The Facebook IPO may or may not be a good business investment, but the Facebook phenomenon hasn’t faded in one area of the world– the Middle East. The social networking site, along with Twitter, was deployed by the young revolutionaries in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria as an aid to toppling the sclerotic […]
Saudi ban on women’s sports blamed for rising obesity (Zambarakji)
Angie Zambarakji writes at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: A girl’s school in Saudi Arabia has defied a ban on sport for girls by letting pupils play basketball. This comes comes after Human Rights Watch has claimed that women’s limited access to sport was contributing to rising obesity in the country. Under the Kingdom’s strict […]
Minority Births the Majority? On how the whole idea of White People is Made Up
The news is going around breathlessly that 50.4% of births in the US in the past 12 months were to families categorized as ethnic minorities, presaging the time when ‘whites will be a minority’ in the US. The unselfconscious deployment of these categories just takes your breath away. Who gets to decide which ones are […]
Egypt’s Tantawi Pledges no first Strike Abroad, Fair Elections at Home
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi addressed Egyptian troops on Wednesday and attempted to raise their morale for praising them as the guarantors of Egypt’s security. Al-Masrawi reports: “Field Marshal Tantawi said, “We are heading in the right direction.” He deplored the allegations that sometimes issue from activist organizations “that we are in enmity with this state […]
Omar Khayyam (130) On Forgiveness and Falling off the Wagon
I singlehandedly keep this bar afloat. My heart has bled with repentance a couple thousand times. But if I don’t go on sinning, what would divine mercy do? He can’t bestow forgiveness unless I keep falling off the wagon. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 130
Thomas Jefferson on Polytheism and Atheism (Poster)
Charges of Afghan Army Torture Prevent British Detainee Transfer (Stickler)
Angus Stickler writes at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism: British troops have been banned from transferring suspected Taliban prisoners to the Afghan authorities because of claims of torture by local forces. The move, which follows a ruling by the British High Court, is a blow to Nato countries that want to formalise their detainee transfer […]
Top 10 Green Energy Good News Stories Today
1. The Department of the Interior has given the green light to a power transmission line that is intended to bring power from Google, Inc.- backed offshore wind farms in the Northeast of the US to the mainland. Environmental impact studies will take 18 months to two years. The US, unlike Germany, so far has […]
Legalize Pot, Save Public Education, and end Student Indebtedness
College students and graduates in the United States have a debt crisis on their hands, owing a trillion dollars. Some 80% of university students attend public colleges and universities, which were set up to provide inexpensive education. These public institutions are increasingly expensive, however, in large part because [pdf] state legislatures have systematically cut their […]
© 2025 All Rights Reserved