About the Author
Cyrus Farivar
سیروس فریور
English: [suh-ROOS FAR-ih-var]
Persian: [see-ROOS-eh fàr-ee-VÀR]
Freelance Technology Journalist
Freelance Radio Reporter/Producer
Author, "The Internet of Elsewhere"
cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org
Current location: Oakland, CATwitter
WTF? Archive
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Your Tacos or Your Life!
Posted on February 18, 2008 | No CommentsAP: By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 6:14 p.m. ET FONTANA, Calif. (AP) — A hunger for carnitas nearly led to some carnage after a Fontana man was robbed of a bag of tacos at gunpoint. Police Sergeant Jeff Decker said the 35-year-old victim had... -
NYT: Kosovo Declares Its Independence From Serbia
Posted on February 17, 2008 | No CommentsSo Kosovo is independent now. The last two lines in this NYT story make no sense to me: European Union officials said Britain, France, and Germany were expected to recognize Kosovo 24 hours after the declaration, to try to stop prevent Moscow and Belgrade from... -
As Earth Warms, Virus From Tropics Moves to Italy
Posted on December 22, 2007 | 1 CommentNYT: After a month of investigation, Italian public health officials discovered that the people of Castiglione di Cervia were, in fact, suffering from a tropical disease, chikungunya, a relative of dengue fever normally found in the Indian Ocean region. But the immigrants spreading the disease... -
Philharmonic Agrees to Play in North Korea
Posted on December 10, 2007 | No CommentsThe New York Times: The Philharmonic, led by its music director, Lorin Maazel, has been considering the visit since an invitation arrived by fax in August. It was a typed letter from the North Korean culture ministry, in English, accompanied by a cover letter from... -
CQ stands by falafel story
Posted on December 5, 2007 | 1 CommentWired News publishes CQ’s insistence that their reporting on this falafel fiasco was right all along. Like you, we take the issues of national security and civil liberties very seriously, which is why Jeff Stein thought it important to write about the domain management program.... -
Falafel story a fake?
Posted on November 27, 2007 | 1 CommentThe FBI denies all knowledge of the falafel story: Having never heard of this, I spoke to the counterterrorism managers, who in the story were identified as having hatched the plan, as well as everyone else who would have had any knowledge of it. Nobody... -
Go Team America!
Posted on November 16, 2007 | No CommentsTom Friedman: “On Sept. 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov. 13, 2007, the OPEC basket price was around $90 a barrel.” This is absurd. -
FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here
Posted on November 6, 2007 | 3 CommentsCQ: Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists. The... -
Adventures in Freelancing: Getting Paid
Posted on October 29, 2007 | 4 CommentsAs you all know, I’m a freelancer. That means I never know when my next paycheck is going to arrive in my mailbox. But whatever, generally it works out. Usually, it takes a little bit of time from when I do the piece to when... -
Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda’s Secrets
Posted on October 9, 2007 | No CommentsWashPost: The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings...
