I love stuff like this dynamic display of global income distribution and life expectancy. Check out China’s development from the mid 70′s until now – pretty impressive… And it doesn’t seem like it’s going to slow down anytime soon. The US, in the meantime, seems to stand out thanks to other metrics…
Here’s a neat little animated map showing the different empires that conquered the Middle East over the last 5,000 years. If there’s one lesson to be learnt, it seems to be this: all large empires in human history have followed similar patterns, from growth to ultimate collapse. This map reminds me of a book I [...]
The US and Russia have reached an agreement to shut down Russia-based allofmp3.com, a controversial music download site. This is obviously part of a larger push to bring intellectual property rights in line with WTO standards as Russia aspires to join the WTO next year. It’ll be interesting to see how effectively Russia can address [...]
Wow. Big things happening in US politics. House and Senate taken by the Democrats. Rumsfeld gone. This is going to be interesting… Although with such a slim majority in the Senate for the Dems, there’s still going to be plenty of gridlock. What really amazes me is the 40% voter turnout. That is so sad. [...]
As was to be expected, Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death. Now the case will be reviewed by the appellate court.
Aaahhhh…. Just got back from Cancun, and I have to say I’m in love with that place. It’s so hard to return to the real world after spending a week in paradise… I’m headed to Europe right now but I’ll be posting some Cancun pics soon-ish. In the meantime, I’m going to try to catch [...]
Beautiful Lake Atitlan NPR has an interesting article on human rights researchers sifting through tens of millions of documents in a warehouse in Guatemala, looking for evidence of the Guatemalan police’s role in murders during the height of what the article calls Guatemala’s “dirty war” in the 1970s and 1980s. My family left Guatemala for [...]
Colbert’s roasting of Bush continues to fuel discussions all over the place…
If you’ve ever watched Comdey Central’s “Colbert Report“, you know that Stephen Colbert’s politcal satires can be pretty funny. But mocking the president right to his face takes some balls… Here’s a brief video of him roasting the president at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Funny stuff.
Wow. The U.S. current account trade deficit is at $804 billion. That’s one big number. And it keeps growing…
Just spent three days in Santa Monica for meetings. I stayed at the Shutters Hotel On The Beach – what a fabulous little hotel that is. Now I gotta catch up with work and news, didn’t even have time yet to read people’s responses to the State of the Union Address… There’s lots and lots [...]
It’s great to see that more and more women are being elected leaders of various countries – it’s about time. Just a few months back, Angela Merkel became Germany’s first female Chancellor. Now Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been elected president of Liberia, marking the first time a woman has attained this position in the whole [...]
Day three of the Alito hearings focused on his supposed membership in a Princeton University organization called the “Concerned Alumni of Princeton”, a group that protested the integration of minorities and women into the Princeton student body in the early 1970s. Alito claims he doesn’t remember belonging to the group, but as Senator Edward Kennedy [...]
Samuel Alito’s weeklong hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee have begun. This will be interesting to watch as his nomination could change the political landscape for decades to come, moving the Supreme Court into a decidedly more conservative direction.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke today. It’s going to be interesting (and somewhat scary) to watch what happens to the political landscape. As the NY Times points out, …now Israeli politics will be in turmoil… Yup.