Monthly Archives: October 2011

Overpopulation Discourse and the Alarmism of Fake Accuracy

(source) So it appears that humanity will welcome its 7 billionth member. The United Nations claims that the baby in question will be born today, on October 31st. Well, “welcome” isn’t exactly the right word. The number, like the 6 billionth … Continue reading

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Political Jokes & Funny Quotes (107): Incarceration

(source) More serious stuff on incarceration. More jokes.

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The Causes of Human Rights Violations (32): The Just World Fallacy

(source) Here’s another psychological bias that causes human rights violations to persist: the just world fallacy. It seems that we want to believe that the world is fundamentally just. This strong desire causes us to rationalize injustices that we can’t … Continue reading

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Human Rights Maps (157): Homicide in NYC is Primarily a Problem of and for Male African Americans

Apparently, it’s more dangerous to be a male black person in NYC than a person of any other race or gender: (source, where you can find an interactive version of these maps) African Americans represent only 25% of NYCs population, … Continue reading

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My Latest Tweets

OMB, Occupy My Blog all this talk about the “7 billionth person” (cue scary music) http://yhoo.it/taaMMO – perhaps I should post this again: http://wp.me/pd52p-aOz Facebook can make you pretend that you have friends, Twitter that you are important; where’s the … Continue reading

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Political Graffiti (163): Obey

(source, by Shepard Fairey) More political graffiti here.

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Why Do We Need Human Rights? (27): Do Babies Need Human Rights?

(source, source, graffiti by Dolk, more Dolk here) It seems that babies, although they are obviously human beings, don’t have the same rights as adult human beings. Even compared to young children they have less rights. Young children normally have … Continue reading

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Annals of Heartlessness (10): “Let’s Invent Execution by Electrocution as a Way to Settle Some Business Differences”

(source) I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a worse case of commercial cynicism: Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse … engaged in a nasty battle over alternating and direct current, known as the “War of Currents.”  Both men knew there … Continue reading

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A Fatal Paradox for Human Rights Proponents?

Like the opponents of human rights, the proponents also face a paradox. Imagine human rights utopia: the world has managed to get rid of oppression, domination, exploitation, discrimination, injustice and suffering. Or perhaps human rights violations haven’t disappeared completely but … Continue reading

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Human Rights Maps (156): Progress on the Millennium Development Goals

Here’s an overview of the countries that have progressed most in terms of the 1st, 4th and 5th Millennium Development Goals (respectively: reduce the number of people living on less that $1.25 a day, reduce under age 5 mortality rate … Continue reading

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