Coming out of the HIV Closet [Real life story]

Many people find it hard to deal with homosexuality – and the ostracism & violence that gays & lesbians face is incredible.  Coming Out Of The HIV Closet is the real life story of a man who says he fell in love with his friend’s son. Before you let your imagination run before you, please read his story in its entirety, & then make up your mind.

Paying attention [Video, article]

You’ve probably seen this video of the invisible gorilla before – but in case you haven’t, check it out. Daniel Kahneman, in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, explains that we have only a finite amount of attention, which we “pay” in exchange for whatever it is we we do. An interesting excerpt from the book is here.

Intended consequences? [Article]

The world’s rich & powerful meet every January to discuss ways, apparently, to alleviate the world’s manifold problems (or if you like conspiracies, to decide how to collectively direct the exploitation of the rest of the world). The Davos summit draws an eclectic mix of businessmen & politicians from around the world. If you ignored the mainstream media (controlled of course by those same rich folk), you may (or may not) be surprised to hear that, according to a recent Oxfam report, merely the increase in the wealth of the world’s top 100 wealthy people was enough to end the entire world’s poverty and still have 3/4ths left over. As the executive director of Oxfam notes, “We can no longer pretend that the creation of wealth for a few will inevitably benefit the many – too often the reverse is true.” 

Let Li-bor Lie [article]

Banking, we were taught while at school, is a matter of trust. We could trust that the money we left in the care of those good bankers was safe. But if you have cared to notice in the last few years, banking is more like a pit of vipers. Case in point: the ‘respected’ LIBOR: the London Inter Bank Overnight Rate, or the interest rate that banks pay to one another for short term borrowings – & in essence the rate that determines the cost of money for the rest of the world – has been shown to be rigged by the very players who are ‘trusted’ & have no regulatory oversight. None. Libor Lies Revealed in Rigging of $300 Trillion Benchmark

The Rip Van Winkle Family in Siberia [Article]

The Lykov family, in Siberia, Russia, lived completely disconnected from the rest of the world for 40 years, a la Rip Van Winkle, until they were discovered by a pilot & four geologists. An incredible story of the family who knew there were places called cities where humans lived crammed together in tall buildings. They had heard there were countries other than Russia. But such concepts were no more than abstractions to them. Their only reading matter was prayer books and an ancient family Bible. 

There are those that grow, and those that destroy [Article]

Economics makes the world go round, right? What happens when the ones who wield the clout bet on both sides? Ever wondered why so many people go hungry in the world while so much food is wasted elsewhere in the world? Or why the ones who grow the food you & I eat find it incredibly difficult to even cover the costs of producing such food? What about the economics of food? & what do bankers have to do with food? Goldman Sach’s Food Speculation Turns Global Hunger Into Wall Street Profit