Zac O'Yeah explores the Locked Room Mystery Genre in his column this weekend. He doesn't overwhelm us with too much information, but covers the basics. Look for a recognized master of the genre, John Dickson Carr, and some unexpected choices, too. This is a nice piece.
And there's a good interview with writer Sebastian Faulks at the UK Telegraph this weekend by Elizabeth Grice. The theme of his new novel seems to be the dissolving sense of community in the social sensibility these days.
:: O'Yeah :: - - :: Grice ::
...
Saturday, August 29
Iran's Mortazavi: Toast -
:
LAT is reporting that the newly-appointed Minister of Justice, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, has discharged the notorious prosecutor Mortazavi and designated a relative moderate in his place, Abbas Jaafari Dowlatabadi from Khuzestan.
...
LAT is reporting that the newly-appointed Minister of Justice, Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani, has discharged the notorious prosecutor Mortazavi and designated a relative moderate in his place, Abbas Jaafari Dowlatabadi from Khuzestan.
...
Friday, August 28
Cartoon Characters Revolt -
Iran's Green Velvet Plot -
In a boffo blog entry by Robert Mackey . . .
he tells us about an Iranian government PSA - and it doesn't get better than this, folks. I'll bet some of my readers thought I was exaggerating about this fairytale plot. Well, it turns out that my imagination simply pales in comparison to what they've actually dreamt up:
In the PSA... computer animated versions of John McCain and George Soros are shown meeting inside the White House to plot against Iran. The evil genius they confer with is an animated version of Gene Sharp, the political scientist whose theoretical work on nonviolent protest inspired the color revolutions of Eastern Europe. Iranian hard-liners are now trying to convince the public that that is the kind of plot the government is facing.
"the kind of plot the government is facing"
What - a plot by cartoon characters???
It's a MUST READ!
:: Robert Mackey - The Lede ::
...
In a boffo blog entry by Robert Mackey . . .
he tells us about an Iranian government PSA - and it doesn't get better than this, folks. I'll bet some of my readers thought I was exaggerating about this fairytale plot. Well, it turns out that my imagination simply pales in comparison to what they've actually dreamt up:
In the PSA... computer animated versions of John McCain and George Soros are shown meeting inside the White House to plot against Iran. The evil genius they confer with is an animated version of Gene Sharp, the political scientist whose theoretical work on nonviolent protest inspired the color revolutions of Eastern Europe. Iranian hard-liners are now trying to convince the public that that is the kind of plot the government is facing.
"the kind of plot the government is facing"
What - a plot by cartoon characters???
It's a MUST READ!
:: Robert Mackey - The Lede ::
...
Rendlesham Forrest Account -
We've all been waiting for more information about what happened in the woods around the air force base toward the end of December 1980. Now Linda Moulton Howe gives us a more coherent account.
Two of the men had a close encounter with a silent black vehicle which could move through the air and seemed to be on some sort of surveillance mission. But, it turns out, that's only the beginning. The MoD has yielded a memorandum which gives a somewhat detailed description of an alleged crew. And there's a lot more.
Of course, the story is still developing and may
continue to evolve for quite some time to come.
:: LMHowe - Rendlesham ::
...
Two of the men had a close encounter with a silent black vehicle which could move through the air and seemed to be on some sort of surveillance mission. But, it turns out, that's only the beginning. The MoD has yielded a memorandum which gives a somewhat detailed description of an alleged crew. And there's a lot more.
Of course, the story is still developing and may
continue to evolve for quite some time to come.
:: LMHowe - Rendlesham ::
...
Ripping Good Yarns of the M.E. (2#) -
2009 Ramadan TV Series: Mosalsalat -
It's Couch Potato Time all over the Middle East, somewhat like Sweeps Week in the US, in which they pull out all the stops and try to outdo one another in offering their best ripping good yarns. Here's a small sample:
-- Rival belly dancers are linked to a cabal of corrupt journalists headed by a nefarious newsman in El-Ashrar (The Villains);
-- A district attorney is pushed by his friend, a renowned doctor, to commit murder in the thriller Katel Bella Agr (Killer for Free);
--Hodo’ Nesby (Relative Calm) recounts the events leading to the fall of Baghdad through the eyes of Arab and foreign journalists who faced the horrors of war on one hand and fears of kidnapping and arrest by Saddam’s regime on the other. On Dubai’s ART Network.
:: For a lot more by Sherif Awad at Egypt Today.
:: And some families this year
are even getting a second TV!
...
It's Couch Potato Time all over the Middle East, somewhat like Sweeps Week in the US, in which they pull out all the stops and try to outdo one another in offering their best ripping good yarns. Here's a small sample:
-- Rival belly dancers are linked to a cabal of corrupt journalists headed by a nefarious newsman in El-Ashrar (The Villains);
-- A district attorney is pushed by his friend, a renowned doctor, to commit murder in the thriller Katel Bella Agr (Killer for Free);
--Hodo’ Nesby (Relative Calm) recounts the events leading to the fall of Baghdad through the eyes of Arab and foreign journalists who faced the horrors of war on one hand and fears of kidnapping and arrest by Saddam’s regime on the other. On Dubai’s ART Network.
:: For a lot more by Sherif Awad at Egypt Today.
:: And some families this year
are even getting a second TV!
...
Thursday, August 27
The Green Pimpernel League (11#) -
Iran's Green Velvet Plot -
The most recent session of the court is now referred to as the fourth session because of the span across differing time zones. This session seemed to focus on the members and associates of the previous Khatami administration and seemed to target the opposition movement embodied in the Mosharekat (Participation) Party. They are sometimes referring to this session as the "Trial of the Masterminds." And they ain't kidding! [rooz]
They seek him here, they seek him there . . .
Who is Gary Sick? Yes, another day, another obscure American professor masquerading as a mild-mannered academic, but moonlighting as a scheming, swash-buckling puppet master.
:: Gary Sick :: - - [network] - - [blog] ::
Notice how the regime seems to be targeting George Soros. He was born in Hungary and is a Nazi Holocaust Survivor. This regime denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened. George Soros is a living refutation of their Big Lie. And they can't tolerate that.
There is some chatter around the Net that these show trials represent a covert coup d'etat by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, turning Iran into a de facto military dictatorship fronted by the trappings of pseudo-religiosity.
# "The government in Tehran seems
to have dropped even the pretense of
providing defendants with due process." [CPJ]
# Iran's Internet: "The eternally long download."
:: Abtahi supposedly updates his Blog.
And there are reactions to this development.
:: Maryam has translated the suspect entry.
# The "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" was
a fictional secret society of 20 English aristocrats.
...
The most recent session of the court is now referred to as the fourth session because of the span across differing time zones. This session seemed to focus on the members and associates of the previous Khatami administration and seemed to target the opposition movement embodied in the Mosharekat (Participation) Party. They are sometimes referring to this session as the "Trial of the Masterminds." And they ain't kidding! [rooz]
They seek him here, they seek him there . . .
Who is Gary Sick? Yes, another day, another obscure American professor masquerading as a mild-mannered academic, but moonlighting as a scheming, swash-buckling puppet master.
:: Gary Sick :: - - [network] - - [blog] ::
Notice how the regime seems to be targeting George Soros. He was born in Hungary and is a Nazi Holocaust Survivor. This regime denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever happened. George Soros is a living refutation of their Big Lie. And they can't tolerate that.
There is some chatter around the Net that these show trials represent a covert coup d'etat by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, turning Iran into a de facto military dictatorship fronted by the trappings of pseudo-religiosity.
# "The government in Tehran seems
to have dropped even the pretense of
providing defendants with due process." [CPJ]
# Iran's Internet: "The eternally long download."
:: Abtahi supposedly updates his Blog.
And there are reactions to this development.
:: Maryam has translated the suspect entry.
# The "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel" was
a fictional secret society of 20 English aristocrats.
...
Wednesday, August 26
Bookish: Touring (5#) -
Pack up and go somewhere
without leaving the comforts of home . . .
Armchair Travel: Liesl Schillinger tells us which books people in some other countries have been reading this summer. Russia, Germany, France, Japan, and more. A long distance peek over their shoulders.
# Red Notice: Looks like some people
may have to put their travel plans on ice:
"a red notice chills travel - limits travel - and places the government in power at risk of explaining why a person for whom a red notice is issued is able to move freely."
:: Christopher Hitchins on
Ahmad Vahidi, Saeed Mortzavi and their buddies.
# Top 10 book picks about the Berlin Wall.
# Writer Dominick Dunne has died. [obit]
# This book of short stories
has gotten some good word-of-mouth:
The Madman of Freedom Square by Hassan Blasim.
...
without leaving the comforts of home . . .
Armchair Travel: Liesl Schillinger tells us which books people in some other countries have been reading this summer. Russia, Germany, France, Japan, and more. A long distance peek over their shoulders.
# Red Notice: Looks like some people
may have to put their travel plans on ice:
"a red notice chills travel - limits travel - and places the government in power at risk of explaining why a person for whom a red notice is issued is able to move freely."
:: Christopher Hitchins on
Ahmad Vahidi, Saeed Mortzavi and their buddies.
# Top 10 book picks about the Berlin Wall.
# Writer Dominick Dunne has died. [obit]
# This book of short stories
has gotten some good word-of-mouth:
The Madman of Freedom Square by Hassan Blasim.
...
Freelancing
With a Chainsaw (3#) -
:
Sweden's Ministry of Justice has announced that it will examine complaints about an article published in the Aftonbladet tabloid newspaper which claimed IDF soldiers kill Palestinians in order to steal their organs.
The article was written by a Swedish freelance photographer who was moonlighting as a self-styled reporter, but it lacked any factual evidence to substantiate rumors he'd heard.
:: haaretz :: - - - :: swedishwire ::
:: Spiegel :: Manfred Ertel in Stockholm ::
...
Sweden's Ministry of Justice has announced that it will examine complaints about an article published in the Aftonbladet tabloid newspaper which claimed IDF soldiers kill Palestinians in order to steal their organs.
The article was written by a Swedish freelance photographer who was moonlighting as a self-styled reporter, but it lacked any factual evidence to substantiate rumors he'd heard.
:: haaretz :: - - - :: swedishwire ::
:: Spiegel :: Manfred Ertel in Stockholm ::
...
Tuesday, August 25
Media Notes (3#) -
SoFlo Scooper, Iran's Venice
Fest Entry & Boffin Journo Fix . . .
# Former investigative journalists at the two local Florida newspapers are putting together an independent news website called the Broward Bulldog.
# Green Days, a film about the post-election protests in Iran which mixes real documentary footage with fictionalized story sequences will debut at the 66th Venice Film Festival in early September. Since the movie is expected to circumvent the government's control, the regime will probably react badly.
# Should American newspapers
adopt some British-style spark and flair?
A former Chicago Tribune editor thinks so, according to Roy Greenslade. Some amusing reactions in the comment thread which follows there.
...
Fest Entry & Boffin Journo Fix . . .
# Former investigative journalists at the two local Florida newspapers are putting together an independent news website called the Broward Bulldog.
# Green Days, a film about the post-election protests in Iran which mixes real documentary footage with fictionalized story sequences will debut at the 66th Venice Film Festival in early September. Since the movie is expected to circumvent the government's control, the regime will probably react badly.
# Should American newspapers
adopt some British-style spark and flair?
A former Chicago Tribune editor thinks so, according to Roy Greenslade. Some amusing reactions in the comment thread which follows there.
...
Monday, August 24
Networking in Kabul (4#) -
Great atmospheric article by Tom Coghlan . . .
"L'Atmosphère: Frequented by spies and aid workers, diplomats and chancers of every description it has something of the atmosphere of a latterday Rick’s Bar."
# Just in time for the Afghan election, a new network has been established for crowd-sourced news and information. Called Alive in Afghanistan, it uses open-source technologies.
:: BBC :: - - [slashdot] - - #afghan09.
:: Tom Coghlan ::
...
"L'Atmosphère: Frequented by spies and aid workers, diplomats and chancers of every description it has something of the atmosphere of a latterday Rick’s Bar."
# Just in time for the Afghan election, a new network has been established for crowd-sourced news and information. Called Alive in Afghanistan, it uses open-source technologies.
:: BBC :: - - [slashdot] - - #afghan09.
:: Tom Coghlan ::
...
Sunday, August 23
Zombies of Tehran (4#) -
Iran's Green Velvet Plot -
On Friday, Haleh Esfandiari described at the WaPo how she was arrested in Iran and incarcerated in early 2007, at the age of 67, for "attempting to foment a 'velvet revolution' to overthrow the Iranian government."
She makes a couple of very good points in her Op-Ed:
The "vast conspiracy" is predicated on the fallacy of a monolith which actually consists of disparate organizations which disagree on too many issues to join together. And the protesters were calling for reform, not revolution.
But, much more to the point at hand, this much vaunted fairytale Green Velvet Plot was already on the shelf and ready to be used long before the recent election - and is independent of the election. [wapo]
# Buried Alive: Writer Ahmad Zeidabadi has been kept in a small coffin-like box during his solitary confinement and was told that everyone else had been released from prison already, leaving him all alone and forgotten. There have been other reports emerging of other prisoners being put into deeply-dug holes on prison grounds to simulate being buried alive. Whoever is responsible for this belongs in the dock at The Hague.
# Amir Taheri comments on Ayatollah Janati's Friday sermon at Tehran U, calling for the arrest of the top level leaders of the "plot."
# At the LAT a warning about that prospect:
"But reformists close to the security forces have warned that such a move would cross a "red line" that would trigger dire consequences. For now, the calls to arrest Mousavi and Karroubi appear to be attempts to silence them and their supporters, who continue to speak out."
Ramadan begins in Iran.
...
On Friday, Haleh Esfandiari described at the WaPo how she was arrested in Iran and incarcerated in early 2007, at the age of 67, for "attempting to foment a 'velvet revolution' to overthrow the Iranian government."
She makes a couple of very good points in her Op-Ed:
The "vast conspiracy" is predicated on the fallacy of a monolith which actually consists of disparate organizations which disagree on too many issues to join together. And the protesters were calling for reform, not revolution.
But, much more to the point at hand, this much vaunted fairytale Green Velvet Plot was already on the shelf and ready to be used long before the recent election - and is independent of the election. [wapo]
# Buried Alive: Writer Ahmad Zeidabadi has been kept in a small coffin-like box during his solitary confinement and was told that everyone else had been released from prison already, leaving him all alone and forgotten. There have been other reports emerging of other prisoners being put into deeply-dug holes on prison grounds to simulate being buried alive. Whoever is responsible for this belongs in the dock at The Hague.
# Amir Taheri comments on Ayatollah Janati's Friday sermon at Tehran U, calling for the arrest of the top level leaders of the "plot."
# At the LAT a warning about that prospect:
"But reformists close to the security forces have warned that such a move would cross a "red line" that would trigger dire consequences. For now, the calls to arrest Mousavi and Karroubi appear to be attempts to silence them and their supporters, who continue to speak out."
Ramadan begins in Iran.
...
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