Metaquest Frenzy

Greek government's 'democracy' is the real problem child

2011-08-04T16:39:00.012+03:00

'The violence that spread over the past months is undermining democratic institutions." Miltiadis Papaioannou, Minister of Justice, GreeceThree guesses - this is such blatant Newspeak that you should only need one - as to whose violence the minister is referring to in this pathetic justification for a newly proposed law to more deeply monitor - and ultimately restrict - activists' internet use.

Backpedaling in Budapest

2011-08-04T15:51:00.038+03:00

The afternoon i arrived here, waiting for the crosstown bus to leave Keleti station, an old man oozing alcohol pheromones saw my suitcase and decided to flush out my nationality (while making pathetic attempts at slobbery hand kissing). We began with a brief exchange in Russian (unusual for an East European), then Italian, French, Deutsch - he just couldn't figure me out. He admitted not

Dumbledore going to Baku?

2011-07-21T12:33:00.006+03:00

These recent statements by Azerbaijan's Minister of Culture and Tourism have me wondering if the government there is cooking up some kind of Hogwart's magic to prepare the country for Eurovision 2012. Baku is a shell city, and i mean vast tracts of multi-story stone and cement building frames which changed not a bit in the six months i was just living there. It boggles the mind to hear an

Taxi to the Port Side

2011-07-20T14:16:00.011+03:00

Nobody likes a pissed off, angry taxi driver, let alone an entire fleet of them, except for - evidently - the euro-prostrate Greek government. For the past several days, the taxi drivers of Thessaly have been enforcing a strike while futilely communicating their demands to members of parliament, PASOK and whichever Ministry governs them (Culture and Tourism? Transportation? Malfeasance?).

Declaration from Thessaloniki's resistance camp

2011-07-19T12:48:00.006+03:00

Hopefully in the very near future i'll have time to write a longer piece about the Indignados resistance camp in Thessaloniki - for now, i'm doing as promised and publishing English and Spanish versions of their most recent declaration. The activists have a website of their own which is mostly in Greek, but you can find some English, Spanish and German translations there as well.Words cannot

Impressions of Thrace, where my life suddenly became Greece in a microcosm

2011-07-17T23:24:00.013+03:00

In a rare occurrence of travel daring (or maybe just circumstance), i've actually got a fun story to tell about the day i entered Greece. However, blogging on the road has been riddled with problems, on top of which i didn't come here to spend all day or night on a computer. So: have written out the full title of this post-in-progress in the hope you'll be enticed enough to come back in a

Resurrecting Santa Ana

2011-07-17T22:28:00.005+03:00

This is too distorted to pass comment on. ABC [US] continues to excel in what corporate media does best, which is telling Americans their problems are inevitably caused by someone else - in this case, Mexico. Mexico's border with California — the birthplace of the 649-mile-long border fence being built by the USA— resembles a demilitarized zone.In highly populated areas south of San Diego,

A story like too many others (not really mine to tell yet tell it i must)

2011-07-15T00:34:00.023+03:00

They came in the night and left in the light. Alas, the symbology does not assure a luminous ending. If that were the case, love that runs deepest would never hurt and families in flight would glide effortlessly towards aeries of refuge. Not so in Fortress Europe and not so in Afghanistan, the two opposing corners of the framework within which this snapshot of a much longer and endlessly

Travel in the 21st Century

2011-07-13T12:54:00.016+03:00

The extent that digital technologies are shaping - or at least infiltrating - my travel experience has totally caught me off-guard. The advance online hotel and ticket booking systems have been standard protocol for a while, and it certainly eased things to know where i was going to keep my stuff, sleep and shower the first few days of this trip, enabling me to fully focus on reawakening my

On The Road, 'cuz i'm an american and this is my independence day goddammit!

2011-07-04T02:45:00.008+03:00

Before i say anything directly relevant to this post's title, i first want to thank my lurking yet diverse, international readership for taking the time to read however much you have of these pages since i started writing again this spring. Recently someone in Kenya found the blog, which set my little swahili meter all aflutter (Habari gani, rafiki?). Can't imagine how s/he ended up here, such

Nothing like slavery to make your currency stronger

2011-06-30T07:05:00.009+03:00

i'd say this has been a hellish week for me (thus little time to do more than pour out some drafts :-0() but compared to what's going down with the Athenians?? Clearly my own travails seem unworthy of the name. It was wonderful to see my old friend Lisa Fithian on the streets of Athens sporting a Gaza flotilla tee, speaking to folks in Syntagma Square about evil IMF and the conspiracy that's

Viva Grafitti!

2011-06-27T05:47:00.019+03:00

One thing i haven't liked much about Baku is the near total absence of graffiti; what little exists are website addresses and an occasional love note, 'Ershad + Sevinc forever' scrawled inside an imbalanced heart. One night some rebellious types managed to ‘decorate’ a couple walls in the upscale shopping district with ‘Fuck Aliyev’ (in English), other not-so-random words like SOCIALISM and

For Pedants and Freedom Fighters Alike

2011-06-26T12:09:00.005+03:00

Snagging this off Jadaliyya. A lot of people were interested in the other kinetic typography link i posted, this one acutely relevant to what's happening NOW in Syria. After everything i've seen in Palestine, watched from afar in Lebanon, really wondering what Hezbollah is going to do. Come down on the side of the madness shown at the end of this clip... or point their rockets eastward and

Alice Walker: The new face of terrorism

2011-06-26T01:40:00.004+03:00

In the history of client states, nothing comes close to the US' bended knee for Israel. The US State Department (Foreign Ministry) is now threatening to prosecute US citizens on behalf of Israel. WOW i am actually speechless. Here's part of the statement from DoS as reported by Reuters:"We underscore that delivering or attempting or conspiring to deliver material support or other resources

It's All There

2011-06-25T03:42:00.007+03:00

Old habits die hard. i'm still on the Multikulti Amnesty International-Hungary mailing list and yesterday received this: Two Protests! Against Reagan Statue & for Iranian Democracy! Ah, the irony of it all, n'est-ce pas? Evidently the de-republicanized nationalist government now wants to look out the windows of parliament and see Ronald Reagan, standing tall, gazing out over the Danube over

Confidence in what, exactly?

2011-06-23T07:25:00.005+03:00

Papandreou got what he was after, a vote of support strong enough to keep him securely in power for a while longer. Nice headline in Der Spiegel though, and Al-Jazeera reports:'The mood in financial markets was calm after the confidence vote, especially when compared to the firestorm last week when Papandreou's government was teetering on the brink following violent protests against the new

Dismantling the Bil'in Wall

2011-06-22T15:43:00.012+03:00

Further proof that the Palestinian Authority has become a meaningless insitution in the struggle for freedom. While children are being openly abducted by Shin Bet, the faux 'unity government' suits in Ramallah sink deeper into the abyss of their own self-effacing flattery. The Bil'in Popular Committee is the only group in the West Bank to have achieved substantive success - however imperfect -

Things i would put my energy into if i didn't have to work for a living

2011-06-21T14:09:00.003+03:00

Surfing on a sunny afternoon, came across the Borgen Project and this nice project they are involved in in South Sudan: hippo water rollers. Brilliant, really. i would've loved one of these when i was living in my Wadi Arabia mountaintop cave, but of course i was able to leave that mountain whenever i chose to, and return to a world of hot running water and luxurious tub suds. Any chance these

World Refugee Conundrums

2011-06-20T22:48:00.012+03:00

A day late on this unless you want to be picky about time zones... it's still the night of the 20th where i'm situated, and in the sad saga of Azerbaijan vs. Armenia vs. Nagorno-Karabakh vs. ineffective third party negotiators, it's sort of always world refugee day. i still haven't been able to figure out what UNHCR's involvement in the Nogorno-Karabakh refugee situation is - possibly nil - but

The Gaza Flotilla II

2011-06-20T04:36:00.006+03:00

Organizers in Istanbul, Dublin and undoubtedly dozens of other places are preparing to launch the next major flotilla intended to break the Israeli siege of Gaza. I had to laugh to myself when after watching this succinct statement by Dr. Fintan Lane of Irish Ship to Gaza, 'up next' on the youtube screen came 'The power of Israeli naval forces'. Always eager to be well-informed about Israeli

John Sayles interview

2011-06-19T08:02:00.004+03:00

Just want to encourage anyone interested in film and its social relevance to check out this interview with John Sayles, who has been my favorite american filmmaker ever since Matewan came out in the early 1980s.... up through Lone Star and Silver City (i looked for Sarah Palin's review of that one but nowhere to be found, though it's gotta be somewhere on her anti-american DVD shelf). Amy

Pop! goes the weasel

2011-06-19T02:04:00.011+03:00

Coming up with a title for what is mostly going to be a series of quotes from other articles on the Greek financial crisis, what i could recall from a children's rhyme came into my head:A penny for a spool of thread,A penny for a needle.That’s the way the money goes,Pop! goes the weasel.Not wanting to be totally off the free association wall, i looked into the original meaning and found this: '

Dance Kavkaz

2011-06-18T16:30:00.012+03:00

Out taking photos of people enjoying the Nowruz Bayiram, i came across this dashing young man in the Old City sporting a traditional piece of headwear. Azeris do seem to love items from their traditional cultures, even if today they prefer to embrace knock-off's of modern, upscale chic. i've had a couple of souvenir sellers try to get me to buy one of these, but my hunch that they were not made

Trojan Debt

2011-06-17T05:43:00.008+03:00

Watching RT's latest report from Greece, i have to wonder where a bankrupt state is getting the money to pay for such massive police actions - the European Central Bank? Do they offer emergency loans for jack boot efforts to 'maintain public order'? Does the IMF grant an exception to its austerity requirements in the interest of keeping those who agree to economic restructuring in power? i

What type of boss is bad for your heart?

2011-06-14T08:56:00.002+03:00

The good thing about working with someone who doesn't give a damn about you is that at least it's a surety they'll never bother to read your blog. As i've noted before, stress has a serious effect on my ability to formulate coherent sentences.... hence the short break in posts here. Current source of my problem is a boss who, for reasons not entirely understood, has taken to throwing tantrums

Ready, set, drink!

2011-06-08T20:16:00.016+03:00

For reasons that always baffled me, Hungarians have an apparent obsession with getting themselves into the Guinness Book of World Records. While i was living there, it seemed like efforts to perform remarkable, often ridiculous feats, were undertaken with regularity. Among their 44 listings are 'fastest car window opened by a dog' (i kid you not), 'largest garlic string' (take that, Gilroy!), '

The perfect 'exam as metaphor for life' experience

2011-06-07T06:51:00.005+03:00

Another crisis in Britain:Sixth-formers have been left struggling with a second "impossible" question in this year's exams. Students sitting an AS-level business paper were faced with a question that did not include the information needed to give an answer...A business teacher from Leicestershire told BBC News online that there were concerns among students that they had wasted so much

Behind the scenes look at my new favorite modern art form

2011-06-06T07:20:00.000+03:00

WHAT IS UP? | a site-specific virtual theatre | documentation from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

Remembering Robert Kennedy

2011-06-05T13:28:00.010+03:00

In 1992-93, i dressed up every day as a conservative version of Scarlett O'Hara to give tours and expound on american history at Arlington House, located atop the national military cemetery of that same name. Often before the stiff bike ride up the hill, i would stop at the Kennedy brothers' graves to read the text inscribed there from Robert Kennedy's famous 1966 speech in South Africa.

What i won't be seeing in Turkey next month

2011-06-05T12:20:00.002+03:00

So i'm planning next month's Mediterranean/Baltic travel escapade and hoped to spend a couple days in the Turkish border city of Edirne, one of those ancient places known by a multitude of names depending on the historical period (i've always known it as Adrianople, which completely skipped over the Greeks - oops!). Since i don't have a Rough Guide or other reference book, have been using

Sepals to Salvation: Springtime in Baku

2011-06-04T04:29:00.029+03:00

Yesterday i had to pass by Government House, one of Baku's more imposing yet impressive public structures, and couldn't avoid noticing that preparations are underway for a major public event. Trivia alert: 'Designed by architects L. Rudnev and V. Munz, it was completed in 1952. Like many other post-war buildings in Baku, German prisoners took part in its construction.' The crenelated

Let's get our war criminals straight

2011-06-04T02:52:00.010+03:00

Seeing his name in the headlines again makes me cringe. Anecdotes about his childhood, subtly exalted recitations of his 'accomplishments' and forgiving glimpses into his psyche leave me aghast. The only thing i want to hear about this man is that he's finally going to prison for his crimes; the only photo i want to see of him is not a grinning, Armani-clad snapshot taken in some exclusive

All that remains of her is a garlic press

2011-06-03T03:17:00.011+03:00

If, like myself, you've contemplated the possibility of having more than one turn as a creature on Mother Earth, the options of what you'll come back as have probably been limited to biological organisms, from the corpulent to the minute. Most people i've met who believe in reincarnation actually limit their options to human, and i have more than a few friends who are certain they've already

The joy of being a pedant

2011-06-02T15:38:00.003+03:00

In researching my next article, came across this very creative piece of kinetic topography that animates Stephen Fry's brilliante repartee on the use of language today. Enjoy!Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography - Language from Matthew Rogers on Vimeo.

Damming the Xingu: More electricity no matter what the cost

2011-06-02T14:44:00.006+03:00

Word has just come down that the Belo Monte dam complex on the Xingu River has been approved by Brasilian authorities. So much for environmental values from the new country's new 'radical' leadership - production of electricity always takes precedent! A statement from Atossa Soltani, Executive Director at Amazon Watch, notes that "President Dilma Rouseff is undermining the positive

Lost in Transliteration

2011-06-01T18:43:00.044+03:00

One of my students recently asked about the origins of 'OK' and whether it had started out as an actual word before becoming the easily-texted acronym used by speakers and non-speakers of English, alike. The answer turns out to be much more americana than i would have guessed. It started with an 1838-39 New England slang fad which was then appropriated by the re-election campaign of the 8th US

The Last Mountain

2011-05-30T20:45:00.007+03:00

Appalachia: hillbilly country, coal country, mountaintop removal country. Massey vs. The People of Appalachia replaces the mythic antagonisms of Hatfields and McCoys. i can't review this film because i haven't seen it, but based on these clips and the extensive, informative interview with Robert Kennedy, Jr. and The Last Mountain film director Bill Haney, my instinctive critical eye tells me

Jadugoda: The disgusting underbelly of India's nuclear industry

2011-05-24T06:04:00.010+03:00

Paid a visit yesterday to our planetary caretaker friends over at Intercontinental Cry and have since spent every possible online moment educating myself about India’s uranium and nuclear power industries. Crazed and wanton don’t even begin to cover it. Uranium mining is consistently written off as a necessary evil by nuclear energy advocates, including some among the ‘Stop

Circling in on the Arctic Circle

2011-05-22T21:59:00.008+03:00

Denmark is laying claim to the North Pole. i asked myself why a country would do that and what ownership of the pole would mean - for Denmark and the rest of the world. One can't imagine that this is somehow related to cornering the seasonal market on elves and reindeer. Nor does it seem that the costs of administering new territory of such strategic importance would be offset by pocketing

2011-05-22T06:37:00.001+03:00

Good luck with that

2011-05-20T05:51:00.004+03:00

Obama has 'demanded' that Israel pull back to its 1967 borders. How bold and innovative the president has become since catching the US' archenemy last month. Bravo! Predictably, Netanyahu's first response is that 'Israel could never withdraw to borders that were "indefensible"'. Given Israeli activity on its borders last week, in which none of its own citizens were injured but plenty of

Well, that was prescient

2011-05-19T08:59:00.008+03:00

The Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center released a report last week that looks at how people in the United States access and use internet news sites. An overview of the results is here, with links to detailed analyses by topic. Among these – here’s where my own little blog turns out to be prescient: ‘Drudge Report: Small Operation, Large Influence’. As Jim Carr

Where's my weekly dose of soma?

2011-05-16T04:23:00.004+03:00

Yesterday i was woken by a phone call - way too early for a Sunday morning, might add - one of my students, screaming into my ear, 'We won! We won!' What the f*ck?? 'Eurovision! Azerbaijan won!!!' i'm thinking to myself, 'ask me now if i care,' yet ever the polite foreign guest, i did my best to feign interest - even enthusiasm - understanding immediately why the city's noise level was

Drudging up the Drudge

2011-05-14T07:30:00.009+03:00

Blogspot went down and my two most recent posts have returned to draft status = the graphics ‎remain but all the text has vanished. Bummer. Evidently they are still restoring files, so maybe my ‎work will magically reappear... lesson learned: do the writing elsewhere, so it can be saved on the hard ‎drive. Duh. It is very difficult to rewrite something that's already been edited and then

Sorry, it's $27 million

2011-05-03T08:34:00.004+03:00

Thought i was being too cynical yesterday? i think this goes to show that i have not lost my capitalist instincts.

We're all powerless here, except for the prez

2011-05-02T15:14:00.009+03:00

The first time it happened was about a week after i'd moved into my flat, about 2-1/2 weeks after arriving in Baku. A not too terribly cold night, i'd taken a rambling, roundabout route home, soaking up the sights, sounds and odors of residential night life. When i got to my own street, i suddenly realized it was VERY dark; not dark as in there's no moonlight, but rather urban darkness, as in

So who gets the $25 million reward?

2011-05-02T05:57:00.006+03:00

Breaking news. Ding dong, the sheikh is dead. i just love it when they get the bad guy. i'm listening to MSN's live feed and Dick Gregory has Richard Engel on the line to tell us that this means the war on terror is over, democracies can now blossom freely throughout the Middle East and we can all feel safe once again. What a relief! i know that i am definitely going to sleep better tonight

Time for a musical interlude

2011-04-30T06:13:00.002+03:00

Health, Beauty and further proof that wearing a watch is a bad idea

2011-04-26T05:41:00.019+03:00

Nothing quite so profoundly reminds me what it means to be American like getting sick. Last week i got the flu and all my cultural conditioning immediately kicked in: calling in sick is a sign of weakness and indicates lack of commitment to one's job, going to a doctor is only necessary as a last resort, the need to rest is a euphemism for the desire to be lazy. Logically, i know none of these

2011-04-21T06:37:00.000+03:00

Gratulálok Magyarország! Hála istennek!

2011-04-20T20:51:00.011+03:00

Catching up with Spiegel Online this evening, i scrolled past all the radioactive wastelands articles to learn that the Hungarian parliament, under Viktor Orbán's inspired tutelage, has finally voted on a new constitution. On Kossuth tér these days, it is 2011 going on 1935. The Germans and various EU others are not very pleased. Spiegel quotes Süddeutsche Zeitung:"The constitution enshrines a

Is that all there is?

2011-04-20T04:17:00.011+03:00

i'm fully aware how immature and catty this is going to sound, but this is my blog, not Glenn Mr. Maturity Beck's. One of the things i have enjoyed about living in Baku is that whenever i come across a swarthy Texan clad in layers of NorthFace garments, i ask if he works in the oil industry and the response i get is always as follows: he will hang his head, penitently nod and then look me

2011-04-19T07:32:00.003+03:00

Anyone who claims to be surprised by this must not know the history of US military intervention and the drug trade. The triad of military action, paramilitary/insurrectionist drug runners and subsistence farmers has long been characteristic of US foreign invasions, as well as more surreptitious CIA operations from Asia to Latin America. We knew from the onset that Afghanistan would be no

Escape From Facebook

2011-04-18T05:28:00.009+03:00

It's Digital Detox Week, a great idea for people like myself whose worst nightmare has become the death, destruction or disappearance of my laptop. i'm not joking about this; just last week i dreamt that i got hit by a van (highly realistic Baku scenario) and instinctively used my computer case to buffer the impact. Laying on the ground in pain, all i could think about was that my computer was

Money, Brains, whatever works

2011-04-14T05:17:00.005+03:00

After spending two classes discussing the topic, my well-adjusted student L is still unable to grasp the concept of creative thinking. What does one say to a person convinced that she has never in her life had a creative thought, a new idea, an urge to see what happens when she does X?? Suddenly, my own brain seems to function only a few notches below Pablo Picasso's, perhaps even on par with

Strewn relics, crumbling walls

2011-04-12T22:01:00.022+03:00

Years ago, my friend Rachel - who, unlike myself, is a real photographer with excellent eyesight, ergo can take pictures that are actually in focus - produced a group of photographs which came to be fondly known as the dead animal series. These images included carcasses of roadkill, bones from dessicated desert creatures and other remnants of animal life in varying stages of decay. What i

Fire on the Mountain

2011-03-30T00:20:00.001+03:00

'Out of the frying pan, into the fire' only partly characterizes my recent relocation, since prior to getting fully settled in this land of flame and contradictions, i was proverbially stewing in a very, very, VERY slow-cooking dutch oven. The mind works in mysterious ways, or sometimes doesn't function well at all. A brief moment of epiphany in which the depth and effect of stress on my being

Haiti

2010-01-19T11:50:00.004+02:00

Just read this. Matt Taibbi reaches a poignant new zenith in no-holes-barred elite shit-kicking.

My inaugural gown was worth a dozen seals

2010-01-12T13:16:00.010+02:00

Among the innumerably hideous recollections i have over many years of following Exxon's attempts to dodge financial responsibility for the Valdez oil spill was the company's proposition that each seal caught in the crude was worth exactly $1000. Presumably that would be the assessed value before fur and lungs were coated in hydrocarbons, and maybe 20 years ago, Exxon thought they were being

2010-01-10T22:18:00.003+02:00

Can't take credit for coming up with this, but i do like how they seem to be waiting for everyone to have a snowball ready before someone fires the first shot... proving yet again how low homo sapiens are on the primate behavioral development chart.

2009-10-26T09:57:00.003+02:00

Went to the Budapest 350 climate event on Saturday, which essentially turned into a kind of poolside rave. My friend and photo critic M liked this shot best, so that's the one you get. Someone was complaining about the event not being well-organized, as demonstrated by a chaotic beer line; given the local pro-bike, anti-car movement, what surprised me most was that the turnout wasn't larger.

350 or bust

2009-10-21T06:20:00.007+03:00

Last week there was light snowfall in the Buda hills. Yes, that's right. Snow in Hungary on 15 October. JC in Prague also posted a snow sighting that day, to which someone commented, 'I miss Prague!' Sorry honey, but i think that's the wrong response. It should NOT be snowing - should not be cold enough for snow - at this time of year in the middle of Europe (or New England!). Also last

2009-10-16T09:44:00.004+03:00

As i've written elsewhere on this site, Budapest has a substantial cycling movement and most of the folks i know outside of work are focused on climate issues. Here's a link i received this week about a newly designed Hungarian hybrid, the Antro Solo. Republishing the photo here, to get your attention. It almost makes me want to have a car... deep down, i recognize that is still not the

2009-10-15T07:50:00.004+03:00

Ten reasons why Obama should return the Nobel, posited by none other than The Black Commentator. Several of my non-black friends in the US have expressed consternation over all the criticism there of Obama (i'm assuming mostly from the Glenn Beck squads), but as the ever-insightful RM says, "we have to support Obama unconditionally, otherwise people will think we're racists, too." Since i live on

2009-10-13T10:00:00.004+03:00

Der Spiegel has just published the winning images in their microscopic photo competition. The pictures are amazing! Dealing with light waves at such high magnification levels is clearly an art in itself; these photographers have achieved some remarkable effects. i especially liked #12, which captures the movement of soap on a slide. Bill Bigg, my old plant physiology prof at Humboldt State,

Rhythms East-West

2009-10-12T03:22:00.006+03:00

Some random Mickey Hart interview i heard eons ago came to mind while watching this lively montage. Mickey talks about breath as the source of all rhythm, evolving palaeontologically into The Beat as we commonly think of it, or maybe just take for granted dancing around till sunrise in an ecstasy-propagated workout. It punches out the frequency of our hearts, our brain waives :-), REM flutter

Nobel Appease Prize

2009-10-09T23:26:00.007+03:00

The Obama love fest marches on. How utterly bizarre that he has received this honor immediately after declining to meet with another Nobel Laureate... hard not to notice that among all the commentaries and congratulations, the Dalai Lama's reaction is conspicuously absent. Is the Nobel Committee trying to subvert Obama's stated intention to intensify military action in Afghanistan by handing

Shut up or shut up!

2009-10-08T00:37:00.004+03:00

Adding to the overload of frenetic footwork around the UN's recent report on Israeli war crimes during its invasion of the Gaza Strip last year, Israel has now told the Palestinian Authority that it will not open up the radio spectrum needed by a second West Bank telecommunications company - unless the PA agrees to stop pursuing action on the Goldstone Commission's findings. Talk about an ironic

2009-10-07T01:37:00.005+03:00

Short on time but intent on regularity :-) Sibel Edmonds is without doubt the most important and least well-known government whistleblower in the US, yet anyone interested in 9/11 investigation issues or how Turkish and Israeli espionage has infiltrated the US government needs to hear what she's got to say. If you're reading this blog, that probably includes you. Best place to plug into this

Small Steps

2009-10-05T04:15:00.002+03:00

Coming back to Earth after a long trip on the Depression Express, i'm reminded of the first time i rode a bicycle and braved the neighborhood hill, only to reach the bottom in such ecstatic glee that i hadn't though ahead about what would happen when i got there and needed to make an abrupt turn. Consequently, i crashed into a fire hydrant and walked the bike home with blood spilling down my leg

$1 Trillion Conceptually

2009-07-27T12:31:00.002+03:00

Something tells me US taxpayers would've gotten a better deal buying up the Toronto Stock Exchange than they did bailing out AIG, et al. Alternately, sleeping through more global catastrophe doesn't seem very sane for the survival-minded, so a 900 million year supply of lattes might be an even better investment... assuming someone is still able to grow coffee that far into the future.

2009-07-13T10:11:00.003+03:00

This is intriguing enough to almost make me want to watch the original Star Wars series. An excellent parody in favor of organic farming.

Black Block emerges in streets of Tehran

2009-06-14T21:34:00.007+03:00

Here's an excellent link for photos of the street action in Tehran, which is apparently still going in full force. What's happening is nothing short of historic and in many ways reminiscent of the protests to support Mossadeq in 1953. But now there are hiphop grrls and Gold's Gym regulars who've gone ninja -The situation suggests that autocracy may be nearing the end of its course in Iran,

2009-06-09T08:08:00.005+03:00

Now that their trial (?) is over and sentences handed down, Laura Ling and Euna Lee are all over the news so you don't need me to say anything more than 'pray for them.' Here's an extremely sobering article from the LA Times on what they likely face if the US State Dept. can't negotiate their release. An unimaginable nightmare and sobering reminder of how dangerous it can be to be a good

2009-04-22T21:50:00.003+03:00

A rare surfendental trip this evening, towed to sea by youtube's ebbing current. There's just too much stuff out there now, at least 10 remixes of every original piece, interviews about the mixes, it's sometimes impossible to even find the original. Question of the day: Is there a contradiction between not being able to cope with so many choices and being an anti-statist?In the maze of threads

The big black boot

2009-04-20T09:05:00.004+03:00

Here's the latest update on Laura Ling and Euna Lee's situation in North Korea. Does not look good even with the US State Department on the case, although i've little doubt this was exactly what Kim Jong-Il craves: Down on your knees, imperialist dogs! When Orwell described the ultimate totalitarian state as a black boot stepping on a human face, i doubt he had the image of a cartoon dictator

Nanology of Virology

2009-04-08T07:17:00.004+03:00

“We’re using a biological template that’s already on the nanoscale,” Belcher says. i guess this goes to show that while small may or may not be beautiful, it is definitely important enough to have earned its own self-contained metering system. (We can only hope that the anti-obesity squad doesn't start using nanograms as the basis for fining people: 'Sir, your body weight is off the nanoscale

2009-04-02T09:39:00.002+03:00

Amazing work from a young Chinese photographer, Yang Yi, who went below the surface to document the village he lived in before the Three Gorges Dam submerged it.

i totally called it

2009-04-02T00:26:00.003+03:00

This evening's update from The Independent:Police were forced to use dogs, horses and truncheons to control a crowd of up to 5,000 people who marched on the Bank of England, in Threadneedle Street, on the eve of the London summit...The rioters then went on the rampage within the bank, which was at the centre of a row over the £700,000-per-year pension of Sir Fred Goodwin, its former chief

Happy Fossil Fools Day

2009-04-01T01:03:00.016+03:00

It's a big day for Londoners. Some of them will be attempting to catch a few Obama rays when the new prez makes his way over to the Excel Center, or is en route to drink tea with the queen, or do the 10 Downing Street elite dinner party later this evening with his hosts from the Central Bank. (Indeed, a busy day for Barak, although the main question on the tongue of every 'banking economics

Laura Ling Arrested in North Korea

2009-03-31T22:47:00.004+03:00

i don't think there's any question that Supreme Being Eternal Excellency Extraordinaire Kim Jong-Il is anything other than a lunatic pustule on the stage of generally coherent (even if not cooperative) global diplomacy. He embraces this paradox of being a total isolationist yet wanting the world to fear, cower and be awed. Has anyone you know ever said anything positive about North Korea in

Celebrity Madness

2009-03-30T09:16:00.004+03:00

While it was hardly a surprise to read this account of Pitt and Jolie's stay in Namibia a couple years ago, the minutiae are still a bit mind boggling. Truly ironic that one of the UN's 'goodwill ambassadors' had no hesitation about controlling who received visas to enter the country during her stay and who did not. Wealthy whites have long manipulated African countries to arrange themselves

2009-03-26T22:02:00.002+02:00

Busy of late plowing through this amazing article by Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone. A must read, an exposé of amazing depth on the financial background of the bank failures. People so greedy and corrupt reading about them makes my skin crawl. They've all made out like bandits, too. White collar crime at its finest, infecting just about the entire global financial system. Anyway, i'm having a

Obama's Nowruz message: Arrogance Is Us

2009-03-20T12:48:00.004+02:00

Judging by the comments on youtube, Obama's imaging staff seems to have succeeded with the latest installment of the new prez' video appeals. Taken at face value, sure, how nice indeed that the US president took time out of his busy schedule to wish the persian world a happy holiday. He even said this in farsi, which has got to be a first, although the excitement over that little tidbit in and

Another reason NATO/US should leave Afghanistan

2009-03-18T20:46:00.004+02:00

Here's part of an email i received today from an afghan woman:this date (23/12/1386) is solar year and it is the official date for Afghanistan. the date you mentioned (1429) is the lunar year. most Islamic countries use lunar, but Afghanistan, Iran and some other countries use solar. this is Mohammad's (peace be upon him) date of birth. And Nowroz is on Saturday not Thursday.She is based in

2009-03-14T09:53:00.001+02:00

See, i wasn't kidding about California coming to its fiscal senses.

Barbie on the brain

2009-03-10T02:18:00.004+02:00

Ok, i missed International Women's Day, but i'm down with Barbie. Happy 50th! i never realized B and i were born in the same year. This is definitely something to be taken up with the Rhinebeck Witches: she needs to be inducted soon, before she goes all botox and breast implants on us. All girls born in 1959 have known instinctively that as long as Barbie doesn't grow old, neither will we.

Banking logic and illogic

2009-03-09T10:42:00.007+02:00

Chicken Little comes home to roost and bankers everywhere are running for cover. Among those hammered by the anti-greed squad in DC is Swiss megabank UBS, which has long served as banking haven for money lauderers, tax evaders and probably a fair number of alimony skanks. First fined $780 million for defrauding the IRS, the bank is now under pressure to release the names of american investors

2009-03-06T15:35:00.004+02:00

This is just so cool.... from Zoopy, a clip about a new piece by French choreographer Fabrice Guillot, called 'Turning in the Void." It will be showcased at South Africa's 21st annual FNB Dance Umbrella this month.

Fair Trade gets a boost in Britain

2009-03-05T07:55:00.004+02:00

It's a start. Cadbury has announced it is now going to buy fair trade chocolate from Ghanaian farmers for its Dairy Milk bars, apparently the top selling chocolate bar in the UK (according to this, that translates into 300 million bars a year in UK and Ireland). Why is this such good news? Two reasons. First, the cocoa fields of Ghana produce 40% of the country's total export revenues, yet

Carbon trading made easy

2009-03-04T21:11:00.002+02:00

Excellent article here on carbon trading and the fast pace with which it's been growing in Turkey. If you need the carbon market demystified/clarified, definitely recommended reading. The writer also points out, however, that there are justifiable concerns about regulating the carbon market. Given the financial implosion we've all been watching (and feeling), i think it's clear the obvious

API demeans Rastas, stimulates Alaskan fantasies

2009-03-02T15:01:00.006+02:00

The newest Onion news video, Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children for the Apocalypse? was below their usual standard, too tongue-in-cheek to generate even a smile. Yet it does raise the question of what options are out there online for young game players interested in whether they will actually have a future. Considering the range of apocalyptic pathways in the 21st century, i

The grass is never greener

2009-03-02T08:33:00.002+02:00

Cynicism about the political present and future of Hungary is probably at an all-time high (at least since 1989), in no small part because of fiscal mismanagement/budgetary woes, recently highlighted by a huge IMF infusion to bolster the rapidly sinking forint. The other day, i was talking with someone about the economy here and he compared Hungary in very unfavorable terms to the Czech Republic

2009-02-27T01:39:00.003+02:00

Rhett Butler, who runs the monga bay website for habitat and species conservation (he may run the organization as well), has just posted some beautiful pictures from his trip to Laos. Go here if you have some time for a visual glimpse into a fascinating world.

2009-02-26T09:17:00.003+02:00

So here's the choice that Canadian ducks face: either get with the terror message of continuous sonic booms or land on toxic sludge ponds and die. Thanks to The Stimulator for starting my day on an uplifting note (not) which i'm passing on here to instill shame in everyone who uses a car when they don't need to. Is this perpetuation of death really worth it?

Ultimate irony: Michael Phelps' contribution to drug liberalization

2009-02-25T11:01:00.009+02:00

The convergent topic of Olympic athletes and drug use has historically not leaned in favor of liberalization. Michael Phelps' unplanned photo op with bong has proved the exception to the rule. Business Insider just published this graph, courtesy of corporate image rating agency Vanno, which indicates that Kellogg Corp's decision to drop Phelps from their advertizing roster has done substantial

Now i understand why war zones are called 'theatres'

2009-02-25T08:38:00.006+02:00

Kim Segupta reports:.... it is in Afghanistan that British forces are now directly facing fellow Britons on the other side. RAF Nimrod aircraft flying over Afghanistan at up to 40,000ft have been picking up Taliban electronic "chatter" in which voices can be heard in West Midlands and Yorkshire accents. Worryingly for the military, this has increased in the past few months, with communications

Goosing the foie gras

2009-02-20T11:37:00.006+02:00

Check out this clip of a demonstration this past week outside one of Budapest' Tesco outlets. Animal rights groups have been active in Hungary for years, and the local PETA folks are now taking on the force-feeding of geese for the french foie gras market. Making a fuss outside Tesco is of course a good thing to do in any event. George Monbiot has followed the company's power and propoganda

2009-02-20T03:58:00.005+02:00

coming to a bank-bailed out country near you....ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND - Give Us Back Our F****** Moneyby DontPanicOnline

Kharmic histrionics, or, Tom Waits railed against zionism and i missed it?!

2009-02-19T17:53:00.013+02:00

More conscientious of late about reaching further out into the blogosphere, i'm thinking the best way to maintain a daily rhythm (and readership) might be to write long, snappy titles and then key out a couple of unassuming sentences or add an image, just so there's an actual post to go with them. More people do this than i would have guessed and it generally works. For example: X, Y or Z.