Writing in one of Mussolini's prisons in the 1930s, the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci jotted down the fragments that would become his theory of intellectuals. New classes, like the European bourgeoisie after the Industrial Revolution, he proposed, brought with them their own set of thinkers, which he called "organic intellectuals"—theorists, technicians, and administrators, who became their "functionaries" in a new society. Unlike "traditional intellectuals" who held positions in the old class structure, organic intellectuals helped the bourgeoisie establish its ideas as the invisible, unquestioned conventional wisdom circulating in social institutions.

Today, Gramsci's theory has been largely overlooked in the ongoing debate over the supposed decline of the "public intellectual" in America. Great minds, we are told, no longer captivate the public as they once did, because the university is too insular and academic thinking is too narrow. Such laments frequently cite Russell Jacoby's The Last Intellectuals (1987), which complained about the post-1960s professionalization of academia and waxed nostalgic for the bohemian, "independent" intellectuals of the earlier twentieth century. Writers like the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof attribute this sorry state of affairs to the culture of Ph.D. programs, which, Kristof claims, have glorified "arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience." If academics cannot bring their ideas to a wider readership, these familiar critiques imply, it is because of the academic mindset itself.

In his book The Ideas Industry, the political scientist and foreign policy blogger Daniel W. Drezner broadens the focus to include the conditions in which ideas are formed, funded, and expressed. Describing the public sphere in the language of markets, he argues that three major factors have altered the fortunes of today's intellectuals: the evaporation of public trust in institutions, the polarization of American society, and growing economic inequality. He correctly identifies the last of these as the most important: the extraordinary rise of the American superrich, a class interested in supporting a particular genre of "ideas."

People hoping to visit Island Beach State Park this holiday weekend were not allowed in because of the state government shutdown Gov. Chris Christie ordered amid the state budget standoff in Trenton.

But there was one family there: Christie's. They are using the summer beach house provided by the state for a weekend down the Shore.
And here are exclusive aerial photos by NJ Advance Media showing Christie surrounded by wife, Mary Pat Christie, and others. It was taken early Sunday afternoon before the governor headed to Trenton to hold another news conference about the shutdown.

In-house investigators at Duke University believe a former lab tech falsified or fabricated data that went into 29 medical research reports, lawyers for the university say in their answer to a federal whistleblower lawsuit against it.

Duke's admissions concern the work of Erin Potts-Kant, and a probe it began in 2013 when she was implicated in an otherwise-unrelated embezzlement. The lawsuit, from former lab analyst Joseph Thomas, contends Duke and some of its professors used the phony data to fraudulently obtain federal research grants. He also alleges they ignored warning signs about Potts-Kants' work, and tried to cover up the fraud.

The university's lawyers have tried to get the case dismissed, but in April, a federal judge said it can go ahead. The latest filings thus represent Duke's first answer to the substance of Thomas' allegations.

Up front, it said Potts-Kant told a Duke investigating committee that she'd faked data that wound up being "included in various publications and grant applications."

The committee reviewed at least 36 research reports, and in many cases found that she'd tinkered with data before sending it along other investigators. In a few, she simply made things up, Duke said.

A Colorado man called 911 late Saturday evening to report that he had fatally shot an intruder in his home. It later emerged that the 'trespasser' was his own adult son.

Frank Leon Huner, 58, of Sedalia was arrested July 1 on suspicion of second-degree murder after deputies arrived on scene. He has since been released after posting $50,000 bond.

"RP [Reporting party] is saying he shot someone who came into his house. Now [he's] saying it's his son, and he's dead," the 911 dispatcher said during the call, which Huner placed at approximately 22:15 local time Saturday, according to WTOL.

Huner also told the dispatcher he had shot the intruder approximately six times.

At least one person has been killed and six others wounded in a shooting in the French city of Toulouse, local media report.

The shooting took place in the Abbal square in Toulouse around 9:00pm local time when several assailants riding a motorcycle opened fire on a crowd before fleeing the scene.

At least one person was killed and six others injured, police sources told France 3. Two people are reported to be in a critical condition.

Police have cordoned off the area and have launched an investigation. The investigation is now being led by the Regional Service of Judicial Police (SRPJ) of Toulouse.

Some of you may remember my last article, 'post-imperialism, a template for a new social order', where I described a utopian society. It discussed ideas of community, values, the quest for truth and objective reality. The present article does almost the opposite, it describes the current state of our society and where it is probably heading. More specifically, I will focus on the emergence and predominance of 'organized' minorities, be they homosexuals, atheists, migrants, pagans, modern art enthusiasts, vegetarians, LGBT advocates, you name it.

The list is long and keeps getting longer, as if we had entered an age of the race for victim-hood. Most of those minorities consider themselves as 'Social justice warriors' or SJWs. I'll try to explain how SJWs ended up imposing their vision of the world on the majority and where this raging proselytism displayed by SJWs comes from.

Many terms have been used to describe the dystopian world in which we find ourselves: materialist, scientist, atheist, individualistic, rationalist, consumerist. They all are valid descriptions, although they only address one of the facets of our global society.

Recently some thinkers attempted to give a more extensive assessment of our society and described it as nihilistic, relativist, post-modern. What those three terms have in common is that they make the claim that there can be no objective truth, no objective meaning and no objective moral values.

But when you observe the vehement proselytism displayed by 'acting' minorities, it seems that they strongly believe they hold truth and they are very willing to fight for it. How can this be in a nihilistic/relativist/postmodern society, where there is no truth, no future and no goal?

Along with tracking the fundamental causes and origins of the fervor and proselytism displayed by 'dominant' minorities, I'll try to describe the current dynamics and show that they go way beyond 'nihilism'. That's why I use the term 'post-nihilism' to account for the society that emerges after the transitory 'nihilistic' phase.

Users who complained about Facebook tracking them across third-party websites should have done more to keep their browsing histories private, a federal judge in California has ruled, dismissing a privacy complaint against the social media giant.

In a decision issued late on Friday, US District Judge Edward Davila rejected the plaintiffs' claims that Facebook violated federal and California privacy and wiretapping laws by tracking the sites they visited via cookies, saying they failed to show a reasonable expectation of privacy or any "realistic" economic harm.

"The fact that a user's web browser automatically sends the same information to both parties," he wrote, "does not establish that one party intercepted the user's communication with the other."

Police in Dallas, Texas, are responding to reports of an active shooter inside a Wyndham hotel. Rooms have been evacuated, and the hotel's parking lot has been secured.

Dallas police responded to a call of shots fired at the Dallas Wyndham Suites Park Central around 2:30pm local time. They proceeded to secure the location for the arrival of SWAT officers.

A taxicab struck a group of pedestrians at the Boston Logan International Airport taxi staging area, injuring at least nine people.

The incident took place at the outdoor cafe near the airport's taxi stand. Images from the scene shows a MetroCab that crashed into a building, at the corner of Porter Street and Tomahawk Drive.

Two hooded men opened fire at people leaving a mosque injuring eight in the southern city of Avignon late in Sunday, local media reports. Police have reportedly claimed the incident is not terrorism-related.

Two hooded men drove up on a Renault Clio to the Arrahma mosque in Avignon, Provence, at about 10:30pm on Sunday, La Provence newspaper reports.

One of them was armed with a handgun and another with a rifle, according to the paper, citing preliminary information.

The gunmen opened fire at the crowd leaving the mosque injuring four people, two of them slightly. A family of four, including a 7-year-old girl, who were in their apartment on the second floor of the building also received slight shrapnel injuries, the local paper says.

La Provence reports that police have dismissed any terrorism links. The gunmen are currently at large. Police are investigating the incident.