-
PR top tip: when the world thinks your workers are heroes, go along with it
I thought the nuclear industry had the best PR money could buy. Maybe not in Japan. Here's a spokesman of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, managing to make his employer sound as uncaring as possible. He's talking about the workers inside fukishima, exposing themselves to high radiation levels:
Some people call them heroes. But we don’t think they ( Read more... ) -
Where I'm at
Oh, hello LJ. You're still my one true love, however much I abandon you for shinier, nastier and more superficial hangouts -- it's just that when I'm busy and stressed, I end up following the path of low resistance and quick feedback ( Read more... ) -
Storming the Bastille: Egyptians' raid on State Security buildings
Juan Cole has a rundown of Top Ten Achievements of Mideast Democracy Protests this Weekend. I'm in a state of perpetual astonishment at how fast things are changing. I keep on realising I've not read about a country for a couple of days, and it's had another wave of protest or resignations.
My personal favourite of the weekend is Number 4:
4. ( Read more... ) -
EU arms sales to Libya: a summary of what's been noticed so far
[cross-posted from ohuiginn.net. I really need to stop having so many semi-active bits of myself across the net]
There's no doubt that European weapons are today being used to kill Libyans.
Journalists across Europe are now fleshing out the details, figuring out whodunnit and how. Here's a summary of what they've found so far...
Start with the ( Read more... ) -
Libya and Germany
In Britain, there's currently a certain amount of self-criticism over the UK's rapprochement with Libya over the past decade -- how our demands were about terrorism and biological weapons, how our desires were for weapons and oil deals, and how anything involving human rights or democracy within Libya was left out of the picture ( Read more... ) -
(Untitled)
Here is a good article on how Europe and the US could influence what's happening in Libya:
There are numerous steps the United States and its allies can take today to affect the immediate calculations of the Qaddafi regime. Europe buys 85 percent of Libya's oil, after all. And the West largely controls the international financial system through ( Read more... ) -
Egypt again
Worrying what's going to happen in Egypt today. Still think that, without anybody for Mubarak to talk to, it's most likely to end in a really nasty way.
Some people have been suggesting phoning random Egyptian numbers with encouragement. There's something appealing about that, however much it smells of "let's you and him fight". I suspect I'd ( Read more... ) -
Without leaders, how do you negotiate?
The organized opposition don't matter much to the protests in Egypt. Everything is being arranged online, and through informal networks ( Read more... ) -
Egypt link-dump
I know nothing about Egypt. Or Tunisia. Or Sudan. Or Lebanon. Or Albania. Or -- there's a lot of news happening at the moment, isn't there?
But here are some of the articles I've found about Egypt that get beyond "woo! riots!":
Al-ahram on the significance of the date:
Police Day [Jan 25] is meant to mark the day when the police forces took to ( Read more... ) -
Pigeon + Skinner Box + Facebook
If I were a digital artist...
...I'd put a pigeon in a Skinner Box, and connect it to Facebook ( Read more... )