Sometimes a driverless car is not just a driverless car: Thoughts on widgets and systems | Grist

Those are the kinds of questions that people who benefit from the status quo don’t want you to ask. They can tolerate some limited widget-swapping, but systemic change scares them to their bones. So they would very much like to restrict everyone to widget comparisons: Solar electricity is more per kWh than coal electricity. Electric cars are more expensive than gasoline cars. An acre of regenerative agriculture produces lower yield than an acre of industrial ag. They want narrow, intra-system comparisons, not broad comparisons of other possible systems.

via Sometimes a driverless car is not just a driverless car: Thoughts on widgets and systems | Grist.

Bitcoin – P2P digital currency

Bitcoin – P2P digital currency.

Global Warming Systemically Caused Hurricane Sandy | George Lakoff

Global Warming Systemically Caused Hurricane Sandy | George Lakoff.

All Negotiating is Domestic by Pascal Lamy – The Globalist

“Past evidence shows that it was usually only in response to huge crises — mainly wars, including two outright world wars — that the required political energy was generated to focus more on multilateral (read: system-oriented, rather than nation state-oriented) approaches.”

via All Negotiating is Domestic by Pascal Lamy – The Globalist.

Wealth Acknowledgment Systems – P2P Foundation

Wealth Acknowledgment Systems – P2P Foundation.

Localism Act 2011

Localism Act 2011.

Beware the UK’s ‘community rights’: the latest mutation of privatisation | openDemocracy

Beware the UK’s ‘community rights’: the latest mutation of privatisation | openDemocracy.

The real issue is universal access to affordable basic services | International Institute for Environment and Development

The real issue is universal access to affordable basic services | International Institute for Environment and Development.

Too rich to regulate: the banks got away with it – The Drum – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Too rich to regulate: the banks got away with it – The Drum – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

10 Ways School Reformers Get It Wrong | Alternet

10 Ways School Reformers Get It Wrong | Alternet.

The Crises of Capitalism – David Harvey

The Crises of Capitalism – David Harvey.

Is Modern Finance a Productive Economic Activity? by Adair Turner – The Globalist

Is Modern Finance a Productive Economic Activity? by Adair Turner – The Globalist.

RepRap – RepRapWiki

RepRap – RepRapWiki.

Democracy in the Workplace? Spain’s Mondragon Corporation Shows Us an Alternative to Capitalism | | AlterNet

Democracy in the Workplace? Spain’s Mondragon Corporation Shows Us an Alternative to Capitalism | | AlterNet.

Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith: How the Wall Street Mafia Holds America — and the World — Hostage | | AlterNet

Matt Taibbi and Yves Smith: How the Wall Street Mafia Holds America — and the World — Hostage | | AlterNet.

Afrotonomy x Terence McKenna: ‘Culture is an Operating System’ [video] – Urban Times

Afrotonomy x Terence McKenna: ‘Culture is an Operating System’ – Urban Times.

Occupy author examines archeology of debt | Culture | DW.DE | 25.06.2012

Occupy author examines archeology of debt | Culture | DW.DE | 25.06.2012.

What Will Happen at the Rio+20 Earth Summit? | | AlterNet

Already there has been considerable cross-sector convergence around the imperative of phasing out fossil fuel subsidies — which total somewhere in the vicinity of $1 trillion globally per year, pad the profits of the richest corporations in history, cement global fossil fuel dependence, divert much needed public money from other social purposes and represent some of the worst examples of the corporate stranglehold on our governments. There have also been unexpectedly bold statements from groups like the International Trade Union Confederation drawing connections between capitalism, social welfare and climate change.

via What Will Happen at the Rio+20 Earth Summit? | | AlterNet.

The Catholic Origins of Globalization by Luis Francisco Martínez Montes – The Globalist

Bullshit, we behaved globally long before the construct of church or nation state, and trade has been taking place within the limits of human reach since…well forever. What is being conflated here is empire (conquest and absorption of others, by violent means) and global trade. The natural tendency, I would think, will be that trade, transport and distribution will tend toward global efficiency in the ‘long run’.

The Catholic Origins of Globalization by Luis Francisco Martínez Montes – The Globalist.

Is the Corporate Personhood Reform Movement Doomed to Fail in Washington? | | AlterNet

If the argument exists to contest ‘corporate personhood’ then it also exists to contest ‘religious personhood’ on the same grounds.

Is the Corporate Personhood Reform Movement Doomed to Fail in Washington? | | AlterNet.