There’s an old saying “in humor there is truth.” Until the 18th century, British monarchs, surrounded by sycophantic entourages, retained court Jesters to tell them the truth in the garb of satire and motley costumes with donkey ears, red-flannel coxcomb and bells. Of course, the Jester also played the fool, made famous in Shakespeare’s plays, [...]
Ralph Nader: Time For Full-Time Town Jesters – OpEd
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The 1962 War: Will China Speak About It?- Analysis
By Jagannath P. Panda 50 years ago on 20 October 1962 China launched a war against India because of differences on the boundary issue. The attack by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was concurrently from both west and east. In the Western Sector, the targeted area was Chushul, and the PLA went on to capture [...]
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Gunman Kills 3 Women In Florida Beauty Salon
A gunman opened fire in a central Florida beauty salon Thursday, Oct 18, killing three women and wounding a fourth before leaving the business and killing himself at a nearby home, police said, according to The Associated Press. The gunman entered Las Dominicanas M & M Salon in Casselberry shortly after 11 am, police spokeswoman [...]
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China – India 1962 War: Who Started The Fighting? – Analysis
By R. S. Kalha As we near the 50th anniversary of the Sino-Indian conflict that broke out in October 1962, the question that has often been asked is: Who started the actual fighting? There is no doubt on the Indian side that it all began with the massive Chinese onslaught that was initiated in the [...]
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Google Surprisingly Reveals Big Drop In Profits
Internet giant Google has revealed a big drop in profits, surprising the market by releasing its third-quarter results early, apparently by mistake, BBC News reports. Third-quarter profits fell 20% on a year earlier to $2.18bn and below analysts’ expectations. Shares in Google fell 9%, with some reports saying that trading in the stock had been [...]
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Hollande To Merkel: Political Union Comes After Banking, Social Unions
(EurActiv) — French President François Hollande has put the brakes on a German-backed “political union”, saying it should only be considered after the 2014 European elections and could not happen before there is agreement on creating banking and “social” unions. In a long interview with French daily Le Monde, Hollande acknowledged that two-speed Europe had [...]
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Pakistan: Malala Yousafzai Is Just One Of Many School-Age Victims
The Pakistani government must take immediate steps to protect students, teachers, schools, and rights defenders at risk of attack, Human Rights Watch said today. Armed groups including the Taliban, al Qaeda, and their affiliates should cease attacks that target children, educational personnel, and schools. Human Rights Watch has collected reports of 96 school attacks in [...]
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Robots That Perceive The World As Humans
Perceive first, act afterwards.The architecture of most of today’s robots is underpinned by this control strategy. The eSMCs project has set itself the aim of changing the paradigm and generating more dynamic computer models in which action is not a mere consequence of perception but an integral part of the perception process. It is about [...]
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97 Percent Of Bangladesh Lawmakers Are Corrupt, Claims Report
The government said yesterday it would take legal action against parliamentarians suspected of corruption following a report alleging rampant graft, particularly among lawmakers from the ruling Awami League. A warning came from Information Minister Hasanul Haque Inu after Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) issued a report on Sunday which alleged that 97 percent of parliament members [...]
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The Need For Establishing A National Human Rights Institution In The UAE – OpEd
By Gyan Basnet and Mansoor Hassan Albalooshi Standards, norms and values of international human rights law have long been generated at a universal level but depend for their implementation upon institutions at the local level. Over the past two decades, one phenomenon has become widely celebrated as the key to making human rights matter and [...]
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Russia Blast US Over Human Rights Record
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday denounced the human rights record of the US, citing maltreatment of children, breach of privacy, police brutality, secret jails and freedom of expression issues. The ministry presented the report to the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, which will hold hearings on the human rights issue [...]
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Biz Stone, Capitalism And Twitter – OpEd
Mediocre but Ambitious – this is the management credo of the MBA. The credo got a boost with the emergence of such social technologies as Twitter. Chatter can always be a substitute for thinking – noise over substance, garrulousness over contemplative reticence. As is so often the case, creators of these technologies did not require [...]
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Watershed Moment For Religious Teaching In Egypt – OpEd
By Joseph Mayton In a noteworthy development that has been largely unreported by foreign media, Egypt’s Ministry of Education announced that a new human rights class for 11th grade students will use portions of the Bible in its curriculum and will discuss non-Muslim rights in Islam. Traditional religion courses have existed for decades, which split [...]
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Final US Presidential Debate To Be Held Monday
By Dan Robinson The third and final U.S. presidential debate takes place Monday in Boca Raton, Florida, devoted entirely to foreign policy. It remains to be seen what impact it will have on voter assessments of President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney less than three weeks before the U.S. election. In their first [...]
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New Evidence Suggests Libya Attack Not Linked To Al-Qaeda
After five weeks of investigation no evidence has been found that the attack on the US consulate in Libya was premeditated or linked to al-Qaeda, several US intelligence officials said while speaking on condition of anonymity. The intelligence officials said the Sept. 11 attack that killed US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was most likely an [...]
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Lebanon: Prime Minister Asks To Step Down
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati offered his resignation after the assassination of a top security official. He said Saturday that he remained at his post at the request of the Lebanese president and “the national interest” of the country. “I assured the president that I was not attached to the post of head of government. [...]
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Czech Bootleg Alcohol Death Toll Climbs To 29
A 60-year-old Czech man died from methanol poisoning on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 29, the CTK news agency reported. The first methanol death was reported in early September. Dozens of people have been hospitalized since then. Some of them went blind. The government introduced a two-week ban on the sales of drinks with [...]
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The Myth Of Affordable Energy – Interview With Ed Dolan
By James Stafford We were fortunate enough to speak with the well known economist Ed Dolan on various energy and economic issues. In the interview Ed talks about the following: • Why cheap energy is not vital to economic growth • Why high oil prices aren’t necessarily a bad thing • Why the U.S. Oil [...]
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Issa: Libyan Attack Probe To Focus On Obama – OpEd
With Friday’s release of State Department documents regarding diplomats at the Benghazi, Libya, consulate telling officials in Washington, D.C., about the dangers of a growing Islamist population in that city and the need for more security personnel, the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee announced his intention to investigate President Barack Obama and his minions [...]
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Damascus Street Notes: In The Grip Of War And Sanctions – OpEd
The half hour drive from the Lebanese border at Maznaa to Damascus is always pleasant with the wide, well paved and maintained highway, cutting through rolling hills often with large herds of goats and sheep lazily watching the traffic below. As this observer watched some of the herds the other day when traveling to Damascus, [...]
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