2009

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the Roxana Saberi case is airing today. This piece will focus on the political context of her arrest and release and includes interviews with Omid Memarian, Hadi Ghaemi and Roozbeh Mirebrahimi. It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams): NYC – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 8 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los…

NYT: May 12, 2009 Iran Releases Journalist Convicted of Spying for U.S. By NAZILA FATHI The New York Times TEHRAN— An Iranian-American journalist who was sentenced to eight years of jail on spying charges for Washington was released Monday after an appeal court reduced the sentence, her lawyer said. Saleh Nikbakht, one of the two lawyers who defended Roxana Saberi in an appeal hearing on Sunday, said the court turned down the original jail term and issued a two-year suspended…

Since arriving back on Monday, I’ve done the following: – Had a burrito at El Ojo de Agua with Becky, Joe, Alan, and Boyk! – Had a beer at Jupiter with David Sasaki – Had breakfast with Evgeny Morozov – Went to an A’s game – Had post-baseball tacos at Tacos Sinaloa – Had lunch with Luukas Ilves – Interviewed Vint Cerf for Wired Italia, where I met Christopher LaMarca – Saw Nous Non Plus last night at the Rickshaw…

Well, our seven-month contract here in Lyon has finally come to a close. We’ve had ups and downs, like with anything — but overall, Becky and I agree that we’ve had a fantastic time. We’ve made some wonderful friends, and have had a chance to experience a taste of French and European life. Things I’ll miss about Lyon: 1) People! Big thanks go out to Wolf, Rebecca, Romix, Lucy, Loïc, Brad, Nicole, Birgit, Clément, Didier, and many others who made…

My Columbia classmate and pal Jaimal Yogis’ first book, Saltwater Buddha is out today. It’s been met with great reviews thus far. He’s been hit by the Monterey Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco magazine. Congrats, Jaimal!

Here’s a quick list of my favorite four WiFi cafés in Lyon. At two of them (except Lipstick and Pamplune), you have to ask for the WiFi code at the bar, but it’s still free and it won’t expire after 30 minutes or anything stupid like that. Feel free to leave your favorites in the comments! 1) Le Voxx 1, Rue Algérie M: Hôtel de Ville Le Voxx (pictured above) is my favorite WiFi café in town. First it’s got…

So this is the math that’s wreaked havoc on the global economy. Wired’s got a great story about David X. Li, the Chinese-born mathematician whose formula (above) was largely responsible for the financial meltdown — or at least the global misuse and abuse of this formula and its dangerous assumptions. From the piece: [In 2000,] Li wrote a model that used price rather than real-world default data as a shortcut (making an implicit assumption that financial markets in general, and…

I had the honor of being interviewed (again!) by Jesse Brown on his CBC show, “Search Engine“, to talk about Iranian blogging and to (again) provide an update on the Hossein Derakhshan situation. You can download the podcast here.

Earlier this month, Egyptian blogger Abdel Rahman Faras was arrested in Cairo by Egyptian authorities. I checked in with Antony Loewenstein, author of The Blogging Revolution to check in to see what he could tell me about this. Our 12 minute conversation is here.

AP, April 25, 2009: TEHRAN, Iran – The American journalist convicted of spying in Iran has gone on a hunger strike to protest her imprisonment, her father said Saturday. Roxana Saberi, a 31-year-old dual American-Iranian citizen, was convicted of spying for the United States and sentenced to eight years in prison after a swift, closed door trial earlier this month. Saberi was arrested in late January and initially accused of working without press credentials, but earlier this month, an Iranian…