Top 5 Reasons Solar Energy will Save the World
(By Juan Cole) 1. The research and development monies now going into solar energy are great…
(By Juan Cole) 1. The research and development monies now going into solar energy are great…
(By Juan Cole) Yesterday Boston responded with its vigorous spirit of community and transcendence to the…
(By Juan Cole) David Brooks attacked President Obama on Sunday, saying: “Basically since Yalta we’ve had…
Local communities that are pushing for a ban on fracking will get a helping hand from the British green energy company Ecotricity, which is launching a new short film this Thursday to boost public awareness about negative impacts of the unconventional…
Originally published on Mosaic. By John Steller. From sci-fi to drama and adventure, movies capture our attention and spur imagination like no other medium. In recent years, as the solar industry has grabbed our attention with increasing efficiency…
NAIROBI, Kenya — This Wednesday, Ben Affleck testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as an expert on Africa. Yes, Ben Affleck: actor-director Ben Affleck, Argo Ben Affleck and, lest we forget, J-Lo Ben Affleck. Ben Affleck, whose tuxedo…
(By Jacob Chamberlain) Climate change is accelerating full steam ahead and immediate action is neccessary, leading scientists from two countries clarified in an educational guide released Thursday. According to the The U.S.…
House Republicans voted in line with environmental interests on key environmental legislation an average of just 5 percent of the time in 2013, according to a new scorecard. The scorecard, released each year from the League of Conservation Voters, tallied…
(By Jacob Chamberlain) One of nature's key defenses against global warming—the reflection of the sun's rays away from Earth by Arctic sea ice—has fallen victim to… global warming. And according to a…
(By Ola Claësson) The government’s response to the Gezi protests in June 2013 and its obstruction of a graft probe targeting ministers in December the same year has tarnished the perception of…
Video by Dr. Kim Solez on Existential Risks [of Nanotechnology] prepared for the Lifeboat Foundation The Bill Joy video excerpt from the year 2000 in “The Future Doesn’t Need Us” segment at…
(By Juan Cole) The Fall of the New Year Throne (To read this sword and sorcery novel as it has unfolded before this installment, click here) Chapter Nine 3. Piltanu deflected Vivana’s…
(By James Ayre) Wind Farms Blow Away Old Criticism — Research Shows That Wind Turbines Remain Productive For Up To 25 Years (via Clean Technica) While wind energy has become an increasingly…
(By Sarah Lazare) A federal judge ruled Thursday that the NYPD's secret spying on Muslims in schools, restaurants, and mosques with no evidence of wrongdoing is perfectly legal, and it was the…
(By Juan Cole) Musician Ted Nugent called President Barack Obama a ‘subhuman mongrel.’ He has not been denounced for this language by Greg Abbott, the Republican who wants to be the next…
(By Andrea Germanos) The amount of methane leaking from natural gas emissions is far higher than previously estimated, a new study shows, more evidence, as one expert says, that urgent action must…
(By Juan Cole) Satire David Gregory’s Meet the Press today hosted a debate between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on whether gravity is just a theory.…
Palestinian Children in Israeli Military Custody Face Physical Violence (via YubaNet.com) By: Defense for Children International Palestine RAMALLAH, January 30, 2014 – Three in four Palestinian children detained by the Israeli military…
(By Kim Barker and Theodoric Meyer via ProPublica) For a brief, giddy moment, Sean Noble—a little-known former aide to an Arizona congressman—became one of the most important people in American politics. Plucked…
(By Juan Cole) Most death sentences are handed out for killing white people, even though African-Americans make up 50% of murder victims (they are only 12% of the population). So if an…
(By Juan Cole) By the end of 2013, the number of workers in the solar energy industry in the US had grown to 143,000. About a third of them are in California,…
(By Michael T. Klare) Listening to President Obama’s State of the Union address, it would have been easy to conclude that we were slowly but surely gaining in the war on climate…
(By Jon Queally) Climate change has not hit a "speed bump." The planet's temperature is not remaining steady and it certainly isn't cooling. Earth, especially its ocean, are heating up… and rapidly.…
Foreign Policy
The “Human Catastrophe” of Syrian Refugees in Fragile Lebanon
(By Lana Asfour) It wasn’t as if Lebanon didn’t have troubles enough, with a shaky government finally formed last month. But the Syrian refugee crisis is taking a huge toll on a…
Russian Annexation of Crimea, Israeli Annexation of Palestine
(By Juan Cole) Russia’s annexation of Crimea on Tuesday is among the few significant territorial acquisitions since the end of World War II by one country from another, more or less by…
Nancy Pelosi Admits That Congress Is Frightened of The CIA
Over the past few months, one thing we keep hearing over and over again from defenders of the intelligence community is that everything is under control and “legal” because Congress has powerful oversight. We’ve shown, repeatedly, how that’s something…
Mapping Palestine in the Struggle for Palestine
(By Andrew Beale) Map of Palestine from late 19th century. (Flickr/T.H. McAllister) Lior Amihai didn’t grow up knowing the location of the internationally recognized border between his native Israel and the West…
As Putin recognizes Crimea, his other Client, Syria, Goes on the Offensive
(By Juan Cole) Russian President Vladimir Putin is on a geopolitical roll these days, despite US and EU sanctions against some of his closest associates. On Monday he recognized Crimea in the…
Celebs to UN: Protect Palestinian Refugees in Syria (Alfonso Cuaron, Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Sting & 25 Others)
Celebrities press UN on Palestinian refugees in Syria (via AFP) Some 30 celebrities have petitioned the UN demanding they take action to protect civilians, notably Palestinian refugees, caught up in the Syria…
Iraq’s Freedom Agenda shouldn’t Include Child Marriage and Summary Divorce
(Human Rights Watch) (Baghdad) – Iraq’s Council of Ministers should withdraw a new draft Personal Status Law and ensure that Iraq’s legal framework protects women and girls in line with its international…
Crimea Vote provokes fear of Domino Effect in Eurasia: Turkish FM
(By Juan Cole) Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday warned that Crimea’s referendum on seceding from Ukraine pose the threat of a “domino effect” in Eurasia. Will Russia’s rush to referendum…
RIP: Tony Benn – “We’ll never have Democracy as long as Big Business can buy Both Parties
British socialist stalwart Tony Benn dies at 88 (via AFP) Political foes and allies paid tribute to Tony Benn, the totem of the British left who spearheaded the movement against the Iraq…
Turkey’s PM Erdogan can weather Corruption and Islamic Politics: But Can he Weather Twitter?
(By Ahmet T. Kuru) Erdoğan has consolidated the executive, legislative, and the judicial powers under his authority; yet he has been unable to control another source of power— Twitter. When the Arab…
Israelis slam Kerry over “Jewish State” Remarks as Abbas Rejects Demand
(By Juan Cole) Right wing Israeli officials over the weekend expressed rage at US Secretary of State John Kerry for saying that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should “drop” his demand that the…
Has the US lost Iraq to Iran over Arms Deal?
(By Mustafa Sadoun in Baghdad) Documents indicating that Iraq was going to buy almost US$200 million worth of armaments from neighbouring Iran have had foreign policy analysts fizzing. Is it a reward…
Four Reasons Syria Refugees are a Bigger Story than Malaysian Air MH 370
It is a tragedy that the 239 passengers on Malaysian Air MH 370 never made it to Beijing, and appear to have been the victims of a hijacking that went horribly wrong.…
Dear Arab Liberals: The Enemies of your Enemies aren’t Necessarily your Friends
(By Karim Emile Bitar) One of the principal reasons the revolutionary impulse unleashed in 2010 proved so inspiring was that it finally gave full voice to liberals, democrats and progressives of the…
Crimean Tatars fear Russian Rule
Crimean Tatars fear a future under Russia (via GlobalPost) BAKHCHYSARAI, Ukraine — Crimean Tatars know a few things about oppression. In the past two or so centuries, this tight-knit Muslim group has…
Syria: Kurdish Women Soldiers take on Extremist Jihadis
DW writes, “According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have died in the civil war in Syria so far. The real number of dead is probably much higher. Many “Free…
A Russo-Iranian Bloc against the United States?
(By Juan Cole) Russian President Vladimir Putin called his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Thursday, according to PressTV. The Russian press added that “A Kremlin statement said Putin had underlined to Rouhani…
The Theater of Conspiracy in the Run-up to Turkey’s Elections
(By Erdağ Göknar) The novel Snow by Nobel-prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk exposes the logic of Middle Eastern nationalism. Not surprisingly, political conspiracy has a prominent role to play in it. Turkish…
Tens of Thousands in Turkey Protest Tyranny of the Majority
(By Juan Cole) Tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in Istanbul and other cities on Wednesday coming off the funeral of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan. Elvan had been in a coma since last…
Cole @ C-Span: Egypt and the Birth of al-Qaeda (video lecture)
(By Juan Cole) My class lecture, “Egypt and the Birth of al-Qaeda,” was filmed by C-Span in February and has been shown on television; it is now available on the web (click…