meta-roj

a reuters story with some details…

the short version: brazil is about to meet its first hurricane.

the controversy: the brazilians aren’t calling it a hurricane just yet.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan

The international community failed Rwanda and that must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret and abiding sorrow

is this catching?

a [former] government official that steps up and says i’m sorry, we failed you?

amazing. inspirational, even.

this could change everything.

winner of the 2001 rory peck award for his courageous camera work documenting atrocities in north korea. i finally saw the discovery film, children of the secret state: north korea. an incredible film, even through the sanitizing process.

I carried a small bag with a hole with a camera inside. I cannot express with words how scared I was. I felt as though the police and security agents were following me and constantly watching me. I could almost hear the beating of my own heart.

more on anh chol here and here (just to get you started).

be inspired by this man’s courage. do something.

i’m a bit late to this party, but… jeffery nolan has a lucid and detailed piece on dealing with bloggers – and the comments that follow are interesting as well (sometimes it’s good to be late to the party 🙂 ).

i have a larger motive for putting this here – it’s worth my attention (and perhaps yours) on it’s own, but i hope to come back to this in the near future from a different [political] angle.

much information on this latest copyright case is available, and worth some attention.

“It is about freeing our culture from unnecessary and harmful regulation.”

filed march 22, professor lessig has some more….

Mass rape atrocity in west Sudan [bbc]

Mr Kapila said 75 people were killed in the attack on the village of Tawila at sunrise by Arab militiamen two weeks ago.

“All houses as well as a market and a health centre were completely looted and the market burnt. Over 100 women were raped, six in front of their fathers who were later killed, ” he said.

A further 150 women and 200 children were abducted.

i wonder if there’s a “mad man” involved that we could do something about… because you know you can’t wait around to do something if you’re dealing with a “mad man.”

cnn is reporting that all marriages in benton county, oregon are off until the question of who can get married gets a solid answer.

my take has been an “equal protection under law” position, so i appreciate this approach. even if this is just political maneuvering to avoid the firestorm of lawsuits, it’s a bold statement for equality.

[via metafilter]

bringing down the democratic leaders….

not terrorists. not wars. but lies.

halogen man and veteran