Facebook’s Virtual Reality Play: Oculus (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Strap on the Oculus Rift and you’re in another world.  A big headset – goggles – covering your eyes.  A huge spread of virtual reality filling your field of vision.  Another world.  Less than two years ago, Oculus was a Kickstarter campaign and a dream.  This week, Facebook announced it will buy Oculus for $2 billion.  Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says virtual reality is key to social media’s future.  Virtual presence.  Hanging out with people who aren’t actually with you.  You might think Facebook is a virtual reality already.  This hour On Point:   Facebook’s virtual reality play with Oculus. / Tom Ashbrook

Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/03/27/facebook-oculus-vr-virtual-reality

Week In the News: Fort Hood, GM, Obamacare (Tom Ashbrook, On Point)

Gunfire and death at Fort Hood again this week.  An American soldier, the shooter.  American soldiers, the targets.  Terrible.  In Washington, a milestone for Obamacare and a White House smile with 7 million signed up.  But it’s still a work in progress.  The Supreme Court, ruling again against restraints on big money in our politics.  If you’re rich, it’s a green light.  We’ve seen GM’s CEO Mary Barra in the hot seat.  Hopes of a Middle East peace grown cold.  Afghanistan preparing to vote.  And David Letterman, headed out.  This hour On Point:  Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines. / Tom Ashbrook

Interview:
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/04/04/obamacare-gm-fort-hood-shooting

Friday News Roundup - Domestic (Diane Rehm Show)

The White House claims victory after health care sign-ups surpass seven million. General Motors Chief Mary Barra and the nation’s top auto regulator testify on Capitol Hill. And the Supreme Court strikes down limits on overall campaign contributions. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
 

Interview: 

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-04-04/friday-news-roundup-domestic

 

 

Friday News Roundup - International (Diane Rehm Show)

A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories: Russia recalls its ambassador to NATO after NATO suspends operations with Russia over the Ukraine crisis. NATO’s chief warns that Russian troops are prepared to attack Ukraine. The U.S. scrambles to rescue faltering Middle East peace talks, and weighs the release of Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard. A wave of Taliban-led violence continues in Afghanistan ahead of Saturday’s elections. And North Korea and South Korea exchange fire across their disputed western sea border, after the North threatened to conduct more nuclear tests.
 

Interview:

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-04-04/friday-news-roundup-international

Krugman: They have no idea what to do now that it’s turning into a success story.

Krugman: "Conservative thinking and Republican political strategy were based entirely on the assumption that it would always be October, that Obamacare's rollout would be an unremitting tale of disaster. They have no idea what to do now that it's turning into a success story."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/04/opinion/krugman-rube-goldberg-survives.html

Glacier Bay

http://imgur.com/wk1rnn7

Sam Sam Harris - Neuroscience vs Afterlife

One of the best arguments against the afterlife

http://youtu.be/oDcZkrl-eoY

An Open Letter Response to Charles Koch

"Dear Mr. Koch,

When I read your letter to the American people in the Wall Street Journal, I felt I had to respond. I am not doing this because I think you will actually read these words or that, in the end, this letter will make that much of a difference to you if you do. I had to point out the insult in your opinion piece. I had to do this because, in this age where money now equates to speech, I had to throw as much “free” speech into this conversation as I could...

"You, your brother, and others like you represent a huge, ever widening divide in America...an affront to the American dream."

http://www.thegreenprogressive.com/2014/04/an-open-letter-response-to-charles-koch.html

The Problem With Assuming That It's the Millennials' Fault for Abandoning Religion

I used to work with a guy who had a gift for breaking up with girls. He was so genuine and kind that afterward the girls would invariably leave feelin...

"...No, what I found particularly difficult to wrap my mind around emerged as I read the last part of the article. Turns out that, at least when it comes to appearances, fully 7-in-10 Millennials “believe that religious groups are alienating young adults by being too judgmental about gay and lesbian issues.” That is to say, (70 percent) of people born between 1980 and 2000 believe that the church is hostile enough to LGBT issues that it’s driving people away..."

 Read more

Archbishop of Canterbury chooses pathetic over prophetic | Rev. Susan Russell

"...Where is the lament from the ABofC for LGBT youth who choose suicide over bullying? For those who live in fear of arrest or assault because of their sexual orientation or gender identity? Or for those who are dying the slow death of internalized homophobia not only condoned by but contributed to by "the church?"..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-susan-russell/archbishop-of-canterbury-_b_5093293.html

5 Quick Parenting Tips to Save Your Sanity

Parenting is difficult. Every day we face new parenting challenges. Our children test and push boundaries, and as parents, we have to maintain our coo... Read more

Uganda police raid project that assists gays

Government spokesman says Walter Reed Project in the capital Kampala has been "training youths in homosexuality". Read more

Remember When Republicans Said Social Security And Medicare Would Destroy Freedom Too?

The intense conservative ire for Obamacare may seem like an anomaly in American history. But it's eerily reminiscent of two other large -- and now wid... Read more

Paul Ryan Accidentally Reveals The Truth About The GOP’s Obamacare Replacement

The most popular Obamacare provisions will have to go, Ryan admitted. The post Paul Ryan Accidentally Reveals The Truth About ... Read more

How Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law Could Cause A Public Health Crisis

Anti-gay laws in countries like Uganda could enable the spread of HIV and other STDs.The post How Uganda's Anti-Gay Law ... Read more

A 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Who’s Pregnant With Twins Is Being Denied An Abortion In Senegal

Senegal's total ban on abortion is based on an archaic penal code that dates back to 1810.The post A 10-Year-Old Rape Victim ... Read more

A Revealing Week for Republicans

If you haven't done so yet, I urge you to take three minutes here with me to reflect on this unusually revealing week. Three big developments—the Obam... Read more

Gay Rights Bullies Cry Victim

Can you hear the piteous weeping? The wronged tears? Those poor bigots are under attack. Those who are prejudiced against gay people are having their ... Read more

Colbert Skewers Bill O'Reilly's Bizarre Defense Of Inequality (VIDEO)

Having made it past the #CancelColbert controversy, Stephen Colbert's satircal persona is back to its roots, mocking the tirades of "Papa Bear" Bill O... Read more

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,Video Archive

Atheists Classified As Terrorists Under New Saudi Arabian Laws

Atheists are being defined as terrorists under a raft of new Saudi Arabian laws, a report from Human Rights Watch states.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/04/02/atheists-classified-terrorists-new-saudi-arabian-laws_n_5075129.html

Catholic teacher contract specifies banned practices

"...The contract for the 2014-15 school year explicitly orders teachers to refrain "from any conduct or lifestyle which would reflect discredit on or cause scandal to the school or be in contradiction to Catholic doctrine or morals." It goes so far as to ban public support of the practices..."

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/education/2014/03/06/catholic-teacher-contract-specifies-banned-practices/6148399/

Pat Buchanan Thinks God Is On Putin's Side

"Pat Buchanan is pretty sure that God is smiling down on the Russians...
Just as he did late last year, Buchanan gushed over Putin for "standing against a decadent West.""
... Read more

Sex Abuse Cost The U.S. Catholic Church Nearly $3 Billion According To Report By Bishops Conference

"... The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released their eleventh annual report on the progress of implementing the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People as part of the effort to increase transparency with regards to sexual abuse. The 2013 audit was carried out by StoneBridge Business Partners, which collected data from 127 dioceses/eparchies between July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013..."

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/04/sex-abuse-catholic-church_n_5085414.html

5 Things Conservatives Lie Shamelessly About

"Conservatives have figured out a neat little rhetorical trick: tell lies so fast your opponents can't keep up."

 ... Read more

10 Things You Can't Buy With Food Stamps

In eighth grade I was terrible in home-economics class because I had little appreciation for how practical the skills would be some day. I regret not ... Read more

Interview with Jama Shelton: Ending Gay and Transgender Youth Homelessness

Many of you know me as a follower of Jesus, and those of you that have been paying attention, also know me as a "straight ally." To me, I actually bel... Read more

Washington's Policy: Blaming the Palestinians and Exonerating the Israelis

The culture of blame shifting, which countries adopt as a way to evade responsibility, is being deployed against both the Palestinian leadership and t... Read more

The Return Of The Back-Alley Abortion

Across the U.S., laws have forced abortion providers to close. Now, four decades after the Supreme Court upheld a woman's right to choose, pregnant wo... Read more

Is Charles Koch Un-American? Let Thomas Jefferson Decide | Richard (RJ) Eskow

"...Charles Koch may not understand Thomas Jefferson, but Thomas Jefferson would have understood Charles Koch very well. It was Jefferson, after all, who said the following:

"I hope that we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.""

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/is-charles-koch-un-americ_b_5088440.html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Koch Industries | PolluterWatch

"...The Political Economy Research Institute ranks Koch Industries as the tenth worst air polluter in the U.S. in their Toxic Release Inventory. CARMA reports that Koch releases about 200,000 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide annually..."

http://www.polluterwatch.com/koch-industries

How We Can Fight Back Against the Supreme Court

"...So, it was nice while it lasted. Democracy at the national level is dead now. We have replaced it with an open auction. This will not at some future date lead to a worst case scenario. We're already living in that scenario..."
... Read more

Paul Ryan: Still a Total Jerk

Remind me not to get in a foxhole with Paul Ryan. At the first sign of trouble, he'll pack up his gunny sack and head for base camp, running into the ... Read more

Robert Reich: How Increasing Numbers of Americans are Saying 'No Deal' to Absurd Inequality

And what to do about an distribution 'game' that seems increasingly rigged.

 ... Read more

Hightower: 6 Ways America Is in Desperate Need of a Big Fix

"We must create a politics that directly confronts the narcissistic nabobs who're knocking down our people and our country."
... Read more

White America Is Oblivious to the Truth About Black Poverty

A recent debate between Jonathan Chait and Ta-Nehisi Coates reveals the misconceptions that rule America's understanding of race and poverty.

... Read more

Charles Koch Adds His Voice to the Growing Chorus of Whiny Billionaires

"...His silly op-ed, with its alarmist Marxist clichés and fusty Schopenhauer references, would have been dismissed as an April Fool’s joke if published just one day sooner. It came the same day as the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon decision, which only increased its ridiculousness. ..." Read more

Arm Yourself! Read Breyer's Dissent in McCutcheon v. FEC

Hopefully, we can push back against the wreckage wrought by Roberts and Co.

... Read more

Neil deGrasse Tyson Under Attack from Christians Who Want More Biblical Creationism on His Show

Why not other creationism stories, like the Norse or Egyptian myths?

 ... Read more

10 Reasons Americans Should be Wary of Rand Paul's Libertarianism, Especially Young People | Alternet

"...But Rand Paul and libertarianism are not the answer. His economic strategy can be summed up in a quota used for one of his bills: “remove the shackles of big government by reducing taxes, regulations, and burdensome union work requirements.”
In other words, more of the same conservative philosophy that got us in this mess in the first place. Here are 10 reasons why millennials should be extremely wary of the senator from Kentucky..."

http://www.alternet.org/economy/10-reasons-americans-should-be-wary-rand-pauls-libertarianism-especially-young-people

House Science Committee: a parliament of Creationists, Climate Deniers (and dunces)

Writing in Scientific American, Ashutosh Jogalekar bemoans the famously terrible state of the House Committee on Science, a ... Read more

Oklahoma Catholic Hospital Lets Doctors Deny Women Birth Control

On the heels of Hobby Lobby's judicial fight against the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act in the name of "religious liberty," doctors ... Read more

Debunked Obamacare Jobs 'Costs' Claim Still Appearing In Anti-ACA Ads

The claim that the Congressional Budget Office had estimated that Obamacare would cost 2.5 million jobs was thoroughly debunked in February -- but tha... Read more

Paul Ryan's Huge Medicare Shift

Buried in Rep. Paul Ryan's (R-WI) new budget is a subtle -- but deeply consequential -- change to his controversial Medicare privatization plan. Read... Read more

Oil Company Threatens Landowners: Give Us Property Rights Now, Or You’ll Get Less Money

"They don't want more money -- they want their lives back," Jane Kleeb, executive director of Bold Nebraska, said of the ... Read more

Another Orwellian Op-Ed From Charles Koch

Charles Koch, the misunderstood billionaire pollutocrat, explains his warmhearted benevolence in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. ... Read more

House Democrats Call On EPA To Investigate Fracking’s Link To Water Contamination In Three States

"Members of these communities currently do not have safe, clean drinking water and need EPA's help to address the ongoing water ... Read more

$10.10

It's an economic no-brainier for Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10.The post $10.10 appeared first on ThinkProgress. Read more

NPR Poll: GOP's Older Voter Advantage Slips From 4 Years Ago

NPR Poll: GOP's Older Voter Advantage Slips From 4 Years Ago by Frank James April 03, 2014 3:23 PM ET A strong majority of young voters support the... Read more

The Expert (Short Comedy Sketch)

Funny business meeting illustrating how hard it is for an engineer to fit into the corporate world! Starring: Orion Lee, James Marlowe, Abdiel LeRoy, Ewa Wojcik, Tatjana Sendzimir

http://youtu.be/BKorP55Aqvg

Why Obama’s Compromise With Catholic Bishops Was a Bad Idea

"...But it’s important to remember, in the words of E.J. Dionne, that Obama’s attempt to find a compromise to the bishops’ objections to the mandate was a “clear statement that President Obama never wanted this fight.” It was the bishops who turned an innocuous effort to extend contraceptive access to more women into the cornerstone of their “religious liberty” fight..."

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/patriciamiller/7725/why_obama_s_compromise_with_catholic_bishops_was_a_bad_idea/

Robert Greenwald's "Koch Brothers Exposed" (Full)

"Koch Brothers Exposed is a hard-hitting investigation of the 1% at its very worst. This full-length documentary film on Charles and David Koch—two of the world's richest and most powerful men—is the latest from acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, Rethink Afghanistan). The billionaire brothers bankroll a vast network of organizations that work to undermine the interests of the 99% on issues ranging from Social Security to the environment to civil rights. This film uncovers the Kochs' corruption—and points the way to how Americans can reclaim their democracy."

http://youtu.be/UTwqkl8BqSc

Charles Koch: I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society - WSJ.com

Note: This article by one of the Koch brothers, and the more than 700 reader comments that follow it it -- all pretty much in worshipful praise of what the Koch brothers say and do -- are presented here as a "current event" for your information, and do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog owner. Readers are encouraged to be mindful of the wealth of other news items about the Koch brothers, detailing their vigorous campaign of ads against Obamacare, reported to be full of lies and distortions, as well as describing the vast amount of dark money they funnel through PACs and front organizations to help elect Tea Party politicians, attack candidates they don't like, and influence votes on issues by fear mongering.  This blog has previously posted links to many published articles in the media with reports about their efforts to weaken environmental regulation, which would result in dirtier water and air, and free up companies like Koch Industries from any responsibility to clean up after themselves. I recommend everyone see the video I am also posting today -- "Koch Brothers Exposed" -- which presents a case for why you should not trust what you read in Mr. Koch's letter here.

"I have devoted most of my life to understanding the principles that enable people to improve their lives. It is those principles—the principles of a free society—that have shaped my life, my family, our company and America itself.

Unfortunately, the fundamental concepts of dignity, respect, equality before the law and personal freedom are under attack by the nation's own government. That's why, if we want to restore a free society and create greater well-being and opportunity for all Americans, we have no choice but to fight for those principles. I have been doing so for more than 50 years, primarily through educational efforts. It was only in the past decade that I realized the need to also engage in the political process..."

http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303978304579475860515021286

The Death of Truth | Neal Wooten

"...I understand that people get emotional when it comes to politics. I understand that a certain amount of bias is to be expected. It's human nature. But I never thought in my lifetime that the good, decent, hardworking, churchgoing, family-loving, God-fearing people of the South would ever decide that truth was not worth a plug nickel..."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/neal-wooten/the-death-of-truth_b_5074356.html
 

High-Speed Traders Rip Investors Off, Michael Lewis Says

The U.S. stock market is rigged when high-frequency traders with advanced computers make tens of billions of dollars by jumping in front of investors, according to author Michael Lewis, who spent the past year researching the topic for his new book “Flash Boys.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-30/high-frequency-traders-ripping-off-investors-michael-lewis-says.html

Fox host tells Ted Cruz: ‘You’re in a minority’ on Obamacare repeal, people aren’t ‘behind that’

"The hosts of Fox & Friends on Tuesday warned Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that fewer and fewer people were backing his crusade to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care reform law..."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/01/fox-host-tells-ted-cruz-youre-in-a-minority-on-obamacare-repeal-people-arent-behind-that/

The Loner

"The Loner" - the famous tree on Buttermere in the Lake District, England [800x533] by Brian Kerr

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8059/8233823719_306bbb7af9_b.jpg