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Wed, 14/12/2022 - 08:05

Join us Thursday, December 15 at 1pm ET / 10am PT, for a special edition of our monthly call. (Convert to your local time zone.)

Our usual informal get-together will be even more so, as we gather to celebrate the season with friends old and new.  We may end up talking shop -- since that's what happens when you get any two Drupalists in a room together -- but no specific topics are on the agenda this month.  (That said, if you've got something specific on your mind, feel free to share ahead of time in our collaborative Google doc: https://nten.org/drupal/notes!)

All nonprofit Drupal devs and users, regardless of experience level, are always welcome on this call.

This free call is sponsored by NTEN.org and open to everyone. 

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Wed, 14/12/2022 - 07:04


How the Corporate Takeover of American Politics Began

The corporate takeover of American politics started with a man and a memo you’ve probably never heard of.

In 1971, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asked Lewis Powell, a corporate attorney who would go on to become a Supreme Court justice, to draft a memo on the state of the country.

Powell’s memo argued that the American economic system was “under broad attack” from consumer, labor, and environmental groups.

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Wed, 14/12/2022 - 06:55
A necessary condition of becoming an Examination (or Prize) Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, is taking an exam. The exam consists of four three-hour essay tests, or “papers.” Two of these are in your chosen specialist subject—Classical Studies, Law, History, English Literature, Economics, Politics, or Philosophy—and the other two are general tests and ask questions on a variety of topics. What questions have been on the philosophy exams? They change each year. Typically candidates are given around 30 questions for each test, from which they must choose three to answer. The exams cover a variety of philosophical topics, from classic questions to contemporary work. Below are the questions from the two 2022 philosophy exams: PHILOSOPHY I ‘If there is a god, they will look benevolently upon atheists.’ Discuss. Is disability primarily a social phenomenon? Is the principle of bivalence incompatible with free action? ‘Anything that exists is (exactly) one Therefore, to be many is not to exist.’ Discuss. Can there be vague objects? Can there be time without change? Change without time? Is it possible to define truth?
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Wed, 14/12/2022 - 05:30

More than 100 economists and tax experts have published an open letter calling on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to reconsider the Stage 3 tax cuts for high income earners, labelling the tax cuts as economically unaffordable and unfair. The open letter appears as a full-page advert in the SMH & The Age today. High profile

The post 100+ Economists, Tax Experts Call for Stage 3 Overhaul in Full-Page Adverts appeared first on The Australia Institute.

Created
Wed, 14/12/2022 - 02:03

Entretien avec Gilles Yabi, directeur exécutif du Think Tank ouest-africain WATHI, sur la sécurité alimentaire en Afrique

Gilles Yabi est le fondateur et directeur exécutif de WATHI. Il oriente et supervise les activités du think tank dont l'équipe permanente est basée à Dakar (Sénégal). WATHI est une plateforme ouverte de production et de dissémination de connaissances et de propositions sur toutes les questions cruciales pour le présent et le futur de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et des autres régions du continent. Gilles Yabi est régulièrement invité à partager ses réflexions sur les questions politiques, économiques, d'éducation et de sécurité avec diverses organisations africaines et internationales. Il a également une longue expérience de l’interaction avec les médias, publie depuis une quinzaine d’années des tribunes sur les questions politiques et économiques africaines. Il anime la chronique hebdomadaire « Ça fait débat avec WATHI » diffusée sur Radio France Internationale (RFI).

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Wed, 14/12/2022 - 01:58

Reportando desde la corte federal donde Estados Unidos está procesando al diplomático venezolano Alex Saab, The Grayzone descubre actos perturbadores de espionaje diplomático. La defensa de Saab insiste que está encarclado por violar el bloqueo económico de Washington. Luego del arresto del diplomático venezolano Alex Saab en junio de 2020, las autoridades de Cabo Verde abrieron comunicaciones oficiales del gobierno de Venezuela destinadas a Irán, incluyendo una carta sellada que el presidente venezolano Nicolás Maduro le envió al Líder Supremo […]

The post Juicio en Estados Unidos al diplomático venezolano Alex Saab revela espionaje diplomático appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Wed, 14/12/2022 - 00:56

Mike Savala’s boots scuffed the edge of a singed patch of forest littered with skinny fingers of burnt ponderosa pine needles. Nearby, an oak seedling sizzled as a yellow-shirted firefighter hit it with a stream of water. Spurts of smoke rose from blackened ground the size of a hockey rink. A 100-foot Ponderosa pine towered overhead. “Third response today,” said Savala, shaking his head. This hillside in my own backyard in California’s northern Sierra Nevada mountains hadn’t seen lightning for months and yet it had still burst into flames. All summer long, it had baked in heat that extended into an unseasonably hot autumn. Now, in late October, it was charred by a fire of mysterious origin. A spark from... Read more

Source: Inferno appeared first on TomDispatch.com.

Created
Wed, 14/12/2022 - 00:52
As noted last month, the Department of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London and other units there are facing drastic cuts. The department’s graduate (post-graduate, or PGR) students have now written a letter to the administration objecting to the cuts. Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij, chair of Philosophy at Birkbeck, explained the severity of the cuts: The worst-case scenario savings targets that have been shared by senior management would involve a faculty reduction of up to 6 FTE in Philosophy. Since not all colleagues are at 1 FTE, this would likely involve a headcount reduction of greater than 6, and potentially 50% of the Department. We are currently working with senior management to, among other things, query the model used to arrive at this savings target, and to impress on them exactly how damaging such a reduction would be for the Department. Most importantly, it would seriously compromise our important and unique mission of providing philosophy education to a wide range of students, including through evening and part-time study, and a highly successful conversion program for students without a formal background in philosophy.