Aside

There’s cops blocking both ends of my street. Apparently, there’s a robbery suspect running around the neighborhood. I’ve never seen so many cops here before. Whoa. I got this email from a neighbor: “As I write this the cops are staked out on [street name redacted] and surrounding streets looking for the suspect in a strong-arm robbery. Believed to be BM with white pants. If you see anything call 911.” Update from said neighbor (1:28 pm): “Hi All–The cops apprehended…

Hey DC folks, My cousin Nena do Nascimento just got a job at IRD, an Arlington NGO. She’s a 22-year-old, recent McGill graduate, and has lived all over the world including being born in France, raised in Chicago, Switzerland, and Connecticut and just came back from a 3-month stint in Ghana. She speaks four languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese) and is just generally really awesome. She’s looking for a DC apt/room in a house for no more than $700 at…

UN: 25 September 2007 – The international community should step up its efforts to defeat cyber crime, starting by acceding to an international convention on the issue and eventually building to the development of a globally negotiated and comprehensive law of cyberspace, Estonia’s President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told the General Assembly tonight. Mr. Ilves said his country’s experience in April and May this year in coping with an extensive cyber attack highlighted both the dangers faced and the value of…

Man, I should have pitched this to NPR! But still, it’s def worth a listen. All Things Considered, September 18, 2007 · Taco trucks are a new destination for gourmands. They are celebrated in blogs with maps of where the best trucks park. In Oakland, Calif., many fans embark on late-night taco treks.

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…

AFP: Before the voyage, Malaysia’s Department of Islamic Development issued a 20-page book of guidelines on observing Ramadan in space. Otherwise, because the space station circles the Earth 16 times a day, a Muslim would theoretically have to pray 80 times a day. The guidelines stipulate that the astronaut need only pray five times a day, just as on Earth, and that the times should follow the location from which the spacecraft blasted off — in this case, the Baikonur…

Masood Farivar, a current Dow Jones reporter and former Harvard student and mujahedeen has a book deal about his Afghanistan days: “Confessions of a Mullah Warrior.” He’s the only person I’ve ever met online or in person that has the same family name as me, but who isn’t directly related to me. Congratulations, Masood!

There’s a new documentary out called “The Singing Revolution” by a pair of American filmmakers, one of whom is of Estonian descent. You can watch the awe-inspiring trailer here.

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…