By Paula Fox A Meaningful Life by L.J. Davis, with an introduction by Jonathan Lethem One Manhattan mid-morning in the spring of 1967, I heard the crack of a gun going off below, along the broad reach of Central Park West. I jumped up from the table where I was working on my second novel and looked down five stories to the street, on the other side of which breathed the quiet greenery of Central Park. What I saw was a man lying in the middle of the street attempting to raise himself up from the …

By Robert Malley The idea of Israeli-Palestinian partition, of a two-state solution, has a singular pedigree. It has been proposed for at least eight decades. Jews first accepted it as Palestinians recoiled; by the time Palestinians warmed to the notion in the late 1980s, Israelis had turned their backs. Still, its proponents manage to portray it as fresh, new, and capable of leading to peace. International consensus on a two-state agreement is, today, stronger than ever. Meanwhile, interest …

By Ingrid D. Rowland It is a measure of the ineptitude--or is it a death wish?--of Italy's major opposition party, the Partito Democratico (Democratic Party), that it has spent the entire season of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's discontent wrangling over the election of its own party secretary--only to be caught, on the eve of the October 25 vote (its winner was Pier Luigi Bersani, a sensible former minister in several left-wing administrations), by a veritable Vesuvius of erupting bimbos. …

By Claire Messud My Prison, My Home: One Woman's Story of Captivity in Iran by Haleh Esfandiari Extraordinary events in Iran over the past six months have brought us images, voices, and narratives until recently unimaginable; they reveal, among other things, how little we understand about quotidian life in that country since the revolution. In the United States, we are nevertheless aware, with a dark tremor, of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, the black hole of the hard-liners' repressive system. …

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Last week, new guidelines for breast cancer screening inspired a panic. Will we ever be able to discuss effective health care reasonably?

If each liberal "special interest" group is actually just in it alone, what's the point of a common ideology?

The lesser known half of the artistic duo behind installations such as The Gates battled not just the art world's sexism, but its willingness to ignore the logistical work behind site-specific art.

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Andrej Grubacic's Resoc Interview

ATLANTA, Georgia, Nov 24 (IPS) - Activists from the U.S. and Colombia are targeting the World of Coca-Cola museum, located near its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, accusing the company of "union busting", paying its workers "poverty wages", and engaging in environmentally destructive practices.

Maziar Bahari, Newsweek

Wes Anderson, Director

Tim Burton

Obama Review with Hendrik Hertzberg, John Harris, David Bromwich, Arianna Huffington and Les Gelb

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 24 (IPS) - China and India have been singled out as two countries that have established vibrant economic and financial links with the developing world and played key roles in strengthening South-South cooperation over the last 10 years.

WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (IPS) - One in every four combat soldiers quit the Afghan National Army (ANA) during the year ending in September, published data by the U.S. Defence Department and the Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan reveals.

CentOS has updated C5: cups (denial of service, cross-site scripting). Fedora has updated asterisk (F11, F10: cross-site ajax requests), snort (F11, F10: denial of service), bugzilla (F12: information leak). SUSE has updated cups, jetty5, libqt4/dbus-1-qt, opera, puretls/jessie, kdegraphics3-pdf, qemu (various issues). Ubuntu has updated libvorbis (arbitrary code execution).

Firewalls are the moat around your computer, protecting you from unwanted visitors. Want to keep the scum out? Better start up a firewall yourself. Most operating systems have them -- all you have to do is turn them on. <img> <img><img>

<img>Hard conclusions, soft recommendations let sangh parivar, Centre off the hook25 November 2009The HinduNEWS ANALYSISSearing indictment of RSS, BJP, but action to be taken: NothingSiddharth VaradarajanNew Delhi: There is a phrase in Hindustani – khoda pahad, nikli chuhiya – to describe the underwhelming outcome of an exercise over which one has laboured long and hard.Justice M.S. Liberhan worked diligently for 17 years through more than 40 extensions of his initial three-month brief …

Several Palm Pre customers have reported major problems with their handset’s online backup system, resulting in the loss of phone numbers, calendar events, memos and other data. The issue stems from corrupted backups, according to Pre enthusiast blog PreCentral. The Pre backs up its data as a “Palm Profile” online, and it only stores the most [...]

Images from John Hillcoat's striking adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel show how the director relied on real-world devastation and soft-pedaled the CGI to create a bleak vision of a post-apocalyptic world. <img> <img><img>

At Google, we're committed to giving you the information you want — regardless of the form in which it might appear.Text is often useful, but sometimes videos and pictures are a more effective way to receive information. For example, if you want to learn a magic trick, a video showing you how to perform the trick is likely the best result. So over the past few years, we've blended videos, images, maps and more into the search results on Google.com.It also makes sense to provide you with richer …

Woot.com, the net's often imitated deal-a-day site, launches a new site to scour the web for dozens of deals a day. Your wallet might be in jeopardy. <img> <img><img>

Why is a terrible economic outlook considered acceptable?

Parallels between deficit fear-mongering and the runup to Iraq.

Imagination Technologies is releasing its second-generation 32-bit Meta processor cores for wider availability. The Series2 Meta core IP integrates DSP functions, supports hardware multi-threaded execution, offers hard real-time capabilities, and supports Linux and Android, says Imagination, which also announced a new PowerVR SGX543MP graphics core family....

While the Thackerays and Azmis compete with each other to raise the dignity and stature of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, I had a remarkably Marathi weekend and would like to report on some of its charming moments.It started with my watching the play Sapadlelya Aathavani (literally, "Found Memories"). This play was originally written in English by Girish Karnad, then adapted in Marathi by Amruta More and staged by Satyadev Dubey last Friday at TIFR. Both Karnad and Dubey were in the …

As Iran's leaders waffle, don't be tempted to think all is lost. Here's why the country’s stalling on its nuclear deal with the West is good news.

This article, prepared by the SEZaudit Initiative, is a comprehensive report on SEZs in India, as of 2009. A summary of the report is coming soon. Click here to read SEZ report [PDF, English, 36 pages] »

For the past couple of years I have been commenting on each piece of fiction appearing in The New Yorker, and I've also been naming at Story of the Year with the help of my readers. The winner of the New Yorker Story of the Year for 2008 was the terrific "Dinner Party" by Joshua Ferris. And now it is time to turn our attention to this year's stories. Please leave a comment here, or send me an email, nominating a story for the Top Ten. Voting will take place in the last half of December.Will the …

• Download in .ogv format.
• See how I did it.
• See how Shawn does it.

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By Himanshu Kumar, Vanvasi Chetna Ashram. This report, published in EPW, was translated by Jyoti Punwani and is a summary of a talk given by Himanshu Kumar at the Press Club, Mumbai, on October 31 2009. The adivasis regard the Maoists as their friends for it is these rebels who have stood by them. All the normal [...]

The WSJ has a sobering article on the state of the manufacturing & labor relations in India -

COIMBATORE, India -- This ancient city has turned itself in recent years into a manufacturing dynamo emblematic of India's economic rebirth. But a homicide case playing out in an auto-parts factory here is raising concerns about whether the Indian industrial miracle is hitting a wall of industrial unrest. "We can't be a capitalist country that has socialist labor laws"Pricol Ltd., which makes …

I want to return to the column by Tapan Raychaudhury who doesn't like the idea of converting some of the academically better equipped (and more accomplished) colleges into universities:

My particular concern here is with the new initiative to confer the status of universities on selected colleges. One assumption behind it seems to be that colleges that, perhaps after a glorious past, are now suffering in quality will regain their old excellence if turned into universities. The logic underlying …

The following article provides a look at shola artists and shola industry in general. The orginal Bengali articles were written by Sanjay Ghosh for Manthan Samayiki, and has been translated by Koel Das, Sanhati. Shola is a naturally occurring substance which has been used traditionally by people for making flowers and other artworks. Unlike petroleum-based thermocol which degrades in water thus polluting marine-life, shola products are less polluting and environmentally stable. There is a rising …

tapas_madrid_1Well, I'm simply exhausted. I gave my second two-hour lecture today and drained my energy resources quite a bit. This is after an early(ish) start to the morning (7:30am) and with going late to bed last night (1:30am). A good lunch afterward helped restore things to a balance a bit, but I need to rest some more. I've been modifying my lectures during the process of giving them, making adjustments for time and the kind of questions I get. This means that I end up kicking some …

You might enjoy: Mike Memoli in RCP Blog: Alaska’s New Governor Daniel Drezner in Foreign Policy: The cost of being a superpower Izabella Kaminska in Alphaville: The upcoming UK tracker time-bomb Steve Coll in Think Tank: Manmohan Singh Charles Bremner...

In Douglas Adams's best-selling novel The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a space traveler could stick the Babel fish right into his ear, making it so he could understand speakers in any language. Emirates airlines' iLingual iPhone app doesn't exactly realize his dream, but it's a step in the right direction. <img> <img><img>

The Indian Prime Minister, who appeared at a joint press conference with President Obama today and who will be fêted at Obama’s first state dinner tonight, is not likely to leave much of an...

By Sarah Handel Rita Konig's trying to kill me, I swear. As I sit at my dark, rainy-day desk, fingers cold as I tap the keys, I clicked over to her latest entry on the Inside Out blog for the New York Times, "Sweet Dreams." I never should have done that. But this week I want to talk about beds, and what makes them: soft, cool sheets; squishy, delicious pillows; and layers to pull up from the end of the bed when it is chilly. Everything about a bed should envelop you and feel crisp and clean …

My new column for the FT mildly criticizes the decision to use a civilian court for KSM and the other 9/11 plotters. I say mildly because the most popular lines of attack on this approach are wrong, and because the advantages of the alternative--military commissions--are often overstated. Still, on balance, I think it's a mistake.The much-reported comments by one of the accused's lawyers, saying that the men would plead not guilty (despite earlier indications to the contrary) came after the …

In the Sydney Morning Herald Peter Roebuck traces the rise of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who has been the cornerstone of West Indies' middle-order over the past few years.

He bats like a puppet, every part of his body in motion: arms, wrists, legs, nothing static. He can look out of his depth, a man of rubber in a time of steel, a skinny fellow in an age of muscle.

Bowlers think they will get him out in a minute, and then the minutes turn into hours and sometimes days and still the modest man from …

A cross marks the place of a car crash in Colby, Kansas. In today's second hour we'll talk about what you're willing to give up for safer roads. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) By Gwen Outen Jihadists in America Federal investigators filed charges against eight people in connection with the disappearance of young Somali-Americans who allegedly left the U.S. to fight with a terrorist group in Somalia. Authorities say this is part of the biggest domestic terrorism investigation since …

We, the undersigned people's organisations, social movements, trade unions and concerned citizens, submit this memorandum to the Government to draw your attention to the several urgent and so far unaddressed concerns about the climate crisis and the Indian Government's response to them, especially in light of the upcoming 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at Copenhagen from 7-18 December 2009. - Environment / Environment, …

Sega’s Mega Drive was first born in 1988, made its way to the US a year later and at last to Europe in 1990. In the United States, it got a change of name: Genesis. At the time, the 16-bit marvel was just amazing, giving us an almost perfect home version of Streetfighter II and [...]

You've watched our Tech Tip videos here on LinuxJournal.com this year -- now get them all on one convenient and super slick DVD. In addition to the over one hundred tech tip videos, we've included some pretty fun bonus footage as well as all 2009 issues (12 total) of Linux Journal in PDF. Watch a preview of the DVD: read more <img> <img><img>

aliceWell, a very gentle sort of wham. Yesterday the Large Hadron Collider at CERN had its first collisions of protons! It is a warm start, making sure everything is working before ramping up the energies to regimes where we hope to see new physics, but it is a very exciting milestone nonetheless*. Recall that a few days back they hit the landmark of getting the machine to circulate beams again for the first time. (If you've forgotten what all of this is for, please search the blog for "LHC" …

Do you find this man attractive? Don't be shy now. Because you wouldn't be alone. For one, he's married to the supermodel Giselle. Also, he did pretty well in a fascinating survey carried out by Justin Park at the University...

There has been somewhat of an uproar in Indian politics this week, after the release of an extensive government report on the 1992 destruction of the Babri Masjid, the “Liberhan” report. According to news coverage in the Indian media, the main findings of the report are 1) the destruction of the Masjid was a planned, rather than spontaneous event, and 2) the leaders of the BJP at the time were involved in the planning of the event. One of the controversial elements in the publishing of the …

What is the fallout from the health care fight going to do to midterm elections next year? Are moderate Democrats going to feel the heat? We discuss all this and more on today's Coffee and Markets.

Eventually, as is well known, the NAB process itself was corrupted and used for political purposes: Burki.<img>

In the latest issue of Tehelka, the SCBA president, Krishnamani seeks to defend Justice S.H.Kapadia, who is in the centre of the controversy over conflict of interests. (Courting Controversy) Prashant Bhushan's reply to Krishnamani also appears on the same page.

By Siddhartha Mitra, Sanhati This travelogue was written in October 2009, following a visit to rehabilitated villages near Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. The first part is on a visit to the village of Munder. The account will be continued in the next update. “Spots”, I said. I meant stains, but I said spots. Easier to understand. “Chai se,” he said impassively (From tea). Evidently, he did not think much of them. And thankfully he did not prefix his reply with a “Sir”. “Yeh chai se?”, I stare …

The Carson City Airport Authority, which has benefited in the last four years from more than $13 million in federal funds, is now slated to receive another $9.6 million in stimulus money, even though an independent auditor cited problems earlier this year with how it manages its federal grants. The airport authority, which saw a board [...]

We welcome the reports that the Government of India and the CPI (Maoist) are agreeable to the idea of talks. In the present situation talks are (…) - General / India, Press Release, Peace

This newest foolishness is the completely unjustified promotion of over 50 Grade-21 officers to Grade-22: Shafi.<img>

Issue 17 of the GNOME Journal is available; the theme of this issue is "Women in open source." Topics covered include Telepathy, the "un-scary screwdriver," a look back at the 2006 women's summer outreach program, GNOME Shell, and more.

The Open Source Observatory has a brief article on the "Free Technology Academy," a program oriented around free software and open standards beginning at two European universities. "The FTA will begin on 25 January 2010. The first two courses tutored are 'the concepts of Free Software and Open Standards' and 'The GNU/Linux Operating System'. The programme for the second semester lists 'Web applications development', 'Software development' and 'Economical models'."

In today's e-mail bulletin, we asked: "What are the consequences for Liverpool if they go out of the Champions League tonight?" Tony Barrett responded: "When you have been a leading member of the continental elite for the past five seasons, then anything other than qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League is only ever going to be considered a calamity. The thought of being shunted into the second tier of European football is the equivalent of relegation for...

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I cannot claim credit for the eye-rollingly bad title. It appears that this is the media’s favorite play on words for this occasion. They really get a [spicy] kick out of their cleverness. The Beltway is all atwitter today in preparation for the state dinner in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit. Many have quipped, and I agree, that it looks like a big Indian wedding tent has been built on the White House lawn. Like out of Monsoon Wedding: stdin.jpg The Chef: Marcu …

What does one of the most successful bond investors in history know?

Fedora has released an update to PackageKit to "switch the signed install permission to require the root password". This is the fix for the change that allowed unprivileged package installation, which led to an uproar from some Fedora users and developers. Note that it is a regular update, not a security update. Click below for the update information.

Basically, we may be in a technical recovery, but we're not recovering.

by Barrie Hardymon The amount of people who die in car accidents every year is staggering. Would we ever tolerate 37,000 fatalities in any other way? (And that number, which is actually 37, 261 -- is a historic low, the lowest level since 1961.) All this week, NPR is looking at how safe our roads are, in a variety of stories about cars, drivers, roads, and all the infrastructure that both protects and exposes us. TOTN is doing two shows; today, we'll ask what you'd give up to prevent deaths …

When Google first announced what it called Chrome OS, back in July, it said it would open source the code “later this year”. Last week it made good on that promise with the release of the code for what is now called Chromium OS, and the first analyses have started rolling in. They're mostly tinged with a vague air of disappointment, as if Chromium OS isn't quite as exciting as people hoped. But might Google be aiming much, much higher – and planning to turn the personal computing sector on …

Global warming policy advocate George Monbiot: “It’s no use pretending this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.”

Lieberman opposes any health-care overhaul that includes a public option: “His opposition is strong enough that Mr. Lieberman says he won’t vote to let a bill come to a final vote if a public option is included.” Well, this certainly worked out well for Ned Lamont.

“The tentative plan is for the president to make his announcement [in prime time] December 1, followed shortly thereafter by testimony on Capitol Hill by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Also expected to brief Congress is the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.”

Coasties takes the fixed-gear trend for clean, cable-free lines and single cogs and applies it to the cruiser. The company offers cheap deep-V wheel-sets which swap out the rear track-hub for a coaster hub. This means you get all the aesthetic advantage of running a fixed-gear — non-visible rear brake, no cables or brake levers, [...]

Read this column by Tapan Raychaudhuri, former professor of modern Indian history at the University of Oxford, in The Telegraph:

... [T]he education of our MAs and honours graduates, except in the case of a small percentage of them belonging to some elite institutions, consists in memorizing lecture notes. The quality of the said notes determines the quality of our higher education. The truth or otherwise of this statement can be very easily tested by using the method of sample survey. Assuming …

Acid attacks on women are a reminder of why the U.S. should pass the International Violence Against Women act.

AdSense On Google Earth Google has introduced advertising for the first  time in its desktop application. The company of late has also emphasized geo-targeted advertising on Google Maps also. Till now the only revenue source for Google Earth was through charging few companies on ads such as billboards on roofs etc. The inclusion of AdSense in [...] More at MediaNama.com<img>

BassJump is a subwoofer that turns your MacBook into a pair of satellite speakers. Instead of silencing the MacBook’s surprisingly good built-in speakers when you hook it up, like a regular external speaker, it augments them with what they lack the most: bass. After installing a preference pane on the host Mac, you plug in the [...]

Over at Understanding Society, Daniel Little has a post Defining the University Curriculum, in which he lays out the issues and arguments for (at least) two kinds of UG curriculum -- each starting from the same goal:

.. [In practical terms] a university education should allow the student to develop the capabilities he or she will need to succeed in a career and to make productive contributions to the society of the future. And what do these goals require in terms of a curriculum? What are …

hurrah for the flag companiesBy Aly Hazzaa

You might enjoy: The Economist: Calling all cars Ariel Levy in The New Yorker: Either/Or Laura Miller in Salon: Creationism vs. Atheism: It’s on! Christopher Beam in Slate: Hands off these implants