May 2007

The Archives

• homistan

  Tick Tock II

  05.30.07 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  Media rights groups have voiced growing concern over intimidation of journalists in Pakistan amid political turmoil sparked by Musharraf’s suspension of Chaudhry in March that has led to mass protests by opposition parties and lawyers.
  A U.S. diplomat, who was not authorized to speak for the record, confirmed last week that the United States plans to [...]

• wizbango! tech

  Hey Malkovich, Think Fast.

  05.29.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  I have been seriously amiss [um] in acknowledging the [somewhat disconcerting] distinction that friends & gentle readers of CM have bestowed [in service of a meme (those things are still around? {apparently})]: It makes them think.
  Mucho thanks, folks. As a meme, it has some rules. Like linking to this post and listing five bloggers who [...]

• imperial watch

  Temple Destruction

  05.28.07 | Permalink | 17 Comments

  A commercial was droning by, as I tried to watch the NBA game and tool around on the laptop. Something about Memorial Day tie-in at the local Jeep Wrangler dealer. I glanced up just in time to see a panoramic shot of Mt. Rushmore.
  It occured to me, in that moment, that I finally have [...]

• imperial watch

  Kian and Ali

  05.25.07 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  Mere speech against some injustice, against some regime of intolerance or hypocrisy, for some right, for some freedom is considered dangerous, radioactive and inimical by totaliarianian agendas. Such speech normally resulted in the state condemning and imprisoning the speaker and swiftly creating an apporpriate counter-narrative for the publics [Faiz is in prison because he is [...]

• imperial watch

  Free Haleh II

  05.23.07 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  Shaul Bakhash, Clarence Robinson Professor of History, George Mason University, Brookings Institution senior fellow and husband of U.S. Middle East analyst Haleh Esfandiari, will be online Thursday, May 24, at 12:15 p.m. ET to discuss his wife’s detainment by Iranian intelligence for “crimes against national security” and personal and worldwide reaction to the situation.
  I would [...]

• univerCity

  lolprofs!!1!!!11!!!

  05.22.07 | Permalink | 8 Comments

  Slate has a brilliant piece on the lolcat meme that’s sweeping the webternets these days (like a forest fire!). We were inspired by Gawker’s success in creating their own lol-meme, viz., lolgays, so we’ve created a new category of lolprofs using a special lolcat generating website.
  UPDATE:
  This just in. New Facebook group devoted totally [...]

• optical character recognition, persophilia, talkies

  Persepolis Hits the Red Carpet

  05.22.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Just what we’ve all been waiting for: the animated version of Persepolis is being screened at Cannes this week, and that means it should get a general release later this year. There are some great trailers on Satrapi’s MySpace page that include some pretty sweet air guitar and “Eye of the Tiger” renderings by the [...]

• optical character recognition, talkies

  Chapati Review: Four Books by Etgar Keret

  05.21.07 | Permalink | 9 Comments

  The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories (Toby Press, 2004), $12.95.
  Jetlag (Toby Press, 2006), $12.95.
  The Nimrod Flipout (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), $12.00.
  Pizzeria Kamikaze (Alternative Comics, 2006), $14.95.
  It’s one of those days when you find yourself in a new part of town with an hour to kill, and you decide you [...]

• imperial watch

  You Mean Mahound?

  05.20.07 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  I am no expert on Insurgencies. I don’t know much about Terrorism. I have very little understanding of military history. So, when I say that Richard A. Gabriel’s Muhammad: The Warrior Prophet. The Ingenious Military Mind of the First Insurgent has, on average, a mistake per sentence, I speak only as someone with some familiarity [...]

• univerCity

  Free Haleh Esfandiari

  05.19.07 | Permalink | Comment?

  Haleh Esfandiari is the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She was detained and arrested in Iran while visiting her aging mother in December and prevented from leaving the country. She was subsequently threatened, pressured, and repeatedly questioned by security authorities. Most recently, on May 8, 2007, [...]

• homistan

  Free Dr. Binayak Sen

  05.19.07 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  Dr. Binayak Sen, paediatrician and senior civil rights activist, has spent decades training and helping people in villages in Chhattisgarh - running free clinics in remote areas and helping enable communities to provide health care. He is also the national vice-president of People’s Union for Civil Liberties and a critic of the Salwa Judum - [...]

• noted

  Sell That Gin, Gunga Din

  05.18.07 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  
  

• talkies

  Aliens in America!

  05.17.07 | Permalink | 4 Comments

  Here’s the madcap comedy we’ve all been waiting for:
  The CW’s only new comedy, “Aliens in America,” is about a high school student trying to adjust to a Pakistani exchange student.
  UPDATE:
  The plot just gets better. According to this source:

  The comedy will focus on a shy nerdy kid living in a small Wisconsin town whose mother [...]

• holydays

  Mangoes

  05.15.07 | Permalink | 14 Comments

  Enough doom and gloom … mangoes are in the market people! MANGOES. Mangoes like Sarholi, DoSahri, Almas, Sindhri, Choonsa, Anwar Ratol….which must mean that summer is nearby. And guess what? Next summer, we desis stuck in pardes will be able to buy some of those fine, fine Sindhi mangoes in Chicago too.

• homistan

  Troubles

  05.15.07 | Permalink | 3 Comments

  “Karachi is smelling quite similar to early 90s.” My dear friend, who lives and works in Karachi, responded thusly to my query about his safety. For everyone’s sake, I pray not.
  I saw this ad in Daily Jang the day after the massacres. I don’t know who sponsored it - but the language makes me think [...]