http://www.spartacusx.com Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:50:55 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Mike Froman, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser, was caught trying to force India to drop its legal case against Dow Chemical in his email last July to an Indian bureaucrat.  In the email, he clearly links the Dow Chemical issue to relaxing India's borrowing limit with the World Bank. Using a ... http://www.spartacusx.com/us-official-caught-trying-to-intimidate-india-over-union-carbide-litigation/ It seems like British and American McDonald's make their chicken nuggets differently.  The American version is not only higher in fat but also contains the same petrochemical product that Silly Putty uses.  McDonald's representative says that different countries use different recipes to cater to their own tastes and that the ... http://www.spartacusx.com/why-homemade-doesnt-come-out-as-good-as-mcdonalds/ Amazing...read the whole article for the rest of the gory details: After an 18-month battle that began with SEIU believing it could affect a hostile takeover of its once close union ally, the two unions reached a settlement yesterday almost entirely on UNITE HERE’s terms. SEIU’s raids on UNITE HERE split ... http://www.spartacusx.com/union-wars/ A lot of this I already knew - I read the Courtney Love article a long time back - but it's interesting to see the discussion revived again. Click through to read the whole post. So, back to our original example of the average musician only earning $23.40 for every $1,000 ... http://www.spartacusx.com/recording-industry-thieves/ Across the United States, laws are being passed to restrict giving food for free, claiming that people who do so are not properly trained to recognize harmful food or to dispose of any trash that is created.  The main target seems to be the homeless in Miami and Orlando. [caption id="" ... http://www.spartacusx.com/saving-the-homeless-from-food/ A fascinating article from Johann Hari and The Independent. This is the story of how some of the richest people in the world – Goldman, Deutsche Bank, the traders at Merrill Lynch, and more – have caused the starvation of some of the poorest people in the world. It starts with an ... http://www.spartacusx.com/another-reason-why-banks-are-evil/ Wondering where the next energy-related disaster is going to occur? Michael Klare, writing in TomDispatch, lays out four fascinating - and frightening - possibilities. Scenario 1: Newfoundland -- Hibernia Platform Destroyed by Iceberg Approximately 190 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in what locals call “Iceberg Alley” sits the Hibernia oil platform, ... http://www.spartacusx.com/the-next-disaster/ Like so much of what Paul Rosenberg writes, I found this post of his fascinating. I don't read his stuff as faithfully as I ought to, because it usually requires a significant investment of time, but when I do it's almost always worth it. In this posting he's drawing from ... http://www.spartacusx.com/ethical-foundations/ Just to be clear, I'm a big fan of the Large Hadron Collider. It's the European particle accelerator which studies basic questions in fundamental physics, and which recently underwent an upgrade which allows it to cross territory never before attempted. From the BBC: Professor Ellis added that as the luminosity increases, ... http://www.spartacusx.com/more-power/ Marchers brandished placards and banners. "The Supreme Court is fascist," one poster read. This is taking place in Israel, where 120,000 people marched to support several dozen parents recently held in contempt by the Israeli Supreme Court. Why? Because they refuse to allow their children to go to school with children ... http://www.spartacusx.com/jewish-fundamentalism/