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This isn't for the international news assignment but I just thought it was an interesting and relevant article. I don't think that these contentions are even comparable to what has happened this year but I just found it interesting to learn that election results have been contested in congress many times prior to yesterday.

Super interesting to bring up Jalen. After class today, I watched the speech that Mitch Mcconnel gave prior to the certification vote (thanks Fink for sharing that) and it was interesting to see that he also mentioned this is not the first time. He noted however, that every time in the past, the vote has gone through and suggested to his fellow republican senators that like in the past, it was their duty to certify the Electoral College votes.

"The agreement reached in September would have allowed workers to take time off up to three times each year for a routine medical appointment without risking disciplinary action, but many workers said that the concession was insufficient and that it did not address the deeper issue underlying their concerns: a business model that seeks to minimize labor costs and results in chronic understaffing."

This is a cool youtube with a theory about why different nations and cultures have different values and a greater and lesser emphasis on planning and the future, which could explain why diplomacy always seems to damn hard

Wow! This rocks! I would love to talk about this video in class. Fascinating. The one thing that bums me out enormously is that Professor Zimbardo has accepted that humans can't control their own media consumption. . .

Vince, this video is really interesting. I never considered how religious perspectives' characterizing of nations could therefore determine those nations' notions of time. With varying time perspectives, I can also see why certain problems are so difficult to solve between nations. A person that has a future time perspective will consider climate change and global warming more than another individual who focuses on the present/past.

"BEIJING - Officials in Beijing declared on Monday that the thick smog blanketing the city was bad enough to require a red alert, the first time they had raised the alarm to its highest level since an emergency air-pollution response system was announced in 2013. "

Something worth thinking about.

I wish I had time to fully understand all that Baudrillard writes in this piece. I guess he is arguing that the biggest institution of all--globalized anything--is the cause of terrorism. He writes, "In this way it is indeed a World War, not the third one, but the fourth and only truly World War, as it has as stakes globalization itself. The first two World Wars were classic wars. The first ended European supremacy and the colonial era. The second ended Nazism. The third, which did happen, as a dissuasive Cold War, ended communism. From one war to the other, one went further each time toward a unique world order. Today the latter, virtually accomplished, is confronted by antagonistic forces, diffused in the very heart of the global, in all its actual convulsions. . . . . It is a conflict so unfathomable that, from time to time, one must preserve the idea of war through spectacular productions such as the Gulf (production) and today Afghanistan's. But the fourth World War is elsewhere. It is that which haunts every global order, every hegemonic domination; -if Islam dominated the world, terrorism would fight against it. For it is the world itself which resists domination." I think there's a lot more that he says, so I'll have to return to this one. Maybe you can share your read on this in class, Wendell. Thanks!

Yeah, this article is definitely difficult to understand without an extensive background on his social theory (what he's written about what he calls symbolic exchange, the exclusion of the dead, the procession of the model or simulacra). What he's arguing is definitely that globalization is creating the seeds of its own destruction, but terrorism is but one example of this process. To clarify, when he says "the spirit of terrorism" and "Then let us be immoral ourselves and, if we want to understand something, let us go somewhat beyond Good and Evil. As we have, for once, an event that challenges not only morals, but every interpretation, let us try to have the intelligence of Evil.", he's not trying to advocate for murder or anything but rather is suggesting that the strategy taken by terrorists is something theoretically important. The last things he published were "The Intelligence of Evil" and "The Agony of Power" where he more or less argued that it is impossible to assimilate singular individuals, cultures, and ways of life under a universal (which he refers to as the Good in the article ^) and that attempts at assimilation only make "Evil" more powerful and make it more likely for the Good to collapse in on itself. He thinks this process is occurring across all planes of social existence and is inevitable. He wrote about a possible attack on the twin towers decades in advance and the Spirit of Terrorism was sort of like a "I told you this would happen" to the academy. The thing about Baudrillard is that he takes a very pessimistic outlook on the trajectory of modernity/post-modernity and was probably looking forward to the collapse of globalization/capitalism/the world order. While that's obviously a controversial and morally dubious opinion, he's still definitely very interesting to read about. Andrew Robinson wrote a bunch of articles describing his social theory/what he means for activism and the world today. While they are pretty dense and probably requir

The war in Afghanistan has been going on since the Presidency of George W. Bush, costing upwards of 500 billion dollars and the active duty of 1% of all American lives. The debate about the future of the war has recently risen to the surface in American politics due to the upcoming Presidential Election. In the vice-presidential debate, Representative Paul Ryan noted that he and his running partner do not want to "lose the Taliban" and lose all the claimed progress they have achieved thus far. In contrast, Biden noted that the war has been fruitless and promises to remove all US troops by 2014. A "victory" in the war is improbable and practically impossible ever since the US got involved in Iraq. Personally, more time spent in the country fighting will not help the minimal gains achieved in Afghanistan.

Romney's five point economic plan--Los Angeles Times

Times Topic overview with links

Times Topics home page. Background info and links to articles from a variety of sources.

Times Topics main page. Lots of articles from a variety of sources linked on this page.

As OWS gains traction, it governs more and more support overseas, as similar movements spring up in many parts of Asia and turn violent in Rome.

It is interesting how there was a sign saying "Karl Marx was wrong". Protesters are upset at the rich for not sharing the wealth. The occupy Wall Street movement has taken up across the U.S. I saw signs and protesters in Walla Walla Washington and in Chicago advocating for more people to join the movement and unite against the upper class. It is also interesting how it is a time of major unrest and discontent with capitalism not only in the United States, but also in Rome and across the globe.

There was a huge protest in New Haven at Yale while I was there this week. They were chanting "We are the 99 percent." http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2094925,00.html These photos go with Jenna's point that these movements are all across the globe.

Time Magazine profile

Time Magazine (short article)

This article is super interesting to me because it's the first time I have ever seen someone who isn't government related directly reach out to the ISIS and challenge them so well. I like how she studies Islam and tells Mr. Baghdadi that he is going directly against what his own religion preaches which I find super interesting. All in all great article and I hope Mr. Baghdadi responds well to her plea.

This article is super interesting to me because it's the first time I have ever seen someone who isn't government related directly reach out to the ISIS and challenge them so well. I like how she studies Islam and tells Mr. Baghdadi that he is going directly against what his own religion preaches which I find super interesting. All in all great article and I hope Mr. Baghdadi responds well to her plea.

"As a human, though, passing both the 400 ppm and (potentially) the 1°C threshold within such a short time period makes it clear we are already living in a different world. We have blown past targets that were being considered as viable when I entered graduate school.

Catalonia has been wanting independence from Spain for a long time.