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#18 Collected Reading

Quote of the week

“I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining,
but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and a
happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it;”

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin


1.Facebook and Twitter fuel iPhone and Blackberry addiction, says Ofcom 

“Of the new generation of smartphone users, 60% of teenagers classed themselves as “highly addicted” to their device, compared to 37% of adults.

Mobile, UK, Culture

Source :The Guardian

2. Israel’s secular middle class strikes back

“Israel’s school system is in the pits with class sizes of about 40; many Israeli women cannot afford going to work because childcare is very expensive; the public transport is that of a third-world country.”

Israel, Policy, Culture, Protest

Source : The Guardian


3. America’s First Great Global Warming Debate

“As a gentleman farmer in Virginia, Jefferson had long been obsessed with the weather; in fact, on July 1, 1776, just as he was finishing his work on the Declaration of Independence, he began keeping a temperature diary. Jefferson would take two readings a day for the next 50 years. He would also crunch the numbers every which way”

Environment, USA, Global, Culture, History

Source :Smithsonian Magazine

4. The Illusion of the Free Internet

“Since life expectancy in Nigeria is less than 50 years it is a fair assumption most people in Ogoniland have lived with chronic oil pollution throughout their lives,” the report says.”

Environment, USA, Global, Culture, History

Source : Slow Media.net

5. Why India Can’t Feed Her People

“As much as 40 per cent of all the fruits, vegetables and food grains grown in India never make it to the market. The country wastes more grain each year than Australia produces, and more fruits and vegetables than the U.K. consumes.”

India, Culture, Food, Policy

Source : The Star

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#17 Collected Reading

Quote of the week

“When we are shown scenes of starving children in Africa, with a call for us to do something to help them, the underlying ideological message is something like: “Don’t think, don’t politicize, forget about the true causes of their poverty, just act, contribute money, so that you will not have to think!” – Living in the End Times by Slavoj Zizek

1. Calling all Dickens detectives

“Week in week out, for over 20 years, Dickens was at the helm of two of the most successful weekly magazines available in the mid-Victorian era, working with a tiny team out of bare offices in Wellington Street”

Literature, UK, Dickens, Editorial, Curation

Source :The Guardian

2. Obama as Chess Master: ‘Think of Him as Bobby Fischer’

“Liberals: Obama will end two wars, ended DADT, created the CFPA, got $20b from BP in the face of strong opposition, saved Detroit, signed New START, and enacted universal healthcare – the defining goal of the liberal movement.”

Politics, Policy, USA,

Source : The Atlantic


3. Lost world: Scenes from North Korea’s closed society 

“With few factories, the unpolluted air over Pyongyang is crisp and clear, though at dusk, with power stations struggling to crank out enough electricity to light up the streets, the city turns prison-grey. At night, dim 40-watt bulbs wink from apartments. The brightest-lit structures are the illuminated Kim portraits dotted throughout the city and the560ft Juche Tower, a monument to Kim Il-Sung’s deluded philosophy of self-reliance.”

Photography, Reporting, North Korea, Culture

Source : The independant

4. Niger delta oil spills clean-up will take 30 years, says UN

“Since life expectancy in Nigeria is less than 50 years it is a fair assumption most people in Ogoniland have lived with chronic oil pollution throughout their lives,” the report says.”

Environment, Nigeria, Policy, Global, Corporations

Source : The Guardian

5. The Hidden History Of Prison Labor

“Prison labor has already started to undercut the business of corporations that don’t use it. In Florida, PRIDE has become one of the largest printing corporations in the state, its cheap labor having a significant impact upon smaller local printers. This scenario is playing out in states across the country.”

Prisons, USA, Policy, Work

Source : The Nation

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#16 Collected Reading – Thinking about the present

Thinking about the present

A collection of thoughts around thinking, work and how to be in the present. 

“Today is a gift.
That is why they call it the present.”

-Eleanor Roosevelt

1. Distraction

“Finally, it is generally agreed that no activity can be successfully pursued by an individual who is preoccupied – no rhetoric or liberal studies – since the mind when distracted absorbs nothing deeply, but rejects everything which is, so to speak , crammed into it.” – Seneca

Distraction, Culture, Self

Source :On the Shortness of Life

2. Collective Rationality

“The commission gave me the a wonderful opportunity to test my favorite hypothesis about collective rationality, which is that if you put people of strongly opposing views in a room together, and infuse their discussion with data, background studies, and unhurried time for debate, it is possible to bridge seemingly irreconcilable positions among the members of the group.” – Jeffery Sachs

Thinking, Collaboration, Global, Facts

Source : The End of Poverty


3. Ithaca

“Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind
To arrive there is what you are destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for many years,
So you’re old by the time you reach the isle,
Wealthy with all you have gained on the way
And not expecting Ithaca to make you rich”

-C.P Cavafy

Journey, Life, Culture

Source : The Age of Absurdity

4. Ego

“The man who can center his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the pure egoist.” – Bertrand Russell

environment,global,policy

Source : The Conquest of Happiness

5. The Individual

“An individual who has to make things for the use of others, and with reference to their wants and their wishes, does not work with interest, and consequently cannot put into his work what is best in him.” – Oscar Wilde

– Collected reading editorial note : This quote when taken on face value can seem silly. My interpretation of it is that individuals are not disconnected from society’s needs and as such understand them as part of their own reality. Therefore, by solving your own problems you also contribute to solving the issues of many fellow citizens through your own particular lens on culture.

Individuality, Creativity, Work

Source : The Soul of Man Under Socialism

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#15 Collected Reading

Quote of the week

“To curb as if in fetters unbridled hopes and a mind obsessed with the future, and to aim to acquire riches from ourselves rather than from Fortune.” – Seneca

1. Gillard puts future on the line with radical plan for Australian carbon tax

“Australia generates more carbon pollution per head than any other developed country, thanks to its heavy reliance on coal-fired power stations. With a population of 22 million, Australia is responsible for 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. By comparison, Britain, with nearly three times the population, produces just 1.7%.”

australia, environment, policy, politics

Source :The Guardian

2.Spelling mistakes ‘cost millions’ in lost online sales

“James Fothergill, the CBI’s head of education and skills, said: “Our recent research shows that 42% of employers are not satisfied with the basic reading and writing skills of school and college leavers and almost half have had to invest in remedial training to get their staff’s skills up to scratch.”

education,policy,technology,uk

Source : BBC


3. A grotesque symbol of starving Africa

“Increasing numbers of children are dropping dead on the long trek to refugee camps. Those who do get there are more severely malnourished than ever before. And, says the UN, the number of people under threat has now reached 11 million – equivalent to every man, woman and child in Belgium facing starvation. Thus, the chronic food crisis of the Horn of Africa edges with every hungry day towards full-blown famine.” 

africa,economics,policy,politics

Source : The independant

4. Forests soak up third of fossil fuel emissions

“Once deforestation and regrowth are taken into account, however, tropical forests have been essentially carbon neutral.”

environment,global,policy

Source : The independant

5. Pay as You Go with Smartphones 

“Should this technology take off, the cellphone could become the central repository of not just bank account information but coupons, loyalty points, and membership cards, allowing companies such as Google to route deals to cellphones at just the right time and place.”

Technology, Culture, Economic, Global, Mobile

Source : Business Week

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#14 Collected Reading

Thinking Allowed one of my favorite shows on radio

Thinking allowed covers two topics in every episode, it is hosted by Laurie Taylor a professor of social science. What makes this show great is that the host is actually trying to get the guests to enter into a dialogue with both the listeners and the subject matter.
Take a listen and let me know what you think. The listener feedback he reads out between the two parts of the show are some of the most insightful I have ever heard on radio.

1. Streetlife – Performing politics in the square

“How does urban geography effect the way societies develop? What have streets given to politics?”

Place, Politics, Policy

Source :Thinking Allowed

2. Utopia

“In an age that some describe as filled with anxiety and uncertainty, are we breeding a kind of fatalism towards the future that excludes any notion of utopia?”

Philosophy, Social Science

Source : Thinking Allowed


3. Secrets of Capitalism – Religion and Science

“The United States does not have the highest living standard in the world – The washing machine has changed the world more than the internet – People in poor countries are more entrepreneurial than people in rich countries: Three contentions from the economist Ha-Joon Chang” 

Economics, Policy

Source : Thinking Allowed

4. Ethical capital – The Burden of Happiness

“The British government is seeking to develop a way to accurately measure the happiness of the population. In France such a gauge already exists, but is happiness really the proper goal of life?”

Happiness, Culture

Source : Thinking Allowed

5. Cosmopolitanism – Dietetics

“We should regard ourselves as citizens of the world rather than members of nations..

Culture, Nations

Source : Thinking Allowed

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#13 Collected Reading

Quote of the week

“When there is no longer any violence, there is no need for help Therefore you should not demand help, but abolish violence. Help and violence form a whole And the whole has to be changed” – Brecht

1. Holy cow, taxman! Featherweight activist fights battle against the dodgers

“It’s no coincidence that when this government came into power almost the first thing it did was raise VAT rates so that ordinary people would pay more tax and then cut corporate tax rates.”

Economics, Policy, Tax Rate,UK

Source :The Guardian

2.Connective Spaces in Medellín

“Juan Carlos’ comments about countering gang activity through positive use of public space strike an important tone in the role of public space in Medellin.”

Community, Culture, Place, Urban

Source : Connective Spaces


3.When Sweden Rules the World

“Acceptance of failure. Finally, if all of this so far makes Swedes sound like superhumans, take heart. They do in fact fail – pretty often, as it turns out. But here again a good cultural pressure-release valve comes to their assistance: a willingness to accept and learn from failure. While other cultures might blindly contend that failure is not an option, Swedes generally accept that some failure is bound to happen.” 

Culture, Policy, Sweden

Source : Creative Social Blog

4. Adam Curtis Blog: RUPERT MURDOCH – A PORTRAIT OF SATAN

“When Murdoch heard the news that John Major had been re-elected he was on the lot at Twentieth Century Fox. He said two words: ” We Won” “

Media, UK, Culture

Source : BBC

5. There Is No Such Thing as a Free Market 

“Thus seen, the ‘freedom’ of a market is, like beauty, in the eyes of the beholder. If you believe that the right of children not to have to work is more important than the right of factory owners to be able to hire whoever they find most profitable, you will not see a ban on child labour as an infringement on the freedom of the labour market. If you believe the opposite, you will see an ‘unfree’ market, shackled by a misguided government regulation.”

Economics, Culture, Markets, Global, Policy

Source : Truthout

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#12 Collected Reading July 10rd, 2011

Introduction : Sherlock Holmes and the design process

After reading a collection of  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels,  I was struck by how much the process of detection has in common with the process of design. I have picked out some of the best quotes which illustrate these ideas.

1.The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

“A confederate who foresees your conclusions and course of action is always dangerous, but one to whom each development comes as a perpetual surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate.”

Collaboration

Source :The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier

2.The Hound of the Baskervilles

“The detection of types is one of the most elementary branches of knowledge to the special expert in crime, though I confess that once when I was very young I confused the Leeds Mercury with the Western Morning News. But a Times leader is entirely distinctive, and these words could have been taken from nothing else.”

Typography

Source : The Hound of the Baskervilles


3. Silver Blaze 

“See the value of imagination,” said Holmes. “It is the one quality which Gregory lacks. We imagined what might have happened, acted upon the supposition, and find ourselves justified. Let us proceed.” 

Imagination, Hypothesis

Source : Silver Blaze

4. The Reigate Puzzle

“It is of the highest importance in the art of detection to be able to recognize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital. Otherwise your energy and attention must be dissipated instead of being concentrated.”

Curation

Source : The Reigate Puzzle

5. The Valley of Fear

“The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.

Listening

Source : The Valley of Fear

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#11 Collected Reading July 3rd, 2011

Quote of the week

“It is the difference between the “organic” solution (solving the problem by returning to the purity of the original non-corrupted system) and the truly radical solution (identifying the problem as the “symptom” of the entire system, the symptom which can only be resolved by abolishing the entire system)”. – Living in the End Times –  Slavoj Zizek

1.Bottom’s Up! A Look at America’s Drinking Habits

“Soda is still the most-consumed beverage in the U.S., with the average consumer chugging nearly 45 gallons of the fizzy stuff last year. So it’s no coincidence that three of the biggest measured-media budgets in the beverage category belong to soda brands.”

Culture, Health, Food

Source :Adage

2.Donors Are Settling for a ‘Bronze Standard’ for Measuring Charities – The Giveaway

“Many donors do care about how their money is spent. Brian Walsh, director of global social engagement at Liquidnet for Good, pointed to a recent study that showed 85 percent of donors say they care about performance. Nonetheless, only one third say they conduct research before they make a donation and only 3 percent say they make gifts based on a charity’s performance”

Nonprofit, Grants, Culture

Source : Philanthropy.com


3. Museum 2.0: A Simple Outcome of Visitor Participation: Delight

““But maybe it should be. For me, a professional who is pushing every day to make a struggling museum relevant and sustainable, I find incredible joy in these simple visitor comments.” 

Place, Culture, Museum

Source : Museumtwo

4. No Pension, No Security

“Combined with Social Security benefit cuts, the rise of 401(k)s has led to growing retirement insecurity and an increase in the labor force participation of older workers. Still, workers with only 401(k)s are better off than the nearly half of full-time workers with no retirement plan at all.

Economics, Culture, Work

Source : EPI.org

5. Risk, probability, and how our brains are easily misled

“If we really want people to understand a given probability, then we have to play to the human brain’s strengths, and adjust how we present the information.”

Technology, Humans, Culture

Source : Arstechnica

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#10 Collected Reading June 26th, 2011

Quote of the week

“Ignorance is the mother of arrogance – Hans Hoffman”

1.René Magritte: enigmatic master of the impossible dream

“Like every good artist, he makes us see the everyday differently but he does it without the pretension of so many other artists.”

Art, Commentary, Everyday

Source :The Guardian

2.Get them while they’re young

“Everything I’ve ever learned about marketing, I learned in church,” says Andrea, one of the people featured in this film.”

Marketing, Ritual, Culture

Source : The Guardian


3. What’s pushing up food prices?

““After intense lobbying, banks won deregulation of commodities markets in the US in 2000, allowing them to develop these new products. Goldman Sachs pioneered commodity index funds” 

Food, Poverty, Policy

Source : The Guardian

4. The Social Network’s Aaron Sorkin quits Facebook

“I acknowledge that video games could be an amazing art form – but not until the people making them go back a bit, to the Aaron Sorkin way of thinking about character and motivation.”

Writing, Culture, Stories

Source : The Guardian

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik

#9 Collected Reading June 19th, 2011

Quote of the week

“We weren’t just at the art exhibition – we were the art exhibition, the art incarnate and the sixties were really about people, not what they did. – Andy warhol”


1.Forty years of Friends of the Earth – in pictures

“The group was founded in 1971 in Roslagen, Sweden, by environmental activists from France, Sweden, the UK and the US who saw the need for an organisation that would address wider environmental and social issues.”

Environment, Photography

Source :The Guardian

2.The Dark Side of the Free and Open 

“The Dark Side of the Free and Open (For Artsworld Magazine)Geeks, programmers and computer scientists are very much in demand in society. Without them all infrastructure collapses. This is (unfortunately) not the case with artists. So far geeks have never had any problems securing an income, even if we take global outsourcing of their work into account. As a result they have little idea what happens if you transport the free and open mantras into other contexts where people are working under harsh neoliberal circumstances struggling to make a living.”

Internet, Work, OpenSource

Source : Network Cultures


3. USDA Replaces Food Pyramid with MyPlate 

““The USDA’s new plate icon couldn’t be more at odds with federal food subsidies,” says PCRM staff nutritionist Kathryn Strong, M.S., R.D. “The plate icon advises Americans to limit high-fat products like meat and cheese, but the federal government is subsidizing these very products with billions of tax dollars and giving almost no support to fruits and vegetables. Congress has to reform the Farm Bill to support healthy diets.” 

Food, Poverty, Policy

Source : PCRM.org

4. California Senate Votes to Ban Styrofoam Containers!

“It’s ironic however that a product used to keep something as short-lived as a milkshake will last many thousands of years in the environment. Studies show that the material accounts for up to 15% of storm drain litter, and it’s the second most prevalent type of beach debris.Read more: California Senate Votes to Ban Styrofoam Containers! | Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World”

Environment , Policy, Design

Source : Inhabit

5. Website to catalogue impact of arts funding cuts

“Every £1 invested in the arts produces £2 for the economy, and yet the arts and culture sector is currently suffering from disastrous local authority cuts, as well as the cuts that the Arts Council has had to make after its 30% cut from the government,” he said.”

Arts, Funding, Policy

Source : Lost Arts.org

Hope you like this collection. Please comment, share and most of all enjoy.

– Kaushik