the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

When Mark Zuckerberg was asked if Facebook had influenced the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, the founder and CEO dismissed the notion that the site even had such power as “crazy.” It was a disingenuous remark. Facebook’s website had an entire section devoted to touting the “success stories” of political campaigns that used the social network to influence electoral outcomes. That page, however, is now gone, even as the 2018 congressional primaries get underway. In the wake of a public reckoning with Facebook’s unparalleled ability to distribute information and global anxiety over election meddling, bragging about the company’s ability to run highly effective influence campaigns probably doesn’t look so great. Facebook’s “success stories” page is a monument to the company’s dominance of online advertising, providing examples from almost every imaginable industry of how use of the social network gave certain players an advantage. “ Case studies like

Η φωτογραφία του Στήβεν Χόκινγκ από τις αντιπολεμικές συγκεντρώσεις του 1968 στο Λονδίνο, μαζί με την Βανέσα Ρεντγκρέιβ και τον Ταρίκ Αλί κάνει το γύρο του διαδικτύου μετά την ανακοίνωση του θανάτου του μεγάλου επιστήμονα. (Για την ιστορία για αυτές τις πορείες έγραψαν οι Rolling Stones το τραγούδι Street Fighting Man προς τιμήν όσων συμμετείχαν και κυρίως του Ταρίκ Αλί). Αυτό που κάποιοι δεν γνωρίζουν (και κάποιοι προτιμούν ηθελημένα να αποκρύπτουν) είναι ότι ο Στήβεν Χόκινγκ συνέχισε σε όλη τη διάρκεια της ζωής του να καταδικάζει αυταρχικά καθεστώτα που σκοτώνουν αδιακρίτως αθώους ανθρώπους για να διαιωνίσουν την κυριαρχία τους. Η σημαντικότερη παρέμβασή του τα τελευταία χρόνια ήταν η καταδίκη της πολιτικής απαρτχάιντ του Ισραήλ και η στήριξη που παρείχε στο κίνημα για τον καλλιτεχνικό, ακαδημαϊκό και εμπορικό αποκλεισμό του Ισραήλ. Ο ίδιος είχε ακυρώσει προγραμματισμένη συμμετοχή του σε επιστημονικά συνέδρια που διοργάνωναν ισραηλινοί φορείς. Η στάσ

The last thing Saudi Arabia and its Western allies want is a self-sustaining, economically viable, militarily strong, and anti-imperialist Yemen at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula, controlling the Red Sea and its strategic waterways. Yemen’s geographic placement in regards to the flow of world capital cannot be stressed enough. by Randi Nord Part 1 The U.S.-backed, Saudi-led war against Yemen is entering its fourth year. This war has killed over 13,000 people, injured over 21,000, devastated civilian infrastructure, triggered a famine, and created one of the worst man-made (and very preventable) humanitarian disasters on the planet. As a result of the Saudi-initiated and U.S.-enforced land, sea, and air blockade, over 8 million Yemenis face famine, while another 17 million are food insecure. The blockade, by restricting medical supplies and basic goods, has also triggered a devastating cholera outbreak unprecedented in modern times. Riyadh has failed nearly

by Jason Hirthler Part 5 - Schooling the Savages Once the pretext is established, the appropriate intervention is made. There’s no lack of latent racism embedded in each intervention. Something of Edward Said’s Orientalism is surely at play here; the West is often responding to a crude caricature rather than a living people. One writer, Robert Dale Parker, described western views of Asia as little more than, “ a sink of despotism on the margins of the world. ” Iran is incessantly lensed through a fearful distrust of the ‘other’, those abyssal Persians. Likewise, North Korea is mythologized as a kingdom of miniature madmen, possessed of a curious psychosis that surely bears no relation to the genocidal cleansing of 20 percent of its population in the Fifties, itself an imperial coda to the madness of Hiroshima. The interventions, then, are little different than the missionary work of early colonizers, who sought to entrap the minds of men in order to ensnare the s

Stephen Hawking, the brightest star in the firmament of science, whose insights shaped modern cosmology and inspired global audiences in the millions, has died aged 76. His family released a statement in the early hours of Wednesday morning confirming his death at his home in Cambridge. Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert and Tim said in a statement: “ We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him for ever. ” For fellow scientists and loved ones, it was Hawking’s intuition and wicked sense of humour that marked him out as much as the broken body and synthetic voice that came to symbolise the unbounded possibilities of the human mind. Mo