Sunday Reading

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, August 4th, 2013 - 10 comments
Categories: interweb - Tags:

My semi-regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring).  This week: Climate change, the TTPA, inequality, the NSA, unions and feminism. But quickly, because I need more sleep…

Climate change is coming to the US of A, with some Alaskan villages destined to disappear in a decade – but Alaska remains full-steam ahead on fossil fuels.

From Joe90 – how the NSA changes language so it is not ‘collecting’ ‘surveillance’, and indeed how everything is ‘relevant’.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is generating some heat State-side as Democratic Congressmen are frustrated at it taking great efforts to be able to view (and not be allowed to say anything about) a heavily edited version of the text.  It’s secret everywhere of course, in a massive snub to democracy.

Stiglitz looks are how free trade talks come to benefit the corporate elite instead of the people; and how intellectual property serves the 1%.

And looking at how an economy can be run better – the BBC has a series on why German autos are roaring ahead as the Great British car industry collapsed.  No autocratic management, and a much better relationship with unions through Works Councils and board representation meaning that as the British bosses fought pitched battles to keep workers and unions down, the Germans were happily making cars benefiting everyone involved. Over on The Daily Blog Burnt-Out Teacher asks: Why the shit are so many otherwise-reasonable people against unions?

And in the aftermath of various bomb threats against women who stood up to twitter bullying (apparently they didn’t read How to use the internet without being a total loser correctly), it seems a this is a bit of a feminism special…

Recently there’s been a campaign to get a woman on the UK’s bank-notes (other than the Queen).

A report that the gender pay-gap starts shockingly with our kids’ pocket money.

And finally Caitlin Moran’s How to be a Woman:

(okay, bonus finally: was Caligula not that bad?)

10 comments on “Sunday Reading ”

  1. Paul 1

    Thanks. Always enjoy the interesting articles you find.
    Best the stuff in the Sunday papers by miles!

  2. Barry 2

    In the fight against the GCSB bill it is interesting to revisit the Choudry SIS break-in case. It shows that the SIS and GCSB need better oversight. The prime minister is in no position to dixpute any “facts” they present and will rubber stamp any request for warrants.

    http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/choudry.htm

  3. QoT 3

    *sigh* Caitlin Moran. If only she’d label her stuff accurately, i.e. “How to be a hetero cisgendered white middle-class woman” she’d be so much less problematic.

  4. Draco T Bastard 5

    and how intellectual property serves the 1%.

    I’ve been saying for a while now that the IP laws that are coming out actually prevent the innovation that they’re supposed to motivate because they prevent the majority of people actually innovating. The artificial restriction then allows the corporation that own the IP to charge well beyond fair costs and thus boosting profit which sinks the economy even further.

  5. Draco T Bastard 6

    Not a read but a watch: Food Forest

  6. Murray Olsen 9

    The Great Mathematical Problems, by Ian Stewart, is my light reading at the moment. Some interesting stories, and I know just enough to realise how hard these are and how much above my level of intellect the people working on them are. I’ve never felt like that while reading anything by economists, except maybe for good old Karl.

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