Over at the blog Scribblings of the Metropolitician, Michael’s been ranting a lot lately, and I, for one, appreciate his thoughts on: Korean malenforcement of copyright and intellectual property laws, and, heck, any other kinds of laws when it comes to foreigners. The trade of sex trafficking and Korea: Part 1 and Part 2. Racist practices by two-bit newsmedia in Korea. Somewhere in one of those posts he linked to an excellent photoessay/podcast on the sex trade in Korea, which you should really check out. All of the above are very worthwhile links to follow. Go on, then…
Category: ASIDES
EFF on Bloggers’ Rights
If you’ve never had a look. the EFF has some good info here on bloggers’ rights. Probably doesn’t apply so easily outside America in the legal side, but the thoughts on anonymity are probably reliably workable.
Mr. Pamuk’s Unbuyable…
Nothing like winning a big prize to make all your books suddenly hard to order, huh? Congrats to the guy, though I’ve never read him. Maybe sometime I will… if his books ever become available again…
Have I mentioned my old friend Jack?
While we’re only rarely in touch, I do look forward to the next time we connect, during some visit to Canada sometime. He’s turned out to be an excellent photographer, as the link will show you — his photostream on Flickr is enough to make anyone envious. Lately, it’s trip pics, but usually, it’s all kinds of beautiful pictures from the little islands of wildlife around Toronto and wherever else he wanders. That Jack… he’s a hell of a guy. Reminds me, I should upload some photos to my stream from Charlie’s wedding. It’s just, I keep on planning to …
A reminder to all weirdoes… clean out before you move out…
So I was trying to figure out the reason behind the weird action of the drawer on the desk I inherited as part of this apartment — the same desk I’m intending on no longer using soon, because, as Lime put it, “It’s for middle schoolers…” — and I discovered a whole cache of weird detritus under the bottom drawer that had been mucking up the action of the slider. I can’t believe that in six months here (I was away for two months out of the last eight), I’ve never noticed this junk, but then, I had to slide …
Cow abductions
The truth is out there… very out there. (via Haakon from Culture List)
“The Muslim Problem”
There’s an interesting post at The Cutting Edge called The Muslim Problem. The comments section gets a bit hairy, and illustrates one reason why it’s so difficult to talk about these issues — people seem to polarize very quickly and very powerfully on it — but the original post is quite interesting. (Via Ritu, and the comments section on her site is interesting too.)
What Would Malcolm X Say If He Were Alive Now?
That thought skittered through my head as I thought of how much change has come in the way people in the West see Islam today. I went and queried Google, and what was spat out of the darkness of the Net was this recent interview with Malcolm X’s daughter. It’s pretty short, and nothing surprised me, but interesting just the same. She’s got a website, and a book out, too.
Princeton Voting Study
This is very interesting, and a bit disturbing. Especially how pathetic Diebold’s response is, in the light of the response to the response which is linked on the same page.
About That Coup…
For those looking for information about the coup in Thailand, I forgot to mention here what I was reading to keep up to date: When it first hit the news, Lynn was blogging it at a frenzied pace. These days, she’s in exams and Bangkok Pundit is the place to look for up-to-date info.