Culture

Despite dire predictions by anti-marijuana activists, overall crime rates in the city of Denver are down more than five months after legal marijuana sales began in the Rocky Mountain state. According to the Denver Department of Public Safety, rates…

Books

Harvard confirms antique book is bound in human skin

Juan Cole

Harvard University scientists have confirmed that a 19th century French treatise in its libraries is bound in human skin, Harvard University said this week, after a bevvy of scientific testing. Arsene Houssaye’s “Des destinees de l’ame” (On the destiny…

Books

“In your Wild Dreams, what are you Looking for?” Rubaiyat of Jalalu’d-Din Rumi

Juan Cole

Courtesy Anthony A. Lee, here are four poems from his and the late Amin Banani’s translation of the quatrains of the great Sufi mystic Mevlana Jalalu’d-Din Rumi: Jalalu’d-Din Rumi, 53 Secrets from the Tavern of Love: Poems from the Rubaiyat of Mevlana Rumi, Translated by Amin Banani and Anthony Lee (White Cloud Press, 2014) Truth […]

censorship

No Regime? Egyptian Satirist Bassem Youssef Cancelled b/c “Enormous Pressure”

contributors

So, no regime then? Jon Stewart was on al-Barnamag [“The Program”] last year this time and remarked of the then Muslim Brotherhood government’s prosecution of his Egyptian counterpart, Bassem Youssef, for political libel of President Muhammad Morsi, “If your regime can’t handle a joke, you don’t have a regime.” AFP reports: Egypt satirist who mocked […]

African-Americans

Maya Angelou: ‘Still I Rise’ (video)

contributors

Poet Maya Angelou dies at 86. Maya Angelou reads ‘Still I Rise’

Dissent

Iran “Happy” Video Arrestees out on Bail but Pharrell Cover goes Viral

contributors

Iran frees ‘Happy’ video dancers on bail (via AFP) Six young Iranians arrested for dancing on rooftops to US singer Pharrell Williams’ hit “Happy” in a video that went viral on the Internet have been released on bail, reports said Wednesday. The reports were confirmed by Tehran-based fashion photographer… — Related video: The Young […]

Climate Change

You always knew it was a Gas Hog: Ben Affleck’s Batmobile to be a Hybrid

Juan Cole

Ben Affleck is slated to be the next Batman, and the Batmobile could get a major overhaul too. A hybrid Batmobile? Even the Dark Knight is going green. Yesterday director Zack Snyder tweeted the above teaser picture of the next Batmobile, and later…

Books

Washington Militarizes Foreign Policy, but cuts Fulbright Cultural Exchange

Juan Cole

(By Ann Jones via Tomdispatch.com) Ignorance can be dangerous, as shown in a recent poll asking Americans what to do about the Ukraine crisis. It turned out that the less those polled were capable of identifying where in the world Ukraine is, the more likely they were to want the U.S. to intervene militarily in […]

Barack Obama

Obama Quips at White House Correspondents Dinner: ‘Orange is the New Black’

Juan Cole

CBSNews.com Web Extras: “President Obama skewers the press, pols, and Obamacare at correspondents dinner” AFP reports: Obama yuks it up with Washington reporters (via AFP) President Barack Obama cracked jokes about the government’s disastrous health care policy rollout and mocked political opponents at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The annual event, known informally as the […]