Didactic Synapse

http://youtu.be/WkZSmCe_u78

This episode has a gross title, but it’s a real quote from Dark Pools, the book I’m reading right now about high-frequency trading. Also this episode: stabbing people with letter openers, psychotic robots that follow you into the bathroom, killer super weeds, and cinder blocks to the face! Enjoy.

 DS #82: Trading Through The Puke

Top 3 Links of the Week

• Herbicide-resistant “super weeds” increasingly plaguing farmers
• Dying veteran writes to George W Bush and Dick Cheney
• United by loss, Israeli and Palestinian dads call for a joint nonviolent intifada against occupation
• Take Action: Tell Obama not to appoint fracking advocate Dr. Ernest Moniz to Dept. of Energy
• Also: A Place at the Table

Current Events

• 14 adults “cured” of HIV
• New LBJ tapes: Nixon sabotaged Paris Peace Talks to win election
• Dying Veteran Tomas Young on DemocracyNow
• BBC documentary podcast: After Saddam
• Democracy Now: Iraq is a failed state existing in “utter devastation”
• Torture at Guantanamo
• The Geography of defense cuts (infographic)
• After three years, BP is finally headed to court
• Companies, environmentalists agree on new fracking rules
• Windfarm sickness spreads by word of mouth, Australian study finds
• India covering canals with solar panels
• Two boys killed in Afghanistan airstrike
• Wisconsin legislator admits to never having transvaginal ultrasound
• New Pope chooses “Francis” after the saint of the poor
• Pope Francis’ Junta Past
• CPAC’s “Trump the Race Card” forum derailed by an actual segregationist

Economics

• Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson: Let banks go bankrupt
• Ha-Joon Chang on laziness and poverty
• Will robots create economic utopia?
• EU’s financial tax is likely to spur trading exodus
• American University law student: SEC will regulate HFT
• Australia finds HFT fears “overstated” but considers minimum hold time
• Demos Report: Cracks in the pipeline part two: HFT
• European officials cap banker bonuses at one year’s salary
• Vandana Shiva on Democracy Now
• Take action against super weeds: JustLabelIt.org

Education

• Value-added teacher evaluation models fail kids and communities
• 100 education experts write to the Independent to protest misguided UK education reform
• Black Agenda Report: Why isn’t closing 129 Chicago public schools news?
• Water into wine? Jeb Bush, Cheapistas, and education reform
• Scott Walker proposes expanding voucher school program in Wisconsin

Killer Robots, Etc

• General Stanley McChrystal on drones
• Pentagon robot hurls concrete blocks
• MarionetteBot fuses Kinect and mannequins
• Tongue computers are just the beginning
• Print your own AR-15
• Dogs understand human perspective: Study
• First came the Russian meteor, now the meteorite deals
• JJ Fad: Supersonic

Hip-Hop

Snoop Lion on Tavis Smiley (Sorry, the PBS embed isn’t working.)

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 #51: Drones and Thrones

Episode #51 of the Deviant SynCast is now available for your listening pleasure. I’ve submitted it to iTunes, but apparently it hasn’t been approved yet, so downloading it here is your only option for now.

I went a little long this week — 45 minutes. Many thanks to everyone who sent feedback last week. Please respond with thoughts or questions!

Here are the links:

Syria

• Associated Press Q&A
• Paul Conroy on Homs: “systematic slaughter of the civilian population”
• SMH on Atrocity Claims
• Red Cross Denied Entry to Homs
• Marwan Bishara on NATO and Libya
• Tom Engelhardt on Drones

Economics

• BP Reaches Deal with Gulf Region Plaintiffs
• Nick Hanauer: Raise Taxes on the Rich
• BusinessWeek on OWS and ALEC
• Banksy on Advertisers

Hip-Hop

• Davey D on Whitney
• Yasiin Bey: “NIP”

Education

• UChicago: “Failed Tests”

John Pilger is one of the world’s most important journalists (alongside Amy Goodman and Robert Fisk). He was instrumental in alterting the world to the genocide in East Timor, and he has spent decades reporting on the victims of powerful military machines.

In his latest film, available to watch in its entirety on YouTube (embedded below), he examines the role of US and UK media in the wars and occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel/Palestine, and beyond. Some of you have seen these issues examined in great detail, but I still encourage you to watch this. He provides a large-scale context that is absolutely essential, and offers interviews you won’t see anywhere else.

Please watch this.