Foreign Affairs

I discovered a blog devoted to Condolezza Rice’s hair. Really. Tagline: “I keep track of Condoleezza’s hairdo so you don’t have to.” Brilliant. [via MeFi]

“From what little i’ve experienced of euro travel, i want nothing to do with it. no matter how you cut it, that kind of trip is extreme tourism. people show up in a foreign place for a few days, stay with other foreigners, see the sights, carry on the universal practices of drinking to reaffirm their youth, and move on to the next country with a handful of adventure stories but no real life experience. this isn’t to hate on…

Times of India: HRD contends that spending Rs 450 crore on digital empowerment can be better spent on primary and secondary education. “It is quite obvious that the financial expenditure to be made on the scheme will be out of public funds. It would be impossible to justify an expenditure of this scale on a debatable scheme when public funds continue to be in inadequate supply for well-established needs listed in different policy documents,” the ministry said. It also finds…

Ethan Zuckerman: BBC reports the death toll from the second intifada at roughly 4000. Iraq Body Count offers an estimate of civilian deaths in Iraq between 39,000 and 43,000 – a study from Johns Hopkins projects a much larger number, 100,000 by October 2004. Marc Herold at UNH projects between 3 and 4,000 civilian deaths in Afghanistan from October 2001 – June 2004. Military casualties include 407 coalition casualties in Afghanistan and 2,564 coalition deaths in Iraq. Using the JHU…

Note from Cyrus: The following is an email from a friend of a friend studying Arabic for the summer at the American University in Beirut. I’ve edited it slightly for spelling. You can read the whole email here. From: Gabriel Nevin [himynameisgabe@hotmail.com] Date: 19 Jul 2006 08:35:43 -0700 Subject: To: While it has been far from continuous, and I honestly have not been scared for my safety much since this war has started, I have for the first time felt…

Wired News: By Cyrus Farivar 02:00 AM Jul, 21, 2006 As we drove back down the hill we could clearly see new billows of smoke rising beyond our neighborhood, and a loud double blast shook the air just as we were turning into our driveway. A minute later, the power went out. The generator took over so we could get the groceries up in the elevator, to find my mom upstairs giggling madly because the blast had made her jump…

Macworld: By Cyrus Farivar The lone authorized Apple Center in Beirut, Lebanon, has been forced to shut its doors since the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah ignited a week ago. And that store faces an uncertain future, as its owner prepares to flee the fighting. Jean Medlej, 51, and his family will likely evacuate Lebanon at the earliest opportunity, which may come as soon as this weekend. Dual citizens of France and Lebanon, he and his family are on an…

MSNBC: Bush: See the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over. Blair: Because I think this is all part of the same thing. What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if he gets a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way, he’s done it. That’s what this whole thing’s about. It’s the same with Iran. Bush: I felt…

The NYT has a sweet map.

I’ll admit, I’m no expert on Middle East anything, but doesn’t attacking Lebanon’s military and then criticizing them for not deploying more military (“If the Lebanese government does not deploy its armed forces as a sovereign government should, we will not allow Hezbollah forces to move again onto the other side of the border,” said Defense Minister Mir Peretz of Israel) to get rid of Hezbollah seem a bit bizarre?