Open

20140910

Hello, Danny


Come and play with us.



Don't heed the sensationalistic and naive pronouncements of the International Human Rights Commission:



The IHRC doesn't have a case.

This is a dangerous world, sir. What are you going to do when the [fill-in the blank] are coming.

When push comes to shove... Who are you going to trust?

The speed of AI's circuitry?



Or human reaction time?



Beside, it's not like the gentleman's people really have a choice.

Think about it... Progress, sir... There is no stopping it.

If you don't do it, some other unprincipled unconscientious rogue nation is bound to do it anyway.

Evolution. Survival of the fittest, sir. Isn't it what it's called?






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20140904

Hubris

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Here is Foreign Affairs's refreshing and unexpected analysis on the events in Ukraine:

- Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West’s Fault

And here are a few alternative independent news sites worth watching, and some of their takes on the crisis:

• RSN (Reader Supported News): "No outside investment capital was used in the startup of RSN. No advertising money or grants is sought or accepted by RSN. RSN carries forward the core concept that the reader is best served by financial control of the news service they depend on":

- Meet some of the good people who put together the coup in Kiev.

• AlterNet: AlterNet, a project of the non-profit Independent Media Institute, is a progressive/liberal activist news service. (Has won its fair share of Webby and Utne Independent press awards, and also made it on NPR's five "best of the internet"):

- A brief history of time: America's coup machine - since 1953

• CounterPunch: CounterPunch's "muckraking with a radical attitude" welcomes a range of contributors critical of conventional wisdom on a wide variety of topics:

- Chronology of the Ukrainian coup

CounterPunch—like good Tequila— is to be taken with a grain of salt. While the publication does indeed "tell you the facts and name the names," some of its contributors' interpretation of current events can get a bit out there—though, admittedly, oftentimes with good reasons.



But then again, that's the whole point of the exercise, isn't it? "Mudkacking with a radical attitude": not just an idle boast.

What can I say? If any of these sites and publications seems too divorced from mainstream media for your own taste, well, there is always Katie Couric's "Now I Get It":


The battle for Ukraine



She speaks with a soothing, soft, controlled voice, and her page always comes with visual aid in the form of a video—for those of us who do not read.
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