Photo of the Day: Four Syrian Bedouin women in the late 19th century. Mirrored from Al-Mashriq Syria in 1900 had a population of a little less than 3 million (not counting what is today Lebanon). My guess is that some 10-20% of the population was at that time pastoral nomads or transhumants, i.e. livestock raisers […]
Scotland is going 100% Green by 2020; shame on Dirty America
(By Juan Cole) Glasgow is the city of the future, not Phoenix. Scotland has a population of about 5.3 million, a little more than the US state of Arizona. But the resemblance stops there. Arizona’s state government is backward-looking, roiled by racial politics, contemptuous of higher education, and a climate laggard, dirtying up the atmosphere […]
Congress cuts Food Stamps, maintains Estate Tax Loophole worth $100 bn to the Rich
(By Juan Cole) You know how the Tea Party House of Representatives obsessed with cutting food stamps to working families and veterans and children this fall? They were trying to save $4 bn. At the same time, they have kept in place a piece of fatally flawed legislation regarding estate taxes that has cost the […]
Real Time Earth Wind Map
Real Time Earth Wind Map from Earth Nullschool.net h/t Treehugger
Taiwanese Animators Explain to Obama the Unconstitutionality of NSA Spying (Video)
“NSA data mining program probably unconstitutional, judge says” (Taiwanese Animators)
How to get an Iran Nuclear deal: Top 7 Confidence-Building Steps
(By Bijan Khajehpour, Reza Marashi and Trita Parsi) [Excerpts from a new report from the National Iranian American Council:] Upon assuming the presidency in January 2009, Barack Obama told the world that if Iran were willing to unclench its fist, it would find an extended hand of friendship from the United States. Nearly five years […]
India Flap derives from America’s Gulag Practices and Far-Right Supreme Court
(By Juan Cole) The militarization of American police and humiliating practices of routine strip and cavity searches are the real culprits in the current diplomatic dispute between the United States and India. Police not only arrested the Indian deputy consul, Devyani Khobragade, who claims diplomatic immunity, on a minor visa and domestic labor charge, they […]
Colbert: NSA Spying on Online Games to Prevent non-existent Virtual Terrorism
Stephen Colbert reports on NSA spying on online games. He notes that covert NSA analysts may be a majority in some virtual hang-outs and had to institute protocols so that they did not end up spying on each other! [Juan Cole made fun a few years ago of the obsession by some security agencies with […]
Top Ten Ominous Signs about Last Month being the Hottest November on Record
(By Juan Cole) The The National Climatic Data Center of the National Oceanic and Aeronautics Administration has announced that if you take the average land surface temperature and the average sea surface temperature, November of 2013 was the warmest November since records began being kept in 1880. Here are some of the ominous statistics they […]
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