Didactic Synapse

DS #54: Sharks and Stocks

Sorry for the delay — end of the quarter is always a busy time at school. I was going to do a show about different things other than economics and war and stuff, but there’s just too much going on! Hopefully next week.

Meantime, enjoy the show and please check out these links:

Top Three

• Andrew Bacevich on Changing Our Military Mindset
• Sacom: FLA Report Omits Work Stress and Forced Internship
• Amnesty International — Cuba: Brothers arrested after listening to hip-hop

Trayvon Martin

• New Black Panthers offer $10,000 bounty for George Zimmerman
• Spike Lee Re-Tweets Incorrect George Zimmerman Address
• Surveillance Video of George Zimmerman

Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran

• Lt. Col Daniel Davis: Truth, lies and Afghanistan
• Interview with former U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell

Economics

• ‘Devastating’ BATS glitch that crashed Apple stock
• Stock Trading Is About to Get 5.2 Milliseconds Faster
• Fair Labor Association: Foxconn Investigation Report

Education, etc.

• NYC Bans Halloween, Birthdays, Aliens and More on School Tests
• The impending robots invasion

Today the US lost a visionary. Here she is reading her poem “What Kind of Times Are These?”

Deviant SynCast #53: Fury over Foxconn Fakery

New SynCast! Enjoy.

Here are the links for this week’s show:

Current Events

• Retracting “Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory” | This American Life
• Sacom
• KONY 2012: State Propaganda for a New Generation? (I didn’t even get to the big IC news this week! Argh!)
• AI: Human Rights in Sudan
• Syrian forces take eastern city from rebels
• Human Rights Watch study details torture and executions by Syrian rebels
• HRW: Syria: Armed Opposition Groups Committing Abuses
• Panjwai shooting spree – Wikipedia
• Robert Fisk: Madness is not the reason for this massacre
• The Wounded Platoon | FRONTLINE | PBS
• Family: Man didn’t kill black teen in self-defense
• Shooter of Trayvon Martin a habitual caller to 911
• U.S. Opens Inquiry in Killing of Trayvon Martin

Economics

• Regulators Are Slow to Act on Speed Traders – Businessweek
• Grover Norquist on The Daily Show

Education

• How Charter Schools Can Hurt

Et Cetera

• The Unbreakable Project
• Miss America Kirsten Haglund opens up about her battle with anorexia
• Venus of Willendorf – Wikipedia
• iraqisthebomb.com (Narcicyst)
• Chinua Achebe – Wikipedia

The American Scholar featured a potent — and lyrical — article today called “Afghanistan: A Gathering Menace” by Neil Shea. He writes disturbingly about what he’s seen during his trips to Afghanistan with US troops.

Since 2006 I have written off and on about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nearly all of my work in those countries has been done embedded with NATO, mostly American military units. Many times I have watched soldiers or Marines, driven by boredom or fear, behave selfishly and meanly, even illegally, in minor ways. In a few searing moments I have wondered what would come next, what the men would do to prisoners or civilians or suspected insurgents. And I have wondered how to describe these moments without reporting melodramatic minutiae or betraying the men who allowed me in.

I worry about how soldiers deal with the stresses of combat, and — especially in light of the Panjwai shooting spree — what suffering might be dished out to the people ostensibly being helped by our presence overseas.

Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez interviewed the author today on DemocracyNow!

What I saw with these guys in Afghanistan when I was with them was that several of them had already been through multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they had reached a point where they hated Afghans, they hated the country, and they were really not interested in doing any of the hearts and minds stuff anymore that’s a crucial part of the mission. So by the time I reached these guys, they had already been sort of—they had been building up anger and aggression in strange ways for a number of years.

And, of course, when these guys return home, they often have trouble returning to civilian life. I worry that we’re dropping the ball as a society when it comes to taking care of our soldiers.

And if — as seems likely — our presence is making things worse (“It was like a week-long Taliban recruiting drive”), shouldn’t we get the heck out of Afghanistan already?

Deviant SynCast #52: Resist Cynicism, Believe in the Transcendent!

The new show is (finally) up! Sorry for the delay — Diane’s on Spring Break this week, and for some reason I feel extra silly talking into a mic by myself.

(I don’t mind doing the VeteranGamers podcast when she’s around, but I’m very self-conscious when it’s just me and the mic.)

I start out with Kony, because everyone’s talking about it (and more than a few people are asking me about it). I have a lot more to say about it, so I keep it short — but I promise to write a post here about all of it soon. Thank you for your patience!

Please send feedback to esp (at) fbesp.org or leave comments here (or post in the new chatbox). Here are the links for this week:

Kony 2012

• The original video (in case you — somehow — haven’t seen it)
• Amnesty International on Kony
• Take action to end the use of child soldiers

Iran and Weapons Inspections

• Military officials urge Obama not to go to war with Iran
• FAIR: Spying in Iraq, from Fact to Allegation
• Boston Herald on CIA Pakistan fake-vaccination scheme (archived)
• Full article in the Guardian on CIA fake vaccines

Economics: High-Frequency Trading

• The Economist on HFT (note call for regulation at the end!)
• Wikipedia: 2010 Flash Crash
• WSJ: Mini ‘Crashes’ Hit Commodity Trade
• Senators Kaufman and Levin: Preventing the Next Flash Crash
• BusinessWeek: Chilton calls for regulation of HFT
• NYT: Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs

Pop Culture, Killer Robots, etc.

• Did Banksy rip off Sean Tejaratchi?
• FoxNews: Robot cheetah sets new speed record
• Richard Thieme: My Last Talk with Gary Webb