Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Monday’s massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake in south-central Turkey, in which at least 20,000 have died — and probably tens of thousands more — has shocked that country and the world. It inescapably has political implications, with Turkish parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for mid-May. President Tayyip Recep Erdogan is facing […]
Archives for February 2023
Syria bears Brunt of economic Devastation caused by Quake
( Irish Times ) – The death and devastation wreaked by Monday’s massive earthquake is greatest in Turkey, but that country is in a far better position to deal with the aftermath than Syria, due to warfare and sanctions. The civil conflict and proxy interventions have left Syria divided, with 70 per cent of territory […]
Twitter Blackout in Turkey amid Earthquake Rescue Operations: The Dangers of Microblogging Outages during Disasters
By Anjana Susarla, Michigan State University | – (The Conversation) – Twitter was blocked in Turkey on Feb. 8, 2023, according to internet monitoring service NetBlocks. The outage came amid the massive rescue operation and humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of the earthquakes in southern Turkey and northern Syria two days earlier. Access to Twitter […]
Football’s One to the Heart: How Safe is the Superbowl for Players?
By Robert Lipsyte | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The echoes still linger from that national sigh of relief last month when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, slammed into cardiac arrest during a game on January 2nd, was declared out of danger. It was a justified sigh. A vibrant young life had been spared. But […]
IEA: Renewables plus Nuclear are able to meet 90% of Globe’s New Electricity demand Through 2025
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The International Energy Agency, in a new report that is just out, estimates that 90% of new global electricity demand through 2025 will be met by low-carbon sources — renewables and nuclear. It is mostly renewables, but the report mentions the French bringing their reactors back on line and the […]
Plagues and Painting with Words: Glimpses of Orhan Pamuk’s Writing Process
By Erdağ Göknar | – ( LA Review of Books) – DURING THE LONG summer days in Istanbul, Orhan Pamuk devotes himself to intensive writing on Büyükada, an island in the Sea of Marmara, and in the evenings, he meets with visitors. Last August, Pamuk and I had dinner there and discussed everything from politics […]
Iranian Protesters turn to TikTok to get their Message past government Censors
By Whitney Shylee May, The University of Texas at Austin | – Images of the protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Zhina Amini on Sept. 16, 2022, in Iran and reports of the government’s brutal crackdown have circulated widely on social media. This flow of information comes despite efforts by the Iranian regime […]
Biden is Right: You Shouldn’t Pay a Higher Tax Rate than Billionaires
By Rebekah Entralgo | – ( Otherwords.org ) – In his third State of the Union address, President Joe Biden renewed his call for a billionaire minimum income tax, demanding Congress take action on a broken tax system that rewards wealth over work. “Pass my proposal for a billionaire minimum tax,” Biden proclaimed. “Because no […]
What the Pundits Get Wrong about Biden and SOTU: People are Confident in his Policies even if they Don’t Think He is Charismatic
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The State of the Union address contained no surprises. Joe Biden’s policies are by now a known quantity. It is remarkable, however, how much progress he made in implementing them in the first two years of his presidency. Those who saw the Republican Party become the party of “no” under […]
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