In this edition: the word of the day is gratuitous but pleasing, we swot up on the history of women’s property rights, we learn a little more African history and get a related list of free reading materials, Paul Krugman mocks Pawlenty‘s “Google test”, a study suggests U.S. health care accessibility will soon be getting much worse, the ACLU reminds us about our civil liberties, Flavia Dzodan exposes kyriarchy within business culture. Also, an obituary for a physicist, and biology meets art in a bizarre new way.
- Pawlenty Wants To Abolish the Army – NYTimes.com – Paul Krugman
- Hey, the Army, the Navy and all that were built for a time when the private sector did not provide their products. But now we can just hire mercenaries!
- Many employers to drop health benefits: McKinsey | Reuters
- At least 30 percent of employers are likely to stop offering health insurance once provisions of the U.S. health care reform law kick in 2014, according to a study by consultant McKinsey.
- “If the Law Does Not Protect Jose Padilla . . . It Protects No One” | Suzanne Ito, ACLU
- In February, a federal district court in South Carolina dismissed our lawsuit on behalf of American citizen Jose Padilla against Donald Rumsfeld and other current and former officials, saying the former Secretary of Defense was entitled to “qualified immunity” for his role in the arbitrary detention and torture of Padilla. Today we appealed that dismissal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
… Padilla was arrested in March 2002, held without charge for four years in a South Carolina military brig and without access to a lawyer for two years, and was tortured to the point that brig authorities described his behavior (or lack thereof) as “like a piece of furniture.”
- (Free) Summer Reading | About.com African-American History
- Looking for some summer reading? Now that vacation season has begun, I’ll be highlighting some (lesser known) free works of African-American history available on the internet. You can download these to read on your phone, ipad, kindle, etc. …
- pecksniffian: Dictionary.com Word of the Day
- pecksniffian: hypocritically and fervently affecting kindness or high moral principles.
- Using bacteriea to restore ancient art | ABlogAboutHistory.com
- Biologists in Spain are aiding in the restoration of 17th century frescoes in a church by using bacteria to eat away the grime.
- Rosalyn S. Yalow, 89, Nobel Physicist – NYTimes.com
- Dr. Yalow, a product of New York City schools and the daughter of parents who never finished high school, graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College in New York at the age of 19 and was the college’s first physics major. Yet she struggled to be accepted for graduate studies. In one instance, a skeptical Midwestern university wrote: “She is from New York. She is Jewish. She is a woman.”
Undeterred, she went on to carve out a renowned career in medical research, largely at a Bronx veterans hospital, and in the 1950s became a co-discoverer of the radioimmunoassay, an extremely sensitive way to measure insulin and other hormones in the blood. …
- “Business networking”, career women and “the non-integrated immigrant” | Tiger Beatdown • by Flavia Dzodan
- …when immigrants…decide to overcome limitations by relating to one another, by creating bonds within a community…they will be accused on “not integrating”, of “keeping to their own”. Because, you know, when members of the dominant culture get together, we call it “networking”. But when minorities do the same, they will be portrayed as isolationist and a threat to national identities.
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Tue, Jun 7th, 4pm) 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.