Created by Japanese Artist Isao Hashimoto: A time-lapse video map of 2,053 nuclear explosions from 1945 through 1998. Starts off a little slow, but keep watching and you’ll be mesmerized. From the YouTube posting: “Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place […]
Archives for July 2013
Malala Yousafzai Pleads at UN for Universal Free Schooling for Girls and Boys
“In her first speech since the Taliban in Pakistan tried to kill her for advocating education for girls, Malala Yousafzai celebrated her 16th birthday on Friday at the United Nations, appealing for compulsory free schooling for all children” [including for girls!] Channel 4 News has video
Murderers where the Victim was White are Far more Likely to be Punished in US (Graph)
In the US, as Amnesty International points out: Percentage of murder victims annually that are African-American: 50% Percentage of executions for murder annually where the victim was white: 77%
Egypt: Rebellion Movement Pressures President, PM to Pare Claimed Powers
As Egypt braced for dueling huge demonstrations on Friday, a spokesman for the Rebellion or Tamarrud Movement, Hasan Shahin, said Thursday that the campaign expects the appointed interim president, Adly Mansour, to issue a new set of constitutional guidelines on the transitional government. Those declared a couple of days ago, they said, give too much […]
Remembering Syria: Homs ‘Ghost Town’ Under heavy Regime Bombardment
In winter of 2012, the world was mesmerized and horrified as the Syrian Baath regime drew up artillery pieces and its tanks and fired on non-combatant civilian districts. Now, non-combatantants are under artillery barrages, and it seems as though the world is paying no attention. In Homs, according to the official newspaper al-Watan, there was […]
In Chilling Ruling, Chevron is Granted Access to Amazon Activists’ Private Emails
"Sweeping" subpoena violates rights of those who spoke out against oil giant's devastating actions in Ecuador – Lauren McCauley writes at Commondreams “Following their guilty sentence for the dumping of 18.5bn gallons of toxic waste in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron is amassing the personal information of the environmentalists and attorneys who fought against them in […]
Aljazeera’s Conspiracy Theory about Obama and Egypt is Brainless Mush
Aljazeera Arabic has long since lost a lot of its previous journalisic standards, once its head, Waddah Khanfar, was fired in favor a member of the royal family. Some 22 Egyptian journalists just resigned from Aljazeera in Cairo in protest against its Fox-News-like biases in reporting on recent events. Aljazeera English usually still does a […]
Middle East Regional Contention over Egypt’s New Government
The change of government in Egypt produced starkly different reactions in various Middle Eastern countries, which tells us something about the situation there. With the exception of maverick member Qatar, the Gulf Cooperation Council, grouping six conservative Gulf oil monarchies, cheered loudest for the military coup made by Brig. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi against elected […]
The Gezi Park Protests: Is Turkey becoming Egypt? (Schubel)
Vernon Schubel writes at ISLAMiCommentary: Vernon James Schubel On May 31st of this year a protest over the fate of Gezi Park, located near Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square, evolved into a series of broad-based demonstrations against the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP). Over the next month […]