JUB's CE&P Good Articles Thread

[Lostlover]

I'm creating this thread where posters can post articles that might not necessarily generate a response, but you feel it is worth reading by your fellow JUBbers. If you're like me, and have a lot of down time including sleepless nights, you could use such a thread to pass the time.

Below is an article published yesterday from the New York Times. It is a first hand account from a journalist detained by Egypt's secret police, his experience in a torture facility and the preferential treatment he received for being a westerner.

When you find an article you like and feel others would like too, just post it here.
----
From The New York Times:

2 Detained Reporters Saw Police’s Methods

http://nyti.ms/i09HsU

 

[rareboy]

I'm likin' the idea of a thread where there isn't the expectation of response but we'll see how well behaved we all can be.

 

[Lostlover]

Mubarak is Looking at Exile in Germany

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,743998,00.html

 

[EastMed]

Great idea, Lostlover.


Politicians and God

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/feb/08/god-barack-obama

 

[Lostlover]

American Gone Wild in Pakistan... This American was up to something, America won't tell. And now the admin might cancel the Pakistani leader's visit to Washington if the American isn't released.
===


From The New York Times:

Mystery Over Detained American Angers Pakistan

The case has touched on Pakistani resentments that American operatives are not answerable to local officials.

http://nyti.ms/hb90BN

 

[Lostlover]

Great idea, Lostlover.


Politicians and God

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/feb/08/god-barack-obama

Thanks for the link. Will read at my break today.

 

[jackoroe]

Good idea, LL!

 

[rareboy]

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/02/the-guardian-201102

For anyone who missed this issue of Vanity Fair, here's some interesting reading on Julian Assange.

 

[EastMed]

I love data journalism.
Here's a wonderful data set on the missing population of New Orleans, and further down the page an interactive nationwide US census.
Not terribly interestiing for this European, but it may be of interest to people in the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/feb/09/louisiana-population-us-census-new-orleans

 

[Lostlover]

Foreign Policy Magazine's Review of the brutality of the Mubarak Regime. Very good read if you're ignorant(myself included) of Mubarak's history.

Anatomy of a Dictatorship
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/04/anatomy_of_a_dictatorship_hosni_mubarak

 

[laikaNYC]

All Chicago mayoral candidates support slave reparations

 

[rareboy]

U.S. trade gap widens in Dec, swells 33% in 2010

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2011/2/11/US-trade-gap-widens-in-Dec-swells-33-in-2010.aspx

Kinda good news/bad news story.

 

[EastMed]

Commodities, Markets and Social Democracy

(Dry it is not - a must read, in my opinion)


http://www.social-europe.eu/2011/02/commodities-markets-and-social-democracy/

 

[Centexfarmer]

It may not seem like much, but in my mind stories like this one add up to a bigger picture:

USDA to Fully Deregulate Monsanto's Genetically Engineered Alfalfa

I know why the Biotech industry got all over this, because the Alfalfa that they want to grow has nothing to do with "food sources," but rather "alternative fuels."

I fear that in the rush / push for this that we may end up with consequences that weren't even considered when the USDA (Most of which are still Bush43 Appointees i.e. "Corporate") decided to take this action.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

Muslim students in U.K. being taught to chop off hands of thieves, hate jews

Quite a disturbing read, I grant you that. Did other newspapers also mention it? Times, Guardian, Independent, The Economist? I'm not familiar with all the British media and don't know if I can trust the Telegraph, you see. Is it left or right, liberal or conservative?


As for the question "who is more homophobic, christians or muslims" that rareboy raises with his article, I still feel islam is more dangerous, but that is just my European perspective. So let's not start vendettas and fight our foes no matter where they come from.

 

[laikaNYC]

Quite a disturbing read, I grant you that. Did other newspapers also mention it? Times, Guardian, Independent, The Economist? I'm not familiar with all the British media and don't know if I can trust the Telegraph, you see. Is it left or right, liberal or conservative?


As for the question "who is more homophobic, christians or muslims" that rareboy raises with his article, I still feel islam is more dangerous, but that is just my European perspective. So let's not start vendettas and fight our foes no matter where they come from.

The Telegrah is a centre-right paper, but the center-left Guardian and Independent also mentioned it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/nov/22/bbc-panorama-islamic-schools-antisemitism

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-text-book-advocates-antisemitism-2140569.html

 

[Kulindahr]

Commodities, Markets and Social Democracy

(Dry it is not - a must read, in my opinion)


http://www.social-europe.eu/2011/02/commodities-markets-and-social-democracy/

There's a point missing in there: in the cases discussed, what's being commoditized is intelligence and knowledge. In order to understand everything about those mortgages, and about insurance, one has to just about specialize in those fields. Everyone, thus, is required to be as knowledgeable and understanding in every area as are the experts.

In some areas feedback from fellow citizens suffices. If I need a plumber, I can go online and in many instances find customer ratings of the business, supplementing any knowledge I might have. But the more complex the matter at hand becomes, the more difficult it is even for such feedback to be of much aid -- it's easy for a customer to assess the work of a plumber, but not so much of an electrician, and of a lawyer? investment counselor?

or, for that matter, of a politician?

 

[Kulindahr]

It may not seem like much, but in my mind stories like this one add up to a bigger picture:

USDA to Fully Deregulate Monsanto's Genetically Engineered Alfalfa

I know why the Biotech industry got all over this, because the Alfalfa that they want to grow has nothing to do with "food sources," but rather "alternative fuels."

I fear that in the rush / push for this that we may end up with consequences that weren't even considered when the USDA (Most of which are still Bush43 Appointees i.e. "Corporate") decided to take this action.

Interesting that it doesn't actually say anything about the modification itself. I just did fifteen minutes of searching online, and in two dozen articles found nothing more than that it's called "roundup ready" and that the gene came from a "non-crossable source", which would be an organism with no chance of passing the gene naturally to alfalfa.

What gene did the take, and from what source?

 

[Lostlover]

NYT: 5th anniv of when Clarence Thomas last spoke in court. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/us/13thomas.html?

 

[laikaNYC]

Documentary Reveals British Mosques Beat Muslim Children, teach extreme views