Didactic Synapse

Good news, everybody! The Didactic SynCast is back! After months of silence, my podcast is online once again. And what a time to return — I scored an interview with the amazing writer and activist Sarah Schulman, author of the new novel The Cosmopolitans, based on Honoré de Balzac’s La Cousine Bette. Have a listen and subscribe to the new iTunes feed.

Here are links to things we discuss:

• The Cosmopolitans at GoodReads
• Conflict is Not Abuse at GoodReads
• Lambda Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices
• Feminist Press
• Movement for Black Lives: Platform
• Mix NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival
• Geri Allen: Lush Life
• Nelson Algren on sentimentality
• Sara Ahmed: The Promise of Happiness
• Teaser for Jason and Shirley
• Trailer for Portrait of Jason
• Amy Goodman and DemocracyNow!
• BDS Movement
• ACT UP Oral History Project
• United In Anger: A History of ACT UP on iTunes

Journalist Helen Thomas died today. She was a remarkable pioneer for women in journalism, but she was also a vital voice of dissent and a relentless practitioner of aggressive, fearless reporting. She had the courage to ask tough questions, and she did not accept political doublespeak.

She did not — as so many do these days — simply write down the talking points of both sides of a political divide, and tell the reader: “Now you figure it out.” Instead, she pursued the truth and reported it as best she could.

I found this biography from ABC to be fairly decent, and I especially like this paragraph:

She was persistent to the point of badgering. One White House press secretary described her questioning as “torture” — and he was one of her fans.

Everyone knows why she retired, and without getting into the specifics of Israel and Palestine, I will simply say that I found her comments simplistic and foolish — roughly akin to the anti-immigrant nonsense we hear in the US all the time. At the same time, I will say that her comments reflect a deep frustration that many people around the world share, owing to the harsh brutality inflicted on Palestinians by the Israeli government. (Which of course does not excuse or justify Palestinian terrorism, etc etc.)

I will also point to Gandhi’s comments on Israel and Palestine, which was a bit more nuanced than Ms. Thomas’, but not entirely opposite:

And now a word to the Jews in Palestine. I have no doubt that they are going about it in the wrong way. The Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract. It is in their hearts. But if they must look to the Palestine of geography as their national home, it is wrong to enter it under the shadow of the British gun. A religious act cannot be performed with the aid of the bayonet or the bomb. They can settle in Palestine only by the goodwill of the Arabs.

Finally, however, I wish to stress once more that we resist the temptation to make a person’s least agreeable moment the totality of that person’s identity. However you might feel about that last public episode, we owe Ms. Thomas a significant debt of gratitude for her indefatigable work in the name of democracy, justice, and peace.

EDIT: I totally forgot about her awesome video with Colbert! Thanks, Reddit.

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.)

I finally did a new episode. You’re welcome. Listen to me talk about Obama’s re-election (just a little), Hurricane Sandy, Israel and Gaza, and some other stuff.

DS #77: Aslack Grinsted

Top 3 Links of the Week

• Naomi Klein on Bill Moyers: capitalism and climate change
• Tavis Smiley and Cornel West on Obama’s re-election
• North Carolina teacher: I quit.

Current Events

• Was Hurricane Sandy Caused by Global Warming?
• The best defense against extreme weather: Live in a rich country
• Israel army leaflet warns Gazans to leave homes
• Karachi factories safety standards appalling
• Voter fraud, Republican style
• PBS protests
• Kucinich: Obama administration must account to Congress for targeted assassinations
• Synesthesia on To The Best Of Our Knowledge

Economics

• Hungry for income, banks flirt with payday lending
• Wal-Mart on Strike
• What really happens when a city makes its transit system free?
• Rolling Jubilee: OWS campaigners buy debt to abolish it

Education

• California strips 23 schools of ranking for cheating

Killer Robots, Etc

• DemocracyNow: Killer robots! (feat. Jody WIlliams)
• Anti-computer-virus pioneer John McAfee wanted for murder
• Artificial muscles created from carbon yarn

Hip-Hop

X-Clan: “Weapon X”