Majority of Eastern Germans feel life was better under communism

Young Germans, longing for life in the former German Democratic Republic
The following article is quite arrogant and condescending and clearly is written with a biased perspective that uncritically favours Germany’s political system of today. Nevertheless, it gives interesting glimpses into some of the advantages the former communist Germany offered its citizens over life in [...]

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Collection of 60,000 photos found of life in the former East Germany, dating back to the 1950s

What East Germany Was Really Like
By Solveig Grothe
Spiegel online International
They wanted to clean up the basement but found a treasure trove of photos instead. After Berlin teacher Manfred Beier died, his sons stumbled across 60,000 pictures. Their father, it turns out, created one of the best documentations of life in East Germany, and the first [...]

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Canada issues an Canadian Index of Wellbeing

The Canadian Index of Wellbeing (CIW) is the signature product of the Institute of Wellbeing. The CIW is a new way of measuring wellbeing that goes beyond narrow economic measures like GDP. It will provide unique insights into the quality of life of Canadians – overall, and in specific areas that matter: our standard of [...]

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Ban bullfighting

Every year 250,000 bulls die slow and torturous deaths as a result of the bullfighting industry.
Spain’s annual bullfighting season got underway just this week. Help end the inhumane treatment of bulls by banning bullfighting today. »
While many of us imagine the matador piercing the heart of the bull with one quick movement, in reality, the [...]

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On psychotherapy and the potential and limits of personal power

I don’t wanna raise the spectre of NLP here, but there could definitely be some poignancy in this hilarious “MadTV Bob Newhart/Mo Collins STOP IT” skit in regards to the relationship between clients and therapists: both sides for their own reasons very often depend on prolonging the journey. The latter for [...]

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Be a man, be a white person, be an American – or be a human being

Valerie Patterson – Abortion Men
A great way of saying that we need a new project called ‘radical structural analysis’. In the process, argues Robert Jensen, we will find an unsustainable system profoundly characterised by domination and subordination, which are reflected in how we live our lives in areas like race, gender and sexuality, the capitalist economy, [...]

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Dog Massacre in China: 30,000 Dead and Counting

You can help us end bloodbaths like this and protect dogs in China from future culls

A death squad pursues a terrified dog.

Please help stop the slaughter.

Dear paul,
A massive cull in the Chinese city of Hanzhong has claimed the lives of more than 30,000 dogs – and now we need your help to make sure that [...]

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List of current articles on the global economic and social crisis

The list represents a collection of recent articles by the Global Research Institute:
Sid Shniad, Daniel Estulin, James Petras & Russ Baker on The Global Research News Hour- Host: Stephen Lendman. Program Details, June 1-5 – 2009-06-05
Biopiracy, GM Seeds & Rural India
- by Priya Kumar – 2009-06-02
.

The Economic Crisis in Australia
- by Peter Murray [...]

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Religion: how martyrdom makes people believe

If you wanna make people believe in your message, inflict some form of suffering or deprivation upon yourself – or at least make them think you do so. It’s a powerful strategy religions have applied for thousands of years.
An analysis of behavioural evolution, published recently by Joseph Henrich, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of [...]

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WorldNetDaily poll: only 22% condemn the murder of abortion supporter Dr. Tiller

From WorldNetDaily’s unscientific internet poll, headlined, “A VIEW TO A KILL: What’s your reaction to the murder of abortionist George Tiller?”

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Christian Terrorism

This post was written and published on the Atheist Revolution blog in March 2009, 2 1/2 months before the appaling murder of Dr. Tiller a couple of days ago. I’ve got noyhing to add – the article says it all.
I was motivated, at least in part, to start Atheist Revolution because I was becoming increasingly [...]

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Hate tweets support murder of pro-abortionist Dr. Tiller

While I am used to it, I’m nevertheless always surprised how Christians, whose fervour should lead them to offer their other cheek rather than seeking out another’s eye or tooth, leave alone a person’s life, can actually justify their hatred, spite and lust to murder. And since they’re not the only ones, the killing of [...]

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Cheney supports gay marriage

Not that it takes much to be politically more progressive than Obama, but Cheney has done it – seemingly out of nowhere. While the conservative centrist Obama tried to hedge his bets by declaring a commitment to civil union while making marriage the sacrosanct realm of man & woman, Cheney supports gay marriage.
It’s not that [...]

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Religious insanity – Christian video’s call to action to save Western civilisation from Muslim takeover

The West’s Racist attacks on Islam are part of the daily news feeds – from the Iraq war to backing Israel’s ethnic cleansing strategies against Palestinians, casting the wide net of labelling the innocent ‘terrorists’, refusing permission to build Islamic schools in Western cities, or providing a matrix for violent attacks [...]

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Presenting atheism: sexy, funny & a lot of convincing arguments

Refreshing! And she mentioned in the sidebar that she forgot to ask & answer 2 questions:
15. Is Abortion Evil?
I don’t like the term evil used in this context, but I would say that sometimes is a necessary evil. I think bringing an unwanted child into the world is worst. [...]

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Some people are gay …

A billboard by Gay rights campaigners Stonewall, placed in Maldon Essex. Pity we live in societies where we still need these reminders.
[Image: stuartwhite flickr photostream]

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Defending what: attention or distraction?

Sam Anderson goes on an exploratory journey in the New Yorker: from the much lamented poverty of attention to unleashing a war on it to embracing it.  Eloquently written by someone who seems to know the addiction to distraction all too well, he covers the territory from internet addiction to neuroscience and meditation, and from [...]

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Baked organic blue potatoes with Wasabi Mayonnaise

First time I’ve actually seen an All-Blue potato. I had some purple potato chips before  but so far had never come across a fresh, raw blue potato, leave alone an organic one. And working with it is quite an experience for the senses. It has a deep-blue smooth skin with shallow eyes and an almost [...]

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Sonoma’s artisan sourdough bread

My German origins make me love good bread, and Australia with its spongy, yeasted white flour fluff being marketed as  ‘bread’ must be one of the worst places on this planet for a baker goods (its cakes are atrocious too). But fortunately a growing boutique baker’s culture has sprung up over the last 10-15 years, [...]

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Teenager draws giant penis on parent’s rooftop to attract Google Earth attention

This is too hillarious to let go off, even for me who is not the biggest fan of seemingly mindless media drivel.
The house above stands in Hungerford, UK. The Guardian reported that a teenager called Rory McInnes painted a giant phallus on the roof of his parents’ £1million mansion in West Berkshire mansion, apparently after [...]

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