Cyrus Farivar

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on Estonia’s arrival in Silicon Valley, will be airing today on The World. It will be followed by an interview of Skype’s Sten Tamkivi, conducted by our senior producer, Marco Werman. 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…

NYT: In Mauritania, lobsters vanished years ago. The catch of octopus — now the most valuable species — is four-fifths of what it should be if it were not overexploited. A 2002 report by the European Commission found that the most marketable fish species off the coast of Senegal were close to collapse — essentially sliding toward extinction. “The sea is being emptied,” said Moctar Ba, a consultant who once led scientific research programs for Mauritania and West Africa. In…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece previewing Macworld Expo will air on Morning Edition tomorrow (Jan. 14)! It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams). New York – 5 am to 9 am Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 5 am to 10 am Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 2 am to 9 am Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM –…

There was a robbery, gunfire and a chase in my neighborhood Thursday. There was an insane number of police cars, when I drove right by that music school maybe 20-30 minutes after it happened, and as I tried to drive down 51st towards Telegraph Ave., that intersection was barricaded for a block in each direction. Sheesh. My thoughts are with the boy and his family. Oakland Tribune: A 10-year-old boy shot Thursday by a stray bullet fired during a robbery…

Slate, November 2007: An upcoming issue of TV Guide has an amusing roundup of the 2008 presidential candidates’ favorite television shows. Nothing too surprising here: Hillary watches Grey’s Anatomy, Barack Obama likes The Wire (for the record, that’s the right answer), and John Edwards says his viewing guilty pleasure is “Fred Thompson on Law & Order.” Also, The Atlantic‘s Mark Bowden has a neat piece on David Simon.

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the One Laptop Per Child project will air on Morning Edition tomorrow (Jan. 7)! It will be available on any of these stations (and their Internet streams). New York – 5 am to 9 am Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 5 am to 10 am Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 2 am to 9 am Pacific – KPCC…

The Economist: Ultimately the OLPC initiative will be remembered less for what it produced than the products it spawned. The initiative is like running the four-minute mile: no one could do it, until someone actually did it. Then many people did.

Turned out my flight was delayed almost three hours. That, plus bags, plus BARTing home — it was a 15 hour travel day. It’s good to be home.

So what does Barack Obama have that the other candidates don’t? Ringtones, baby, ringtones. Seriously.