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Jared Anderson at Breaking Energy writes of technologies for solar power storage that allow the energy generated by the sun to be released at night: “a US-based company will jump ahead of the competition next year with its molten salt storage technique. “This technology at this size would leap-frog us into [energy] storage leaders,” Solar […]

Featured

Sunni-Shiite Tensions soar in Lebanon; Hizbullah accuses Saudis in Iran Embassy Bombing

Juan Cole

Several dramatic accusations and events have heightened Sunni-Shiite tensions in Lebanon, as the Syrian Civil War continues to spill over onto Beirut’s politics. In the northern city of Tripoli, Sunni Salafis (who support the rebels in Syria) have fought in recent days with `Alawis (a sect of the Shiites, who support Syria’s Alawite-dominated Baath government), […]

Dissent

The Public Professor: Dissent in Commodified Higher Education

Juan Cole

by Christian Christensen The Public Professor: Dissent in Commodified Higher Education Or…What Kind of University Will My Daughter Attend in 2027? The following is the text of my public Professorial Installation lecture given at Uppsala University. These lectures have been given at Uppsala University for centuries, and are intended for a broad audience. In 1967, […]

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Can even Colbert make us laugh at America’s tragic growing Wealth Divide?

Juan Cole

Stephen Colbert on America’s astonishing wealth divide, which has even the Wall Street Journal worried: Boing Boing gives us the statistics : “#1 The lowest earning 23,303,064 Americans combined make 36 percent less than the highest earning 2,915 Americans do. #2 40 percent of all American workers (39.6 percent to be precise) make less […]

Energy

Americans are 5% of World Population, consume 1/4 of its Energy (infographic)

Juan Cole

Source: InternationalBusinessGuide.org

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Libya Needs UN Forces, National Reconciliation to Resolve its Crisis (Al Ghwell)

Juan Cole

by Hafed Al Ghwell Libya needs to formulate a vision and a plan for what it wants to be in 10 or 20 years. It needs an economic strategy that will re-start the economy and offer jobs On August 31, 2011, few days after the fall of Tripoli to the disorganised and mixed bag of […]

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Dr. Strangelove in Afghanistan: an Advice Column for the Praetorian Surveillance State

Juan Cole

By Tom Engelhardt Col. Manners Answers Your Questions on the Etiquette of War, Nuclear Threats, and Surveillance By Colonel Manners (with a helping hand from Tom Engelhardt) [Editor’s Note: Many publications have advice columnists, but none has our old friend Colonel Manners (ret.), whose experience in military and surveillance matters is evident from his impressive […]

Featured

Photo of the Day: Palestinian Bedouin outside Jerusalem, 1930

Juan Cole

from Elia Photo Service via Mashriq Note that when this picture was taken the British counted roughly a million Palestinians in British Mandate Palestine, scheduled to achieve statehood as Palestine when the British left. The British likely did not count the Bedouins in their statistics and probably under-counted the Palestinians in general. When the picture […]

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Egypt: Military Regime arrests Dissident Ahmad Maher of April 6 Youth

Juan Cole

Activist Ahmad Maher turned himself in to Egyptian police on Saturday. He and the April 6 organization played a major role in the 2011 revolution against Hosni Mubarak and went on to organize many protests insisting that the military should go to its barracks. He called for protests against the recently-passed Draconian anti-protest law, hence […]