Cyrus Farivar

Wired News publishes CQ’s insistence that their reporting on this falafel fiasco was right all along. Like you, we take the issues of national security and civil liberties very seriously, which is why Jeff Stein thought it important to write about the domain management program. His sources described to him the intelligence-gathering program that involved the sales of Middle Eastern food in some detail, and we had no reason to believe that those sources inaccurately portrayed it when the column…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the return of President Ahmadinejad’s blog will be airing today. 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 – 89.7…

I’ve been informed that my radio piece on MC Hammer’s DanceJam.com will air on Morning Edition today! 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 – www.kpcc.opg Boston –…

Paul Boutin astutely observed that the NYT buried the lede when it said that there are no less than 16 American spy agencies. My favorite? The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency — in other words, map spies! Speaking of maps and puzzles, check this: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507…

How come no one told me that the prime minister of Estonia, Andrus Ansip, was in San Jose last week? Anyway, he was there to open up a new “tech embassy” downtown. (I’m assuming that this is the first of its kind anywhere in the world.) SJBJ: “Silicon Valley changed the world, Andrus Ansip told a small gathering of reporters and city hall officials Friday afternoon. “All of our companies would like to cooperate more with the companies in Silicon…

NYT: Part of the Republicans’ difficulty in countering Mr. Obama, should they have to, is their own cynical racial politics. For the most part, race has been the dog that hasn’t barked in this campaign despite the (largely) white press’s endless fretting about whether the Illinois senator is too white for black voters and too black for white voters. Most Americans aren’t racist, most Republicans included. (Those who are won’t vote for the Democratic presidential candidate even if it’s not…

One of the best things about the fact that Kevin Rudd was elected as Australia’s new Prime Minister is the scrapping of the “Pacific Solution” — an ominously-named plan that processed refugees seeking to come to Australia on offshore sites, including Nauru. The Age: Under the policy, which was introduced following the Tampa crisis in the lead-up to the 2001 federal election, asylum seekers intercepted before they reach the Australian mainland are processed at camps on Nauru and Manus Island,…

Big ups to NPR’s Nate DiMeo for this awesome story explaining ringtones and the tech behind T-Pain, a rapper that I’d never heard of. Apparently he makes up for one in three of this week’s Billboard Top 10 tracks. Listen to the piece here. (No, seriously. This piece works best as a piece of audio.) The money (har) quotes: “It’s his signature vocal sound, maybe more so than his actual voice, that has become one of the defining sounds in…

This time from Chrome Bags: