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September 2006 Archives
What's wrong with academia, chapter 972
A friend sent me a recent blog post. The (lengthy) relevant portion begins this way:
In the September issue of The Atlantic Monthly, the magazine's national correspondent James Fallows suggests that it is time for the United States to declare victory since the U.S "is succeeding in its struggle against terrorism." When he wrote his article, Fallows was obviously not aware of a National Intelligence Estimate that in April 2006 pinpointed the war in Iraq as "a primary recruitment vehicle for violent Islamic extremists, motivating a new generation of potential terrorists around the world whose numbers may be increasing faster than the United States and its allies can reduce the threat..." He may have written a different piece. While President Bush and others in his administration underline the successes in the "war on terrorism," the intelligence community paints a far less rosy picture. As the Washington Post reported today, "the battlefronts intelligence analysts depict are far more impenetrable and difficult, if not impossible, to combat with the standard tools of warfare."
OK, let's clear this up. ...
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Another book worth reading: Foreign Babes in Beijing
As mentioned earlier, John Pomfret's Chinese Lessons is a powerful and well-structured new book. A weirdly appropriate complement is Rachel DeWoskin's Foreign Babes in Beijing, published last year. Genuinely funny, frivolous by design, and as far as I can tell, insightful.
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Two things to love about Duluth
I have spent a disproportionate amount of my life in three cities: my home town, Redlands, California; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and Duluth, Minnesota. "Disproportionate" in terms of these cities' esteem in the world's eyes. No one asks you why you are living in Washington DC or Tokyo -- although they probably should. But Duluth?
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Aftermath of an airplane crash
Early this week the New York Times carried the obituaries of Ivan Luini and Sergio Savarese, two Italian designers and entrepreneurs in their 40s who had been both successful and highly esteemed. I did not know either of them -- although close friends of mine were very close to Luini, and heartbroken by this news -- but I paid particular attention. The two men died in a crash of exactly the same kind of airplane I had owned and flown for the past six years.
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Al Franken show update
Driving down 101, Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, and the cell phone rings: Ready to go on the air? Whoops! Through re-scheduling I wasn't aware of, on the Al Franken show one day earlier than I expected, and from cell phone at 75mph freeway speeds -- I mean, "keeping up with the traffic" highest legal speed -- while cradling the phone with one hand and steering with the other. Link is here.
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Something good about travel
I have spent most of the last week going to a new city each day by Seat 38-B style domestic air travel. Not a way to feel better about the process of transportation! But here is a happy exception: Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner.
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Archives of Smiley and KUOW shows
Webcasts of Tavis Smiley show and KUOW "The Conversation" with Ross Reynolds are here.
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The boiled-frog myth: stop the lying now!
A twelve-hour flight from Shanghai to San Francisco has its drawbacks, but one of the plusses is the chance to catch up on a whole slew of movies. Oddly enough, it was under these circumstances that I finally saw Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. Since I found him persuasive on the big points, let me mention only a small one: the "frog in boiling water" myth that simply won't go away.
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Diane Rehm Show interview
Interview with guest host Susan Page, about Blind into Baghdad, here.
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Go Harvard! (believe it or not)
Why is Harvard's decision to abandon its early admission plan such good news for universities, students, and American higher ed in general?
It's not simply that Early Decision (or Early Action, or a variety of other names) has become such a blight on the higher-ed landscape.
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Watch out, beta testers!
The charmingly-named, and very informative, Woody's Office Watch sends out a free frequent newsletter with inside dope about Microsoft products. (Sign up page here.) The latest one contains this caution:
5. OFFICE 2007 BETA 3 IS NIGH
Sometime soon, perhaps even by the time you read this, the final public beta of Office 2007 will be released. Microsoft is calling it a 'Technical Refresh' but we'll continue to call it what it really is 'Beta 3'.
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Interview with Spokane Spokesman-Review
Interview with journalist Dan Webster, discussing "We Win" article and Iraq.
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The strange case of Muhamed al-Durah (updated)
Three and a half years ago, during the invasion of Iraq, I was not there but in Israel, reporting for this story in the Atlantic. It concerned whether al-Durah, the famous Palestinian child martyr of the Second Intifada, had in fact been killed by Israeli forces, or indeed whether he had been killed at all. (More, and update, below.)
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Here's how the Great Firewall of China works
Just to give a real-world example. (With update below.)
September 9, 2006, is the 30th anniversary of Chairman Mao's death. Just now CNN, on the TV in the other room, was beginning a report on the Legacy of Mao and so on. About twenty seconds into the report...
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Interview with Santa Barbara Independent
Interview about terrorism and Blind into Baghdad , conducted by reporter Sam Kornell.
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Another useful link: Foreign Affairs
Roundtable discussion sponsored by Foreign Affairs, on John Mueller's recent article saying that the homegrown terror threat is vastly overstated. Interesting to see how this discussion differs from the range of acceptable opinion among politicians.
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Useful link: Chatham House
Today Chatham House, nee the Royal Institute of International Affairs, released a report on "Al Qaeda Five Years On." Very much worth reading, including in conjunction with the Atlantic's own coverage on the front.
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A book worth reading: Chinese Lessons
You think you've got problems? Consider showing up as a journalist in China and recognizing that there are already so many zillions of books, articles, and analyses about the place that it's hardly worth trying to add to the pile. It is the same sense of doom I often feel when walking into a library, looking down the stacks, and thinking: Why bother?
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A candidate worth supporting: James Webb
Thirty years ago, when I was in my mid-20s, I joined Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign and eventually worked for two years in his White House, as a speechwriter. My theory was: it's good for journalists to work in politics once, so they know about it first hand -- but not more than once, so no one thinks they are angling to get back in.
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Weird alignment of the cosmos: Fox News & Berkeley Planet
I'll confess this doesn't happen very often -- actually, never before, for me. An article receives complementary mentions on the same day from Fox News and the Berkeley Daily Planet.
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China dispatch: The mystery of Mizuno
When I lived in Japan twenty years ago, one pricing practice seemed completely bizarre, until I gave in and accepted it as official policy. Like every other American visiting Japan, I discovered that everything made in Japan cost more in Japan than it did after it had traveled 10,000 miles across the ocean to go on sale in the United States. The answer as to why that should be so would take a book to explain.
In China the pricing mystery is similar -- and different.
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Blind Into Baghdad: America's War In Iraq
Free Flight: Inventing the Future of Travel
Breaking the News
Looking at the Sun
