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> Ice batteries help office towers, warehouses and stores shrink their power bills and carbon footprint. Soon, they’re coming to houses.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20250301142651/https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2025/03/01/ice-battery-thermal-energy-storage/

An article on the emergence of literature as a tool of Zionist propaganda.

https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/how-literature-inspired-then-justified-zionism-ghassan-kanafanis-on-zionist-literature/

> The economist Alice Amsden’s work unmasked the dirty secret underlying capitalist development: it relied on states breaking all the rules of the free market. But her work also showed that industrialization required corporate discipline, not welfare.

Reading time: 8 - 10 minutes. > From corporate scandals to celebrity missteps, public contrition has lost all meaning

Reading time: 8 - 10 minutes. > Why are so many young people struggling to finish education or find a job?

Reading time: 24 - 30 minutes. > New research into the role of psychedelics upends our understanding of spirituality — and with it, our vision of the cosmos.

Reading time: 37 - 46 minutes. > The Ḱamíłpa Band of the Yakama Nation has wanted an end to commercial picking of a critical cultural resource for years. Finally, the Forest Service is expected to make a decision.

Reading time: 8 - 11 minutes. > Africa’s gig economy is at a crossroads. It can either become a digital sweatshop—extracting labor and offering little in return—or a model for ethical, worker-driven innovation. But this requires urgent action: First, governments must step in—implementing enforceable minimum wages, health protections, and clear legal pathways for worker grievances. Second, platforms must be held accountable—big tech cannot continue profiting off African labor while offloading all risks onto workers. And third, gig workers must be recognized as workers—not “partners,” not “micro-entrepreneurs,” but employees with rights. Until these changes happen, the narrative of the gig economy as a tool of empowerment is nothing more than an illusion. > > Africa’s story of labor exploitation did not begin with the gig economy, and it won’t end with it either. We are witnessing a digital rearticulation of the same forces that have historically shaped the continent’s economic structures—where foreign investment is prioritized over fair wages, and technology serves as a cover for worker exploitation. > > But in this reconfiguration, there is also space for resistance. A driver in Lagos can rally colleagues on WhatsApp. A Kenyan freelancer can warn others about exploitative contracts. A South African delivery worker can push back against illegal deportations. These small acts of defiance are part of a larger fight—one that will determine whether Africa’s digital economy is built on empowerment or exploitation. > > The next time you order a ride, a meal, or a remote task from an African worker, ask yourself: Who really profits? Because if we continue down this road unchecked, the answer will be the same as it was centuries ago—not the workers.

> The basis of Musk’s corporate seizure of the public sector via DOGE is not to sweep up corruption or eliminate waste, nor is it to privatize specific industrial sectors historically in public commons (the contracted work and militarization of U.S. space exploration has thoroughly conquered this concept). Musk’s efforts to colonize space, to profit off of greenwashing reforms with EV development, and to commit a crusade in the pursuit of government efficiency, all masquerade the true goal. Musk, like Trump, is an avatar tasked by the billionaire class to undo decades of progress and benefits, such as social security benefits, public education, and the Labor Relations Board. > > These institutions were once demands by the working class, only given as a concession by the ruling class to quell levels of organization that put the established powers’ feet under the fire. Musk’s task as a servant of capital is to do what he does best: reroute the public wealth into the pockets of the billionaire class while further impoverishing the workers that make the superprofits possible day in and day out. While he is currently at the head, Trump’s administration is a coalition of which the Silicon Valley technocrats and futurists are simply one faction. Ultimately, it is the struggle of the working class that will dictate what the billionaires can get away with.

> Without treatment, those with the more severe form of illness may die before their second birthday