Reuters reports on a Japanese stage play, Sayonara in which a robot caretaker of an ill woman is actually played by a robot (or more accurately by an android, since the machine is made to look human). Another, print, report is here. The android is named Gemini-F. The director, Oriza Hirata, says that the android […]
Archives for November 2010
Cole in Tomdispatch: Asia Rising, American Hessians
My column is out in Tomdispatch on the troubling ways that President Obama’s Asian trip suggest America’s weakening position in the world, especially with regard to a rising Asia– given our debilitating wars and our hollowed out economy. Read the whole thing.
ACLU calls on Att’y General to investigate Bush for Torturing
The American Civil Liberties Union is calling upon the Attorney General to look into prosecuting George W. Bush now that the latter has admitted to authorizing torture (i.e. waterboarding) at Guantanamo. British officials have have denied Bush’s allegation that torture techniques yielded information that foiled terror plots in the UK. Aljazeera English has a video […]
Iran-backed al-Maliki Tapped to form Government in Iraq
Iraqi politicians have finally begun forming a government at long last, 8 months after the parliamentary elections of March 7. Parliament finally met Thursday and elected Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani president once again. By the constitution, the president then asks the leader of the bloc with the largest number of seats in parliament to attempt […]
Afghan Poll: We don’t Like Taliban but will Gladly Talk with Them
A summer, 2010, poll done in Afghanistan by the San Francisco-based Asian Foundation, the results of which have just been released, shows: More and more Afghans, now the vast majority, say they have no sympathy with the insurgent groups fighting NATO and the Karzai government; Most people support programs to lure Taliban and other fighters […]
Obama praises Indonesia, Slams Israeli Settlement-building; and, OSC: Indonesian Press Swoons over Obama
CNN has President Obama’s address in Indonesia. Obama stressed Indonesia’s pluralist and secular heritage. He referred to the 5 principles, ‘panca sila’ (Sanskrit, pronounced pancha sheela): belief in one supreme God; humanitarianism; nationalism expressed in the unity of Indonesia; consultative democracy; and social justice. These principles were put in the constitution by Suharto Sukarno in […]
Iraq’s Christians Urged to Flee, al-Maliki Says they Should Stay, and Everyone Wonders where the Government Is
Update:: The NYT is reporting that on Wednesday morning, more bombings targeted Christians in Baghdad, leaving 3 dead and 28 wounded. Some of those hit were Muslims racing to help Christian neighbors. The bombers are radical Sunni Muslim extremists, “al-Qaeda” in the current parlance though they probably have nothing to do with Usama Bin Laden, […]
Crowds Protest Corruption of Afghan Elections, demand New Polls
Hundreds of Aghans protested Sunday in Kabul against the fraudulent parliamentary elections held this fall in Afghanistan. A quarter of the votes have been thrown out by the electoral commission and hundreds of candidates are under investigation. The protesters want the elections to be re-staged. Losing candidates, or candidates who believe that Karzai’s election commissioners […]
Energy Committee Chairman Candidate Says God Promised no More Catastrophic Climate Change after Noah
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), who will seek the Energy and Commerce Committee chairmanship maintains that we do not have to worry about climate change because God promised in the Bible not to destroy the world again after Noah’s flood. The video I posted got pulled by YouTube as ‘spam’, which it isn’t, so I presume […]
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