Uncategorized

(AFP) Angry Lebanese protest over attack on priest’s library (via AFP) Hundreds of Lebanese took to the streets of the northern city of Tripoli on Saturday to protest the torching of a decades-old library owned by a Greek Orthodox priest. The demonstrators held up banners that read “Tripoli, peaceful town” and “This is… —– […]

Iraq

Kurds increase their Autonomy amid chaos in Arab Iraq

contributors

(By Globalpost) As Iraq spirals, the Kurds take advantage (via GlobalPost) ERBIL, Iraq — As sectarian violence in Iraq reaches new heights and threatens to return the country to civil war, the semi-autonomous Kurdish north could be set to capitalize on the instability. An estimated 6,818 people were killed in Iraq’s violence… —– Related […]

art and photography

A Bridge of Boats across Frozen Tigris River, Mosul, 1903

Juan Cole

The authors say locals in Mosul told them that the last time the river froze was 1750. That freezing became more rare after that date is significant, since 1750 marks the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and increased coal burning for energy. The period 1250-1850 or the medieval cooling period (often incorrectly called the ‘little […]

Climate Change

Spain, Portugal show that 50%, even 70% Power from Renewables is Possible Right now

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The miserable record of the United States in tackling its deadly carbon dioxide emissions (5 billion metric tons a year) sometimes obscures how very possible it is for industrial economies to go green. Spain, a country of 47 million, was nearly at 50% renewables for electricity generation in 2013. That 50% from […]

Featured

John McCain and Lindsey Graham Want to invade Falluja Yet Again

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) There were conflicting reports on Sunday morning about whether the Iraqi government and its allied tribal levies had regained control of the western city of Falluja, which had fallen to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) on Saturday. What was not in doubt was that some in the […]

fiction

Bringing medieval Persian verse to the West: Dick Davis Interview

Juan Cole

PBS Newshour’s Jeff Brown interviews Dick Davis, among the foremost Persian scholars and translators of our time, on the delights and glories of Persian poetry. Davis is the translator of Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz For Barnes and Noble fans the book is here. And here it is at the indie […]

al-Qaeda

Iraq’s Sunni Civil War

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The attempt launched earlier this week by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS or ISIL) to take and hold city quarters in Falluja, Ramadi and Khalidiya in al-Anbar province has provoked an enormous political crisis in Iraq. The insurgents and supporters chased police and soldiers away from their stations, burned […]

science

Space Exploration as Reality Show: 1000 chosen for Private Mars Colonization Mission

Juan Cole

(By AFP> More than 1,000 chosen for one-way Mars reality-TV mission (via AFP) More than 1,000 candidates — from 200,000 hopefuls — have been chosen to train for a private Mars colonisation mission to be partly funded by a reality-TV show following their training and subsequent steps, organisers said Thursday. They are to be… […]

Featured

GOP isn’t Getting more Ignorant on Evolution, it is Just getting Older

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) Polling by the Pew Charitable trust shows that the gap between Republicans and Democrats on evolution has substantially widened in just 5 years. The percentage of Republicans who say that human beings have been unchanged since they originated rose from 39% to 48% just since 2009. Meanwhile, the percentage of Democrats who […]