Corporations own fifth of human genes
For the past thirty years, genes have been patentable. Your genes, as they exist in your body, can and have been patented. The US government reports over three million gene patent applications have been filed so far; over 40,000 patents are held on sections of the human genome, covering roughly 20% of our genes.
http://singularityhub.com/2010/08/11/who-owns-you-20-of-the-genes-in-your-body-are-patented-video/
The Yes Men Fix The World
The Yes Men Fix The World is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks. This peer-to-peer special edition of the film is unique: It is preceded by an exclusive video of the Yes Men impersonating the United States Chamber of Commerce. Because the Yes Men are being sued for this stunt, p2p is the only way that this film will get seen. http://vodo.net/yesmen
The Disappearing Intellectual
We live at a time that might be appropriately called the age of the disappearing intellectual. In a media scape and public sphere that view criticism, dialog and thoughtfulness as a liability, anti-intellectuals abound, providing commentaries that are nativist, racist, reactionary and morally repugnant. But the premium put on ignorance and the disdain for critical intellectuals is not monopolized by the dominant media, it appears to have become one of the few criteria left for largely wealthy individuals to qualify for public office. Underlying this drift toward the disappearing critical intellectual and the erasure of substantive critique is a regime of economic Darwinism in which a culture of ignorance serves to both depoliticize the larger public while simultaneously producing individual and collective subjects necessary and willing to participate in their own oppression. The cheerful robot is not simply an opprobrium for ignorance, it is a metaphor for the systemic construction in American society of a new mode of depoliticized and thoughtless form of agency. Democracy places civic demands upon its citizens. It may be the case that everyday life is increasingly organized around market principles; but confusing a market-determined society with democracy hollows out the legacy of higher education, whose deepest roots are moral, not commercial. This is a particularly important insight in a society where the free circulation of ideas are not only being replaced by ideas managed by the dominant media, but where critical ideas are increasingly viewed or dismissed as banal, if not reactionary.
http://www.truth-out.org/the-disappearing-intellectual-age-economic-darwinism61287?print
Pack of Hyenas
Ray Dalio is a billionaire hedge fund manager who makes more money in a day than most Americans in their lifetime. Hedge funds are the top of the Wall Street food chain, and Dalio runs the largest one of all, Bridgewater Associates.
Dalio, a self-described "hyperrealist," is author of a book of maxims leaked recently via the financial blog Dealbreaker. Dalio titled his collection "Principles," and he makes every Bridgewater employee memorize it. This is what Dalio has to say:
When a pack of hyenas takes down a young gnu, is that good or evil? At face value, that might not be "good" because it seems cruel, and the poor gnu suffers and dies. Some people might even say that the hyenas are evil. Yet this type of apparently "cruel" behavior exists throughout the animal kingdom. Like death itself, it is integral to the enormously complex and efficient system that has worked for as long as there has been life. It is good for both the hyenas who are operating in their self-interest and the interest of the greater system, including those of the gnu, because killing and eating the gnus fosters evolution.
Six biggest banks control US economy
Fifteen years ago, the combined assets of the six biggest banks in the United States totaled 17 percent of the GDP. By 2006, that number was 55 percent. Right now, it stands at 63 percent. This degree of market power brings with it not just antitrust concerns and a huge amount of economic risk -- but great political influence as well. The financial Godfathers' message is quite clear: If you cross us, we will bury you at the polls. Nothing in former Fed chairman Paul Volcker's new rules would change this relationship between Wall Street and Washington.
American health is not a business goal
Rachel Maddow points out that health insurance companies do not care about the well-being of Americans and should not be expected to because they are businesses so their goal is making money. Because American health care is a profit-making system, not a health care system, the incentives are wrong to provide Americans with adequate care.
