Flash Crash: Robotrading The Market
Flash Crash proved that market makers playing both sides of securities could be capable of wiping out any corporation’s stock, perhaps any nation’s economy
scott thill
Deepwater Horizon’s Epic OilGas Catastrophe
If you’ve been railing for decades against the fossil fuel sector for everything from deliberately removing safeguards that could have prevented what will likely end up being the worst U.S. oil disaster in history to its lethal emissions that could, in the extreme, end up warming planet Earth to the point that human habitation is an impossibility, well, this is all old, sad news.
Geek The Beatles: Let It Be’s Recombined Reality Programming
Forty years ago, Let It Be closed out a decade of The Beatles’ artistic and technological influence.
Why China Has Our Economy By the Balls
[Scott Thill, AlterNet] On May 1, China popped the cork on Expo 2010 in Shanghai, a months-long international celebration signifying the ascension of the city, and thereby its parent nation, […]
Showdown On Wall Street
[Scott Thill, AlterNet] Good thing Goldman Sachs reported its first-quarter profits on the popular pot holiday April 20. Because you had to be totally stoned to appreciate the sheer, corrupt […]
In Praise of Ralph Bakshi, Animation Pioneer
One of animation’s most influential artists, Ralph Bakshi made his mark on pop culture by refusing to sacrifice his singular vision to popular tastes and trends.
With Finance, Expected the Unexpectedly
When it comes to the finance casino, expect the unexpected. And when it comes to the financial press that is committed to covering it, expect to hear the word “unexpectedly.” […]
Goodbye, Paper Money
[Scott Thill, AlterNet] Currency has come a long way in the past few thousand years of human existence. Ancient Turkey started using hybrid silver and gold coins around 640 B.C. […]
Wikileaks Under Fire
On April 5, WikiLeaks.org plans to release at the National Press Club what it alleges is a video confirming a Pentagon cover-up of a wartime massacre of civilians and journalists […]
Ten Ways Mother Earth Will Strike Back
Welcome to our existential nightmare, from rising seas and runaway droughts and storms to the outer limits of dystopian catastrophes like the fart apocalypse.
Gold Fever and Artificial Value
[Scott Thill, AlterNet] Quick, check out this hot investment tip! For decades now, the Federal Reserve has been suppressing the true value of gold to keep its prodigious impact out […]
UN: Climate Crisis Attention Lacks Ambition
They would rather wait until the climate crisis has already ripped the roof off the world as they knew it, before doing anything significant about it.
In a Parallel Universe, These Songs Win Oscars
From “Purple Rain” to “Kickapoo” to “Always Look On the Bright Side of Life” to “Uncle Fucker”
My Favorite Album Covers? Check Filter
Hey pals, I’ve been reviewing for Filter Magazine for awhile now. As usual, they ask me what my favorite this and that is for each issue. This time? Album covers. […]
Yellow Light Panopticon Crashes, Burns
With profit as the red-light camera’s primary motive, it’s hard for an already disenfranchised citizenry to find friends in those money-hungry local governments.
Technocracy Blowback: Five Case Studies
“Why blame technology? It generally does what it is coded to do. It’s the human sentient understanding of how to take cruel advantage of human weakness that’s the problem.”
Global Warming’s Catastrophic Polarities
Climate change deniers argue that the frozen storms battering America have nothing to do with the arrival of hell on Earth. But destabilizing intensity on either end of the weather spectrum is our new normal, and we better get used to it.
Adam Curtis: Meet the New Yemen, Same As the Old Yemen
Our current obsession with Yemen is anything but current, brainiac documentarian Adam Curtis argued in his BBC blog “The Medium and the Message.” In fact, it’s older than Osama. “What […]
John Oliver: Enjoy the Abyss, America!
[Scott Thill, Morphizm] After losing the visionary Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show has been leaning heavily on scathing comedians like Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, John Hodgman and this UK import, […]
New York Times Bites My Walkaway Rhyme
[Scott Thill, Morphizm] Look, New York Times: You can pay me for my cultural and political insights. People already do. Seriously. Like when you posted that article today advising underwater […]
Alan Moore Is Ready For Post-Civilization
“I have largely, completely given up on the comics industry,” Moore said. “I really don’t believe it is going to do anything to address the modern world.”
Trip Out to 2009’s Best Unheard Music
From Trans Am’s revved jams to chilled hypnotics by Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, there’s plenty of unfairly unheard music from 2009. Wrap your ears around a head-trip’s worth in the streams […]
Metromixed! Built to Spill, Rakim, Dinosaur Jr., Gift of Gab, The Bravery
I finally wrangled some more of my musical content from 2009. Here are four of my Metromix reviews involving the smoothest rappers alive, a guitar army, and a dark dance-pop […]
Can Aspartame Kill You?
Well, let’s start wrapping up the stragglers from my year’s worth of content, shall we? Starting with this investigation of the sugar substitute aspartame, which can either kill you outright […]
Ten Ways to Screw the Screwers
From economic misery and political impotence to environmental waste and social catastrophe, American culture is overburdened by nightmares. I wrote an acidic but nevertheless educational rant for AlerNet on how […]