(By Juan Cole) America’s longest war may be over by the end of this year, and it is making Afghans and neighbors like Pakistan nervous. On Tuesday President Obama called Afghan president Hamid Karzai for the first time since last summer, saying that since Karzai had declined to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement, he had […]
As Egyptian Gov’t Falls, Leftist Presidential Candidate seeks Youth Vote
(Via AFP) Egypt presidential hopeful fears return to autocracy (via AFP) Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi said he fears a return to autocratic rule in Egypt, telling AFP that the army chief, a likely election frontrunner, has failed to dispel these concerns. Sabbahi, 59, who came third in the 2012 presidential election… —— Related video: […]
4 Darknesses: Internet being Manipulated, Deceived by Western Intel Trolls
(By Juan Cole) Researchers on online behavior have shown that internet trolls (people who use insincere techniques to disrupt conversations) really are psychopaths, marked by narcisssism, sadism, Machiavellianism. Professors Eric Buckels, Paul Trapnell, and Delroy Paulhus administered surveys to students and found that about 6 percent of them enjoyed messing with other people’s heads on […]
The Promise and Existential Risks of Nanotechnology
Video by Dr. Kim Solez on Existential Risks [of Nanotechnology] prepared for the Lifeboat Foundation The Bill Joy video excerpt from the year 2000 in “The Future Doesn’t Need Us” segment at 7:05 no longer exists separately on the net so this is one of the few places where one can still see it. See […]
Not to Reason Why: A New Crimean “War”?
(Juan Cole) The Russian-speaking population of the Crimean Peninsula in the Ukraine is upset by the popular movement in the west of the country that has overthrown president Viktor Yanukovych and is said to be forming militias. On some government buildings, Ukrainian flags have been replaced by Russian ones. Sevastopol is an important Black Sea […]
Not only Big Brother but Big Corporation is Tracking you Online Too
(Via Techdirt) What Happens When You Marry The NSA’s Surveillance Database With Amazon’s Personalized Marketing? (via Techdirt) By now, most people who shop online are aware of the way in which companies try to tailor their offers based on your previous purchasing and browsing history. Being followed by strangely relevant ads everywhere is bad enough, […]
A-Pop & Hip-Hop: “Wild Ones” – Myriam Fares and Flo Rida
“Wild Ones” by Myriam Fares & Flo Rida Last summer American rapper Tramar Lacel Dillard a.k.a. Flo Rida reprised his 2011 hit with Sia, “Wild Ones” with Lebanese pop star Myriam Fares singing Arabic lyrics as a counterpoint to his English-language rapping. Since Fares is singing an Arabic melody, which has different harmonics than the […]
As Ukraine’s President Flees in Overthrow, Lessons for Kyiv from the Arab Upheavals
(By Juan Cole) The dramatic overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Saturday, as he fled the presidential palace and it was occupied by extreme nationalists, recalls events in the Middle East in 2011. The crisis in the Ukraine was provoked last fall when Yanukovych reconsidered earlier moves toward integration with Europe. He is from […]
The Deep State is Vulnerable to People Power
(By Juan Cole) My remarks below were published at Bill Moyers’ site this weekend. They came in response to Mike Lofgren’s important essay, “Anatomy of the Deep State” . Lofgren is a former congressional staffer. Mike Lofgren’s long experience on the Hill has given him a small window, he might say only an aperture, into […]
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