In Defense of News of The World and Murduch

'In the U.S., the burden of proof is on the plaintiff to demonstrate that what’s been written about him is false, whereas in the U.K. the burden of proof is on the defendant to demonstrate that what he’s written is true.'

Toby Young, writing in Salon has this to say as a sub-title

It's easy to bash the deplorable behavior of the NOTW. But a tabloid crackdown will likely serve only the powerful.

As we used to say someone always has to take the other side, and his comments on press freedom, and comparing the US to the UK are most relevant.

see Three cheers for Murdoch!

Bit slow with this one!

Pay Your Enemy, Big Time - USA and Pakistan.

Hating the United States—which funds Islamabad’s army and nuclear program to the humiliating tune of $3 billion a year—Pakistan takes its twisted, cowardly revenge by harboring the likes of the late Osama bin Laden. But the hypocrisy is mutual, and the shame should be shared.

So writes Christopher Hitchens in the July, 2010 edition of Vanity Fair 

One has to wonder, as Hitchens writes, why The USA continues to pay for mad, bad and downright evil states. In the case of Pakistan, one has to be completely amazed that the US fell for the myth of Bin Laden hiding out in the wilds of the Afghan and Pakistan border lands.

He was in Abbottabad along, and Pakistan knew from the word go.

American Prisons: Flog 'Em Instead.

Mandy van Deven, in Salon.com interviews Peter Moskos, author of the book "In Defense of Flogging".

see Could flogging solve our prison crisis?

It is important to note her interview article title, and mine, and the title book itself are deliberate provocations to raise the bar in the American prison over-population debate.

We are not actually advocating the use of flogging, even if some think it's a great idea.

One must also consider the following facts (from the interview):

• "Since the declaration of a war on drugs 40 years ago, (The United States) has amassed the largest prison population the world has ever seen."
• "The U.S. has more prisoners than China, and they have a billion more people than we do."
• "The War on Drugs...(is)...how we went from having normal levels of incarceration to seven times the normal rate."

Drive Too Much: Get Fat.

"Academics at the University of Illinois have found a striking correlation...between obesity and driving"

The more you drive the fatter you get. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Start walking guys!

see Road hogs from The Economist blog Daily Chart

Neil Young and Rolling Stone Magazine's Greatest Songs

Rolling Stone Magazine has done yest another reader poll of the greatest hits for a great musician: Neil Young.

see Readers Poll: The Best Neil Young Songs

Do I have a favorite in this?

Surprisingly, even to me, it's Needle and the Damage Done

Dominique Strass-Kahn: Vanity Fair Has a Go.

"The head of a powerful international institution is about to announce his candidacy for the French presidency. All the polls show him well ahead of the unpopular incumbent. The gilded salons of the Elysée Palace seem within his grasp—until a stunning event derails his presidential hopes and his political career: incredibly, improbably, he is accused of attempting to rape a New York hotel maid and is arrested aboard an airplane shortly before takeoff.

It could be the plot of an international thriller if it were not true. At least the above details are true..."

full article from Vanity Fair

Strauss-Kahn: Predator or Plot Victim?

No comment.

In the US Netflix is the Bandwidth Hog

from SIA Silicon Valley Business Insider

original article link | Netflix Is Eating Up More Of North America's Bandwidth Than Any Other Company 

And guys note that YouTube is bigger than BitTorrent!

Paywall vs Free: Forbes Says Free

“Even if you have a successful paywall, the revenue you get will not come close to matching what you’re going to get on the advertising side,” Forbes Media chairman and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes told paidContent:UK."

At least some publishers have got it right.

see Interview: Steve Forbes Says Pay Walls Can’t Pay The Way

from paidContent:UK

Movies: Some Real Hard Ones to Watch.

The New York Times Movies for this Cannes week has three very hard, or rather extremely violent movies in review amongst the glitter:

• Hesher - the story of ..."a violent California drifter who barges into the home of a grieving suburban family and is given the run of the house." 

see Burn This, Curse That, Wreak Your Havoc

• The hugely controversial 'A Serbian Film' directed by Srdjan Spasojevic, "(that) doesn’t just push the envelope of the extreme-cinema niche, it shreds it." 

see Torture or Porn? No Need to Choose

• And the hunting, no compromise 'City of Life and Death' about the infamous Rape of Nanking by the Japanese just before the start of World War 11. 

see A Tale of Nanjing Atrocities That Spares No Brutal Detail

And we though that extreme violent flims were an American only specialty...

The Jasmine American Revolution.

Image via Wikipedia
Joseph E. Stiglitz, writing in the May edition of Vanity Fair has the intriging article about the wealth gap in The United States of America.

"Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret."

The end of this opening extract is worth repeating:

An inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.


see Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%

The Pakistan ISO or Who Was in My Backyard.

"...claims that Pakistan’s blundering spies had no idea that the world’s most wanted terrorist had been living, probably for years, not in a remote cave on the Afghan frontier but cradled in the arms of retired and serving generals in the pleasant, hillside town."

...'are hard swallow'.

So starts this article from The Economist blog Banyan.

Someone in the Pakistan spy community knew, as I mentioned in Bin Laden or Death in Plain Sight.


The other questions for Pakistan are:

• Who was paying who to turn many blind eyes?
• And how much was those blind eyes worth, seeing as they remained blind for so many a year.

Days and nights included.

Bin Laden or Death in Plain Sight.

Image via WikipediaThe New York Times has this well written article on the hunt and execution of Bin Laden.

The best place to hide is always in full sight, and of course the someone in the Pakistan security apparatus knew all along where he was hiding. If you believe otherwise then you are just as naive as the Yanks.

see Behind the Hunt for Bin Laden

US Housing: Over 30% Down Since 2006 High

From The Economist's Daily Chart blog

Segregation: Still an American Reality.

"Decades after the end of Jim Crow, and three years after the election of America's first black president, the United States remains a profoundly segregated country."

from Salon.com

The 10 most segregated urban areas in America

Are we surprised?

To Kill a Haji - Afghan War Murders

"How U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan murdered innocent civilians and mutilated their corpses – and how their officers failed to stop them. Plus: An exclusive look at the war crime photos censored by the Pentagon"

From Rolling Stone

see The Kill Team

Newspapers: Graphs of Past and Future Collapses.

SAI Business Insider has published two graphs about a week apart:

• One called "Why The Newspaper Industry Collapsed"
• And the other called "The New York Times' Delusional Digital Pricing Scheme

It's interesting to compare the two. 

 

Wonder what similar charts will look like in a year's time?

US Air Marshals - Don't Try It

"...a passenger on a Delta flight allegedly started telling people that he was an air marshal. Sometimes, you might be able to get away with this—air marshals aren't on every flight. But Wednesday was not this impostor's lucky day. There was a real air marshal on Delta Flight 1922, and when the real air marshal got wind of the fake one's claims, he detained the man in question."

From The Economist's blog Gulliver

Don't pretend to be an air marshal

Love the photo!

AT&T, T-Mobile and Wireless Spectrum

"ATT has several good reasons to spend $39 billion to acquire T-Mobile. But the most important reason that AT&T needs more wireless spectrum -- the airwaves used to operate mobile services -- and T-Mobile has it."

From SAI Business Insider

CHART OF THE DAY: The Real Reason AT&T Is Buying T-Mobile

Online Digital Music - Pandora' Box

Image via CrunchBase"Pandora, the popular Internet radio service, filed for an initial public offering in February that would raise $100 million. Spotify, a highly lauded European service, is reportedly raising $100 million from private equity firms to help it come to the United States."


The New York Times notes that


"Since it emerged in the 1990s, digital music has been hugely popular with fans, but for online music companies and their investors it has almost never been profitable."


See


Investors Are Drawn Anew to Digital Music

Restaurant Prohibition a Paris

"Dans les années 20, époque où l'alcool était interdit aux États-Unis, quelques bars résistaient discrètement, planqués en sous-sol ou accessibles par des entrées secrètes. On y buvait des cocktails généreusement arrosés et on s'y encanaillait sans vergogne. Le restaurant Le 1er reprend les codes de la Prohibition en proposant dans sa cachette perchée un menu extravagant, où l'alcool côtoie sans pudeur les plats les plus raffinés. Et dans votre tarte, whisky ou pastis ? "

From My Little Paris

Voir Le resto de la Prohibition

Menu de la prohibition à 26€
Restaurant le 1er, 47 rue Saint-Honoré, 75 001 Paris
Code porte : 1933, premier étage
Ouvert du mardi au samedi en soirée seulement, lieu privatisable
Réservation indispensable : 01 44 76 03 38