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One of China's most prominent political activists has been formally charged with inciting subversion. Liu Xiaobo is accused of spreading rumours and defaming the government, according to China's state-run Xinhua news agency. Mr Liu's arrest comes six months after he was taken into custody. He was detained just before the publication of a document that he co-authored calling for political change in China.
link: BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese activist formally charged
Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Iran's defated reformist presidential candidate, have called for protesters to gather outside parliament in Tehran in defiance of government orders for protesters to stay off the streets.
The call for the rally in the Iranian capital's main square at 1600 local time on Wednesday came after Iranian authorities reportedly deployed more security to break-up any gatherings and quell further protests.
The move will be a key test of whether the current crackdown on demonstrations by the government will keep protesters at home.
link: Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Iran protesters plan new rally
Since her death, public displays of mourning for Neda have been prohibited, the friend said.
link: Who was Neda? Slain woman an unlikely martyr - CNN.com
To the Editor:
Re “For Colleges, Small Cutbacks Are Adding Up to Big Savings” (news article, June 19):
I would like to suggest a place to look for large savings: presidents’ salaries. Although most colleges and universities are classified as nonprofits, the obscene salaries paid to their top administrators have risen to the level of those paid to bank chief executives and hedge fund managers.
Alan Mironer
Bedford, Mass., June 19, 2009
link: Letter - One Way Colleges Can Save - Cut Presidents’ Salaries - NYTimes.com
Phil Bronstein writes:
Look, Twitter can't cure cancer. But it's certainly part of the genetic makeup of a future vaccine to combat the transitional disease affecting professional journalism.
Like any chemical/medical mystery though, it needs some magical combination to unlock the door.
HuffPo's Nico Pitney, live-blogging time line with feeds from Twitter, YouTube, AP, the wires, Web sites, etc., making clear the sourcing in each case, comes close. It's not perfect, but it's more than just show-off aggregation or the kind of gawking and pointing at the new kid that's happened with Twitter in much of more traditional media.
A photo showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest speaks volumes about the new face of Iran's opposition movement.
In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. Whether these clerics voted for Ahmadinejad or one of the opposition candidates is unknown. What is important here, is the decision to march against the will of Iran's supreme leader who called the results final and declared demonstrations illegal.
link: Clerics join Iran's anti-government protests - CNN.com
Jeff Zeleny and Peter Baker write:
WASHINGTON — President Obama strongly denounced the Iranian crackdown against protesters on Tuesday, declaring the rest of the world “appalled and outraged” while dismissing what he called “patently false and absurd” accusations that the United States instigated the demonstrations.
In his sharpest and most expansive reaction to the crisis since disputed June 12 elections sent hundreds of thousands of people into the streets of Tehran, Mr. Obama for the first time used the word “condemn” to assail the “unjust actions” by the government. He mourned the killing of protesters, including a young woman whose death was captured on video shown around the world.
“It’s heartbreaking,” the president said of the images of Neda Agha-Soltan bleeding to death on the street from a gunshot wound. “And I think that anybody who sees it knows that there’s something fundamentally unjust about that.”
But he warned Tehran that its attempts to snuff out public dissent would not succeed, saying that “in 2009, no iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice.”
link: Obama Condemns Iranian Crackdown - NYTimes.com
Steven Stern writes:
The Beekeepers Ball, held Monday night at the Water Taxi Beach in the South Street Seaport, was, among other things, a lesson in coalition politics.
In attendance were New York City beekeepers, aspiring New York City beekeepers, beekeepers not from New York City, friends of beekeepers, friends of bees, people who like to dress as bees, people who like to dress their children as bees, bee-dressed children, one cross-dressing beekeeper, a couple of guys who spend much of their time dressed in armor, fans of honey, fans of local food and a team of French videographers.
Honey bees are shaping up to be the latest urban agricultural must-have, the new backyard chickens.
The wrinkle is that beekeeping is illegal in New York City. Fines, while rare, can run to $2,000
Memory is very important, the memory of each photo taken, flowing at the same speed as the event. During the work, you have to be sure that you haven't left any holes, that you've captured everything, because afterwards it will be too late.
Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.
Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.
--Henri Cartier-Bresson
The company has been caught using online search terms connected to the violent clashes to promote its Twitter feed.
Using the name @HabitatUk, they "tweeted" updates about new products on the site.
But they also added "hashtags" - keywords that help Twitter users locate posts on specific themes - such as #Iran.
That meant that people searching for information about the deadly violence and mass protests in Tehran following the country's disputed election came up with posts advertising Habitat's goods.
After all, by last year the city, a former insurgent stronghold, was considered one of the safest places in the country. Local Sunni sheiks had driven out the insurgent group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and held successful elections, and American engineers were hard at work on a showcase reconstruction project: a $100 million wastewater treatment plant meant to be a model for civilian advances in Iraq.
Then a series of troubling attacks began cropping up this year. One in particular, at the end of May, seemed to drive home the possibility that things were changing for the worse. On a heavily patrolled military road between a Marine camp and the wastewater plant, a huge buried bomb tore through an armored American convoy, killing three prominent reconstruction officials and striking directly at hopes that the way was completely clear for peacetime projects.
With the June 30 withdrawal deadline for American combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns drawing near, that attack and others like it are particularly ominous for officials who see Falluja as a test case for the rest of the country. Security here is becoming a solely Iraqi operation, and while the United States military says the number of attacks remains encouragingly low, there are signs that Falluja could again plunge into violence.
link: Rumblings in Falluja Threaten to Disrupt Script for U.S. Withdrawal - NYTimes.com
5:08 pm: (UPDATED) BREAKING The newspaper Kayhan, which is closely affiliated with the Supreme Leader has multiple articles in Thursday’s paper laying out the legal argument for Mousavi’s arrest. This is a strong indication thatthe government will attempt to arrest Mr. Mousavi soon or that they want Mousavi to believe that they will do so soon. Tabnak, [Persian] a paper closely affiliated with Mohsen Rezai, reports that Rezai has withdrawn his election fraud complaints.
link: niacINsight
Kayhan - Iranian Gov newspaper - has tonight called for the arrest of Mousavi - #Iranelection RT RT RT
link: persiankiwi (persiankiwi) on Twitter
In photography, the smallest thing can become a big subject, an insignificant human detail can become a leitmotiv. We see and we make seen as a witness to the world around us; the event, in its natural activity, generates an organic rhythm of forms.
Henri Cartier-Bresson - "American Photo", September/October 1997, page: 76
One mathematician argues that if four dinosaurs stand together in a prehistoric clearing, they number four even though no people are there to count them. In other words, numbers exist independent of human beings. But consider the counterexample (suggested by British mathematician Sir Michael Atiyah) that starts with the imaginary idea that intelligence resides not in people but in a "vast solitary and isolated jellyfish, buried deep in the depths of the Pacific Ocean" with "no experience of individual objects, only with the surrounding water." In this thought experiment, argues Atiyah, "there would be nothing to count." It follows from this second example that numbers -- and all math -- arise from the way that humans perceive the world.
Who's right? That's [Mario] Livio's focus here. The question is mainly philosophical, but this book is mainly historical. That is, Livio traces the question of discovery versus invention by surveying the most fundamental and influential efforts in the Western tradition to understand the world mathematically. Is God a Mathematician? is a work of intellectual history -- the history of philosophy, logic, and especially math.
link: Book Review: Is God a Mathematician?, Mario Livio - B&N Review
What do you get when you suspend nanoparticles of iron compounds in a colloidal solution of water, oil and a surfactant? Did you guess Zima? The real answer is ferrofluids, though you should be proud if you just knew what "surfactant" was. A ferrofluid is a liquid that reacts to magnetic fields in trippy ways that make you think that science is both magical and potentially evil. They have multiple real world applications, many which are pretty badass.
link: 7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics | Cracked.com
Barbara Crossette writes:
The pervasive presence of women in street protests, and the influential political role played by Zahra Rahnavard, a political scientist and the wife of Mir Hossein Moussavi, the leading opposition candidate, have been cast into even sharper focus by the death of Agha-Soltan, though she appears to have been a mere observer to the upheaval.
In suburban Washington, Mahnaz Afkhami notices the strong presence of women and is not surprised. In no small sense, these women are the heirs of Iran's first feminist generation of the 1960s and 1970s, in which she was a leader. It was an era when Iranian women got the right to vote, were admitted to universities and professional schools and enjoyed the most liberal system of family law in the region. It was also the era of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, a reviled figure who died in wandering exile in 1980 after being overthrown by the Islamic Revolution now under assault.
"Once there is a level of consciousness in the civic body, civic organizations and people, you can push back some of it, but you can't take the consciousness away from people," Afkhami said in a conversation on Monday, recalling the active role of women in public life three decades ago. "Women had gained a little of organizing skills and a little of consciousness that just wouldn't get pushed back."
Afkhami was Iran's first minister of women's affairs, but because she was appointed by the Shah, her pleas to Western feminists to stand by the women of Iran after the Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in 1979 were largely rejected. She had been permanently tarred by the blanket condemnation of the Pahlavi era, a situation that still incenses her. It hit close to home. Among those who had climbed on the Khomeini bandwagon were leftist progressives, including her sister and brother-in-law, Marxists who joined the Islamic Revolution in the hope of a role in post-Shah Iran. Her brother-in-law was killed by the Khomeini regime.
"How could you possibly not pay attention to the kind of movement that had been going on, close your eyes to it, and then look to Ayatollah Khomeini for guidance for women, or to his government, or theocracy?" she said of the wide range of Western progressives who applauded the overthrow of the Shah at any cost. "How could you as intelligent political entities think that would be the salvation for Iranian women"
link: Icons of the New Iran
(CNN) -- A young Iranian woman named Neda is gunned down in one of the most iconic images of the last week. Another walks down the street, defiantly showing off her hair and body in a revealing dress. And still another woman says she's not scared of paramilitary forces -- no matter how many times she gets beaten.
"When they want to hit me, I say hit. I have been hit so many times and this time it doesn't matter. I just want to help my brothers and sisters," says the 19-year-old woman whose identity is being withheld by CNN for her safety.
Amid the clashes and chaos, there has been a recurring scene on the streets of Tehran: Women, in their scarves and traditional clothing, at the heart of the struggle. Some are seen collecting rocks for ammunition against security forces, while video showed one woman trying to protect a fallen pro-government militiaman wounded in the government crackdown. At Shiraz University, riot police clubbed women dressed in black robes. "Don't beat them, you bastards," one man yells.
When security forces come to attack, the 19-year-old woman protester says she looks them in the eye and asks: "Why do you kill your brother? Why do you hit your mother, your sisters?"
link: Iranian women stand up in defiance, flout rules - CNN.com
Knotts also seemed to have concerns about the Appalachian story. He pointed out that Sanford took a vehicle from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division with him, and said that it's almost certain the vehicle would be armed. So if Sanford was hiking, did he leave the vehicle untended? "Was it sitting there in the parking lot with weapons in it?" Knotts asked. "I'm sure he didn't unload the vehicle."
In addition, it was reported yesterday that Sanford's cell phone location had been late last week traced to Atlanta, which would not seem to be on any logical route from Columbia, South Carolina to the Appalachian Trail.
Wherever Sanford is, Knotts said that, rather than leaving authority in the hands of his unelected staff, the governor should have delegated power to the state's lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer. "We got ports down here, we got hurricane season started up, we got prisons that could have riots," he said. "We got all sorts of situations that could need a governor."
link: SC Lawmaker: Sanford "Not A Person That Would Be Happy With Security" | TPMMuckraker
There is an engaged, relatively mainstream population that is thinking seriously about what Iran’s experience says about China. Several bloggers, for instance, are using the unrest in Iran as a way to benchmark China’s movement toward democracy. Wu Jiaxiang, an intellectual and former researcher in the General Office of the Communist Party Central Committee wrote the other day:
For over ten years, Iran’s presidential elections have had turnout exceeding seventy percent, so much so that the closing hours had to be delayed until midnight. What does that show? It means that indifference towards democracy comes from the lack of democracy. There is no excuse for non-democracy.
Mao Anlin, another blogger, goes one step further:
Even Iran, such a religious country, has had so many years of elections. Candidates can squabble, the results can be questioned, the legislature can talk, and Khamenei can keep right on working. We [in China] insist on appointing every single candidate in advance, even for the chief of Macau. This is more than a little lagging behind Iran.
link: China on Iran (Not the Party Line): Letter from China: Online Only: The New Yorker
everywhere is road blocks and fires and sometime u hear guns shooting - #Iranelection 1 minute ago from web
It is just like living under martial law - u cannot go anywhere without being stoped or beaten by militia - #Iranelection 2 minutes ago from web
the city is full of Baseej and Revolutionary Guards and plain closthes militia carrying baton and tear gas - #Iranelection 3 minutes ago from web
We have just returned and outside the city sky is full of the sounds of 'Allah Akbar' from ppls on balconys - #Iranelection 4 minutes ago from web
link: persiankiwi (persiankiwi) on Twitter
Kimberly Vlaeminck, 18, made headlines when she claimed last week to have woken up from a tattoo session with 56 stars on her face. She said she had asked for just three small ones. Turns out though, Vlaeminck was lying. From the Sydney Morning Herald: "I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and that the tattooist had made a mistake," Ms Vlaeminck told Dutch TV.
link: Girl who claimed her face was tattooed while sleeping comes clean - Boing Boing
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in to his second term before the end of August after Iran's Guardian Council today ruled out the possibility of nullifying a disputed election, saying it could find no evidence of any "major" irregularities, according to the state-owned English-language Press TV satellite news channel.
link: Time frame set for Ahmadinejad's inaugural - Los Angeles Times
OBAMA: Since we’re on Iran, I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.
OBAMA: Nico, I know that you and all across the Internet, we’ve been seeing a lot of reports coming directly out of Iran. I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?
QUESTION: Yes, I did, but I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian. We solicited questions on tonight from people who are still courageous enough to be communicating online. And one of them wanted to ask you this: Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn’t that a betrayal of — of what the demonstrators there are working to achieve?
OBAMA: Well, look, we didn’t have international observers on the ground. We can’t say definitively what exactly happened at polling places throughout the country.
What we know is that a sizable percentage of the Iranian people themselves, spanning Iranian society, consider this election illegitimate. It’s not an isolated instance, a little grumbling here or there. There are significant questions about the legitimacy of the election.
And so, ultimately, the most important thing for the Iranian government to consider is legitimacy in the eyes of its own people, not in the eyes of the United States.
And that’s why I’ve been very clear, ultimately, this is up to the Iranian people to decide who their leadership is going to be and the structure of their government.
What we can do is to say, unequivocally, that there are sets of international norms and principles about violence, about dealing with the peaceful dissent, that — that spans cultures, spans borders.
And what we’ve been seeing over the Internet and what we’ve been seeing in news reports violates those norms and violates those principles.
I think it is not too late for the Iranian government to recognize that — that there is a peaceful path that will lead to stability and legitimacy and prosperity for the Iranian people. We hope they take it.
Andrew Miller, a journalist at The Economist who witnessed the colour revolutions in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan has come up with a useful “checklist” of some of the factors that can help a revolution to succeed .
● “Critical mass”: small demonstrations of 5,000 people can be ignored or suppressed. But half a million people in the streets is another matter.
● Weak or divided security services.
● Some independent media.
● Money.
● Serious corruption, which Mr Miller argues is “generally the main mass motivator”.
● Opposition leaders who have served a stint in government.
● A history of rebellion from which lessons can be learnt.
● Strong support in the capital city.
● A rigged election that provides a spark for the revolt.
● A divided ruling elite.
● A sense of revolutionary momentum from events overseas; Europe in 1989 and 1848 show that revolution can be catching.
● External help.
● The use of violence by the authorities, which can either make or break a revolution.Every element on these two lists is now present to some degree in Iran – with the possible exceptions of division within the security forces and significant external assistance
link: FT.com / Columnists / Gideon Rachman - Check-list for an Iranian revolution
Keith Goetzman writes:
While many archaeologists dig for clues to antiquity, a California state archaeologist has collected and catalogued the remains of a much more recent but equally curious civilization: a 1960s hippie commune. E. Breck Parkman is in charge of a collection from the wreckage of the Olompali commune in northern California that includes “melted sneakers, scorched fabric, broken plates, a tube of 40-year-old face cream [and] red Monopoly hotels,” Archaeology magazine reports in its July-August issue. Which doesn’t sound as exciting as, say, purple velvet bell bottoms, lava lamps, and skull bongs, but hey, they’re still sorting through it all. . . .
Despite the hedonistic nature of their subject, Parkman and his helpers have done their archaeologists’ work diligently and soberly, packing up the remnants of the whole long, strange trip into office boxes. Among the keepers: about 30 pieces of butchered cow and pig bones that might be from the mansion’s final communal feast.
"Just because Mousavi is called a moderate or a reformist doesn't mean he's a nice guy. After all he was approved by the Islamic leadership," says Ephraim Inbar, director of the Begin Sadat Center at Bar Ilan University. "If we have Ahmadinejad, we know where we stand. If we have Mousavi we have a serpent with a nice image."
On Sunday, Israeli President Shimon Peres waded into the debate, encouraging Iranian protestors and "courageous" women who he said were trying to "reclaim" their culture. He added that it's more important to have regime change in Iran than an end to the country's controversial nuclear program.
"You never know what will disappear in Iran first – their enriched uranium or their poor government," said Mr. Peres. "I hope their poor government will disappear first."
link: Why Iran's Ahmadinejad is preferred in Israel - ABC News
“Instead of the Guardian Council, the Interior Ministry responded to Mousavi’s letter about the election violations.”
“The Interior Ministry’s response to Mousavi: You should have refrained from participating in the elections by announcing the elections annulled to begin with.”
link: niacINsight
Iran has accused United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon of "meddling", after he called on Iran to respect the "will of its people" over a contested election.
Mr Ban had said he was "dismayed" over the threat and use of violence against civilians during street protests.
Iranian foreign minister Hassan Ghashghavi criticised the UN chief for listening to "domineering" powers with a record of colonisation.
link: BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran accuses UN chief of meddling
It is regrettable that the highest authority in Iran chooses to ignore the peaceful demands of the people
The Gov has chosen to respond with oppression and violence
The actions of this Gov insults all free peoples of the world
Para 27 of Constitution allows unarmed public gatherings without permit if they do not insult Islam
the right of the nation to challenge this unfair & corrupt election is the right of all Muslims
In Iran the minority are ruling the majority with violence and oppression
I invite the nation to participate on Thurs in remembrance of those killed by this Gov
I demand release of all political prisoners immediately
I demand gov provide medical treatment for those injured
I demand that the bodies of the martyrs be released to the families for burial immediately
I demand an immediate end to censorship by gov
link: Latest Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com
Maryam Zolfeghar - journalist IRNA - arrested today - #Iranelection 1 minute ago from web
Mousavi - http://bit.ly/fmvIZ - #Iranelection RT RT RT 10 minutes ago from web
Mousavi - no matter what the reaction of the Gov - the Bazaar will close or be at standstill - #Iranelection RT RT RT 19 minutes ago from web
Mousavi - There is nothing to fear - if asked - YOU ARE ONLY GOING SHOPPING - #Iranelection RT RT RT 21 minutes ago from web
Mousavi - the objective is to bring Tehran to standstill - millions of people go shopping but NOBODY SHOPPING - #Iranelection RT RT RT 22 minutes ago from web
Mousavi - do NOT wear green - dress normally - bring your children - if stopped u are ONLY going shopping - #Iranelection RT RT RT 23 minutes ago from web
Mousavi - stop all work and travel with friends & family toward Tehran Bazaar every day at 9am - #Iranelection breaking news 24 minutes ago from web
Mousavi - From Today every morning at 9am WE ALL travel to Tehran Bazaar - whatever reaction from Gov - Bazaar will close #Iranelection RT 25 minutes ago from web
Mousavi - We will not expend any more energy talking to the Gov in the streets - we must change course #Iranelection breaking news RT RT RT 26 minutes ago from web
reports that Bazaars throughout main Iranian cities were mostly closed today for unofficial strike - #Iranelection
link: persiankiwi (persiankiwi) on Twitter
Iran’s Press TV reports that the country’s Interior Minister, Sadeq Mahsouli, has been “summoned” to the country’s Parliament to answer questions about his reaction to the post-election protests. Press TV adds that the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, Ali Larijani, has reportedly called for state television to allow “the voice of the people who have taken to the streets in millions” to be heard.
link: Latest Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com
Upon learning of his son’s death [evidently collateral damage of the Tehran rioting], the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a “bullet fee”—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said. Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn’t amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour’s body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.
link: Latest Updates on Iran’s Disputed Election - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com
Roger Cohen writes:
During one of the violent clashes here in recent days, I saw a member of the riot police confront a protester holding a cell phone. “Don’t take a photograph of me!” he yelled at the young man.
“Why?” the man shouted back. “You’re not naked.”
But the Islamic Republic is. Everyone knows where everyone stands; it isn’t pretty. All the fudge that allowed a modern society to coexist with a theocracy inspired by an imam occulted in the 9th century has been swept away, leaving two Irans at war.
link: GLOBALIST - The End of the Beginning - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
Although outsiders may be cheering on the idea of people power, there is no sign yet that any part of the military will switch sides, analysts said, and the government retains plenty of reserve forces to quell protests.
“What matters is what happens around the commander table within the Revolutionary Guards, and we are not privy to that,” noted one United States-based scholar, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he researches in Iran. “We are not seeing any dissension, nothing in their press, nothing in their statements — and they have not publicly gone to visit Moussavi,” he said, referring to the opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi.
link: Layers of Armed Forces Wielding Power of Law - NYTimes.com
Yvonne Wingett and Craig Harris report:
Disputes among Maricopa County officials over the past 11 months have cost taxpayers $1.1 million in fees, according to an analysis released Monday by the Office of Management and Budget.
The fees include billings to date for six legal actions, cases in which Sheriff Joe Arpaio, County Attorney Andrew Thomas, County Treasurer Charles Hoskins and the Board of Supervisors have fought each other in court. The money includes costs associated with a grand-jury proceeding focused on the $340 million court-tower project.
Like all government in the current economy, the county's budget is tight. On Monday, the supervisors adopted a $2.1 billion budget for fiscal 2010, reflecting a $122 million reduction from 2009. Administrators expect that 200 employees will lose their jobs during the early part of the fiscal year. According to County Manager David Smith, that $1.1 million in legal fees could fund 20 low-level county jobs.
link: County feud costs taxpayers $1.1 million
Ryan Randazzo reports:
At least two survival-related groups have formed in Phoenix since December, and groups with varying outlooks and politics have sprouted nationally from Kentucky to New York.
Of course, it's not unheard of for mainstream groups to prepare for emergencies. The Mormon Church, which reports 13.5 million members worldwide, has long counseled self-sufficiency and encourages families to keep a prudent supply of food on hand.
Disasters such as hurricanes and 9/11, and even perceived troubles like the Y2K bug, always increase interest in survivalism. The men behind the counters at U.S. Surplus Corp. in Phoenix see a crush of new customers every time tragedy strikes.
The newbies stand out from the military personnel and outdoor enthusiasts who stop in for rugged clothing, rations or canteens.
"They are the ones trying to fix up a cave to live in," store manager Gary Pickering said. "They are asking a lot of questions and buying things they normally wouldn't, like water-purification tablets."
link: Survivalism grows popular in Valley
Who says print is dead? Koji Suzuki, the Tokyo-based author of smash-hit horror novels like the “The Ring,” has found a new publishing medium: toilet paper. Suzuki has teamed with Hayashi Paper Company, which makes novelty printed paper products for public restrooms, to manufacture rolls of toilet tissue stamped with a nine-chapter horror novella called “Drop.”
link: Novel Idea | Bathroom Reading - The Moment Blog - NYTimes.com
