A group in Britain, VARE [Victims of Animal Rights Extremism] claims that not enough is being done to “tackle the tactics of animal rights extremists that currently fall outside the remit of the police and Crown Prosecution Service.” It’s one thing to oppose laws you believe to be unjust, but it’s a completely different ballpark […]

Exhibit A: “The question Milgram sought to answer was very simple. What proportion of normal people would continue administering shocks up to the full lethal voltage? What proportion would act as if to kill an innocent person for no better reason than $4.50 and that they were told to by a psychology professor?” (emphasis added) […]

There’s an excellent article in the Christian Science Monitor on the political and cultural homogenization of America: Stores don’t sell products anymore, they sell lifestyles. And certain kinds of communities attract outlets, and vice versa. That, in part, is why you won’t find a single Wal-Mart in Manhattan or a single Crate and Barrel in […]

Whether you know it or not, your own opinions are influenced by the presence of a dissenting view. Which is why this is an interesting and potentially valuable exercise. In the activity, called You Decide, you’re asked to take a position on any of a number of current hot issues, e.g., “Should fast food companies […]

Simon Norfolk is a war photographer, but in a slightly different sense than you’d expect; Norfolk doesn’t focus on images that convey, e.g., a sense of immediacy or suffering, but on scenery and landscape, putting the destruction of war into a different context. It’s interesting stuff, and a curious approach. You can see two of […]

Something brought a Scientific American article entitled “Rethinking Green Consumerism” bubbling to the surface (it’s actually a 2002 article), and I chanced to stumble across it. It’s an interesting article, in a generic and superficial feel-good way. The sub-headline boldy declares “Buying green products won’t be enough to save biodiversity in the tropics. A new […]

Starbucks. It’s a corporate symbol that some people love to love, and others love to hate. So what is it: epitome of the evils of globalization or a righteous sign of progressive business practices? Kim Fellner investigates.