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POPSWorld War III Cancelled So it turns out that Iran stopped developing nuclear weapons in 2003, according to the new National Intelligence Estimate. It's easy to distrust the U.S. intelligence community, which not only made mistakes on Al-Qaeda and Iraq, but also told us in 2005 that Tehran was determined to build nukes. But there's at least one thing we can all be relieved about today: Imminent open warfare between the U.S. and Iran is almost certainly off the table.
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POPSDunkin Donuts Goes Completely Insane There are certain times in history that make us look back and wonder, "how is it possible that civilized people behaved in such craven and irrational ways?" The Salem Witch trials, for instance. The present moment will likely be looked back on as another such time. Case in point: Dunkin Donuts just pulled an ad in which TV cook Rachael Ray wore a scarf that somewhat resembled a traditional Palestinian head dress -- because imbalanced bloggers accused the company of promoting terrorism. I'll skip speculating on the sheer pandering nuttiness of Dunkin's decision, to point out merely what a dumb business decision this was. It's a global company. There are 1.3 billion Muslims out there. The math is simple.
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POPSGoners We've all heard that coral reefs are in trouble, but this is one of the first major studies showing just how much trouble.
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POPSWatergy Saving water is good -- but taking shorter showers won't have much impact on overall water supply. William Pentland reports on Forbes.com on just how much water agriculture and industry use.
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POPSWhy The Silence on This Dictator?
Peter Maass writes on why we rarely hear U.S. criticism of Teodoro Obiang, the draconian ruler of Equatorial Guinea -- when we hear so much about Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe. Maass posits that it's because of U.S. oil investments in the West African nation. There's no doubt some truth to that notion. But it could also have to do with the strange ebbs and flows of the media. Britain's BBC has gone to extraordinary lengths to cover Zimbabwe, in part because it was a former British colony, which Equatorial Guinea was not. But more importantly, perhaps, is the fact that just about every news organization in the world that covers Africa on the ground has a correspondent in South Africa. Call it the Jerusalem effect: Sure, it's newsworthy. But there are more foreign correspondents per capita in Jerusalem than anywhere else in the world. So closer things get covered more, farther things not so much. And Equatorial Guinea is a long, long way away from the foreign press.
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POPSBooks About Columbine Two have been released in the last two weeks, "Columbine," and "Columbine: A True Crime Story," timed to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of the Colorado high school massacre. Janet Maslin reviews the former, with evident disdain for author Dave Cullen's self-promotional efforts. I get where she's coming from but it's hard to tell if the book is really bad or she's just appalled at his macabre media-chase.
2
POPSCertify Congo Tin? Lydia Polgreen's story on a Congolese mine is a fantastic piece of reporting that deserves to be read in its entirety. Towards the end she raises an interesting question: U.S. politicians have suggested certifying the source of minerals from Congo, in an effort to avoid funding conflicts. I'm not totally sold on such labeling programs -- diamond-certifying schemes have been another popular one. Money being money, won't military groups cut off from one resource just move on to another? Are there strong examples of commodity certification schemes that have actually stopped a conflict? If so I'd love to hear about it.
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POPSWar and the Big Melt Scott G. Borgenson argues in the most recent Foreign Affairs that arctic disputes could lead to armed conflict. Full text available online.
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POPSIndia May Sign Test Ban Treaty India's nuclear envoy has indicated that the country might sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Rediff reports -- a potential boon for U.S.-Indian relations.
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POPSTravel Writing, Courtesy of Uncle Sam I knew that Roosevelt's New Deal created government jobs for blue collar workers. But who knew that travel writers also benefited -- including the likes of Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Eudora Welty? My capitalist tendencies notwithstanding, I can't help but be charmed by writer-employment schemes. Doubly charming (to me anyway): This piece is about my former home state of Washington.
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POPSMore Galapagos Than The Galapagos Yemen's Socotra island is a Dr. Seuss land of plants and critters you won't find anywhere else. Now' it's been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Natural Site. I visited in 2004 and can confirm that it's wacky and wonderful...Iwrote about it on Forbes.com in a story about the most isolated places in the world (http://www.forbes.com/2007/05/01/escape-travel-communication-life_cx_ee_07networks_0501grid_slide_3.html?thisSpeed=15000)
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POPSNot Dead Yet Apparently people are actually starting to use the Segway. But does a couple really need three?
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POPSAmazon Titles De-Ranked Meta-Writer is compiling a list of books for which Amazon has removed sales rank figures. This means, among other things, that in the product details for the book, no "Amazon Sales Rank" appears. The company (or, it claims, a wayward algorithm) is apparently targeting gay erotica. Even literary novels by Annie Proulx and Jeanette Winterson have gotten the ax. What next? Portnoy's Complaint? Tropic of Cancer? Lolita? Or must the smut be particularly homosexual in nature? Inquiring minds want to know.
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POPSAmazon Cheats Book Authors First it was Google, which proposed a few years ago to scan every book in existence without compensating the copyright holders. (A proposal that was amended after an outcry from publishers and authors.) Now Amazon has found a new way to rip off authors, who sell audio rights to their books to supplement generally meager incomes. The Kindle II now delivers books via voice - without compensating authors. Here the head of the Author's Guild explains his position. Time for me to find another online book purveyor.
1
POPSWhat's Up With The Period? What editorial genius do you suppose came up with the idea to call the new WSJ magazine "WSJ-dot"? What's the period for? Is it supposed to be youthful? Are they trying to cater to the illiterate market? Ambiguous punctuation makes me uneasy.
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POPSLocal Currencies I first heard about local currencies when I was researching a story on modern-day utopians (www.forbes.com/utopia). They didn't seem to make much sense. So it's refreshing to see economist Tim Harford debunk the idea on Slate.
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