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December 27, 2010

An Open Letter To All Scam Victims

This is the best Nigeria scam e-mail I’ve seen so far. ———- Forwarded message ———-From: Ministry of Foreign Affairs <[email protected]> Date:

December 24, 2010

Bursting the Security Clearance Bubble

A lot has been written about WikiLeaks. Too much perhaps, which is why I’m a little reluctant to add what might seem like an obvious point. But it

December 18, 2010

Three Tips On Using Google #ngrams

Three tips on using Google’s new ngrams word search. <It is case sensitive. “beatles” is not the same as “Beatles”. There are multiple data sets.

November 30, 2010

台大人類學系演講 — 12月10日(五)下午 2:30 — 4:30

台大人類學系演講 講者:Dr. P. Kerim Friedman(傅可恩)(國立東華大學民族文化學系助理教授) 講題:”Tomorrow the Community Shouldn’t Blame Us for Revealing Their Secrets”: Collaborative

November 14, 2010

Travel, Time Zones, Google Cal, & iOS

I finally figured it out. The last time I traveled abroad for a conference I tried setting up a Google Calendar to schedule my conference events and

November 6, 2010

Americans Against Themselves by Ronald Dworkin

Eight out of ten voters told exit pollsters that they are frightened by the economy; four out of ten report that their own families are still worse

October 18, 2010

Online Privacy Is a Myth

Over and over again there are stories about people whose supposedly anonymous online identity is made public, or (as with this recent story about

September 27, 2010

Comparing free blogging platforms for teaching

Here is a brief rundown of the advantages and disadvantages of posterous, tumblr, and wordpress for teaching. Posterous is the easiest for having

September 23, 2010

Using Posterous For Teaching — Initial Thoughts

I’m trying Posterous for teaching this semester, as an alternative to WordPress or GoogleGroups. The main advantage is that setup is much easier

September 23, 2010

More Problems with Posterous for Teaching

Another problem with Posterous vs. WordPress is that WordPress automatically shows the name of each person when they post. Posterous does not seem

September 22, 2010

Collaboration and Original Sin

In my paper I want to: move us away from an ‘original sin’ narrative in which anthropologists discover the importance of collaboration only after

August 10, 2010

Chris Hedges — The Tears of Gaza Must Be Our Tears

“Let me cut through the jargon, the euphemisms we use to mask human suffering and war crimes. “Closures” mean heavily armed soldiers who ring

July 28, 2010

Media Management and Backup

I vividly remember throwing the 40MB hard drive for my Mac Plus out the window of my college dorm room when it died. Although I checked that the

July 26, 2010

Write a Maze

Early on in the summer blockbuster Inception the main character, Dom Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is looking to hire a dream “architect” and

June 29, 2010

Eyeless in Gaza

| The New York Review of Books http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jul/15/eyeless-gaza/ There is another critical facet

June 28, 2010

BP-Escher New Yorker Cover

June 23, 2010

Memories of Murder 살인의 추억 (★★★★)

June 22, 2010

“Because he was weak.”

A young Obama asks his Indonesian step-father, Lolo, about war: “What are those?” “Leech marks,” he said. “From when I was in New Guinea. They

June 20, 2010

Chrome vs. Safari

It wasn’t too long ago that I was writing posts comparing Firefox vs. Safari. When Chrome came along I thought it would solve the problem, combining

June 19, 2010

Ip Man 葉問 (★★)

June 17, 2010

Kick-Ass (★★)

June 17, 2010

Unthinkable (★★★)

June 17, 2010

Red Riding (★★★)

May 7, 2010

America’s Secret is Mobility?

Trying to make sense of the economic crisis in Europe and I wanted to put a few things together: First, Paul Krugman has been harping about how the

April 11, 2010

The horrible prospect of Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan

Obama’s Solicitor General Elena Kagan — has a record that is almost as bad as Sunstein’s when it comes to executive power abuses, civil liberties,

April 1, 2010

Address Books and Chinese Names

For over a decade I’ve had to figure out some way to manage Chinese names in my address book. Switching between the Newton, a Treo, and now an

March 28, 2010

Lost City: A View From 1978

February 28, 2010

List of Chrome Extensions

Since there isn’t (yet) any easy way to sync Google Chrome extensions across computers, I’m using this post to keep a list of my currently installed

February 3, 2010

Delhi Belly

I don’t want to jinx myself, but my stomach has done pretty well so far on this trip to India and I thought I’d write a bit about why. Travel in

January 20, 2010

Ottoman cruelties

A passage from The Historian

January 12, 2010

“They have more money but I speak better English!”

Compared with the pairing of First World employers and Third World workers, the hiring of migrant domestic workers in the global South involves more

January 10, 2010

Why People Don’t Like Video Chatting — TIME

But Skype requires me to look at you while you’re talking, which is totally ridiculous. The only sci-fi show that understood this was Star Trek.

January 10, 2010

Twitter to Plurk

For some strange reason, Taiwanese love Plurk. So even though I don’t use it myself, I’d like to have my status updates posted there. The problem is

January 10, 2010

Did Neanderthals wear make-up?

January 10, 2010

The battle over civil society in Chhattisgarh

THE BATTLE between the State and Maoists is well known. But in Chhattisgarh, another battle has been fast gathering steam — between the State and

December 10, 2009

Why supporting unions ain’t like supporting the ACLU

Look, I support the ACLU. But, seriously; give those people everything they want, the whole Bill of Rights, and it would not cost the country a

November 25, 2009

Traveling with microphones

No matter how small film and video equipment gets, it is still like packing for a third person. Microphones are the worst, because they need to be

November 13, 2009

Amazing “Sixth Sense Technology” Will Be Open Source

November 12, 2009

Ezra Pound’s annotations on the Wasteland

November 11, 2009

Language and Class in Google Suggest?

November 11, 2009

Large Bills Take Care of Themselves

Like the Mexican folk saying that opens their paper: You should take care of small, loose bills, because large bills take care of themselves.

November 11, 2009

Applications that Should Merge

A lot of times, when looking for the ideal software for a particular task, I find that I end up having to choose between two applications: there

August 14, 2009

Finance Software for OS X

Despite not making much money, we have inordinately complex finances — largely because we run a film company. It hasn’t made money yet, but we need

August 11, 2009

How to learn Go

I’ve always enjoyed playing games, but since graduate school I haven’t had much time for them. I discovered recently, however, that taking a break

August 1, 2009

Word Processors Suck

Word processors suck. Anyone who has prepared a manuscript for publication will tell you that. I’m also fairly certain that Microsoft is the reason

June 6, 2009

Chinese Dictionaries and other goodies for the iPhone

The market for Chinese dictionaries on the iPhone is heating up. Links below are to the iTunes App store. These dictionaries all use the 80,000

April 7, 2009

Software Developers, Meet the Capitalists

There has been a lot of discussion in the mac community about a certain promotional deal by which nearly a thousand dollars worth of software can be

March 19, 2009

The Tyranny of Bad Metaphors

When I was about eight years old I used to play with the mainframe computer at my dad’s engineering school. I still remember playing Star Trek.

March 14, 2009

Save Newspapers by Printing Them on Lottery Tickets

Mother Jones reports that the average American household spends about $500 per year on lottery tickets — more than on movies, books, and music

March 6, 2009

Dictionaries suck. Its time to kill them.

When I look up a word I need for a lecture on political-economy or colonial theory, I know I will not find the word I need in my dictionary. And I

March 1, 2009

Firefox Extensions

I want to use Zotero 1.5b, but it seems that Firefox 3.0 has problems with large databases, and I have over 4000 references. So I’m going to try

February 19, 2009

General Principles for Good Web Design

I’m working as a consultant for an institutional website here in Taiwan. I wrote up a list of general principles for good website design to let them

February 14, 2009

Fix for Apple Time Capsule printing woes with Samsung printer

This post is for people using Samsung laser printers with Apple Time Capsule (although its possible that other people are having similar issues). I

February 6, 2009

My Gmail Setup

I have e-mail going back to the 90s, but I started using IMAP in 2002 and I’m pretty sure I have saved almost every e-mail I sent or received since

January 25, 2009

GTD in the Cloud

Cloud computing is nothing new. Email has always been “in the cloud,” especially IMAP which allows you to have your desktop email mirror that of

January 21, 2009

Internationalization vs. Localization

The vast majority of the world is multilingual. Not only are they multilingual, but many people use multiple scripts as well, including character

January 12, 2009

Goobuntu

I’ve been using Apple computers since 1986. I used to think I would never use anything but… The recent development of both open source and cloud

January 11, 2009

How to read PDFs on your iPhone

The iPhone happens to be a great eBook reader. Despite (or because of) its small size, it is actually a very pleasant reading interface. This is

January 11, 2009

Twitter for Facebook users

There is no doubt about it, Facebook is a more popular site than Twitter. And not just by a little bit either. Comparing the two is like comparing a

November 30, 2008

End of Year Campaign

(Reposted from the Vimukta blog.) Each year we raise $1000 to help fund the Chharanagar library. This library is much more than a library, its a

July 3, 2008

Easiest way to start a blog

As an advocate for getting more anthropologists to take up blogging, I constantly keep an eye out for new technologies which will make this easier.

June 29, 2003

Preview

I’ve completed the design of the new site. I even have a couple of items ready to post. However, I am not going to start using the site until I can

June 29, 2003

Site Moving!

This site is officially closed. Please change all your bookmarks, links, etc. to the new site: http://keywords.oxus.net/ See you over there

June 29, 2003

Site moving!

This site is officially closed. Please change all your bookmarks, links, etc. to the new site: http://keywords.oxus.net/ See you over there

June 29, 2003

Official Site Move

I think I solved the Bloglet Problems. We’ll find out tonight. But I lack the patience to wait. I’m going to start posting today. This site is

June 29, 2003

Site Moving

This site is officially closed. Please change all your bookmarks, links, etc. to the new site: http://keywords.oxus.net/ See you over there

June 27, 2003

Change of Policy — Less is more!

I’m thinking about a major overhaul in how I do my blogging. First of all, I need to cut down a bit to focus on finishing my dissertation this year.

June 20, 2003

In-depth coverage of Jessica Lynch

I’m tired of blogging the Jessica Lynch story, but since I’ve been doing so, I feel it is important to point out this excellent in-depth story in

June 20, 2003

Why aren’t Unions able to Organize?

The simple answer is being fired. Which happens pervasively in union drives. Two very good posts about the state of Unionization in America over

June 20, 2003

SARS art in Taiwan

This is an English language letter by the author of a powerful on-line comic strip about SARS in Taiwan. In the letter he explains all of the

June 16, 2003

“Ideas Need Legs” — Bill Moyers on Progressivism

Here is an excerpt from the acceptance speech given by Bill Moyers when he was presented with the “America’s Future Lifetime Leadership Award” award

June 11, 2003

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

June 11, 2003

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

June 11, 2003

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

June 7, 2003

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

June 7, 2003

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

June 6, 2003

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

June 6, 2003

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

June 5, 2003

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

June 5, 2003

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

June 5, 2003

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

June 4, 2003

Aboriginal autonomous region bill passed

From what I can tell, this doesn’t really mean very much, but at least they are talking about it. I personally wonder how the details would work if

June 4, 2003

Poverty Theme Park

I know their intentions are good, but this is just a bad idea: Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit group that builds low-cost housing, is opening

June 3, 2003

Death Penalty Racist

This, of course, is nothing new. In the 1980s I helped run an Amnesty International campaign in my high school to block the death penalty because it

June 3, 2003

Don’t Leave

Fareed Zakaria has some advice for the administration: Stick around and make sure those countries are rebuilt! I was against both wars, but I agree

June 3, 2003

Republican’s vs. States Rights

Big surprise: Turns out Republicans are not the champions of “states rights” they claim to be. Daily Kos quotes a Nathan Newman post about how

June 3, 2003

Why I worry about genetically modified (GM) crops

Worldwide, GM crops are grown by at least six million farmers in 16 countries…Monsanto produces more than 90% of crops worldwide. One company

June 2, 2003

dictating sentences to federal judges

Under the new law, Congress has “taken the unprecedented step” of dictating to federal judges what sentences must be imposed. Since 1986, when the

June 2, 2003

Bush claims to have found WMDs

Bush claims we did find WMDs — those two trailers: President Bush, citing two trailers that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were probably used

June 2, 2003

Military offered the key — but chose to smash windows instead!

Yes, the Jessica Lynch story again — but this is just too funny: There’s more, including the rather funny detail that “U.S. commandos refused a key

June 2, 2003

Monopolies undermine the benefits of free markets

Guess what — media monopolies are not good for democracy, or capitalism. Free markets, taken to extremes, sometimes lead to monopolies. Monopolies,

June 2, 2003

Salam Pax is real!

Not only is he writing for the Guardian, but he worked as an interpreter during the war. This article is a fun read for Salam Pax fans: “Salam Pax”

June 2, 2003

US has the largest prison population in the world

From Atrios we learn that we’ve won–we’ve finally overtaken Russia. The U.S. now has the largest prison population in the world. From Talk Left

June 2, 2003

Bush’s tax bill cuts low-income families out of tax credit

Most taxpayers will receive a $400-a-child check in the mail this summer as a result of the law, which raises the child tax credit, to $1,000 from

May 30, 2003

Supreme Court further erodes rights

“I am dying!” Martinez cried. And, according to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, there is nothing wrong with that! Why? Because the

May 30, 2003

Nader in 2004! (OK, maybe not.)

No, I’m not a big Nader fan, and I hope someone else runs in his stead, but I did vote for him in the last election. Why? Because I couldn’t find

May 30, 2003

Our friends in Central Asia.

Independent human rights groups estimate that there are more than 600 politically motivated arrests a year in Uzbekistan, and 6,500 political

May 27, 2003

Rumsfeld’s reality distortion field still going strong

“Jay Garner is doing a truly outstanding job for the nation. Any suggestion to the contrary is flat untrue and mischievous.” –Secretary of

May 27, 2003

No more Elmo … please!

An anti-Iraq war blogger, who also happens to be a writer for Sesame Street, responds to a BBC article which announces that “American interrogators

May 27, 2003

More than they asked for…

It took a House Armed Services subcommittee a shade under 11 minutes on May 7 to approve $1.7 billion more than the Pentagon had requested in its

May 27, 2003

SARS door gods

BoingBoing.net has been hosting a SARS Digital folk art gallery. This one is the funniest

May 25, 2003

Microsoft vs. Open Source Part II

Microsoft executives no longer call open source a “cancer” and a “destroyer of intellectual property”, at least in public. But, if anything, the

May 25, 2003

Experiences from restoring OS X on a repaired Hard Drive

I just had to reinstall my computer from a backup I had made on a Firewire drive. In the process I discovered that I should have been making such

May 25, 2003

Sorry

FBI Apologizes to the “Evansville 8″: As part of a national roundup in the weeks after the terrorist attacks, the “Evansville 8″ were among 50

May 24, 2003

More on Cat-SARS link

Here is a much better explanation, from the Washington Post, of the research that shows the cat-SARS link: The long-sought discovery came when a

May 24, 2003

It is not in the nature of republics throughout history to become empires.

Gary Heart has some interesting things to say about America’s transition to Empire. Of course, it all depends on whether you see what is happening

May 24, 2003

No respect for Taiwan’s Nurses

This Op-Ed in the Taipei Times shows how little regard Taiwan grants to the work of the (mostly female) nursing staff who are the front line of

May 24, 2003

SARS: From Chinese eating habits or pig farming?

Personally, I don’t buy this BBC Story which claims that SARS may have come from a type of cat eaten as a delicacy in Guangdong province. True, the

May 24, 2003

Bankruptcy as national policy

The underlying strategy here is all too familiar: Instead of challenging popular liberal programs directly, the Republicans are creating fiscal

May 24, 2003

Back to Yahoo

It seems that Bloglet (the service I’ve been using to send out the e-mail version of this blog) has simply stopped working. Customer service used to

May 22, 2003

Fatherland Security System Useless for anything other than scaring the nation

Looks like the Department of Homeland Defense’s color-coding scheme to alert the nation to danger from terrorist attacks is reactive rather than

May 22, 2003

Network blackout on news about FCC deliberations

Surprise, surprise: The TV networks that will benefit from the new FCC rules on media ownership have been keeping their viewers in the dark about

May 22, 2003

More on Lynch’s “rescue”

Another article on the Lynch “rescue” story: Sadly, almost nothing fed to reporters about either Lynch’s original capture by Iraqi forces or her

May 22, 2003

Politics prevent Taiwan from joining the WHO

Taiwan has long desired to join the WHO. Politics, specifically the objections of the Chinese Government, continue to prevent Taiwan from joining.

May 22, 2003

Christie Whitman’s resignation alarms conservationists

I don’t publish much about the environment on this blog — I guess because protection seems like such an obvious good and the government’s policies

May 21, 2003

Turn off those Air Conditioners!

The heat of Taiwanese summer could kill SARS if people just turn off their ACs! Experts have estimated that the temperature range between 17?Ǭ?C

May 20, 2003

Aid Workers Targeted in Afghanistan

“There’s been a very, very big deterioration in security countrywide, especially for aid workers,” said Rafael Robillard of ACBAR, an umbrella group

May 20, 2003

Karzai wins showdown over taxes.

Afghanistan’s powerful regional governors have agreed to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars to the central government in a dispute over

May 20, 2003

In Iraq: “You are Palestinian. Get out.”

Salon has an article with more on the plight of Iraqi Palestinians: Al-Assa’ad is one of 850 Iraqi Palestinians living in a refugee camp 50

May 19, 2003

Media Consolidation

“This chart illustrates the march of consolidation within that short and brutal time frame.” TomBarger.com

May 19, 2003

Big surprise — “intelligence agency” is an oxymoron

Intelligence agencies had a far less accurate picture of Iraq’s weapons program than participants believed at the outset of their search, they

May 19, 2003

Saudi Arabia’s shrinking Middle Class

“The problem in Saudi Arabia is that the middle class is shrinking,” said Turki Hamad, a Saudi political scientist. “And the more poverty you have,

May 19, 2003

The battle for Baghdad cost the lives of at least 1,101 Iraqi civilians…

The battle for Baghdad cost the lives of at least 1,101 Iraqi civilians, many of them women and children, according to records at the city’s 19

May 19, 2003

The Jessica Lynch Saga Continues

It is amazing. I wonder if the military will start hiring Steven Spielberg to direct their battles for them. Seems the US military was using blanks

May 19, 2003

The Economy

Doesn’t look good: Official unemployment now stands at 6 percent; 8.8 million Americans are unemployed, an increase of 3 million since October

May 19, 2003

What’s a few Nuclear Warheads between friends?

Last May 9, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted to repeal a 10-year ban on the research and development of “low-yield” nuclear weapons —

May 19, 2003

Krugman evaluates Bush’s “War on Terror”

Still, isn’t the Bush administration doing its best to fight terrorism? No. Krugman in the NY Times

May 19, 2003

Arabic Names

Basically, a traditional Arabic name given in full consists of the kunya (‘father/mother of X’), the ism (the actual given name, e.g. Muhammad or

May 15, 2003

Jeb Bush appoints legal counsel to fetus…

Florida Governor Jeb Bushs orders that a guardian be appointed for a fetus . Abortion rights advocates are angry. As they should be! Via Talk Left

May 15, 2003

Mail server was down…

Sorry. The mail server was down and I had to manually re-start it. If you are subscribed to the e-mail list and you missed any posts this past week

May 14, 2003

Blair vs. Miller

An interesting article about journalistic ethics at the New York Times: The actions of Blair, while grossly inappropriate, are hardly unknown

May 14, 2003

NTU Hospital in Taipei has SARS outbreak

Taiwan’s leading hospital, overwhelmed by an internal outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, was effectively shut down tonight, dealing a

May 13, 2003

Military accounts for more than half of Federal discretionary budget

Hellman says a $399.1-billion budget represents a $16.9-billion increase over current spending and accounts for 17% of the nation’s total budget.

May 13, 2003

The meaning of “degradation”

To recite from a Pentagon press release that an Iraqi division has been “degraded by 70 percent” is an astounding abdication of journalistic

May 13, 2003

What does Oil have to do with anything? A lot, apparently…

A move in the U.S. Congress to link immigration with opening up Mexico’s state oil company to U.S. investment has outraged Mexicans, and newspapers

May 12, 2003

FCC to eliminate remaining controls on media concentration

As if things weren’t bad enough, it seems that the FCC is planning to eliminate what remaining controls exist on media ownership in the US: The

May 12, 2003

Bush wants to build nuclear bombs?

Yup: Our states are going bankrupt, social services are cut to the bone , the economy is in deep trouble, and Bush wants to build nuclear bombs?

May 12, 2003

How to write English in Chinese Characters?

The English spelling system is such a pain, we’d might as well switch to hanzi — Chinese characters. How should we go about it? Here’s how

May 12, 2003

Taiwan SARS Update

SARS cases surge in Taiwan. Taiwan reported 23 new cases and four deaths today, bringing the island’s 207 infections ahead of Singapore’s 205

May 12, 2003

The “Klingon Language Interpreter” myth — origins of an urban legend

Every once in a while, in order to remind myself of the quality of information typically reported, I trace down the source of a particularly

May 11, 2003

Who is Michael Ledeen?

Ledeen’s ideas are repeated daily by such figures as Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz. His views virtually define the stark

May 11, 2003

Theeeir Baaack…. (The Taliban that is.)

Across the southern portions of Afghanistan, where the Taliban found strong support among the rural conservative Pashtun populations, there are

May 11, 2003

SARS on the rise in Taiwan

The east Asian Sars outbreak, which Chinese officials said showed signs of declining in Beijing, today appeared to be accelerating in Taiwan with

May 11, 2003

12,737 people had seen their homes demolished in Gaza and the West Bank

Since the beginning of the current strife in September 2000 until April 30 2003, a total of 12,737 people had seen their homes demolished in Gaza

May 10, 2003

More to this blog than meets the eye!

Many people come here from NoWarBlog.org or places that copied the link from there — and so only see the blogs in the “no war category”. However,

May 10, 2003

Is Bill Gates the Next Mother Theresa?

Well, I suppose that depends on what you thought of Mother Theresa. But he is certainly making a play for sainthood with his decision to give away

May 8, 2003

Republican’s Gift to America’s Working Moms — No Overtime!

Not to worry. The Republicans — famous for their support of labor and family-friendly policies — have come up with a solution. It’s called the

May 8, 2003

State department report on terrorism shows a decline since 1969

The “war on terror” comes at a time when terrorism is at its lowest total since 1969: In its annual report to Congress on terrorism, the State

May 8, 2003

Taiwanese women too smart for Taiwanese men

247,966 Taiwanese have married foreign brides. Two thirds of these brides are from Mainland China, but what is more interesting is that “the highest

May 8, 2003

Perle gives investment seminar — on war profiteering!

Do this administration’s conflicts-of-interest ever end? Last February, the Defense Policy Board, a group of outside advisors to the Pentagon,

May 8, 2003

CNN continues to spread misinformation about the Lynch rescue

Here’s what CNN had to say about the rescue, in an article dated May 6, three weeks after the Washington Post first reported doctors’ claims that

May 8, 2003

Infectious Disease Rates Rising Among Prisoners

At a time when less than 2 percent of the U.S. population is infected with hepatitis C, 29.7 percent of Maryland prisoners had it, said Liza

May 8, 2003

RSS Feeds and You

What is an RSS feed? That link has a lot of info, but the short answer is that it is simply a way of formating content so that it can easily be used

May 8, 2003

Body Count

Data compiled by Iraq Body Count from widely published press and media reports shows that at least 200 civilian deaths have already been reliably

May 7, 2003

China yesterday quarantined 10,000 more citizens

in its desperate efforts to contain severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as panic riots hit

May 7, 2003

How to “support the troops”:

First, make sure they are payed as little as possible. Secondly, violate the laws that ensure their health is protected. And, third, take away any

May 7, 2003

Halliburton’s role in post-war Iraq larger than previously revealed

Halliburton’s role in post-war Iraq includes operating Iraqi oil fields, new documents have revealed. BBC

May 6, 2003

GOP fights campaign finance laws — helping Democrats

This is what I thought — although this Daily Kos article is the first I’ve seen confirming that the impact of last Friday’s judgment is actually

May 6, 2003

Defense Contractors — CEO pay rates — correlation between giving and contracts

Median CEO pay at the 37 largest defense contractors rose 79 percent from 2001 to 2002, while overall CEO pay climbed only 6 percent…

May 6, 2003

Iraqi Palestinian’s out on the street

Iraqi largess toward Palestinian immigrants almost always came at the expense of everyday Iraqis. This was especially true under Iraq’s last ruler,

May 6, 2003

If terrorists didn’t have access to Iraqi WMDs before — they might have them now!

The UN nuclear watchdog agency has urged Washington to allow it to investigate nuclear sites in Iraq that have reportedly been looted. BBC

May 6, 2003

NATO to take on Afghanistan Peacekeeping Role

… there is a much more concrete sign that the [NATO] alliance has emerged from Iraq intact: the decision, one “of almost earth-shattering

May 6, 2003

Philip Carroll

The U.S. has created a corporate-style “Advisory Board” to oversee Iraq’s oil industry. This Modern World

May 6, 2003

government documents and information about Iraq

The City College of New York Libraries has updated our online bibliography of primary government documents and information about Iraq and I hope you

May 6, 2003

“take matters into their own hands”

Lots of U.S. newspapers are reporting the uncovering of mass graves in Iraq, containing bodies of rebels killed in 1991 by Saddam Hussein’s

May 5, 2003

Losses may not be so bad

Seems that most of the damage at the museum was in the offices. However, many priceless antiquities have been lost — just not as many as initially

May 4, 2003

SARS in Taiwan

Eight people have died in Taiwan and 100 are infected, double the toll last week, and 384 additional cases are being investigated, the Taiwan Center

May 2, 2003

Quotes from Bush Judicial Nominees

Very scary stuff: “If we continue to allow black people the right hold public office,” he wrote, “then we’re just itching for trouble. Also, in

May 2, 2003

Poverty Levels reach New Highs

The number of black youths living in extreme poverty is at its highest level in the 23 years that such statistics have been kept, according to a

May 2, 2003

White House Admits Exaggerating Threat

Echaton: You know, lying

May 2, 2003

Halliburton’s Record of Doing Business with States Supporting Terrorists

In a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Waxman said Halliburton Co. subsidiaries and joint ventures had done business in Iran, Iraq and

May 2, 2003

“by the grace of God” … a Government Contract!

The U.S. government this week launched its Arabic language satellite TV news station for mostly Muslim Iraq. It is being produced in a studio —

May 2, 2003

Bin Laden’s Family to Profit from Iraq Reconstruction

Bin Laden’s estranged family, a sprawling, extraordinarily wealthy Saudi Arabian dynasty, is a substantial investor in a private equity firm founded

May 2, 2003

Wolfowitz Turns East Asian History on its Head

In Wolfowitz’s rosy view of history, the millions of Koreans, Filipinos and Indonesians who rebelled against their authoritarian governments were

May 2, 2003

“It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever …”

This is one of the better articles I’ve seen about the whole Santorum flap: Of course, Santorum’s analogies don’t stand up to logical scrutiny.

May 2, 2003

USAID changes policy when no longer a convenient excuse

The agency awarding Iraq reconstruction contracts deleted its requirement for a security clearance after realizing it awarded a project to a company

April 30, 2003

Where’s Nigeria?

Atrios on the Hostage Crisis in Nigeria: Hostage crisis? What on Earth are you talking about Atrios? What hostage crisis? What? You’re telling me

April 30, 2003

Save Sheldon Zink!

Actually, save her field notes: Dr. Sheldon Zink, a medical anthropologist has received five subpoenas and notices since December 16, 2002.?Ǭ

April 30, 2003

Rolling Back the 20th Century

Media Transparency has a great who’s-who of which conservative think tank folks have been given what government jobs under Bush. I don’t think there

April 29, 2003

Where are the women

From Body and Soul: One of the things that struck me watching the crowds tearing down the statues of Saddam Hussein was that I didn’t see any

April 28, 2003

Dwarkin on the Michigan Case

But race matters independently of the other background factors with which it may or may not be correlated, for two reasons. First, the experience of

April 27, 2003

“hundreds of people exactly like me” in the favelas of Brazil

The author of the book that the movie City of God is based on was interviewed in the NY Times: The notion that he is a freakishly gifted ghetto

April 27, 2003

The Leni Riefenstahl of George Bush’s new imperial order

Niall Ferguson: This guy is all over the place — the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, etc. and now he has a new book, Empire, which

April 24, 2003

Impeach Bush

So here’s the deal: Daily Kos

April 24, 2003

Ashcroft: illegal immigrants can be jailed indefinitely

In yet another grab for power and blow to justice, Attorney General John Ashcroft has issued a legal opinion declaring that most illegal immigrants

April 23, 2003

Zakaria proscribes a road to a democratic Iraq

In Newsweek Fareed Zakaria proscribes a road to a democratic Iraq. Too bad Bush probably won’t read it. Here are some highlights: What is called

April 23, 2003

Government knows Moussaoui wasn’t part of Sept. 11

From Talk Left: In short, the Government knows Moussaoui wasn’t part of Sept. 11–but to convict him on the conspiracy charge and have him sentenced

April 23, 2003

Surprise! Radical Islam wants power in post-war Iraq

From Daily Kos: Ahh, the forces of Democracy and freedom continue to consolidate their gains in Iraq. Well, except that the nation’s largest

April 23, 2003

ACLU sues Gov’t over “no fly” list

From Talk Left: The ACLU filed suit today against the federal government’s secret “no fly” list at San Francisco Airport

April 22, 2003

Communal violence in India and the “Tribal” population

This is a very fascinating document about the role of “Tribals” in India’s communal riots. Ganesh Devy argues that the indigenous peoples of India

April 22, 2003

Iraqi water — more troublesome than oil?

Water: yet another of the longer-term problems for Uncle Sam’s occupation government to deal with. Not only is Turkey hogging the stuff (allegedly),

April 22, 2003

How cynical can you get? Not as cynical as Bush!

Cynical Bush is scheduling his election campaign to coincide with the anniversary of 9-11: President Bush’s advisers have drafted a re-election

April 22, 2003

Only good immigrant a dead immigrant? Bush thinks so…

“There’s something terribly wrong with our immigration policies if it takes death on the battlefield in order to earn citizenship,” Cardinal Roger

April 21, 2003

Daily Kos nervous over pipeline

Plans to build a pipeline to siphon oil from newly conquered Iraq to Israel are being discussed between Washington, Tel Aviv and potential future

April 21, 2003

Credit Card Companies Close Muslim Accounts

Say that you are one of those fortunate people who manage to pay off most of their credit cards every month. Then imagine your surprise when one of

April 21, 2003

Sugar industry attacks WHO

The sugar industry in the US is threatening to bring the World Health Organisation to its knees by demanding that Congress end its funding unless

April 21, 2003

myth of the bra-burner

When the mainstream mass media isn’t declaring feminism dead, it’s distorting the image of feminism. How does this affect mainstream society’s image

April 21, 2003

It seems not to register with many Israelis that they are occupiers

and as such have inescapable responsibilities towards those in their custody and

April 21, 2003

Iraqi doctors helped save Jessica Lynch

Iraqi Doctors hid Jessica Lynch from Iraqi intelligence agents: Private Lynch was kept alone in a single room, where her nurses would sing her to

April 21, 2003

Bush-loving, Islam-bashing, Muslim-converting Christians to Iraq

“I’m not sure any of this means that America’s foreign-policy objectives are served by having a Bush-loving, Islam-bashing, Muslim-converting

April 21, 2003

What’s your favorite book?

So it’s no surprise that there’s also early interest in candidates’ answers to the question, “What’s your favorite book?” This may seem an innocuous

April 21, 2003

War, what is it good for? Profiteering!

It seems the Betchel group — which got the contract for rebuilding Iraq Last week Mr. Shultz’s Bechtel Group was able to demonstrate exactly what

April 21, 2003

Why is this recession different from all other recessions?

The first President George Bush won the first Gulf War. A year later he lost the presidency because the economy was in the tank. Will the second

April 20, 2003

Kurds want their city back. Aging residents pushed into street.

From the Washington Post: As Hussein relocated Arabs to northern Iraq, Kurds and Turkmen were deprived of the right to purchase property, while

April 20, 2003

China of the hook on human rights for helping out with North Korea?

When the “United States, for the first time in a decade, decides not to submit a UN resolution censuring China for human rights violations.” Did it

April 20, 2003

6,850 Iraqi war prisoners — entitled to rights?

The U.S. is holding 6,850 Iraqi war prisoners. Just a handful are top Iraqi leaders. In deciding what to do with the prisoners, the U.S. says that

April 20, 2003

My brother Zac

If you haven’t read this excerpt of Abd Samad Moussaoui’s book about his brother yet, you should, it is well written and very revealing: Zacarias

April 20, 2003

Online news making a profit (for some)

This was posted in Slashdot: “The Asia Times reports that after years of losing money, online newspapers are starting to pay off . The New York

April 18, 2003

Judge Allows Defense to Question Cross-Racial Identifications

From Talk Left: “For the first time in New York since the state’s high court opened courtroom doors to identification experts, a judge has said a

April 18, 2003

More on the Betchel Group

From Stand Down: It appears that the Betchel Group , recent recipient of a lucrative government contract to rebuild Iraq, has a history in the

April 18, 2003

Taiwan incomes more unequal than Japan, but less than France

According to a survey of Taiwanese family incomes in 2001, the most affluent 20 percent were 6.39 times richer than the bottom 20 percent

April 17, 2003

British forces involved in Northern Ireland killings

British security forces were involved in sanctioning killings in Northern Ireland, according to the senior police officer investigating allegations

April 17, 2003

Government by the checkbook

HONEST GRAFT. Let’s get this straight. 60 percent of Coloradans oppose school vouchers, according to a February poll — following up on the defeat of

April 17, 2003

Cheney has “no case”!

An appeals judge told lawyers for Vice President Richard Cheney on Thursday they had no basis to ask the court to intervene in a suit seeking White

April 17, 2003

Protecting Iraq or protecting our oil?

In the Washington Post, the deputy director of the Iraqi Archaeological museum ransacked by looters says: “If there were five American soldiers at

April 17, 2003

Citicorp only gets a slap on the wrist for doing what gets others thrown in jail

When individuals are charged with doing business with enemy states or listed terrorist groups, there are press conferences and press releases,

April 17, 2003

The real Hollywood power brokers and stars have been silent

From a talk by actor Tim Robbins: I’m sick of hearing about Hollywood being against the war. Hollywood’s heavy hitters, the real power brokers and

April 16, 2003

How GM destroyed America’s public transit

General Motors is an old hand at villainizing and undermining public transit. Long before it was running Canadian newspaper ads villifying transit

April 16, 2003

Taiwan Take on Gulf War II

In Taiwan, Gulf War II was seen by the military as a model of what an invasion from China might look like. Of course the Chinese military aren’t

April 15, 2003

Dangers of an error-filled security database

The Privacy Act of 1974 requires the FBI to make reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the records in this database. Last

April 14, 2003

Millions spent on Clinton era investigations while Halburton rakes it in on Iraq

From Tapped: THE NEVERENDING CLINTON WARS. Did you know that a federal special prosecutor is still investigating former Housing Secretary Henry

April 12, 2003

Monkey See Monkey Do: Bush sets a dangerous precedent for world peace

Washington Post: Asserting the same right of preemptive war that the United States used to justify its invasion of Iraq, Indian officials have

April 11, 2003

In Bush lingo “gifted” means “ethnic”

President Bush greeted the people of Iraq on their TV screens. “You are a good and gifted people,” he told them as Arabic script appeared below his

April 11, 2003

Bush’s Slash and Burn Approach

The scary thing is that this slash-and-burn approach to governing may continue to work for Mr. Bush’s people because the initial triumphs get all

April 11, 2003

Brutality of war censored from US news coverage

I was thinking about writing something on this issue, when I found this quote in Tapped: Compared to its counterparts around the world, the

April 11, 2003

Following the money trail …

From the Nation: The process of getting all this infrastructure to work is usually called “reconstruction.” But American plans for Iraq’s future

April 10, 2003

Washington complacent as Afghanistan deteriorates

Seen from a complacent Washington, Afghanistan still may look better than it did before the U.S. intervention. But experts following the country say

April 10, 2003

Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of …

When a series of large antiwar protests began nearly eight weeks ago, the New York Police Department started questioning hundreds of people arrested

April 9, 2003

11 Afghan civilians by mistake

From the BBC: The US military in Afghanistan says it has killed 11 Afghan civilians by mistake in an air attack

April 9, 2003

Deliberate or Accidental? More on the Killing of three Journalists in Baghdad

From TAPPED: Though there does not appear to have been any provocation, its reporters were attacked first with small arms fire and then with a tank

April 9, 2003

Idea for Iraq

Back in the early 1970s Alaska set up the Alaska Permanent Fund, which holds the revenues from oil leases as a public trust, with a portions of the

April 9, 2003

Guns = Freedom?

I can’t believe anyone takes this claim seriously, but this is a good point for those who do. It seems almost every Iraqi owns a gun: If gun rights

April 9, 2003

Sharon creates new Jewish settlement in Palestinian district of Jersualem

Ariel Sharon has brushed aside an appeal by the White House to stop an unprecedented move by Jewish settlers into a Palestinian district of

April 9, 2003

BBC reporter’s favorite Saddam statues

I want to talk to you about my favourite Saddam statues, in anticipation they may not be here for much longer. Baghdad :: Andrew Gilligan ::

April 9, 2003

Gays in the Military

From Tapped: The military does just fine with gay and lesbian soldiers, as Thomas Oliphant points out in this excellent column . According to

April 8, 2003

US tank fires on hotel home of foreign journalists in Baghdad — killing two, injuring others

From the BBC: Al-Jazeera said its correspondent Tareq Ayoub died and a cameraman was injured when two missiles hit its office, virtually destroying

April 7, 2003

The I Told You So Olympics — A reply

Max over at Nowarblog.org recently posted an item called “The I Told You So Olympics”. In it he says: It’s never too early for bitter

April 7, 2003

Oakland police fire rubber bullets at protesters

The story. Oakland police fired rubber bullets to disperse about 750 anti-war demonstrators on Monday in what was believed to be the first use of

April 5, 2003

Bill Keller thinks Rumsfeld is just mean, not dangerous.

Surly the idiocy of Bill Keller’s column in the NY Times is obvious and I don’t have to refute it point-by-point? I mean, what can you say about a

April 4, 2003

Syria’s Next

Behind the rhetoric from Damascus is concern that top officials in the Bush administration have targeted Syria as the next country for a change in

April 4, 2003

Will Iraqi’s pine for Sadaam after he is gone?

In Iraq, everything comes from Hussein, not only what is painful but also what is good. Protection from enemies and privation comes from Hussein,

April 4, 2003

Taliban Stronghold Attacked by US in Afganistan

From the Washington Post: “We discovered a base with tents, food, weapons. It was here that Taliban coming from Pakistan would stay before moving

April 4, 2003

US soldiers beat up a Portuguese journalist for wanting to phone his family

This is from an interview with a non-embedded journalist who was one of several arrested by US forces in Iraq: After we were arrested at six o’

April 4, 2003

1940 — French go to war with Germany, while the US continues business as usual!

Brilliant! So if there was a country that could justly have been accused of “accommodating Nazi evil” in the period around 1940, its name isn’t

April 4, 2003

In Baghdad’s outlying areas it is the poor who suffer most.

While in central Baghdad the war has arrived as a series of interruptions to daily life, Sueb and the other extremities of this vast city are being

April 3, 2003

Sadaam: Responsible, Clever, or Insignificant?

Either: (1) Sadaam is showing an “astonishing degree of responsibility and restraint in the teeth of extreme provocation” by not using his weapons.

April 3, 2003

The Jessica Lynch Media Circus

I’m very happy that Jessica Lynch is safe. I’m also impressed at the rescue operation which succeeded where others had failed (resulting in nine

April 2, 2003

Iraqis: This is a War against Iraq (not Saddam)

From the BBC News blog: Just occasionally you get to lift the lid on this restricted society — and talk to real people about why the uprisings

April 2, 2003

racial divisions in this country are a terrible problem

And the Supreme Court is trying to sort them out. A worthwhile article to read — if only for the audio links. All this makes for a long morning of

April 2, 2003

More on Jay Garner, the man who would be king

A few days ago I linked to an article about “Jay Garner, the retired US general who will oversee humanitarian relief and reconstruction in postwar

March 31, 2003

15 Stories They’ve Already Bungled

Iraq stories the media has already gotten wrong. Update: Now the Guardian UK has a site devoted to debunking the “fog” of war journalism. It is very

March 31, 2003

Once again, knowledge in Arabic isn’t seen as particularly important

The marines have brought the whole encyclopaedia of military technology with them to Iraq. From aircraft to x-ray machines, they have a myriad ways

March 31, 2003

US Military to round-up Iraqi civilians

“If you aren’t with us you are against us.” So now, since the Iraqi’s didn’t jump for joy at the arrival of US forces, we will start arresting

March 31, 2003

business and technology reporter suspended for two weeks without pay

San Francisco Chronicle business and technology reporter Henry Norr has been suspended for two weeks without pay after having been arrested in an

March 31, 2003

War silencing debate on budget cuts

The war in Iraq might not be going quite as smoothly as the Bush administration hoped, but the war at home is going just swimmingly. War is

March 31, 2003

We should not march into Baghdad

“We should not march into Baghdad . . . . To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a

March 31, 2003

bogged down in the foetid marshes and broiling deserts

…invaders get bogged down in the foetid marshes and broiling deserts; the enemy refuses to run away; soldiers perish in their thousands and Britain

March 31, 2003

Rumsfeld vs. The Military: Part II — Why?

Here is a good piece by Slate’s Mickey Kaus about why Rumsfeld would want to send less troops than the military thought was necessary (Scroll down

March 31, 2003

Rumsfeld vs. The Military: Part 1

Tapped highlights some of Hersh’s New Yorker article on how Rumsfeld undermined the military decision making process: From the Hersh article: On at

March 31, 2003

Maps

Here is a map of the latest developments from the Washington Post. Here is a Map of where reporters are in Iraq. But please note: Now, this first

March 30, 2003

War Prayer

The following is a quote from an anti-war article Mark Twain submitted in 1905 to Harper’s Bazaar to express his outrage at military intervention in

March 30, 2003

Pentagon confirmed it was authorising use of “non-lethal” gases

the Pentagon confirmed it was authorising use of “non-lethal” gases of the type used in last October’s disastrous Moscow theatre siege — a move

March 30, 2003

About this blog

There has been a big increase in traffic to this site since the war started. FYI: If you came here from StandDown, then you are probably only seeing

March 30, 2003

Rumsfeld’s lies revealed despite press complicity

The Bush crowd’s brazen Big Lie technique was much in evidence in Donald Rumsfeld’s “Meet the Press” appearance this past Sunday. When Tim Russert

March 30, 2003

President of U.S. Arms Company to Oversee Iraq Reconstruction

From the Guardian UK: Jay Garner, the retired US general who will oversee humanitarian relief and reconstruction in postwar Iraq, is president of

March 30, 2003

US reluctantly getting involved in local conflicts in Afghanistan

But there is growing evidence that Americans are reluctantly and sometimes unintentionally becoming party to many of the feuds and armed disputes in

March 30, 2003

Ever watch “Apocalypse Now” or “Platoon”?

I don’t usually read Maureen Dowd, but some times she is right on target: Why is all this a surprise again? I know our hawks avoided serving in

March 30, 2003

Rummy thought he knew better…

Seymour Hersh does it again: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon planners that substantially more troops and

March 29, 2003

Texas-style race-neutral plans for diversity are based on segregation

The Texas-style admissions policies supported by the President only work because of how segregated Texas schools are: Texas-style plans achieve

March 29, 2003

Liberation or occupation? Iraqi’s decide

War planners say “we overestimated the appeal of liberation.” Perhaps it would be closer to the truth to say that Iraqis are not at all lacking in a

March 29, 2003

Krauthammer’s multiple personalities

This is a great post about the Washington Post’s columnist, Charles Krauthammer. It shows the arguments he is using to support war in Iraq, and the

March 29, 2003

American Military Operation Name Generating Device

Click here to randomly generate 20 names for US Military operations. Of course, the best name is the one The Onion came up with: “Operation Piss off

March 28, 2003

U.S. Marines pay the price of rigged war-games with their lives.

Way back in August, the Army Times reported a story about how a retired U.S. officer resigned his role as commander of enemy forces in the biggest

March 28, 2003

Librarians fight for your rights

Libraries who have been visited by the FBI can’t mention that fact AFTER the visit, but many libraries and library systems are becoming pro-active

March 28, 2003

Unicode Domain Names!

Although Unicode isn’t explicitly mentioned: Internet domain names in languages other than English should be available within the next few weeks or

March 27, 2003

Robert Fisk views raw footage of Al-Djazaira videotape from Basra

Two British soldiers lie dead on a Basra roadway, a small Iraqi girl — victim of a US/UK airstrike — is brought to hospital with her intestines

March 27, 2003

What a surprise — Halliburton gets Army contract without bidding on it…

In case you missed it: The US army said it gave the main Iraqi oil well firefighting contract to a unit of Halliburton Co., a firm once run by Vice

March 27, 2003

Safire’s attack on the French based on questionable data

After reading Safire’s first column, as a former producer with “60 Minutes,” my curiosity was piqued. I looked into his charges, and found they

March 27, 2003

Fact checking

Doesn’t it bother anyone that the US government made claims about Iraq’s nuclear program based on documents which the most rudimentary fact-checking

March 27, 2003

Who are the NLA?

One of the many hard questions about the war in Iraq is what the United States will do about something called the National Liberation Army. The NLA

March 27, 2003

Lack of safe drinking water poses the risk of serious humanitarian disaster

The sudden collapse of a population’s water supply is the most serious of humanitarian emergencies. People affected by a natural disaster, such as

March 27, 2003

Each crisis will draw U.S. forces further into the region

So events that may seem negative–Hezbollah for the first time targeting American civilians; U.S. soldiers preparing for war with Syria–while

March 25, 2003

Why they Fight

One of the missing soldiers is 19 year old Jessica Lynch . She joined the army because there were “few jobs in her hometown.” From the No War Blog

March 24, 2003

More Brilliance from Krugman

The Onion describes itself as “America’s finest news source,” and it’s not an idle boast. On Jan. 18, 2001, the satirical weekly bore the headline

March 24, 2003

Rule of Law

In this NY Review of Books article, Tony Judt trashes a bunch of “foreign policy pundits” who all think that they have some magic formula to

March 24, 2003

Who is sponsoring those pro-war rallies?

Clear Channel makes no secret of it: Clear Channel Worldwide Inc., the nation’s largest owner of radio stations (over 1200 stations in all 50

March 24, 2003

The truly-up-to-date-online-internet-blog-fix for war watchers

The Washington Post has an article about where to get your truly-up-to-date-online-internet-blog-fix about the the war: The Internet is brimming

March 24, 2003

Blogs in Iraq

Here is a good list of blogs in Iraq from Caterina.net: – Dear Raed , a blog in Baghdad. (thanks Estee) – Kevin Sites , a CNN correspondent in Iraq

March 21, 2003

Over a thousand protesters arrested in San Francisco… New Yorkers turn out in the rain…

From the BBC: Police in San Francisco have arrested 1,025 people during violence at an anti-war demonstration. I was in Times Square, protesting

March 21, 2003

final words of encouragement

There is a long tradition of military commanders giving final words of encouragement to their troops before battle. The actual speech is here.

March 21, 2003

Powell should resign (or should have — a little late now)

This piece, from a week ago, is a little dated, but still worth reading. It describes several notable resignations, including this one: Another

March 20, 2003

Nation editorial: the war is about more than Iraq

…the war is about more than Iraq; it is about the character of our society and the international order in which we live. The Administration hopes

March 20, 2003

Some History of the Conservative Movement

An interesting article about the history of conservative think-tanks and judicial theory. In 1971 the National Chamber of Commerce circulated a

March 20, 2003

Still exchanging prisoners from the Iraq-Iran war — right up to the invasion!

This is from a blog supposedly coming right out of Baghdad: yesterday the last 500 prisoners from the Iraq-Iran war were being exchanged. I can’t

March 20, 2003

Document’s Bush’s Lies

We have long known that the mainstream media’s war coverage is biased. However, the timidity with which they have failed to go after the

March 20, 2003

Librarians up in arms — but not on the web!!!

At the NY public library they had a letter-writing campaign to try to restore $9.6 million cut (in addition to the $16.1 million already cut) from

March 18, 2003

Bush and American’s unprecedented power scares the world

This Newsweek article by the always intelligent Fareed Zakaria is perhaps too middle-of-the road politically to be of interest to most people, but I

March 18, 2003

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

“Of the 535 members of Congress, only ONE (Sen. Johnson of South Dakota) has an enlisted son or daughter in the armed forces! “Michael Moore The

March 17, 2003

8:00 PM Wednesday night

That’s when war starts. As I understand it, Bush is to give a speech tonight at 8:00 in which he will deliver a 48 hour ultimatum to Saddam Hussein.

March 14, 2003

Take action before Bush & Co. do!

It looks like the administration is gearing up for war without the UN. Although the February 15th Rally was a huge success, it is even more

March 14, 2003

Krugman on Bush

The original reasons given for making Iraq an immediate priority have collapsed. No evidence has ever surfaced of the supposed link with Al Qaeda,

March 14, 2003

Take action before Bush & Co. do!

It looks like the administration is gearing up for war without the UN. Although the February 15th Rally was a huge success, it is even more

March 14, 2003

CIA’sinvolvement with Saddam Hussein goes waaay back…

On the brink of war, both supporters and critics of United States policy on Iraq agree on the origins, at least, of the haunted relations that have

March 14, 2003

Our heroes, the Democrats

I’m just copying this blog item entirely from Tom Tomorrow, so that my e-mail readers can see the whole list. See where the Democrats stand. Our

March 14, 2003

Jessica Tuchman Mathews on NOW with Bill Moyers

Jessica Tuchman Mathews, the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was interviewed on NOW with Bill Moyers about their plan

March 13, 2003

Collaborative disinformation

Disinfopedia is a collaborative encyclopedia of disinformation. (Yes, it is a wiki!) Take a look at the war propaganda page! Thanks to boingboing

March 13, 2003

Afghanistan’s Police Accused of Undermining Human Rights

Afghanistan’s police force is in urgent need of reform to end “increasingly widespread” corruption, beatings and torture by officers, according to

March 12, 2003

kick it like back in the day — With the cocaine and Courvoisier

The Beastie Boys have released an anti-war MP3 you can download from their website. Here are my favorite bits: Mirrors, smokescreens and lies It’s

March 11, 2003

Why Governors, not Senators, become President

The Senate just caved in,” he said. “That’s not what the Senate was intended to be and to do.” The L.A. Times on how congress caved in to the

March 11, 2003

Bush Senior publicly rebukes his son

Although the NY Times reports that Bush Sr. and Jr. talk (in private) on the phone every day, this article from the London Times reports Bush Sr.

March 11, 2003

Acting Normal in Baghdad

Well, it seems that there is someone blogging away in Baghdad. Here is a sample: A BBC reporter walking thru the Mutanabi Friday book market

March 11, 2003

Bush holding Israeli Peace plan hostage

The NY Times this past Sunday had an article that made it very clear that Bush considers peace in Israel nothing more than another piece of leverage

March 11, 2003

chronic malnutrition for purely man-made reasons

The stark fact is that almost a quarter of Palestinian children are suffering from acute or chronic malnutrition for purely man-made reasons. No

March 11, 2003

(The Threatening) Storm Warning

Having finished The Threatening Storm , the careful reader will wag his or her head in disbelief. How can a book resounding with so many warnings

March 9, 2003

Afghanistan to launch Internet country code

Afghanistan, where the Internet was banned during the rule of the purist Taliban, will formally inaugurate its .af domain for Afghan Web sites and

March 9, 2003

Report: Afghan Women Still Face Violence

Although Afghan women returned to work after the fall of the Taliban, they continue to be forced into marriages and fall victim to domestic

March 7, 2003

US claims based on fake documents!

The head of the U.N. nuclear agency on Friday shot down allegations Iraq tried to revive its nuclear arms program and said fake documents backed

March 7, 2003

Krugman: Anti-french feelings carefully orchestrated by Republicans

And Mr. Bush then said that if Mexico or other countries oppose the United States, “there will be a certain sense of discipline.” In the NY Times

March 6, 2003

Computer filters will enhance free speech? The administration thinks so.

You really have to hand it to U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson. The man can say absolutely anything and still keep a straight face. Here he is in

March 6, 2003

News analyst Andrew Tyndall says network war news biased towards White House

Tyndall says that until the peace demonstrations, the Big Three networks concentrated heavily on the Bush administration. From USA Today

March 6, 2003

So the truth is out: George W. Bush lied

when he claimed to be worried about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. Otherwise, Iraq’s

March 6, 2003

Iraqi chemical plant (for WMDs) was secretly built by Britain

A chemical plant which the US says is a key component in Iraq’s chemical warfare arsenal was secretly built by Britain in 1985 behind the backs of

March 5, 2003

Lawyer arrested for wearing peace t-shirt in the same NY mall where he bought it

A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt

March 5, 2003

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was No. 22. Now he’s No. 1…

A month after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush released a list of the world’s most-wanted terrorists. There were 22 names on it. Khalid Shaikh

March 4, 2003

Oil for power, not $$$

I blogged another article about how administration hawks see controlling middle eastern oil as a security issue a long time ago, but this one in

March 3, 2003

Missing U.S.-Iraq History

Whatever the reasons, Clinton’s Justice Department did bail out the Reagan-Bush team in the mid-1990s when more disclosures about the secret

March 3, 2003

Sharon drops road map to peace in favour of settlers

Ariel Sharon yesterday virtually ruled out the creation of a Palestinian state under his hawkish new government just a day after President Bush

March 3, 2003

Defector told UN that Iraq had destroyed its entire stockpile of WMD!

On February 24, Newsweek broke what may be the biggest story of the Iraq crisis. In a revelation that “raises questions about whether the WMD

March 3, 2003

Leaked Memo shows UN conducting a secret ’dirty tricks” campaign in UN

The United States is conducting a secret ‘dirty tricks’ campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win

March 3, 2003

“Evil” is a religious term, not a foreign policy principle.

When it comes to morality, diplomats are usually seen as cold and calculating. Machiavelli and Metternich are synonymous with the ruthless pursuit

March 3, 2003

Boycott Taco Bell!

Would you be willing to pay 1/4 of 1 penny more for your Chalupa if it meant that farmworkers could earn a living wage? Food First

March 3, 2003

300,000 mentally ill people are held in US prisons

Nearly 300,000 mentally ill people are held in US prisons, often because there is nowhere else for them to go. So serious is the problem that one

March 2, 2003

Dangers of Bush’s Economic Policy

This NY Review of Books article by Nobel-prize winning economists, Joseph Stieglitz does an excellent job of pointing out the threat to the (US &

February 26, 2003

NY Times reporters willing to believe anything…

A recent NY Times article says this: “In Afghanistan, the biggest lesson we learned in our tactical information operations — the radio and TV

February 26, 2003

Ike and Bush Compared

There’s so much chest-thumping, so many alarums about Iraqi menace, that I sometimes feel that the only patriotic thing to do is to invade Iraq and

February 26, 2003

“Dirt got through the screen.”

Did Bush authorize the Pakistani’s to airlift Bin Laden out of the country? Well maybe not Bin Laden, but certainly some of his associates seem to

February 24, 2003

War already started!

In recent days, an Independent on Sunday investigation reveals, they have stepped up attacks on missile sites near Basra which could threaten the

February 24, 2003

Lysistrata Project

In case you are not up to date on this, on March 3, 2003, hundreds of performances of Aristophanes’ bawdy comedy will be presented as a “worldwide

February 23, 2003

Body and Soul on Afghanistan

Remember Afghanistan

February 23, 2003

Putting chemical weapons into perspective

Here in the United States, an unsexy virus not much associated with evil or terrorism — influenza — claims between 10,000 and 20,000 lives per year;

February 23, 2003

Kerala kicks tribals out of their home.

The authorities in the southern Indian state of Kerala say they have cleared a wildlife sanctuary which was illegally occupied by more than 1,000

February 22, 2003

Martial Plan

It’s not that the Bush administration is always stingy. In fact, right now it is offering handouts right and left. Most notably, it has offered the

February 19, 2003

Media freed from yoke of conservative “objectivity” to speak the truth.

Ordinarily jaded and cynical journalists and their editors seem of late to have entirely lost their grounding in reality. Constrained for years by a

February 19, 2003

Clone of the attack

Meme List Courtesy of Mad Magazine

February 17, 2003

No War Wikki!!!

Even though I didn’t get any offers for hosting of the No War Wikki, I’ve got it up and running!!! Right now there is no actual content, but anyone

February 16, 2003

Afghan Teacher Training

The Afghanistan Government and Unicef will this week begin a new training programme for teachers before they go back to the classroom to begin the

February 16, 2003

Bush takes time out to suppress freedom of speech

The Bush administration filed a brief in support of a city government’s attempts to suppress a march which was protesting their policies. Thanks

February 16, 2003

Photos

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world staged antiwar protests in scores of cities …. hmmm I’m pretty sure it was in the millions from

February 15, 2003

Most Diverse Peace Protest

Three years after vast crowds turned out around the world to celebrate the new millennium, millions gathered again yesterday in a darker mood of

February 15, 2003

Just 2,000 but somehow more amazing than 10 times that many somewhere else

About 2,000 antiwar protestors, both Jews and Palestinians, marched peacefully in central Tel Aviv for about 90 minutes early tonight. Many waved

February 15, 2003

A site to warm the hearts on a cold day.

From Newsweek: It was a site to warm the hearts of those opposed to war in Iraq the world over: On a wintry London afternoon, a dense,

February 15, 2003

Over six million!

More than six million protesters took to the streets around the globe on Saturday to send a passionate message to President Bush not to invade Iraq

February 15, 2003

Trunk-mounted labs “unworkable”!

Newsweek debunks Powell’s UN power-point presentation for war. Most importantly, they show just how questionable some of his most damming assertions

February 14, 2003

Loose talk of using US Nuclear Weapons poses threat to world peace

Whatever one thinks of the coming war, its aim of eliminating weapons of mass destruction is a worthy one. Who could have imagined that the hawks

February 14, 2003

Afghanistan? Never heard of it.

It is bad enough that the Kurds are getting the shaft in the war on Iraq, but if I were a member of the Iraqi opposition I would be worried, very

February 14, 2003

Sharon can be tried!

Belgium’s supreme appeals court has ruled that a genocide lawsuit against Ariel Sharon could go ahead once his term as prime minister of Israel

February 14, 2003

How does a filibuster work?

The Senate’s odd tradition of the filibuster—delaying a vote indefinitely by speaking for hour after hour on the Senate floor—could push back a

February 14, 2003

Why don’t we use GPS?

For me, the most worrisome claim made by Powell at the UN Security Council was about the mobile biological weapons factories. If true, and Powell

February 13, 2003

17 civilians killed by US bombs in Afghanistan

Afghan officials said yesterday that at least 17 civilians were killed in a US-led bombing raid in southern Afghanistan. Full story here

February 13, 2003

10 million to march on Saturday — on five continents

Up to 10 million people on five continents are expected to demonstrate against the probable war in Iraq on Saturday, in some of the largest peace

February 13, 2003

Who killed the simpsons

At some point during its 14-year run, The Simpsons turned into one of the best sitcoms on television—and that’s not a compliment. At one time, to

February 13, 2003

Goering on War

“Why, of course, the people don’t want war,” Goering shrugged. “Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that

February 13, 2003

The battle for Arab eyeballs…

The battle for Arab eyeballs is about to be joined by new TV stations hoping to challenge Al-Jazeera, which has been shut out of Jordan and

February 13, 2003

Fired for reporting the numbers — Beth Osborne Interviewed

Beth Osborne Daponte talks about how her estimates of Iraq’s Gulf War dead got her in deep trouble with the White House Full interview is here

February 13, 2003

Is A.N.S.W.E.R. anti-Semitic?

Tapped thinks so, so does the Nation, and a lot of others. On Monday, David Corn reported in The Nation that the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War

February 13, 2003

Oops — there go your civil liberties.

The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will give

February 13, 2003

Administration no longer worried about “coded messages”?

In the past, Condi Rice has implored the networks not to broadcast the tapes outright, fearing he might be activating sleeper cells in code.

February 12, 2003

Now it all makes sense

Now I get it. We must go to war with Iraq because of the link between al Qaeda and Iraq which will be forged…as a result of our war with Iraq.

February 12, 2003

That was then; this is now.

What Powell said back in 2001 (remember when deficits were bad and the economy was good … and Bin Laden had nothing to do with Iraq?): When Powell

February 8, 2003

10 Nobel winning economists attack Bush

Ten Nobel prize winning economists have attacked President George W Bush’s tax cutting policies. From the BBC. The full report will be released

February 8, 2003

Saddam no Hitler (Qaddafi maybe)

A good point by Kristof in the NY Times: Hawks often compare Saddam to Hitler, suggesting that if we don’t stand up to him today in Baghdad we’ll

February 8, 2003

Online sales will now pay state taxes…

Several large retailers this week began collecting sales tax on Internet purchases. CNet

February 8, 2003

350 Hospitals aren’t giving smallpox vaccines.

I knew that the smallpox vaccination plan was not going to be popular with doctors. Turns out that they aren’t implementing it: A nationwide survey

February 8, 2003

Tell the Bloomberg Administration to allow freedom of speech!

There is now an on-line petition where you can voice your opinion and demand that NY City allow the Feb. 15th protest to proceed. More information

February 8, 2003

Chinese? Study Physics? Work for the FBI!

Oh boy — if you are a Chinese Nuclear Physicist you can get a job with the FBI: “We’re not interested in kids taking history or English 101,” said

February 8, 2003

Next stop Columbia

The arrival of U.S. Special Forces trainers in this battered town last month signaled the beginning of a change that gives the United States more

February 7, 2003

More on Guernica

Slate has a nice political history of Guernica. (In case you missed it, the UN covered up their copy for Powell’s speech!) Guernica is no stranger

February 6, 2003

5 points from Ian Davis on Powell’s speech

Security Analyst Ian Davis makes some very pertinent points about Powell’s speech in the Guardian UK. Here is an “executive summary”: US

February 6, 2003

British Gvt. Report Plagiarized — mistakes and all!

This BBC report is just too funny — or depressing, I can’t decide which: Downing Street has defended an intelligence dossier of evidence against

February 6, 2003

Bloodthirsty in NY: The John Ashcroft Story

Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered United States attorneys in New York and Connecticut to seek the death penalty for a dozen defendants in

February 6, 2003

Sam’s joins $300 Linux PC club

“Sam’s Club, the members-only branch of retail giant Wal-Mart, has entered the budget PC race with a $299 system running Red Hat’s version of the

February 6, 2003

Economic woes threaten America’s Future

Bob Herbert in today’s NY Times, writes: In Chicago there are nearly 100,000 young people, ages 16 to 24, who are out of work, out of school and

February 5, 2003

No Confidence in John Howard or US claims for Iraqi- al-Qaeda links

Two stories from the BBC: First, a historical rebuke for John Howard! The Australian Senate has passed an historic no-confidence motion against the

February 5, 2003

Science quick to accept harebrained ideas! (And that’s a good thing.)

And an interesting comment from CalPundit about the recent evolution/creationism hullabaloo: But the real story isn’t that the scientific

February 5, 2003

Two on the budget

“>Here and here. But this is the part that upsets me the most. The only reason that Clinton’s welfare “reform” didn’t end in disaster was because of

February 5, 2003

Is the US supporting the use of death squads in Columbia?

The Guardian UK on the war in Columbia: …this month the Colombian government will start to deploy a new kind of “self-defence force”, composed of

February 4, 2003

No Picasso for Powell’s Press Conference…

On Tom Tomorrow’s site there is a great image of the picture that “might have been”… The “Guernica” work by Pablo Picasso at the entrance of the

February 4, 2003

URGENT: Demand Permits for Feb 15th Protest!!!

The organizers of the large anti-war rally planned for NY City on Feb. 15th have run against the Bloomberg administration which is stalling on the

February 4, 2003

Lawrence of Arabia and Winston Churchill both supported using poison gas on Iraqis.

Some other British leaders were equally blood-thirsty. After the revolt of 1920, TE Lawrence — Lawrence of Arabia — wrote to the London Observer to

February 4, 2003

Karzai may not run in Afghan Elections

President Hamid Karzai said today he is “very, very strongly” committed to holding national elections next year to select a new government, but that

February 4, 2003

Blogging and the News

Chris Mooney, co-founder of one of the best blogs (Tapped), has a nice story about the history and impact of blogging. All of which suggests the

February 4, 2003

Former Iraqi nuclear scientist: “no way Iraq could possess nuclear weapons”

A former high-level Iraqi nuclear scientist, now living in Canada, said on Monday there is no way Iraq could possess nuclear weapons and the United

February 3, 2003

Hold me back!

There seem to be some people who would like the anti-war movement to focus its energies entirely on the issue of war. The reasoning is that this

February 3, 2003

A coalition of the bought off

An interesting article from the Chicago Tribute: The coalition of the willing, said security analyst Loren Thompson, “is really a coalition of the

February 3, 2003

Cutting the budget may have cost lives

It emerged yesterday that government auditors, former technicians and other experts had cautioned Nasa that budget cuts at the space agency were

February 3, 2003

Bill Bradley on Bush’s State of teh Union Address

“The State of the Union address was President Bush’s opportunity to make the case for a unilateral invasion of Iraq. He failed to do so in a

February 3, 2003

Invoking secrecy to scuttle lawsuit against military contractor

Dr. Schwartz should be a hero — instead her case is getting scuttled by government privacy clauses that aren’t necessarily even relevant to her

February 2, 2003

Containment, not war, should be the default US policy towards Iraq

For anyone who missed it, the NY Times has a must-read op-ed article on containment as an option to war. For all those who say that the anti-war

February 2, 2003

Hindu nationalists recruit India’s poor

B.L. Bhole, a political scientist at Nagpur University, is quoted in the NY Times about the R.S.S. — the Hindu Nationalists responsible for stoking

February 2, 2003

Soft and Squishy Evidence

The Guardian UK once again steps up to the plate. This time to evaluate evidence tying Iraq to al-Qaida. Establishing the link is essential to

February 2, 2003

Bush Administration knew about N. Korean Nukes for Two Years Before Going Public!

The findings of the Livermore report were confirmed in a June 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, a major assessment by the CIA and all other

February 1, 2003

Comparison of self-censorship in Soviet Czechoslovakia and in the USA today

Today, nobody has any doubts that the state-controlled media in the former Soviet bloc countries were bombarding millions of people with

February 1, 2003

Blix takes issue with Bush and Powell’s characterization of his report

Mr. Blix took issue with what he said were Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s claims that the inspectors had found that Iraqi officials were

January 31, 2003

Mark Feb. 15th on your calendar!

Saturday, February 15th will be a world-wide day of action against the Bush Administration’s proposed war on Iraq. An unprecedented number of

January 31, 2003

Bush’s Prescription Drug Plan Bad for Republicans

Tapped has an interesting post on this: The point is, if you say the only way to get a prescription drug benefit is to join a managed care plan,

January 30, 2003

Guardian analysis of Blix Report

This Guardian UK article provides a very thorough analysis of the Hans Blix report to the UN. Each of the key points made by the UN inspectors is

January 30, 2003

War Against Illogic and Hypocrisy.

Michael Kinsley has a nice piece on the lack of logical and hence moral grounding in Bush’s State of the Union speech. On Saddam as “evil”: If

January 30, 2003

Make discount train fares accessible to low-income New Yorkers!

The NY Straphangers campaign as some interesting ideas about how to change the MetroCard fare system used on New York City mass transit. Currently

January 30, 2003

Growth of the PC industry and Mac Share

The first personal computer, the MITS Altair 8080, was released in 1975 and changed the world forever. A handful of geeks (Bill Gates included) saw

January 30, 2003

Civilian Costs of a War in Iraq

WHO estimates that 100,000 Iraqi civilians could be wounded and another 400,000 hit by disease after the bombing of water and sewage facilities and

January 30, 2003

More on Oil

Two interesting articles about Oil in Iraq — from the Cato institute and the Wall Street Journal no less! They point out that even if “security”

January 29, 2003

Ministry’s criteria is racist

This letter in the Taipei Times says what I wanted to say, but doesn’t hold back any punches! But, then, it is easier for a Taiwanese to call other

January 29, 2003

“Domain Support Groups” Scam!!!

The same thing happened to me. I’m linking to this site so that it will come up in more Google Searches. I hope it helps!!! I was recently

January 29, 2003

The threat of “Liberated” Weapons of Mass Destruction

War in Context has an interesting warning: In the fog of war, much of this material would rapidly be “privatized” — liberated by colonels, security

January 29, 2003

Report says environmental degradation further strains Afghanistan’s Reconstruction

The team’s report says the years of conflict have led to the “collapse of local and national governance, destroyed infrastructure, hindered

January 29, 2003

Pictures you won’t be seeing.

You can be sure when the next Gulf War starts we won’t be seeing many pictures like this. Something to think about when you read stuff like this:

January 28, 2003

Actress Janeane Garofalo tells it like it is

JANEANE GAROFALO, ACTRESS: Thank you. KURTZ: You’ve been all over the tube, from “Good Morning America” to CNN, MSNBC, Fox, speaking out against

January 28, 2003

Category Management

““Category Management” is the sexy trend for today’s mega-retailers. It involves asking one vendor to take over a section of your store and decide

January 28, 2003

Warchalking

is the practice of marking a series of symbols on sidewalks and walls to indicate nearby wireless access. That way, other computer users

January 28, 2003

Army v. Bush — Affirmative Action

The NY Times has an interesting article about how the Administration’s brief on the Michigan case threatens long-standing practices at US Military

January 28, 2003

Decades-old tribal fights

This Washington Post article is a good account of the troubles that continue to plague US military operations in Afghanistan. (Do I need to point

January 28, 2003

Schwarzkopf not convinced!

Even General Schwarzkopf feels the administration hasn’t made a convincing case for war: “The thought of Saddam Hussein with a sophisticated

January 28, 2003

Maya Deren Documentary at Anthology Film Archives

IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN, by Martina Kudlácek. The film was beautifully shot (somewhat traditionally, considering the subject matter, but it

January 27, 2003

Israeli officer blocks raid that would harm civilians.

“An Israeli officer has been removed from his post for obstructing an air attack against the Palestinians. BBC NEWS

January 27, 2003

Keynote crashes iBooks with 10.2.3

Looks like Keynote has a bug specific to the video cards on iBooks running 10.2.3. “This issue has been reported most often when using 500 MHz

January 26, 2003

Amazing Headlines

You have to read to the very end of this post to find out! “So what’s remarkable about these headlines?” WampumBlog

January 26, 2003

What About Those End Times, Mr. President?

“Critics of the Christian Right say the IFCJ’s appeal to”prophesy” in their infomercial is a thinly veiled reference to Armageddon, the Second

January 26, 2003

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

This article explains where the Wortheim Study (the place where I work on my dissertation) is on the pecking order of rooms for writers at the NY

January 26, 2003

Ministry policy misguided

My letter to the Taipei Times was published! “I was dismayed to read that a Ministry of Education official said that since”English is not a native

January 26, 2003

Row erupts over English teacher plan

Seems the MOE may not even have the right to block the hiring of English teachers from other countries! “Can the MOE halt the import of Filipinos

January 26, 2003

U.S. Claim on Iraqi Nuclear Program Is Called Into Question

“Bush cited the aluminum tubes in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly and in documents presented to U.N. leaders. Vice President Cheney and

January 26, 2003

Affirmative Action does not hurt white students chances of admission

“But overall, the trend is clear: at combined SAT scores of 1300 and above, the presence or absence of affirmative action makes no significant

January 26, 2003

The protest-crowd numbers game

Sociology professor revises protest figures downwards for DC rally: “Clark McPhail, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Illinois

January 26, 2003

Cheney and the privatization of the US military

This is an interesting LA Times article on Cheney’s links to the company that is one of the largest contractors of an increasingly privatized US

January 23, 2003

Police: Peace rally in SF drew more than first estimated

“A peace march and rally held here last weekend drew at least twice the number of people originally thought, police said Tuesday. SF Gate

January 23, 2003

Brian Eno: A European View

“Europeans tend to regard free national health services, unemployment benefits, social housing and so on as pretty good models of human progress. We

January 23, 2003

Bush shows his true colors:

“The Bush administration has chosen Jerry Thacker, a Pennsylvania marketing consultant who has characterized AIDS as the”gay plague,” to serve on

January 22, 2003

Never Mind. By Robert Kuttner.

“A friend who is a U.S. businessman based in the Far East recently called our attention to a right-wing outfit called New American Century. On the

January 22, 2003

Look Away, Dixieland

“George W. Bush issued a stern rebuke to Senator Trent Lott in December for his praise of the segregationist 1948 presidential bid of Strom

January 22, 2003

Where the nation’s priorities are:

“$70 million to investigate the activities of Clinton’s penis. Eschaton

January 21, 2003

Stiglitz dismisses arguments that “War is good for the economy.”

In this article Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz argues that war is bad for the economy, and arguments to the contrary are “nonsense.” “War is

January 21, 2003

One Factor Out of Many

“Condoleezza Rice says affirmative action is OK

January 20, 2003

M$oft Dividend- $38 million Gates tax cut

“Microsoft announced its first ever dividend of 16 cents per share and a 2-for-1 stock split. NathanNewman.org — News and Views

January 20, 2003

Representative Democracy

The following statement is based on the fact that “The Dakotas, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming make up 10 percent of the Senate and less than 2 percent

January 20, 2003

The Martin Luther King You Don’t See On TV

“The remarkable thing about this annual review of King’s life is that several years — his last years — are totally missing, as if flushed down a

January 20, 2003

Separate but Equal?

As Atrios says: “if race shouldn’t be a factor in admissions why should it be a factor in funding decisions?” Is Atrios correct that Bush wants to

January 20, 2003

US marchers take to streets in echo of 60s

It looks like there were between 200,000 and 500,000 people who showed up at the two protests in Washington DC and SF. Although the official police

January 19, 2003

Bush’s Affirmative Action Plan Works Because Schools are Segregated

Interesting point… “Moreover, percentage plans are based on an uncomfortable reality, said Lee C. Bollinger, who was president of the University of

January 19, 2003

Absolutely, Positively for Capital Punishment

Something to remember when you go to the polls: “Four of the seven Democrats who have already joined the presidential race or are likely to do so

January 19, 2003

Does Class Count in Today’s Land of Opportunity?

This is a decent overview of the topic — considering how short the article is. “Sociologists, of course, have argued for decades about how to

January 18, 2003

Protest Coverage

This is interesting — look at how different the converage of the protests is in the NY Times compared to the Washington Post and the BBC. As usual,

January 18, 2003

Global protests against Iraq war

“More than 50,000 Americans converged on the National Mall in the centre of Washington, in one of the biggest protests since the build-up for war

January 18, 2003

Farrakahan’s Fault or Congress?

This article makes it seem like it is Farrakahan’s fault that there are no accurate numbers on how many people attended today’s march. I find this

January 18, 2003

Protecting Mickey Mouse at Art’s Expense

Lessing offers a cool idea to undo the damage done by this act of Congress: “Still, missing from the opinion was any justification for perhaps the

January 17, 2003

Credit Card-Size Hard Drive Can Hold 5GB

“Take a look at one of those credit cards in your wallet. That’s the exact size and thickness of an upcoming, revolutionary removable storage device

January 17, 2003

Affirmative Action v. Legacy Admissions

This Blog is one of the few sites to really cover the Affirmative Action issue (the news certainly hasn’t) — but see the many good articles linked

January 17, 2003

Palestinians have no access to medical care!

“After 36 years of Israeli occupation, in the territories there isn’t a single medical center worthy of the name, and the road to medical treatment

January 17, 2003

The Rise of the Fortress Continent

“This points to another truth about fortress continents: Being on the inside may be better than being locked out, but it’s no guarantee of equal

January 16, 2003

Supreme Court Endorses Copyright Theft

“Walt Disney understood the value of the public domain, and used it precisely as other great artists had done. He updated an out-of-copyright

January 16, 2003

Class Warfare — for the Rich!

“George W. Bush railing against “class warfare” is like Trent Lott deploring liberals for “playing the race card.”

January 16, 2003

Wolfowitz Pushes Faster Afghan Reconstruction

Now it occurs to them! “As the Pentagon prepares for the possibility of another war, it would like to demonstrate more significant progress

January 15, 2003

Supreme Court Allows Congress to Give Pork to Disney

This is disappointing. It may be that the Supreeme Court was not the correct plact to fight this — but I wish it hadn’t happened. “The Supreme

January 15, 2003

The Options Handcuff — Why cash-rich companies like Dell and Microsoft don’t (and won’t) pay dividends.

“To a large degree, the focus on encouraging dividends is treating the right symptom but the wrong cause. The fact that companies use their cash to

January 15, 2003

Airstrikes In Southern Iraq ‘No-Fly’ Zone Mount

“U.S. and British warplanes have bombed more than 80 targets in Iraq’s southern”no-fly” zone over the past five months, conducting an escalating air

January 14, 2003

Antiwar Activists From Across U.S. Preparing for Weekend of Protests

“About 220 organizing centers in 45 states are coordinating transportation and spreading the word about Saturday’s ANSWER rally, 70 more than in

January 14, 2003

Afghan security situation ‘urgent’

“A British aid agency has warned of worsening security in Afghanistan and asked the international community to address the problem.” BBC NEWS

January 14, 2003

Stimulus for Lawyers

“My colleagues on the editorial page dubbed the Bush administration’s proposal to eliminate taxes on corporate dividends”The Charles Schwab Tax

January 14, 2003

Sign Petition to Bush

Please join me in signing an online petition asking President Bush to let the weapons inspections work, rather than rushing to war. If we don’t act

January 14, 2003

Fool Me Twice — The press swallows a story. By William Saletan

This is a brilliant piece by Saletan, in which he takes the administration’s garbage about Iraq’s supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction, and shows

January 14, 2003

Japanese Internment

Atrios has a great series of posts on the internment of Japanese during WWII. Included is a link to a 1941 propaganda movie justifying the camps.

January 13, 2003

Eat Your Vegetables? Only at a Few Schools

I personally am convinced that a better school diet will reduce the number of Ridlin prescriptions! “A school lunch often looks like an exercise in

January 13, 2003

This Modern World

A brilliant one from Tom Tommorow: Salon.com Comics

January 13, 2003

Action Alert: Detroit Residents Cut-off from Heat, Water, Lights!

Detroit Residents Cut-off from Heat, Water and Lights! DTE Energy and Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) show greed — no holiday spirit.

January 13, 2003

La Vie de Jésus

Bruno Dumont’s La Vie de Jésus is nearly as good as his second film L’Humanite. He is an amazing director with an acute understanding of the

January 13, 2003

Transfer by any other name

“On a square hosting a vast Jewish candelabra, decked with Israeli flags, two women chat in the wintry sunshine. They are among the 400 Jewish

January 13, 2003

Report from Venezuelan Solidarity Brigade

“Chavistas are pushing the national government to transform the oil company into a truly people owned company, not just nationalized in name only.

January 12, 2003

Thousands Rally Against War in Iraq, Push Peace

Although pro-US protests in Korea made it to the front page of the NY Times, the real story is a massive anti-war protest in LA — the largest since

January 12, 2003

Afghans Protest Clan Leader’s Detention

“Two weeks later, the capture and incarceration of a top elder of one of the largest tribes in the Pashtun ethnic group has brought hundreds of

January 11, 2003

US convinced Iraq has banned weapons

What does this mean? If it is a “known fact” then why do we need inspectors? Where is the proof? This is just crazy talk… “The Bush administration

January 11, 2003

Governor Assails System’s Errors as He Empties Illinois Death Row

If you can’t run again, might as well make the best of it. Good for Ryan! “With a single sweep, Governor Ryan, a Republican, spared the lives of

January 10, 2003

Immigrants rush to meet US deadline

““I’m totally scared,” 28-year-old Chedli Fathi, whose student visa expired in 2001, told the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. BBC NEWS

January 10, 2003

Bush Proves He’s an Upper-Class Act

Robert Reich, former secretary of labor, argues that the problem with the economy is that increasing inequality is making the masses increasingly

January 10, 2003

Poet laureate joins doubters over Iraq

“CAUSA BELLI by Andrew Motion

January 10, 2003

KMT seeks to Deify CCK

“This, of course, is completely absurd. Taipei Times

January 9, 2003

Exempting Corporate Dividends From Individual Income Taxes

Is it unfair for corporate dividends to be taxed twice — as the Wall Street Journal claims? Well, first of all, much of corporate dividends aren’t

January 9, 2003

‘Pre-emption’ turns out to mean U.S. only attacks weaker enemies

““What the cases of North Korea and Iraq show is that if the threat is genuinely serious, the pre-emption doctrine is not pursued,” said Zbigniew

January 9, 2003

Karzai Mounts Anti-Warlord Campaign in Afghanistan

“Backed by the United States and the United Nations, Afghanistan

January 9, 2003

What are Dividends Anyway?

“You might think exempting dividends from tax”simplifies” the income tax. Nothing could be further from the truth. What it threatens to do is open

January 9, 2003

Bush Or Bush Lite?

A nice piece about Joe Lieberman: ” So, what’s not to like about Joe? Well, once you get beyond his style and his Big Money prowess, he looks

January 9, 2003

Wrong Way Reforms

This columnist in the Wall Street Journal believes that “double taxation” is a serious concern — for the very same reasons listed in the CBPP

January 9, 2003

Bogus Stimulus. by Robert Kuttner.

Kuttner weighs in: “The administration also claims that dividend income should be exempt from the income tax because corporations already pay taxes

January 8, 2003

Who’s Playing ‘Class Warfare’?

“With so many Americans losing their jobs and their health insurance, with senior citizens getting clobbered by prescription drug costs, with money

January 8, 2003

Age Before Booty — Tax cuts for the rich become tax cuts for the old

“The calculation was simple. Every rich person who died was a dead person. If you thought of him as rich, you envied him. If you thought of him as

January 8, 2003

Apple’s New iSUV

“Most computer users will find a 17-inch screen and gigabit data jacks about as useful as 4-wheel drive and roll bars.” Slate

January 8, 2003

Plan Gives Most Benefits to Wealthy and Families

I don’t understand how the Republicans can accuse people on the Left of “class warfare” when they introduce policies like these… And hasn’t

January 7, 2003

Wartime Iraq aid calamity feared

“Despite the near-constant talk of a U.S.-led invasion to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein, aid officials here say there appears to be little

January 7, 2003

How Policy Gets Made

Seems that a new book by the writer of the “Axis of Evil” speech reveals that policy had more to do with oratory than planning. “In the book, he

January 7, 2003

The Costs Of The Money Chase

“… over the past decade, the group Democracy 21 reports that corporations gave $636 million to Republicans and $449 million to Democrats — and in

January 7, 2003

Afghanistan’s power-hungry neighbours

“RUSSIA IS ARMING ONE WARLORD, Iran another. Wealthy Saudis have resumed funding Islamic extremists and some Central Asian republics are backing

December 20, 2002

Assasination (But that’s not what Rumsfeld calls it…)

“The military’s previous experience with assassination programs suggests some of the difficulties involved. In the late nineteen-sixties, during the

December 20, 2002

Scare Tactics

I have long believed that the President’s plan to innoculate people for Smallpox is just a scare tactic to gain support for a war in Iraq. Now it

December 20, 2002

Take Action!

I’ve interrupted my packing in light of reports that it looks like war. Time to stop talking and to take to the streets. Hope to see everyone in DC

December 20, 2002

Two weeks off…

I’m going to be doing other things for the next two weeks, so this site won’t be updated till after January 7th. I strongly urge you to take a daily

December 19, 2002

Cities Say No to Federal Snooping

“Fearing that the Patriot Act will curtail Americans’ civil rights, municipalities across the country are passing resolutions to repudiate the

December 19, 2002

Donor Group Gives Karzai Control of Aid

“Some two dozen donor nations rallied to the support of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan today, pledging $1.2 billion in fresh relief aid and

December 19, 2002

Hundreds Are Held After Visits to INS

“Hundreds of men and boys from Middle Eastern countries were arrested by federal immigration officials in Southern California this week when they

December 19, 2002

The NYPD Wants to Watch You

“As the nation’s largest law enforcement agency

December 19, 2002

Lott to Frist? — Racism to Medical Fraud

This is a must-read article on Bush’s pick for Lott’s replacement! “…the fair-haired choice of the White House appears to be Tennessee’s Bill

December 18, 2002

Leaked report says German and US firms supplied arms to Saddam

“British officials said the list of companies appeared to be accurate. Eighty German firms and 24 US companies are reported to have supplied Iraq

December 18, 2002

No War Blog: Arguing Against “War” or the “Threat of War”…

I wrote this short piece and posted it today at Stand Down. “If the continued support of Bush despite general reluctance to go to war can be

December 18, 2002

Clinton calls GOP ‘hypocritical’ on Lott

“Former President Clinton said Wednesday it is”pretty hypocritical” of Republicans to criticize incoming Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott for

December 18, 2002

No War Blog: Arguing Against “War” or the “Threat of War”…

I wrote this short piece and posted it today at Stand Down. “If the continued support of Bush despite general reluctance to go to war can be

December 16, 2002

Hindu Nationalists Win Indian State Election

Fear as a political tool. Works for Republicans, so why can’t the BJP use it? “The decisive victory by the BJP, which also heads India’s national

December 16, 2002

Keeping Track of John Poindexter

“The head of the government’s Total Information Awareness project, which aims to root out potential terrorists by aggregating credit-card, travel,

December 16, 2002

Nobel Prize for proving Economists are more Selfish!

Well, not really, but this is a good article by Joseph Stiglitz (last year’s winner) on what this year’s winner has done to help us understand

December 16, 2002

So Many Nodes, So Little Security

There is a nice map with the article. “Only 30 percent of the networks discovered in Mr. Lara’s survey had turned on the encryption system in their

December 15, 2002

Lieberman!?

I hope this is a joke: “Mr. Gore’s decision opens the way for his running mate from 2000, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, to run for president. Mr.

December 14, 2002

Tax and Spend

“Yes, I’m deeply concerned about the words expressed by Senator Lott at Strom Thurmond’s birthday party. But I’m even more concerned about the words

December 14, 2002

An expensive 62.5%

“The Pentagon’s missile defense program suffered a setback early Wednesday when an interceptor failed to separate from its booster rocket and missed

December 14, 2002

Why are the coup plotters so impatient?

“This high pro-coup intensity against Venezuelan democracy enters a new paradox. The Bolivarian Constitution of 1999, born from the breast of a

December 14, 2002

Why Strike?

” There are 34,000 transit workers in the TWU. Last year, the MTA filed 16,000 disciplinary actions

December 14, 2002

Respect From M.T.A. Is Workers’ Big Concern

The NY Times actually reported the worker’s side of the story. Although 33 grand a year is not much in NY, so I find it strange that the NY times

December 13, 2002

Lott liked the old-racist Thurmand, not the new reformed one!

“It’s true that, to our knowledge, Thurmond has never given a big speech saying, essentially,”I was wrong to run in 1948.” But the man has gone

December 13, 2002

Powell Unveils U.S.-Arab Initiative

This initiative is small change compared to the billions of dollars spent on supporting undemocratic governments, like those in Egypt, but Powell is

December 12, 2002

Trent Lott Supported White-Supremacist Group

“Emerging evidence shows Trent Lott addressed a white supremacist group at least twice in the 1990’s and is on record praising the group,

December 12, 2002

Mac Addicts to the Rescue

“Mac Addicts to the Rescue Mac Addicts to the Rescue

December 12, 2002

The moral high ground … nukes and land mines.

Lets get this straight — we should go to war with Iraq because of their use of banned weapons of mass destruction; and, in doing so, we are

December 12, 2002

Are cross-burnings speech or violence?

“No one can deny that cross-burning is criminalized solely because of the message it conveys. And it’s clear from the justices today that the more

December 11, 2002

My new spam fighting links page!

Fight Spam I’ve created a new page of bookmarks with resources for fighting spam. Links to sites that filter spam, ideas for reducing spam, and

December 11, 2002

Ersatz Advisers. by Robert Kuttner

“What happened next was even stranger. To succeed O’Neill, Bush turned to another industrialist with no Wall Street credentials, railroad executive

December 11, 2002

A brief history of Russia’s Policy Toward Muslims

“The ambivalent relationship between Russia and its Muslims is deeply rooted in history. Russia conquered Muslim territories in the Volga-Ural area,

December 11, 2002

Trying to Buy Our Way Out of Trouble

Why consumption isn’t the answer to all our ills! “But even with rising tides of prosperity, the postwar consumer culture fed inequalities that are

December 11, 2002

First Aboriginal Autonomous District for Taiwan?

“Orchid Island is expected to become the first Aboriginal autonomous district if Aboriginal self-government legislation is passed, government

December 11, 2002

Mass Protest and Peace Congress — Jan 18, Washington DC

Just in case you forgot. I imagine that by then we will know if there is going to be a war or not — it may have already started. In any case, mark

December 10, 2002

‘All These Problems’

“Fifty years ago the politics of race in America weren’t at all disguised. Jim Crow laws both impoverished and disenfranchised Southern blacks;

December 10, 2002

The Final Bakke-Lash?. by Aaron Marr Page.

“Ultimately the Supreme Court will be left with two facts: First, schools want — and deserve — racially diverse student bodies; and second, given

December 10, 2002

US arms Algeria for fight against Islamic terror

“In its wish to win the support of Muslim states for its war on terrorism, Washington appears to have replaced its previous reluctance to arm

December 10, 2002

Jimmy Carter’s Nobel Prize speech

“At the beginning of this new millennium I was asked to discuss, here in Oslo, the greatest challenge that the world faces. BBC NEWS

December 10, 2002

On Remote Hilltops, Israelis Broaden Settlements

“At least 66 new Jewish outposts, or fledgling settlements, have sprouted across the ridgelines and hilltops in those two years, compared with the

December 9, 2002

Pastoral Poverty: The Seeds of Decline

This is a must-read article from this week’s NY Times Week-in-Review. Not only does it point out what many have long known — that the real problem

December 9, 2002

HBO Recycling Gulf War Hoax?

“The fraudulent story of Iraqi soldiers throwing Kuwaiti babies out of incubators during the occupation of Kuwait in 1990 is depicted as if it were

December 7, 2002

Sri Lankans Reach Autonomy Accord

And sometimes people get tired of war … “Sri Lanka’s government and ethnic Tamil rebels agreed today to work out regional autonomy within a federal

December 7, 2002

Al in the Family

The American Prospect writes about two new books by Al Gore. I have to say that Gore seems to be trying very hard to make himself different from the

December 6, 2002

High-Speed Wireless Internet Network Is Planned

“The wireless technology known as WiFi, which allows users of personal and hand-held computers to connect to the Internet at high speed without

December 6, 2002

Jobless Rate Surged Unexpectedly in November

But whose counting when there is a war on? “The nation’s unemployment rate unexpectedly shot up to 6.0 percent in November, the highest level since

December 4, 2002

The Perpetual War Portfolio

“The Perpetual War Portfolio is an evenly weighted basket of five stocks poised to succeed in the age of perpetual war. The stocks were selected on

December 4, 2002

Dear Paramount Pictures

“Iqbal Pittalwala’s first book of short stories is a very good read. Pittalwala has put together a fine portrayal of the characters in the stories

December 4, 2002

Zeitgeist

“For both breaking news and obscure information alike, people around the world search on Google at www.google.com. With a bit of analysis, this

December 4, 2002

Rebates nothing more than a hoax.

“Retailers and manufacturers love them because they make goods”sound cheaper than they are — and chances are they will forget to send in the rebate

December 4, 2002

Bush anything but moronic, according to author

“In studying Bush’s various adventures in oration, he started to see a pattern emerging. TheStar.com

December 3, 2002

Uniting for Peace

“United for Peace is a new national campaign that brings together a broad range of organizations throughout the United States to help coordinate our

December 3, 2002

Monthly Review December 2002 The Editors

This quote makes this article sound like it is arguing that “its all oil” actually, it makes a very different point. However, it is interesting to

December 2, 2002

The Bush dynasty and the Cuban criminals

“The brother of President George Bush, the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, has been instrumental in securing the release from prison of militant Cuban

December 1, 2002

US bombs Afghan targets

“A US plane has bombed a target in western Afghanistan — the first time the US has used a B-52 bomber in the country in five months. BBC NEWS

December 1, 2002

Thanksgiving 2001 in Afghanistan

“On the evening of November 22nd 2001, as part of a ‘morale-boosting visit’, a troupe of six cheerleaders from the Miami Dolphins football team,

December 1, 2002

Victors and Spoils — Krugman

” A few months ago Mr. Rove compared his boss to Andrew Jackson. As some of us noted at the time, one of Jackson’s key legacies was the “spoils

November 28, 2002

Qualifications for Inspectors?

“ This is an alarming article in the Washington Post, which reveals that no background checks were conducted for the UN arms inspectors. Considering

November 28, 2002

The Adventures of Hamza

“The Adventures of Hamza will reunite nearly 70 of the finest surviving paintings from the Hamzanama, a fourteen volume manuscript created by

November 27, 2002

Kissinger to investigate the government? Not a hoax, but a true story!

“Asking Henry Kissinger to investigate government malfeasance or nonfeasance is akin to asking Slobodan Milosevic to investigate war crimes. Pretty

November 27, 2002

Talking with Friends and Family About Iraq: A Holiday Gathering Guide

Although phrased as a sort of Haggada, and some of the facts are slightly questionable, this is a generally good overview of the problems with the

November 27, 2002

Moved E-mail List to Bloglet

I moved everyone on the e-mail subscription list to a new service run by bloglet.com. You should have received a message confirming your

November 26, 2002

Kavalan recognized as 11th Aboriginal “tribe.”

“The Executive Yuan is set to approve a Council of Aboriginal Affairs proposal to recognize the Kavalan as the nation’s 11th Aboriginal tribe.

November 26, 2002

John Rawls Dies

“John Rawls, who served as the Conant professor emeritus and was one of the most notable political and moral philosophers of the 20th century, died

November 25, 2002

Bush listens to Chomsky’s advice?

I wasn’t going to blog this item by Chomsky, but now that the NY times is reporting that we are actually following Chomsky’s “modest proposal” I had

November 25, 2002

Afghan Action

Here is a list of upcoming readings by the authors of Women for Afghan Women

November 20, 2002

In First-Ever Ruling, Secret Appeals Court Allows Expanded Government Spying on U.S. Citizens

“- Ruling for the first time in its history, the ultra-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review today gave the green light to a

November 20, 2002

No Blogging till Monday

I’m heading to New Orleans, so no blogs till I get back. If I miss anything truly momentous let me know! Otherwise I’ll assume it is buisness as

November 20, 2002

Did the United Nations Authorize “No-Fly” Zones Over Iraq? By Chris?

“American and British war planes have been fired on several times in recent days while patrolling”no-fly” zones over Iraq. The Bush administration

November 20, 2002

Did the United Nations Authorize “No-Fly” Zones Over Iraq? By Chris?

“American and British war planes have been fired on several times in recent days while patrolling”no-fly” zones over Iraq. The Bush administration

November 19, 2002

Why We’re Going to War

In case you missed it! Tom Tomorrow does it again… This Modern World

November 19, 2002

Estimating the Casualties of the First Gulf War

“March 6, 1992: The Washington Post reports that the U.S. Census Bureau demographer assigned to estimate the number of Iraqis killed during the Gulf

November 18, 2002

The Evil That Is the DMCA

“Much has been written about what’s wrong with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). After all, it’s been used to jail programmers, threaten

November 18, 2002

Power Eludes China’s Women

“The five women named to the policy-making Central Committee make up barely 2.5 percent of that influential body — an all-time low in the 53-year

November 17, 2002

STOP GLOBAL AIDS NOW

“Last week, senior White House officials, in a meeting with AIDS activists, made it plain that President Bush is going to insist on underfunding the

November 17, 2002

Part-time profs try to strike a new bargain

“Nearly half of campus faculty are now part time, according to a report released last week by the American Council on Education (ACE). According to

November 16, 2002

Iraq: The Economic Consequences of War

“It seems likely that Americans are underestimating the economic commitment involved in a war with Iraq.” The New York Review of Books

November 16, 2002

Homeland Bill Rider Aids Drugmakers

Nothing like adding a few kickbacks in there to make the homeland more secure! “Lawyers for parents of autistic children suing pharmaceutical

November 15, 2002

Gun Land

If you missed NOW tonight, check here to read about this very important story on how Ashcroft is willing to change laws to eliminate all kinds of

November 15, 2002

George Bush’s Religious Philosophy

A must-see cartoon posted to the Stand-down web site (also referred to as the nowarblog. See Cartoon here

November 14, 2002

On April 17 1967, nothing happened here.

“the rash of bizarre, fake commemorative plaques that has suddenly begun gracing the streets of Paris has got the city council worried. There is,

November 13, 2002

Jiang Zemin’s Speech at the Meeting Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China

I think its great that there are still world leaders worried about freeing their countries from “the shackles of subjectivism and metaphysics”!!!

November 13, 2002

Iraq invasion will trigger ‘human catastrophe,’ report warns

“A report to be released today predicts that an invasion of Iraq could lead to a”human catastrophe” with casualties as high as 250,000 within the

November 12, 2002

Pentagon Plans a Computer System That Would Peek at Personal Data of Americans

“The Pentagon is constructing a computer system that could create a vast electronic dragnet, searching for personal information as part of the hunt

November 12, 2002

Microsoft to Invest $400 Mln in Indian Projects

“Microsoft Corp said on Tuesday it would invest $400 million in boosting education, business partnerships and software development in India, which

November 12, 2002

Kabul student protest turns bloody

“On Monday evening about 1,000 students gathered to protest in the west of Kabul about their poor living conditions and lack of electricity. BBC

November 11, 2002

Douglas Sirk done by Todd Hyanes — an interview

“Born in Hamburg in 1900 (as Detlef Sierck), the legendary director hobnobbed with the likes of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill in 1920s Germany, then

November 10, 2002

Who owns the media?

Someone e-mailed this to me: Media concentration, also known as media convergence or media consolidation, basically comes down to the fact that

November 9, 2002

Report Criticizes Colombia on Militias

“A new report by Human Rights Watch asserts that Colombia’s attorney general has undermined investigations of right-wing paramilitary groups by

November 9, 2002

Harry Potter — Pampered jock, patsy, fraud.

“He’s a glory hog who unfairly receives credit for the accomplishments of others and who skates through school by taking advantage of his inherited

November 9, 2002

Half — A — Million March in Anti — War Rally in Italy

“FLORENCE, Italy (Reuters) — More than half a million anti-war protesters from across Europe marched through this Italian Renaissance city on

November 8, 2002

Star Wars Spending Spree — Billions for Missile Defense, peanuts for anti-terrorism.

“With all the concern about dirty bombs, bioterrorism, and suicide bombers smashing airplanes into power plants, the public has pretty much

November 8, 2002

Move to the Left?

Is it too much to hope for a Democratic shift to the Left? As someone recently pointed out on a blog somewhere in cyberspace: “If voters wanted to

November 8, 2002

Bombing Barbie’s Playhouse

Perfect gift for the young’un — practice bombing civilians homes and placing an American Flag on it! “Forward Command Post $44.99 Take command of

November 8, 2002

Chokehold on Knowledge

“Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels wants to transfer control of information management from the printing office to individual

November 8, 2002

Afghan War Faltering, Military Leader Says

“The U.S. military is losing momentum in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan because the remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban have proven more

November 6, 2002

The story of the election: Democrats have no story.

“Two years into the Bush administration, the stock market has collapsed, unemployment is up, and the economy is stagnant. The out party

November 6, 2002

Afghanistan struggles to rebuild

“Here is a parlour game. BBC NEWS

November 6, 2002

Making globalization work for all

“Open markets are necessary for economic growth, but they are hardly sufficient. Some regions of the world have done extremely well from

November 5, 2002

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Moving to Bloglet

I will be moving the mailing list for this blog over to a service run by BLOGLET.com. This is a free service that allows you to get one daily e-mail

November 5, 2002

Moscow police turn against Chechens

“A police crackdown on the thousands of Chechens who live in Moscow and other Russian cities has left one Chechen woman, who was held hostage in

November 5, 2002

Exit poll service fails on election night

This is the only Y2K bug I’ve ever heard of! ““They changed the whole system because of the 2000 screw ups,” said the client. “But it doesn’t work.

November 5, 2002

No War Blog: Capitalism and Poverty

Read my debate with Radley Balko of Foxnews.com: “It is interesting how ideologically motivated writers tend to create straw men of the views they

November 5, 2002

Study Cites Repression By Afghan Governor

“A key Afghan regional leader courted by senior U.S. officials has personally overseen a wave of repression and politically motivated arrests and

November 4, 2002

Israel Committed War Crimes in West Bank, Rights Group Says

“There is”clear evidence” that Israeli soldiers and their commanders committed war crimes against Palestinian civilians — including unlawful

November 4, 2002

From Citizens To Customers, Losing Our Collective Voice

This is a thought provoking article, even if it ultimately jumps from one argument to another without fully developing any of them. “It would be a

November 4, 2002

Holograms in Motion

“Three-dimensional holographic video images will be generated by a computer rather than being fixed in a static medium; they will be shown in

November 3, 2002

Earthquake school ‘built on the cheap’

When the 9-27 earthquake happened in Taiwan, I remember that it was a lucky thing it happened at night. Most of the schools near the epicenter

November 3, 2002

Life Under the 7

Here is an illustration (from the Sept. 3, 2001 New Yorker) of life under the elevated 7 train in Jackson Heights. It is by Ben Katchor, whose work

November 3, 2002

How America’s Friends Really Fight Terrorism

“When the White House urges a crackdown, as it frequently does in public statements and private meetings, it knows–and does not mind–that terrorism

November 3, 2002

Author cancels US tour over ‘profiling’

“A celebrated Canadian author, Rohinton Mistry, has cancelled the second half of his US book tour because of racial profiling at US airports.” BBC

November 3, 2002

Tinker, Banker, NeoCon, Spy

“He is shunned by all Western powers save the United Kingdom, ostracized in the Arab world and disdained even by many of his erstwhile comrades in

November 2, 2002

Japan’s Growing Mac ‘Mod’ Squad

“Hayashi’s customizations are just one of the many ways Japanese Mac users like to decorate their machines

November 1, 2002

Hero

Director: Zhang Yimou Cast: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung … Sounds exciting! “Before became the First Emperor of China, Ying Zheng (played by

October 31, 2002

Selling Out: An Interview with Mark Green

“Now, of the 62 senators who voted with the industry against raising fuel efficiency standards, the average received about $19,000 in contributions

October 31, 2002

Chance for Change in Israel

“More than two years of Palestinian violence, military counteroffensive and reoccupation have shredded the Israeli economy and left its poorest

October 31, 2002

New 2003 model cars headed for showrooms show steady decline in fuel economy

“Average fuel economy for the galaxy of shiny new 2003 model cars and trucks headed for showrooms is 20.8 miles per gallon, about 6 percent below

October 30, 2002

The Times runs a tacit correction (Tom Tomorrow)

“”The demonstration on Saturday in Washington drew 100,000 by police estimates and 200,000 by organizers’, forming a two-mile wall of marchers

October 30, 2002

Raising the Bar

Tom Tomorrow has an excellent rant in his blog today. Here is an excerpt: “And in an article about the march in yesterday’s Salon, Michelle

October 30, 2002

2002 Margaret Mead Film Festival

“39 films from over 19 countries represent the range of documentary from indigenous community media to experimental non-fiction.” American Museum

October 30, 2002

No War Blog

This is a great new site for the anti-war blogsphere. “We hereby invite bloggers of the left, the right, and other political persuasions to add

October 30, 2002

Brazil Sets an Example in Computerizing Its National Elections

““Certainly Brazil is way ahead of the United States right now in terms both of the technology and administration of the election process,” said

October 29, 2002

One Charger to Juice Many Gizmos

“The startup, Splashpower, has developed a prototype electromagnetic chip that can be embedded in any device that requires charging such as a PDA or

October 29, 2002

Sense and nonsense about self-defense when proof is needed

George P. Fletcher is Cardozo professor of jurisprudence at Columbia Law School “Perpetrators of violent acts rarely concede that they are

October 29, 2002

Winona Jury Shocker

“How dumb were prosecutors to let Peter Guber, former head of Sony Pictures, on to the Winona Ryder shoplifting jury? They must not have read Nancy

October 29, 2002

There’s Sheer Wizardry In Us Muggles

Chris Mooney seems to miss the overt similarities to British Colinial policy, but he does a good job of highlighting the contradictions in how

October 29, 2002

The Rights of ‘Enemy Combatants’

“The government has put Mr. Hamdi in a legal purgatory. If he were charged with a crime in a civilian court, as Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th

October 29, 2002

US weapons secrets exposed

“In a paper to be published soon in the scientific journal Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the two academics focus on recent US actions that have

October 29, 2002

NPR, New York Times Count Out Anti-War Activists

“National Public Radio and the New York Times arrived at the same conclusion about the anti-war rally in Washington, DC this weekend: The turnout

October 29, 2002

Birth rate reflects women’s plight

“According to a comparative study on declining birth rates in four countries (the US, Sweden, Germany, and Japan), Sweden was the only country with

October 29, 2002

Meet the new Zionists

“The members of the Christian Coalition of America are some of the most passionate defenders of Israel in the United States. There’s just one catch:

October 29, 2002

The Shame of Meatpacking

“America’s 150,000 meatpacking workers perform the most dangerous job in the country, many of them making knife cuts every few seconds. In 2000 the

October 27, 2002

Aboriginals unite against lack of progress on self-rule

“Thousands of Aboriginal citizens from around the island demonstrated in front of the Presidential Office yesterday to push for a return of

October 27, 2002

Women Suffer Most in Afghan Health Crisis, Experts Say

“Previous studies, including by United Nations agencies, have shown Afghanistan’s maternal mortality rate to be among the highest in the world.

October 25, 2002

The root of American-style terrorism

“FBI statistics show there have been nearly 500 “terrorist” acts on US soil over the past two decades

October 25, 2002

Bush Enlists Government in GOP Campaign

“A recent e-mail to the 6,100 full-time headquarters employees of the Environmental Protection Agency reminded them of the provisions of the Hatch

October 25, 2002

Congressman Criticized For Attacking Free Software Movement

“Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., whose biggest campaign contributor is Microsoft, was criticized by the technology committee Wednesday for an addendum to

October 25, 2002

‘Push’ is pulled, leaving ABC free of dreaded quirkiness

“Farewell, Jim Prufrock. Adios, Mary Sloman. We wish you were on a network that could afford to stick its neck out and keep it out there for a full

October 24, 2002

Mountain cultures in grave danger says UN

“At risk: a way of life Guardian

October 24, 2002

The rise of India’s poppadum queen

“Pioneer of one of the most amazing success stories in Indian business, Jaswanti Ben, and seven other out-of-work women, started her poppadum

October 24, 2002

Chen Supports Treaty for Aborigine Autonomy

“At a ceremony with the nation’s Aboriginal tribes, Chen Shui-bian said he would follow through on on a deal he signed that effectively grants

October 23, 2002

contributions to federal candidates

The list in this report of the top 100 organizational donors since 1989 is the first installment of ongoing research… “Incumbency, rather than

October 23, 2002

Conviction of a Brutal Killer Leaves Afghan Justice on Trial

“So when Shah, 37, was convicted of multiple violent crimes and sentenced to death last week by a national security court here, many Afghans cheered

October 23, 2002

Dad’s ‘Immoral’ Poem Exiles Son

“An Egyptian appeals court has confirmed the guilty verdict in the case of Shohdy Naguib Surur, who was sentenced to one year in prison in June for

October 23, 2002

For Bush, Facts Are Malleable

“As Bush leads the nation toward a confrontation with Iraq and his party into battle in midterm elections, his rhetoric has taken some flights of

October 23, 2002

For Richer

In case you missed Krugman’s article in last week’s magazine, it is certainly worth a read. If you’ve read Amartya Sen’s book “Development as

October 23, 2002

Multinationals in scramble for Congo’s wealth

“Dozens of multinationals including Barclays Bank, De Beers and Anglo American have been accused of facilitating the plunder of the Democratic

October 22, 2002

March For Peace On Saturday

“This Saturday, Oct. 26, tens of thousands of students, peaceniks, priests, union members, war veterans and working moms and dads will gather in

October 22, 2002

Juvenile Death Penalty

“The United States is alone among Western nations in executing those who committed their crimes as juveniles. According to statistics compiled by

October 22, 2002

What a Difference Four Years Makes: Why U.N. inspectors left Iraq–then and now

This is an interesting list of quotes from four years ago and from today. It includes almost every major news source (NY Times, Newsweek, LA Times,

October 21, 2002

Trackback Test

Here is a link to a URL on my news web site: http://kerim.oxusnet.net/nucleus/action.php?action=plugin&name=TrackBack&tb_id=760

October 21, 2002

Australian Hypocrisy

“Howard’s openly racist policies have again begun to isolate Australia. He has deployed Australian troops against helpless, mostly

October 21, 2002

Preventive Attacks Fail Test of History

“There are many recent examples of how preventive actions by the U.S. cost lives, squandered money and heightened international antagonisms. The CIA

October 21, 2002

Paxil is Forever

Whehter or not the main claim of this article (that Paxil is addictive) is true, the following data is quite scary: “The ads pay off for drug

October 21, 2002

US military scales back war on drugs

“The Pentagon is scaling back its role in the”war on drugs” in what amounts to a tacit admission of failure in countering the narcotics trade.

October 21, 2002

Tell a friend!

If you find this blog useful, tell your friends! You can direct them either to the web page: http://kerim.oxus.net/nucleus/index.php?blogid=1 Or to

October 21, 2002

Universal health care program for Oregon?

“Anything that pisses off the health insurers has got to be good.” Working for Change

October 20, 2002

Desmond Tutu: Do I Divest?

“To criticize the occupation is not to overlook Israel’s unique strengths, just as protesting the Vietnam War did not imply ignoring the distinct

October 20, 2002

Krugman’s Blind Spot

“Hmmm

October 19, 2002

Deter and Contain. Morton H. Halperin.

“What reason is there to believe that an active containment effort would not succeed against Saddam Hussein, who is clearly much weaker than Stalin

October 18, 2002

U.S. Pinpoints Top Al Qaeda Financiers

“The official said most of the alleged financiers are wealthy Saudi bankers and businessmen. Because the Saudi government has previously proven

October 18, 2002

I’m an American tired of American lies

Actor Woody Harrelson gets political in London! “Woodman and I agree about a lot of things, but one thing we can never agree about is Iraq. He

October 18, 2002

40% for the top 1%

Krugman: “Put all this together and it becomes clear that, sure enough, something like 40 percent of the tax cut

October 18, 2002

How Smart Are Our Smart Bombs?

“One remarkable statistic to come out of the 1999 air war against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was that, ton for ton, the bombing killed

October 18, 2002

Bait and Switch

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF “Listen to the American hawks after a few glasses of wine, and you might be seduced into thinking that after overthrowing

October 17, 2002

Dick Cheney, Dove — More on why Bush p?ɬ

This is amazingly a quote by Dick Cheney (from 1991) on why it didn’t make sense to seek regime change! “You deploy a force, you win the war, and

October 17, 2002

Indonesia at the crossroads

“Hefner argues that moderate Muslims would never allow Indonesia to become an Islamic state, and that Abu Bakar Baasyir may soon be under house

October 17, 2002

More Anti-War Activists Snagged by “No Fly” List

“The No Fly list is still up and running. The FBI and the Transportation Security Administration have a list of suspicious people they distribute to

October 17, 2002

What’s wrong with the Senate’s Election Reform Initiative

This is from a letter from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights regarding the ID requirements in the legislation passed by the Senate. “The

October 16, 2002

Senate Approves Overhaul of Election Procedures

Even though these two backed down where it really counted — war in Iraq — they have at least shown some leadership on this one. Although I doubt

October 16, 2002

They really know how to bluster and lie

“LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT. The White House resists creating a Homeland Security Agency for months. When the FBI scandals break, they quickly hop on

October 15, 2002

Wallace and Gromit film premi?

“Oscar-winning animated duo Wallace and Gromit have returned after a six-year absence in a series of short films — and BBC News Online has exclusive

October 15, 2002

Spooks vs. Suits — Why the FBI and CIA don’t cooperate, and why they shouldn’t. By Daniel Franklin

“While geography represents an obvious difference between the FBI and the CIA

October 15, 2002

Why Congressional Web Sites Are (Usually) Worthless — It isn’t just Senate ethics rules. By Timothy Noah

“Click today on the Web page of a U.S. representative, and you’ll typically find little more information than you’ll find on the gagged Web page of

October 15, 2002

Google Search leads people astray

It turns out that most people come to my web site from doing a google search for something or another — often not finding what they are looking for.

October 14, 2002

Shihlin vendors smell something fishy

Bad news for the future of Taipei’s famous Shihlin night market … “Retailers say organized crime is dictating decisions as the Shihlin night market

October 14, 2002

Kabul Zoo Struggles Despite Pledges

““The arrival of more animals is the last thing that the Kabul Zoo needs right now as it continues to struggle to look after the few animals that

October 14, 2002

Make Love, Not War — Sex, consent, and the War Powers Act. By William Saletan

“Didn’t the president promise to exhaust diplomatic options? Didn’t he promise not to go to war unilaterally unless multilateral action

October 13, 2002

Bonfiglio,Race and the Rise of Standard American

“Bonfiglio, Thomas Paul Race and the Rise of Standard American Walter de Gruyter

October 13, 2002

Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas

“Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas. degruyter

October 13, 2002

Photo Essay — Bush’s foreign policy in Iraq

Someone forwarded this to me and I think it is quite brilliant

October 13, 2002

Contributions to the Sociology of Language

This is the list of books in one of the most important series of books on language politics. “Contributions to the Sociology of Language Edited

October 12, 2002

Creating a global knowledge network

Paul Ginsparg “Abstract: If we were to start from scratch today to design a quality-controlled archive and distribution system for research

October 11, 2002

Clinton and Schumer to Cave-in

Call today and let them know how you feel. “Sen. Hillary Clinton noted the strides Bush has made to answer the concerns raised about unilateral

October 10, 2002

Roll Call Vote in House on Iraq Resolution

See if your represetnative stood up to Bush or caved in. Either way write to them and let them know what you think! “The 296-133 roll call Thursday

October 9, 2002

Why the Democrats Caved

The reason the democrats caved is no big mystery. This way they don’t have to take responsibility. By passing the buck to Bush, the war will be his

October 6, 2002

Anyone Seen Any Democrats Lately?

I usually don’t care much for Thomas Friedman’s opinion pieces in the Times, but every once in a while he hits the spot. This is one that I hope the

October 5, 2002

White Man’s Burden

“Particularly in the Middle East therefore, democrats need to resist attempts to justify American imperial policies in the name of democracy and

October 5, 2002

One difference

This is an important point! “Of course, there’s one difference between the coming Iraq war and the previous Iraq war. Now there’s Al Jazeera, so a

October 5, 2002

US National Security Strategy: a gift to anti

By Todd Gitlin: “Bush

October 5, 2002

Senator Byrd — “Haste is Blind and Improvident”

Who is his speechwriter? This is a great speech! “Senator Byrd delivered the following remarks as the Senate opened debate on Senate Joint

October 5, 2002

Chicken Hawks and Ignorance

“Ignorance seems to be a guiding principle among the administration’s hawks. Dick Cheney supported South African apartheid and voted against a

October 5, 2002

Taiwan Romanization Debate

“The Cabinet’s approval of Tongyong Pinyin as the nation’s official system for Romanization may flounder because local government disagree” The

October 5, 2002

Fisk: Same Trick

“It’s the same old trap. Nato used exactly the same trick to ensure that it could have a war with Slobodan Milosevic. Now the Americans are

October 4, 2002

Not in Our Name Oct 6, 2002 — NYC

“We encourage people across the country, and especially from the East Coast and Mid-West, to come to NYC and make your voice heard on October 6.”

October 4, 2002

Romania closes door on gypsies

““Romania looks like the most extreme example of a European Union candidate country attempting to please western European governments by adopting

October 4, 2002

Project Vote Smart — A Voter’s Self Defense System

If you look up your representatives on this web site you will get the best data I was able to find about their voting records on specific issues.

October 4, 2002

FCNL — Action Alerts and Updates

“Oppose war against Iraq Urge your senators and representative to vote

October 4, 2002

Questions that Won’t be Asked about Iraq

Republican Congressman Ron Paul gave a wonderful interview on Bill Moyers program NOW, about why he is against war in Iraq. Here is a statement he

October 4, 2002

Gephardt’s fault the Democrat’s caved in?

““We had to go through this, putting politics aside, so we have a chance to get to a consensus that will lead the country in the right direction,”

October 3, 2002

You should, like, read all this stuff

A web page bibliography with sources on “like”. NPR Interview with Muffy E. A. Siegel Siegel’s article in the Journal of Semantics A Fresh Air Piece

October 3, 2002

Cellphones, and Then Some: The Latest High-Tech Mergers

“Gadget freaks often exhibit their own bursts of bizarre behavior, like carrying around one electronic gizmo to look up phone numbers and another to

October 3, 2002

Implant may help blind to see

“US scientists are developing a light-sensitive chip that will be implanted into the eyes of blind people to restore some of their vision.” BBC NEWS

October 3, 2002

C.I.A. Rejects Request for Report on Preparations for War in Iraq

You really have to wonder just who is in charge … “The Central Intelligence Agency has refused to provide Congress a comprehensive report on its

October 3, 2002

What War Looks Like — Howard Zinn

What really bothers me is that many people will read the following quote and think it is a perfectly reasonable statement for the Pentagon to make.

October 3, 2002

Light holds key to uncrackable codes

“Quantum cryptography gets around this by sending an encoded message and, separately, a key to decode it, which are transmitted in pulses of

October 2, 2002

Fox Hunting Trumps Peace Activism at Washington Post & NYT

“Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of London to protest military action against Iraq, rallying in what the London

October 2, 2002

White House: assassination of Saddam would be cheaper than war

“Commenting on the cost of a war in Iraq, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer ( news — web sites) said Tuesday it would be cheaper if President

October 2, 2002

Torricelli Adds to Volatility in Battle for Senate Control

“Beyond New Jersey, at least seven other Senate races are considered tossups by politicians and strategists in both parties. Four are currently held

October 2, 2002

Bush’s real goal in Iraq

Although this sounds like a conspiracy theory — it is really just from a US Government reports. I blogged a similar article from the New York Review

October 2, 2002

Fox Hunting Trumps Peace Activism at Washington Post & NYT

“Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of London to protest military action against Iraq, rallying in what the London

October 2, 2002

Republican-led filibuster

“WHO, EXACTLY, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR DELAYING HOMELAND SECURITY? You have probably guessed that this is a question to which Tapped already has an

October 2, 2002

THE 23-HOUR ORDEAL OF TWO REPORTERS

“Two Diamondback reporters covering the IMF-World Bank protests were arrested Friday morning and manacled for 23 hours. Surrounded by hundreds of

October 1, 2002

No-fly blacklist snares political activists

Tom Tomorrow had a link to this very scary story: “A federal”No Fly” list, intended to keep terrorists from boarding planes, is snaring peace

October 1, 2002

Iraqi Women Less Oppressed Than Saudi Arabians

This is a nice article by Kristoff: “Still, we shouldn’t demonize all of Iraq

October 1, 2002

Oil firms wait as Iraq crisis unfolds

Another Tom Tomorrow tip: “a new Iraq oil boom could begin within two years of the war’s end …. Once production reaches its full capacity, they

October 1, 2002

One Visa Problem Costs a Festival Two Filmmakers

“The internationally acclaimed Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1997 for”A Taste of Cherry,” was unable

September 30, 2002

Rich Nations Are Criticized for Enforcing Trade Barriers

“”It is hypocrisy to encourage poor countries to open their markets while imposing protectionist measures that cater to powerful special interests,”

September 30, 2002

Ashcroft

Another Newsweek story! Ashcroft and the MKO … “THE 27-PAGE DOCUMENT

September 30, 2002

Woodstock is not a Shopping Mall!

While some people were protesting the IMF in DC, we went instead to hear Rev. Billy of the Church of Stop-Shopping give a sermon at the CVS protest

September 30, 2002

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What is up with Newsweek? They keep breaking stories ignored by the rest of the mainstream press … “The official story from both the 82d Airborne

September 27, 2002

Women for Afghan Women — The Book

It is only $11.16 at Amazon.com. Buy copies for your friends! (Look for an essay by my mom — A.J. Lederman.) “Women for Afghan Women: Shattering

September 27, 2002

New Software Quietly Diverts Sales Commissions

“The diversion begins when consumers get software from the Internet that helps them swap music or other files, or find bargains online. As they

September 27, 2002

Wildly optimistic data drove telecoms to build fiber glut

“Nationwide, only 2.7% of the installed fiber is actually being used, according to Telegeography Inc. Much of the remaining fiber

September 27, 2002

Taiwan’s Teachers to March

“Under the current Teacher’s Law, teachers may form professional associations that focuses on services and research on educational topics. However,

September 27, 2002

Rumsfeld should have answered yes

“Sen. Robert Byrd, a master at hectoring executive branch witnesses, asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a provocative question last week: Did

September 26, 2002

Israeli-Arab Hero Is Praised, but Not Embraced

“Rami saved an untold number of Israelis by alerting the police. But he was wounded after he stepped in, and he later found himself bound in a

September 26, 2002

Ours Not To Reason Why By Michael Kinsley

“But let’s pretend we actually do have some role in deciding whether our nation goes to war. How should we go about it when our leaders don’t come

September 26, 2002

Second Thoughts about Intel in Macs

“A deluge of reader mail has opened my eyes to some very sound reasons why the Motorola PowerPC chip’s days may be numbered…” BW Online

September 24, 2002

Gibson plans Latin project

“Actor Mel Gibson is to direct a film about Jesus Christ made entirely in the ancient languages of Latin and Aramaic — without any subtitles.” BBC

September 24, 2002

Motorola: New chip will bring GPS to all

“Motorola is unveiling a global positioning system chip it says is the first GPS satellite sensor small enough and hence cheap enough for practical

September 24, 2002

Major leaguer Chen also first for aborigines

Taiwanese Siraya baseball player breaks into the US Major leagues! “Chen’s family and their extended clanfolks are from the rural Tao-Shia village

September 24, 2002

War Talk Provides Cover Fire

Thanks to Cursor.org for pointing out no less than three stories about the link between “war talk” and burying domestic issues before the

September 24, 2002

Help welfare moms out of poverty

By my advisor, Dr. Judith Goode! “Most welfare mothers do not need to be”taught how to work.” The majority of welfare recipients are mothers of

September 23, 2002

Victory of the Loud Little Handful

Mark Twain, “The Mysterious Stranger” (1910). Twain had it right almost a hundred years ago. Sort of depressing, but encouraging as well. A must

September 23, 2002

Taiwan saved … by “betel-nut beauties”!

A Taiwanese academic argues that scantily clad women have helped save the economy. “For a country doing its utmost to step onto the world stage, or

September 23, 2002

Just Asking…

Just some of the many good questions Eric Alterman asks: “Why did the Bush national security team ignore the Al Qaeda briefing it received from

September 23, 2002

Marching off to peace

Ken Loach: “The scale of next Saturday’s anti-war demonstration in London may take some by surprise. Organised by the Stop the War Coalition and

September 22, 2002

Taking Rights Seriously in Beijing

This is a very interesting article if you have access to the NY Review of Books (subscription required). “Last May I was invited to China for two

September 22, 2002

Community forestry takes root in Bolivia

“The Yuquis traditionally lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Then five years ago they, and five communities of Mojeno, Mobima, Trinitario and

September 21, 2002

Harvard President Equates Criticism with Anti-Semitism

Read this quote by Harvard’s President. It clearly amounts to an equation of anti-Israeli criticism to anti-Semitism. This is no way to encourage

September 21, 2002

55% of 1999 Quake Victims are Ineligable for Housing

“But even so the Lius are categorized by the Cabinet-level 921 Earthquake Post-Disaster Recovery Commission’s regulations as”ineligible” for housing

September 21, 2002

G.O.P. Gains From War Talk but Does Not Talk About It

“Senior Republican Party officials say the prospect of at least two more weeks of Congressional debate on Iraq is allowing their party to run out

September 21, 2002

Pro-Israel Web Site To Monitor Views Of US Academia

“A pro-Israel think tank plans to start an Internet site Wednesday to monitor the attitudes of American professors and universities toward Islamic

September 21, 2002

ChickenHawks (courtesy of Cursor.org)

“Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura tells “Hardball’s” Chris Matthews that “it

September 20, 2002

Smart alarm clock lets you lie in

Now this is truly “smart” — I wish they would have something similar for the NY subway … “A smart alarm clock that will allow you a lie-in or wake

September 20, 2002

Full Text: Bush’s National Security Strategy

“America will act against such emerging threats before they are fully formed. We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. So we

September 20, 2002

What we have here … is a failure to communicate.

Two damming articles: The first points out that we knew planes could and would be used as weapons. The second that we had an FBI informant living

September 20, 2002

woman plunging to her death

I think it is a beautiful and moving sculpture. Too bad people can’t stomach it … “Response to a jarring depiction of a woman plunging to her

September 20, 2002

A Civil War Within a Trade Dispute

“What began as an obscure trade dispute between Europe and the United States has turned into a political brawl over $100 billion in corporate tax

September 20, 2002

US threat to stop Iraq inspections

Maybe there should be a UN resolution against Colin Powell? “The American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has said the United States will find

September 20, 2002

US allies take cash to free Taliban

“Since the early months of the war, stories have been circulating that Al Qaeda is paying locals tens of thousands of dollars to spirit its people

September 19, 2002

Fortunes of war await Bush’s circle after attacks on Iraq

When the United Nations relaxed its sanctions regime in 1998 and permitted Iraq to buy spare parts for its oil fields, it was Halliburton, under Mr

September 19, 2002

Stairs Lead to Change in Mayan Story

This is pretty exciting stuff: “Balaj Chan K’awiil was born to privilege and given a kingdom, but he sold out to the enemy, defeated his former

September 19, 2002

Waging war seldom leads to lasting peace

“Washington’s logic of force has failed in the Middle East and elsewhere. All three major American wars of the last half a century — in Korea,

September 19, 2002

Swedes not poor!

“When discussing the horrors of the Swedish welfare state, conservatives will bemoan the poverty and low wages of the Swedes. But when discussing

September 18, 2002

2.1 Million Jump .mac Ship

“Apple’s senior vice president of applications Sina Tamaddon continues to spin adoption rates positively, telling Macworld UK”We’re thrilled to have

September 18, 2002

Soviet Invasion — Brzezinski’s idea?

Tom Tommorow had this blog, but I have to wonder if Brezezinki isn’t trying to simply look like he had more control of events then he really did. I

September 18, 2002

Alfred E Neuman and J Edgar Hoover

…according to newly released files, the fearsome director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, J Edgar Hoover, was watching Alfred. He was not

September 18, 2002

Veni, Vidi, Vouchers — Why the battle for school vouchers isn’t over. By Avi Schick

“The Blaine amendments are named for James G. Blaine, a congressman and senator from Maine who, in the mid-1870s, unsuccessfully attempted to win

September 17, 2002

2-3/01 Multilingua

“MULTILINGUA Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication Editor: Richard J. Watts ISSN 0167-8507

September 17, 2002

Oxfam launches ‘Coffee Rescue’ plan

“Oxfam estimates 8% more coffee is produced than necessary every year, causing a slump in export prices. BBC NEWS

September 17, 2002

How Saddam Happened

An article in the Nation? No … Newsweek! “The war against Iran was going badly by 1982. Iran

September 17, 2002

American Historians Speak Out

“The balancing of powers was the device the Founding Fathers hit upon to prevent the tyranny of concentrated power. In writing Article I, Section 8,

September 16, 2002

On a Single Chip, Intel Joins Realms of Analog and Digital

“Intel says that combining digital and analog capabilities could some day, for example, consolidate all of a cellphone onto a single chip.” NY TImes

September 16, 2002

Step Aside, L.A. and Bombay, for Nollywood

“Since the late 1990’s, Nigerian movies have found a place next to offerings from Hollywood and Bollywood, Bombay’s equivalent, in the cities, towns

September 14, 2002

Richard Butler

“This morning’s Today Show set off warning bells earlier than I’d expected, as Katie interviewed Richard Butler, the government’s answer to the

September 14, 2002

Courting Terrorists — Why wars don’t stop terrorism. By Dahlia Lithwick

This is a very important point — Dahlia Lithwick points out how well the justice system worked by handling terror as a criminal act rather than an

September 13, 2002

Stocks and Bombs — Krugman

“The reason World War II accomplished what the New Deal could not was simply that war removed the usual inhibitions. Until Pearl Harbor Franklin

September 13, 2002

Observers: Evidence For War Lacking

“The White House document released yesterday as evidence that it is time to overthrow Saddam Hussein is a concise summary of his regime’s abuses of

September 13, 2002

Iraq first, Iran and China next

“Friends look at me as if I have lost the plot when I say this. But John Bolton, Richard Perle, Condoleezza Rice, Frank Gaffney and Paul Wolfowitz

September 13, 2002

Study Says ChevronTexaco Evaded Taxes in Price Scheme

“ChevronTexaco, the world’s fourth-largest oil company, evaded $3.25 billion in federal and state taxes from 1970 to 2000 through a complex

September 13, 2002

FOXNews.com

69% of Americans polled by Fox News answered yes!!! “Do you believe that Iraq currently has nuclear weapons?” FOXNews.com

September 13, 2002

The First Smiley :-)

“The smiley and its many variants are an important (and fun!) part of the worldwide online social culture — allowing emotions to be conveyed in

September 13, 2002

Taiwan passes 100% cellphone penetration level

“Taiwan’s Transportation and Communication Ministry has said that cellular phone penetration in the country has passed the 100% mark. With 22.6

September 12, 2002

US threatens world peace, says Mandela

“One of the world’s most respected statesmen, Nelson Mandela, has condemned United States intervention in the Middle East as”a threat to world

September 12, 2002

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

“Wireless FUD: Spammers could use WiFi ZDNet ran a story earlier this week about wireless spammers who drive up to open APs and send”millions of

September 11, 2002

Just When We Need Them Most

“… according to The Los Angeles Times, American media are presenting just 20 to 30 percent of the overseas news they published and broadcast 15 or

September 11, 2002

Of Chickens and eggs, and war and peace.

Here are my own reflections on 9/11: Even those in the current administration who seem to desire a never-ending war against terror are forced at

September 11, 2002

History Lessons on Tax-Policy Strife

This is from a book review… “What comes through clearly in”The Great Tax Wars” is that even though income taxes are accepted today and seem to have

September 11, 2002

What the President Has Learned Since 9-11 — Tom Tomorrow

This Modern World Cartoon Salon.com

September 11, 2002

W’s Op-Ed

Bush on 9/11: [This is a real quote!!!] “In great tragedy, we have also seen great opportunities.” NY TImes

September 10, 2002

Molecular chip promises much

“Researchers at the Hewlett-Packard research labs have turned to nanotechnology to help create a system that can store at least 10 times as many

September 10, 2002

Faster Wi-Fi standard gets nod — Tech News — CNET.com

“The 802.11g standard is part of the thicket of wireless networking standards. The most popular is Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, which has been installed in 15

September 10, 2002

Taiwan denounces Chinese ‘terrorism’

““While Taiwan is devoting itself to anti-terrorism, there is no reason to have the 23 million people here being shadowed by protracted military

September 10, 2002

China admits ‘blood stations’ caused steep rise in Aids

“Thousands of Chinese peasants who sold their blood to government-sponsored”blood stations” have contracted HIV-Aids, health officials have finally

September 10, 2002

one more detail

“In 1989, a 28-year-old woman was jogging in Central Park late at night, when she was attacked by a gang of teenage boys who had gathered for a

September 10, 2002

Real Battles and Empty Metaphors — Susan Sontag

“When a president of the United States declares war on cancer or poverty or drugs, we know that”war” is a metaphor. Does anyone think that this war

September 9, 2002

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

When I first saw this article on “couple busters” in Japan, I dismissed it as the latest piece of Japanese-exoticism. (It seems that there is a

September 9, 2002

Long-Term Joblessness Rose by 50%Over the Last Year

“Almost three million people nationwide have been out of work for at least 15 weeks, up more than 50 percent from a year ago. Half of them have not

September 9, 2002

Drive-by spam hits wireless LANs

“Speaking at the First International Security Users Conference here, Adrian Wright, managing director of Secoda Risk Management, warned that junk

September 9, 2002

Taliban and the radical Muslim group Hezb-i-Islami

“Thursday’s assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is widely despised in ethnic Pashtun

September 9, 2002

appeasement? not really…

“This invocation of the Nazi analogy skirts perilously close to Godwin’s Law, but it’s worth examining. An”appeasement” policy depends on the notion

September 7, 2002

Poetry and Sept. 11: A Guided Anthology By Robert Pinsky

The former Poet Laureate picks some pomes to mark the anniversary of Sept. 11th. “More often than not, the best poems about an event are written

September 7, 2002

Israeli economy buckling from cost of war

“A senior Israeli commander, Major-General Uzi Dayan, completed his tour of duty yesterday with a warning that the ailing Israeli economy will be

September 7, 2002

China Finds Its Shangri-La In Tourism

I thought that “Lost Horizon” was actually supposed to be based in the Hunza valley of Pakistan … “Zhongdian is not the only place to have

September 6, 2002

Media Beat: The Powell Trap: Easing Us Into War

“Media coverage is portraying Powell as a steady impediment to a huge assault on Iraq. But closer scrutiny would lead us to different

September 6, 2002

Overview of Changes to Legal Rights

Thanks to ThisModernWorld.com for pointing this out! “Some of the fundamental changes to Americans’ legal rights by the Bush administration and the

September 6, 2002

In war, some facts less factual

“When George H. W. Bush ordered American forces to the Persian Gulf

September 6, 2002

Case for invading Iraq is full of holes

“So why does Mr. Hussein want weapons of mass destruction? For their only real function — deterring other countries from attacking him. If he had

September 5, 2002

Who Will Bring Closure To A Grieving Nation?

What is really funny is the “sidebar” at the bottom of this article, from a “licensed grief counselor”. “Will it be a major network like CBS that

September 5, 2002

THE WINNER OF THE WAR ON TERRORISM IS. . . US INDUSTRY

“Siebel Systems is hardly the only company to recognise the War on Terrorism’s lucrative promise. For this year alone, the US government has

September 5, 2002

Jimmy Carter, Washington Post Op-Ed: The Troubling New Face of America

“Formerly admired almost universally as the preeminent champion of human rights, our country has become the foremost target of respected

September 5, 2002

An Alternative to Microsoft Gains Support in High Places

“More than two dozen countries in Asia, Europe and Latin America, including China and Germany, are now encouraging their government agencies to

September 5, 2002

Senate Approves Plan to Arm Pilots

Sometimes those CEOs can make a lot of sense! ““It must be noted, however, that while we are spending literally billions of dollars to keep

September 4, 2002

Surfing for porn costs jobs

“UK employers are spending more time disciplining staff over internet and e-mail abuse than any other office offence, a survey has found. BBC NEWS

September 4, 2002

NYPL Research Libraries will be closed on Mondays

Where is the outrage? I have not seen any news stories about this. Of course, working there everyday myself I am biased, but it seems to me that

September 4, 2002

Bush wrong to use pretext as excuse to invade Iraq

“Without convincing evidence of imminent danger, administration officials have been dusting off old cases that hint at Iraqi plots and conspiracies,

September 4, 2002

The 9th Circuit reversals stem from being too law-abiding, not too liberal

“In fact, while it is frequently reported that 17 of the 24 active judges were appointed by Democrats, this sly insinuation about the politics of

September 4, 2002

Hypocrisy now! — Molly Ivins

“When Dick Cheney was CEO of the oilfield supply firm Halliburton, the company did $23.8 million in business with Saddam Hussein, the

September 3, 2002

30 of 49 Palestinians killed in August were civilians

“Between August 1 and last night, 49 Palestinians were killed by Israel Defense Forces fire in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; around 180 were

September 3, 2002

Stand Up New York

“President Bush, backed by most other politicians and the mass media, is using the tragedy of September 11, 2001, to justify an endless”war against

September 2, 2002

US jail suspends devil worship services

“The Kentucky prison service has suspended satanic worship services at a prison while officials look into the legality of the practice. Guardian

September 2, 2002

China ‘blocking Google’

“China appears to have blocked access to the popular search engine, Google.” BBC NEWS

September 2, 2002

Black workers hit by US recession

Although those at the bottom made gains during the 90s, those at the top gained much more, and those at the bottom are hit the worst by the current

September 2, 2002

Edison’s Dim Bulbs — Why is the for-profit public-education company struggling? By Daniel Gross

“Edison is struggling mightily, and it’s hard not to conclude that its public status is partially responsible. Edison’s experience calls into

September 2, 2002

A Guardian of Jobs or a ‘Reverse Robin Hood’?

““How is it that billionaires like Shinawatra and Bernie Schwartz can get the U.S. taxpayers to subsidize their deals?” asked Franklin G. Polk, a

August 31, 2002

Anti-Summit Decries U.N. Trade Agenda

“So frustrated are many South Africans with global trade’s failures to improve their living conditions that there are not one, but two alternative

August 31, 2002

Uganda Troop Pullout from Congo Complete — Army

“The U.N. has only 4,200 personnel in Congo, Africa’s third largest country, and member states have failed to provide another 1,500 requested by

August 31, 2002

Iraq and Poison Gas

“It is suddenly de rigueur for US officials to say,”Saddam Hussein gassed his own people.” They are evidently referring to the Iraqi military’s use

August 30, 2002

Lack of Basics Threatens World’s Poor

“The United Nations says that 1.1 billion people lack clean drinking water and that 2.4 billion need access to sanitation. More than 2.2 million

August 30, 2002

Secrets and Lies — Seventy-five little reasons to be terrified of the FISA court. By Dahlia Lithwick

“The Fourth Amendment guarantees that”the right … against unreasonable searches and seizures

August 29, 2002

Report of Mass Afghan Graves Won’t Be Probed, Envoy Says

“The U.N. special representative in Afghanistan said today that the weakness of the Afghan government and the risk to investigators or witnesses

August 29, 2002

US blocks move to give powers to those threatened by multinationals

“The United States is blocking human, environmental and freedom of information rights from being enshrined in the earth summit’s plan of action in

August 29, 2002

Apple: Burn DVDs–and we’ll burn you

“At issue in the legal threat is Apple’s well-received iDVD application, which permits users to burn DVDs only on internal drives manufactured by

August 29, 2002

Who Declares War? White House v. Congress

Thanks to Tapped for finding this Legal blog which discusses the constitutionality of the White House’s assertion that it doesn’t need Congress to

August 28, 2002

Court Calls For Open Detainee Hearings

“Under the order,”The Executive Branch seeks to uproot people’s lives, outside the public eye, and behind a closed door,” Senior Judge Damon J.

August 26, 2002

US city where you can be guilty until proven innocent

“Civil liberties campaigners have responded with anger to the news that, for the last three months, Wilmington police have been compiling a database

August 26, 2002

In Kabul, Influx Of Refugees Puts Health at Risk

““Every 24 hours, 2 million people produce 800 cubic meters of solid waste. If all 40 of our trucks make three trips a day, they can still transport

August 26, 2002

A Shot Across the Bow From the Darkness

“Ironically, FISA was enacted as a reform in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Richard Nixon previously asserted the right to conduct unilateral

August 26, 2002

Bush on Fire

“In fact, the government doesn’t make money when it sells timber rights to loggers. According to the General Accounting Office, the Forest Service

August 26, 2002

US prison figures rise

“A record 6.6 million people in the United States were either in jail or under community supervision at the end of last year, according to new

August 26, 2002

Return of a Violence Auteur

Tarantino returns next year! ““Kill Bill,” in contrast, pays homage to the “grindhouse” exploitation films produced by the Shaw brothers of Hong

August 26, 2002

She’s No Martha:. by Noy Thrupkaew.

“On the issue of Martha Stewart versus Julia Child, the world is clearly divided into two camps. Perhaps you love Martha — her freakishly neat ways,

August 25, 2002

In Race to Tap the Euphrates, the Upper Hand Is Upstream

“By 2015, according to estimates from the United Nations and the United States government, at least 40 percent of the world’s population, or about

August 23, 2002

Secret Court Says F.B.I. Aides Misled Judges in 75 Cases

“But in a number of cases, the court said, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department had made”erroneous statements” in eavesdropping applications about

August 23, 2002

War game was fixed to ensure American victory, claims general

“The biggest war game in US military history, staged this month at a cost of

August 23, 2002

Foreign Prisoners Becoming a Problem for Karzai

“Several hundred Pakistanis have been released since the spring, but the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has visited many of the

August 22, 2002

1 in 4 Teachers Is Not Trained in Field

“About one in four classes at public middle schools and high schools is taught by a teacher not trained in the subject, and the problem is much

August 22, 2002

Palmtops in the Operating Room

“Such electronic checking has become common among doctors who use hand-held organizers. ( Harris Interactive, a research firm, estimates that about

August 22, 2002

Bank Robber Meets Corporate Criminal

This is written by an inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles who briefly shared a shower with Charles Keating.

August 21, 2002

Stroke the Rich — Bush’s bailout for well-off investors. By William Saletan

“But if investors are entitled to keep every dollar they gain in the stock market, it’s hard to see why they shouldn’t cough up every dollar they

August 20, 2002

The Gatekeeper: Watch on the INS: Detainees Equal Dollars by Alisa Solomon

“…the state of Nebraska, collecting $65 per detainee per day from the INS, rakes in more than $1 million a year over and above the cost of running

August 20, 2002

US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy

This is an important article on who all those “experts” are and why they are on TV. Turns out that most of them are from one of three right-wing

August 20, 2002

Chicken hawks

Where were the Hawks when it was their turn to serve? “Consider Washington’s two most prominent superhawks: Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld’s deputy) and

August 20, 2002

Linux battle becomes political

“A new body called the Initiative for Software Choice has started lobbying governments over their use of so-called open source software. BBC NEWS

August 20, 2002

Wireless channel use sets up turf battle

“The world’s biggest barista and a grass-roots group are squaring off in a wireless game of chicken at Pioneer Courthouse Square

August 20, 2002

White House intervenes in port talks

“In emotional rallies up and down the West coast, dock workers are telling the Bush administration to butt out

August 20, 2002

Surveillance Camera Map Project

They have a map of all the surveillance cameras in Manhattan! “The Institute for Applied Autonomy (IAA) and Surveillance Camera Players (SCP) lead

August 19, 2002

Who Would Buy That?

(auction oddities from all over the web)

August 19, 2002

The Death Convoy of Afghanistan

“How many are buried at Dasht-e Leili? Haglund won

August 19, 2002

Notebook overhaul on the horizon — Tech News — CNET.com

“PolyFuel, for instance, a spinoff of SRI International, is working on fuel cells for portable devices. The cells essentially break down methanol

August 19, 2002

Ian Willmore: corporate cash and the earth summit

Here is another opinion piece on Exxon-Mobile. This time about how they spent nearly a million dollars to pressure the Bush administration not to

August 19, 2002

TidBITS: Can the Digital Hub Survive Hollywood?

“Hollywood wants to be sure that you can’t do anything with video from TV or cable without the film studios’ permission. So while you may want to be

August 19, 2002

The Internet Archive: Building an ‘Internet Library’

“The Internet Archive, working with Alexa Internet, has created the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine makes it possible to surf pages stored in

August 19, 2002

Officers Say U.S. Aided Iraq in War Despite Use of Gas

“Though senior officials of the Reagan administration publicly condemned Iraq’s employment of mustard gas, sarin, VX and other poisonous agents, the

August 19, 2002

Apple’s Chief in the Risky Land of the Handhelds

“Mr. Jobs and Apple decline to confirm those plans. But industry analysts see evidence that Apple is contemplating what inside the company is being

August 19, 2002

Oily Diplomacy

“The Bush administration, promiscuously invoking the war against terrorism, is using its influence inappropriately to assist an American oil company

August 18, 2002

Backward Runs French. Reels the Mind.

“Within a couple of decades, Verlan has spread from the peripheral housing projects of France’s poorest immigrants, heavily populated with Africans

August 18, 2002

The Free-Trade Fix

This is the single best newspaper article on “globalization” written in the mainstream press that I have read. And it was the cover story in the NY

August 18, 2002

Suicide Bombers Change Mideast’s Military Balance

“As measured by the casualty count, the suicide bombings, as Rantisi suggested, have tended to level the battlefield despite Israel’s overwhelming

August 18, 2002

caro bensca

This is a public sculpture by Caro Bensca, an artist whom we staid with in Amsterdam a few years ago. Her web page has other photos of her work.

August 17, 2002

Afghan Farmers Threatening To Replant Opium Poppies

“Ziauddin, a sunburned 65-year-old farmer, watched with mingled regret and anticipation. Like thousands of other farmers who grow opium poppies in

August 17, 2002

Holy Cow a Myth? An Indian Finds the Kick Is Real

“Holy Cow: Beef in Indian Dietary Traditions,” is a dry work of historiography buttressed by a 24-page bibliography and hundreds of footnotes citing

August 17, 2002

Lines Crossed in China

“Deregulating telecommunications has tended to be messy everywhere, including the United States. In China, with its huge market and unsettled rules,

August 16, 2002

Israeli politicians are moving into campaign mode

“Ariel Sharon has”threatened” that early elections will be held if the Knesset cannot pass his proposed budget, a move that most regard as a

August 16, 2002

Krugman: Mind the Gap

“Back when I first got professionally obsessed with Japan’s problems, around four years ago, I made myself a mental checklist of reasons that

August 16, 2002

East Timor verdicts undermine tribunal

“Indonesia’s human rights tribunal for East Timor continued its run of astonishing verdicts yesterday by acquitting the police chief and five

August 16, 2002

Bush’s Court Crusade

“In July the administration promised to shut down every United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world if the U.N. Security Council didn’t grant

August 16, 2002

Useless Airways. Robert Kuttner.

There is a related article on the telecommunications industry by Paull Starr in the new TAP, but it is not yet online. “What’s truly amazing is

August 16, 2002

Bush vs. Women

Nicholas Kristof wrote this very strong condemnation of Bush’s policies towards Third World Women. I am very happy to see this, but I wish Kristof

August 16, 2002

CEOs say books are clean

Oops. I wonder what would happen if I made a 1.1 billion dollar mistake on my Taxes? “Mirant Corp., a natural-gas trader, said it may have inflated

August 16, 2002

Rumsfeld Says Lag in Aid Has Stymied Afghans

““The problem, in my view, in Afghanistan is not security,” Mr. Rumsfled said. “It is, rather, the challenge of bolstering the new government, the

August 15, 2002

‘Human shield’ death sparks debate

“Palestinian witnesses said 19-year-old Nidal Abumuhsein was forced at gunpoint to try and get the senior Hamas militant to surrender. BBC NEWS

August 15, 2002

Scientists shocked at GM gene transfer

“Weeds have become stronger and fitter by cross-breeding with genetically modified crops, leading to fears that superweeds which are difficult or

August 14, 2002

Judge Skewers U.S. Curbs on Detainee

“Line by line, a federal judge today dissected the government’s reasoning for holding Yaser Esam Hamdi incommunicado in a Navy brig here and

August 14, 2002

Afghan children struggle to swap streets for school

“Street children have been a chronic problem in Kabul, the Afghan capital, since war broke out in 1979. But their ranks have been swollen to an

August 14, 2002

ESOP’s Fable — United’s employees own most of the airline. So why are they helping to kill it? By Daniel Gross

Turns out, giving employees stocks doesn’t automatically make them act like owners. “Back in July 1994, when United was listing badly, company

August 14, 2002

Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft’s Hellish Vision

“Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft’s announced desire for camps for U.S. citizens he deems to be”enemy combatants” has moved him from merely being a

August 14, 2002

Congress gets ‘not a dollar more’

Bush found a reason to block a bill that would have sent money for election reform and the SEC. “Mr. Bush said,”A lot of that money has nothing to

August 14, 2002

Israel Blocks Peace Demonstration

“Some 700 Palestinian demonstrators in Bethlehem waited in vain on Saturday evening for activists from Ta’ayush Jewish-Arab Coexistence to arrive

August 13, 2002

The Smoking Gun: Archive

Dear George …. Here is an archive of letters from the correspondence between George Bush and Ken Lay (whom Bush claimed not to really know that

August 13, 2002

A Long Road of Broken Promises for Black Farmers

“The suit’s colossal settlement was designed to erase farmers’ debts to government creditors, put $50,000 in their pockets and give black applicants

August 13, 2002

President of Iran Says U.S. Creates ‘War-Like’ Tension

“The events of Sept. 11 were horrific, but the American leaders mis-used them, too,” the Iranian leader said at a news conference in the old royal

August 12, 2002

Pollution Linked to Deaths in India

“The two-mile-thick blanket of pollution over South Asia may be causing premature deaths in India on a large scale, and both flooding and drought in

August 12, 2002

New Freedom Ride for America’s illegal workers

“More than 40 years after the famous civil rights Freedom Riders challenged segregation in the southern states, a new Freedom Ride is being planned

August 12, 2002

School Vouchers: A Small Tool for a Very Big Problem

“The idea that a voucher program so limited in scope somehow equals Brown is preposterous on its face. By desegregating public schools and colleges

August 11, 2002

Officials Link Foreign Web Sites to Cheating on Exams

“After uncovering the Chinese- and Korean-language Web sites and assessing their effect on scores, test administrators suspended the electronic

August 11, 2002

Globalization: Stiglitz’s Case

This article does an increadible job of getting to the heart of Stiglitz’s argument against IMF policy. However, the criticisms he then aims at the

August 11, 2002

Jaw-jaw sells more papers than war-war in deepest Poughkeepsie

“Again, generalisations are dangerous. Some of these town journals are feisty and excellent. But, in the main, local papers leave big national

August 11, 2002

Immigrants See Path to Riches in Phone Cards

“In five years, prepaid phone cards have transformed immigrant life. It no longer matters if a newcomer lacks the credit history to get

August 11, 2002

Murder in India

British history lessons! “Such large-scale persecutions of religious minorities as took place in Europe in the Middle Ages were unknown in the

August 10, 2002

US schools returning to segregation

“American schools are now becoming increasingly segregated by race, according to a new study. Nearly half a century after the famous battles to

August 10, 2002

The Ancient Art of Haranguing Has Moved to the Internet

This is one of the best articles on blogging I’ve seen. Mostly because it actually discusses the print equivalent — the pamphlet! “Of course, in

August 10, 2002

After 186 Years, Human Rites

“They buried Saartjie Baartman, known as Sarah, today in a solemn ceremony on a small hill overlooking this Gamtoos River town, where she was born

August 10, 2002

Prickly Paradigm Press, LLC

“Prickly Paradigm #1 Prickly Paradigm Press, LLC

August 9, 2002

The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry

“The United States has never grown so much food. Scarcity is down, food is cheap, and enough food is produced to provide for every woman, man, and

August 9, 2002

Computer reliability and customer support

“According to our most recent survey of Consumer Reports readers, 5 percent bought a computer that was completely inoperable within the first month;

August 9, 2002

Gnutella bandwidth bandits

“Last September, the loose affiliation of programmers who monitor the Gnutella file-trading network noticed something strange. The network, a

August 9, 2002

Another ‘Large draft on our Credulity’ that Mr. Schurz duly honored

“In the wake of the Spanish-American War of 1898, the United States acquired several overseas territories, including Cuba and the Philippines. Carl

August 9, 2002

World’s wealth still relies on nature

“They report today in the US journal Science that the wilderness converted to human use each year actually costs economies $250bn a year, every

August 9, 2002

Marc Herold: Counting the dead

“In war, counting is not value-free. To overlook or underestimate the civilian dead gives rein to the enthusiasts of precision-guided weaponry. It

August 9, 2002

campaign finance reform efforts

“A 2-to-1 ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that a 1997 Vermont law that mandated campaign

August 8, 2002

A Timely Subject — and a Sore One

I used to live upstairs from Michael Sells. “…this year, the university in Chapel Hill is asking all 3,500 incoming freshmen to read a book about

August 8, 2002

Income Redistribution, GOP-Style — The House takes money from the poor and spends it on the rich. By Timothy Noah

“Although the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in November 1994 was widely heralded as a conservative revolution against Big

August 8, 2002

TV and Big Brother

“In a development bordering on what the American Civil Liberties Union called”surreal,” the on-line magazine Salon.com today revealed that the

August 8, 2002

U.S. Moves to Block Human-Rights Lawsuit Against Exxon Mobil

“The U.S. has moved to block a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. ( XOM) for alleged human-rights abuses at its Indonesian natural-gas operations,

August 8, 2002

U.S. Fears Grow Over Turmoil In Afghanistan

“Outside experts say, and some administration officials concede privately, that U.S. policy is hamstrung by President Bush’s aversion to

August 8, 2002

U.S. pilots stay up taking ‘uppers’

“U.S. jet fighter pilots, responsible for at least 10 deadly”friendly fire” accidents in the Afghanistan war, have regularly been given amphetamines

August 7, 2002

South African mining giant to give staff free Aids drugs

“Anglo American, the London-based mining giant, has become the first multinational corporation to provide its South African staff with free

August 7, 2002

Projects to Rebuild Afghan Roads Going Nowhere, Despite Promises (washingtonpost.com)

“At a time when Karzai begins nearly every speech with a plea for money to rebuild Afghanistan’s roads, when there are armies of unemployed men

August 7, 2002

Alternative perspectives on the “war on terrorism”

I’ve mentioned this blog before, but there are so many good posts today that rather than duplicating them on my blog, I thought I’d just send you

August 7, 2002

Alternative perspectives on the “war on terrorism”

I’ve mentioned this blog before, but there are so many good posts today that rather than duplicating them on my blog, I thought I’d just send you

August 7, 2002

U.S. Fails to Produce Documents on Prisoner

“The Justice Department has spurned a federal judge’s order to produce documents to back its contention that an American citizen captured in

August 7, 2002

Israel to strip first Arabs of citizenship

“Israel’s one million Arab citizens, who are already treated with suspicion by their Jewish compatriots, faced a new threat yesterday when the

August 6, 2002

Palestinians Lose Their Lifelines

“The curfews and roadblocks, which affect 700,000 city dwellers and hundreds of thousands of villagers, have already put most Palestinians out of

August 6, 2002

Census Finds Immigrants Lower City’s Income Data

Looks like the census didn’t count the impact of graduate students on pulling down the median income of Jackson Heights. “The surprising drop in

August 6, 2002

Our friends in Baghdad

Two articles on Iraqi history: “In 1941, Iraqis again rebelled against their British masters, but were crushed by RAF bombers. After World War II,

August 5, 2002

Bush held up plan to hit Bin Laden

“The Bush administration sat on a Clinton-era plan to attack al-Qaida in Afghanistan for eight months because of political hostility to the outgoing

August 3, 2002

Disease will ravage famine torn Africa

“Fourteen million people — half of them children — face starvation in Southern Africa. BBC NEWS

August 3, 2002

Poisoned Back Into Poverty

“By the government’s own count, 25 million workers in China are in regular contact with hazards such as toxic chemicals and coal dust, and 13,000

August 3, 2002

Google Voice Search Demo

I wish I understood how this works. Maybe only one person is on at a time? Or perhaps they just assume you will click close to the last search? In

August 3, 2002

Ma remains Tongyong Pinyin holdout

Looks like politics will keep street signs in Taiwan from becoming any easier to read! “Despite the central government’s decision to make Tongyong

August 3, 2002

Orality and Intellectual property

Some references I found: “Greaves, Thomas.”Tribal Rights.” Valuing Local Knowledge: Indigenous People and Intellectual Property Rights. Ed. Stephen

August 3, 2002

Taiwan head backs independence poll

“Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bian has backed calls for a referendum on independence, in a move almost certain to anger China. BBC NEWS

August 2, 2002

US terror suspects ‘must be named’

At the bottom of this article it mentions that most of the people detained were deported, but this is not commented upon. Why where they deported?

August 2, 2002

The Saddam in Rumsfeld

“Two years later, in an article about Rumsfeld

August 2, 2002

WAR AND FORGETFULNESS — A BLOODY MEDIA GAME

““U.S. Spied on Iraq Under U.N. Cover, Officials Now Say,” a front-page New York Times headline announced on Jan. 7, 1999. The article was

August 2, 2002

Turkey to scrap death penalty

Now if only the US would do the same … “The Turkish parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, and allow broadcasts in the Kurdish

August 1, 2002

Bush’s California Energy Stance Faulted

“… several weeks after Enron’s lawyers spelled out the company’s strategy for manipulating the California electricity market, Kenneth L. Lay,

August 1, 2002

Israeli-Palestinian Battles Intrude on ‘Sesame Street’

“These are the familiar battlegrounds of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Now another location has come under siege on the map of desperate

August 1, 2002

Copyright as Cudgel

“When Congress brought copyright law into the digital era, in 1998, some in academe were initially heartened by what they saw as compromises that,

August 1, 2002

Iraq: the myth and the reality

This panel discussion from the Guardian, in which they interview a wide range of experts on Iraq’s military capabilities is very interesting.

August 1, 2002

Rusfeld says thinking just confuses people

Hey, lets just bomb them — who cares what the facts are? “As the panel met, Defence Minister Donald Rumsfeld insisted that no decision had been

August 1, 2002

In an Ancient Game, Computing’s Future

“Programming other board games has been a relative snap. Even chess has succumbed to the power of the processor. Five years ago, a chess-playing

August 1, 2002

Disorders, Made to Order by Brendan I. Koerner

The Guardian presents an edited version of an article from Mother Jones “Drug companies say millions of Americans suffer from pathological anxiety,

August 1, 2002

Kidnapping for kicks in New York

“A bizarre new service offering ‘designer kidnapping’ for thrill-seeking New Yorkers is dividing opinion across the city. BBC NEWS | World |

August 1, 2002

Disposable mobiles hit the shops

“Disposable phones could soon be joining throwaway cameras in shops across the US. BBC

August 1, 2002

The Options Problem — It started with Adam Smith, not Bernie Ebbers. By Robert Shapiro

“The focus on stock options as a source of corporate misbehavior is fairly recent, but the problem that options are designed to solve is nearly as

July 31, 2002

Lawmakers Say Bush May Roll Back Part of Reform Law

“Lawmakers credited whistle-blowers with helping bring to light accounting abuses at Enron Corp. and other major corporations, and said the changes

July 31, 2002

Iraq: Why not do nothing?

“War supporters respond to doubters with a seemingly irresistible argument: What is the alternative? Do you really want Mr. Hussein to get weapons

July 31, 2002

AIRSTRIKE REPORT WON’T BE RELEASED

“AIRSTRIKE REPORT WON’T BE RELEASED The United Nations said it had decided not to publicly release a report written by a fact-finding team sent to

July 31, 2002

RIAA web site was buried under a flood of computer traffic

“The Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) web site was buried under a flood of computer traffic over the weekend, an apparent act of

July 31, 2002

Harken Energy set up Caymans subsidiary in ’89

It isn’t illegal — and that’s the problem! “Harken Energy Corp. set up an offshore subsidiary in the Cayman Islands tax haven while President Bush

July 30, 2002

Egyptian court convicts Islamists

“An Egyptian military court has convicted 16 men — mainly academics and professionals — of belonging to the outlawed Islamic group, the Muslim

July 30, 2002

Cairo activist jailed for seven years

“A leading Egyptian human rights activist, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, was jailed for seven years yesterday for receiving foreign funding without government

July 30, 2002

Tom Toles — Comic on the “last 22 years”

Welcome to uComics Web Site featuring Tom Toles

July 30, 2002

What book was that you checked out?

“Under the Patriot Act, the FBI doesn’t have to demonstrate ‘probable cause’ of criminal activity to request records. In fact, the so-called ‘search

July 30, 2002

Palestinians break curfew in Nablus under noses of Israeli soldiers

“Thousands of Palestinians poured onto the streets of Nablus on Monday in defiance of a 40-day-old Israeli army curfew, the strongest challenge yet

July 29, 2002

Hearing is Believing

“After more than a decade of trial and error and about $30 million in R&D, the 63-year-old Norris may be on the verge of changing the world as we

July 29, 2002

Stop U.S. Weapons Sales to Israel

It is time to cut off the flow of weapons to Israel, which is the top recipient of U.S. military aid at $3 billion a year. According to a November

July 29, 2002

NDOL: A Failure to Communicate by Joshua Micah Marshall

This is an interesting article about what is wrong at the FBI. “The Bush administration has been happy to pick fights with the American Civil

July 28, 2002

Why the mine was flooded

I’m sure everyone saw the headline about the rescue of the miners, but this was at the bottom of the page: ““I worked that old mine in the 50’s,”

July 28, 2002

Secret film exposes South African jails

“The South African prisons department has been forced to reinstate a governor who was sacked for resisting official pressure to destroy a secretly

July 28, 2002

Prison rapes spreading deadly diseases

“Lara Stemple, executive director of the non-profit human rights group Stop Prisoner Rape, told UPI,”Rape and HIV in prison is eight to 10 times as

July 28, 2002

US ships Al Qaeda suspects to Arab states

“In the war on terror, the US is careful to show how fairly it’s treating the hundreds of orange-suited Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters locked behind

July 28, 2002

It’s Republican vs. Republican on Cuba

Why the Cuban trade embargo might be lifted: ““I feel at some point that the farm state politics will overwhelm the Florida politics,” Mr. Flake

July 28, 2002

Fears that Saudi Arabia could fall to al-Qaeda

True? The Guradian thinks that the failure of Abdullah’s peace plan may have something to do with it. “Saudi Arabia is teetering on the brink of

July 28, 2002

Afghanistan’s landmine legacy

“According to statistics released by British de-mining agency the Halo Trust, Afghanistan is the most mined country in the world. BBC NEWS

July 28, 2002

Class-Action Lawsuits Gain Strength on the Web

“Yet many people who might have been entitled to file claims and share in settlements have received nothing, some lawyers say, because they were

July 27, 2002

Privacy?

Here is the latest privacy scandal: “They thought they were making routine purchases

July 27, 2002

Bill on Security Backed in Senate; Veto Threatened

Did anyone miss this? I ususally don’t post such headline stories, but I think it is amazing that the White House would be willing to veto the

July 27, 2002

Deep Linking Takes Another Blow

“Using a search engine to locate stories on newspapers’ sites violates European Union law, according to a recent ruling by judges in Munich’s Upper

July 27, 2002

Operation TIPS: Bush plan to recruit 1 million domestic spies

In case you didn’t already read about this: “Operation TIPS

July 27, 2002

Don Markstein’s Toonopedia: Krazy Kat

Yesterday was the anniversary of the first brick thrown in this famous comic! “On July 26, 1910, the mouse hurled a brick at the cat, thus

July 27, 2002

National and regional card games

Card Games from around the world, and how they are played! “There are a few card games that have spread throughout the world, but almost all

July 27, 2002

Bill May Disrupt Downloading Music

“A proposal by a California congressman would give the entertainment industry broad new powers to try to stop people from downloading pirated music

July 27, 2002

Opening the Secret Files on Lumumba’s Murder

From Stephen Weissman of the Washington Post: “I have obtained classified U.S. government documents, including a chronology of covert actions

July 27, 2002

How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web

“It’s hard to believe Google — which is now the world’s largest single online marketplace — came on the scene only a little more than 8 years ago,

July 26, 2002

The Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page

If you are interested in Paul Krugman, you may wish to check out the Unofficial Paul Krugman Web Page. It has links to the official web page as

July 26, 2002

Reclaiming the Commons

This article starts off the latest New Democracy Forum on the Boston Review. It addresses the issue of whether there should be limits on how far we

July 25, 2002

Guatemalan militia to get massacre reward

“The Guatemalan government is planning to reward the paramilitaries who took part in the massacre of tens of thousands of villagers during the

July 25, 2002

Dropping the Ball — The overrating of Six Feet Under. By Emily Nussbaum

Pretty much how I feel about the show. “Six Feet Under may have won an outrageous 23 Emmy nominations, but it’s really just Ally McBeal in

July 22, 2002

The Fanta Clause By Rob Walker

“A more complete version of Fanta’s story is told in the book For God, Country, and Coca-Cola, by Mark Pendergrast. The Fanta brand’s roots are

July 21, 2002

Afghan Bus Hits Land Mine, 13 Die

“A bus carrying people to a picnic area hit a land mine in central Afghanistan, killing 13 passengers and injuring six others, a U.N. official said

July 21, 2002

More than 1.3 million refugees have returned to Afghanistan

I generally don’t post from the WSJ, because it requires a subscription, but this quote pretty much says it all… “More than 1.3 million refugees

July 21, 2002

The Points That Prisoners Can Make

You really need to see the original article in the Magazine in order to appreciate the photographs. They are too small on the web page. “Stolen

July 21, 2002

Corporate Scandal Trading Cards — Collect ’em all! By David Plotz

“Unless you work for the Securities and Exchange Commission (and probably even if you do) the plague of scandals has left you as confused as an

July 21, 2002

Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundreds of Civilians Dead

“The American air campaign in Afghanistan, based on a high-tech, out-of-harm’s-way strategy, has produced a pattern of mistakes that have killed

July 20, 2002

Save Internet Radio! — Encourage the U.S. Copyright Office to reject the CARP recommendations

“America’s fledgling Internet radio industry could be effectively killed this summer based on the Librarian of Congress’s acceptance of most of the

July 20, 2002

Alan Lomax, Who Raised Voice of Folk Music in U.S., Dies at 87

“Alan Lomax, the legendary collector of folk music who was the first to record towering figures like Leadbelly, Muddy Waters and Woody Guthrie, died

July 19, 2002

Traficant

If you thought that James A. Traficant’s hairstyle was funny, then you really should see his homepage

July 19, 2002

Computers without Clocks

“Our research group at Sun Microsystems Laboratories seeks such alternatives. Along with several other groups worldwide, we are investigating ways

July 19, 2002

Plug for LBO

One of the more interesting newsletters I receive is called the “Left Business Observer”. It is a soidly Keynesian account of the current economy

July 17, 2002

The Economist against the Economists

This is a nice quote on out-of-whack CEO stock-option plans from an article in the Economist: “The key assumption of the optimal-contracting view is

July 17, 2002

Algeria — our “ally”!

General Nezzar’s witnesses argued that the army had saved the country from falling into the hands of a barbarian horde. But a dissident intelligence

July 17, 2002

Unofficial Web Site for “The Ring”

Released in early 1998 and made for a mere 1.2 million dollars, the Ring was the number 1 box office sensation of the year, smashing records in

July 17, 2002

Hot Dog Taylorism

This guy is a genius. I saw him on a TV show, but the economist truly captures the wonderful “efficiency” of his style: “Unlike any of the 19 other

July 17, 2002

Nigerian women storm new oil plants

A national police spokesman, Haz Iwendi, said that between 200 and 300 women had seized the stations, according to the French news agency AFP. The

July 17, 2002

Tom Tomorrow’s Blog

I’m slowly building up a list of interesting blogs. Today’s latest addition is Tom Tomorrow’s webpage which contains his blog as well. Be sure to

July 12, 2002

Current (Doomsday) Time

Chicago, February 27, 2002: Today, the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the minute hand of the

July 11, 2002

Welfare Reform

This following quote appears in one of the many articles in a new American Prospect special on Welfare Reform. (There are some good links on the

July 10, 2002

How We Ended the Cold War

The claim that Reagan’s military buildup unhinged Soviet Communism, and that the coup de gr

July 10, 2002

Vouchers are bad for a gazillion secular reasons

Pushing public-school students toward a religious education may not be against the law, but it certainly is bad education policy. Some parents argue

July 10, 2002

Women trap Nigerian oil workers

Hundreds of workers are unable to leave an oil terminal in southern Nigeria which has been occupied by 150 women protestors since Monday. The

July 10, 2002

Rebel groups reject CIA overtures down on the farm

Deep in the bowels of the US state department, not far from the cafeteria, there is a small office identified only by a handwritten sign on the door

July 8, 2002

Arab ban proposed in Jewish areas

Human rights groups in Israel are vowing to fight a government decision that would prevent Israeli Arabs from moving into Jewish communities built

July 8, 2002

New Pledge

I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that a reporter for the New Yorker called up Robin Williams to ask for a suggestion on how to fix the pledge

July 8, 2002

Globalization Discussed

The American Prospect has a special section on issues in depth which is quite good. This one is devoted to the issue of globalization. Their Policy

July 4, 2002

Two week (partial) hiatus.

I will be out of town for the next two weeks and I won’t be updating the site as frequently. If I miss something important, please alert me via

July 2, 2002

Third-World Workers

Last week Nicholas Kristof wrote another one of his foolish articles about sweatshops. I wrote a letter, which they did not publish. Instead, they

July 2, 2002

Water world satellite returns first images

“The first spectacular images showing the Earth’s oceans in detail have been returned by NASA’s new environment-watching satellite, Aqua.” New

July 1, 2002

The Chronicle: 7/5/2002: ‘Superarchives’ Could Hold All Scholarly Output

“Several colleges are now looking to share more of that work by building”institutional repositories” online and inviting their professors to upload

July 1, 2002

NATSA — Conference 2002

Abstracts of papers presented at the 2002 NATSA conference. Panels

July 1, 2002

Advances Nip at Its Heels, but Disk Maker Moves Forward

“The industry is in ways a victim of its own success

July 1, 2002

Judge Rules U.S. Death Penalty Violates the Constitution

“A federal judge in New York declared the death penalty unconstitutional today, saying evidence has shown that there is an”undue risk” that a

June 30, 2002

Boo Hoo Yahoo! — “Dot Com” Boom Left Some Janitors Behind

“The janitors who clean Yahoo!’s offices earn poverty wages, starting at around $16,000 a year, and do not have access to affordable health

June 30, 2002

Rahul Mahajan: Arafat Calls for New Elections in US

“Palestinian Authority President Yasir Arafat stunned the world yesterday by demanding that the United States hold democratic elections for a new

June 30, 2002

Boo Hoo Yahoo! — “Dot Com” Boom Left Some Janitors Behind

“The janitors who clean Yahoo!’s offices earn poverty wages, starting at around $16,000 a year, and do not have access to affordable health

June 30, 2002

Against Israeli Apartheid by Desmond Tutu & Ian Urbina

“The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of

June 30, 2002

Logically Speaking, the 9th Circuit Doesn’t Exist

Another good commentary on the 9th Circuit decision from Slate … “So as a matter of logic, there is something to be said for the 9th Circuit

June 30, 2002

Against Israeli Apartheid by Desmond Tutu & Ian Urbina

“The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of

June 30, 2002

Tanya Reinhart: THE PENAL COLONIES

This is an expanded version of an article in Yediot Aharonot, June 30, 2002. The Gaza strip is a perfect realization of the Israeli vision of

June 30, 2002

Indian Leader Names Hindu Nationalist As Deputy

“Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today appointed a hawkish Hindu nationalist as the country’s deputy prime minister, a move analysts said

June 30, 2002

Italian Directors

These are some nice notes from the excellent series of films aired last month on Turner Classic Movies. If you missed it, I suggest you write them

June 30, 2002

Pledging Allegiance To Fundamentalism

A religious litmus test for Judges? “But after Bush had a night to ponder the court’s decision — you think he read it? — he took pledge-mania

June 30, 2002

The Pledge of Allegiance — Why we’re not one nation “under God.” By David Greenberg

“The efforts to bring God into the state reached their peak during the so-called”religious revival” of the 1950s. It was a time when Norman Vincent

June 30, 2002

Debt to Society

“The Real Price of Prisons There are more people behind bars in the United States today than ever before. Since 1980, the inmate population has more

June 30, 2002

‘Masters of Death’: Himmler’s Willing Executioners

“When most of us think of the Holocaust we think of Auschwitz. But the industrialized, largely hands-off method of killing Jews at Auschwitz and the

June 30, 2002

The Pledge of Allegiance — Why we’re not one nation “under God.” By David Greenberg

“The efforts to bring God into the state reached their peak during the so-called”religious revival” of the 1950s. It was a time when Norman Vincent

June 30, 2002

Poor work conditions fuel unrest in China

“The plight of millions of migrant workers toiling for meagre wages in southern China has been thrown under the spotlight by a three-day textile

June 29, 2002

As curfew bites, a handful of men bring hope to the trapped

“By some peculiarity or whim of the Israeli military commander, the city’s fire brigade alone was granted dispensation from the curfew that has

June 29, 2002

Textbook Publishers Learn to Avoid Messing With Texas

“Textbook battles are legendary in Texas, where conservative critics frequently complain of liberal bias, and liberals counter with charges of

June 28, 2002

Our Secret Pledge

“Turns out that the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a Christian socialist, Francis Bellamy — first cousin of Edward Looking Backward

June 28, 2002

Fortuyn’s successor ‘is security plant’

“The future of the political party left behind by the murdered Dutch libertarian Pim Fortuyn was thrown into doubt last night when his successor was

June 28, 2002

The Supremes Pledge Allegiance to God. — Praise the Lord and pass the vouchers to the churches! By Dahlia Lithwick

An interesting article, although it would be more interesting if it addressed the union-busting aspects of switching funds from state to religious

June 27, 2002

Magnetic wood blocks mobile phone signals

“Magnetic wood could be a major plank in the battle against noisy cellphone users. The high-tech material absorbs microwave radio signals, making it

June 27, 2002

FBI checking out Americans’ reading habits / Bookstores, libraries can’t do much to fend off search warrants

“For the first time since the Cold War, the FBI is visiting public libraries to keep tabs on the reading habits of people the government considers

June 27, 2002

Afghanistan: Former Women’s Minister Intimidated

“Afghan President Hamid Karzai should put a stop to the intimidation of former Women’s Affairs minister, Dr. Sima Samar, Human Rights Watch said

June 26, 2002

Court Reverses Finance Ruling on City Schools

“A state appeals court yesterday overturned a ruling that New York State had failed its constitutional duty to ensure”a sound, basic education” for

June 26, 2002

Russia approves land sales bill

“Most of Russia’s farmland is still owned by the state The lower house of the Russian parliament has approved the sale of farmland across Russia,

June 26, 2002

In Defense of S.U.V.’s

This was in today’s letters section of the New York Times, and it explains why they will never print my letters … Did they print this because SUV

June 26, 2002

New US law would allow music-sharing sabotage

“The entertainment industry could be given new powers to deliberately sabotage internet music and movie file-sharing services, under proposed US

June 26, 2002

Afghan king’s wife dies in Rome

“The wife of Afghan king Zahir Shah has died in Rome only a few weeks before she was to return to her homeland to be reunited with her husband. BBC

June 26, 2002

US telecoms giant admits huge fraud

For those who don’t know. “Worldcom” is the owner of “MCI.” We knew they were crooks when it took us half a year to get some money refunded that

June 25, 2002

The God of Literary Trends

“The Importance of Being Exotic AlterNet — The God of Literary Trends

June 24, 2002

Suits Say Wal-Mart Forces Workers to Toil Off the Clock

“who worked from 1995 to 2000 at a Wal-Mart in southeast Kansas City.”A company that makes billions of dollars doesn’t have to do that.” (NYTimes)

June 24, 2002

Arrested development by Theodore Dalrymple

A discussion of modern prison life compared with Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” “The last time I attended a hanging in the prison it was a

June 24, 2002

Karzai Hits Rough Spots In Cabinet

“But today’s threatened defection by Yonus Qanooni, the former interior minister and a senior leader of the Northern Alliance militia, as well as

June 24, 2002

Mugabe tells farmers to down tools

“President Robert Mugabe ordered 2,900 commercial farmers to stop work yesterday, as Zimbabwe faces its worst food shortage for 60 years.”

June 24, 2002

Hudson River Rocks FREE concert series

After the success of last year’s rockfest featuring The White Stripes, The Greenhornes, and The Mooney Suzuki, WNYU’s New Afternoon Show is happy to

June 24, 2002

Arms deals hinder war on terror, says Amnesty

“G8 governments are undermining their”war on terror” and their claims to want to end armed conflict by supplying massive numbers of weapons to

June 24, 2002

At Los Alamos, Two Visions of Supercomputing

“Moore’s Law holds that the number of transistors on a microprocessor

June 23, 2002

Critics Say Regents English Tests Push Immigrants to Drop Out

“More than 31 percent of the students classified as English language learners who were supposed to graduate in June 2001 dropped out along the way.

June 23, 2002

Suborientalism and the Subimperialist Predicament: Aboriginal Discourse and the Poverty of State-Nation Imagery

Positions 8.1 Subimperialism Fred Yen Liang Chiu Also: “Nationalist Social Sciences and the Fabrication of Subimperial Subjects in Taiwan Monanen

June 23, 2002

Once Again, Trying Housing as a Cure for Homelessness

“Last July, the number of homeless families with children in the system surpassed all previous records, and that trend has only accelerated. Last

June 23, 2002

U.S. Role in Coca War Draws Fire

“The Expeditionary Task Force, the official name for an armed unit of 1,500 former Bolivian soldiers, is paid, fed, clothed and trained by the U.S.

June 23, 2002

Savage Construction and Civility Making: Japanese Colonialism and Taiwanese Aboriginal Representation

Positions 8:3 Visual Cultures of Japanese Imperialism Leo Ching 8:3 Visual Cultures of Japanese Imperialism

June 23, 2002

Forward and Backward in One Family

We saw this and it was great, as was the last Epic Theatre Production we saw: “Hannah and Martin.” “Last September was not a great time to

June 23, 2002

Afghanistan’s president names remainder of Cabinet, except one.

“Afghanistan’s newly elected President Hamid Karzai named all but one of his 29 members of Cabinet on Saturday, leaving the women’s affairs ministry

June 23, 2002

Addressing counterterrorism: US literacy in languages and international affairs

Language Problems & Language Planning 26:1 (2002) Kurt E. M

June 22, 2002

Afghanistan’s New Ambassador A Solar Power ‘FUNDAMENTALIST’ — Afghanistan

Silly title — but good news for my mom’s program to get Afghans to use solar cookers! “President Bush received the Afghan fundamentalist Ishaq

June 22, 2002

Italian police ‘framed G8 protesters’

This was reported a long time ago by “In These Times”, I’m glad that the case is finally making it to the courts. “Italian police have been accused

June 21, 2002

Riders on the Storm

The Drummer from the Doors on why he won’t sell out. “Dread ripples through me as I listen to a phone message from our manager saying that we (The

June 21, 2002

Krugman:Fear of All Sums

Krugman often harps on the same themes, but he does so with great style. This was just so funny (and depressing) that I had to post it. “It is

June 21, 2002

Another NYTimes Op-Ed by CESR: The Warlords Win in Kabul

“On the final night of the loya jirga, more than 1,500 delegates gathered for the unveiling of the new cabinet. Our hearts sank when we heard

June 21, 2002

Sunny Side Up

John Sayles and Maggie Renzi talk about their new movie. “To me, Florida has always represented the triumph of advertising, making people believe

June 21, 2002

US received ‘zero hour’ warning on September 10

“American intelligence experts intercepted two messages from Afghanistan on September 10 referring to a major event due to take place the next day,

June 21, 2002

Afgha.com — Making The Central Bank Central Again

“Of the many tasks that lie ahead for Afghanistan’s new transitional government, perhaps one of the most difficult will be to rebuild a banking

June 21, 2002

The Supreme Court Upholds Census Estimating Method

This article in the Wall Street Journal (Subscription required) covers an important case in whcih the Supreme Court allowed the Census bureau to use

June 21, 2002

New Wireless Networking Technologies

“Wireless telecoms: Four disruptive technologies are emerging that promise to render not only the next wave of so-called 3G wireless networks

June 21, 2002

Explosion Kills At Least 111 in Chinese Mine

“A gas explosion that ripped through a coal mine in northeastern China killed at least 111 miners, state television reported today. …

June 21, 2002

Webcasters’ Fees Slashed in Half

“Webcasters worried that Internet radio would be wiped out by outrageously high royalty rates found little solace on Thursday despite a ruling that

June 20, 2002

Philips picks blue lasers for itty-bitty disc

“Consumer-electronics giant Philips is demonstrating a prototype miniature disc drive that uses a coin-size disc capable of storing nearly twice as

June 20, 2002

Ovation for ‘brilliant’ Bombay Dreams

Webber + Bollywood = ??? “Stage producer Andrew Lloyd Webber has received a standing ovation from the first night audience of his eagerly-awaited

June 20, 2002

Tooth Phone

“A prototype radio device designed to fit inside a human tooth and provide covert mobile phone communications has been created by two UK

June 19, 2002

The Kamasutra gets a cold shower.

“Here’s some advice for lovelorn men from the world’s most consulted

June 19, 2002

Afghan war documentary charges US with mass killings of POWs

A new film argues that there is enough evidence to warrent a human rights investigation into what happened to missing POWs from the uprising in

June 19, 2002

David Rowe, Political Cartoon

Political Cartoon (either link will take you to the image). “David Rowe, Sydney, Australia — The Australian Financial Review” Slate Comics

June 18, 2002

JO?

A leader of Brazil

June 18, 2002

Cecil Taylor at the Knitting Factory

Thursday and Friday Only (two shows each night). “Cecil Taylor and the Sound Vision Orchestra

June 18, 2002

Statistics — Hunger & Homelessness In New York City

“# Each year 100,000 New Yorkers experience homelessness. Statistics — Hunger & Homelessness In New York City

June 18, 2002

Statistics — Hunger & Homelessness In New York City

“# Each year 100,000 New Yorkers experience homelessness. Statistics — Hunger & Homelessness In New York City

June 18, 2002

Economists Push for Microsoft Penalties

“Days before closing arguments are scheduled in the Microsoft antitrust trial, a group of six leading antitrust economists has filed a last-minute

June 18, 2002

Andersen Trial Yields Evidence in Enron’s Fall

This NY Times article does a good job of expalining exactly what Enron/Anderson did that caused the whole mess in the first place. “The evidence

June 18, 2002

Other Blogs

Blogs can mean lots of different things, from personal diaries to serious journalism. (Did you know that the word “blog” has been added to the OED?)

June 17, 2002

Technology Gives Sight to Machines, Inexpensively

“The Tyzx vision system is based on stereo vision

June 17, 2002

Microsoft at Heart of Calls for Software Liability

“For decades, software makers have been protected from lawsuits as U.S. courts have struggled with the task of defining something as abstract and

June 17, 2002

Bush gives CIA green light to kill Saddam

“The CIA and US special forces have been given authority to use”lethal force” to capture or kill the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein. (Guardian)

June 17, 2002

The Bad Old Days at the F.B.I.

“Clark Kerr, who was president of the University of California from 1958 to 1967, had a witty send-off when the state’s board of regents

June 17, 2002

Afghan returnees pass million mark

“The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says the number of Afghans returning from exile has vastly exceeded expectations. It says a million

June 17, 2002

At Kabul University, Degrees Of Change

“Years ago, it was a different Kabul University, a more relaxed campus where men and women studied in modern facilities. During the opening decades

June 17, 2002

Afghan Caucus Adjourns With Complaints of Undue Pressure

“Syed Massood, an economist and member of the independent national commission that prepared the assembly, said he and several colleagues almost

June 17, 2002

Bell did not invent telephone, US rules

“Italy hailed the redress of a historic injustice yesterday after the US Congress recognised an impoverished Florentine immigrant as the inventor of

June 17, 2002

Postmodern Farming, Quietly Flourishing

“The worst farm crisis since the end of World War I never hit Amish farmers. The people of Holmes County and adjacent Wayne County suffer the

June 17, 2002

Immigration and Right-Wing Parties in Europe

Here is a new weblog I found. “Immigration and Right-Wing Parties in Europe :: Immigration and Right-Wing Parties in Europe

June 16, 2002

red, blue and green light at every pixel

“A new kind of image sensor devised by Foveon, an imaging company based in Santa Clara, California, cunningly solves these problems. The X3 sensor,

June 16, 2002

Karzai’s new hat

I figured out how to upload pictures to the blog, and I thought I’d celebrate with Karzai’s new hat

June 16, 2002

Omar Zakhilwal: Stifled in the Loya Jirga

“The Afghan people have spoken clearly on this issue. I recently participated in a U.N.-commissioned assessment mission by the Center for Economic

June 16, 2002

powerline carrier

” Engineers at Phonex have been pioneering what they call

June 16, 2002

President Broadens Anti-Hussein Order

“President Bush early this year signed an intelligence order directing the CIA to undertake a comprehensive, covert program to topple Saddam

June 16, 2002

Google Answers: Frequently Asked Questions

Google Answers “What is Google Answers? Google Answers: Frequently Asked Questions

June 15, 2002

When Navajos Fought Japanese for Ne-He-Mah

“It is the most romantic story in American cryptology. To keep the Japanese from getting American secrets in World War II, Navajos

June 15, 2002

New Feature: Comments

I’ve finally enabled a new feature on the web site, which will enable registered users to post comments on any item in the web log. You can comment

June 15, 2002

Got Silk.

“How does a spider gene get into goat milk in the first place? Nexia uses two common spider specimens, Araneus diadematus (the common garden spider)

June 14, 2002

Report — “Human Rights and Reconstruction in Afghanistan”

“This report presents the findings of a human rights assessment mission to Afghanistan, undertaken in January 2002 by the Center for Economic and

June 14, 2002

Krugman: Plutocracy and Politics

“In 1981 those captains of industry were paid an average of $3.5 million, which seemed like a lot at the time. By 1988 the average had soared to

June 14, 2002

Water War on U.S.-Mexico Border?

“The combination of waterless farms in southern Texas, accumulating water debt by Mexico and key upcoming elections on both sides of the border is

June 14, 2002

Macs Cheaper to Run, Study Finds

“A study by respected technology research company Gartner has found that Macs are up to 36 percent cheaper to own and run than competing Windows

June 14, 2002

Institute for War and Peace Reporting

If you have the right fonts and can read Dari or Pashto, you can read the transcripts of the Loya Jirga speeches in full. (Institute for War and

June 14, 2002

Iceland Sends Police Abroad in Effort To Stop Falun Gong

“Iceland sent police officers to Boston and three European cities today to try to prevent Falun Gong members from flying here on Icelandair while

June 14, 2002

US artists damn ‘war without limit’

Link to letter referred to in the article. “A group of leading American writers, actors and academics have signed a statement strongly criticising

June 13, 2002

Judge denies Microsoft dismissal request

“At points, Kollar-Kotelly chastised Microsoft with some fairly harsh language. The judge said one argument”borders on the frivolous,” while calling

June 13, 2002

Security lapse allows viewers to see sensitive US operations

“European satellite TV viewers can watch live broadcasts of peacekeeping and anti-terrorist operations being conducted by US spyplanes over the

June 13, 2002

Will Cable Unplug the File Swappers?

“A host of cable companies … are moving away from the old flat-fee pricing scheme that allowed users to download and transmit endless amounts of

June 13, 2002

Africa looted for $140bn, leader says

“Africa has lost $140bn through corruption the decades since independence, Nigeria’s president, Olusegun Obasanjo has said. (BBC )

June 13, 2002

Harry Potter Unprotected

“Like all major movies, Harry Potter was widely pirated before its official release. Macrovisions-busters can also be bought, often disguised by

June 13, 2002

nyc bloggers

“There are a million blogs in the naked city

June 13, 2002

Food summit ‘waste of time’

“The World Food Summit in Rome has ended without achieving anything, delegates have said. (BBC)

June 12, 2002

Out-Of-Work Nicaraguan Coffee Workers Beg for Help

“Thousands of unemployed Nicaraguan coffee workers, struggling to find a way to survive the third year of a global coffee crisis, are again lining

June 12, 2002

Kissinger may face extradition to Chile

“Chile’s Judge Juan Guzman is so frustrated by the lack of cooperation by Mr Kissinger that he is now considering an extradition request to force

June 12, 2002

Bondage’s Load: Heavy Bricks, and Crushing Debt

“This is what bonded labor looks like in Pakistan. The practice, in which employers give high-interest loans to workers, whose entire families must

June 12, 2002

New Scientist

“A way of storing a terabit of data on a chip no bigger than a postage stamp has been developed by researchers at IBM. New Scientist

June 11, 2002

Top Taliban Sought U.S. Help in 1999

“A senior Taliban official said he approached U.S. representatives three years ago for help in replacing the hard-line Islamic leadership but was

June 10, 2002

2 Tinkerers Say They’ve Found a Cheap Way to Broadband

“Mr. Holt and his business partner, John Furrier, both software engineers, have started a company with a shoestring budget and an ambitious target:

June 10, 2002

PERRY ANDERSON — INTERNATIONALISM: A BREVIARY

“The metamorphoses of nationalism and internationalism, from the time of Kant to the to the

June 10, 2002

A Rift Among Bloggers

This is a silly article, but it is interesting to note that my blog is a “war blog” of sorts, although it doesn’t seem to be of the kind that the NY

June 9, 2002

Deadly Symbiosis: Rethinking race and imprisonment in twenty-first-century America.

In two recently published articles, Lo

June 9, 2002

Access to Land: Land Reform and Security of Tenure

“Around the world, the poorest of the poor are the landless in rural areas, (Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy)

June 9, 2002

Allen: On Roedigger’s ‘Wages of Whiteness’

“AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM’S WHITE BLINDSPOT” (Cultural Logic) As I started reading David’s book, I presumed that as a historian, he was concerned

June 8, 2002

COLONIAL LINGUISTICS

“Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2001. 30:19-39.” AR Anthropol. — Abstracts: Errington 30 (1): 19 Joseph Errington Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

June 8, 2002

WORLD ENGLISHES

“Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2001. 30:527-550.” AR Anthropol. — Abstracts: Bhatt 30 (1): 527 Rakesh M. Bhatt University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,

June 8, 2002

Beyond Settler and Native as Political Identities: Overcoming the Political Legacy of Colonialism

“Comparative Studies in Society and History (2001), 43:651-664 Cambridge University Press” Cambridge Journals Online — CUP Abstract Page Abstract

June 8, 2002

LANGUAGE AND AGENCY

“Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2001. 30:109-137.” AR Anthropol. — Abstracts: Ahearn 30 (1): 109 Laura M. Ahearn Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New

June 8, 2002

Between Ethnicity and Modernity: Taiwanese Medical Students and Doctors under Japan’s K?

“Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 10.2, Fall 2002″ Table of Contents, Positions 10.2

June 8, 2002

THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF REFORM AND THE REFORM OF ANTHROPOLOGY: Anthropological Narratives of Recovery and Progress in China

“Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 2001. 30:139-161.” AR Anthropol. — Abstracts: Harrell 30 (1): 139 Stevan Harrell Burke Museum of Natural History and

June 8, 2002

Display and reaffirmation of affect bond and relationship: Invited guessing in Chinese telephone conversations

“Language in Society (2002), 31:85-112 Cambridge University Press” Cambridge Journals Online — CUP Abstract Page This article examines an

June 8, 2002

The Not-So-Silent Majority: Uyghur Resistance to Han Rule in Xinjiang

“Modern China, January 2002, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 39-78(40)” ingenta: article summary

June 6, 2002

Nigerian governor target of violence

“A governor in Nigeria who has been critical of President Olusegun Obasanjo, has been attacked in his car by a mob in the capital, Abuja. (BBC)

June 6, 2002

Spanish MPs vote to ban pro-Eta party

“The radical Basque political party Batasuna, which is seen as the Basque equivalent of Sinn Fein and wins up to 200,000 votes, was on the road to

June 6, 2002

Separation of Church and State

I haven’t read this, but it sounds interesting. “In a powerful challenge to conventional wisdom, Philip Hamburger argues that the separation of

June 6, 2002

‘Millions face famine’ in Africa

“The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that 12.8 million people are on the brink of starvation in southern Africa and urgently need food aid.”

June 6, 2002

Reconstruction: Time running out for Ghor

“Acute lack of medical facilities and drugs will once again cause suffering and pain in the mountainous province of Ghor as the window of time

June 4, 2002

Gun Show Fantasies

“These gun shows are incredibly common

June 3, 2002

Yitzhak Laor: After Jenin

Article by Yitzhak Laor: “But this ‘evil of the past’ has a peculiar way of entering our present life. On 25 January, three months before the IDF

June 3, 2002

Are we in a war? Do we have an enemy?

An article by Slavoj Zizek: “When Donald Rumsfeld designated the imprisoned Taliban fighters ‘unlawful combatants’ (as opposed to ‘regular’

June 2, 2002

To Build a Country, Build a Schoolhouse

This is from a NY Times Op-ed piece by Amartya Sen. I recently read Sen’s book, Development as Freedom, and I highly recommend it! He argues, here

June 2, 2002

Lost in Translation at the F.B.I.

“The F.B.I.’s Arabic translation test simply does not measure all the language skills needed for intelligence gathering focused on Arabic speakers

June 2, 2002

The Elderly Man and the Sea? Test Sanitizes Literary Texts

“In a feat of literary sleuth work, Ms. Heifetz, the mother of a high school senior and a weaver from Brooklyn, inspected 10 high school English

June 1, 2002

Operation Enduring Payouts

“No one has yet snagged the Bush administration’s $25-million”dead or alive” bounty on Bin Laden. But a senior intelligence official in Washington

June 1, 2002

800,000 refugees return to Afghanistan

“Over 800,000 Afghan refugees have returned to their homes in Afghanistan, according to UNHCR. … The UNHCR had planned repatriating 800,000 this

June 1, 2002

Brazil’s Elites Fly Above Their Fears

“Sao Paulo — a city of 18 million, populated by the fantastically wealthy and the severely poor with little in between — is, by some accounts, a

June 1, 2002

Afghan factions back Karzai

“Key commanders in Afghanistan have nominated interim leader Hamid Karzai to be their candidate as the next head of state.” (BBC)

May 31, 2002

Settlements Expanding Under Sharon

“The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has steadily continued the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank during the

May 30, 2002

The Fake Persuaders

“While, in the past, companies have created fake citizens’ groups to campaign in favor of trashing forests or polluting rivers, now they create fake

May 30, 2002

Democracy (for Jews)

This is an important point that is very rarely made in the media. In this 2000 interview, Phyllis Bennis, head of the Middle East Project at the

May 30, 2002

The Most Dangerous Place in the World

“By SALMAN RUSHDIE

May 30, 2002

Zambia declares food disaster

“Zambia has declared the country’s food shortage a national disaster, saying four million people face starvation.” (BBC)

May 30, 2002

China: Amnesty International Report 2002

AI reports that 2,4468 people were executed in China’s crackdown on crime. This was reported earlier in the NY Times, but has received surprisingly

May 30, 2002

Carpet Weaving Throws Lifeline to Refugees

“The carpet industry, a major source of income for Afghan refugees in Pakistan, illustrates the dilemma facing Human Rights activists who want to

May 30, 2002

F.B.I. Given Broader Authority to Monitor the Public

“Officials at the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the new guidelines, saying they represent another step by the Bush administration to

May 30, 2002

The Daily Enron

Here is a web page for those who wish to keep on top of Enron-related news: The Daily Enron

May 28, 2002

Taliban and Qaeda Believed Plotting Within Pakistan

Have the chiefs of staff at the pentagon been reading the Guardian UK? “Virtually the entire senior leadership of Al Qaeda and the Taliban have

May 28, 2002

Ranking Taliban move relatively freely in Pakistan, say they and al-Qaida regroup

“Two former high-ranking Taliban talk of reorganizing their militant religious movement and describe a recovering al-Qaida

May 27, 2002

Camp David and After: An Exchange (2. A Reply to Ehud Barak)

“The Palestinians did insist that Israel recognize that it bore responsibility for creating the problem of the refugees. But it is ironic that Barak

May 27, 2002

Afghan Warlord Dostum Elected to Key Tribal Council

“One of Afghanistan’s most powerful warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum, has been elected to a tribal council that will pick the devastated country’s next

May 27, 2002

A Raid Enrages Afghan Villagers

“But local officials said the raid on Bandi Temur, a poor collection of houses on the edge of the scalding, stony desert, less than 60 miles from

May 27, 2002

Camp David and After: An Exchange (1. An Interview with Ehud Barak)

“Barak today portrays Arafat’s behavior at Camp David as a”performance” geared to exacting from the Israelis as many concessions as possible without

May 25, 2002

UN condemns DR Congo ‘plunder’

“The latest United Nations report on the Democratic Republic of Congo says rebels and foreign governments are still plundering the country’s

May 25, 2002

The Naked Untruth

I thought this article was of interest simply because it exposes how wildly inaccurate the press can be about simple figures, such as the income

May 25, 2002

Afghanistan Battling Another Invader

“Baghlan province, a rich agricultural region in northern Afghanistan, has been among the areas hardest hit this spring by a plague of locusts,

May 25, 2002

Florida Counties Seek to Avoid Suit Over Election

“Elections officials in Miami-Dade, Osceola and Orange Counties say they are in talks with the department over complaints that they failed to

May 24, 2002

Doctors urge rubber bullet ban

“Rubber bullets are unsafe and should never be used by authorities to control riots, doctors have warned.” (BBC)

May 24, 2002

Military Sees Iraq Invasion Put on Hold

“The Joint Chiefs of Staff have waged a determined behind-the-scenes campaign to persuade the Bush administration to reconsider an aggressive

May 24, 2002

Microsoft lobbies Military not to use opensource

“Microsoft Corp. is aggressively lobbying the Pentagon to squelch its growing use of freely distributed computer software and switch to proprietary

May 23, 2002

Digital Video Recorders Give Advertisers Pause

“Digital video recorders, or DVR’s, make it so easy to program and play back shows

May 22, 2002

Bush’s Afghan Plan Questioned

“Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who favors expanding the international peacekeeping force beyond Kabul, has circulated a letter to Bush among other

May 22, 2002

Face Recognition Technology Fails Again, ACLU Claims

“Early results of face-recognition surveillance tests at Palm Beach International Airport suggest the technology is proving again to be unreliable,

May 22, 2002

UN to feed 500,000 needy Palestinians

“Amid signs of hunger and malnutrition in the West Bank and Gaza, the UN World Food Programme launched an emergency operation yesterday to help feed

May 22, 2002

Land Reforms: An Evaluation of World Bank strategies

“. . . whatever may have been the extent of success, almost every country, at least officially, recognised the need of state-led redistributive land

May 21, 2002

Afghan Women Emerge As Elections Take Place

“Recently a group of female schoolteachers walked into the town

May 21, 2002

Under Cheney, Halliburton Altered Policy on Accounting

“During Vice President Dick Cheney’s tenure as its chief executive, the Halliburton Corporation altered its accounting policies so it could report

May 21, 2002

Enemies of Reform — Krugman

“You see, corporate leaders were desperate to keep their stock prices rising, in an environment where anything short of 20 percent profit growth was

May 21, 2002

‘Widespread failure’ in US visa fiasco

“The two men had applied to change their tourist visas into student visas in September 2000, after they had enrolled on a professional pilots’

May 21, 2002

Afghan Warlord Muddles Interim Government’s Plans

“Mr. Taniwal is mounting a two-pronged effort to show local residents and local gunmen that he has the funds from international donors to pay

May 20, 2002

China sets date for the Moon

“A chief scientist with China’s Moon exploration programme, Ouyang Ziyuan, said that the country was planning to launch its first mission to the

May 20, 2002

Rights group slams Nigeria over killings

“The Nigerian Government is under pressure to disband state sponsored vigilantes operating in Eastern Nigeria.” (BBC)

May 20, 2002

Interview: Q & A with Farooq Ghulam, Director of CARE’s education program in Afghanistan

“Farooq Ghulam, CARE’s education program director in Afghanistan, is visiting the United States for the United Nations Special Session on Children.

May 20, 2002

Interview: Q & A with Farooq Ghulam, Director of CARE’s education program in Afghanistan

“Farooq Ghulam, CARE’s education program director in Afghanistan, is visiting the United States for the United Nations Special Session on Children.

May 19, 2002

The Register

“Music disc copyright protection schemes such a Cactus Data Shield 100/200 and KeyAudio can be circumvented using tools as basic as marker pens and

May 18, 2002

F.B.I. Knew for Years About Terror Pilot Training

“Information from Mr. Murad’s confession formed a basis for an analysis prepared for United States intelligence agencies in 1999. The analysis

May 18, 2002

The land where rape is an everyday horror

“The bitter Congo war is almost over but the militias who fought in it still attack women with impunity” (Guardian UK)

May 17, 2002

Making the World Safe for Nuclear Weapons

“By holding fast to their capabilities for massive overkill, the United States and Russia are violating their pledge under the Nuclear

May 16, 2002

Even schools with Macs must pay for Windows!

“Microsoft has come up with another novel way to make its software compulsory — an annual subscription licensing system for schools where you have

May 16, 2002

Dutch under threat

“Wim Jansen, a linguistics professor at Amsterdam University, and president of the defence league, said Dutch is under mortal threat and risks

May 15, 2002

Report: India, Pakistan Were Near Nuclear War in ’99

“Pakistan was preparing to possibly fire nuclear weapons during a 1999 border conflict with India, moving the countries closer to nuclear war than

May 15, 2002

Bush Plans to Tighten Sanctions on Cuba, Not Ease Them

“One would think when we’re engaged in the war on terrorism, we would be going after terrorists, rather than tracking down little old ladies who are

May 15, 2002

Pre-Attack Memo Cited Bin Laden

“The classified memorandum written by an F.B.I. agent in Phoenix last summer urging bureau headquarters to investigate Middle Eastern men enrolled

May 14, 2002

Afghanistan’s Quiet, Ambitious Opposition

“For a man with no official role in the new Afghanistan, Sayyaf commands attention. Once considered among the country’s most radical Islamic

May 14, 2002

Court Upholds Affirmative Action in Admissions

“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled, 5 to 4, in overturning a lower court’s ruling that the admissions policy used by the law

May 14, 2002

In Afghanistan’s Capital, Rents Go Through Roof

“The last tenant paid $500 a month for the place, an amount that now seems decidedly paltry in this city of galloping rents. The current cost is

May 13, 2002

Credit Card Theft Thrives Online as a Global Market

“Tens of thousands of stolen credit-card numbers are being offered for sale each week on the Internet in a handful of thriving, membership-only

May 13, 2002

Enron Pipeline Leaves Scar on South America

“Of Enron Corp.’s many political maneuvers in Washington before its fall into bankruptcy, winning the promise of federal financing for a 390-mile

May 13, 2002

Hindu Nationalists Are Enrolling, and Enlisting, India’s Poor

“The nearly 300 boys here at the Sewa Dham school, most of them from what are called the tribal belts of central and northeastern India, hew to a

May 13, 2002

Entertainment Industry Seeks to Make ReplayTV against the law!

“A coalition of movie studios and TV networks, which includes Viacom Inc., the NBC television network, Walt Disney Co. and AOL Time Warner Inc., has

May 13, 2002

Salon article on Blogging

“The true revolution promised by the rise of bloggerdom is not about journalism. It’s about information management. The bloggers have the potential

May 13, 2002

EU ‘horror’ at Afghan jail conditions

“A European Union envoy in Afghanistan has called for urgent action to improve the conditions of hundreds of former Taleban fighters held prisoner

May 13, 2002

Karzai to discuss pipeline project with Pakistan

Cheney gets his pipeline! “Afghan interim ruler Hamid Karzai will hold talks with his Pakistani and Turkmenistan counterparts later this month

May 12, 2002

For Old Parts, NASA Boldly Goes . . . on eBay

“NASA needs parts no one makes anymore…. So to keep the shuttles flying, the space agency has begun trolling the Internet” (NY Times)

May 11, 2002

Uganda rebels ‘massacre’ villagers

“Ugandan rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have killed several hundred Sudanese civilians in the past week, Ugandan army and Sudan

May 11, 2002

War on Iraq — How the Perle Thinks

This article has an interesting discussion about half-way through regarding how the Richard Perle, a top military advisor, thinks about the

May 11, 2002

Thousands rally for peace in Tel Aviv

“Tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv to demand the immediate withdrawal of the Israel army and settlers from

May 10, 2002

Market Manipulation

“The significance of the “smoking gun” Enron memos that came to light a few days ago is that they show exactly how swell those power executives

May 9, 2002

U.S. Attack on Warlord Aims to Help Interim Leader

“The Central Intelligence Agency, using a missile fired from an unmanned surveillance drone, tried on Monday to kill an Afghan factional leader who

May 9, 2002

Joseph Stiglitz Reviews George Soros

This is a very important commentary on the urgent need to reform the institutions of globalization. The former head of the World Bank, who has now

May 9, 2002

Categories!

I’ve added a feature to the web page version of the blog whereby you can select to view only items in a particular category. Current categories are:

May 9, 2002

Anthrax attack bug identical to army strain

(New Scientist)

May 8, 2002

Robotic Rats

(New Scientist) “The age of the living robot is upon us. And all it takes to turn a living rat into a radio-controlled automaton is three

May 7, 2002

Afghan Victims Deserve US Support

(The Nation) “The Pentagon has not released any figures regarding the number of civilian casualties. But it appears that hundreds of

May 7, 2002

Homebrew antenna shootout

(Turnpoint) “My plan was to get relative performance measurements for various designs (including mine) of homebrew antennas for 802.11b wireless

May 7, 2002

Rwandan Genocide as a Test Case for ICC

(Boston Review) The Rwandan experience in particular offers a number of rich lessons about the efficacy (or lack thereof) of the juridical approach

May 7, 2002

Coffee: Fair Trade Coffee Campaign

(Global Exchange) Coffee is the second largest US import after oil, and the US consumes one-fifth of all the world’s coffee, making it the largest

May 7, 2002

Bush “unsigns” ICC treaty

(Alternet) The Bush administration Monday formally renounced its obligations as a signatory to the 1998 Rome Statute to establish an International

May 7, 2002

Afghan council faces southern challenge

(Christian Science Monitor) “A group of influential tribal leaders from seven of Afghanistan’s 33 provinces say they’re so dismayed at the process

May 2, 2002

Human Rights Watch — War Crimes but no Massacre in Jenin

(BBC) Human Rights Watch says at least 52 Palestinians died of whom 22 were civilians. Many of the civilians were killed wilfully and unlawfully the

May 2, 2002

History of the Pledge of Allegiance

(Alternet) Twenty-six states now require the pledge of allegiance to be recited in public schools. Some states require schools to reflect on the

May 1, 2002

Turkey to be in Charge of Kabul Force

(NYTimes) In a victory for the United States, Turkey agreed today to assume command of the international security force in Kabul, the Afghan

May 1, 2002

OpenSource is “Anti-Capitalism” according to Gates

(ZDNet) Attacks by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on the GNU General Public License, under which much open source and free software is distributed,

May 1, 2002

Israeli Soldiers Target Data Banks

(Tikkun) These are the data banks developed in Palestinian Authority institutions like the Education Ministry, the Higher Education Ministry and the

April 29, 2002

Alexandria Library (re) opens!

(Wired) …celebratory plans were scuttled because of the heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Instead,Bibliotheca Alexandrina — which ostensibly

April 27, 2002

Revenge? What happened in Jenin?

(The Independent) What really happened when Israeli forces went into Jenin? Just as the world is giving up hope of learning the truth, Justin

April 26, 2002

Mysterious Appearance Of Bank Notes Surprises Currency Speculators

(Afgha) The Afghan National Bank and the interim Finance Ministry both say they have not authorized the printing of new afghani bank notes recently.

April 26, 2002

Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley Appeal For Help.

(IAP) … as a consequence of organizing the demonstration and sit-in, the University of California at Berkeley has decided to susp! end Students for

April 25, 2002

AFL-CIO Involvement in Venezuela Coup

(LaborNotes) Could the bad old days be returning to the AFL-CIO’s operations in other countries? Fear that in Venezuela the AFL-CIO was supporting

April 25, 2002

For Rumsfeld, it is a “strategic void” …

(UMI) Humanitarian aid groups are also clamoring for more peacekeepers and for them to be deployed throughout the country. The stability they

April 23, 2002

Said on Israel

(Nation) By what inhuman calculus did Israel’s army, using dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers, along with hundreds of missile strikes

April 23, 2002

Water in the West Bank

(RedPepper) When supplies run low during the summer months, the Israeli water company, Mekorot, simply shuts off the valves that supply Palestinian

April 23, 2002

Washington Protest

It was easy to miss this article on the protests in the NYTimes, although the Washington Post made it Front page news

April 23, 2002

China’s net usage leaps to second in world

(New Scientist) China now ranks second in the world for home internet use and could leapfrog the US as the biggest online nation in the next few

April 23, 2002

Gore’s attack under scrutiny

(Slate) A good critical assessment of Al Gore’s Earth Day Op-Ed in the NYTimes this past Saturday, in which he accused “President Bush of

April 23, 2002

Carter on Israel

(NYTimes) I think that this is an important opinion piece by Jimmy Carter. He argues that more could be done to bring about a settlement

April 18, 2002

Philadelphia privatizes 42 schools!

(NYTimes) In what is believed to be the largest experiment in privatization mounted by an American school district, a state panel charged with

April 18, 2002

Jenin is “horrific” says UN

(BBC) A UN envoy has said that the devastation left by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp is “horrific beyond belief”

April 18, 2002

Bush Reversal — or is it?

(NYTimes) Bush today reversed his policy towards Afghanistan and, citing the Marshall Plan, he stated that we needed long-term support to rebuild

April 17, 2002

Roger Normand on “The O’Reilly Factor”

This is a rough transcript from a recent appearance by Roger Normand (Executive Director, CESR) on “The O’Reilly Factor”, a Fox talk show with a

April 17, 2002

Entire Dutch Government Resigns!

(BBC) The head of the Dutch army has resigned over the Srebrenica massacre, one day after the entire government stood down

April 17, 2002

The Bush Family’s Jewish Relations

(Slate) Bush is the first in his family of politicians to craft a pro-Jewish image. Starting with accusations that Prescott Bush was a Nazi

April 16, 2002

Bush Administration denys backing Coup

(BBC) You got to wonder when people are denying things that nobody has accused them of yet

April 16, 2002

The unwanted

(NYTimes) About 800,000 refugees fled their homes during the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948. A United Nations resolution, No. 194, passed that year,

April 16, 2002

X10 cameras can be used to spy on owner!

(NYTimes) A recent drive around the New Jersey suburbs with two security experts underscored the ease with which a digital eavesdropper can peek

April 16, 2002

The origin of the Palestine- Israeli conflict

(ZNet) “The conventional wisdom is that, even if both sides are at fault, the Palestinians are irrational “terrorists”who have no point of view

April 16, 2002

US silent on Venezuela Coup

A number of papers ran with articles or op-ed pieces about the failure of the US to denounce the coup in Venezuela. Including the LA Times, the

April 16, 2002

Debunking six common Israeli myths

(electronicIntifada ) Myth 1: There is no moral equivalence between suicide bombings on the one hand, and Israel’s killing of Palestinians on the

April 15, 2002

Amnesty International Report on Guantanamo Bay

(Amnesty International) “The US government must ensure that all its actions in relation to those in its custody in Afghanistan and Guant

April 15, 2002

Conference for Stustainable Water

(BBC) Two million people, mostly in Africa, die needlessly each year, because water supplies are not being properly managed

April 15, 2002

European Academics call for Boycott of Israel

(Chronicle of Higher Ed — subscription required!) More than 300 European academics have signed a petition calling for a boycott of Israeli cultural

April 14, 2002

Reparations mistakenly paid by IRS

(Nando) A Treasury Department investigation shows the Internal Revenue Service mistakenly paid out more than $30 million to tax filers seeking

April 14, 2002

Chavez is back…

(BBC) Venezuela’s interim President Pedro Carmona has resigned after a single day in office, as protests continue in support of ousted leader Hugo

April 14, 2002

Afghans seek to return

(NYTimes) In Fremont, where 10,000 of the estimated 60,000 Afghan refugees in the San Francisco Bay area live, everyone knows someone who has

April 13, 2002

Economics Reporting Review

The Economics Reporting Review is CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker’s weekly analysis of business and economics articles in the New York Times and the

April 13, 2002

Al Barakaat closure a mistake?

(NYTimes) Did the US make a mistake when it closed down one of Somalia’s largest employers? The NYTImes thinks so: “Five months later, however, some

April 13, 2002

UNICEF fears massacre of child army

(Guardian) Up to 5,000 child fighters have been encircled by Sudanese and Ugandan troops in southern Sudan, in readiness for an all-out assault on

April 13, 2002

Cotton and Water in India

The web site, CorpWatch India, has a very thoughtful and well balanced article about the events surrounding the introduction of Bt Cotton seed into

April 12, 2002

China admits there are cracks in the dam

(BBC) A senior Chinese official says cracks have appeared in the controversial Three Gorges hydroelectric dam being built on the Yangtze river

April 12, 2002

Only Sharon could make Yasir Arafat into a hero!

(NYTimes) Nicholas Kristof Op Ed on Israel. Nothing new, but well written

April 12, 2002

Krugman: who is a crony capitalist?

(NYTimes) Many of the business executives recently appointed to government positions first entered the private sector after prior careers in the

April 11, 2002

Online Companies Switch Privacy Policies on Us

(NYTimes) Pressed for profits, Internet companies are increasingly selling access to their users’ postal mail addresses and telephone numbers, in

April 10, 2002

Intifada Fact Sheet

The Electronic Intifada has a link to this list of rather depressing statistics on the Palestine Monitor web site

April 10, 2002

Israel seeks to create a wall

(Washington Post) Perhaps most striking is the series of fences and walls rising piecemeal along stretches of borderland between central Israeli

April 10, 2002

Military sandwich can survive 3 years

(New Scientist) First came the atom bomb, the stealth bomber and the airborne laser. Now comes the US military’s latest fearsome weapon: the

April 9, 2002

Violence at Borders Halts Refugees

(BBC) A United Nations repatriation programme of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees has ground to a halt because of violence on Afghanistan’s

April 9, 2002

Event: “To Baghdad And Beyond: Consequences Of The Expanding Bush Wars At

Speakers: Roger Normand, Executive Director, Center for Social and Economic Rights Brenda Stokely, President, AFSCME Local 215, DC1707;

April 7, 2002

Israel says it has killed 200 more Palestinians

(BBC) The Israeli army says it has killed at least 200 Palestinians in its sweeping 10-day offensive in the West Bank

April 7, 2002

CESR Appeal for Israeli Withdrawl

A message from CESR. Click on “read more” at the end of this post to see the full letter. Dear friends, Despite international calls for a

April 6, 2002

Kabul “neighborhood watch” fires on British

(Guardian) British peacekeepers traded gunfire with Afghans in crime-plagued west Kabul, only to find they had been mistaken for robbers on the prowl

April 6, 2002

Kabul plans to pay farmers to destroy poppy

(NYTimes) Under the plan, the Afghan officials will offer poppy farmers around $500 per acre to destroy their plants. If the farmers refuse, Mr.

April 6, 2002

Yahoo Changes Spam Policy

If you have used Yahoo to purchase anything, for their e-mail forwarding service, or any other service where you might have given them your address,

April 6, 2002

Congress tries to legistlate technology again…

(Alternet) A new bill would “require any device that can “retrieve or access copyrighted works in digital form” to include a federally mandated copy

April 5, 2002

How the Right Thinks about Israel

(Alternet) This article describes the bizarre views coming from far right camps in the US, like the American Enterprise Institute. They seem to

April 4, 2002

The Warlord of Herat

(NYTimes) A profile of “Ismail Khan, the powerful governor in western Afghanistan who American officials fear is being courted by Iranian

April 4, 2002

Silence Machinese

(New Scientist) This article describes a new invention that will take those noise-cancelling headphones and make them work with speakers. It will be

April 4, 2002

50 Arrested in Kabul in Alleged “Bomb Plot”

(BBC) General Jurat said most of those arrested were members of Hezb-i-Islami — a hardline Islamic group headed by former prime minister and

April 3, 2002

Revenge killings target Pashtuns in Afghanistan’s North

Witness accounts obtained by the Guardian in villages across the Pashtun belt, close to the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, show a pattern of brutal revenge

April 3, 2002

Analysis: Army building is nation building

(Afga) An article points out the limitations and contradictions in Bush’s plan to train the new Afghan army

April 3, 2002

PBS to air three part series on Globalization

The NYTimes has a review of a three part (six hour!) series on globalization that will premier tonight at 9:00 (at least in NY). It sounds

April 3, 2002

Japanese Invention just for me!

(BBC) The Japanese have come up with exactly the thing I would need if I am ever going to sing in a Taiwanese KTV

April 3, 2002

Renewed Violence in India

(BBC) New violence flairs up. Over 700 muslims have died in the riots to date …

April 2, 2002

Open Letter to the Commander of the Israeli Paratroopers

(Alternet) This letter by Israeli human rights activist and writer Neve Gordon was published in the weekly Jerusalem newspaper Kol Ha’Ir. It is

April 2, 2002

Web Page on Middle East Conflict

(Alternet) There aren’t that many articles on this page itself, but there are good links to breaking news and other web sites

April 2, 2002

Tidbits article on Unicode

(Tidbits) An article in Tidbits expains the history of text from ASCII to Unicode: “Unicode. Whether or not you’ve heard of Unicode, it affects you.

April 1, 2002

Eat Beef? NYTimes tells you how its made.

(NYTimes) An in depth look at the US Beef industry from the magazine section. Quote: “The F.D.A. is opening an inquiry into the problem, but for

April 1, 2002

Bumper Opium Harvest Expected in Afghanistan

(NYTimes) This is an interesting article on the inability of US and Europe to stop Opium production this year in Afghanstian. Quote: “In the absence

March 31, 2002

Facts and Figures from this Week’s Times

According to the Times is a Web-only feature highlighting facts and figures culled from the week’s news. It appears on Thursdays

March 29, 2002

Pakistan’s Tribal Leaders Send Warning to US

(NYTimes) Tribal leaders from the treacherous mountainous areas along the border with Afghanistan have an unambiguous message for American

March 29, 2002

Arafat under middle-of-house arrest

(Guardian) Israeli troops have taken over Yasser Arafat’s headquarters, switched off the electricity and telephone and confined him to one floor of

March 29, 2002

Blogg Tools

If you are looking for tools to run your own blog, I have a section on my bookmarks page. Some of the tools are free, and some are very easy to run

March 28, 2002

Zimbabwe struck by new reign of terror

(Guardian) Dr Francis Lovemore, medical director of the Amani Trust human rights group in Harare, says sexual assaults or forced sexual humiliation

March 28, 2002

Ruling threatens Internet Radio

(Salon) A new ruling involving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is set to wipe out independent online music stations

March 28, 2002

Afghan death toll rises

(Guardian) More than 2,000 are feared dead as Afghans race to rescue buried victims of worst earthquake in living memory …

March 28, 2002

Analysis Finds Race Disparity in School Tests

(NYTimes) New York State has broken down elementary and middle school standardized test scores by race and ethnicity for the first time and found

March 28, 2002

New Blog!

It is so easy to create a blog, that I decided I’d add one for information technology related news. I’ll be posting links to useful research tools,

March 28, 2002

Billy Wilder Obit

(NYTimes) Billy Wilder, the caustic writer and director who won six Academy Awards and international acclaim as one of the world’s great filmmakers

March 28, 2002

NYTimes — products that should exist, but don’t

(NYTimes) Here are some ideas for new products that should exist, but don’t; at least, not according to the exhaustive search conducted by my

March 28, 2002

The Nation’s Middle East Web Report Page

The Nation regularly reports on, investigates and analyzes the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We’ve devoted this special web page to related material

March 27, 2002

Supreme Court says Drug-Eviction Law Is Constitutional

(Source — NYTimes) The Supreme Court today interpreted a federal drug law to permit the eviction of public housing tenants for drug use by any

March 27, 2002

US Moves Base to Qatar — To Prepare for War with Iraq

(Source — Guardian) The US Air Force has begun preparations to move its Gulf headquarters from Saudi Arabia to Qatar, to bypass Saudi objections to

March 27, 2002

US told Italy to Ensure King’s Saftey, Causing Delays

(Source — NYTimes) [An] Afghan official said American officials had told Italian counterparts last week that Italy, not the United States, should

March 27, 2002

Homeless move into Bamiyan Caves

(Source — IWPR) Cave networks in the mountains around the Bamiyan Buddhas, the giant statues destroyed by the Taleban last year, have become

March 27, 2002

Relief Web: Earthquake updates and More

(Source — Relief Web) This page contains a list of the latest major documents added to ReliefWeb pertaining to Afghanistan

March 27, 2002

Vietnam And The World Coffee Crisis: Local Coffee Riots In A Global Context

(Source — Focusweb) World coffee prices have fallen to their lowest level in 32 years. Before this price collapse coffee was the world’s largest

March 27, 2002

Moore’s Book Tops Bestseller List

(Source — Guardian) It accuses President Bush of being the “thief-in-chief, a trespasser on federal land, a squatter at the Oval Office” and calls

March 26, 2002

Charm and the West Keep Karzai in Power, for Now

(Source — NYTimes) Turmoil that could ultimately threaten his government, from ethnic strife to battles among warlords, percolates nearly everywhere

March 26, 2002

India debates anti-terror law

(Link to Source — BBC) India’s parliament has begun a rare joint session as the government attempts to pass a controversial anti-terrorism bill

March 26, 2002

Try Sharon for War Crimes!

(Link to Source -Media Monitors) Why Sharon is a War Criminal An eye-witness report of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre: by Dr. Ben Alofs. I am a

March 26, 2002

Experiencing problems — sorry!

Things aren’t working as expected. It seems that Yahoo’s Digest mode doesn’t accept HTML e-mail. That means I have had to switch everyone back to

March 26, 2002

Afghan quake ’kills 1,500′

(Link to Source — BBC) More than 1,500 people are feared dead and thousands have been left homeless after a series of earthquakes struck

March 26, 2002

China and Iran threaten test ban treaty

(Link to Source — Guardian) China and Iran have withdrawn their contribution to monitoring nuclear tests, apparently in protest at Washington’s

March 25, 2002

“Who is that man?” An article on Saudi Ruler.

(Link to Source — Guardian UK) It is curious that the man who controls a quarter of the world’s oil reserves, and whose Middle East peace initiative

March 25, 2002

King to be in Kabul by April–

(Link to Source — Afgha.com) Zahir Shah, the former king of Afghanistan, vowed yesterday to be “in Kabul by April,” shrugging off concerns over his

March 24, 2002

Taiwanese Officials Confiscate Copies of Magazine in Raid

[NYTimes] Taiwan’s government has stunned its freewheeling news media by seeking to ban a weekly magazine that was about to publish an article

March 24, 2002

Nigeria — Universities on strike

(Source::AFROL) Nigerian universities experience a wave of strikes as lecturers from one university after another demonstrate their solidarity with

March 23, 2002

More Changes

Many people seemed happy about the new format, while some still wanted e-mail. Hopefully this compromise will work — you will get e-mails, but not

March 23, 2002

(Guardian) Chinese authorities detained thousands of Muslims

The Guardian | Beijing rounds up Muslims The Chinese authorities have detained thousands of Muslims in Xinjiang region in the north-west since

March 23, 2002

(Alternet) Bush switches on International Security Force

AlterNet — CORN: We Make War; Keeping Peace is for Others For months, Hamid Karzai, the interim prime minister, has pleaded for expanding the

March 23, 2002

(BBC) Labor Union brings Rome to a standstill

BBC News | Italian workers take to the streets The centre of Rome has been brought to a standstill by an anti-terror demonstration organised by

March 23, 2002

(Washington Post) Preemptive Strike Becomes an Option

U.S. Nuclear Arms Stance Modified The Bush administration is working to codify the evolution of U.S. strategic nuclear doctrine from the Cold War

March 23, 2002

(BBC) Afghan children (boys and girls) start school!

BBC News | Afghan schools enter post-Taleban era Almost two million children are expected to return to school — significantly, many of them girls

March 23, 2002

(NYTimes) King Returns to Afghanistan

Afghans Have a Palace, but Not a Role, Ready for the Former King By the quiet, almost secretive way in which the Karzai government has prepared for

March 23, 2002

(Afgha) US uncovered a biological weapons lab

Afgha.com — U.S. Troops Found Afghan Biological Weapons Lab U.S. troops battling remnants of the al Qaeda network in southeast Afghanistan (news —

March 23, 2002

(Yahoo) UN Worries about Water Use

U.N. Urges ‘More Crop Per Drop’ as Water Dwindles — “Water scarcity and quality will be one of the major problems of the 21st century,” Godwin