February 08, 2011
January 31, 2011
As Chaos Rocks Cairo
A good friend of mine at Fuller is from Egypt and was recently interviewed about the current situation in his homeland. He has been glued to the internet for the last 3 days, watching al-arabiya live...he offers some intersting insights that we I am not hearing on mainstream news channels in the US.
Ayman Ibrahim, whose home is in northern Egypt, is a doctoral student living at this time in the United States. He agreed to be interviewed regarding the groundbreaking events now occurring in his homeland.
Q: First, Ayman, you are a long way from home and family at this momentous and turbulent time in your nation's history. Have you personally been able to contact your family in Egypt? Are they safe?
A: Yes, I was able to call, but to landlines only. They are safe so far. Yet there is some news that as chaos rocks Cairo many gangs have started to go to different areas stealing property and threatening people in their homes.
Q: News reports indicate that the protests coursing through the major cities began with the young people in the middle classes, as they did recently in Tunisia, but that they have since spread to include all age groups and classes. What are the factors that drove young, educated people into the streets in the first place? And, what do the young hope to accomplish?
For the rest of the interview, go to As Chaos Rocks Cairo.
January 23, 2011
haiti one year later
So I came across this picture from BBC's Pics of the Week and it got me thinking about how Haiti totally dropped out of the news. Then today I came across MCC's Magazine Common Place and the Winter issue is titled: Haiti earthquake: a year later. It's a great piece on the work that is being done and the work that is left to do.
January 21, 2011
world GDP v US states
This has got to be one of the cooler maps I have seen.
Which countries match the GDP and population of America's states?
IT HAS long been true that California on its own would rank as one of the biggest economies of the world. These days, it would rank eighth, falling between Italy and Brazil on a nominal exchange-rate basis. But how do other American states compare with other countries? Taking the nearest equivalent country from 2009 data reveals some surprises. Who would have thought that, despite years of auto-industry hardship, the economy of Michigan is still the same size as Taiwan's?
