Old Blog Import
Iraqi Children Worse Off This Year
The number of children in Iraq suffering from diarrhoea and related diseases appears to have risen dramatically in the past year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Sunday.
The incidence of diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid was 2.5 times higher this May than for the same month last year, said Unicef […]
US Army patents WMDs
From SF Gate:
A new rifle-launched gas grenade, invented by the U.S. Army ostensibly for nonlethal crowd control, has created a stir because the patent filed on the technology claims that it can deliver chemical and biological agents, two payloads forbidden by international treaty and U.S. law.
Thanks to Cursor.org for the link!
More on Endangered Languages
Here are some letters to the NY Times that respond to many of the same issues I raised in my earlier post.
Dr. Leanne Hinton
The movement toward revitalization of endangered languages is a community-generated process, not a linguist-generated process. Furthermore, it is the younger generations who are in the leadership roles.
Dr. Alice Thor Pianfetti
The essay […]
13,000 Arab men deported!
This is just awful!
Remember the forced Arab male registration program Bush instituted this past year? Where all of the muslim males from several countries had to register with the Government as part of the plan to make us safer? 13,000 of those men who followed the directive, believing they would have a […]
Fox News - really more “balanced”?
It seems that there is some credence to Fox News’ claims to deliver balanced reporting. Even though they were more overtly pro-war than any other network news outlet, FAIR has a report which shows they also had more anti-war guests than either PBS or CBC!!!
Though Fox News Channel frequently engaged in overt cheerleading for the […]
Endangered Languages: The Metaphor
I recently came across an article in the NY Times that discusses the concept of “endangered languages.” It is an intelligent, well written article that is ultimately fundamentally flawed and highly conservative. The article, by David Berreby, is titled “Fading Species and Dying Tongues: When the Two Part Ways.” The article takes as its starting […]
Martha Stewart’s Case
Daily Kos has the goods on Martha Stewart:
Second, as a member of the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange, (also called the Board of Governors), her conduct has to be above reproach. Since the Board was founded, the name officially changed in 1972, only one officer of the exchange has been charged […]
SARS on the wane in Taiwan?
Taiwan’s number of SARS probable cases continued to fall yesterday for the second consecutive day as three cases were reclassified and two more probable cases were reported.
Taipei Times
Tax Rates On Millionaires Have Plummeted Since WWII
Effective tax rates on millionaires have plummeted over the last 50 years while tax rates on the middle class have quintupled.
And here is a chart that makes it all quite clear:
Thanks to Calpundit. Here is a related Washington Post story.
The Wall
This image says it all:
Here is the original map, which shows some important details (like towns that are all but completely walled off) not captured in this illustration. But if you want more, read this post, and this one, and part two of the last one.
Thanks to Cursor.org for reminding me of this Amptoons piece.
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
