"Unique among Science Fiction novels.. I know nothing comparable to it except The Lord of the Rings."

The wonderful Dune Index site, among other things, lists book covers for different language editions of Frank Herbert's Dune series. Click to marvel at the wonders of cross-culture sci-fi cover art or simply giggle endlessly and immaturely at the name of the Dune series in Danish.

"We have, over the last three hundred years constructed a remarkably efficient wealth-creating machine, but it is now out of control." (p159) The out-of-control machine to which Bakan refers in his highly readable and informative book is the corporation. Few entities are as damaging to the environment as are corporations. Bakan's book outlines the history of the problems that stem from too much corporate power, describes some of the worst consequences of this trend, and proposes ways of bringing this out-of-control wealth-creating machine back in line with common decency.

How would you go about learning a language that nobody speaks? It depends. A well-documented language would have a dictionary, grammar book, a body of literature (such as folk tales or religious texts), and, in some cases, videos and recordings that a dedicated student could learn from...

After more than a century of relative stagnation, the economies of India and China have been growing at remarkably high rates over the past 25 years. In 1820 the two countries contributed nearly half of the world's income; by 1950, with the industrialized West having pulled away, their share had fallen to less than one-tenth. Today it is just less than one-fifth, and projections suggest that by 2025 it will rise to one-third. (In 2008 the World Bank is expected to issue revised numbers about cost of living in China and India, which may somewhat reduce these estimated income shares, both current and future).
The consequences of this expansion are extraordinary.

The term guerrilla communication refers to unconventional forms of communication and/or intervention in more conventional processes of communication. Communication guerilla is a specific style of political action drawing from a watchful view of the paradoxes and absurdities of power, turning these into the starting point for political interventions by playing with representations and identities, with alienation and over-identification. The talk's starting point will be a rather trivial insight: information and political education are completely useless if nobody wants to listen. Guerrilla communication doesn't focus on arguments and facts like most leaflets, brochures, slogans or banners. In its own way, it inhabits a militant political position, it is direct action in the space of social communication. But it doesn't aim to destroy the codes of power and signs of control. Communication guerrillas do not intend to occupy, interrupt or destroy the dominant channels of communication, they focus on detourning and subverting the messages transported. But what's new about all this? Nothing. But standing on the shoulders of earlier avantgardes, communication guerilla doesn't claim the invention of a new politics or the foundation of a new movement. It is merely continuing an incessant exploration of the jungle of communication processes, of the intertwined and muddled paths of senders, codes and recipients.

[...] you won't want to miss the world premier of the first ever surrealistic vaudevillian variety talk show…with tentacles - as we present The Lance Van de Kamp Show Starring Maggie Duval. As part of this gala display of "high-low brow comedy", music and interviews, Vienna's own art-technology-philosophy master pranksters of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop attitude, subcultural science, context hacking and political activism, monochrom, will present the official ambassador of Soviet Unterzoegersdorf - "the last appanage republic of the USSR"

Jan Zalasiewicz and Mark Williams at the University of Leicester, along with their colleagues on the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London, have presented research suggesting that humans have changed the Earth to such an extent that we have brought about an end to the Holocene epoch of Earth's history and are now entering a new epoch, the Anthropocene.

Given Shakespeare's status as "the secular Bible," it is surprising that his work has not been examined more closely to consider its spiritual teachings. As Buddhist studies increase in popularity in the West, more and more Buddhist scholars are being drawn to evaluate Shakespeare's work in light of Buddhist traditions. Of special interest today is the perception of Shakespeare's works as points-of-resistance to the dominant global-consumerist ideology. According to Stanley Wells, Lear's "non-naturalistic interpretation of action" lends itself to the interpretation of its "moral and philosophical concepts." This article considers the developing relationship between Shakespeare and Buddhism, and through a close read of King Lear establishes some of the methods and questions which may prove Shakespeare fertile ground for Buddhist scholars.

"The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."

Lily is a browser-based, visual programming environment that lets people create programs graphically, without writing code, by drawing connections between data, images, sounds, text and graphics. Lily's cross-platform, free, open source and is written in JavaScript. Did we mention it's fun?

The unimaginable has happened, to the displeasure of arrogant Europe. Africa, thought to be so poor that it would agree to anything, has said no in rebellious pride. No to the straitjacket of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), no to the complete liberalisation of trade, no to the latest manifestations of the colonial pact.
It happened in December at the second EU-Africa summit in Lisbon...

In the last 15 years, Tom Lord has established himself as the pre-eminent jazz discographer, especially in the technological sense. He began offering his massive jazz discography as a series of expensive (and, cumulatively, weighty) printed paperback books in the early '90s before offering the entire 34-volume series on CD-ROM about five years ago. Now, he's made an even more important breakthrough by making the whole works available online.

Going from a high-water mark of 35 per cent (in the 1950s) to the measly 12 per cent it is today, national union membership has clearly taken a beating. Lots of reasons, not least of which is passage of the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), which, with its comprehensive restrictions on union activities, has proven to be a genuine impediment to the labor movement.

Taft-Hartley aside, here are three larger, overarching factors that have contributed to the decline of unions. [...]

The notion of modifying Earth's climate with sunshades or a blanket of reflective aerosols to counteract global warming - known as geoengineering - has been around for years. But climate models suggest that this would significantly reduce rainfall.

Now Christopher Doughty at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues think they can get around that problem. Models show that geoengineering near the equator hits rainfall hardest, but focusing on latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees would produce a much smaller drop in rainfall. Planting crops bred or genetically modified to be more reflective could cool these regions by an average of 1 °C. Doughty presented the research last month at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

The key, Doughty says, is to deploy leaves that sport a thick layer of hairs, which reflect near-infrared wavelengths back out into space. Super-hairy strains of soya have already been bred, and these reflect 3 to 5 per cent more sunlight. Doughty calculates that this would be enough - if planted in huge amounts - to generate the cooling effect.