Ian Bunn | Political & Popular Culture Arts

Mohamed Ghilan the Saudi Arabia born Canadian Muslim who writes articles relating to Islamic topics, theology, and philosophy of religion and science, has published an article on Aljareera titled ‘To Sharia or not to Sharia: The question of Islamopolitics’ in which he states “The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently released their latest results from a survey of Muslims around the world on religion, politics and society. Although there is wide variability, it seems that most Muslims want Sharia (Islamic Law) to be the governing law of their countries and to play an important role in the political process. However, although the majority of Muslims agree on the general principle of applying Sharia, they do not seem to agree on what that term means. Given the diversity of understanding and sources one can be exposed to in the Islamic tradition, this disagreement should not come as a surprise. …The human element must be brought to the forefront of this conversation. The way in which Islam is being considered the driving force behind Islamopolitical movements as if it is an autonomous agent removes accountability from the people within those movements. While their desire for economic and social reform is commendable, their approach is highly questionable. …The current struggle is between rationalist Muslims who want to bring forth the Islamic tradition in its complete spectrum and dogmatist Muslims who think classical political works written in completely different contextual realities have some divine quality or sanctity to them. More importantly, Muslims need to come to terms with the fact that progress is not going to come from political parties that exploit the population’s emotional connection with Islam as a means to gain power.”

Inspired by Mohamed Ghilan, Aljazeera ow.ly/lMHfv Image source Mohamed Ghilan ow.ly/lMH8Z

C Robert O’Dell the American physics and astronomy professor has been featured by Rick Docksai in an article published in the Science Recorder titled ‘Ring Nebula is expanding at 43,000 miles an hour, according to Hubble’. Docksai states “The Ring Nebula apparently has been misnamed: It’s not a ring at all, but a football-shaped jelly doughnut.  …Scientists [had] concluded that this nebula has a hollow middle and ring-shaped—hence came its present-day moniker. But the latest analysis, led by Robert O’Dell, …arrived at a wholly other conclusion. The nebula’s center is quite full, O’Dell and his team state. However, varying patterns of motion may cause the middle to look unlike the rest of the nebula from our vantage point, and hence some of the visual illusion. The entire cloud is expanding by more than 43,000 miles an hour, but the growth is even faster at the center than it is in the outer ring. Consequently, the middle is much lower-density than the rest of the nebula. The Hubble images that O’Dell and his team used are the highest-precision views of the nebula taken yet. While earlier observations had identified the presence of gaseous material in the center, none had gathered all of the detail of this latest Hubble presentation, such as the star that is indeed at the center—though it is now dying. The nebula measures just one light-year across, so it’s compact enough that this one star’s end-of-life expansions and contractions could stand out prominently to observers here on Earth, even if those observers were using eighteenth-century telescopes. In fact, this dying star is probably what brought the nebula into being in the first place. Scientists designate the Ring Nebula a “planetary nebula,” which means that it forms out of the gas and dust that emanates from a star that’s fading out. While this nebula’s star will continue to shine for a fairly long while by human time, scientists say that it is definitively on its way to white-dwarf status.”

Inspired by Rick Docksai, Science Recorder ow.ly/lMDlV Image source Vanderbilt ow.ly/lMBEF

Amanda McGregor the British consultant who works with Directors and Creative professionals in development, creativity and planning has published an article in ArtLyst titled ‘The Energy Frequency Of Creation In Our Relationship To Art’ in which she states “Our dependency on our relationship to art normally starts at a young age. This is prompted through a need to escape to a world of magic and fantasy and be immersed in our creative flow. The ‘flow’ is the energy frequency of ‘creation’ and expression. Through creating moments with ourselves, we allow a freedom of spirit, peace, our truth to be spoken and our true dynamics of experience to be fully expressed, emotionally, in vision and intellectually. With a conceptual focus in the intellectual pursuit of art, we play with the thoughts and perspectives we create, allowing a connection with a larger picture in creation, to play with the logic, sight, experience and the vision of ourselves and others. However this form of play, can be considered a way of muse, a way of entertaining ones inner muse, it’s a form of being a ‘player’. When we grow up, we may find our inner child is still dominating in this playful muse, at the expense of the responsibilities of adult life. We can be a slave to our desires to be creatively free. To be able to live in the space of preferred existence we enter in to a journey in which we hope the ‘art world’ will meet us. The infrastructure of funding, buyers, curators, artist, critic and gallerists is an eco-system of community designed to help protect the sensitive art world of ‘play’. As an adult some artists may be met with a challenge in finding they are beyond a system of understanding, or process, thereby not necessarily supported by ‘art world’ connections…”  Inspired by Amanda McGregor, ArtlystInspired by Amanda McGregor, Artlyst ow.ly/lE7Pj source Twitter ow.ly/lE7yl

Eugenie Carol Scott the 67 year old American physical anthropologist who has been the executive director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) since 1987, and the leading critic of young earth creationism and intelligent design has announced her retirement. Scott has been featured in an article by Jeffrey Mervis in the Science Insider, in which he states “Eugenie Scott has spent 26 years helping teachers do what’s right for their students in the name of science. And while the need to defend the teaching of evolution and climate change certainly hasn’t disappeared, Scott announced that she is stepping down later this year… “I think all nonprofits hope someday to put themselves out of business,” says Scott, now 67. “But I guess I found a sinecure,” she adds with a laugh. …Trained as a physical anthropologist, Scott was on the faculty of the University of Kentucky in 1980 when she and other educators opposed attempts to teach creationism in the local schools. NCSE was the product of a national grassroots network that had sprung up to battle similar attempts across the country during that era, and Scott joined the fledgling organization in 1987. Based in Oakland, California, NCSE has grown into a 15-person, $1.2 million a year operation that monitors legislation at all levels and provides advice and resources to educators. A prolific writer, organizer, and strategist, Scott says that her successor will inherit “a more mature organization moving in exciting new directions.” In recent years, NCSE has expanded efforts to defend teachers and school districts from attacks by climate change deniers that employ tactics very similar to those used by opponents of evolution. “We’ve learned from Day 1 that you don’t blunt those attacks by simply shoveling science onto the debate,” she says. “You need to recognize the political and economic and cultural issues in play. In the end, it comes down to your powers of persuasion.”

Inspired by Jeffrey Mervis, Science Insider ow.ly/laUIx Image source Facebook ow.ly/laUD7

Jason Palmer the British Science and technology reporter for the BBC News has published an article titled ‘Antigravity gets first test at Cern’s Alpha experiment’, in which he states “Researchers at Cern in Switzerland have tested a novel way to find out if antimatter is the source of a force termed “antigravity”. Antimatter particles are the “mirror image” of normal matter, but with opposite electric charge. How antimatter responds to gravity remains a mystery, however; it may “fall up” rather than down. Now researchers reporting in Nature Communications have made strides toward finally resolving that notion. Antimatter presents one of the biggest mysteries in physics, in that equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created at the Universe’s beginning. Yet when the two meet, they destroy each other in what is called annihilation, turning into pure light. Why the Universe we see today is made overwhelmingly of matter, with only tiny amounts of antimatter, has prompted a number of studies to try to find some difference between the two. Tests at Cern’s LHCb experiment and elsewhere, for example, have been looking for evidence that exotic particles decay more often into matter than antimatter. …the LHCb team reported a slight difference in the decay of particles called Bs mesons – but still not nearly enough to explain the matter mystery. One significant difference between the two may be the way they interact with gravity – antimatter may be repelled by matter, rather than attracted to it. But it is a difference that no one has been able to test – until the advent of Cern’s Alpha experiment. Alpha is an acronym for Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus – an experiment designed to build and trap antimatter “atoms”. Just as hydrogen is made of a proton and an electron, antihydrogen is an atom made of their antimatter counterparts antiprotons and positrons. The trick is not just in making it, but in making it hang around long enough to study it – before it bumps into any matter and annihilates…”

Inspired by Jason Palmer, BBC ow.ly/laBDO Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/laBo8

Paul De Grauwe the 66 year old Belgian Economist and Professor emeritus in European Political Economy, and former member of the Belgian Federal Parliament, has published an article on the Project Syndicate titled ‘Debt Without Drowning’. De Grauwe states “Since the 1970’s, economists have warned that a monetary union could not be sustained without a fiscal union. But the eurozone’s leaders have not heeded their advice – and the consequences are becoming increasingly apparent. Europe now faces a difficult choice: either fix this fundamental design flaw and move toward fiscal union, or abandon the common currency. Choosing the latter option would have devastating consequences. Indeed, while the desirability of establishing a monetary union may have been open to question in the 1990’s, dismantling the eurozone now would trigger profound economic, social, and political upheaval throughout Europe. To avoid this outcome, Europe’s leaders must begin designing and implementing strategies aimed at bringing the eurozone closer to a fiscal union. To be sure, a fiscal union such as that in the United States is a distant prospect that eurozone leaders should not expect to achieve any time soon – or even in their lifetimes. But that does not mean that establishing a fiscal union is a chimera. Small steps in the right direction now can make a significant difference. …the eurozone is gripped by an existential crisis that is slowly, but inexorably, destroying the monetary union’s very foundations. The only way to stem the erosion is to take determined action that convinces financial markets that the eurozone is here to stay. A debt-pooling scheme that satisfies the requirements outlined here would signal that the eurozone member countries are serious about sticking together. Without this gesture, further market turmoil is inevitable – and the eurozone’s collapse will become only a matter of time.”

Inspired by Paul De Grauwe, Project Syndicate ow.ly/l2YzK Image source kuleuven ow.ly/l2YmE

Peter Hoffmann the American former Washington and foreign correspondent for a major business/technology news service has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The Hydrogen Solution’ in which he states “Around the world, governments and businesses are constantly being called upon to make big investments in solar, wind, and geothermal energy, as well as biofuels. But, in the United States, unlike in Europe and Asia, discussion of hydrogen energy and fuel cells as systemic, game-changing technologies is largely absent. That needs to change: these clean, renewable energy sources promise not only zero-emission baseload power, but also a zero-emission fuel for cars and trucks, the biggest polluters of them all. By now, many have heard about plans by big carmakers – including Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai – to launch hydrogen fuel-cell cars commercially around 2015. Daimler, Ford, and Nissan plan to launch such cars around 2017. Germany plans to build at least 50 hydrogen fueling stations by 2015 as the start of a countrywide network. Japan and Korea have announced similar plans. But a bigger, largely unreported, message is that some European countries, especially Germany, have launched projects that combine renewables like solar and wind with hydrogen for energy storage, implying clean, zero-emission, stable power grids that require no coal, oil, or nuclear power. Indeed, the bottom line of a new study by two American researchers, Willett Kempton and Cory Budischak, is that the combination of renewables and hydrogen storage could fully power a large electricity grid by 2030 at costs comparable to those today. Kempton and Budischak designed a computer model for wind, solar, and storage to meet demand for one-fifth of the US grid. The results buck “the conventional wisdom that renewable energy is too unreliable and expensive,” says Kempton.”

Inspired by Peter Hoffmann, Project Syndicate ow.ly/kBbQa Image source hydrogenambassadors ow.ly/kBbHO

Marni Halasa the British lawyer, journalist, and performance artist for Occupy Wall Street in New York City and member of Occupy’s Alternative Banking Group, a direct action and seminar group that distributes information to the public, has published an article on Huffington Post titled ‘Show Time! Tripping the Light Fantastic as a Performance Artist for Occupy Wall Street’. Halasa states “My conservative Arab father always told me I had no shame. Little did he know that my insatiable desire to exhibit and entertain as a performance artist would come in handy for Occupy Wall Street. I help the movement spread its message of the 99 percent in a somewhat unique and flamboyant way. Whether I am dressed as Marie-Antoinette, protesting against workers’ low wages in front of a Walmart in New Jersey; a police officer during an anti-police brutality march in Union Square; or a dominatrix covered in fake money in front of the Federal Reserve, I am compelled to be a living breathing costumed illustration of my own political beliefs. And mind you — all of this is done on skates. So why do I risk arrest, brave the sometimes hostile elements and lose sleep over hours of preparation? An obsessive desire for creative self-expression is the obvious reason. The other is that it is my chance to belong to an amazingly purposeful politicized community. When Occupy began, I connected with a group of people who could discuss the complexities and dynamics of wealth, power and social mobility in our society. From them I learned how bankers from HSBC laundered money for the drug cartels and avoided criminal prosecution, why the Dodd-Frank reforms do not go far enough to insure our country’s financial stability, and the reasons behind the lack of mobility for the low income. Although these people were for the most part strangers, they charmed me with their warmth, intellect, and uncanny ability to make complex information understandable. They were also keen to make a positive impact. I quickly decided I had to join the Occupy movement…”

Inspired by Marni Halasa, Huffington Post ow.ly/kuGR4 Image source Twitter ow.ly/kuGMQ

Shinzo Abe the 58 year old and youngest post-World War II Prime Minister of Japan and also the President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been the subject of article by Joseph Stiglitz on the Project Syndicate titled ‘The Promise of Abenomics’. Stiglitz states “…Abe’s program for his country’s economic recovery has led to a surge in domestic confidence. But to what extent can “Abenomics” claim credit? Interestingly, a closer look at Japan’s performance over the past decade suggests little reason for persistent bearish sentiment. Indeed, in terms of growth of output per employed worker, Japan has done quite well since the turn of the century. …as many Japanese rightly sense, Abenomics can only help the country’s recovery. Abe is doing what many economists (including me) have been calling for in the US and Europe: a comprehensive program entailing monetary, fiscal, and structural policies. Abe likens this approach to holding three arrows – taken alone, each can be bent; taken together, none can. …Government efforts to increase productivity in the service sector probably will be particularly important. For example, Japan is in a good position to exploit synergies between an improved health-care sector and its world-class manufacturing capabilities, in the development of medical instrumentation. …There is every reason to believe that Japan’s strategy for rejuvenating its economy will succeed:  the country benefits from strong institutions, has a well-educated labor force with superb technical skills and design sensibilities, and is located in the world’s most (only?) dynamic region. It suffers from less inequality than many advanced industrial countries (though more than Canada and the northern European countries), and it has had a longer-standing commitment to environment preservation. If the comprehensive agenda that Abe has laid out is executed well, today’s growing confidence will be vindicated. Indeed, Japan could become one of the few rays of light in an otherwise gloomy advanced-country landscape.”

Inspired by Joseph Stiglitz, Project Syndicate ow.ly/kuCAs Image source TTTNIS ow.ly/kuCDc

Marcel Dzama the 39 year old Canadian contemporary artist working particularly in ink and watercolor drawings has been featured by Hermione Hoby in a Guardian article titled ‘Cult artist Marcel Dzama: ‘I try not to censor myself’’ Hoby states “…If you took a quick glance at Marcel Dzama’s watercolours, you’d probably think they were illustrations for children’s books. Painted in carmines, olives and browns, they’re peopled with elegantly wrought figures and filled with dreamlike pageantry (for a long time, Dzama kept a torch and pad by his bed so he could sketch whatever occurred to him in the night). Then you notice how oddly erotic and calmly macabre they are: there’s the troupe of balletic, hooded women pirouetting with AK-47s in their hands; and the tableau of amputee cowboys, one fellating another. … he’s a bit of a cult figure: he’s designed album covers for Beck, been championed by Dave Eggers and Spike Jonze, and is collected by Brad Pitt and Gus Van Sant. Nonetheless, he still has the demeanour of a small, shy boy. His softly spoken sentences tend to peter off into a timid giggle… Dzama, whose first London show in five years is about to open at the David Zwirner gallery, grew up in Winnipeg, Canada, a remote town he describes as ghostly, particularly during the long winters when everything is silenced by three feet of snow. …[he] is dyslexic and had a rough time at school, where he sketched incessantly. Teachers, he says, were constantly snatching away his drawings in lessons. He went on to study art at the University of Manitoba, where he founded The Royal Art Lodge, a collective one member described as “a mysterious yet socially OK’d therapy group for mildly socially dysfunctional, highly imaginative people who liked to draw”. “

Inspired by Hermione Hoby, The Guardian ow.ly/k4myh Image source Arrested Motion ow.ly/k4miU

Ahmet Davutoglu the 54 year old Turkish Foreign Minister, former political scientist, academic Professor and an ambassador at large has stated that “’Jihad’ not to be confused with terrorism”. In an article on France 24 reports that Davutoglu told a business conference in Istanbul, the idea of jihad should not be confused with terrorism adding that the notion is often misunderstood by American “neo-cons and pro-Israelis”.  There is no connection between jihad and terrorism, adding that suggestions to the contrary come from American neo-cons and Israelis. “’Jihad’ is the name of fighting for our honour, if required, but above all it means fighting against one’s own limitations,” Davutoglu said at a business conference entitled “Turkey in light of international developments, 2013” at the headquarters of the Independent Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association. “For us, jihad is a sacred notion; let us not taint this notion by using it like neo-cons and pro-Israelis in America,” Davutoğlu said, while condemning an opposition party deputy who asked the Turkish government on its policy regarding the jihadist movement in Syria at a Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission meeting on Feb15. Wikipedia states Davutoglu was granted a title of ambassador in 2003 by the joint decision of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Abdullah Gül. His publications include Alternative Paradigms: The Impact of Islamic and Western Weltanschauungs on Political Theory, and his book Strategic Depth is a very influential book in Turkey’s foreign policy orientation. He is very influential in the military, academic, and government triangle shaping Turkish foreign policy. Davutoglu was one of the leading actors on behalf of the Turkish government during the shuttle diplomacy for the settlement of 2008 Israel–Gaza conflict. He has since called for Turkey to become more than just a regional power within Europe and the Middle East and desires Ankara to have a far more influential role in world politics.

Inspired by France24 ow.ly/iuWZ0 Image source Wikipedia ow.ly/iuX5X

Eric S. Perlstein the 43 year old American historian, journalist and was a Senior Fellow at the Campaign for America’s Future where he wrote for their blog about the failures of conservative governance, The Big Con. Perlstein has published an article in The Nation Magazine titled ‘Hell Isle’ where he states “Check out what the loopy Ayn Randroids are up to now. In long-suffering Detroit, a libertarian real estate developer wants to buy a civic crown jewel, Belle Isle, the 982-acre park designed by Frederick Law Olmstead …and turn it into an independent nation, selling citizenships at $300,000 … says would-be founder Rodney Lockwood “to provide an economic and social laboratory for a society which effectively addresses some of the most important problems of American, and the western world.” The Plan is …“Belle Isle is sold by the City of Detroit to a group of investors for $1 billion. The island is then developed into a city-state of 35,000 people, with its own laws, customs and currency, under United States supervision as a Commonwealth.” Relations with neighboring, impoverished Detroit will be naught but copacetic, and not exploitative at all: “Plants will be built across the Detroit River…. with the engineering and management functions on Belle Isle. Companies from all over the world will locate on Belle Isle, bringing in massive amounts of capital and GDP.” (Because, you know, tax-dodging international financiers of the sort a scheme like this attracts are just desperate to open and operate factories.) Government will be limited to ten percent or less of GDP, “by constitutional dictate. The social safety net is operated charities, which are highly encouraged and supported by the government.” Although, on Belle Isle, “the word ‘Government’ is discouraged and replaced with the word ‘Service’ in the name of buildings.”

Inspired by Rick Perlstein, The Nation ow.ly/i0TiP Image source Facebook ow.ly/i0TXs

David Choe the 36 year old American painter, muralist, graffiti artist and graphic novelist of Korean descent, having achieved success with his “dirty style” figure paintings comprising raw, frenetic works which combine themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation; has been the subject of an article on The Daily Beast by Lizzie Crocker titled ‘Facebook Artist David Choe Launches New Gig With Porn Star Asa Akira’. Crocker states “A year after David Choe became the most surprising multimillionaire to emerge from Facebook’s IPO, the bad-boy graffiti artist is making the publicity rounds with a new pornographic podcast featuring porn star Asa Akira. …Tits, ass, and goblins. Bare-chested chicks straddling hellhounds. Perverse imagery has long permeated graffiti artist David Choe’s work, including the infamous murals he spray-painted at Facebook’s first headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. The company’s then president, Sean Parker, allegedly told Choe to “go crazy and draw as many giant ‘cocks’” on the walls as he wanted. Choe was paid for the job in Facebook stock, which was valued at $200 million when the social media behemoth went public last February. …A year later, Choe is opening up about his new gig with porn star Asa Akira: DVDASA … The first two episodes of DVDASA feature comedian Yoshi Obayashi as a special guest, though Choe hopes to lure actors, rap artists, and other “legitimate people” into the podcast studio… He claims he created the podcast as a forum to voice personal transgressions and divulge bizarre fetishes and fantasies. “When you talk about everything openly, it’s hell on your personal relationships,” he says. “It’s weird, because it feels good and yet it’s also really self-destructive. But [Asa and I] have already figured out that we’re self-destructive people anyway, so it’s like, fuck it.”

Inspired by Lizzie Crocker, The Daily Beast ow.ly/hYBSx Image source Facebook ow.ly/hYBS8

Alternative media fights back in Argentina (January 26 2013)Marcela Valente the Argentinian Inter Press Service correspondent specialising in social and gender issues has published an article titled ‘Alternative Media Fights Back in Argentina’. Valente states “Sustained by editors and readers convinced that another kind of communication is possible, independent magazines are growing and strengthening in Argentina, offering a view different from the mainstream media coverage of political, cultural and advocacy issues. Overshadowed by more than 450 magazines belonging to 40 big publishing houses, some of them multimedia offerings, another 241 publications read in Argentina are devoted to literature, film, philosophy, humour, ideological and partisan discussions, history, music, visual arts, performing arts, design or gender issues. These are not endeavours taken up by editors in their free time, but a thriving industry with an estimated 1.4 million readers monthly, providing employment to small printers across the country. …These publications do not receive subsidies either from the government or businesses, and have little advertising. They live practically by the sale of each copy, something forgotten by commercial magazines, which have practically become advertising catalogues, satisfied with only being displayed or circulated among the public. Since 2011, the large majority of these alternative media have been united in the Association of Independent Cultural Magazines of Argentina (Arecia), demanding a bill that would help to strengthen a non-profit but sustainable sector. …[a] proposed rule democratises television and radio spaces, “but has omitted the graphics and Internet publications, as well as the independent and self-governed (media), without which the law could not have counted on the channels of discussion and dissemination,” independent media practitioners claim. …The text of the proposed law argues that strengthening these magazines is a way to “battle monopolisation, not just of products but of content”, and that it is also a way to “enshrine socially the idea that other types of communication are possible”.”

Inspired by Marcela Valente, IPS News ow.ly/gT3di Image source NationofChange ow.ly/gT39U

Ashfaq Yusufzai the Pakistani journalist for IPS News has published an article titled ‘Remittances Soothe the Scourge of Militancy’ in which he states “A majority of the 5.5 million people living in FATA have been … affected by the decade-old militancy, which began in earnest in 2001 when U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government in Kabul, forcing the militants to cross over to Pakistan and establish sanctuaries along the 2,400-kilometre-long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. FATA soon became infested with Taliban cells. As Pakistan emerged as a frontline state in the U.S.’ ‘war on terror’, armed forces poured into FATA in a full-scale military offensive in 2005 designed to root out the Taliban. The army offensive, coupled with the militants’ resistance, made it impossible for civilians to carry on with everyday life. Now, for the first time in years, people … are finally starting to see improvements in their lives, as remittances from a younger generation of migrants who fled the region in search of employment abroad streams into FATA, easing the financial burden of unrelenting militancy. …Abu Zar, an official at the FATA Secretariat, told IPS that the militarisation of the region has brought misery to many residents but has also fuelled a wave of migration to Gulf states like the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman, which is now helping people get back on their feet. “Currently, more than 400,000 FATA residents are living and working in foreign countries”, up from less than 100,000 prior to 2005, …The younger generation has been going abroad in droves because of the prolonged insurgency”, in order to escape a sharp decline in trade, business opportunities and income in FATA, he added.”

Inspired by Inter Press Service ow.ly/gwWbA image source WFSJ ow.ly/gwWb7

Esther Dyson the 61 year old American former journalist and Wall Street technology analyst, now entrepreneur who concentrates her investments on emerging digital technologies, and is Chairwoman of EDventure Holdings focusing on issues related to medical technology, aviation, and space travel. Dyson has published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘The rise of the attention economy’ claiming people in the attention economy spend their personal time attracting others’ attention. Dyson states “…companies go online to earn money. Google is perhaps the purest example of a company that transforms purchase intentions into income; most other “internet” companies offer something of independent value on the other side of those searches. But many individuals, most of the time, go online without any interest in buying something. They are there to find out about the world, catch up with friends, play games, listen to music, chat, or just hang out – and, increasingly, to get the attention of other people. Thanks to highly productive surplus economies, they can spend a lot more time being economically inactive. …This attention economy is not the intention economy beloved of vendors, who grab consumers’ attention in order to sell them something. Rather, attention here has its own intrinsic, non-monetisable value. The attention economy is one in which people spend their personal time attracting others’ attention, whether by designing creative avatars, posting pithy comments, or accumulating “likes” for their cat photos. Just as we are driven to spread our physical DNA, so apparently do we have an urge to spread our virtual identities, so that we cannot be erased. Instead of physical descendants, we are offering our own virtual selves to posterity.”

Inspired by Project Syndicate ow.ly/gwVob image source Twitter ow.ly/gwVdO

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani the 80 year old Italian fashion designer has been profiled by Christina Patterson in an article published in The Independent titled ‘Valentino Garavani: The man who turned fashion into an art form’. Patterson states “Audrey Hepburn wore them. Elizabeth Taylor wore them. So did Grace Kelly and Jackie O. …anyone who was anyone, and who was beautiful, and glamorous, and famous, and chic, wore Valentino clothes. And the clothes, it seems, weren’t just clothes. The clothes, it seems, from the way they’ve been displayed, in a new exhibition marking the 50-year career of Valentino Garavani, were art. …Sometimes, it’s just in the cut, but it isn’t “just” a cut, because the cut, like a line in a Picasso, is the mark of the master’s art. Sometimes, it’s in the beadwork, or the edging, or the stitching of a piece of cord. Sometimes, it’s in a piece of silk that’s been cut to make a rose. When you leave the gallery, and go into the room that has cabinets showing close-up examples of the craft, it almost makes you gasp. It makes you think of those medieval artists who carved whole worlds on tiny bits of ivory. It is art. Even to me, it’s art. …a wedding dress that was made for Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece. The dress, apparently, took 25 seamstresses four months. Like, perhaps, the dresses of Marie-Antoinette. But at least the seamstresses are called seamstresses. What Valentino calls his seamstresses (or used to, before he sold the business on) is “le ragazze”. “Le ragazze” means “the girls”. It must be quite strange to be a 60-year old woman and called a “girl”. It must make you think of those Brits who called their adult male African servants “boy”. “To dress stars or empresses is very pleasant,” says Valentino, “because their concept of high fashion remains so pure.” He isn’t joking. He really seems to think that the world he displays, of money, celebrity, flattery, name-dropping, and, of course, an all-consuming obsession with appearance, is something to flaunt.”

Inspired by Christina Patterson ow.ly/gpQnf image source Georges Biard ow.ly/gpQm2

Asim Waqif the 34 year old Indian video and documentary artist whose projects have attempted a crossover between architecture, art and design has been featured by Gayatri Rangachari Shah in an article for the New York Times titled ‘Indian Artist Looks to Bring Works to the Everyman’. Shah states “…with his elaborate sculpture “Bordel Monstre,” at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris … Waqif, a former architect, said he felt limited designing within the confines of an office, and about seven years ago he started producing avant-garde installations …has used unconventional material, weaving debris — like discarded wood panels, wiring, plastic waste, metal and dry waste — into an elaborate, interactive sculpture. The 34-year-old multidisciplinary artist described the exhibit as a “means of making people aware of their own movement, to take into account an element of risk in their lives, of being careful and conscious.” In an effort to stimulate all five senses, he built mechanical pedals and electronic panels into the mazelike structure so that spectators could actively engage with the work. “People will be actors in the work, which includes light and sound,” said the show’s curator, Daria de Beauvais, by telephone. “It will be a unique experience for the audience because they will be able to hear, see, walk, feel and smell the work.” “Bordel Monstre” is the culmination of Mr. Waqif’s fall residency in Paris, which was supported by SAM Art Projects, and is the first exhibition to be displayed in the recently expanded Palais’s Music Temple room, a space originally dedicated to creating electronic music. Describing the large room as “challenging to work in,” Ms. Beauvais said she was impressed by the artist’s ability to make it his own. “The way some people work with canvas, Asim works with space”.” Inspired by Gayatri Rangachari Shah ow.ly/gdOGc image source SamArtProjects ow.ly/gdOCp

Lee Fang the American investigative reporter and blogger has published an article in The Nation Magazine titled ‘Does the NRA Represent Gun Manufacturers or Gun Owners?’ Fang states “Over the last four years, Congress and the Obama administration have only enacted laws that have deregulated gun use in America. It’s no secret why. As pundits love to note, the gun lobby is incredibly influential. But as we consider the potential for reform … one of the first questions we should ask this time is: who does the gun lobby really represent? The National Rifle Association portrays itself as an organization that represents “4 million members” who simply love the Second Amendment. The truth is much more murky. In reality, the NRA is composed of half a dozen legal entities; some designed to run undisclosed attack ads in political campaigns, others to lobby and collect tens of millions in undisclosed, tax-deductible sums. …Despite the grassroots façade, there is much evidence to suggest that corporations that profit from unregulated gun use are propping up the NRA’s activities, much like how the tobacco lobby secretly funded “Smokers Rights’” fronts and libertarian anti-tax groups, or how polluters currently finance much of the climate change skepticism movement. …The Violence Policy Center has estimated that since 2005, gun manufacturers have contributed up to $38.9 million to the NRA. Those numbers, however, are based on publicly listed “sponsorship” levels on NRA fundraising pamphlets. The real figures could be much bigger. Like Crossroads GPS or Americans for Prosperity, or the Sierra Club for that matter, the NRA does not disclose any donor information even though it spends millions on federal elections. And like other industry fronts, the NRA is quick to conceal its pro–gun industry policy positions as ideological commitments.”

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Clive Thompson the 44 year old Canadian freelance journalist, blogger and science technology writer has published an article on the Wired titled ‘No Longer Vaporware: The Internet of Things Is Finally Talking’. Thompson states “…The Internet of Things is the long-prophesied phenomenon of everyday devices talking to one another—and us—online, creating odd new behaviors and efficiencies. Fridges that order food when you’re almost out of butter! Houses that sense when you’re gone and power down! Back in the ’90s, big companies built systems to do tricks like this, but they were expensive, hard to use, and vendor-specific. The hype eventually boiled away. The Internet of Things turned out to be vaporware. Until the past few years, that is, when the landscape shifted from below. … After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, many Japanese worried that the government wasn’t providing adequate data on areas outside the evacuation zone. So some hackers designed customized Geiger counters that automatically updated radioactivity levels on an online map. Soon there were more than 300 jury-rigged all over the country, so the public could see real-time radiation levels. “It was the largest nongovernmental radiation-monitoring network in Japan,” says Chris “Akiba” Wang, one of the hackers. A similar example recently emerged in earthquake prone Chile, where a student modded a seismometer to tweet its readings. It quickly amassed more than 300,000 followers, who were grateful for the early alerts. In essence, the Internet of Things is happening because it has reached the “Apple II stage.” This is the moment when a new technology finally becomes easy enough to use that thousands of people start doing experiments to scratch a personal itch—like Sande with his fan. And the pace of experimentation is going to accelerate, as new gear arrives that makes it even cheaper and easier.”

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Spencer Ackerman the American national security reporter and blogger has published an article on Wired titled ‘Pentagon: A Human Will Always Decide When a Robot Kills You’. In the article Ackerman states “The Pentagon wants to make perfectly clear that every time one of its flying robots releases its lethal payload, it’s the result of a decision made by an accountable human being in a lawful chain of command. Human rights groups and nervous citizens fear that technological advances in autonomy will slowly lead to the day when robots make that critical decision for themselves. But according to a new policy directive issued by a top Pentagon official, there shall be no SkyNet, thank you very much. …the Pentagon wants to make sure that there isn’t a circumstance when one of the military’s many Predators, Reapers, drone-like missiles or other deadly robots effectively automatizes the decision to harm a human being. The hardware and software controlling a deadly robot needs to come equipped with “safeties, anti-tamper mechanisms, and information assurance.” The design has got to have proper “human-machine interfaces and controls.” And, above all, it has to operate “consistent with commander and operator intentions and, if unable to do so, terminate engagements or seek additional human operator input before continuing the engagement.” If not, the Pentagon isn’t going to buy it or use it. …Human Rights Watch…among the most influential non-governmental institutions in the world, issued a report warning that new developments in drone autonomy represented the demise of established “legal and non-legal checks on the killing of civilians.” Its solution: “prohibit the “development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons through an international legally binding instrument.”

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Corban Walker the 45 year old Irish Sculptor has been profiled by Blake Gopnik in an article published in The Daily Beast titled ‘Sculptor Corban Walker Explores Size And Scale’. Gopnik states “Corban Walker has something every artist needs: a critic trap, stretched taut across the ground floor of his studio in Brooklyn. A barrier of steel wires runs the width of Walker’s front room, from about chest height to the level of a tall man’s head; in a moment of distraction, this critic almost got his face egg-sliced. Walker, however, doesn’t have to worry about his own safety, because the bottom wire is set at what he calls “Corbanscale”—it barely grazes the top of his head as he passes back and forth underneath. …Walker was born with achondroplasia, the major cause of dwarfism. He is four feet tall. “The core of what I’ve been doing over the last 20 years is about this: my measure and the rule laid out for the average individual,” he says. And his art is about how that “rule” doesn’t fit him. He says that the wire piece, called “Latitude,” is possibly the most confrontational of his works about stature: “You could grate yourself [on it]—but I can’t.” But just about everything he’s made is a nod to his height, or at least to the number four, which describes it. A work in progress in his studio is a latticework cube made of plastic orange rods, designed so that there’s one natural viewpoint at Walker’s eye level and another at a more “standard” level—the confrontation of “Latitude” seeming to yield, in this piece, to conciliation.”

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Beatriz Milhazes the 52 year old Brazilian artist known for her work juxtaposing Brazilian cultural imagery and references to western Modernist painting, has been profiled by Eileen Kinsella for Blouin Artinfo in an article titled ‘The Secrets to Brazilian Painter Beatriz Milhazes’s International Success’. Kinsella states “…They virtually explode with layer upon layer of intricate patterns and wild, rich colors. These derive from a vast variety of sources, including, in her earlier works, Baroque imagery and feminine lace or ruffle motifs that refer to 19th-century embroidery. Among continuing sources of inspiration are the rhythms of Brazilian music and the festive imagery of the Carnival, as well as the tropical flora and fauna of Brazil’s lush rain forests. Her studio in Rio de Janeiro sits next to the city’s botanical garden, and its influence on her practice — frequently studded with blooming rings of petals and elaborate floral designs — is palpable. Milhazes’s later works have less of the spiderwebby patterns and feature more mechanical-looking swirls, circles, and squares. …Milhazes described her work in a 2008 interview in the biannual art review RES as having “a healthy conflict. Many people say, ‘Wow, it’s beautiful,’” she said, “but on the other hand, it’s not a comfortable beauty.” Her meticulous process limits the number of paintings she can produce. Milhazes applies paint to plastic sheets and allows it to dry before transferring the pigment to canvas and then removing the plastic. The result is an exceptionally flat, smooth appearance. “I do not want the texture of the brushstrokes or the ‘hand’ of the painter to be visible on my canvases.” the artist explained…”

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Jordi Ruiz Cirera the 28 year old Spanish documentary photographer based in London has won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2012 for his photograph of ‘Bolivian woman who (only reluctantly) agreed to have her portrait taken’. Matilda Battersby for The Independent states “He won the trust of the Mennonite woman while journeying through South America. The winning portrait is part of a series called Menonos, in which Ruiz Cirera documents the daily life of a religious community. Margarita Teichroeb is pictured at the home she shares with her mother and sister in the Swift Current Colony in Bolivia.”Sitting in front of the camera was not easy for Margarita, photography is forbidden for Mennonites and having her direct portrait taken was quite difficult so I could only take two frames of her,” Ruiz Cirera said. “She seems to be afraid of the photographer, unwilling to expose herself to our gaze. Her awkward expression says a lot about the tradition, isolation and lifestyle of this community.” More than 50,000 Mennonites live in Bolivia, descendants of Christian Anabaptists who left Germany in the sixteenth century. Famously reclusive, the pacifist sect still speaks Low German and their society prohibits the use of cars and electricity. “It’s a very humble existence. They live as their ancestors did, in small, conservative communities devoted to God and sustained by hard work in the fields. Mennonite society is very patriarchal and gender roles are strict,” Ruiz Cirera said. Born in Spain, Ruiz Cirera studied Design at Elisava College, Barcelona, before moving to the UK and gaining an MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication.”

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Charles Alexander Jencks the 73 year old Scottish American architectural theorist, landscape architect and designer whose books on the history and criticism of Modernism and Postmodernism are widely read in architectural circles, is the subject of an article by Kyle Chayka for Blouin Artinfo relating to a Landart sculpture he designed. The article titled ‘U.K.’s Giant Woman-Shaped Earthwork, Nicknamed “Fat Slag,” Engenders Accusations of Sexism’. Chayka states “In British English, “slag” has a few different meanings. Most literally, it means the refuse from mining or metal smelting operations… In a more vernacular setting, the term can refer to a “coarse or dissipated girl or woman,” according to the venerable Collins English Dictionary. A huge new public artwork in Northumberland is both at the same time.  “Northumberlandia,” a 1,300-foot-long earthwork of a curvy woman created by the Banks Mining Group, Viscount Matthew Ridley, and landscape architect Charles Jencks, was molded from a 1.5-million-ton slag heap taken from the Shotton coal mine. She’s the largest human earthwork in the world, and her breasts (which feature walkway spirals) rise 100 feet into the air. The woman is traced with white pathways, reminiscent of the antique earthwork the Uffington White Horse. Unfortunately… hasn’t struck the same chord with its audience as the graceful horse. Jencks’s installation has been unkindly nicknamed the “fat slag” by locals, taking full advantage of the double entendre. …Despite the feminist critiques, the privately funded earthwork might prove a boon for Northumberland residents. The project’s planners hope it will attract 200,000 visitors annually and bring attention to the area. The artist sees no problem with what he considers to be a humanist gesture: “I don’t believe it is demeaning to women, men or the human species as a whole; in fact it celebrates all of that,” he said. “I profoundly believe that, given time, people will not find any offense in this, and will grow to love her.”

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Scurti Franck the 47 year old French photographer and videographer nominated for the Duchamp Prize discussed with Céline Piettre for a Blouin Artinfo article on being an Artist without a style. Franck states “I haven’t done a project for the Prix Duchamp. I work every day and I’ve chosen three works that seem to me to make sense together. I selected them from a group of works that I created over the last three months. In fact, I just decided. …When I prepare an exhibition I never think about money. I create and then I decide. The term “production” has gradually replaced “creation,” and facing what I consider to be a crisis of representation, my desire is to reflect, in the wider sense of the word, on the creative process. I work with “poor” means and oppose them to “big productions” and to what I consider to be spectacle. …Often it’s the idea that leads me to choose a medium. But sometimes it’s the opposite. When I work with found objects, for example. …I don’t see any difference between a stainless steel sculpture and a work that uses found objects. It’s the same act, and they’re the same thing. Judging a work only by its material aspects often means falling into the trap of facile spectacle. …Although I’m not interested in art for art’s sake, I like working on the meaning of my pieces and placing them at a certain level in the discourse on art. …I work on the whole, on a total oeuvre. If you really examine what I do, you’ll notice that my works sometimes have different styles and appearances but speak to one another. …I really think that things are happening elsewhere today. Don’t you kind of feel as if you’ve seen everything? The phrasing is more important than the style, I believe.”

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Chris Anderson the 51 year old British American author and editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine has published an article titled ‘How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom’ Anderson states “At last year’s Paris Air Show, some of the hottest aircraft were the autonomous unmanned helicopters – a few of them small enough to carry in one hand—that would allow military buyers to put a camera in the sky anywhere, anytime. Manufactured by major defense contractors, and ranging in design from a single-bladed camcopter to four-bladed multicopters, these drones were being sold as the future of warfare at prices in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. In May, at a different trade show, similar aircraft were once again the most buzzed-about items on display. But this wasn’t another exhibition of military hardware; instead, it was the Hobby Expo China in Beijing, where Chinese manufacturers demo their newest and coolest toys. Companies like Shenzhen-based DJI Innovations are selling drones with the same capability as the military ones, sometimes for less than $1,000. These Chinese firms, in turn, are competing with even cheaper drones created by amateurs around the world, who share their designs for free in communities online. It’s safe to say that drones are the first technology in history where the toy industry and hobbyists are beating the military-industrial complex at its own game. …What are all these amateurs doing with their drones? Like the early personal computers, the main use at this point is experimentation – simple, geeky fun. But as personal drones become more sophisticated and reliable, practical applications are emerging.”

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Jeanne Theoharis an American an associate professor of political science, along with Saskia Sassen has published an article on The Nation titled ‘A Human Rights Court Gives Torture the Green Light’. The article states “…the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) bowed to pressure from the US and British governments and turned a blind eye to the torturous conditions at the federal Supermax prison, ADX (short for Administrative Maximum), in Florence, Colorado, where prisoners languish in long-term solitary confinement. Dealing a blow to human rights on both sides of the Atlantic, the court rejected an appeal by five terror suspects held in Britain to block their extradition to the United States. …The most restrictive prison in the federal system, ADX was built to keep every prisoner in solitary confinement and designed to limit all communication among prisoners. Cells are the size of a small bathroom with thick concrete walls and steel doors. A prisoner must eat, sleep, shower, read, pray and use the toilet in the cell. For one hour a day, prisoners may exercise in an outdoor cage too small to run in or in a windowless indoor cell, empty except for a pull-up bar. The outdoor “recreation” cages are known as “dog runs” because they resemble kennels. The only “contact” ADX prisoners have with other inmates is shouting to each other through toilets, vents or the outdoor cages. They receive food through a slot and eat every meal alone within arm’s length of their toilet. Psychiatric care at ADX often consists of shouting to prisoners through their doors to inquire if they’re “OK.””

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James R. Lobe the 63 year old American journalist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the Inter Press Service, best known for his criticism of U.S. foreign policy and American militarism, has published an article on the IPS News titled ‘US: Pushback Against Growing Islamophobia’. Lobe states “Faced with a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment and a well-funded campaign to promote Islamophobia, a coalition of faith and religious freedom groups said it will circulate a new pamphlet on frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Islam and U.S. Muslims to elected officials across the United States. The initiative, which coincides with the appearance in subway stations in New York City and Washington of pro-Israel ads equating the Jewish state with “civilised man” and “Jihad” with “savages”, is designed to rebut the notion that Muslims pose a threat to U.S. values and way of life. “Nothing gives weight to bigotry more than ignorance,” said Rev. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister who is president of the Interfaith Alliance, a grassroots organisation of leaders representing 75 faith traditions. “The FAQ enables people to be spared of an agenda-driven fear and to be done with a negative movement born of misinformation…” Gaddy was joined by Charles Haynes, director of the Religious Freedom Project of the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center which co-sponsored the new 13-page pamphlet, entitled “What is the Truth About American Muslims?” “In my view,” Haynes said in reference to the so-called “Stop Islamisation of America” (SIOA) movement that, among other things, has sponsored the subway ads, “this campaign to spread hate and fear is the most significant threat to religious freedom in America today”.”

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Katharine Ainger the Barcelona based writer interested in the points where art, creativity, radical democracy and ecological justice intersect, reports in an article for The Guardian titled ‘The Spanish public won’t accept a financial coup d’etat’, claiming that Spain’s government is right to fear the public reaction to this new round of suffering mandated by the financial markets. Ainger states “The attempt by the Spanish “Occupy” movement, the indignados, to surround the Congress in Madrid has been compared by the secretary general of the ruling rightwing People’s party (PP) to an attempted coup. Spanish democracy may indeed be in peril, but the danger is not in the streets. According to the Financial Times, the EU has been in secret talks with the economy minister Luis de Guindos to implement further austerity measures in advance of Spain requesting a full bailout. …The government is right to fear the Spanish public’s reaction to this new round of suffering mandated by the financial markets. … Spain is on the brink of insolvency and under huge pressure to accept a rescue package. In return, the eurozone’s fourth largest economy will have to surrender sovereign and financial control to the IMF, the European commission, and the European Central Bank. …Already many protest signs say: “We can’t take any more.” With a 26% unemployment rate, 22% of Spanish households now live below the poverty line and a further 30% cannot “reach the end of the month”… Loss of sovereignty is fuelling desire for Catalan independence with huge protests. Spanish citizen movements, like those in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and France have demanded a debt audit, to see who really owes what to whom.”

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Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif the 32 year old Yemini citizen detained for over 10 years at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay has died in custody without having ever been charged with a crime. Murtaza Hussain has published an article on Aljazeera titled ‘Chronicle of a death foretold’ in which he states “The cause of his death has been recorded as unknown and may never truly be known, but Latif had long suffered from feelings of extreme depression during his time in jail, having made several suicide attempts in the previous years. …Latif was initially captured by Pakistani bounty hunters in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when a mixture of confusion and desire for vengeance resulted in the effective labeling of any military age Arab males found in Afghanistan and Pakistan as potential terrorists. He had been receiving medical care in Amman, Jordan for chronic injuries he had received from a car crash in Yemen that had fractured his skull and caused permanent damage to his hearing. Lured to Pakistan by the promise of cheap healthcare, once the war started he ended up caught in the dragnet of opportunistic bounty hunters who detained him, proclaimed him a terrorist and handed him over to the US military in neighboring Afghanistan …in order to collect large cash incentives from the US military for their handover. No evidence was ever found connecting him to terrorism or violent militancy of any kind… Indeed, when he was apprehended he was found not to be in possession of weapons or extremist literature of any kind – what he had with him were copies of his medical records.”

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