Ehud Barak, Labour party defence minister, and former prime minister of Israel has publicly stated the occupation of Palestinian territories is not sustainable and must end. This adds to his previous claim that if Palestinians continue to be occupied without the right to vote, Israel will become an apartheid state, as Jimmy Carter clearly stated [...]
Two months ago I quit Facebook. Why? Primarily it took too much of my time and brought too little benefit. Whenever my mind wandered from the task at hand I would go to Facebook, peruse the news feed or look at some photos. Of course, a reasonable person would have been able to control himself, [...]
Last week, I went to a conference at the musée du Quai Branly featuring Jacques-Alain Miller on the theme “Comment se revolter?” (How to revolt?). His main thesis was that people revolt when their patience is pushed too far, when they have had enough. But beyond your patience, true revolt requires dedication of self against [...]
For when you are feeling down and want something to lift your spirits, check out these very inspirational and motivational videos. Let me know what I missed out and I will add it. Ben Zander at Davos 2008 (10 minutes) Ben Zander at Davos 2009 (78 minutes) Ben Zander at TED 2008 (20 minutes) Pale [...]
James Cameron’s Avatar has two fundamental problems. Most criticism centers around the simple story-line, but beyond simplicity there is something more profoundly wrong. Fundamentally, the film departs too far from reality – I am not referring to the aliens, special effects or foreign planet. The film does two things which do not hold up to [...]
What’s Next: Dispatches on the Future of Science Dispatches from the future is a collection of essays by young scientists on the cutting edge. The topics vary from dark energy, to linguistics to neuroscience. All the essays are interesting and reveal young fields which will surely develop in the next decade. Some of the essays [...]
Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, “A Long Walk to Freedom“, is fantastic. Well written by Mandala and his associates, the book lays out the struggle for freedom in South Africa – it is a struggle that spanned 75 years and many sacrifices. Mandela himself is an amazing man by any standard. He grew up in a typical [...]
Big Bill just launched his new site, pretty nifty, The Gates Notes. It is basically a fancy blog by the richest man in the world, but there are some good bits of info on the site, such as this interview with schoolchildren.
John Ralston Saul’s new book, a Fair Country, lays out a new framework for thinking about Canada. It makes the strong argument that our country has much more aboriginal spirit in it than we might think. The typical approach of analysing Canadian life along the French-English axis misses the third pillar, aboriginal culture. With countries [...]
Just a quick note to say I am now in Beijing, no Facebook here so send me an email if you need to reach me.