For most of his career, Christopher Hitchens, who has died aged 62, was the left’s biggest journalistic star, writing and broadcasting with wit, style and originality in a period when such qualities were in short supply among those of similar political persuasion. Nobody else spoke with such confidence and passion for what Americans called “liberalism” [...]
Tag: Work
December 16, 2011
December 14, 2011
The school of Jay-Z studies | Mychal Denzel Smith
Judging by the amount of fuss he caused, one would think Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson had floated the idea of abolishing child labor laws. In reality, all he had done was announce that this semester he would be teaching a course entitled “Sociology of Hip-Hop – Urban Theodicy of Jay-Z.” And it was [...]
December 13, 2011
Occupy Protesters Target US, Canadian Ports
Hundreds of anti-Wall Street protesters blocked gates Monday at some of the West Coast’s busiest ports in the U.S. and Canada, as part of a nearly three-month-old movement against what they say is corporate greed. The protests caused a partial shut down of operations at some of the terminals in Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon. [...]
December 13, 2011
Voter Turnout Low in Syria Municipal Elections Amid Protests
Despite violence that continues to roil the country, Syria’s government is holding local council elections Monday as it downplays anti-government unrest as the work of a small group of foreign-backed terrorists. In Syria’s northern, heavily Kurdish province of Hasaka a crowd chants slogans against local council elections taking place across the country Monday. Witnesses say [...]
December 13, 2011
Top court to rule on Arizona law
12 December 2011 Last updated at 22:38 GMT The Obama administration is challenging immigration laws in a handful of US states The US Supreme Court has said it will rule on the legality of Arizona’s tough immigration law. It requires police to demand proof of citizenship if they suspect anyone they stop is in the [...]
December 12, 2011
Durban climate conference agrees deal to do a deal – now comes the hard part
At the Durban climate talks, negotiators agreed to start work on a new climate deal that would have full legal force. Link to this video The Durban climate conference may have agreed a deal – or at least a deal to agree a deal – but the scale of the work that still needs to [...]
December 11, 2011
Samasource Provides Jobs for Poor Via the Internet
The World Bank says 1.3 billion of the world’s seven billion people live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.25 a day. Aid organizations have long relied on charitable contributions to help the world’s poor. But the head of one aid group argues that giving to charity is the wrong approach. “I really don’t [...]
December 9, 2011
Hillary Clinton’s world tour brings brickbats, but more bouquets
Hillary Clinton knows it’s been a good tour when the US secretary of state’s critics deride her as a “radical scold” trying to turn the world into gay-friendly San Francisco. Or claims that she is wrong to meet Burma‘s “military thugs” as the US presses for continued political reform in that long closed country. Then [...]
December 8, 2011
December 6, 2011
Supermassive black holes are largest ever discovered
Astronomers have located the two biggest black holes ever found, each one billions of times more massive than our sun. Observations of these supermassive cosmic objects will give scientists clues on how black holes and galaxies form and evolve, especially in the earliest parts of the universe. The galaxy NGC 3842, around 320m light years [...]
December 6, 2011
Lost Leonardo Da Vinci battle scene sparks row between art historians
A 35-year hunt to uncover a lost work by Leonardo Da Vinci is reaching a climax in Florence, while also facing an angry protest by more than 100 prominent art historians who deplore the destructive but speculative work possibly leading to the masterpiece’s uncovery. The row centres on a wall in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio on [...]
December 4, 2011
December 3, 2011
NY Opera talks end in stalemate
2 December 2011 Last updated at 11:24 GMT The NYCO says it needs to cut its performers’ pay to save it from financial ruin. The New York City Opera (NYCO) has declared a stalemate with unions in contract talks over pay and conditions. The company threatened to present its forthcoming season without its regular musicians, [...]
December 3, 2011
The Craigslist killings: a motif for modern America | Paul Harris
Every age has its emblematic murders: acts of violence that tap into a wider zeitgeist blowing through a society in turmoil. Jack the Ripper exposed the perils facing Victorian London slum-dwellers just as much as any social reformer. The slaughter of pregnant actress Sharon Tate by Charles Manson’s followers symbolised the dark underbelly of the [...]