All tagged news

Healthcare Conspiracy

There’s something very sick at the heart of America. Something that in 2016 cost us $10,345 per person, and got us next to nothing in return. It’s a healthcare system three times as expensive as most, and achieves a life expectancy no higher than many third world countries. It is a conspiracy of profit and predatory Capitalism, driven by Adam Smith’s invisible hand.

Outcompeting Capitalism

So, let me pose you a hypothetical question: if we instituted a federal investment scheme for employee-owned startups to make them a major part of the economy, would the resulting reduction in the supply of skilled labor available to private firms cause all salaries to rise accordingly? Maybe it’s time to introduce a new gold standard, but for salaries, in which productivity and compensation are inherently linked.

Are hops mak­ing a come­back in Ver­mont?

The rise of craft brew­ing in the 1980s, and its sub­se­quent ex­plo­sion, have caused re­cent short­ages of hops. Pro­fes­sor Heather Darby of the Uni­ver­sity of Ver­mont has been work­ing on bring­ing hops back to the state with co­op­er­a­tion from lo­cal brew­ers like Brian Cook of King­dom Brew­ing in New­port Cen­ter and the Ver­mont Brew­ers As­so­ci­a­tion.

News: Post Office Post-Mortem

But the Union Square property continues to incite debate, speculation and federal review – partially focused on the Ross Moffett mural located in the lobby, whether the USPS was lax in following Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, the lack of outcry from public officials around the sale and claims that closure of the office has affected postal service in the city.

Graffiti artist fights addiction to street art

Graffiti gained popularity as art on New York City subway trains in the 1970s. Andree says he’s been told that it was artists named Gene, short for Genius, and Sen2 who brought it to Boston around 1980. He says his history of the Boston graffiti scene comes from an artist named Click, one of the originators of Boston’s graffiti scene.

By 1983, Boston had a full-blown graffiti culture. The elevated Orange Line route that ran through Roxbury was a particular hot spot, with graffiti works lining roofs and high walls within view of passing trains.

More than two decades later, balanced on a girder over the iron-gray water of the Charles River, Andree, now 33, is going by the name Caype, and he must be one of the most prolific and longest active graffiti writers in Boston’s history. It’s also a chapter in his life he’s trying to move past.