Southern California besieged by wildfires.

What the fuck? Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers.

Naomi Klein on capitalism. ...across the planet, "some of the most infamous human rights violations of this era...were in fact committed with the deliberate intent of terrorising the public to prepare the ground for the introduction of free-market reforms". Where this über-corporate vision has not been imposed by force, it has been imposed by blackmail at a time of crisis. One of the ugliest examples Klein exposes is the use of the tsunami - an almost biblical wave that washed away 250,000 people - as a pretext to impose a Friedmanite vision.

The real Raymond Carver. Tess Gallagher, the widow of Raymond Carver...is spearheading an effort to publish a volume of 17 original Carver stories whose highly edited versions were published in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"...Carver was credited with popularizing a minimalist style. But...Gordon Lish, Carver’s first editor at Alfred A. Knopf, had heavily edited, and in many cases radically cut, the stories...to hone the author’s voice. At the time, Carver begged Mr. Lish to stop production of the book. But Knopf went ahead and published it...

The wittiest Brit. Glaring omission: the quidnunc kid. So, monkeys, who's on your list of the funniest folks ever, Brit or otherwise?

Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security...No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.

The Age of Apoplexy. Passionate disagreement isn’t sufficient; bad faith must be imputed to one’s opponents: skepticism of affirmative action equals racism, antiwar sentiment equals anti-Americanism (or terrorist sympathy), criticism of Israel is by definition anti-Semitic, and so on. More and more people think they’re entitled to the right not just to ignore or disapprove, but to veto and banish.

Basketball Jones. "I wouldn't be talking to you if it wasn't for basketball," Jim Jones Jr. says. "It spared my life." The words are not an empty cliché. They are true. Basketball kept this family alive, and now [his son] Rob and basketball are helping restore honor to the family name. Why? Because the name "Jones" can be found in the history books and in news coverage from 29 years ago, linked to an infamous place called Jonestown.

Reason #681 for loving Jon Stewart.

Mutating pictures.

Trey Parker & Matt Stone animate the teaching of Alan Watts.

Hillary Clinton's religion and politics. The Fellowship believes that the elite win power by the will of God, who uses them for his purposes. Its mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan. more inside

The practical nomad. Thoughts on and advice about travel, from Edward Hasbrouck, "The Practical Nomad." I particularly enjoy the "Human Rights, Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Travel" section.

Avocado! Not until 1871...was the avocado definitely established [in California], through the introduction of three trees by Judge R. B. Ord of Santa Barbara. Two of these three trees bore fruit for many years in Santa Barbara, and served to create interest in further plantings. Avocado! In one year, a single California avocado tree can absorb as much carbon as is produced by a car driven 26,000 miles. Avocado! The avocado probably originated in southern Mexico but was cultivated from the Rio Grande to central Peru before the arrival of Europeans. more inside

Canadian dollar reaches parity with staggering U.S. greenback

Classic video of split-brain patient. "To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemisphers (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway. Here's what happens as a result." (Via)

The role of genetic dialogs in The Sopranos. "There are twenty one explicit references to genetics and DNA in seasons one through six of HBO’s The Sopranos...All of them...remind us of...the dialectic of nature and nurture that animates Tony’s complex struggles, and the nucleus of Tony’s universe: the family."

How drug reps operate. "It's my job to figure out what a physician's price is. For some it's dinner at the finest restaurants, for others it's enough convincing data to let them prescribe confidently and for others it's my attention and friendship...but at the most basic level, everything is for sale and everything is an exchange."

Why Harvard Wants You To Be Unhealthily Thin. A big problem with elite institutions is that, for years on end, people in such places can abuse their positions by saying things that aren't true, before anyone whose opinion counts notices. A particularly clear example of this is provided by the Harvard School of Public Health, which for many years has been pushing a phony claim with great success. The story is simple: That it's well-established scientific fact that being "overweight"--that is, having a body mass index figure of between 25 and 30--is, in the words of Harvard professors Walter Willett and Meir Stampfer, "a major contributor to morbidity and mortality."

The century of the self. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal. The BBC documentary on Google Video: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4.