Steve Almond's primer on writing pornography is very cool. I blogged his interview in Identity theory a while back. I really ought to read the book (Of course all the Steve Almond links are stolen from Jess Crispin's weblog who seems to post anything that Almond writes).
Anne Burke in a rather well written rant about nothing in particular:
Rebecca Traister managed to catch the interesting side of LeRoy in a story about him and his rather strange world:
(The last two links via Mobilives)
Reason online has a very good essay on Vaclav Havel by Matt Welch. (Welch also maintains a popular 'warblog', a genre that that I find a little disturbing).
I find Havel one of the most enigmatic people in contemporary Europe. I am ambivalent about the quality of his statesmanship or the wisdom of his politics. But his courage and humanism has never been in question.
Sometime back there was also very good profile of Havel by Remnick in The New Yorker. It is very well written. I saved the link somewhere for weblogging later (with suitably weighty sounding commentary) and forgot all about it until now. (Thanks to google, I rediscovered it in Tigerbeat)
Got arrested a few days back.
There are details in MSNBC. (I am chary about linking to anything on MSNBC. They keep moving this around and break my links. )
( via Buzzmachine)
There is a big flap about Hartford Courant, a newspaper in my neck of the woods (Connecticut) asking its travel editor to stop publishing his weblog.
Denish Horgan's politics seems to be the polar opposite of Courant's. Courant also recently changed his position from the position of a columnist to that of the travel editor. So the editor's argument doesn't really wash since the kind of opinion he expresses in his weblog is no longer published in the paper anyway. This action really shuts him up for good. Sad.
Cosmo Macero has interesting observations on the subject.
(Links stolen from Romenesko's)
This analysis of Netflix's DVD Allocation System looks very interesting for all sorts of reasons.
I am kind of interested in inventory control, allocation strategies and their efficacies in addressing sudden peaks in demand. If you know of any links, I would appreciate hearing about them.
SARS Watch by Tim Bishop is an excellent resource. (via Brad Delong).
It's a zoo out there is a weblog by an unidentified Singaporean doctor trying to cope with the crisis. (via Linkmachinego)
One of the very best things about NYT sold in the New York region is the Metropolitan Diary. It is part of the 'Metro' section of the newspaper. It is like an oasis. Take this anecdote for example:
Suddenly a young man stepped out of the crowd and started scaling the pole. He climbed up to the Don't Walk sign and tested it gingerly to see if it would support his weight. The crowd hushed. We were concerned about the danger and legality of his climb.
Within seconds he was high enough to reach out toward the unfortunate bird. His fingers caught, pulled and broke through whatever was restricting the bird's tiny leg ? and the two birds, now free, took off into the skies above Madison Avenue. The crowd cheered and clapped exultantly. I continued on my way to work with a big smile on my face"
PDN's list of 30 emerging photographers for 2003. I always look forward to this particular issue.
Eric Grigorian won the World Press photo award this year. Be sure to check out the winning entries in other categories too.
Arian French has a wonderful art blog that has all sorts of interesting links.
Today, among other things, 7000 years of cultural history in Iraq got looted.
As the looting and the killing and the burning continues, crowds in Baghdad ransacked a mental hospital for 36 hours. Two patients unable to swallow water without assistance died of thirst. Four women patients were raped.
Volunteers are dumping rotting, unclaimed corpses into mass graves. (via Electrolyte which has a good thread on it)
By all available indications, the water supply and the medical situation in Iraq is beyond desperate.
The pols running the war, laughed General Shinseki out of court when he suggested in his senate deposition that hundreds of thousands of troops will be needed to keep peace in Iraq. Gen. Shinseki of course ran the war in Bosnia. He looks more and more prescient every day. Now the common men are paying in blood for the arrogance of politicians.
Under the Hague treaty protecting the museum was a coalition responsibility. This is specially inexplicable since the marines are protecting the oil ministry in the same city. How many does it take to protect a museum? I hate to sound sarcastic. But this is probably a good time for the art dealers to take up the lobbying to change Iraq's export laws again.
I guess there is also something sick about feeling so distressed about the looting of a museum when so many people are dieing and getting maimed every day.
Update: Mefi has a thread going on about the looting in Baghdad.
The News that CNN Kept to itself (via Sassafrass)
Paul Krugman explains much better than I could, why many people feel so uneasy about what may happen in Iraq.
Dan Rhodes, the 'retired writer' in an interview in The Telegraph:
Update: Sounds like he is having second thoughts about the retirement thing. (Via Bookslut)
Neal Pollack talks about the insanity of war:
Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins of the British Army, on March 20th, in a speech to his troops, that is worth remembering today:
You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing. Don't treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.
If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day.
Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves. .....
You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest for your deeds will follow you down through history. We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation."
(the last two links via Electrolyte)
Finally, it is 'over'. I don't know what the future holds for Iraq, for middle east, for the greater world. Unless US spectacularly messes up, they should be able to build big time on the happiness of the people on the streets of Baghdad today. As one my colleagues said, the economy should get a boost from all the 'reconstruction' efforts. Oil prices should come down.
I am also very glad that someone dear to us whom the corps was sending to Kuwait next week, no longer needs to go there. War is hell not only on the civilians on the war zone and the soldiers, it is psychological hell for the old parents, wives, lovers watching from far away.
But today, from one rather jaded Asian in another corner of the world, let me just offer my good wishes to the people of Iraq.
I hope the US administration doesn't screw up, even though deep in my heart I know that history of US intervention in Asia (except in Japan) is a history of screw ups. I worry that the long term impact of this US intervention in Iraq may be disastrous for USA, middle east, the economy, the fragile world peace (non US western media shares the unease). But as I indicated in my previous posts, no one deserves Saddam. I dont have a great deal of faith in this administration's foreign policy or its humanity. But who knows, something good may actually come out of it.
I like Agonist.org. It is one of my primary sources of information on the Iraq war (aside from BBC and Reuters) . That is why this made me feel very sad. (via Dan Gillmor).
It is now official. Blogs save lives. (via Electrolyte).
BBC reporter Stuart Hughes is weblogging from Iraq. Let's hope BBC shows more tolerance than CNN did. (via Linkmachinego). Also, check out the Washington Post guide to blogs on the Iraq war.