a lefty to write with his right hand. ask my dad, the results are closer to old viking runes than the alphabet.
if you have argued your way until this election, you have wasted your breath and possibly collapsed a lung. instead look at this scrupulous analysis by Jonathan Haidt on the real difference between liberals (to your left) and conservatives (first turn right).
the accuracy of his argument floored me and inspired me for what will hopefully be four years of worldwide collaboration.
Thanks to the good people from the GOOD side of life, I came across this fantastic carbon footprint calculator which goes well in depth without overburdening you with complex calculation. Compare your environmental impact with other citizens of the world. How will you fare?
PS: Saul Griffith (president of wattzon.com) set my clocks straight with calculating that 1/2 of the CO2 toll I take on the planet comes from my frequent flyer program. Notoriously though, I make up for dioxyde with my hilarious sense of humour…
the poetry of this i find astonishing. call +4790369389 to send a message echoing from the top of the bergskletten mountain overlooking the dalsfjord in norway. the telemegaphone is wind-powered and there is no call-waiting so be patient…
The beauty of being isolated from the hammer of American media conglomerates is the luxury it brings in the choice of independent media outlets to browse the latest news. The more research and classes I spend on Media and the information revolution, the more evident it is that information is a fundamental pillar of democracies worldwide. Stringent regimes thrive on controlling information. Intense propaganda is best served by a handful of media conglomerates.
Now is not the time to launch into an organized argument against the state of media in the United States. Instead I want to plead for all my friends to spend the time watching this program from Democracy Now (1). In this broadcast from June 6th 2008 you will see:
6th June 2008 Headlines
Robert McChesney, Co-founder of Free Press, Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the author of The Political Economy of Media: Enduring Issues, Emerging Dilemmas and Josh Silver, Executive Director of Free Press, speaking about the necessity of independent media outlets and net neutrality (video embedded below).
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in a fantastic piece on the outrageous state of affair at the Federal Communications Commission;
The very articulate Adrienne Maree Brown on the brilliant Ruckus Society and;
Native American writer Louise Erdrich, author of Love medicine.
Hypermilers are a breed of drivers who, notwithstanding the de facto testosterone rules of the road, cruise to achieve the best mileage possible. No need for electrical cars or hybrids, Wayne Gerdes, the protagonist of the article does it in his plain old Accord. His magic trick? anticipation and aerodynamics.
My little 1995 Civic, a beautiful donation from my friend Kathy, could already average 20 miles per gallon (mpg) with its 10 gallon tank. In ideal circumstances during our road trip from Chicago to Miami last year, we even managed a nice round 30 mpg. Conditions are not perfect in Curacao where most of the trafic is semi-urban but I felt the need, the need for green.
Relax max, chill bill, an antillean grandma is caressing my rear bumper as I let go of the accelerator a while back. She can read my plate as long as she wants, I have no reason to accelerate since the light ahead of us is still red. I’m rolling in gently and realize that I won’t need to break this time around. Conditions are perfect and I fluidly reintegrate the flow of cars who had passed me a few seconds ago.
Over the course of the next three weeks (that’s how long it took me to waste my tank away), I learn all inclines and declines to accelerate and break as little as possible. Conserving momentum is essential when trying to save gas. My tires screech on a few high-speed turns and I never pass 40 miles per hour but the limits are being pushed.
Ultimately, Wayne and I have different motives. Regardless, Erin will achieve a landslide victory and roll 400 miles on one tank, placing the gas consumption of this 13 year old Honda to 40 miles per gallon.
Next step? Recycling water and harnessing the sun. I heard people have done it.
been to www.ted.com yet? that beautiful website has kept be informed on so many different angles for so many months that i feel criminal not to have posted about it before. agriculture, biotechnologies, buddhism, information technology, neuro-science, architecture: this is a databank of information like i had not dreamt of before.
a simple concept brings leaders from the entire spectrum to share with you a 20 minute presentation on the topic they master. the results are broadcasted over the internet and i will from time to time share these on this site. but don’t wait for me please, go dig yourself.
if you needed the latest short fact list on what is happening to our planet see the following video. if you choose not to, you might need to take a long walk by yourself tonight and think over your priorities in life. are they pointing inwards, or outwards?
have you ever heard of the a garbage dump the size of texas floating in the middle of the pacific ocean? this man went over to document this completely overlooked disaster zone:
in the words of annie leonard, from the incredible storyofstuff.com, ads will tell you over and over again exactly what is wrong with you. this time the distorted mirror is depicted in a dove commercial:
