Video: Full-Length Program | Watch Botany of Desire Online | PBS Video

Video: Full-Length Program | Watch Botany of Desire Online | PBS Video

Program: Botany of Desire
Episode: Full-Length Program

Featuring Michael Pollan and based on his best-selling book, this special takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world, seen from the plants' point of view. The program shows how four familiar species -- the apple, the tulip, cannabis and the potato -- evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control.

Graham Hill: Less stuff, more happiness | Video on TED.com

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness.html

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Securitizing America: Strategic Incapacitation and the Policing of Protest Since the 11 September 2001 Terrorist Attacks - Gillham - 2011 - Sociology Compass - Wiley Online Library

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00394.x/full

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Why I Feel Bad for the Pepper-Spraying Policeman, Lt. John Pike - Alexis Madrigal - National - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/why-i-feel-bad-for-the-pepperspraying-policeman-lt-john-pike/248772/

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The California Federation of Teachers issued a statement today formally endorsing the "Occupy Wall Street" movement.

cft.org

October 14, 2011—The California Federation of Teachers issued a statement today formally endorsing the "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Click here for the statement. CFT members in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Oakland have already been participating in the occupations for the past two weeks. Shown in photo: Rebecca Hensler (right), counselor in Denman Middle School, during Occupy San Francisco event before school on October 12. The CFT also recommends Department of Education-approved materials on the historical background of the "Call to Action" for November 2. Matthew Hardy photo

Texas Judge Beats Disabled Daughter on Video - YouTube

Texas Judge Beats Disabled Daughter on Video - YouTube

2004: Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams took a belt to his own teenage daughter as punishment for using the internet to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time. She has had ataxic cerebral palsy from birth that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father's backwards views. The judge's wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video. The judge's wife has since left the marriage due to the abuse, which continues to this day, and has sincerely apologized and repented for her part and for allowing such a thing, long before this video was even revealed to exist. Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can't even exercise fit judgement as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His "judgement" is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.

America's inhumane approach to labour problems will finish Obama | Richard Sennett | Comment is free | The Guardian

America's inhumane approach to labour problems will finish Obama | Richard Sennett | Comment is free | The Guardian

The "special relationship" has a perverse twist in the realm of labour; our two societies harbour large numbers of insecure or vulnerable employees whose ills have been addressed timidly by centrist governments. There are real solutions, however, to the travails of work; they are found along Europe's northern rim – in Scandinavia, Germany and the Netherlands. These more balanced economies have avoided Anglo-American, finance-driven capitalism; their governments have protected established companies, especially small companies, providing capital for growth when banks won't lend it. On this stabilising base, Norway and Sweden have made concerted efforts to include young people in starter jobs; their youth unemployment stands at about 8%. The Germans put big resources into youth training schemes; the Dutch effectively supplement the wages of part-time employees. Factories in Europe's northern rim have long explored how to deal humanely with automation, and tried in many different ways to counteract the outsourcing of jobs. Existential Gloom may well be inherent in the northern temperament, but these prosperous countries have in everyday practical life proved good at shaping labour. Why don't we learn from them?

Noam Chomsky at Occupy Boston - YouTube

Noam Chomsky at Occupy Boston - YouTube

Whites Believe They Are Victims of Racism More Often Than Blacks | Tufts Now

http://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/whites-believe-they-are-victims-racism-more-o

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NYTimes: Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research

From The New York Times:

Fraud Case Seen as a Red Flag for Psychology Research

A Dutch scholar was found to have falsified findings in dozens of papers, in a field that critics say is vulnerable to such abuses.

http://nyti.ms/unVj1J

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Freshman 15 is a myth, study says - latimes.com

Freshman 15 is a myth, study says - latimes.com

"Freshman 15," "Freshman 15"… how often do you read that stat about weight gain during that first year of college, and how often do you wonder if it’s true?

Two researchers – one at Ohio State University and the other at the University of Michigan at Dearborn  -- decided to take a thorough look. In a study to be published in the December issue of the journal Social Science Quarterly, they report that…

.. drumroll ..

..it’s not true. It’s a myth.  Weight gain among freshman students is far less than 15 pounds, as a rule — more like three pounds. And it doesn’t seem to have much to do with college: Young adults who don’t go to college gain just about as much weight as those who do.