Currency Turmoil Making Metals Ownership More Attractive

The first two months of 2015 have seen turmoil in the currency markets extend from Russia and Ukraine to the heart of Europe. “Central Banks Now Open 24/7 Fighting Currency Wars and Deflation,” blared a February 12th Bloomberg headline. Against this backdrop, precious metals have been on the rise in terms of all currencies except the Swiss franc and the U.S dollar. In January, the Swiss National Bank shocked markets by announcing that it would de-link its currency from the euro. The move came one week ahead of the European... Read article

Combating Nigeria’s Growing Insecurity

A roundtable, held last week at the Institute of African Studies reports that the Nigerian government’s “…campaigns have not addressed their plans for combating the growing insecurity that has left Nigerians living in fear, and paralyzed educational and economic activities in large swaths of Northeastern Nigeria.” A string of terrorist attacks have occurred as Nigeria has struggled to build a functional and coherent response. Fortunately, there is a science-based approach to create societal coherence... Read article

8 Facts About American Inequality

“…that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized... Read article

Enter The Shift

Random encounters between passing travelers crossing paths at the cosmic nexus lead to long conversations with philosophical overtones deep into the heart of night. Strangers meet near the end of the earth and hash out the best possible way to move forward, coming to terms on evolutionary solutions to the problems that plague this world. Open season declared on the honest form of communication. High above, dancing through the constellations, shooting stars in a crystal clear sky become plastered with the pure intention... Read article

Five Aces

If the Beast pushes you into a corner, do you come out swinging with haymakers?  Or sit down cross-legged and meditate?  Both could, conceivably, be actions that lead to salvation depending on what type of mood one might be in on any given day.  Do you fight fire with fire?  Or apply jiu jitsu techniques in a way that wears down the aggressor who strikes out against you?  Sometimes it is best to step out of the way and allow that which is evil to self-destruct from within.  Sometimes, however, it is best to... Read article

The Psychological Trauma of Catastrophe: Gaza’s Children

Despite the on-again, off-again ceasefires between the Palestinian Resistance and Israel, attacks in Gaza have continued. According to 8/10/14 announcement from Tel Aviv, they will continue, doubtlessly as ruthless as ever. After Israel launched the first attack on July 7th, tension continues as an omnipresent essence whirling about the winds of the greatly sought-after Holy land. Bombarded by airstrikes, shelling and bombs, civilians of the Gaza strip are incarcerated in what seems to be a never-ending battle with no... Read article

Willful Blindness: Abraham Foxman And The Armenian Genocide

Few would expect a survivor of the Holocaust to be the face of genocide denial. Imagine the surprise of Suffolk Law School’s student body when its administration’s chosen commencement speaker turned out to be just that. Abraham Foxman, the long-time director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization dedicated to eradicating anti-Semitism and bigotry and protecting civil rights, seems a figure beyond reproach. Yet Foxman has invited controversy to Suffolk University for his unwillingness to recognize the... Read article

The Sharing Economy: An Introduction To Its Political Evolution

Can the sharing economy movement address the root causes of the world’s converging crises? Unless the sharing of resources is promoted in relation to human rights and concerns for equity, democracy, social justice and sustainability, then such claims are without substantiation – although there are many hopeful signs that the conversation is slowly moving in the right direction.  In recent years, the concept and practice of sharing resources is fast becoming a mainstream phenomenon across North America, Western Europe... Read article

Talkin’ ‘Bout A Global Revolution

As the global financial crisis now enters its seventh year, it is time to start asking difficult questions about the right priorities for popular protest if we want to realise a truly united voice of the world’s people. There can be no revolution in a truly moral or global sense until the critical needs of the extreme poor are prioritised and upheld, which will require mass mobilisations in the streets like we have never seen before. At the onset of 2014, many people are now anticipating the prospect of a ‘global revolution’.... Read article

What Does Research Really Say About Cannabis

If you smoke it, you will get high. That’s about all that most people know about cannabis. A few might also remember hearing something about cancer or glaucoma patients smoking it, but that’s about it. California oncologist Donald Abrams released new information about not only the medical but also the health benefits of the plant. For example, eating or juicing cannabis without heating it will not produce psychotropic effects. In addition to being an anti-nauseant, cannabis is also a powerful anti-oxidant and... Read article

The Sky Gods of Unintended Consequences

Of all the delusions we entertain in our lives, both individually and collectively, that we are the “masters of our own destiny” has got to be one of the grandest. It is emboldening to feel we are somehow ‘in control’, ‘in charge’ of the myriad forces and influences that surround and inhabit us but in reality we seem more like high-stakes gamblers than gods, playing a numbers game not fully aware of the odds that, as often as not, are resolutely stacked against us. Long before ‘rationalism’... Read article

Report From Syria And Lebanon

Report and Appeal to the International community to support a process of dialogue and reconciliation in Syria between its people and Syrian government and reject outside intervention and war. BY Mairead Maguire, Nobel peace laureate. Spokesperson for Mussalaha International Peace delegation to Lebanon/Syria l-llth May, 2013, After a 10 days visit to Lebanon and Syria, leading a 16 person delegation from 8 countries, invited by Mussalaha Reconciliation Movement, I have returned hopeful that peace is possible in Syria, if... Read article

Moon And Crossbones

It was Wednesday night, April 24, 2013, one day away from full moon. Under mostly clear skies, the brilliant waxing gibbous moon flew high toward the celestial meridian…. Here in Spokane, Washington, about 10:30 pm, two fresh chemtrails crisscrossed under the chin of the moon, creating a “skull and crossbones”—spectacular logo for chemtrailing. If only a skywriter had sprayed a headline to crown the scene, a certain motto…perhaps this line by Roger Waters from Pink Floyd’s The Wall: “Mother... Read article

Hurricane Sandy’s Austerity Lessons

Teaneck,N.J.  — The damage incurred by Hurricane Sandy – the largest Atlantic super-storm on record — is second only to New Orleans’ Hurricane Katrina in terms of magnitude and cost.  Occurring just before Halloween and dubbed “Frankenstorm,” Sandy demolished coastal communities in the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. One hundred-mile winds and powerful high tide waters ripped into coastal barriers and the landscape, causing an estimated $60 billion dollars in damages 1.  Flooding... Read article

The Game Is Rigged, But Not The Fight

In 2010/2011, workers at St. Charles Hospital in Bend, Oregon came together to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 49 to improve their conditions and strengthen their voice. It was the largest union organizing victory in Oregon for 30 years. This victory held great promise for not only St. Charles’s service workers, but all workers in Central Oregon and health care employees statewide. On November 1st of this year, workers voted to decertify SEIU Local 49 in a vote of 334 to 212. Why this bitter... Read article

We Have Breached The First Tipping Point

Two critical tipping points have been breached. This is the critical moment in an evolving system when feedback becomes strong enough to continue on its own without any further input. The tipping point is that moment when a gradual increase becomes unstoppable because the feedback maintains its own momentum. There is nowhere to go under these circumstances, and nothing can be done to prevent it continuing. It is the point when an everyday infection turns epidemic. We have now breached the edge from two events. One is a remarkable... Read article

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