Reading

Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 23:37
by Gary Gardner

In my frustration over humanity’s sluggish response to the urgent issues of our time, I find a bit of hope in an idea championed by the philosopher John Rawls. He had a simple and appealing suggestion for shifting people’s preferences in the direction of the common good.

Rawls proposed that anyone deliberating about public matters–legislators, officials, citizens, and others–start from behind a “veil of ignorance,” that hides from them their place in society.

The post Sortition for a Steady State Economy? appeared first on Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.

Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 23:32

Haiti has descended into chaos. It’s had no president or parliament — and no elections either –for eight long years. Its unelected prime minister Ariel Henry resigned recently when gang violence at the airport in Port-au-Prince made it impossible for him to return to the country after a trip to Guyana. Haiti is the poorest country in the region, its riches leached out by colonial overlords, American occupying forces, corporate predators, and home-grown autocrats. As if that weren’t enough, it’s also suffered an almost biblical succession of plagues in recent years. A coup deposed its first democratically elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, not once but twice — in 1991 and again in 2004. An earthquake in 2010 killed hundreds of thousands,... Read more

Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 23:24

Parties appearing before the Supreme Court can fund the groups that file briefs supporting their arguments — and almost never have to disclose it.

The post The Gaping Hole in Supreme Court Rules for Tracking Links Between Litigants and Influence Groups appeared first on The Intercept.

Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 23:00
Freakin’ Anthony Burgess horrorshow Read that Washington Post headline again. Is there anything you’ve read lately that encapsulates the ultraviolence the MAGA cult is committing against the United States of America (land of the free, and all) than “Red states threaten librarians with prison”? Who knew “A Clockwork Orange” (1962) was to be so prescient? Anthony Burgess published Clockwork during the Cold War, in the year the U.S. and the Soviets came closest to nuking each other. Laced with Nadsat, the Russian-based teen slang Burgess invented and put into the mouth of his thuggish protagonist, the book itself was designed as a subtle form of conditioning. Burgess wrote in 1980, “The novel was to be an exercise in linguistic programming, with the exoticisms gradually clarified by context: I would resist to the limit any publisher’s demand that a glossary be provided.
Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 22:00

If you think a piece is 100 percent done, it’s actually 45 percent done. To get it to 100 percent done, you can’t.

If you think you need “just a few more hours,” you really need a few more months.

“I’ll send it by EOD”—no, the odds are 6-1 you won’t. 7-1. 17-1.

EOD” equals 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11:59 p.m., as well as 2 a.m., 8 a.m., 10 a.m., and 11 a.m. the next day.

Each breakthrough equals ninety days of clinical depression. (But you can’t pay upfront; if you commit to ninety days of clinical depression, then you may or may not get one breakthrough.)

Tragedy plus time equals a best-selling funny personal essay collection.

“Best-selling” equals selling better than however much you thought it would sell (0).

If something is due Friday, it might as well be due Monday, which might as well be due Tuesday, which might as well be due Wednesday, which might as well be due Thursday, which might as well be due Friday. This is why God (She/Her) gave us seven days.

Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 22:00

- - -

In August 2022 I received an email asking if I would like to read Sam Sax’s debut novel with an eye towards possibly becoming the book’s editor. I said yes immediately, and read Yr Dead later that day in a single sitting. The book, which takes place entirely in the span of time between when Ezra, the protagonist of the novel, lights themself on fire and when Ezra dies, is told in lyric fragments that span both lifetimes and geography. It’s a queer, Jewish, diasporic coming-of-age story that questions how our historical memory shapes our political and emotional present.

Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 18:00
Jelle Barkema, Maren Froemel and Sophie Piton Record-high firm exits make headlines, but who are the firms going out of business? This post documents three facts about the rising number of corporations dissolving using granular data from Companies House and the Insolvency Service. We show that the increase in dissolutions that have already materialised reflected … Continue reading Three facts about the rising number of UK business exits
Created
Thu, 18/04/2024 - 15:40

City of Coffs Harbour’s free bus travel initiative kicks off on Friday 19 April. Mayor Paul Amos believes the trial will particularly support older people who no longer drive and unlicensed teenagers who rely on parents to get around. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone...

The post Free bus trial kicks off on Friday appeared first on News Of The Area.