Iran Has Bigger Problems on Its Hands Than Economic Sanctions

While news of the nuclear deal has been welcome in Iran, the country is facing an impending domestic crisis that hasn’t made Western headlines; there are lessons the American left can and should learn from Britain’s Jeremy Corbyn; meanwhile, the U.S. obsession with bottled water must come to an end. These discoveries and more below.

The Greatest Threat Facing Iran: Running Out of Water Israel came to Iran’s rescue decades ago—and might again be the Islamic republic’s best hope for avoiding catastrophe.

Corbyn’s Dilemma I’m really torn writing this, for on the one hand, Jeremy Corbyn’s (JC) sudden materialization in the midst of a rampant, Victorian-style imperialist England, like Doctor Who in the Tardis, it’s difficult not to join in the euphoria currently sweeping through what’s left of the left in England (the current Media Lens has an excellent description) and bow down before JC, an almost Christ-like apparition in the midst of the gangster capitalists in Armani suits who rule us.

The Workplace Panopticon, or Beware of Companies Whose Names End in Yze This brave new world of workplace biosurveillance is reminiscent of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, whose major effect, as Michel Foucault explained, is to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.

Nancy Fraser and the Theory of Participatory Parity According to Nancy Fraser, the renewal of socialism requires a conflation of activism and political theory; indeed, emancipation can only exist on the basis of equal participation in all spheres of life, and can only be understood in terms of social struggles, which today appear in multiple forms.

Big Data: The Far West of Information? An interview with Pierre-Michel Menger and Simon Paye.

Right-Wing Cyber ‘Soldiers’ Take on Israeli Human Rights Organization It is doubtful that the Israeli public would have even been aware of the competition held by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its Human Rights Tulip award, if not for the right-wing Israeli activists who organized to keep the B’Tselem organization from winning the prize and 100,000 euros ($113,000).

IS Has Big Plans for Gold Currency Islamic State is declaring financial war on the United States.

How Pantone Became The Definitive Language Of Color Pantone is more than a color language for designers—it’s grown into a global design force. But is that good?

Why America’s Deadly Love Affair with Bottled Water Has to Stop This spring, as California withered in its fourth year of drought and mandatory water restrictions were enacted for the first time in the state’s history, a news story broke revealing that Nestlé Waters North America was tapping springs in the San Bernardino National Forest in southern California using a permit that expired 27 years ago.

More Evidence for Coming Black Hole Collision The apocalypse is still on, apparently — at least in a galaxy about 3.5 billion light-years from here.

Shepard Fairey on the Campaign Finance System’s Role in Climate Change With the 2016 American presidential campaign already heating up, one might expect Shepard Fairey—forever recalled as the author behind Barack Obama’s iconic 2008 campaign poster—to mount another political offensive.

Crucifixion of Teenager in Saudi Arabia Highlights Britain’s Business Deals With Despots Whenever we think the barbarism in the world cannot get any worse, someone proves us wrong.

What the U.S. Left—and Bernie Sanders’ Supporters—Can Learn From Jeremy Corbyn Could Americans be primed for a rejection of austerity politics?

Should Universities Be More Like Businesses? Some Businesses Are Learning to Be More Like Universities We hear a lot about how universities need to behave more like businesses.