In this RSA Animate, radical sociologist David Harvey asks if it is time
to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow
us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and
humane?

A global justice gap is being made worse by power politics despite a landmark year for international justice, said Amnesty International today in its annual assessment of human rights worldwide.

Launching Amnesty International Report 2010: State of the World's Human Rights, which documents abuses in 159 countries, the organization said that powerful governments are blocking advances in international justice by standing above the law on human rights, shielding allies from criticism and acting only when politically convenien

Frustration is growing among residents of the US Gulf of Mexico coast over the pace of efforts to combat the growing oil spill in the region.

Author and activist Naomi Klein has been visiting the state of Louisiana.

She told Al Jazeera that patience is running very thin

Biologist Doug Inkley – BP Oil Ashore ‘just the tip of the iceberg’

How can benzene affect my health?

Breathing very high levels of benzene can result in death, while high
levels can cause drowsiness, dizziness, rapid heart rate, headaches,
tremors, confusion, and unconsciousness. Eating or drinking foods
containing high levels of benzene can cause vomiting, irritation of the
stomach, dizziness, sleepiness, convulsions, rapid heart rate, and
death.

The major effect of benzene from long-term exposure is on the blood.
Benzene causes harmful effects on the bone marrow and can cause a
decrease in red blood cells leading to anemia. It can also cause
excessive bleeding and can affect the immune system, increasing the
chance for infection.

Some women who breathed high levels of benzene for many months had
irregular menstrual periods and a decrease in the size of their ovaries,
but we do not know for certain that benzene caused the effects. It is
not known whether benzene will affect fertility in men

Read more at : http://bpoilleak.org/

On the wake of the Deepwater Horizon, there are calls left, right and
centre to increase the security of oil rigs, improve oil spill response
and whatnot. This is good, but far from sufficient. What we need to
address is the world's dependence on oil, and how we can quit the black
stuff. It might appear a hard task until you consider the lenghths to
which we go to get oil. The animation below, by cartoonist Mark Fiore,
sums it up:

Read more at Greenpeace

Radical sociologist David Harvey asks: is it time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?

Milton Friedman and Noam Chomsky can agree on one thing. Free markets kill democracy.
In fact, neoliberalism is specifically designed to kill democracy. A Virtual Parliament of investors and lenders will vote against government programs that benefit the people by attacking the currency.

Think of an attack on the currency as a bad day on Wall Street, exactly like when stocks fell after the Wall Street bailout failed to pass in the House of Representative the first time around

Former Fed Chairman destroys Randian "free market" principles in 16 seconds.
I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interest of organizations, specifically banks and others, was such as they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders.

Well, exactly. You said one cotton-pickin', bailout-belying mouthful. Use this as evidence the next time someone brings up "Atlas Shrugged" as the best way to save the economy. Dean Baker thinks he misses the point:

What would Ayn Rand expect to happen? On the one hand we have the hot shot executives, on the other hand the schmucks who own stock in these banks. Would Ayn Rand expect that the executives would put aside their ambition, their lust for success, their greed, in order to benefit shareholders who are too dumb to even know what a credit default swap is?

Andrew Maguire exposes the largest financial fraud in human history (except for the Federal Reserve) and is almost killed in car crash shortly thereafter. JP Morgan is manipulating the market, and for every 100 ounces of silver and gold held in paper or electronically, there is only 1 ounce in the vault.

Join Economics Professor Richard Wolff, University of Massachusetts, for a screening of his film, "Capitalism Hits the Fan," and a Q&A. Professor Wolff breaks down the root causes of today's economic crisis and traces its source to the 1970s, when wages began to stagnate and American workers were forced into a spiral of borrowing and debt. By placing the crisis in this framework, Wolff argues that proposals for government "bailouts," offers of stimulus packages, and calls for increased market regulation will not address the real causes of the crisis. He suggests that far more fundamental change is necessary to avoid future catastrophes. Richly illustrated with motion graphics, "Capitalism Hits the Fan" is a superb introduction to the unraveling economic crisis for ordinary citizens.  

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Western commentators were quick to assert that liberal democracy and capitalism had won the day. The truth was more complex. Authoritarian governments in China, Singapore, and later, Russia, deftly separated democracy from capitalism, offering their citizens a choice. They could embrace all the comforts of a consumerist society, so long as they surrendered their civil liberties. Freedom for Sale (Basic Books) is a portrait of a new paradigm of authoritarian capitalism, which is making inroads not just in the East, but in America as well. At this Open Society Institute event, author John Kampfner discusses his argument that this model represents a "pact" between governments and their middle class subjects. As long as citizens consent to stay out of politics and keep to themselves, in return they receive all the creature comforts they desire. The cost is small, insofar as the average citizen is concerned--but as soon as activists and journalists get involved, the pact has swift, deadly consequences.

Its the title of a dubious financing transaction that Lehman Brothers used in 2008 to make its balance sheet look healthier than it really was. Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch takes a stab at explaining how Repo 105 worked.

José Casanova - José Casanova is a prominent scholar in the sociology of religion. He is a Professor at the Department of Sociology at Georgetown University, and heads the Berkley Center's Program on Globalization, Religion and the Secular.