How the World Looks from Here

Be careful when you “Like” a corporation or product on social media, or use one of their coupons…You might be signing away your legal rights…

Worst of all, it makes you become someone who doesn’t take a stand for anything.”

The McArthur map also makes us wonder why we are so quick to assume that Northern Europeans were the ones who invented the modern map — and decided which way to hold it — in the first place. As is so often the case, our eagerness to invoke Eurocentrism displays a certain bias of its own, since in fact, the north’s elite cartographic status owes more to Byzantine monks and Majorcan Jews than it does to any Englishman.

You may never trust your own eyes again…

A great look at the dangerous underbelly of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city…

Sometimes, the best thing the US can do in the fight against al-Qaeda is nothing…

An interesting piece... It's difficult for some of us to reconcile our respect and admiration for the men and women in our armed services for their bravery and sacrifice, on one and, with our criticisms and concerns over the policy decisions, hubris, and hypocrisy of those who send them to into bad wars -- or wars badly planned. The Bush Administration often hid behind our servicemen and women by claiming that any criticism of the Administration's mistakes in the war in Afghanistan (e.g., at Tora Bora) or of the decision to invade Iraq was, in some way, not "supporting our troops." This trope continues, and likely will for a long time to come; given what appears to be the advent of endless war for the US. It is perfectly acceptable for Americans to honor the bravery, commitment, and sacrifices of soldiers while simultaneously lamenting the futility, illegality, or immorality of some of the wars they are sent to fight. In fact, the over-reliance on our military -- and the quickness and ease with which so many of our brave young servicemen and women are sent to war -- and not cared for when they return -- is, itself, reason for outrage... "Throughout history, our nation's greatest leaders have understood on a deeply personal level that however honorably a soldier acquits himself, he can die in vain, and that it is the responsibility of the leaders and citizenry to see to it that they don't. Our country has lost its sense of that responsibility to a horrifying extent."

It still amazes me how all the nuclear non-proliferation efforts in the Middle East continue with conspicuous non-mention of Israel’s nuclear program.

Written in the frenzied, emotional days after 9/11, the Authorization for the Use of Military Force was intended to give President Bush the ability to retaliate against whoever orchestrated the attacks. But more than 12 years later, this one broadly-phrased sentence remains the primary legal justification for nearly every covert operation around the world. Here’s how that sentence came to be, and what it’s since come to mean.

A good -- and all too rare -- report from South Sudan. Great work, Vice...

China's slow-detonating demographic double time-bomb... Aging population AND unprecedented gender-inequality.

"...despite the fact that a sum of money almost equivalent to the GDP of Haiti was disbursed to non-governmental organizations, for-profit contractors and other agencies, most Haitians live without a reliable supply of electricity, clean water, or paved roads."

Uluwatu, Bali, Indonesia

Governments STILL don't seem to understand how this actually works. They assume that a "show of strength" will intimidate people into behaving, somehow. But they always seem to forget the fact that -- in a situation of unrest in which you have two competing groups of demonstrators on the ground -- either side has an incentive to provoke the police/military into cracking-down, violently, on their rival. And, then, we all know what happens once the shooting starts. We've already seen the use of agents-provocateurs in Bangkok last month. And, since then, things have escalated and the stakes are even higher (not to mention the additional bad blood that's built-up between the groups, the time provocateurs have had to prepare and pre-position weapons, and the additional people who have come to the capital to join one side, or the other, in the demonstrations). Seriously...Haven't these people done their homework? Who's training them? It's been all suspense...all build-up, and no de-escalation... I have a bad feeling about this. It's now no longer hyperbole to suggest that Thailand might be the next Egypt...That would not only be tragic. It would be absolutely absurd...

An extraordinary true person...with a true story... "She wakes to the sound of breathing. The smaller children lie tangled beside her, their chests rising and falling under winter coats and wool blankets. A few feet away, their mother and father sleep near the mop bucket they use as a toilet. Two other children share a mattress by the rotting wall where the mice live, opposite the baby, whose crib is warmed by a hair dryer perched on a milk crate. Slipping out from her covers, the oldest girl sits at the window. On mornings like this, she can see all the way across Brooklyn to the Empire State Building, the first New York skyscraper to reach 100 floors. Her gaze always stops at that iconic temple of stone, its tip pointed celestially, its facade lit with promise."