Question: Besides all sharing a personal net worth in the billions of dollars, what do Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, British entrepreneur Richard Branson and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich all have in common?
How much money do banks or credit card companies say you owe them? How much of that debt did you accrue buying things you think should be available to everyone, like housing, health care or education? How much happier and healthier would you, your family, and your community be if you didn’t have to make those monthly payments? How much better would society be if it wasn’t structured around a debt game, where there are winners and losers, and the losers don’t always get to eat? What if instead we worked together to take care of each other and meet all our needs cooperatively? Read the rest of this entry »
Labour Day or Labor Day is an annual holiday to celebrate the economic and social achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.
If getting through a job interview with no major gaffs is a noble beginning for a newbie career hunter, why set such low expectations?
When I had my first job interview for an entry-level job straight out of university in (sorry the number pad has been disabled) there was no Career Advice web site to warn me against divulging my passionate political feelings to the interviewer. Today, the world is more open, the Internet is a free-for-all, but the corporate world is still conservative, prim and proper (even if it’s just an illusion).
You already know more than we did at your age, or should if you’ve been properly taking advantage of the Internet, which simply didn’t exist when I used to walk 22 miles to school in a blizzard Read the rest of this entry »
In the mid 1990s, Wal-Mart Discount Stores, headquartered in Arkansas, faced multiple lawsuits claiming the fact they sold guns and ammunition led to the accidental shootings of a few people, some by the hands of children. Sheryl Crow knew of this, and while in a Wal-Mart store, was shocked that the guns and ammo were being sold right next to the children’s toy section. Wal-Mart has sinced changed its policy to sell firearms in catalogs only, but at the time, it was fodder for Sheryl Crow, who would take a jab at Wal-Mart. Read the rest of this entry »
Jason Fried thinks deeply about collaboration, productivity and the nature of work. He’s the co-founder of 37signals, makers of Basecamp and other web-based collaboration tools, and co-author of… Read the rest of this entry »
Rural Haitian farmers gathered in Papaye on World Environment Day 2010, many wearing straw hats reading, "Aba Monsanto = down with Monsanto"
Lowlife, Cocksucking, Motherfucking, Amerikin Capitalist punks attempt to take advantage of Starving Haitians and taint their sacred land with Monsanto’s demon seed!!
If I asked you to name the third most profitable industry in the world, would you have the answer? Would you guess Hollywood, oil, or diamonds? Maybe a cash crop like sugar, coffee, or bananas would come to mind?
If you did, you’d be wrong. The truth is far from being as innocent as food, luxury, or entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakistan has been publicly critical of American Air Force drone attacks
Armed U.S. Death Drones were over Pakistan, killing people on the ground, almost as soon as the new year began. In the first two weeks of 2011 five drones strikes were recorded in Pakistan.
Though Islamabad has upped its public protests against these attacks, the skies above Pakistan will be dark with drones this year.
Thanksgiving. The day America sets aside for family, for remembrance. It’s a day of Pilgrims, Native Americans, turkey and pumpkin pie but if it wasn’t for a persistent female magazine editor, they may not have the day to celebrate today. It was Sarah Josepha Hale who really pushed hard for a permanent national Thanksgiving celebration. But her involvement was far down the road from the first Thanksgiving. Read the rest of this entry »
A California woman who befriended a homeless woman and let her sleep in her car told police she didn’t know where to turn when the woman unexpectedly died — so she drove the body around for months along with a box of baking soda to hide the smell, authorities said Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »
Let’s clap our hands, for the president… and Jesus Christ, (and did I mention Charlie Manson and everybody else who was nice?) Read the rest of this entry »
"The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint ... but is conceived and ordered ( moved, seconded carried and minuted ) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices"
-- C.S. Lewis [1898-1963]
from The Screwtape Letters
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"You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home."
Virgin Brain
Virginbrain is a blog by Richard Derks. Feel free to leave a comment, to react. I don’t mind it if you like to annoy me. Of course I prefer a lick every now and then
WikiLeaks
The controversial “uncensorable, anonymous whistleblowing” website based currently in Sweden
Syria's President Assad denies any government role in the Houla massacre and calls it an "ugly crime", in his first public comments since the killings.
'Her dress was split to the frontiers of decency and was so tight you could see what she was thinking" -- Sebastian Horsley
"The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything"
-- Oscar Wilde
What is the difference between genius and stupidity? Genius has limits. - Albert Einstein
"Never regret growing older, as it is a privilege denied to many !"
"Love the life you live. Live the life you love." -- Bob Marley
"It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver." –Gandhi
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." -- Oscar Wilde
»Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not gonna make it, but you laugh inside – remembering all the times you've felt that way.«
-CHARLES BUKOWSKI
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." ~Dr. Seuss
“Abundance comes from making others better off.” — Anonymous
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking.
-- Steve Jobs
'Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions"
-- Edgar Cayce
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
-- Mahatma Gandhi
"Every day, in every little way, Scientology is changing me for the better." -- Susan Meister on 01/09/1971
On 06/25/71 she was found with a bullet in her head.
'Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable' --Sydney J. Harris
"You must have LONG term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short term failures."
-- Charles C. Noble
Sex won't make him love you, and a baby won't make him stay. -- Your Mom!