Didactic Synapse
hip-hop, politics, education, movies, books, killer robots, and video games
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Hooray — a new hour of me talking! Plus sound clips from Clerksand The Jerky Boys. Enjoy!
Top Links
- Vicky Pryce: “Prison clearly does not workâ€
- Rand Paul plagiarized three pages of his latest book
- Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova may serve rest of her jail term in hospital
- Take Action:Â Elizabeth Warren for President!
Current Events
- Obama apologizes for what insurance companies are doing
- Insurance companies didn’t give enough notice
- Sarah Palin: Debt is like slavery
- Brown releases proposed CA fracking rules
- Proposed fracking rules in Illinois raise ire of environmentalists
- Bill Moyers: Fighting the Good Fight
Economics
- Professor of economics and law says JP Morgan’s fine should have been 22 times bigger
- The Jerky Boys: Punitive Damages
- TPP Exposed
Education
Killer Robots, etc
- US drone strikes break international law, report says
- A drone warrior’s torment
- Roomba suicide?
- Dumb Ways to Die
Hip-Hop
- Just me talking
Hey, it’s been less than four years since the last show. Here’s another one to cram in yer ears. You’re welcome.
DS #85: You Need Blegga Blehbleh
Top Links + Action
- “No, I’m not going to the World Cup”
- New data shows school ‘reformers’ are getting it wrong
- Don’t hurt that robot! How morality muddles perception of a mind
- Take Action: Due process for Edward Snowden
Current Events
- Brazil protests take to the pitch as People’s Cup highlights evictions
- Dilma Rousseff summons Brazil cabinet over protests
- Fracking’s threats to drinking water call for cautious approach
- 5-year-old girl takes on Westboro Baptist Church with lemonade stand
Economics
- Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) overview
- High frequency trading is bad for normal investors, researchers say
- Ha Joon Chang reviews Mark Blyth’s book on Austerity
- Mark Blyth on Austerity
- Cartoon: Inequality is Real
Education
- Business majors are the most underemployed graduates in America
- Education technology: Catching on at last
Killer Robots, Etc
- Kirobo the talking robot makes for one very creepy space companion
- Marion Nestle on food marketing and public health
- The Obesity Era
- Dave Hester of ‘Storage Wars’ sues A&E — ‘The series is faked’
Hip-Hop
Lupe Fiasco: “Hurt Me Soul”
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:Â Tell Obama not to appoint fracking advocate Dr. Ernest Moniz to Dept. of Energy
- Also:Â 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 devastationâ€
- 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:Â 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.)
It’s been a long time, but hopefully the new show is worth the wait. Fecal transplants, Yahoo! profits, and lots of yelling. Enjoy!
Take Action: Free Leonard Peltier
Top 3 Links
- An amazing mea culpa from the IMF’s chief economist on austerity
- Canada kills pennies, issues glow in the dark dinosaur quarter
- Fecal transplants cure serious infections
Current Events
- Davey D on Christopher Dorner’s accusations of the LAPD
- John Brennan and the truth about drones
- Bill Moyers: Drones and Democracy
- Hydrofracking safe, says New York health dept. analysis
- DemocracyNow debate: Is Fracking Safe?
- Harvard School of Public Health: More Guns = More Homicide
- Georgia man guns down immigrant after GPS sends him to wrong driveway
Economics
- Jack Lew oversaw Citigroup unit that shorted housing market
- Ending corporate tax dodging would cut the deficit twice as much as hiking Medicare age
- Yahoo, Dell swell Netherlands tax haven
Education
Killer Robots, Etc
- North Dakota glows in the dark
- Wife of Chinese Premier hires body double?
- The world’s new second fastest robot is a tiny cardboard cockroach
- British soldiers flying nano helicopters in Afghanistan
- Sarah Palin’s FoxNews contract not renewed
Hip-Hop
- ICP is dumb
Without even realizing it, I’ve done 75 shows! If you’ve ever wondered about the pre-reboot shows, check out the archive. There’s even some vidcasts there (QuickTime format, alas — this was pre-YouTube). They’re mostly collections of cool music, but there’s some other stuff too. Have a look around.
Anyway, on this week’s show we look at a strike at Foxconn, criminal cell phones (and criminal cops), and the dangers of listening to this show while you drive. How meta! Enjoy.
Top 3 Links of the Week
- Beware the Trans-Pacific Partnership!
- The Exhaustion of the American Teacher
- Today’s lesson: charters do not outperform unionized schools
Current Events
- Unusual Dallas earthquakes linked to fracking, expert says
- Intelligence “fusion†centers yield “useless†info
- PB&J: NYPD officers shoot and kill unarmed driver
Economics
- Strike at Foxconn
- Smiley and West: Lori Wallach from Tradewatch
- TPP on Wikipedia
- ESP: Global Economics 101
- Jeffrey Sachs: What if the “ideal economy†existed?
- Mobile payments: A new frontier for criminals
Education
- Fighting for the right to fire bad teachers — and good ones, too
- Michigan professor strips naked, shouts ‘there is no f—ing God’
Killer Robots, Etc
- Philosophy Bites: Richard Sorabji
- G4TV: Robot News
- Batman charged with obstructing a police investigation
Hip-Hop
3rd Bass: Steppin to the AM
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