2008

Slate: In turn, Barack Obama’s candidacy marks the fulfillment of the 15th Amendment guaranteeing black suffrage. Whereas Romney is the most aristocratic candidate, Obama is the least. Not because he is biracial, but because he is self-made. His parents had little wealth, prestige, and power to pass on, and both are now dead. He has chosen his own faith as an adult (Protestant Christianity, as it happens), and he remains far and away the least wealthy of the Big Four.…

LA Times: Much of the opposition to Villaraigosa’s plan emanates from the Pico-Robertson area, a heavily Jewish enclave that features a mix of auto body shops, dental offices, bakeries by the dozen, Israeli and Persian markets, Thai eateries, Catholic churches, synagogues and Chinese restaurants, including a kosher place with mezuzas on the doorways. The elements of this urban hodgepodge have set aside any cultural and ethnic differences to battle City Hall with a united front. “The opposition is across the…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on North Korea’s new cell phone network, will be airing today. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern – WGBH –…

My new freelancer buddy Mia Lobel asked if I wanted to do a story for her new chemistry podcast, Distillations, sponsored by the Chemical Heritage Foundation. I filed a piece about using Second Life to teach chemistry, and the efforts of Prof. Jean-Claude Bradley of Drexel University, who has set up an online world with larger than Second Life in-world molecules. Have a listen here — my story starts at the 7:20 mark.

Big ups once again to Daniel Hernandez for his commentary on last night’s All Things Considered : “Age, Not Race, Splits Latinos’ Democratic Vote”. As he blogs: Friends, my latest commentary for NPR’s “All Things Considered” ran today. It addresses the question of whether “Latino” “tensions” and “unease” with “blacks” will prevent “Latinos” from voting for “the black candidate,” Barack Obama, in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary season. Please listen here. A bunch of those terms up there are in…

BBC: The Australian government has announced it will issue its first formal apology to Aboriginal people when parliament resumes next month. Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the apology would be the first item of business when the new legislature convened on 13 February. It is aimed at the “Stolen Generations” – Aboriginal children taken from their parents to be raised by white families. The Age: Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the apology would be made on behalf of…

While I was working at Macworld Expo last week, Chuck Joiner of MacVoices pulled me from behind the mixing board out to the mic: With some convincing, we dragged Cyrus Farivar, the engineer for all the shows taped in this year’s Macworld.com Podcast Studio, up to the mic to find out what he’s been up to since leaving his post at Macworld magazine. Cyrus talks about his love of technology journalism, his mentors at Macworld, how he uses his grandfather…

It appears there’s been an update to the Estonia cyberwarfare piece that I filed for The World on in August. In it, I interviewed Margus Kurm, Estonia’s chief prosecutor, who talked about a certain Dimitri — an ethnic Russian and Estonian citizen, who at that time was the only person that had been arrested in connection to the cyberattacks on Estonia in April and May 2007. BBC: A 20-year-old ethnic Russian man is the first person to be convicted for…

While I’m still waiting to see “The Singing Revolution,” it appears that there’s also a new great movie coming out from Latvia as well, “Defenders of Riga.” It tells the Latvian equivalent of the Revolutionary War. While it only came out several weeks ago, it’s the highest budget Latvian movie ever, at $4 mil USD, and has broken all Latvian box office records. As the YouTube entry describes: Story is about 11 november 1919. WWI was over but renegade german…

The Atlantic is the last magazine that I still pay for. I dropped my The New Yorker subscription months ago as it would come too fast before I would have a chance to read it. The Atlantic is monthly, and as such, I usually make time to read it. That being said, I find myself only reading a few of the articles in the magazine — and now that the paywall is coming down, I will just let my subscription…