A single photograph taken in 1913 of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacké—the Santé Serigne Touba, founder of the Sufi sect known as the Mouride (Murid) Way, followed by millions in Senegal and elsewhere—when he was put under house arrest by the French, has provided remarkable consistency to the sect's iconography. Images of the cheikh:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9, and
more. Story on an
art exhibit and the
web site of the exhibit, including more images of the cheikh. History of Bamba's life
in French and
in English. More on
Muridism.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Sep 6, 2003 -
4 comments
Another great French prison escape. Two members of an international drug smuggling ring hijack a helicopter, abseil into the prison exercise yard, and resuce a third man. Also, “last month, a commando-style gang used plastic explosives and a rocket launcher to blow its way into a prison near Paris and free a convict serving a sentence for organized crime. In a separate attack, men brandishing what turned out to be a fake rocket launcher freed another crime kingpin from a prison in Borgo on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.” In August,
a man secretly replaced his brother, a Basque separatist leader, in prison.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Apr 14, 2003 -
7 comments
Rekha Malhotra is a New Yorker of South Indian heritage who can be given credit for popularizing Bhangra and promoting the UK Punjabi dub and beat sounds in NYC. She says this about an event she hosts regularly: "Basement Bhangra is very urban. It's Bhangra with a hip-hop sensibility. It's raw and percussive, unadulterated. It's got a lot of meat to it and demands that you dance. It's not head-nodding music—it's body-moving music."
More.
More.
More.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Apr 14, 2002 -
10 comments
So you read the "Madman and the Professor" and thought it interesting.
Edward Ruloff is another murdering philologist with the extra cachet that his 1871 trial for killing a dry-goods clerk was one of the first to test the
admissability of photographs as evidence. The Supreme Court agreed with lower rulings that they could be allowed; Ruloff was
hanged. In 1845, he had been accused of murdering his wife and child and was imprisoned for ten years for the abduction of his wife, but without a
corpus delecti, he could not be convicted for the murder of his child.
This man is writing a biography of Ruloff; a publisher could do a lot worse.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Sep 26, 2001 -
3 comments
Why the New York Post is a crappy newspaper: A 672-word story about a 15-year-old television actor getting busted for a $40 theft merits this byline: "By LARRY CELONA, MARIA MALAVE, ED ROBINSON, CLEMENTE LISI, HALLIE LEVINE, ADAM MILLER, LEONARD GREENE, IKIMULISA SOCKWELL-MASON, LINDA STASI, ALISA CONABOY, BILL HOFFMANN and CATHY BURKE." The
Post's priorities are clear.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Jul 5, 2001 -
28 comments
Foreign Media Reaction. A regular report from the Office of Research of the US State Department which summarizes opinions, official and journalistic, on hot-button issues in newspapers around the world. Currently covers the Sino-American dogfight. Incredibly thorough. A good one to set up under an Internet Explorer subscription.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Apr 5, 2001 -
2 comments
Published a year ago, the Village Voice series "AIDS: The Agony of Africa" is an incredible, award-winning, multi-part series. Superb reporting, tight writing, wrenching emotions, factual gold mine, this series is a model for good journalism--and a klaxon-call warning about the wretched state of a continent.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Dec 1, 2000 -
1 comment
Flutterby wonders what the difference is between those who have faith in media and those who see them as "an unending stream of barely edited press-releases."
posted by Mo Nickels
on Oct 6, 2000 -
5 comments
Damien Barrett launches a new
column on Macworld with a novel Holmesian (not Oliver Wendell, but Sherlock) approach. Give the man some feedback in the comments section at the bottom of the column. He also redesigned his web site. Damien's cool.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Oct 4, 2000 -
0 comments
Old entry, but I like it. "The stores lining the waterfront streets sell what I can only describe as pre-processed trash. This is stuff which possesses an intrinsic value so low that you could legitimately buy it from the store, walk out on the sidewalk and drop it into a trash can. I stopped counting yesterday, when I passed 14 stores which sold some merchandise, which I could view from the sidewalk, that was identical to the merchandise to the store next to it. Fourteen stores in a row, selling the exact same sorry-assed shot glasses with the Golden Gate Bridge painted on it."
posted by Mo Nickels
on Sep 23, 2000 -
0 comments
Cassie and Jason have engaged me better than any soap opera, movie, journal, weblog, anything. Cassie's reports about her husband's near-fatal car accident and his creeping recovery are, well, moving. She writes with clarity and simplicity and selflessness. Her letters make my eyes tear, then I grin and can't hold it back. I flinch, wince, sigh, laugh. The hair on my neck bristles. I want to squeeze that lovely woman and carry that man around like a king.
posted by Mo Nickels
on Apr 27, 2000 -
3 comments
