The Times ran an excellent article yesterday, detailing how Israeli hospitals take in some of those wounded in the Syrian conflict, despite the fact that the two countries are technically at war. But what’s chilling is the extent to which Israel needs to protect the identities of those it treats, lest they eventually suffer recriminations for having been treated in an Israeli hospital. The article notes: Continue reading “Recriminations”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qSTvD0Roog
I finally got around to watching this, and have come to the conclusion that Fox does harm to three groups, but benefits one niche in the process. Continue reading “Faux News”
From The New York Times:
At a conservative conference earlier in the year, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, ridiculed the 2016 Democratic field as “a rerun of ‘The Golden Girls,’ ” referring to Mrs. Clinton and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is 70.
When it comes to Syria, the Obama administration is in a quandary. It has thus far provided more than $650 million in non-lethal aid to the Syrian rebels, but has also notably shied away from providing actual weaponry or logistical support. The result is a dangerous quagmire where the rebels have enough support to continue fighting, but not enough force to consistently repel government troops or inflict a blow strong enough to halt the mounting slaughter. Continue reading “Sitting on the Syrian Fence”
With Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo! is on a spending spree. In an effort to become a new online hub for video, the company snapped up the rights to stream episodes of Saturday Night Live – previously a Hulu special – and recently attempted to purchase the popular French video site DailyMotion. However, the government of President Francois Hollande has expressed its objections to the takeover, and sought to block the deal. Continue reading “France Wants Foreign Capital, Except When it Doesn’t”
This morning’s Times article on dangerously high levels of pollution in China presents an interesting contrast with much of the country’s other, hands-on policies. By virtue of being a Communist state, China owns – outright or in part – and regulates virtually every major national sector. China Mobile? State owned. Phone maker ZTE? Formed from the ribs of state organizations. PertroChina? You betcha. What these degrees of ownership and oversight mean is that, obviously, Beijing plays favorites with homegrown enterprises, and will squeeze or sanction any foreign firms that don’t play by its rules. The Party knows that it has a large consumer base, and it uses that fact as a fulcrum in ensuring that corporations like Disney don’t depict subversive content, Google filters its search results, and Apple provides upgraded customer service. In fact, the latest Apple charge seems strongly government-instigated, demonstrating that if you can’t join ’em (at least in a venture), you might as well beat ’em. Continue reading “Selective Regulation”
Yesterday, internet services company Akamai released its annual “State of the Internet” report, which tracks the various changes in internet speeds and penetration across the globe. When it came to broadband speeds, the US pulled in at 14th place, behind smaller countries such as Germany and South Korea. Before the alarmists clamor about the loss … Continue reading Fiber in the Diet
In light of our post last week on the collusion between Hollywood and Beijing, I figured that it might be worth addressing a recent critique of the film industry. Three senators, as well as a handful of Hollywood stars, have voiced objections to Zero Dark Thirty‘s depiction of torture as being a useful means of extracting the information that lead to the elimination of Osama Bin Laden. The senators, all past or present members of the Select Committee on Intelligence, admit that although the film is a work of fiction, “the people who see Zero Dark Thirty will believe the events portrayed in it are facts. The film therefore has the potential to shape American public opinion in a disturbing and misleading manner…you have a social and moral obligation to get the facts right.”
There is a fascinating article in The New York Times that explores the increasing level of coordination between Hollywood studios and Chinese censors. The studios – like all other industries – want access to China’s vast population, which has newfound disposable income and a greater desire for Western entertainment and material goods. But the Chinese government rigidly filters what elements make their way into theaters, generally censoring extreme sex scenes, religious criticism, and lukewarm sentiments about China itself. These limitations are unsurprising, given the government’s ban on pornography, wariness of religion, and repressive maintenance of a positive national image.
Two recent actions by the White House provide an interesting study in the expansion of executive power.
The first instance is a Federal judge’s decision that the legal reasoning behind the May 2011 drone strike that killed Anwar Al-Awlaki – an American citizen and member of Al-Qaeda – need not be released by the Justice Department. In what she called “a veritable Catch-22,” Judge Colleen McMahon noted that a combination of Constitutional contortions and executive precedent have rendered the Freedom of Information Act petition filed by The New York Times and the ACLU ineffectual. The judge skeptically quoted Attorney General Eric Holder’s assertion that assassinations like that of Al-Awlaki are befitting of “due process,” though not “judicial process.”
Silicon Spatula 