January 2012
16 posts
The Throwaways →
No wait THIS is the best thing I read today
Boston Review — Carlos Fraenkel: Citizen... →
Smartest thing I’ve read today. Shows a glimpse both of the promise and possible banality of the 2008 law mandating philosophy instruction in schools.
Promise: a Socratic dialogue on race, inequality, religion, authority of god, etc.
Banality: Standardized rote-learning “what was Sartre’s nationality?”
Interesting how the corresponding idea to this in the US is civics...
Das Capitalist →
“[Adam] Smith was, in short, a mensch. He would not feel at home in the American Enterprise Institute or the Heritage Foundation.”
The New French Hacker-Artist Underground →
These people are heroes. They inspire me to live.
3 tags
The St. Petersburg Paradox →
Math is cool!
A group of 9-year-olds discover the power of... →
Great stuff!
h/t Rachel LaBruyere
The Fire Last Time →
Truth.
Hypereconomics | the human network →
Marc Peske’s utopia sounds pretty awful to me.
The Quiet Coup - The Atlantic →
Simon Johnson on how the banks became oligarchs. What happened and also what must be done.
Tim Wise » Telling White Lies: Patriotic... →
The nationalistic conception of American history: “Mistakes were made!”
#Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked... →
Smart and long enough to give the appearance of thoroughness. Still lacking a vital sociopolitical perspective. Begs for a follow up from someone like Josh Kahn Russel, Ben Brandzel, Zack Exley etc.
The Future of West Bank Terrorism Is Jewish -... →
What Occupy Wall Street Could Learn From 1930s... →
Strong opening but weak finish. Wish the author spent more time explaining his ending.
A (Very Very) Brief History of Occupation Tactics →
Smart
Free The Network | The Awl →
Great article
1 tag
What a story →
December 2011
2 posts
3 tags
Portable Cathedrals →
Amazing article about, well, so many things, but through the lens of the Nokia N9 phone.
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire...”
– E.B. White
October 2011
1 post
mr. Rogers, the hero. →
So glad I read this. Cried through the middle of it. Great piece on what ot means to be mr. Rogers.
July 2011
4 posts
3 tags
2 tags
2 tags
IDEA →
SaharMassachi.com/resume will now always link to the latest version of my resume, thanks to the magic of url redirection.
I’m getting better at this.
2 tags
SaharMassachi.com →
My project for the last few days. Still a lot to do, but we are getting close to a functional site.
June 2011
5 posts
Chris Bowers is super-smart →
3 tags
Death is a part of life
I’ve been thinking a lot about how in our culture, we tend to go for world domination, or immortality.
Go to (>1) day event or retreat - “how can we stay connected forever?”
Sustainability is the watchword. We want to buy videogames that will continue to update forever. Brands take on a life of their own. Once a company has a great product, they try to expand into new...
3 tags
Prostitution
So Hadag Nachash is pretty solidly a left-leaning, or straight-up left, band. They talk about income inequality, peace, the plight of pensioners, and all that. They also talk about smoking marijuana and visiting brothels.
So, clearly they’re more authentic than “old left” songsters that led with propaganda first, then tacked on music. Hadag Nachash is speaking from their own...
3 tags
Good place for Hadag Nachash w/subs (eng&heb) →
2 tags
Suits. →
Really digging Hadag Nachash right now.
April 2011
4 posts
Procrastination
Is the root of all my problems.
3 tags
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great... →
As I read more about banks and the crash of 2007 and Louis Brandeis I just get angrier and angrier. Angry is not a wholesome feeling. Fun though.
3 tags
Different, like Harry – My Experience Raising a... →
Wow.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/09/26/050926c... →
Sartre and Simon de Beauvoir
February 2011
1 post
6 tags
I find it weird sometimes that people call me a... →
I might be one, even. I’m not sure what sort of beast I am. But, at least publicly, I definitely shouldn’t seem like one. This guy is a real leftist, for example. Good article on Wikileaks, by the way.
January 2011
10 posts
6 tags
Internet authoritarianism
So Evgeny Morozov has been arguing against the “Internet -> Freedom!” connection for years. It must be gratifying for him to see his theories finally becoming conventional wisdom. (Though, of course, sad because of the events that proved him right)
The internet can be a tool of censorship and control as much as it can be used for liberation and revolt. Its very design - root...
5 tags
Idea
The question of love is the question of: “how do I relate to beauty?”
Through consumption? Through reverence?
7 tags
5 tags
We need a Groupon for volunteering →
Jim Gilliam is brilliant and interesting.
1 tag
The thing about adventure
Been settling into school.
Downloaded every PDF found on Latte to dropbox for reading on my iPad.
Clean room. Cooking food.
Not leaving Grad too much. Too cold.
The thing about adventure is that it’s very cold right now. I’m investing in homework now so that I will have more free time in the future.
Still want to catch up ith a whole host of friends. It’s hard.
Going...
4 tags
The best thing I've found today →
Cover of “I am trying to break your heart” by wilco. But it sounds completely different.
2 tags
Idea.
Got me an iPad from my family. Been using it a lot.
iPad is great at consuming: media, rss, tweets, video, games, etc.
Not so good at creating - no camera. Awkward keyboard.
Hopefully I can set up the iPad as my dedicated consumption device so that my laptop becomes a dedicated production device.
I need to create more media (thoughts, comments, emails, essays) I need to consume less media.
2 tags
This is just ridiculous
A friend of mine from High School graduated recently from Brigham Young University. Though she is from Thailand (and not a Mormon), she applied there because it’s known for taking international students. 4 years later, she graduated. Thing is, she had to leave the country and get a horrible job back at home because no one would take her in the US without a green card.
Anti-immigration...
December 2010
13 posts
2 tags
The DEA is apparently badass →
“The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians who want to use it against their political enemies, according to secret diplomatic cables.”
4 tags
Those UK student protests are just fascinating →
At the student meetings I have attended in recent weeks, ideological bickering is routinely sidelined in favour of practical planning. Anarchists and social democrats are obliged to work together alongside school pupils who don’t care what flag you march under as long as you’re on the side that puts people before profit. When the Unite leader, Len McLuskey, wrote in these pages this...
3 tags
I donated 25$ to the ACLU today →
Just because it was the right thing to do. Try it you’ll feel wonderful
4 tags
Wikileaks as liberals →
“What is most intriguing about the WikiLeaks saga is not the pathology of hacker culture as envisioned by Mr Sterling’s fecund imagination, but the possibility that Julian Assange and his confederates have made dull liberal principles seem once again sexily subversive by exposing power’s reactionary panic when a few people with a practical bent actually bother to take them...
3 tags
Julian Assange and the Computer Conspiracy; “To... →
The foundational (and brilliant) document guiding my thinking on all this.
Brilliant analysis.
3 tags
The Wikileaks we have isn't the Wikileaks we need →
Reading it now. Interesting!
Funny how the netroots left is freaking out about tax cuts right not but sort of ignoring the shameful US pressure on private corporations to starve wikileaks.
