Cyrus Farivar

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…

Estonia plans broadband for all by 2015: report (April 24, 2009, AFP): TALLINN (AFP) — Estonia’s government and telecom companies operating there announced on Friday a 283 million euro (374 million dollar) project to provide access to broadband Internet for all by 2015, a report said. “If the railway was developed in the 19th century and the electrical grid in the 20th century, then the 21st century is the era of developing communication networks,” Estonia’s Minister of Economy and Communications…

My presentation from the Engineers Without Borders Conference in Milwaukee (March 27-28, 2009) is now online. You can view it online here, or download the PowerPoint file (.ppt) here. Everything is made available under a Creative Commons license, naturally.

The Dodgers have an eight-game winning streak and have the second best record in the NL. What a great way to start the season!

I’ll be moderating this session on May 27 at the Global Health Conference in Washington, D.C. Transformations: Discovering New Strategies Using Proven Technologies 9-10:30 am The technology evolution is sparking a health-care revolution. The rapid adoption of mobile technology throughout the world, with more than 4 billion mobile phones alone, has resulted in a leapfrogging over the digital divide. Those in remote and resource-poor settings, without the infrastructure to support wired technology, now have the same access to information and…

Agence France Presse (April 19 2009): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Sunday for fair treatment of US reporter Roxana Saberi, who was sentenced to eight years in jail as a US spy, the state news agency IRNA reported. In a rare intervention in judicial proceedings, Ahmadinejad said the Tehran prosecutor should examine the case against both Saberi and Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian-Canadian blogger who has been behind bars since November, IRNA said. “At the president’s insistence, you must do…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Urban Pacman in Lyon is airing today. (Scope my photo as Pacman here.) 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 Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm Eastern –…

The Toronto Star: ANDREW CHUNG QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF MONTREAL – In Lara Croft’s latest action adventure, part of the wildly popular Tomb Raider video game series, the lithe heroine can demand of her evil doppelganger either, “What the hell are you?” or, “Qu’est-ce que tu es, exactement?” And that’s exactly the way Quebec wants it, from now on. French language rules on video games come into force today prohibiting the sale of new English-only video games in Quebec if a…

I first encountered Evgeny Morozov about a year and a half ago when researching a story for Foreign Policy‘s back page, Net Effect. Over the last several months (and increasingly in the last few weeks), I’ve seen his name pop up all over the Internet. He’s one of the smartest researchers and thinkers about the Internet’s effects on the world at large that I know of. I’m thrilled that he’s just been selected to run Foreign Policy‘s new Net Effect…