Portside

After extensive research in Virginia, scientists have shown that mercury alters the very thing that many birds are known for – their songs. Emitted by the burning of coal, mercury in the atmosphere has quadrupled since the days before industrialization. Understanding why mercury-contaminated songbirds can’t sing their songs could help scientists learn more about how human brains are damaged by mercury, too.

In a wide ranging acceptance speech for the 2013 Liberator's Prize for Critical Thought, sociologist and author Marta Harnecker discusses the essential role of genuine popular participation in the revolutionary transition to "21st Century Socialism" in Latin America, exercising power in the "inherited (capitalist) state" to build the foundations of a new political system, and the fundamental need for a new pluralist and tolerant culture on the left.

Two provocative articles on our upcoming Labor Day, by Bill Fletcher and Maynard Seider

A recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) report, kept secret for more than a year, raises serious questions about the ability of California's last remaining nuclear power plant to survive an earthquake on any of Diablo Canyon's several fault lines. The environmental group Friends of the Earth called for the immediate shut down of the plant, charging PG&E, the plant owner, and the NRC with putting profits before the "safety of millions of Californians."

As the World Health Organization warns the Ebola outbreak could infect up to 20,000 people, experts urge the international community to take more aggressive action to address crisis. Medical professionals fighting the Ebola epidemic on the ground in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria say it is "unacceptable" that "serious discussions are only starting now about international leadership and coordination" to fight the virus.

Bradley Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade; Ohio air show pushed to drop Hiroshima raid reenactment; Raul Castro’s daughter denied visa to attend gay rights conference; Rape Case Solved By Anonymous in Less Than 2 Hours Despite "No Evidence"; Teamsters foil Westboro Baptist Church; Palestinian marathon tribute to Boston victims; Oscar Romero beatification; Amherst and the economists’ fuzzy math; Zuckerburg dishes out the dough for Keystone XL

The list of “accidents” in Bangladesh factories is long and painful. These factories are a part of the landscape of globalization that is mimicked in the factories around the world in other places that opened their doors to the garment industry’s savvy use of the new manufacturing and trade order of the 1990s. Those who died in Bangladesh are victims not only of the malfeasance of the sub-contractors, but also of 21st century globalisation.

In most descriptions of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he’s described as a “one-time boxer.” That doesn’t quite tell the story. Tsarnaev was a two-time New England Golden Gloves Heavyweight Champion. Understanding Tsarnaev’s motivations is critical. Just as we shouldn’t accept the racist argument that “culture” is the root cause of gun deaths in Chicago, we should reject the idea that Islam bears any sort of collective responsibility for Tsarnaev’s crimes.