ANTIQUIET – Music does not exist in a vacuum. As a tool of protest, of affection, of the myriad complexities of the human condition, music plays just an important role now as ever before in its ability to connect, inform and find grounds of empathy in a world of increased personal isolation as “social networking” becomes a term of digital … Read More
THE TIMES-PICAYUNE – The president’s Oil Spill Commission has concluded that systemic failures, not a rogue BP management style, caused the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout in April. “The blowout was not the product of a series of aberrational decisions made by rogue industry or government officials that could not have been anticipated or expected to occur again,” … Read More
TRUTHDIG – Ralph Nader in a CNN poll a few days before the 2008 presidential election had an estimated 3 percent of the electorate, or about 4 million people, behind his candidacy. But once the votes were counted, his support dwindled to a little over 700,000. Nader believes that many of his supporters entered the polling booth and could not … Read More
LOS ANGELES TIMES – Another big California health insurer has stunned individual policyholders with huge rate increases — this time it’s Blue Shield of California seeking cumulative hikes of as much as 59% for tens of thousands of customers March 1. Blue Shield’s action comes less than a year after Anthem Blue Cross tried and failed to raise rates as … Read More
GUARDIAN.CO.UK – The following correction was printed in the Guardian’s Corrections and clarifications column, Wednesday 5 January 2011 The story below reported the authors of a study as saying that birth defects in the Iraqi city of Falluja could have been caused by weaponry used in US assaults in 2004, and added by way of background that this suggestion might … Read More
