Cyrus Farivar

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of the “De Facto Segregation Study Committee” for the Berkeley Unified School District (November 1963). This past week, I acquired a copy of the report from the Bancroft Library. Today, I scanned the entire report—and am working on paying for someone to transcribe the entire document so that it can be made more easily-accessible by the public. My grandfather, John Hadsell, (UC Berkeley, 1943) then-campus minister at UC Berkeley, was the…

Bonjour mes amis! Vous aimez les croissants? Bien sûr! Want to learn to make croissants in time for Bastille Day? Bien sûr! Robin O’Donnell, local baker extraordinaire, will be offering a three-hour class from 6-9 pm on Friday, July 13th. You’ll come away with not only croissants and dough, but the knowledge to impress your family and friends for your “brunch du 14 juillet” (You are having one, right?) The class is just $50 and will be held at Robin’s…

Last week, I came across the website of Eat Your World, a relatively new concept that merges two of my favorite things: wanderlust and essenlust (that’s right Germans, I’m inventing new words in your language!). So I tossed them five questions by e-mail. (Also known as a pentaquery. Yes, I’m neologizing up the wazoo.) 1) How and when did EYW get started? Where are you based? What’s been the best thing you’ve eaten since you started this? Most surprising? Scott:…

So it’s no secret that we’re moving back to the US in April. As can be expected, I’m starting to think about all the logistical things that we’ll need when we get there, particularly mobile phones. Right now, Bex and I both have unlocked iPhones. We are prepaid customers with Blau.de, a German MVNO of E-Plus. We spend probably something like a combined €40 a month for prepaid access on our phones. It costs us €0.09 for outgoing calls to…

I first discovered hidden europe in mid-2011, admiring the ethos, voice, and style of the magazine, which touts: “Welcome to hidden europe. We promise a fresh perspective on well trodden trails, and a cool look at undiscovered corners.” I sent over a few questions by e-mail to the magazine’s founders and editors, Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, the two Berlin-based women behind the organization. CF: How did the magazine get started? How do you get the word out? NG: Looking…

January 5 Update: Here’s what I edited for Deutsche Welle today: Contrary to reports, Belarus plans no Internet censorhip So I was perusing tech news online today and I came across this IDG news story: “Belarus said to restrict access to foreign websites.” Belarus has introduced a law that imposes restrictions on citizens and residents in the country visiting or using foreign websites, according to Global Legal Monitor, an online publication of the Law Library of Congress in Washington. Under…

Apologies for not updating the blog super often. Usually I’m more active on Facebook/Twitter, so follow me there if you so desire. In any case, lately I’ve gotten back into baking. I’ve been on a potato bread kick lately (just finished my fifth tonight), but have also made apple scones, and experimental speculoos paste/stroopwaffel cookies. The recipe I’ve been using for potato bread is derived from The Cheese Board Collective Works, which is published by The Cheese Board Collective, a…

I first encountered Marie Javins (@mariejavins) online sometime back in December of 2005. I was totally impressed by her 2001 solo trip by land and sea around the globe. We met up for breakfast in New York once, and have traded messages as we’ve moved on to live in Europe (me) and the Middle East (her). As she describes herself on her site: Marie Javins is an award-winning writer, comic book creator, traveler, and blogger who alternates between roaming the…

So in the wake of this iPhone tracking data scandal I did what a lot of people did — download the app and track my own data. My map is plotted here: Now, I got my iPhone in February 2011 in California. I have no data for the two weeks I was in California, nor the layover in Dallas/Forth Worth airport. Nor do I have any data showing my trips earlier this year to Hannover, Budapest, and two weekends ago…

I wrote an article about the Comodo hack for Deutsche Welle here. The following is an introduction to the full interview (further below) with Comodohacker. On March 15, 2011, a major Internet-security company, Comodo, said that it sustained a major security breach, by allowing nine “SSL certificates,” to be issued in their name. These certificates are used to digitally authenticate a secure connection to websites like Gmail, Hotmail and Skype. The hacker acquired fake certificates for Gmail, Hotmail, Google, Yahoo,…