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Bison is all the rage. From new meat alternative to now, fashion, Jason Jones and Mike Feldman, the duo behind the Los Angeles label Parabellum are pushing the fashion boundaries with their use of bison skin.
Parabellum, a premiere collection of men’s and women’s accessories crafted from 15-year-old Bison skin are combined with military-grade ceramics, DuPont Kevlar, soft lambskin, and salvaged vintage cashmere for the “the perfect union between luxury and utilitarianism.”
Bison skin, similar in texture to elephant, is tough. But through a time consuming process of treatment, tanning, and assemblage by a group of skilled craftsmen, Parabellum creates sumptuous, richly textured (only achievable by allowing bison to mature fully), and sophisticated bison crafted

The Food Network, Travel Channel, blogs and insider tell-alls are milking the culinary genre for all it is worth. However, you won’t find much ill will on my end. Yes, I’ve seen Andrew Zimmern treat poached ostrich testicle as delicacies. I’ve even watched Bobby Flay oust a sweet Italian grandmother as “Meatloaf Champ.” But throughout this insanity, my addiction to foodie content has stayed

Album sales may be slower than ever, but there’s more great music out there than ever before — and you can check it out more easily than ever. So every week, I’ll share a favorite new album. Usually, it will be a new release or maybe it’s just been out for a few weeks or months and just caught my ear. By the end of the year, you’ll have sampled some of the best albums of the

by Raquel Brown, Media Consortium blogger
It’s been a tumultuous week in Madison, Wisconsin. Tens of thousands of state workers, teachers, and students have packed the state Capitol building to protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to weaken public unions.
In a move ostensibly aimed to balance the state budget, Walker proposed a bill on Friday, February 11 that would dislodge collective bargaining rights for all public workers except for police, firefighters and the state patrol–some of the few public employee unions that supported Walker’s gubernatorial campaign. In addition, the bill will require most state workers to pay significantly more for pensions and health premiums.
Armed with scores of clever signs, demonstrators are rumbling through Madison, chanting “Kill the bill” and “This is what democracy looks like!” To delay the passage of Walker’s controversial bill and forge negotiations, 14 state Senate Democrats fled the state on Thursday, leaving the chamber with too few lawmakers to take a vote.
The Uptake is also LiveStreaming from Madison:
Roger Bybee of Working In These Times explains why the protests in Wisconsin are vital to America’s labor

Each month Rock the Vote introduces our community to socially-conscious artists who are making music that inspire others and using their microphones to promote civic engagement.
Meet The Belle Brigade, who talk to us about what the right to vote means to them and the change they’d like to see in the world. Check out The Belle Brigade’s music for free here at RocktheVote.com.
If you couldn’t be a musician what would you be doing instead?
Barbara: I’d probably be an out of work architect.
Ethan: Even though I don’t have many other skills, maybe something in the line of medicine.
If you could collaborate with one artist who would it be and why?
Beethoven.

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium blogger
A Bolivian judge ordered Chevron this week to pay $8.6 billion in damages for polluting the Amazon rainforest from 1964 until 1990. The payout is the second largest ever in an environmental case, with only the damages BP agreed to pay in the wake of last summer’s Deepwater Horizon spill being higher. Environmental lawyers and advocates hailed the case as a landmark victory, but as Rebecca Tarbotton reports at AlterNet, Chevron is still planning to fight the case. “In fact, the oil giant has repeatedly refused to pay for a clean up even if ordered to by the court,” she

National politicians are engaged in a contentious debate on the future of America. The national debt is mushrooming, unemployment persists, and inflation looms. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and his majority party propose to slash federal spending “for the sake” of our children and future

WASHINGTON, DC (February 18, 2011) – Despite this being a Friday, the diligent staff in the office of Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) — aided by the Congresswoman herself — examined the gist of hundreds of amendments being offered by Republicans to their bill, H.R. 1, the Continuing Resolution to fund the government for the next seven months.
After much debate,

By Raha Wala
Georgetown Fellow, Law and Security
“I have never been a member of al Qaeda or the Taliban.” These are the words of Noor Uthman Muhammed, read to a panel of military commission members who are deliberating to help decide his fate as he continues to be detained in Guantanamo. Referred to simply as “Noor” in the military commission proceedings, the frail, 40-something year-old, Sudanese man pled guilty earlier this week to providing material support for terrorism and conspiring with al Qaeda affiliates. The military commission panel has convened to recommend a sentence of between ten and fourteen years, but Noor will likely serve a substantially lighter sentence pursuant to the terms of his pre-trial agreement with the government.
As I’ve watched this trial unfold in Guantanamo, I’ve listened to prosecution and defense counsel advance their competing narratives about Noor. The prosecution claims that Noor was a high-level operative at the Khalden camp, where he trained countless terrorists, many of whom went on to plan or commit horrific acts of

Philosopher-psychoanalyst Carlo Stenger has written a brilliant and timely interdisciplinary book, The Fear of Insignificance: Searching for Meaning in the Twenty-first Century, by Carlo Strenger. Drawing on existential philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, and other disciplines, he diagnoses, interprets, and points the way toward therapeutic transformation of the existential unease that haunts our current age, illustrating his theses with evocative case studies of individual lives.
What ails us, Strenger claims, is the increasing “commoditization” of human beings in a thoughtless and unfettered global free-market system. In such a system, the value of the individual is determined by quantitative rankings of “global celebrity,” measures of fame or fortune within our rapidly expanding “global infotainment”

Folks, don’t try this at home. Justin Bieber, and his army of handlers, actually had the clout to get Rolling Stone to put out a clarification about its recent interview with Bieber. Here are details from Perezhilton.com:
Two things jump out at me here. One is Perez Hilton’s description of this as a

A Facebook update from the Egyptian Society of Mercy to Animals (ESMA) reads, “To ALL Maadi residents: Poison is being thrown in the street, don’t know by who, a friend of mine’s dog got poisoned yesterday and died, watch out for your dogs.” Some commenters on the page are horrified, while one sadly notes, “this is unfortunately a regular occurrence all over Egypt.”
The political upheaval in Egypt has greatly affected Egypt’s people, but their animal population has truly been decimated. Street cats and dogs were being gassed alongside rioters, fleeing expatriates left their animals behind in panic. Horse owners abandoned their horses that typically serviced busy tour destinations. Pet shops were closed for days with their pets inside.
Looking into Egypt’s past, they have always been an animal-loving

Last week, the Egyptian people set themselves free from 30 years of repressive, dictatorial rule.
I have to say, I can’t relate.
Growing up in a free country, my experience with any kind of oppression has been — well, I was going to say, minimal, but compared to what many people around the world, including the Egyptian people have gone through, I’m not even on the chart.
Heck, my first grand adventure into freedom was going to college. My Midwestern upbringing was worlds away from the multi-cultural Bay area of San

A mother, father and three-year-old daughter sit at their dinner table in Odessa, Ukraine. The daughter is named Dasha. She is a miracle, as her mother, Irina, had a very difficult pregnancy that caused her to be bedridden for most of the nine months.
Misha, the father, is

LA based artist Wayne White has been entertaining the world with his wry wit for decades. With extensive work in a variety of visual mediums, the creator adds another. He has hit the boards of the Coronet Theater with his one man show “Wayne White: You’re Supposed to Act All Impressed.” The mixed media extravaganza is aptly titled. The show provides a introduction to the mind and manners of this easily likable artist.
Wayne White is best known for his text

Microfinance has taken a beating lately for shifting far afield from its humanitarian origins, originally funding tiny businesses run by poor women in developing countries to feed their families. It’s become a good idea gone bad, a charitable enterprise spoiled as profit surpassed people as the rationale for investment. It sickens the soul.
Zafn supports business expansion for an agricultural supply store and veterinarian clinic. Photo courtesy of Zafn.
But all is not

Seventeen-year-old Egyptian high school student Sanaa El Seif is helping to publish a newspaper in defiance of rules requiring government permission. So far, the publication has focused on the voices of Tahrir Square.
“It’s time to push the borders of freedom,” El Seif told Democracy Now! producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous during an interview in Cairo.

read full news from www.huffingtonpost.com

Even before an ex-aide to former Gov. Sarah Palin had sold his memoir, the book — “Blind Allegiance to Sarah Palin: A Memoir of Our Tumultuous Years” — has now been leaked to the media, including a reporter at Alaska Dispatch on Thursday night.
“Blind Allegiance” is the story of Palin aide and confidant Frank Bailey’s time spent working for the governor, from when she announced she was running for governor until her abrupt resignation in 2009. Heavily relying on e-mails between Bailey, Sarah and ex-First Dude Todd Palin, his memoir begins near the end of Palin’s governorship with the following line:
And the book ends with an epiphany. Bailey writes:
Bailey, a former Alaska Airlines employee, was plucked from obscurity when he volunteered for Palin’s campaign for

When ideas go extinct, we all grow poorer. Half the world’s 7,000 languages now face extinction; a dramatic shift in human intellectual history. Our 21st century world — replete with wondrous technologies — rests upon the foundation of all humankind’s prior wisdom and creativity.
This human knowledge base is durable, and during 99% of human history has been passed solely mouth to ear. Yet it is fragile, mostly unwritten, and vulnerable to forgetting.
Human survival required not just genetic diversity for physical vigor, but diversity of ideas for

The scenes from Cairo’s Tahrir Square have served to inspire observers from around the world, as a people-powered revolution used nonviolent protest as a means to end the 30 year rule of Hosni Mubarak. With their newfound freedoms, come new responsibilities. In the coming weeks, the U.S. must closely monitor Egyptian commitments to Israel through the Camp David Peace Accord, the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, and national security concerns related to counter terrorism in the

“Can you help us quickly find new opportunities and open new markets to deliver short term revenue growth?”
It’s the most common question I hear through my consulting practice, when corporate executives from blue chips discuss their challenges with me. In many cases, the answer might be hiding in plain sight. Not to chase after the shiny new thing but look for innovation and new profits in existing systems and businesses. It might not be as sexy as the hot new startup, but those potential revenue streams have the chance to return new profits with less upfront

I’m always amazed to come across opinion pieces that claim sweatshops are good for workers. The argument goes: people in poor countries need jobs, and sweatshops provide jobs, and if anything, it’s culturally incompetent of Westerners to insist on the sort of working conditions we demand in the developed world. Any job is a good one in the developing world… but they don’t mention whether or not there are minimum standards that a job should

I love love love the “barbecued” pork and ribs in Chinatown. They have a distinct pork flavor, a glossy sheen that implies the sweet glaze beneath, and a glowing red-pink color that penetrates the surface.
Unlike traditional Southern American low and slow smoke roasted barbecue, there is no smoke flavor, even though there is a pink ring beneath the surface of the meat. How do they do it?
Well, it turns out that Char Siu, even though it sounds like charcoal, is not barbecued, grilled, or smoked. It is roasted in a special oven, usually gas