Month: February 2011

by Zoe Pollock

Anthony Doerr lauds the old-fashioned book:

Look, Earth is four and a half billion years old. The rocks in your backyard are moving, if only you could stand still enough to watch. How are we supposed to measure the brief, warm, intensely complicated fingersnap of our lives against the absolutely incomprehensible vastness of the universe?

How? We stare into the fire. We turn to friends, bartenders, lovers, priests, drug-dealers, painters. And we turn to books.

All around us right now, tucked into the valleys and along the coasts, bookshops glow in the winter light. Think of them like singular, magical, and multi-dimensional recipe boxes. They wait for us to pluck out a card, to stand over the stove, to start cooking.

by Zoe Pollock

Apparently, they finally can (for three years). Jeff Kart scores an interview with Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association, on the new, national opt-out Internet site.

Fort Smith, Arkansas, 9.50 am

by Zoe Pollock

Tim Spalding shares some harsh words about e-books:

We used to own our books. With most ebooks we own them in name, but effectively we lease them. … If the Kindle had debuted with an access-based “faucet” model, it would have failed. Consumers would not have traded true ownership for a tethered, metered and monitored product. But we’ll get there soon enough, as each step away from ownership makes the next step more acceptable. Once you realize your Kindle book is not fully yours, you’ll accept it being mostly not yours.

(Hat tip: Alan Jacobs)

by Conor Friedersdorf

To kick ass.

by Zoe Pollock

Nina Bai reports on a new study that exposes the irony of apologies:

If apologies are not inherently as valuable as we believe, they are still effective in restoring social order because they trigger a highly scripted reconciliation process. Once an apology is offered, the pressure is then on "victims" to accept and move on. "Ironically, the failure to accept an apology transforms the victim into the transgressor," the authors wrote.

by Zoe Pollock

Benjamin Wallace goes inside the world of Internet porn, and the geeks who run it:

[A] middle-aged guy in a plaid shirt walks hesitantly toward us, leering at our trade-show lanyards printed with the logo bang bros. Almost shyly, he asks, “How would I get into that?”

“You mean become a performer?” Randazza asks.

The man nods.

Randazza looks at him wearily, like he gets this all the time. “Honestly,” Randazza says, “the gay side’s where all the money is. There might be 30 straight guys who can make a living at it, but if you’re willing to get fucked in the ass, I can get you five grand right now.”

The man’s smile quavers, and he backs away.

by Zoe Pollock

Jenna Krajeski interviews six Egyptians. Mohamed Diab is a filmmaker and one of five celebrities listed on the “We Are All Khaled Saeed” Facebook page:

“For the next couple of years all of our Egyptian films will be about revolution,” he said. His most recent film, “678,” was about sexual harassment, and he was amazed by the “remarkable” respect the men in the crowd demonstrated toward the women. “Risking your life makes you a better person. You don’t want to die doing something bad,” he said. “It was shocking that not a single person even flirted with a girl.”

by Zoe Pollock

Reuters reports:

Egypt's State TV is reporting that Hosni Mubarak resigns as head of ruling party.

The leadership of Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party resigned on Saturday, including Gamal Mubarak, the son of embattled President Hosni Mubarak, state television said.

Twitter user Justimage puts it in context:

 Take it easy all, he's still President. When he finally leaves that role the entire world will shake from cheers at/of Tahrir. #Egypt #jan25

UPDATE: AJE gets the expert opinions:

"It is quite significant, it means the pressures on the regime are gaining some response … but not enough," Omar Ashour, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

However, Ashour said that the move is unlikely to satisfy protesters, who have demanded that Mubarak leave office as president. He said the resignations are a "cosmetic" move, and that they were "like trying to treat a cancer with a pair of aspirin".

UPDATE II: The Lede is reporting some confusion as to whether Mubarak has really stepped down from the NDP:

The Associated Press is quoting state television saying that he has resigned, and Reuters has sent out a news alert. But an Al Jazeera reporter, Alan Fisher, reports on Twitter that the station has been unable to get official confirmation (even though the anchor has been announcing the resignation for the last hour), and the Al Jazeera scroll now only speaks of Gamal Mubarak's resignation, not his father's. It seems that the source of the information may not be state television at all, but Al Arabiya, a private pan-Arab television station.

Al Jazeera:

4:50pm General Hassan El-Rawani, the head of the army's central command, speaks to the masses in Tahrir Square urging them to leave the square, they chant back at him "We are not leaving, He [Mubarak] is leaving".

1:34pm The latest from our web producer in Tahrir Square: "Two tanks now at museum barricade with barrels facing inward. No chance they'll fire, but it's the intimidation factor. No Mubarak people."

12:27pm Our correspondent in Alexandria says the mood there is reminiscent of "some kind of hangover" today with quiet streets a day after hundreds of thousands took to the streets, calling on President Mubarak to step down.

 Some people are scratching their heads, wondering what more they need to do to make it clear to the president that they don't want him.

Ahram reports on military efforts to break up protests:

Since early this morning (Saturday) the army moved to remove the extensive barricade the protesters had erected on the northern side of the square since last Wednesday, in order to repel the attacks of "pro-Mubarak" hooligans,

No sooner had protesters detected the army's intentions than, with shouts and whistles, hundreds of their numbers, who had been spread around the enormous square, rushed to the northern edge, surrounding an army bulldozer that had started trying to remove the barricade.

EA catches us up on the day's events:

1625 GMT: It has now been confirmed that Coptic Christians will hold Sunday Mass in Tahrir Square on during the protests.

1608 GMT: A CNN journalist says that German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger has withdrawn his claim of an assassination attempt upon Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman.

Ischinger was apparently the unnamed source cited by several media organization who published the story yesterday.

1446 GMT: 500 protesters just arrived from Suez to join the thousands in Tahrir Square. Meanwhile, Sunday's protest will be called "Day of the Martyred" in rememberance of those protesters killed during the protests so far.

0730 GMT: Ahmed Mohammad Mahmoud, a reporter for Al-Taawun, died on Friday of gunshot wounds suffered in clashes on 28 January. His is the first confirmed death of a journalist in the current crisis.

Sky TV reports on an explosion on a gas pipeline in north Sinai, which is now being tied to a leak, not "sabotage" as the regional governor in the Sinai, Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, charged:

The head of the Egyptian company for natural gas, Magdy Toufik, countered that earlier claim and said in a statement that the fire broke out as a result of a "small amount of gas leaking". Egyptian state TV had also blamed "terrorists" for the explosion, which saw flames towering into the sky near the Gaza Strip.

Reuters is reporting that opposition groups can't agree on a way forward:

The proposal being promoted by a group of Egyptians calling itself the "The Council of Wise Men" involves Suleiman assuming presidential powers for an interim period pending elections.
But some opposition figures argue that would mean the next presidential election would be held under the same unfair conditions as in previous years. They want to first form a new parliament to change the constitution to pave the way for a presidential vote that is democratic.

HRW: 

Great news this morning, all our Egyptian colleagues detained on February 3 have been released. Late last night the military released Dan Williams of Human Rights Watch, two researchers from Amnesty International and two journalists, one French, the other Portuguese. This morning they freed the Egyptian lawyers and activists who were also picked up in the raid on the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.

AJE tried to get at a headcount for the protests:

7:49am There are differing reports of how many have died in the last 11 days of protests and clashes. The Egyptian health minister says 11 people have died, while the United Nations says 300 people may have been killed across the country since protests began. New agencies have counted more than 150 dead in morgues in Alexandria, Suez and Cairo.

 (Photo: an Egyptian anti-government protestor prays next to an army tank in Cairo's Tahrir square on February 5, 2011 as Egyptians gather for the 12th consecutive day calling for the end to President Hosni Mubarak's regime. By Marco Longari /AFP/Getty Images)