Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A team of researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Yale has published a study in The Lancet finding that the Gaza Ministry of Health substantially underestimated war deaths in Gaza. Casualties were 69% higher than reported. The current estimate by the Ministry of Health for […]
Yes, Human-Caused Climate Change Contributed to the Burning of Los Angeles
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Los Angeles wildfires destroyed over 1,000 buildings, forced thousands from their homes, and left at least five dead as of this writing. The Pacific Palisades fires destroyed many historic structures, including the home of legendary comedian and actor Will Rogers (d. 1935). Reading some of his quotes, I conclude […]
Ireland to Int’l Court of Justice: Gaza War is no Excuse for Israel Genociding Palestinian Civilians
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Ireland has filed a declaration with the International Court of Justice of its intention to intervene in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel for its tactics in the war on Gaza. So reports Kerry O’Shea at IrishCentral. The Statute of the International Court of Justice, Article 63, provides for the […]
8th Baby freezes to Death in Gaza, as Israeli Forces fire on World Food Programme Workers, Flour Warehouse
( Middle East Monitor ) – Gaza’s Ministry of Health today announced that 35-day-old Yousef Kalloub froze to death because of the lack of sufficient winter clothes and suitable living conditions in the enclave as a result of Israel’s genocidal war. Yousef became the eight baby to freeze to death in Gaza. In a statement […]
Brazilian Judiciary orders Investigation of Israeli Soldier-Tourist for War Crimes in Gaza
Update. Israeli intelligence spirited the soldier out of Brazil to avoid prosecution. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – According to Junio Silva at the Brazilian newspaper Metrópoles , on December 31, Federal Judge Raquel Soares Charelli directed the Federal Police to open an immediate investigation into an Israeli soldier vacationing in Brazil who is alleged to […]
The Worst News from 2024: CO2 Went up again, as Tundra starts to Emit Carbon
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo made 2024 a hard year to bear for anyone following them, and unfortunately it was all too easy to spend the year doomscrolling through the horrid video feeds that testified to humanity’s inhumanity. The fate […]
How Solar Power could save Fossil Gas Giant Iran from its Energy Crisis
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Iran has for weeks been in the midst of an energy crisis. It may seem paradoxical given that it has some of the biggest oil and gas fields in the world. Some 70% of Iran’s electricity is generated by fossil gas. Power blackouts have inflicted billions of dollars of losses […]
NOLA Attacker was a Vet who fought the War on Terror against Extremists before Breakdown
Ann Arbor – (Informed Comment) – I love New Orleans, and have been known to hit the jazz clubs on Bourbon Street into the wee hours myself. So what happened there is a gut punch, and I want to express my condolences to the families of the victims and to the community there for its […]
“Raise a Glass with Someone Pretty:” New Year’s Day in the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – I am rewriting a previous essay here and adding some new translations. The world has seen a lot of misery this past year, I thought it might be nice to talk about poetry and rebirth today. In 2020, I brought out a new translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, […]
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