Robert Frank/ Photographer

 

Over a half century ago, legendary Swiss photographer Robert Frank snapped their picture as he was wrapping up what would become a groundbreaking outsider's perspective on the U.S., his two-year photo project entitled simply The Americans (previously on MeFi). 51 years later, now that the Indianapolis Museum of Art is opening TODAY an exhibit pairing all of Frank's 83 images from The Americans together with the original scroll of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road," friends and relatives have identified the couple who had never known they were so iconic! (via)

They didn't know they were icons...

Car Runs On Water

 

For more details, please click on the link to read the article.

VIDEO: Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan

The Iran Question

Premiere US investigative reporter, Seymore Hersh weighs in on the likelihood of a strike at Iran. How much chatter has there been in the past two years on this subject? On and on and on. With Chaney chomping at the bit, as crazy as it sounds, it must be a 50/50 chance that it will happen in some form before the end of the year. They've been inside, agitating and conducting 'kills' for a while now. Read about it here.

Annals of National Security: Preparing the Battlefield: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

For more on the subject, here is Scott Ritter

Bilateral accords quietly push neo-liberal agenda

Currently Canada is pursuing bilateral accords across the planet, with countries as far afield as Colombia, Korea and Jordan.

Since the collapse of the latest round of WTO negotiations in 2006, admits major grassroots opposition internationally and intense internal tensions between governments, Canada, the U.S. and the E.U. have shifted attention toward securing bilateral or regional trade accords.

Two sites on the subject: fightingftas.org, bilaterals.org.

Bilateral accords quietly push neo-liberal agenda

Walter Gordon: the last liberal

 Article by Duncan Cameron

Michael Ignatieff wants Canada to have an east-west energy corridor linking provinces producing low greenhouse gas emitting electricity with those still burning coal, and increasing energy security. Speaking to Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin, Ignatieff was quick to qualify himself. He favours a made-in-Canada energy strategy, but noted: I'm not a Walter Gordon nationalist.

Walter Gordon: the last liberal

The Ambiguous Legacy of ‘68 -- Slavoj Zizek

lets be realists, demand the impossible.

In 1968 Paris, one of the best-known graffiti messages on the city’s walls was “Structures do not walk on the streets!” In other words, the massive student and workers demonstrations of ‘68 could not be explained in the terms of structuralism, as determined by the structural changes in society, as in Saussurean structuralism. French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s response was that this, precisely, is what happened in ‘68: structures did descend onto the streets. The visible explosive events on the streets were, ultimately, the result of a structural imbalance.
The Ambiguous Legacy of ‘68 -- In These Times

Taking Power ( book review)

Gregory Wilpert has pulled off a triumph on two fronts with his new book on the Bolivarian Revolution, Changing Venezuela by Taking Power. Most obviously, Wilpert's book — in both its scope and (sometimes almost maddening) objectivity — is the most detailed and credible analysis yet published of the Venezuelan revolution, which itself represents, arguably, the single most significant challenge today to the hegemony of global capitalism.

rabble.ca - book reviews

Will Canada Last?

 

Not if we surrender our energy lifeblood to the US.

Will Canada Last? (in Views)
Murray Dobbin

MIT team debut $5,000 solar thermal system

Over their summer break, a group of 23-year-old American university students have developed what could become the world’s cheapest and most effective solar power generator.

The team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a solar dish that they claim extracts 1,000 times more power from the sun's rays than a conventional solar panel system and costs just US$5,000 (£2,500).

Using curved mirrors on the dish's aluminium surface, sunlight is magnified at such an intensity that it could melt steel. The power generated is directed towards a 12ft aluminium tube rising out of the centre of the dish.

At the top end of the tube is a section of coil containing water, which heats in an instant to create steam.

The students say this steam will be strong enough to power industrial processes, heat or cool buildings and generate electricity through a turbine.

MIT team debut $5,000 solar thermal system - 26 Jun 2008 - BusinessGreen

Nicholas Stern/ Interview

Interview: 'The Stern review on the economics of climate change irrevocably altered the climate debate when it came out in October 2006. For the first time, environmentalists who had shouted loudly about the dangers of climate change were joined by an apparently hard-headed economist, commissioned by a government and with a team of 15 economic analysts and modellers at his command.

Nicholas Stern, a former World Bank chief economist, was working at the treasury when he was asked to look at the economics of climate change. The conclusion of his 700-page report—that the world must act quickly or face devastating consequences—was not new, but the language it used was. Stern presented an economic argument that rapid and affordable action now would prevent huge losses later. That in turn made it easier for politicians and business leaders to back action on climate change.' by Alun Anderson | Prospect Magazine July 2008 issue 148

Top intellectual/ Prospect Magazine

Bio of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Cover story: 'A modern Ottoman' by Ehsan Masood | Prospect Magazine July 2008 issue 148

Top 100 Intellectuals/ Prospect magazine

Here it is. What we've all been waiting for. Get ready to Google. Michael Ignatieff survives his transition from public intellectual to politician at 34, up from 37. Namoni Kline drops off the list.

Intellectuals: 'Intellectuals—the results' by | Prospect Magazine July 2008 issue 148

Canada: Peacekeeper or Warmonger?

 

By: Ian Sinclair | Winnipeg Free Press

[W]hile the United States is seen as a bellicose, aggressive superpower, many Canadians view their nation as the leading peacekeeping force in the world...This quaint picture of nation-building and development work sits uneasily with the cold facts of the Canadian deployment...

In reality...Canadian troops (in Afghanistan) fired an incredible 4.7 million bullets between April 2006 and December 2007...

read more

Canadian Militarism

 An article by Murray Thompson in Embassy Magazine today.

Eight Ways Militarism is Growing in CanadaAnd Eight Things to Do About It