Portside

Your data is their data, and your communications are in their hands, and they seem to be rising to become an arm of or a part-owner of the government or a law unto themselves, and no one has yet figured out what we can do about it.

Palestinian visual artist Aissa Deebi, one of the artists exhibiting at a parallel event at the Venice Biennale, tells Ahram Online about his project

Wal-Mart, Snowden.Inequality website, job flexibility, journalism and Egypt

Baseball players reveal how humans evolved to throw so well. A catapult-like mechanism allows energy to be stored in shoulder and torso, a video study of pitchers reveals.

Fans of Wendy Davis, the Texas state senator whose marathon filibuster stopped an anti-abortion bill in its tracks, are expressing their sentiments in Amazon reviews of the shoes that Wendy wore.

On the website launched by the Economic Policy Institute, you can learn how income is actually distributed in the U.S. among the top 10 percent and the bottom 90 percent, see how your specific characteristics determine your wage, and see how it can be that regular workers are working more today but not reaping the rewards.

According to reports from a new Bank of America whistle-blower, BoA is seeking to avoid providing required payments to homeowners to compensate for an initial round of illegal practices by selling off the servicing rights to fly-by-night organizations that specialize in abusing customers.

Texas lawmaker Wendy Davis filibusters an abortion bill. What happens when a single mother runs out of food stamps at the check-out line? The first same-sex couple in California to legally marry. An entire stadium full of people participate in performing the final movement of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. 'Heterosexuality as we know it will come to an end in 90 days.' Two young men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, discover they were switched at birth.

President Obama's Climate Action Plan aims to reduce carbon emissions; prepare the U.S. for the impacts of climate change; and lead international efforts to fight climate change and prepare for its impacts. Bill McKibben, 350.og co-founder, responded to the talk positively, stating: "It's awfully good to see the president starting to move forward on climate action--after the hottest year in American history."

A broad coalition of South African organizations, including COSATU, has called for mass demonstrations against President Obama's visit to Johannesburg. Coalition is in opposition to the University of Johannesburg plan to award Obama with an honorary doctorate for his contributions to the international community. Among the coalition demands are freedom for Bradley Manning, support for the Cuban Five, and the closing of Guantanamo.