Radiohead is an awesome band. This article shows that 5th graders have a perspective on Mr. Yorke too.
Also, perhaps this will send a message to my classmates who believe
that donning a Radiohead concert tee to class makes them look
simultaneously smart and cool.
The Group of 21, a collection of developing countries that oppose the huge farm subsidies in the U.S. and EU, became the big story of this year’s WTO talks in Cancun. They walked out of the talks after the richer nations refused to make concessions on the $300 million subsidies to their own farmers.
A much smaller story, that caught my attention, was the tale of a South Korean Farmer, who killed himself in protest at the conference. It seems almost akin to the plot of a 19th century European novel, where a farmer takes his life after industrialization challenges his way of life.
HLS’s student newspaper, the Record, reports:
“Harvard Law School has hired a top-notch team of private investigators to find the will of Harvey Greenfield, a securities class-action lawyer and HLS alumnus who died in July 2002 and left behind an estate worth over $35 million, according to the New York Lawyer. Greenfield supposedly made several comments to other people that he was going to leave his entire estate to the Law School after he died. As of now no will can be found, which means Greenfield’s fortune would pass to a cousin in Florida.”
I went to hear Danny Glover, the actor and activist, give a talk that was being promoted as “The Patriot Act and Patriotism.” He didn’t really talk about the Patriot Act. For instance, when asked about September 11th, he talked about how important it was to carefully look at the language we were using after the event, to not single out any groups. But he didn’t really address civil liberties.
The talk itself wasn’t very interesting, and he was not the most eloquent or organized speaker, but I found his response to a two-part question about the California recall and Prop. 54 (the Ward Connolly proposal to stop tracking racial data in California). After stating his belief that the recall was wrong because it set a bad precedent, he asserted that the state is having fiscal difficulties because of Prop. 13. Then, he went on a pro-property tax tangent, and went through the whole spiel of how California schools and public services began their steep decline with Prop. 13. Even though he’s campaigning against Prop. 54, he never brought it up.
As a side note, his interviewer, Professor Ogletree, alluded to Michael Jordan, a celebrity who does not take political positions. In his anecdote, he reported that in the 90s, Jordan declined supporting an African American Democrat who was running against Jesse Helms. When asked for an endorsement, Jordan replied, “No, because Republicans buy sneakers too.”
Oh, and the audio of Glover’s interview (though it’s kinda boring) is available here.
Edward Teller, the man who loved the bomb, passed away at age 95 yesterday.
Because I didn’t encounter his pro-bomb ranting until my teens, I always thought of him fondly as a kindly old European grandfather.
If I see the the logic in this tax propsal (a $0.10 tax on each beverage containing a shot of expresso), why does it provoke a feeling of revulsion from me?
Perhaps I feel that individual items are usually taxed only if they fall into the sin tax category, such as alcohol and tobacco. The espresso tax seems to tell the drinker:
By drinking this latte, you are not spending your money wisely. You are a spendthrift, and this beverage represents your luxury spending.