News & commentary on sustainability, activism, urban planning, politics, and our world.
While on the campaign trail this week in Iowa, presidential candidate Mitt Romney uttered a clueless remark to a group of locals that is going to haunt him for the rest of his life. When a small gathering of people confronted Romney about his flawed plan to reduce the deficit by cutting social services, rather than raising taxes on billionaires and corporations, the crowd laughed uproariously at the out of touch Republican politician’s ludicrous response.
The British Guardian has just published a fascinating interactive map which plots out where violence has taken place in the last week, in relation to the regions in England where poverty and unemployment are the most severe. Data journalist Matt Stiles took the newspaper’s data on economic poverty, and all the information available about the recent riot incidents, and overlaid the two together. The darker red colors represent poorer neighborhoods, while the blue areas highlight the richer regions. A correlation does not equal a causation, but this data map is definitely a wake up call.
I recently stumbled across this compelling trailer for a film about social control entitled: “Human Resources”. The mesmerizing movie was made by Metanoia Films and Scott Noble, the genius creator of the horrifying and enlightening two hour documentary, “Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy”. The filmmaker mixes ethereal found footage with emotionally powerful music, information and words to create something that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
