Blog Archives
Beyond Orwellian: Liberty and technology today
By: Robert Scheer
For democracy, privacy is the ball game. Without the assurance of a zone of inviolate space, both physical and mental, that a citizen can inhabit without fear of observation by others, there is no guarantee of the essential sovereignty of the individual promised in the First and Fourth Amendments to the US Constitution. That should be clear, as it is to most people who have been oppressed by the tyranny of authoritarian regimes. Indeed, as Aldous Huxley and George Orwell brilliantly established in their classic writing on this subject, the totality of societal observation over the individual is the defining antithesis of freedom, even when that observation is gained through hidden and subtle persuasion.
How Billionaires Will Survive The Apocalypse (Video)
What’s the one percent to do when the world they probably helped destroy finally crumbles? From luxury bunkers and floating cities to an escape route to Mars, AJ+ takes a look at doomsday prepping for the super rich.
Louie Schwartzberg: Hidden miracles of the natural world (Video)
We live in a world of unseeable beauty, so subtle and delicate that it is imperceptible to the human eye. To bring this invisible world to light, filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg bends the boundaries of time and space with high-speed cameras, time lapses and microscopes. At TED2014, he shares highlights from his latest project, a 3D film titled “Mysteries of the Unseen World,” which slows down, speeds up, and magnifies the astonishing wonders of nature.
Yasiin Bey: I’m Leaving (Poetry)
By: Yasiin Bey
Yeah
Yo yo what time the plane leaving?
Alright, see you at the airport
I’m leaving, on the next plane
I don’t know when I’ll be back again
Kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you’ll wait for me
Hold me, like you know I’ll never go
Even though you know I will
I’m a travelling man
Moving through places
Space and time
Got a lot of things I got to do
But God willing I’m coming back to you
My baby-boo
I’m a travelling man
Moving through places
Space and time
Gotta lotta things I got to do
But God willing I’m coming back to you
My baby-boo
I’m leaving
Anousheh Ansari: the first Muslim woman in space
Source: Wikipedia
Anousheh Ansari (انوشه انصاری born September 12, 1966, in Mashhad, Iran) is an Iranian-American engineer and co-founder and chairwoman of Prodea Systems. Her previous business accomplishments include serving as co-founder and CEO of Telecom Technologies, Inc. (TTI). The Ansari family is also the title sponsor of the Ansari X Prize. On September 18, 2006, a few days after her 40th birthday, she became the first Iranian in space. Ansari was the fourth overall self-funded space tourist, and the first self-funded woman to fly to the International Space Station. Her memoir, My Dream of Stars, co-written with Homer Hickam, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010.
On September 18, 2006, Anousheh Ansari captured headlines around the world as the first female private space explorer. Anousheh earned a place in history as the fourth private explorer to visit space and the first astronaut of Iranian descent.