MetaFilter posts by semmi.
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Riyadh International Book Fair. "Last night I went to a panel on cultural diversity, and I have enjoyed a very good discussion. The panel was done the Saudi style, with the only female speaker Dr. Khairia Al-Saggaf talking from another room, where we could not see her but only listen to her voice."
"Shiites were the subject of a hot debate at the end of the panel, when Dr. Khaled Al-Dakheel said that Shiites are part of us. This was the point where the panel went out of control. Before Al-Dakheel was able to complete that sentence, a Sheikh from the first row interrupted and told Dr. Al-Dakheel that Shiites are not Muslims, and that he has to say this."
posted on Mar-3-06 at 9:20 AM
THE SAINTLY SINNER. “Maudlin,” a derivative of Magdalene, in the English language, with the meaning of “mawkishly lachrymose.”
posted on Mar-1-06 at 11:47 PM
Mad Mullah Rave Party Sensation. via The Religious Policeman.
posted on Feb-21-06 at 8:10 PM
The sad aftermath of the Rwanda genocide.
posted on Feb-17-06 at 9:14 AM
The Origo Gallery's recent exhibition features Gyorgy Kemenyi's new works, but for a chronological context it's best to start with his earlier exhibition. The Gallery's archives provide an interesting cross section of a few Hungarian contemporary artists.
posted on Feb-12-06 at 8:53 PM
Newsfilter: PBS Station Nixes Show On Terrorism. Following last-minute cries of protest from Muslim leaders last week, a Public Broadcasting Service affiliate in Dallas canceled the premiere of a documentary on the roots of Islamic terrorism.
posted on Feb-10-06 at 10:16 AM
Study ties political leanings to hidden biases, and reveals that partisans stubbornly discount any information that challenges their preexisting beliefs.
posted on Jan-30-06 at 8:15 AM
Did the CIA give the Iranians blueprints to build a nuclear bomb? The Guardian offers an extract from New York Times reporter James Risen's new book that reveals the miscalculation that led to a spectacular CIA intelligence fiasco.
posted on Jan-23-06 at 9:40 PM
Algorithm detects politicians' spin.
posted on Jan-21-06 at 9:39 AM
Medieval Irish warlord boasts three million descendants.
posted on Jan-19-06 at 10:31 PM
The Passivator. A passive verb and adverb flagger for Mozilla-derived browsers, Safari, and Opera 7.5, with caveats.
posted on Jan-6-06 at 9:12 PM
A Natural History of Peace. Humans like to think that they are unique, but the study of other primates has called into question the exceptionalism of our species. So what does primatology have to say about war and peace? Contrary to what was believed just a few decades ago, humans are not "killer apes" destined for violent conflict, but can make their own history.
posted on Dec-22-05 at 9:06 PM
Everybody's an expert, but does expertise promote better predictions?
posted on Dec-1-05 at 12:26 PM
Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize
posted on Oct-13-05 at 5:43 PM
"If Harvard had too many Asians, it wouldn’t be Harvard, just as Harvard wouldn’t be Harvard with too many Jews or pansies or parlor pinks or shy types or short people with big ears." Malcolm Gladwell on the Ivy League business.
posted on Oct-5-05 at 2:13 PM
“The real world is simply too terrible to admit; it tells man that he is a small, trembling animal who will decay and die." “The defenses that form a person’s character support a grand illusion, and when we grasp this we can understand the full drivenness of man. He is driven away from himself, from self-knowledge, self-reflection. He is driven toward things that support the lie of his character.” Words of Ernest Becker, here summarizing Gestalt therapy and his own existential perspectives in Growing Up Rugged.
posted on Oct-4-05 at 12:52 PM
On Beauty and Being Just, by Elaine Scarry, and an interview with her in Salon. It's up to you.
posted on Sep-27-05 at 12:41 PM
A slice of contemporary reality.
posted on Sep-23-05 at 10:31 AM
THE BURDIZZO® EMASCULATONE 9 comes in a variety of handy sizes, non-slip molded plastic handle, wide opening clamp.
posted on Sep-12-05 at 10:59 PM
A War to Be Proud Of. Christopher Hitchens in the Weekly Standard.
posted on Aug-30-05 at 12:33 AM
Bad news. Richard Posner on the News Media (NYT)
posted on Jul-29-05 at 7:08 PM
Costco pays its workers 42 percent more on average than its closest rival, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club. Even though this is Newsfilter, I was amazed to find that 'Wall-Street" may pressure businesses about their labor practices, and found Costco's approach encouraging these days.
posted on Jul-21-05 at 6:10 PM
Warnings of Avian Flu pandemic.
posted on Jun-20-05 at 12:28 PM
Brain study reveals gender differences.
posted on Jun-16-05 at 11:24 AM
The whiff of trust. "The possibility of reconciliation between individuals and the potential of healing rifts between political groups, even nations have arrived. " And the possible repercussions strain the imagination.
posted on Jun-2-05 at 1:44 PM
Guerilla Girls... behaving badly? “I don’t know whether this is the kind of thing that happens with any kind of group as time passes. All I know is that people are very upset and sad.”
posted on May-30-05 at 12:00 AM
Sexuality, politics, and memory in Twentieth-Century Germany. The introductory chapter of Dagmar Herzog's brilliant, deeply researched, and beautifully written book, and an informative review by Thomas Laqueur. (via nextbook)
posted on May-27-05 at 8:32 PM
Leaving the left. "I departed with new clarity about the brilliance of liberal democracy and the value system it entails; the quest for freedom as an intrinsically human affair; and the dangers of demands for conformity and adherence to any point of view through silence, fear, or coercion." Keith Thompson
posted on May-22-05 at 6:38 PM
Chess, as a political metaphor and ideological weapon.
posted on May-20-05 at 1:53 PM
The Science of Gender Science. A debate by Pinker vs. Spelke on the research on mind, brain, and behavior that may be relevant to gender disparities in the sciences, including the studies of bias, discrimination and innate and acquired difference between the sexes. (via Edge)
posted on May-14-05 at 8:48 AM
Nobel winner GÜNTER GRASS about Germany on the anniversary of the end of WWII (NYT).
posted on May-7-05 at 4:37 PM
Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
posted on Apr-7-05 at 10:24 AM
Anything goes. A Libyan court began hearing an appeal by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who face the death penalty for allegedly infecting 380 children with the AIDS virus, in spite of testimony from Luc Montaignier, the French doctor who first isolated the HIV virus, and Swiss and Italian colleagues, that the epidemic was due to a lack of hygiene. Tripoli has said that in exchange for the freedom of the nurses, it wants compensation equal to that paid by Libya to relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie plane bombing carried out by its secret service in 1988. (Yahoo/AFP news)
posted on Mar-30-05 at 2:23 PM
The narrative strategies of Genesis, according to EL Doctorow.
posted on Mar-28-05 at 2:38 PM
"In every existing government we find clamor, abuses of power, newspapers with triumphant, lying headlines, lies of every kind in public life. This being the case, someone like me, who understands nothing of politics, is compelled to think about politics and despair of ever understanding it, is compelled to envision something entirely different." Natalia Ginzburg, Member of the Italian Parliament, writer, and critic.
posted on Mar-24-05 at 9:44 AM
Sunset Story. High-spirited old leftists who refuse to go gently. A documentary about a pair of extraordinary women who live in a "nonprofit retirement home for free-thinking elders."
posted on Feb-25-05 at 8:11 AM
Which companies and nations are propping up the Khartoum regime? Sudan - News and Analysis by Eric Reeves
posted on Feb-23-05 at 8:54 PM
Saul Steinberg exhibition.
posted on Feb-11-05 at 12:35 PM
Making your loved one comfortable during the last days of life. You'll have your turn.
posted on Feb-9-05 at 3:19 PM
Mental Health & Behavior (NYT). The work (and controversy) among psychiatrists and forensic scientists to classify extreme, psychopatic, anti-social, "evil" behavior. The items to rate the peacetime offender includes a 20-item personality test qualifying glibness and superficial charm, grandiose self-worth, pathological lying, proneness to boredom and emotional vacuity.
posted on Feb-8-05 at 9:55 AM
Freedom's Not Just Another Word (NYT). The Sumerian "ama-ar-gi," found on tablets in the ruins of the city-state of Lagash, which flourished four millenniums ago, derived from the verb "ama-gi," which literally meant "going home to mother." The Latin libertas and Greek eleutheria both indicated a condition of independence, unlike a slave. Freedom, however, comes from the same root as friend, an Indo-European word that meant "dear" or "beloved." It meant a connection to other free people by bonds of kinship or affection, also unlike a slave. Liberty and freedom both meant "unlike a slave." But liberty meant privileges of independence; freedom referred to rights of belonging.
posted on Feb-7-05 at 9:24 AM
Jim and Tammy Faye's son, Jamie Charles Bakker, is a tattooed punk rock preacher of Revolution Church, in Atlanta.
posted on Feb-5-05 at 11:31 PM
Ayn Rand was born 100 years ago today. The essentials of her philosophy "Objectivism," as summarized by Dr. Leonard Peikoff, and a critical biography of her life and activities.
posted on Feb-2-05 at 6:44 PM
Bill Clinton to become Secretary-General of the United Nations?
posted on Feb-1-05 at 3:46 PM
The Aztecs at the Guggenheim. The hypercivilized, unimaginably savage Aztecs perceived the stability and very survival of the world in the view of their religion. The key belief was that certain gods, having sacrificed themselves to make human existence possible, demanded incessant repayment in kind. It seems that one of the reasons they could not resist Cortes was that they could not think outside the terms of a faith that they believed to account for all eventualities.
posted on Jan-24-05 at 3:31 PM
How does a man enter the realm of the monstrous? How broad or thin is the border between the normal and that realm? The Making of a Molester (NYT Mag.).
posted on Jan-23-05 at 12:28 PM
North Korea is the most secretive country in the world today, with its main railway lined with walls so high that its foreign passengers can't see the countryside.
posted on Jan-22-05 at 10:52 AM
Forty years ago, three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Mississippi by KKK members. Edgar Killen, who allegedly engineered the killings, pleads innocent.
posted on Jan-21-05 at 8:06 AM
The shift from Colin Powell to Condoleeza Rice at the State Department could have important implications for the future of American foreign policy. Some of the commonalities and differences between them are revealed in Powell's essay, and Rice's essay. (via Foreign Affairs)
posted on Jan-19-05 at 11:40 AM
Recent neuroscience research suggests that Democrats and Republicans are not nearly as far apart as they seem (NYT). Will an awareness that we are conning ourselves to feel alienated from each other help to close the political gap? Or, are we conned by science and the media?
posted on Jan-18-05 at 11:00 AM
posted on Mar-3-06 at 9:20 AM
THE SAINTLY SINNER. “Maudlin,” a derivative of Magdalene, in the English language, with the meaning of “mawkishly lachrymose.”
posted on Mar-1-06 at 11:47 PM
Mad Mullah Rave Party Sensation. via The Religious Policeman.
posted on Feb-21-06 at 8:10 PM
The sad aftermath of the Rwanda genocide.
posted on Feb-17-06 at 9:14 AM
The Origo Gallery's recent exhibition features Gyorgy Kemenyi's new works, but for a chronological context it's best to start with his earlier exhibition. The Gallery's archives provide an interesting cross section of a few Hungarian contemporary artists.
posted on Feb-12-06 at 8:53 PM
Newsfilter: PBS Station Nixes Show On Terrorism. Following last-minute cries of protest from Muslim leaders last week, a Public Broadcasting Service affiliate in Dallas canceled the premiere of a documentary on the roots of Islamic terrorism.
posted on Feb-10-06 at 10:16 AM
Study ties political leanings to hidden biases, and reveals that partisans stubbornly discount any information that challenges their preexisting beliefs.
posted on Jan-30-06 at 8:15 AM
Did the CIA give the Iranians blueprints to build a nuclear bomb? The Guardian offers an extract from New York Times reporter James Risen's new book that reveals the miscalculation that led to a spectacular CIA intelligence fiasco.
posted on Jan-23-06 at 9:40 PM
Algorithm detects politicians' spin.
posted on Jan-21-06 at 9:39 AM
Medieval Irish warlord boasts three million descendants.
posted on Jan-19-06 at 10:31 PM
The Passivator. A passive verb and adverb flagger for Mozilla-derived browsers, Safari, and Opera 7.5, with caveats.
posted on Jan-6-06 at 9:12 PM
A Natural History of Peace. Humans like to think that they are unique, but the study of other primates has called into question the exceptionalism of our species. So what does primatology have to say about war and peace? Contrary to what was believed just a few decades ago, humans are not "killer apes" destined for violent conflict, but can make their own history.
posted on Dec-22-05 at 9:06 PM
Everybody's an expert, but does expertise promote better predictions?
posted on Dec-1-05 at 12:26 PM
Winners of the Ig Nobel Prize
posted on Oct-13-05 at 5:43 PM
"If Harvard had too many Asians, it wouldn’t be Harvard, just as Harvard wouldn’t be Harvard with too many Jews or pansies or parlor pinks or shy types or short people with big ears." Malcolm Gladwell on the Ivy League business.
posted on Oct-5-05 at 2:13 PM
“The real world is simply too terrible to admit; it tells man that he is a small, trembling animal who will decay and die." “The defenses that form a person’s character support a grand illusion, and when we grasp this we can understand the full drivenness of man. He is driven away from himself, from self-knowledge, self-reflection. He is driven toward things that support the lie of his character.” Words of Ernest Becker, here summarizing Gestalt therapy and his own existential perspectives in Growing Up Rugged.
posted on Oct-4-05 at 12:52 PM
On Beauty and Being Just, by Elaine Scarry, and an interview with her in Salon. It's up to you.
posted on Sep-27-05 at 12:41 PM
A slice of contemporary reality.
posted on Sep-23-05 at 10:31 AM
THE BURDIZZO® EMASCULATONE 9 comes in a variety of handy sizes, non-slip molded plastic handle, wide opening clamp.
posted on Sep-12-05 at 10:59 PM
A War to Be Proud Of. Christopher Hitchens in the Weekly Standard.
posted on Aug-30-05 at 12:33 AM
Bad news. Richard Posner on the News Media (NYT)
posted on Jul-29-05 at 7:08 PM
Costco pays its workers 42 percent more on average than its closest rival, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club. Even though this is Newsfilter, I was amazed to find that 'Wall-Street" may pressure businesses about their labor practices, and found Costco's approach encouraging these days.
posted on Jul-21-05 at 6:10 PM
Warnings of Avian Flu pandemic.
posted on Jun-20-05 at 12:28 PM
Brain study reveals gender differences.
posted on Jun-16-05 at 11:24 AM
The whiff of trust. "The possibility of reconciliation between individuals and the potential of healing rifts between political groups, even nations have arrived. " And the possible repercussions strain the imagination.
posted on Jun-2-05 at 1:44 PM
Guerilla Girls... behaving badly? “I don’t know whether this is the kind of thing that happens with any kind of group as time passes. All I know is that people are very upset and sad.”
posted on May-30-05 at 12:00 AM
Sexuality, politics, and memory in Twentieth-Century Germany. The introductory chapter of Dagmar Herzog's brilliant, deeply researched, and beautifully written book, and an informative review by Thomas Laqueur. (via nextbook)
posted on May-27-05 at 8:32 PM
Leaving the left. "I departed with new clarity about the brilliance of liberal democracy and the value system it entails; the quest for freedom as an intrinsically human affair; and the dangers of demands for conformity and adherence to any point of view through silence, fear, or coercion." Keith Thompson
posted on May-22-05 at 6:38 PM
Chess, as a political metaphor and ideological weapon.
posted on May-20-05 at 1:53 PM
The Science of Gender Science. A debate by Pinker vs. Spelke on the research on mind, brain, and behavior that may be relevant to gender disparities in the sciences, including the studies of bias, discrimination and innate and acquired difference between the sexes. (via Edge)
posted on May-14-05 at 8:48 AM
Nobel winner GÜNTER GRASS about Germany on the anniversary of the end of WWII (NYT).
posted on May-7-05 at 4:37 PM
Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix
posted on Apr-7-05 at 10:24 AM
Anything goes. A Libyan court began hearing an appeal by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who face the death penalty for allegedly infecting 380 children with the AIDS virus, in spite of testimony from Luc Montaignier, the French doctor who first isolated the HIV virus, and Swiss and Italian colleagues, that the epidemic was due to a lack of hygiene. Tripoli has said that in exchange for the freedom of the nurses, it wants compensation equal to that paid by Libya to relatives of the victims of the Lockerbie plane bombing carried out by its secret service in 1988. (Yahoo/AFP news)
posted on Mar-30-05 at 2:23 PM
The narrative strategies of Genesis, according to EL Doctorow.
posted on Mar-28-05 at 2:38 PM
"In every existing government we find clamor, abuses of power, newspapers with triumphant, lying headlines, lies of every kind in public life. This being the case, someone like me, who understands nothing of politics, is compelled to think about politics and despair of ever understanding it, is compelled to envision something entirely different." Natalia Ginzburg, Member of the Italian Parliament, writer, and critic.
posted on Mar-24-05 at 9:44 AM
Sunset Story. High-spirited old leftists who refuse to go gently. A documentary about a pair of extraordinary women who live in a "nonprofit retirement home for free-thinking elders."
posted on Feb-25-05 at 8:11 AM
Which companies and nations are propping up the Khartoum regime? Sudan - News and Analysis by Eric Reeves
posted on Feb-23-05 at 8:54 PM
Saul Steinberg exhibition.
posted on Feb-11-05 at 12:35 PM
Making your loved one comfortable during the last days of life. You'll have your turn.
posted on Feb-9-05 at 3:19 PM
Mental Health & Behavior (NYT). The work (and controversy) among psychiatrists and forensic scientists to classify extreme, psychopatic, anti-social, "evil" behavior. The items to rate the peacetime offender includes a 20-item personality test qualifying glibness and superficial charm, grandiose self-worth, pathological lying, proneness to boredom and emotional vacuity.
posted on Feb-8-05 at 9:55 AM
Freedom's Not Just Another Word (NYT). The Sumerian "ama-ar-gi," found on tablets in the ruins of the city-state of Lagash, which flourished four millenniums ago, derived from the verb "ama-gi," which literally meant "going home to mother." The Latin libertas and Greek eleutheria both indicated a condition of independence, unlike a slave. Freedom, however, comes from the same root as friend, an Indo-European word that meant "dear" or "beloved." It meant a connection to other free people by bonds of kinship or affection, also unlike a slave. Liberty and freedom both meant "unlike a slave." But liberty meant privileges of independence; freedom referred to rights of belonging.
posted on Feb-7-05 at 9:24 AM
Jim and Tammy Faye's son, Jamie Charles Bakker, is a tattooed punk rock preacher of Revolution Church, in Atlanta.
posted on Feb-5-05 at 11:31 PM
Ayn Rand was born 100 years ago today. The essentials of her philosophy "Objectivism," as summarized by Dr. Leonard Peikoff, and a critical biography of her life and activities.
posted on Feb-2-05 at 6:44 PM
Bill Clinton to become Secretary-General of the United Nations?
posted on Feb-1-05 at 3:46 PM
The Aztecs at the Guggenheim. The hypercivilized, unimaginably savage Aztecs perceived the stability and very survival of the world in the view of their religion. The key belief was that certain gods, having sacrificed themselves to make human existence possible, demanded incessant repayment in kind. It seems that one of the reasons they could not resist Cortes was that they could not think outside the terms of a faith that they believed to account for all eventualities.
posted on Jan-24-05 at 3:31 PM
How does a man enter the realm of the monstrous? How broad or thin is the border between the normal and that realm? The Making of a Molester (NYT Mag.).
posted on Jan-23-05 at 12:28 PM
North Korea is the most secretive country in the world today, with its main railway lined with walls so high that its foreign passengers can't see the countryside.
posted on Jan-22-05 at 10:52 AM
Forty years ago, three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were murdered in Mississippi by KKK members. Edgar Killen, who allegedly engineered the killings, pleads innocent.
posted on Jan-21-05 at 8:06 AM
The shift from Colin Powell to Condoleeza Rice at the State Department could have important implications for the future of American foreign policy. Some of the commonalities and differences between them are revealed in Powell's essay, and Rice's essay. (via Foreign Affairs)
posted on Jan-19-05 at 11:40 AM
Recent neuroscience research suggests that Democrats and Republicans are not nearly as far apart as they seem (NYT). Will an awareness that we are conning ourselves to feel alienated from each other help to close the political gap? Or, are we conned by science and the media?
posted on Jan-18-05 at 11:00 AM
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