Aside

Big ups to my man Sarmad Ali, for this fascinating blog post about Iraqi communities in Michigan. WSJ: As we drove through Detroit’s suburbs, we passed movie theaters and subdivisions, large strip-malls and sleepy neighborhoods. We stopped at Ryan Palace, a restaurant named after the street it is on in the city of Warren. The entrance was painted light blue with glazed bulls and dragons to make it look like Babylon’s Ishtar Gate. Arabic tabloids were stacked near the door.…

Folks who know me will undoubtedly know that Senegal and Estonia are two of my favorite countries. (Heck, they comprise two of the four countries in my book.) So, you bet my interest was piqued when I read that Doudou Diène, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, just authored a study on racism in Estonia. I’m guessing that he just might be the only Senegalese person in recent memory to set…

Last week I went to Modesto for some reporting for NPR. Yesterday, I wrote a haiku about what I learned: Here in Modesto they used to take the train but now they steal cars.

Hamid Tehrani of Global Voices conducted an email interview with me about my forthcoming book, tentatively titled The Internet of Elsewhere. Cyrus Farivar is a USA-based blogger, journalist and writer. He is currently working on a book about the impact of the internet on society. Cyrus writes about internet impact on Iran, Senegal, South Korea and Senegal. He was recently in Iran and has taken several photos of Iranian carpets, food, buildings and nature too. Q: You visited Iran recently…

[via BoingBoing] Amy Walker was on NPR’s Day to Day in March 2008.

Amigos, I’ve finally put together an online reference as to the precise legal nature of California and LA County law as applicable to taco trucks, and have provided some excerpts from last month’s LA County Board of Supervisors meeting whereby things got a bit more difficult for trucks in the unincorporated part of the county. Viva los taco trucks!

Ivan Krstic: In fact, I quit when Nicholas told me — and not just me — that learning was never part of the mission. The mission was, in his mind, always getting as many laptops as possible out there; to say anything about learning would be presumptuous, and so he doesn’t want OLPC to have a software team, a hardware team, or a deployment team going forward. New York Magazine: The Democratic Party is closer than it’s ever been to…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on CBS’ acquisition of CNET will air on Morning Edition today (May 16)! 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…

Dear Friends, I’ve been informed that my radio piece on the one year anniversary of the Estonian cyberattacks will be airing today. It 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 –…

Oh, snap. Chron’s coverage here. I’m proud to be Californian.