-The trend that George W. Bush missed out on of the stock market doing well around the election of a new US president returned with the election of Barack Obama.
-Panasonic and Sanyo are talking team-up. If it happens, their bastard marriage will form Japan's biggest electronics company, which will be able to breath fire and walk upright.
-Google decided that an advertising partnership with Yahoo! wasn't worth an antitrust lawsuit, continuing the year-long Yahoo! theme of the company failing to pull off every attempt it makes at saving itself.
-Those on strike at Boeing returned to work after two months, the company announced it's next big plane will be delayed even longer, and then somebody figured out that thousands of "fasteners" on some of the new aircraft weren't properly attached. Just from an epistemological standpoint, if something called a "fastener" isn't properly "attached" to something, then what the hell is that thing? Fasteners are made to do one thing, and that's fasten. If they aren't properly fastened, then they aren't fastened at all, because something that fastens only can't be half-fastened, or a quarter fastened.
-Brazil got itself the largest Latin American bank by combining two of their own.
-Alaska still hasn't figured out if Ted Stevens, convicted on corruption charges, should still be their senator. Nice job, 47% of Alaska.
-The Iranian parliament had to fire interior minister Ali Kordon when it came out that he didn't actually get an honorary degree from Oxford University. You'd think people, if they were going to lie, would come up with something interesting or not-easily-checkable.
Leaders
-Let's just jam all the Obama stuff up here at the top, since it makes up a good bishop's quarter of the mag this week? Yes, let's.
First Things First: Yes, Obama won a resounding victory, despite only gaining the Democrat-standard 43% of the white vote. (That's pretty much the same white-vote share that Gore, Kerry & Clinton won, so don't read too much into it--unless you're David Fucking Dukes, who considers that some kind of rebuke on Obama's race. By the way, if you are David Dukes--dude. Seriously. Suck a tailpipe, you scumbag motherfucker.) Obama tore the notion of swing states, with wins in Florida & Ohio as well as earning the first Democrat presidential victories since 1964 in Indiana and Virginia. All in all, it's difficult to overstate Obama's victory--a no-name guy who ascended out of Illinois and went on to beat both Hilary and the Republican party, a no-name black guy, nonetheless. It's a historic moment that the world, the Economist, and yeah, to some extent, even little coal-hearted me found pretty impressive. (Actually, there's some countries who don't like it--but we'll get to them.) That's where all this cheerleading ends though--the rest of the Economist is about what Obama faces, which is an American economy on it's way towards "shambles," two in-progress (and by no means finished) wars, and a fiery America that's yet to show it's willing to give up on cultural division after everybody finishes voting. The problems get touched on here, and the recommendations from the Economist start as well--but they all get dealt with better in another article. The next one.
-The next one is all the recommendations, expectations, and scant and crowther that makes up what's on Obama's desk when he starts firing off orders. Look, this is long, kitty cat. Read it or don't. If you're still hungry when you get done, then here it is: the financial situation in America, and what Obama faces there.
-Credit-default swaps have taken up the non-human scapegoat position for a healthy portion of the financial crisis, and while the Economist believes that's deserved (to some extent), they also think that CDS is a transaction worth keeping around--as long as the process experiences necessary reform. The way a CDS works is like this: an investor is buying insurance that a company will not default on that companies debt payments. That's it. It's pretty simple process, until you realize that unlike a regular insurance purchase (life, health, etc.), the seller of the insurance has no real information on how likely (or unlikely) a company is to default on it's loans. CDS contracts went from a rough total somewhere beneath 1 trillion in 2001 all the way to 62 trillion at their late '07 peak. When they started to fall apart, and the insurers began having to pay out to the contract holders, the failure compounded. Get rid of them, right? Well, the Economist doesn't think so, and they point now to the now (regulated and somewhat healthy) futures and options market that was the scapegoat for the crash of 987 as an example of the route the CDS field could become. As always with these op-eds, it's up to you to buy the argument or not.
-There's a growing movement in the US, backed by something called the United States Conference of Mayors as well as a think-tank called The Center for American Progress, to come up with an environmentally based version of the New Deal. The plan, as it roughly is imagined, is to give billions of dollars to alternate fuel companies in hopes of both job creation as well as replacing the dependence on foreign oil--if this is starting to sound familiar, it's because you heard about it when Barack Obama talked about it. The Economist thinks it's a bad idea, for multiple reasons--here's the best one: government doesn't know shit about what they should invest in. The expensive ethanol subsidies that the American government trumpeted have resulted in little more then helping to make food more expensive, hurting poor countries, and Germany just finished covering roofs with solar panels--despite Germany being one of the world's most sunless countries in the world. Oh, and their voracious hunger for solar panels helped to price silicone to far out of the price range of places where solar panels would, well, get sun on them. It's not all tears and blood though--the Economist points out that if you want alternate fuels, you have to go about it the "right way," which is to make it costly for companies that pollute with some version of the cap-and-trade system. (Obama does plan on something like this, but with subsidies outweighing the imagined cost, pollution can continue, while profits still increase.) Making it costly--with no subsidy--means a business will take it upon itself to find alternate energy sources themselves. After all, that's the reason that every major car company is coming up with electric cars right now--because it stopped being profitable not too. (One more time: leader articles are often op-ed, so if you virulently disagree--well, you're supposed to. That's op-ed.)
-Spain didn't get invited to the upcoming international finance reform meeting set up by Nicholas Sarkozy and George Bush, as they aren't a G8 economy or one of 12 large developing countries. With what can only be imagined was a hell of a lot of pride-swallowing, Spain's prime minister requested that he be permitted to attend. Why does he deserve to be there, when Spain's version of the financial crisis hasn't resulted in it having to bail out a single one of the countries banks? Well, you'll have to read to find out. (Meaning you'll have to read somewhere else, because this article runs out of steam near the end. That's why you have to buy the issue, so you can read the 16 page "Focus on Spain" section. I'd summarize those sections, but I like not being in a coma.)
Letters
-Damn it, if you're going to talk smack about polls, you better be prepared for Humphrey Taylor, Chairman of the Harris Poll, to write in and say that you are a big fat jerk and he won't be your friend anymore, because he works really hard on his polls and your article is just a bunch of BS. How is that so many people make it to being adults yet still write complaint letters that sound like a five-year-old whining about having to finish their broccoli? All you have to do is add cursing, you'll immediately make it to teenager status.
United States
-I kept all the Obama articles--which make up the majority of the section by far--above, so there's not much here. But how about a state-referendum breakdown, where it is revealed that American voters apparently prefer smoking weed to letting homosexuals marry?
Arkansas: Gay or straight, unmarried couples aren't allowed to adopt. Brilliant work there, Arkansas. Let me guess what would happen if there was a referendum to increase state tax with all proceeds going to orphanages and foster programs. I can taste the sanctimony from here.
California: You already know. 52% for approving the ban, 48% against.
Colorado: 73% of Colorado voters said that no, a fertilized egg is not a human being. I'd have to agree, but only because that would make me a cannibal.
Florida: The numbers against gay marriage were stronger here, with 62% standing in the way. That's probably not as big a surprise as California.
Massachusetts: Small amounts of weed is now punished only with a $100 dollar fine. Keep it under an oz if you're planning to burn one down, daytripper.
South Dakota: Only 55% of the state voted to keep abortion legal, which means that no, 2008 isn't the year that people stop talking about this yet.
Washington: If you happen to end up terminally-ill--which is more likely then you winning the lottery or finding true love--you are now permitted to request and take a death drug cocktail. 42% of the state would prefer that you and your horrible suffering last as long as possible.
-Lexington, oh Lexington. Did he ever get fully on board with the magazines endorsement of Obama? One might wonder after reading his column focusing on why McCain lost, which is mostly an update on his previous columns on "What McCain is doing wrong" as well as "How McCain could still win." The only addition to the list (shitty campaign tactics, Palin, a move towards the right-wing evangelicals) is the up till now unaddressed (by Lexington) complaint of media bias. While there's a good article out there to be had about media bias, this ain't it, and honestly, Lex should have held back until he had more space to riff on the subject. It's well-written, sure--but there's not enough foundation for the topics on display.
The Americas
-Although the merger of Itau and Unibanco came as good news to the suffering Brazilian economy that began a downward shift last month when Brazilian shares and currency experienced a sell-off by foreign investors, things are still uncomfortable. 12 companies in that weird "free-trade zone" they have set up have sent their staff home on unpaid leave, something that hasn't occurred in thirty years. Things may level out in Brazil quicker then they will in other countries struck by the global financial crisis, but they may have to go down a bit further first.
-Chile decided to start celebrating a national Lutheran holiday every October 31st, bringing their total of public holidays up to 16. They plan to try and ditch two of the three currently dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Oh, and it's October 31st because that's the day that Martin Luther pinned his theses on the door back in 1517. This isn't really an important story.
-After expelling aid workers, the American ambassador, the Bolivian government of Evo Morales went for the hat trick: on November 1st, the DEA was kicked out. The US response was pretty immediate--no more tariff preferences for Bolivian imports. Morales claims that they can sell the goods America won't be buying to Venezuela and other allies, but that's yet to prove itself true. (The article says "unlikely" but doesn't go into the specifics of why. I know the answer is "because oil is cheaper," but would it have killed the writer to throw that in?)
Asia
-A Japanese hotel chain decided to have an essay contest, which is pretty cute. I think they had a Simpsons episode like that once, and Lisa won it. The rules for the hotel's essay contest were to come up with the best denial of Japan's wartime role as World War II aggressor and sponsor of atrocities. It was won by the head of Japan's air force, who claimed that Pearl Harbor was an American laid trap, that the fight in Northeast China and Korea was to protect legal territory from communists, and pretty much that Japan was just acting in self-defense. He's been fired. (Out of the 230 or so people who submitted essays, 78 were active Japanese air force officers.) I'm not well-versed in Japanese culture or history, so I don't really have much of an informed opinion on this story--you can make your own. I will say that my initial gut reaction is "What the fuck?"
-There's one place in the world--well, four actually--"where Obamania does not apply." (Irritatingly enough, this article only mentions one of the four. That's a tease and a half.) The one on display, in this short side-article, is Pakistan, and they responded to recent polls saying that they expect a turn for the worse under the new president. Here's hoping they are as wrong about that as they are about how often Obama prays. (They believe the number is "five times a day." Adorable.)
Middle East and Africa
-I've already read some of next weeks Economist, and they go more into depth on the situation in the Congo. But don't let that stop you from taking a look at this piece, if for nothing else to get you cooking on some anger, disappointment, whatever. I've already filled these blog posts before with bile regarding the Congo, and there's really not much to add. I will do so anyway.
America and the United Nations knew this was coming. They knew it was coming when the guilty parties in Rwanda escaped to the Congo, they knew it was coming when the news of the constant rape and murder started coming out of the area last year, they knew it was coming every single day, since the 90's. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and the leaders of the nations on the UN Security Council didn't step up to the plate. The European Union didn't step up to the plate. Nobody did. They said "never again." Again has come, and they ignore it.
The bloodshed there? The women with mutilated genitals? The blinded children? The men who have been forced to insert their penis in a hole in the ground that is filled with razors? The simply, horribly, dead? The fault for that lays on the people who had the knowledge of what was happening, what that meant was coming, and the power to do something about it. It lays on those who refused to send their troops to train and lead the UN peacekeeping missions. It lays on those who sought to exhaust the tolerance of American citizens for foreign wars. It lays on those who look at Africa and say "We do not care."
There is no good news for the Congo coming. What happened in Rwanda will now continue, and like a cancer, it will spread and infect everything it is attached to. Take a look at the the map, one more time: Rwanda is half the size of North Kivu. The problem has doubled.
It will not stop there.
Europe
-On November 5th, Dmitry Medvedev gave his state-of-the-nation address. The timing--right around the American presidential election--was on purpose. For those of you who didn't watch it, a group that includes me, it was a full gunmetal gray attack on the West, with the blame for the Georgian war as well as the global economic crisis resting on American shoulders. He spent 90 minutes, making it clear that Russia will be involved in the Caucasus for years to come, that rumors of economic problems in Russia will be "dealt with" and, in a delightful bit of irony, praised the Russian constitution right before announcing that a major proposal to change it. Medvedev--or his speechwriter/puppetmaster/overall lord and savior Vladimir Putin--wants the presidential term extended from four to six years, and the parliamentary terms to extend from four to five years. Which means that Putin could be returning, as many assume he will, to take over the presidency again in 2012. For twelve more years.
On a complete side note, if you were wondering where your youtube video is of Medvedev congratulating Obama on his election win, stop looking. There isn't one. Dmitry sent a telegram. A telegram. Like a Nigerian internet scammer. I guess he didn't want to pay export taxes on a fucking PASSENGER PIGEON.
-Here's your John le Carre in real life story of the week. Herman Simm, a civil servant in Estonia, was arrested on charges of spying for an unnamed foreign power. Simm was a mid-level employee of the defense ministry, and rumor has it that--despite the little respect giving by some European powers for Estonia--that this was a serious catch. Time will tell if anybody can figure out who his contact was, and if that contact is still in circulation (means "dead or not"). His contact? A Spaniard employed by the Italians who is actually a Russian spy that infiltrated Europe through Latin America. (If you think you have a cool life, read that last sentence again to remind yourself that no, you do not.)
-Turkey "it is said," has, statistically, more transvestites then any country in the world. (Except for Brazil.) Huh. While that's only interesting in so far as trivia, it becomes news when it turns out that Turkey treats it's transvestites worse then any other group, subjecting them to police brutality, "intrusive anal examinations" and, on occasion, psychiatric incarceration to treat their "mental illness." An upcoming court case regarding a police attack on a transvestite Kurd named Esmeray may shed more light on this part of the world.
-Charlemagne deserves eyeballs for this column, one that is best summarized by saying that it's the writer taking a look at the way the European Union has responded to Russia and saying, in so many intelligent words, that the European Union is a bunch of weak-ass bitches. I'll have to doublecheck, but I think this he actually uses the phrase "Shit is corny, yo."
Britain
-Who will end up using the Euro-love for Obama to grease their way into fickle Londoners hearts, Brown or Cameron? Bagehot plays the odds, and he seems to come out saying the answer is split between "neither" and "i'm bored." He does come right out and acknowledge that neither men come anywhere near Obama's charisma level, which makes it seem like they should have something else in exchange. Isn't that how it works when you figure out politicians on a Dungeons & Dragons attribute scale? If Obama has +10 charisma and Brown & Cameron are both at -4, shouldn't Gordie be able to fire magic missiles? I was always more into Tecmo Bowl.
-The leader section was long enough, so I kicked both pieces about why Heathrow shouldn't get another runway down here, in the Brit-news-only gutter, but also because the Economist has been beating this "no more runways" article into the ground for months. I'm sick of it. Sick of it! One more time: The opening of Terminal 5 was completely embarrassing, a showcase for incompetence. The BAA is selling off Gatwick to escape the monopoly criticism it faces, meaning the new owner might actually want Gatwick to, you know, compete with Heathrow. Oh, and there's no good reason to make runway decisions when fuel prices are out of wack and consumer spending is dropping. Those are the only new things on the table. We'll see how this goes down.
-Donald Trump is trying to build a crazy ass golf course out near Aberdeen--isn't it nice to write a sentence that makes it sound like you've been there or plan to go--and things are starting to look easier for him. Some Scottish ministers shut down the local environmental concerns that had stood in Trump's way. (He still has to implement a "goose-management plan", but he can go ahead and play golf on a bunch of sand dunes that will soon no longer provide a habitat for various plants and wildlife.)
International But Not Really This Week
-I'm not even linking to it, because it's a two-pager that's just all over the place. (Urbanization on a vast scale, is it good or bad? Is something black or is something white? Is a cat a cat or is it a dog?) But I will say, that if you obsessively listen to White House press briefings, which you can do very easily, then you'll start to pick up on the soap opera/reality tv show stylings that make it such a classic part of the work day. This week, one of the reporters had something in his throat and he called Dana Perino "Dad." She didn't correct him. Classic! New mp3s of the press briefings are up around 4-5 days a week. Perino's trump Tony Snow's by about 8,000 percent, so enjoy while you can. It takes a good while for the new cats to learn all the reporter's names and personality quirks, so hopefully Obama picks somebody with a good memory. (Don't watch the video, those are really tragic. It's better just making up all the faces on your own.)
Business
-Here's something that nobody else does like Japan does--another one being great comics about wine drinking--they completely fuck themselves up with an incestuous stock portfolio. It's called cross-shareholding, and it's when two companies agree to hold each others stock as a way of helping each other out (by keeping some of their shares under stable ownership), to keep international companies from showing up and taking over Japanese businesses, and so that when the stock market drops (say, to a 26 year low like it did on October 27th), that everybody can have a taste of the billions of dollars of corporate assets that were lost. Wait, maybe that last one wasn't part of the angle? You gotta read this one. Re-donk.
-Remember how Italy decided to pony up a bunch of doe and look after Alitalia, the bankrupt airline who still has to figure out how much blood they've got to lay on the slab so the pilots and cabin crew will re-up for another tour of duty? Yeah, well, get ready for a new-threat--cheaper, high speed trains that will service the Rome to Milan route, which is the core of Alitalia's business. At what point does a country realize that subsidizing airline travel at great expense to the country doesn't benefit the populace? Oh, that's right. Never.
-It's not a bankruptcy watch yet, but let's take a look at some technology firms, with a how-screwed-are-they-breakdown:
Sun Microsystems: They lost $1.68 billion, sales are down by 20% against last year, and they account for only 12% of worldwide server sales by value. (That's down 6% in eight years.) Shares have dropped from $24.40 to under $5.00 this year alone.
Motorola: Sales are down 15%, mobile phone sales themselves down by 33%, and they've lost $397 million. They used to have 22.4% of the mobile phone market, now? 9.5% only. Shares have gone from $20 to a little above $5.
The article goes on to say--eh. They probably need to die or carve off parts of their business. That's the solution? Apparently so.
-Blogging, oh blogging. Here's your blood-money, blogging. The day of the individual blogger is on it's way out, as group-blogs kick the hell out of personal blogs in content, quality of writing, site visitors, advertising dollars, so on, so forth. I'd be bothered to care, but if you think that I give a shit about what happens to the kind of people who get into blogging because they have an end-goal of either A) making a living at it or B) making friends or C) "changing the world", you've never been to this site before, and you'll never be back again. Seriously, this article: who gives a shit? People who want to make a living writing about what they ate today, or posting constant camera phone pics of their shit-ugly children? Those people should be drowned in a well. By their mothers.
-How is it that people still don't get that they shouldn't put shit on the internet that could get them fired from their job? Well, chalk it up as a lesson learned by employees of Virgin and British Airlines, who sat around talking shit about their own planes (saying one was infested with cockroaches) or describing customers as "smelly" and "annoying" on Myspace and Facebook. Now, I don't doubt for a second that the planes probably were full of la cucaraches, hell, I'm even more sure that the customers were smelly, annoying, and probably serial assholes as well--but that's not the point, now is it? Was that "tweet" worth it, you stupid, unemployed dumbass? I'm thinking "no."
Finance and Economics
-Buttonwood's latest column is focused mostly on Clare College--the university recently borrowed $24 million dollars at and plan to invest portions of it into equities. Although the loan will come due in 2048, and by then it will cost them around $125 million, they believe they can beat the interest rate in the market and end up with a profit. While it certainly sounds absurd, they actually pulled off something similar when they sold off a bunch of equities in 1999 and made a healthy profit.
-Developing oil out of tar-sands would require oil to be at $90 a barrel for it to be worth doing--as it no longer is, most firms are delaying the process, which was set to go when--well, you know. Remember when you were listening to the accountant talk about how much it cost to fill up his tank? The demand for oil is still declining--America's consumption dropped by about a tenth a day, car sales are down 32%, so on, so forth. OPEC has already cut down their output, but the price remains low. While this probably seems like a good thing to many--and in a way, yes, it is--the potential for another price spike will come that much closer, as long as oil producers cut output. Somebody has to break eventually, and history will tell you: it's rarely the guys with their hand on the tap.
-In case you were waiting for India to start taking out big stakes in their commercial banks, you should know that it happened a good long time ago--the Indian government already has 28 out of the 79 banks under some form of control. Said control was shown off on November 4th, when the finance minister brought in the head of those 28 banks for "a chat." All 28 then cut their lending rates by .75%--to stay competitive, to stay alive, the other 51 banks will have to follow suit. While most of India's international companies don't usually rely on their own country's banks for loans, the state of international finance has forced them to return home for funds, and India's banks weren't prepared for the sudden onslaught of that level of work. Out of most of the financial articles this week--or any for the past six--this is one that actually points to things looking better. India's banks are pretty solid enterprises, not exposed to the type of serial debt and international exchanges that have brought low so many others. However, this may bode the end for what India calls "non-bank financial companies," a ragtag group of competing corporations that handle things like credit cards and small loans. These NBFC's are exposed to up and down movements in the market, as they depend on short-term borrowing. Interesting stuff.
-This one is shorter, and it's more Drama In Real Life then it is Headline News. Back in 2001, a company called Asia Pulp & Paper defaulted on about $14 billion dollars worth of debt. Through a variety of legal backflips, they tried not to repay creditors--and in 2006, an Indonesian court let $500 million slide. Back in 2006, the impact of that ruling freaked out a lot of Asian debt markets--after all, convincing super-power economies to work with the emerging markets can't happen if those super-powers aren't going to see a return. October 31st, the Indonesian Supreme Court voided the ruling--and, according to the Economist, that offered Asian finance "a bit of comofrt." Hilariously enough, an American investment firm had already settled on their claim with the Pulp & Paper subsidiary at the center of this whirlwind--weeks before the court made it clear that no one had to.
-Germany's Deutsche Bank and Britain's Barclays both decided that they'd rather not take government money if the government is going to attach strings. In Deutsche's case, they're going to try to shrink down. Fine enough. Barclays went another way--they borrowed cash from a group of investors that include the royal family of Abu Dhabi and a Qatari sovereign-wealth fund. While some might read into this--and I imagine many will--as a sign that things for these banks aren't that bad, that's not exactly true. Part of the reason Deutsche Bank already looks healthier is because it, as well as Lloyds TBS and the Royal Bank of Scotland, have adopted far less stringent accounting regulations then the ones they had previously. Specifically, what they've done is reclassified a bunch of assets so that they don't have to use mark-to-market accounting on said assets. (Meaning a bunch of stuff that was worth it's current market value is now back to whatever value it had when it was first listed as an asset.) If this sounds a little shady, it should. It fucking is. (Barclays was already doing something like this, although they were doing it by claiming that assets ignored by mark-to-market accounting are not-to-be-traded, so they don't "count.") One more time, in case you don't remember Enron. That's why mark-to-market accounting exists--because it's supposed to prevent Enron-type occurrences. (Yes, there's more to it. But that's when got widespread in the US.) Companies trying to circumvent mark-to-market? Fucking shady as hell.
Science and Technology
-More good news in the fight against cancer--this time, it's in the form of that nano-technology that continues to travel from bad novels to real science. Now, a primary school version of nano-technology has been in use for years already--drugs like Doxil are delivered to ovarian cancer sufferers inside liposomes (a type of fatty bubble small enough to get the technical nano term)--but it's the usage of 80 trillion nanoshells (a core of silica covered in gold) that may form the next jump in treatment. Nanoshells get injected into a patient's bloodstream, absorbed into a tumor (due to their size, it's the only place the nanoshells can go) and then heated up with infra-red light. The nanoshells heat up and destroy the tumor, leaving everything else alone. It's still in trials, and the details are awaiting publication--but the rumors are good. There's some other developments in using nanotechnology as well, which the article goes into more detail about, but they seem to mostly rely on using nanos to deliver already existing anti-cancer drugs in safer fashion. While 2008 may not be the year that the general public remembers as the time when fighting cancer took a turn for the better, it's very possible that headline could be coming soon.
-One of the walls in the way of wind farms may have fallen, now that a company called Cambridge Consultants has come up with a method of illuminating blind spots in the radar network. Wind farms screw up radar pretty badly, which makes it unsafe to fly planes over them--I'm not going to summarize how radar works, the article does that itself--but the blind spot problem has kept Britain from continuing with plans for 40 wind farms. Good news, I suppose. (PS: if you care, this will not help stupid birds.)
-It looks like two pests are better then one. Hemlock forests have suffered for years from infestations of a couple of Asian insects--an experiment to determine which of the two insects was the worst gave a definite answer, which is that the woolly adelgid is the nastiest. The surprise came when they checked the area that was infested with both, and discovered that the competition between the two resulted in more healthy trees. Although there's still more research to be done, I think it's prudent for you to go and buy a raccoon to deal with your rat problem, local Brooklyn McDonald's.
Books and Arts
-David Ottaway's new book The King's Messenger: Prince Bandar bin Sultan and America's Tangled Relationship with Saudi Arabia gets the longest article in the section--and if the book is half as interesting as the article, it's probably a must-read for sheer entertainment value. While it's unlikely Prince Bandar will ever have the same impact (and certainly not the same leverage) he enjoyed for his 22 years as the Saudi's ambassador to the US, his contributions, good and bad, formed a major portion of one of the longest, and oddest, foreign relationships of the century. He's worth some ink.
-The American Folk Art Museum in New York is putting up a new show of Martin Ramirez's work, built mostly off a cache of unseen pictures discovered in a garage in California. The garage belonged to the family of Max Dunievitz, a medical officer who looked after Ramirez during he spent at the Dewitt State Hospital in Auburn, CA. Martin was a catatonic schizophrenic who spent 32 years in mental institutions, and while this isn't the first showcase of his cartoonish, bizarre work, it's a monumental one that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Dunievitz, who kept Ramirez encouraged and stocked with art supplies.
-Not sure what to say about this review of Toni Morrison's latest slavery novel, as the Economist expresses no opinion on it whatsoever. They spend four paragraphs describing the plot, the title and the theme, but they never actually say something along the lines of "yeah, it's good too." Does that mean they hated it? Because they'd tell you if they thought it was good, right?
-I have to admit, I do sometimes forget that there was a portion of the 20th century prior to World War I, so maybe I should look into Philipp Blom's The Vertigo Years: Europe 1900-1914. I'm probably part of the target market. Still, anything that suffers from an "overemphasis on sex" doesn't really interest me, unless it's porn.
Obituary: Studs Terkel
-No real surprises here--the best Terkel obit isn't going to be the one a British news-mag publishes, but it is decent enough. Honestly, the best thing to do is just go to this webpage and listen to Studs yourself, if you haven't in a while. (Or ever.) Whether you agree with the political stances he took, the man's interviews are, quite rightly, the stuff of legend. 96 was a long time for someone who still seems to have disappeared too early.
All art from the Economist, unless noted below.
The onion's front page belongs to them and you can buy it here, you know what i own my two dads so shut up, found that gigantic blue bear on google, have no idea what the hell it is or who it belongs too, but it's probably Scandinavian, it breaks my heart how crappy the palladium site is but that's who rifts belongs to, astroboy, part 3 of shit japan does right, belongs to tezuka and yes you should bow down, the pic of clare college, as well as the page on their website where you can download a pdf of their financial statements lives and belongs here, the bad things that can happen when you play with nanomachines belongs to DC Comics, and the Martin Ramirez piece belongs to his estate, more are available here.
Nothing makes one feel quite as small and impotent as the situation in the African continent. I feel like I need a bath now.
Still, uh, that cancer article is both interesting and a little heartening?
Posted by: hugh stewart | 2008.11.15 at 20:44
Quick comments:
-So you eat a lot of fertilized human eggs? That's weird.
-Radar says Toni Morrison's new book sucks, for whatever that's worth.
-For a good book about nanotechnology, I would recommend Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age.
Slightly longer: I'm not an expert in Japanese culture either, but from what I've read, they have a weirdly schizophrenic view of their role in WWII. They kind of turn a blind eye to any atrocities or whatnot, perhaps to maintain honor or something. But they're pretty peaceful, so most of them, when it comes down to it, would probably condemn their actions. But that obviously doesn't apply to everybody; damn, that's both a weird essay contest, and a crazy answer. Maybe it's military culture or something. Or maybe I'm full of shit.
Posted by: Matthew J. Brady | 2008.11.16 at 15:05
YAY! It's back! My favorite article on the web! I once again bought my own issue while you were out and while I tried to play the home game of caption summaries that are both hysterical and perfectly capture the article - I failed miserably!
I plan to work on reading this throughout the day! My day now rocks!
Posted by: Kenny | 2008.11.17 at 09:17
YAY! It's back! My favorite article on the web! I once again bought my own issue while you were out and while I tried to play the home game of caption summaries that are both hysterical and perfectly capture the article - I failed miserably!
I plan to work on reading this throughout the day! My day now rocks!
Posted by: Kenny | 2008.11.17 at 11:30