The Malkawi Aboriginal Painting Site on Napabunna land in South Australia. Photo by Fairfax Media/Getty Images

After Thousands of Years, Western Science Is Slowly Catching Up to Indigenous Knowledge

The Malkawi Aboriginal Painting Site on Napabunna land in South Australia. Photo by Fairfax Media/Getty Images
The Malkawi Aboriginal Painting Site on Napabunna land in South Australia. Photo by Fairfax Media/Getty Images

Source: Yes! Magazine

Our knowledge of what the denizens of the animal kingdom are up to, especially when humans aren’t around, has steadily increased over the last 50 years. For example, we know now that animals use tools in their daily lives. Chimps use twigs to fish for termites; sea otters break open shellfish on rocks they selected; octopi carry coconut shell halves to later use as shelters.

The latest discovery has taken this assessment to new heights, literally. A team of researchers led by Mark Bonta and Robert Gosford in northern Australia has documented kites and falcons, colloquially termed “firehawks,” intentionally carrying burning sticks to spread fire. While it has long been known that birds will take advantage of natural fires that cause insects, rodents and reptiles to flee and thus increase feeding opportunities, that they would intercede to spread fire to unburned locales is astounding. read more

Zapatista women taking notes at ConCiencias. Photo credit: David Meek

Cracks in the Wall of Capitalism: The Zapatistas and the Struggle to Decolonize Science

The Zapatistas demand that science be reimagined by both scientists and the grassroots together as a technique of resistance. Decolonizing science requires scientists to organize in their own communities, and to deconstruct how their own research methodologies and epistemologies have been employed as tools of colonialism and neocolonialism. Such a process of decolonization also demands scientists become engaged allies, co-conspirators, and accomplices who can share methodological and theoretical insights with grassroots movements about how to build a new vision of science within the cracks of capital’s wall.

Demonstrators gather at the site of a planned speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer in Gainesville, Florida. Source: Getty Images

Anti-Fascist Organizing Explodes on US College Campuses

Demonstrators gather at the site of a planned speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer in Gainesville, Florida. Source: Getty Images
Demonstrators gather at the site of a planned speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer in Gainesville, Florida. Source: Getty Images

Source: Waging Nonviolence

On December 13, six members of the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents shared a statement titled “United Against Hate,” showing their opposition to the current negotiations happening between the university and white nationalist Richard Spencer. After a disastrous appearance at the University of Florida at Gainesville, which saw mass actions by the No Nazis as UF coalition, Spencer had set his sites on the University of Michigan for his so-called “alt-right” recruitment. read more