Journalism

LA Times: We are not talking about the paintings on the wall at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, which Sadeghi directs. Those are, at the moment, a stylish if bland collection of Iranian textile and costume design for the fashion-conscious and appropriately modest Iranian woman. No, we’re talking about the outlaw paintings in the basement, locked in the museum’s vault. Not just the Picassos — the Kandinskys, the Miros, the Warhols. The Monet, the Pissarro, the Toulouse-Lautrec, the Van…

Slate: by Cyrus Farivar It’s been nearly two years since MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte revealed his ambitious plan to provide kids in developing countries with $100 laptops. Today, the One Laptop per Child foundation has announced that its cheapo device (now officially dubbed the “XO laptop”) will be made available to the American and Canadian consumer market for a two-week period in November. For $400, you can participate in the “Give One, Get One” program—your purchase gets you one laptop for…

The powers that be have told me that my piece on the One Laptop Per Child (aka “$100 Laptop”) will air today on The World (and of course on the Internet on any of these stations’ streams.) I’ll also have a related piece on Slate later today as well. New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 3 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm…

Wired News: by Cyrus Farivar It’s a crisp, fall day and you’re strolling down the sidewalk, enjoying the fresh air and the turning leaves, when — squip — you realize you’ve just stepped on a big wad of freshly discarded chewing gum. Bummer. But at least you didn’t brush your knee against a gumwad stuck to the underside of a café table. Those unpleasantly sticky experiences may soon be a thing of the past, if a new British startup has…

Note: The following is a piece on cybersecurity that I wrote for the upcoming book: Secrets of 24: The Unauthorized Guide to the Political & Moral Issues Behind TV’s Most Riveting Drama. Unfortunately, the editors decided to cut the piece from the book, but have let me republish it here. Hed: Experts warn of serious cybersecurity threat to America Dek: Former Bush official calls administration’s current strategy ‘totally disorganized and ineffective’ by Cyrus Farivar While cybersecurity might not mean much…

Wow, Street has done it again: Daniel Hernandez: I’m leaving L.A. for a little bit, a year, maybe more, for Mexico City. I’m sealing a deal with editor Colin Robinson at Scribner to write a book about the underground, basically — youth and subcultures. I’m gonna do a lot of writing, a lot of reading, a lot of drinking and eating, and a lot of walking. My boots are my best friends. Participation does a body good. Gustavo Arellano says:…

Macworld: By Cyrus Farivar If you’re one of the million people who’ve purchased an iPhone since the end of June, you probably signed up with Apple’s exclusive carrier in the U.S., AT&T, when you activated your phone. That means your iPhone identifies itself to AT&T’s network using an AT&T SIM card, a smart card that’s located in a small tray between your iPhone’s sleep/wake button and its recessed headphone jack. But what if you’re planning a trip to Europe and…

There’s a lot of famous scenes where soldiers go through boot camp, and get yelled at and drilled until it’s instilled. But how real is that, and what does it take to go from civvie to a Semper-Fi-spewin’ Marine? The LA Times follows three kids, including one Iranian-American, to find out: While still in high school, the friends had enlisted under the Marines’ buddy program, which guaranteed they would train in the same platoon throughout boot camp. In July, a…

Dear Friends, The powers that be have told me that my piece on the rise of foreign YouTube clones will air today on The World (and of course on the Internet on any of these stations’ streams.) New York – 3 pm Eastern – WNYC – 820 AM – www.wnyc.org Washington, DC – 3 pm Eastern – WAMU – 88.5 FM – www.wamu.org Los Angeles – 12 pm Pacific – KPCC – 89.3 FM – www.kpcc.opg Boston – 4 pm…

Foreign Policy Magazine NET EFFECT: HOW TECHNOLOGY SHAPES THE WORLD September/October 2007 The YouTube Clones By Cyrus Farivar YouTube may be the most popular video-sharing site in the world, but similar homegrown sites are popping up and gaining popularity in some of the world’s most illiberal locales. Just like YouTube in the United States, China’s 6rooms.com, Turkey’s Izleriz.com, and Jordan’s Ikbis.com make it easy for people to upload video of any sort, and the sites remain popular for their nearly…