- Then and Now: Staggering 20 Year Transformation of Lujiazui District, Shanghai
- We found these two startling photos of Lujiazui District in Shanghai, one taken in 1990 and the other in 2010, as showcased by Business Insider. As you can see, the transformation is almost hard to believe. Lujiazui is currently a famous financial district in Shanghai. But until the 1980s, it was a relatively low-built area, consisting of residential houses, warehouses, and a few factories.
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- The Sodomized Virgin Exception enters the mainstream
- [Hullabaloo - digby]
One of the most linked posts I ever wrote was called "The Sodomized Virgin Exception", about the comments by a South Dakota lawmaker as to what might constitute a legitimate reason for an abortion…
This was in 2006, and there was a fair amount of blowback that I was (as usual) being hyperbolic and rude, that this was a fringe sweller and I was unfairly tarring the good hearted pro-lifers as extremists.
Fast forward five years later.
- Beyond GDP: UK to Measure Well-Being
- [YES! magazine - Laura Stoll]
The UK is trying out a new way to see if government policies are improving people’s lives: ask.
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- Gender Across Borders » Blog Archive » What We Need Now Are Women
- Almost 24 years ago, beginning in 1987, secret meetings were held between Israelis and Palestinians. These meetings were secret because in those years it was illegal for Israelis and considered taboo for Palestinians to meet with each other. …[They] crafted an agreement that was signed and publicized several years before the so-called Oslo Peace Accords. Above all, this agreement declared the establishment of a free, independent and secure Palestine side-by-side with a free, independent and secure Israel as the core of a political settlement.
As profound as this moment could have been in the history of the Middle East, very few people have heard of it. Why? Because the agreement was written by women. …these women were neither marginal nor radical. Each delegation included prominent political leaders–members of parliament, government ministers, an ambassador, and a party head.
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- ACLU of Southern California: Take Action! Tell the Governor to Choose Education, Not Executions
- Gov. Brown has the power to save the state $1 billion over five years without releasing a single prisoner by converting all death sentences to permanent imprisonment. Let him know there is a safe and cost-effective alternative to the death penalty that provides crime victims with swift and certain justice.
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- The education of Michelle Rhee – POLITICO.com Print View
- …Rhee is in the process of shifting from political naif to full-fledged power broker. She has created an emphatically political new organization, StudentsFirst, and she told POLITICO she hopes to raise and spend an astonishing $200 million annually…
The group intends, she said, to engage in policy battles around the country and to give [backup to] allies of a policy platform that involves higher standards and more flexibility for teachers…
Rhee would like them to fight union-backed “last in, first out” policies and to fire bad teachers, not new ones.
…The fight against LIFO is the first battle in a campaign for a new education policy that is equal parts ambitious and ill-defined…
- GDP Per Capita, Here and There – NYTimes.com
- …French workers are roughly as productive as US workers. But fewer Frenchmen and women are working, and when they work, they work fewer hours.
…The bottom line is that France is a society with the same level of technology and productivity as the US, but one that has made different choices about retirement and leisure.
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- Gov. Kasich To Black Lawmaker: ‘I Don’t Need Your People’
- [Think Progress - Tanya Somanader]
- Even if it is broke, don’t bother fixing it
- [Hullabaloo - digby]
I mentioned that Piers Morgan brought this up the other night before the SOTU and nobody seemed to know what he was talking about. It seems the Cameron government did everything the confidence fairies and bond vigilantes demanded and it wasn't enough to restore confidence and lift "uncertainty."…
"Britain's gross domestic product took a surprising turn lower in the fourth quarter, the Office of National Statistics said Tuesday…"
[My quick recap, mostly based on Krugman's blog: austerity is a euphemism for government budget-slashing, which is supposed to somehow strengthen the economy by inspiring investors to spend money. There are so many examples to suggest it doesn't work that way, yet the Serious People are required to pay lip service to austerity in order to be taken seriously. Also, "austerity" directly hurts the poor and middle classes, while the rich skate by. -L]
- Egypt on fire
- [Hullabaloo - digby]
If you are like me and your cable provider doesn't allow you to see Al Jazeera (because the boogeymen might be sending secret signals) you can watch it online here.
And here's a little primer on the situation if you haven't been keeping up…
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- Ayn Rand Fanboy Paul Ryan Used Social Security “Hammock” to Put Himself Through College
- [Firedoglake - Blue Texan]
"With his father’s passing, young Paul collected Social Security benefits until age 18, which he put away for college."
College costs have skyrocketed since Ryan entered Miami University in 1988, yet Ryan wants to slash the very system that he benefited from because it produces “dependency.”
- On The Riots In Egypt And Women
- …suppose that the situation indeed does result in a new government for Egypt. What would that government look like?…
…the history of revolutions can be informative. There are exceptions, sure, but in far too many cases the blood that was supposed to water the tree of liberty just nurtured a different kind of oppressive power structure. Obvious examples of the latter abound: Iran, for example. Even the quasi-change in Iraq seems to lead down the road of greater oppression of women.
…we shouldn't automatically assume that revolutions against a tyrant are going to benefit everyone in the society equally.
- Hidden Fractals Suggest Answer to Ancient Math Problem
- [Wired: Science - Dave Mosher - explains what partition numbers are.]
Since the 18th century, generations of mathematicians have tried to find a way of predicting large partition numbers.
…mathematicians Amanda Folsom and Zachary Kent joined Ono to discover an infinite, fractal-like pattern…
The combined research doesn't quite reveal a mathematical representation of the universe's structure, Ono said, but it does kill partition numbers as a way to encrypt computer data.
"Nobody's ever going to do that now, since we now know partition numbers aren't random," Ono said. "They’re completely predictable…"
- Cup-pake!
- The fellow who posts over at Three Ninjas read the post on my famous pake, a cake into which three pies had been baked. He must have liked the concept, because for his birthday one of his coworkers baked him a pake—actually, cup-pakes, smaller versions that, as he put it, “facilitate workplace sharing”. Cup-pakes must be even harder to make since one first has to make the mini-pies instead of using regular store-bought pies.
Here’s a cross section of the natal cup-pake, with celebratory birthday cetaceans in the background.
- Blog – "Quantum Water" Discovered in Carbon Nanotubes
- A new quantum state of water found in carbon nanotubes at room temperature could have important implications for life
Many astrobiologists think that water is a key ingredient for life. And not just because life on Earth can't manage without it.
[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Fri, Jan 28th, 12pm) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.