“Those were not meteorites, it was Americans testing their new weapons. [U.S. Secretary of State] John Kerry wanted to warn [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov on Monday, he was looking for Lavrov, and Lavrov was on a trip. He meant to warn Lavrov about a provocation against Russia.”
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Russian MP Vladimir Zhirinovsky • Giving voice to the burgeoning movement of people who believe the Russian meteor yesterday wasn’t really a meteor. Zhirinovsky asserts it was an American weapons test which new Secretary of State John Kerry was unable to caution Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about, who the State Department recently said Kerry couldn’t reach due to Lavrov’s trip to Africa. In disputing the celestial nature of yesterday’s crash landing, Zhirinovsky joins some ignoble company — former baseball player Jose Canseco tweeted yesterday that “no way” did a meteor hit Russia, blaming it instead on North Korea: “do the math.” source (via shortformblog)
i don’t know why more people aren’t freaking out about yesterday’s meteorite…? maybe i’m just too deeply entrenched in the thesis/princeton bubble at the moment.
“My request is quite modest: that spokespeople and officials in your administration stop commenting on developments in Egypt. This will no doubt spare your administration much time and effort, but more importantly, it may spare more bloodshed in Egypt, as the current regime will no longer enjoy the political cover that the US administration now offers them. Certainly, Egypt has seen enough bloodshed over the last two years, and Egyptians are tired of being punished for their uprising.
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In this context, further American statements supporting the current Egyptian regime will only lead to more Egyptians being beaten, raped, tortured, and killed. Please, ask officials with your administration to stop talking about Egypt for a while, at least until we can bury our dead, comfort their grieving families, treat the victims of rape and torture, find the disappeared, and read the wills of a new generation of young people who plan not for their weddings but for their funerals.”
— baheiddin hassan writes an open letter to president obama, published in al-ahram weekly
this is not a storybook, this is out of my iPhone camera lens from this weekend. as cairo raged, i found myself blessed with an Egyptian family, taken to the Red Sea and graced with this
unrest may have been the week’s theme in this city and country and world. bombing in ankara, rapes in tahrir, chaos at the presidential palace
but as for me? ex.14:14, 主啊。你救拔我，因你喜悦我。 for this month, this year, all moments and places, morning to night, step to step: الحمد لله 我必不致缺乏。
“Mohamed Hassanein Heikal has likened the Egyptian revolution to someone who had managed to achieve the incredible feat of landing on the moon, but when asked what he wanted as a reward was baffled, asking finally, and after some hesitation for a falafel sandwich.”
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hani shukrallah (who was recently removed from his post as managing editor of al-ahram english, despite his reputation and outstanding legacy as one of, if not the, best journalists here - ikhwan censorship, yani?) writes in al-ahram online on “egypt’s revolution: as it could have been; as it could be”
it’s disappointing if you approach it hoping he’ll offer suggestions re: what to do now, but on point re: all the things that have gone wrong, all the points where “IF ONLY” stirs wistful wishful thinking for a different state from the turmoil i’ve seen in Egypt just this week. will things change? insha’allah, God willing and from what we’ve seen i don’t think مصر’s youth are likely to let the ikhwan/military/whoever may try get away with their revolution either. still. things broil in the meantime. egypt spits fire, crackles defiant, fights on. we pray dear God, sort this out,
i have tooo many and they are TOOO GOOOOD! compiling them all in aesthetically pleasing fashion on this tumblr. i’ve only done 5% of them and am deep in the middle of my cairo week.. but will continue filling in the gems of things that people say from day to day. #ilovethesis #interviewsarebomb
password is my netid.
(sidebar, istanbul was stunning and cairo right now is CHAOS in a thrilling way…!! thoughts and photos to come)
This Monday, Barack Obama will be sworn in to serve his second term as President of the United States. The challenges he will face over the next four years are unlikely to be any easier than those he faced in his first term. These 15 talks dare to explore the domestic and international issues, problems, and crises that confront not just America’s leaders, but the leaders of every nation.
We know — it’s a lot of content. But at least skim through them, find topics you don’t know too much about and dive into those talks. And there’s a prize for anyone who watches all of them (hint: it’s your own sense of self-satisfaction).
Immigration is a wildly complex subject with deep social, economic, and cultural implications and reforming America’s labyrinthine immigration policy is high on Obama’s second term agenda. In this frank and moving talk, Jose Vargas shares his experience as an illegal immigrant in today’s America — or as he calls it, a “walking uncomfortable conversation.”
Incidents of mass violence seem to be occurring more than ever before. But on the broad scale, are our intuitions about an uptick in violence valid? Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker thinks not. In this talk, he breaks down the numbers showing an overall decline in violence worldwide and lays out his expectations for the future of conflict.
In September, a virulently anti-Muslim video posted to YouTube sparked violent protests across the Arab world. Oxford professor of International Human Rights Law, Nazila Ghanea, gives us a look into the wider international picture of contemporary hate speech and the nature of the violence it sometimes provokes.
