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Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Osama Bin Laden was not a good man.

Great is not a synonym for good. Genghis Khan was a great man. Hitler was a great man. FDR was a great man. Ivan the Terrible was a great man. Queen Elizabeth the first was a great woman. Of the five, only FDR was a good person.

Bin Laden didn’t quite win (though the jury is out), but he did accomplish much of what he wanted. His theory was simple: the US, the far enemy, was why when pious Muslims tried to reform their societies, they lost. The US supported the local governments or conservative/sell out forces, and with that support, the governments won.

This theory is a good one: it’s mostly true.

How a soft-bodied machine uses physical intelligence to navigate.

The post The Wisdom of a Brainless Robot appeared first on Nautilus.

I've posted a couple of new animated cartoons about microwaves, cuddling, and wombats.

The message is clear: Try to spread opinions cops don’t like through the media, and you might be charged next.

The post Cop City Indictments Threaten Press Freedom Too appeared first on The Intercept.

In my latest article (open access) for Environment and Planning F I explore Latin American contributions to the debates surrounding the concept ‘mode of production’ (MOP). I specifically explore the contributions of José Carlos Mariátegui and René Zavaleta as two of the continent’s most original Marxist thinkers.

The post Debating Modes of Production in Latin America appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Today, Chileans mark the 50th anniversary of the bloody US-backed military coup d’état that killed President Salvador Allende, putting an end to democratic rule and unleashing a systematic reign of terror to crush thousands of supporters of the socialist government in Chile. That day and the seventeen years that followed saw our loved ones brutally […]

The faucet fills my glass with water, but I don’t dare take a sip yet. As I squeeze the lemon into my drink, I mentally levitate. It’s true that I am now earthier and less judgmental. With just one sip of lemon water, I feel myself become effortlessly radiant.

I skip my morning coffee because I’m high on vitamin C. My body is detoxing, and I feel more in tune with the miraculous rhythms of life. I tell my boss I won’t be coming into work today, or ever again. My corporate marketing job has always felt beneath me. When my boss sends me a threatening email in response, I forward it to a reputable journalist. For I am a whistleblower. My senses feel heightened, and I am suddenly porous to the universe and all it offers me.

During my eight-mile run, I barely sweat. A passerby points at me, asking whether I’ll give the eulogy at his funeral. I am now an empath and tell him his stage four cancer is not actually a death sentence. Has he tried lemon water? I imagine a cable news anchor asking me what it feels like to save lives for a living.

“It feels good, Anderson. It feels damn good.”

The Government’s latest anti-strike laws, introduced by the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, threaten striking frontline workers with the sack and trade unions that fail to comply with being sued into bankruptcy.  The laws have faced a barrage of criticism from civil liberties organisations, NHS employers, race equality groups, employment lawyers and, of course, the […]

Sept 11, 1973. 50 years ago today. The events that day in a ‘faraway country about which we knew little’ left an indelible mark on a generation of socialists who, like myself, were politically active in Britain. They have stayed in my memory ever since. And they changed the way in which capitalism organised itself […]