Not sure what’s going on in Tunisia? Mother Jones has you covered (via the Awl).
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Dec 08
Daily Links for November 30th
- IBM Press room – 2008-11-25 IBM Reveals Five Innovations That Will Change Our Lives in the Next Five Years – United States – The Next Five in Five is based on market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM’s Labs around the world that can make these innovations possible.
- Could Detroit Trigger a New Global Meltdown? – The Daily Beast – A case study from 30 years ago–one with remarkable resonance for the global financial crises of today–suggests bankruptcy is a risk not worth taking.
If you are of a certain age, you remember the headline: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” It was from the New York Daily News in October of 1975 after President Gerald R. Ford (not the Ford automobile company) gave a speech rejecting New York City’s request for federal loans to avert a default on city debt. Ford’s speech pleased many at home, but the possibility of a default on billions of dollars in debt sent tremors beyond American shores. The overseas reaction was perhaps the first signof financial globalization and its perils, now grimly familiar in the meltdown of 2008. - UnderstandingSociety: Why does unrest spread? – Why does social unrest occur and spread?
This is a little bit of a trick question. It really implies three questions: What are the circumstances that make unrest in a population possible or likely? What circumstances need to occur in order to precipitate expressions of unrest in particular places? And what circumstances are conducive to spreading (or damping out) these local expressions?
- Word for Word – The Housing-Bubble and the American Revolution – NYTimes.com – The parallels between the current economy and the one Franklin saw highlight a debate among historians: how big a role did economics, as opposed to ideas, play in fomenting revolution?
