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July's weblog Friday June 30
The Mexican dream
Commentators have called Sunday's presidential election in Mexico the most important in the country's modern history. SFGate, the website for the San Francisco Chronicle, profiles the men vying for power - unpredictable opposition leader Vicente Fox, and the man from the party machine, Francisco Labastida. From Russia with love
The Australian Financial Review has a profile of Vasili Mitrokhin, the former KGB archivist who handed over the names of thousands of Russian spies - among them so-called "granny spy" Melita Norwood - to the West. The story of how he smuggled reams of information out of Russia reads like a le Carré novel. Thursday June 29
Angry words fly in Hong Kong
Trouble at the South China Morning Post, where a letter today attacks columnist Willy Wo-Lap Lam for "absolute exaggeration and fabrication", falling "into a trap of innuendo that is not supported by events", and writing a column "full of distortions and speculation". Lam's column yesterday apparently implies that "Hong Kong's businessmen are such idiots and morons that their only way of business survival is to become running dogs of the Chinese Central Government". Who's the angry reader? None other than Kuok Hock Nien, former chairman of the Post itself. Looks like Lam's time may be up. (Registration required.)Getting round Miranda
So the US Supreme Court has reaffirmed the 1966 Miranda decision, under which anyone arrested must be warned of their right to silence and to counsel. Trouble is, writes David Kopel in the US National Review, the police are ever more adept at making people talk - and routinely use deceptive tactics to do it. Key to the crime
The chief of police on the sleepy Alaskan island of Petersburg, says APB News, has taken to fining residents for leaving keys in the ignitions of their cars. He says the action is necessary to reduce car theft, but residents say they never lose their car keys that way. Via Ribbit! Wednesday June 28
Sex for secrets
American nuclear scientists on foreign trips are at increased risk of being targeted by spies, according to a US government report. It suggests many are falling victim to the oldest trick in the book - the honey trap. From the Washington Post.What is a Greek?
In Greece, Orthodox leaders have held a second major protest against a government decision not to include religious affiliation on identity cards. The Christian Science Monitor portrays a nation caught between its desire for European integration and its Byzantine heritage. Battling BT
Everyone's been having fun with BT's claim that it owns the patent for hyperlinking. Says one American in The Register: "I and my cyberbuddies will then launch a class action suit against BT for every broken link we've ever had to deal with". Brick in the road
It's a long-standing rumour that the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon was composed to synchronise with 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Music magazine Pandomag.com puts the theory to the test, with surprising results. Via Blue Ear. Tuesday June 27
An accidental activist
Tsitsi Tiripano, a leading campaigner for gay rights in Zimbabwe, has had more than her fair share of run-ins with the Mugabe regime. Her extraordinary life is documented in feminist Ms Magazine's "uppity women" section.Absolute devotion
Followers of a young spiritual movement, banned in China for being a cult, are conducting an increasingly politicised campaign for international acceptance. The Chicago Tribune reports on the strange popularity of Falun Gong. How far we've sunk
If the sight of TV presenter Keith Chegwin naked made you sick, don't go to ibetyouwill.com, a brash US website which pays its punters to perform sordid or degrading acts. The Village Voice has a remarkably balanced report. Monday June 26
On the edge
Britain isn't the only nation that doesn't know what to do about its illegal immigrants. The Washington Post reports from the border between the US and Mexico which thousands try to cross - risking the attentions of ranchers like Roger Barnett, who in two years has handed over 3,000 of them to the official patrols.Islamic ziggurat
The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur are the tallest buildings in the world, monuments to capitalism. Using its architectural symbolism as a metaphor for wider social issues, Marc Munro argues in Al-Ahram Weekly that the design of this structure presents a positive challenge to the notion of Islamic identity. Friday June 23
Mars bars
Researchers using Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have discovered "signs of water" on the red planet. Space.com splashes out with a special report on the news, including speculation on the taste - and price - of Martian water. As one expert puts it: "Since you're getting 11 bucks a liter for water in some fancy New York restaurants, you could make a fortune with it back here."A feathery future
US satirical quarterly McSweeney's - self-described as a zine for "the junior Harper's set" - has a profile of a US scientist who has come up with new uses for the fibre found in chicken feathers, which he has patented a way to extract. He reckons it could be used as a substitute for paper, plastics... and food. Ask me, baby
An absolute gem on the Hartford Courant's online presence CTNow.com - the edited transcript of a moderated press conference held by the Britney Spears publicity machine. 'Nuff said. Yoohhoo!
Yahoo is trying to close down a steamy Thai portal which goes by the name of Yoohhoo.com. South Africa's Independent Online has the reaction of the outraged site owner. Thursday June 22
Blowing the lid
The Bilderberg group - an exclusive clique of world leaders and businessmen - has been meeting in secret every year since 1954, some say to advance the cause of global capitalism. This year's location was revealed by the right-wing Spotlight website; naturally, the anti-capitalist Squall went to Brussels to take a look.Quest for the golden mountain
The 58 illegal immigrants found dead in a Dover lorry were probably from Fujian province in China, experts have said. The South China Morning Post traces the trade in human traffic from this source and looks at the factors which drive the flow of migrants. Wednesday June 21
The forgotten problem
Turkey is anxious to demonstrate to the outside world that its human rights record is improving. So it doesn't want to see reports such as this one from Kurdistan, describing the brutal repression of those who have spoken out on the Kurdish problem - a freedom the Turkish constitution expressly denies. At web journal Blue Ear.The cyber-snoopers
The fast-tracked regulation of investigatory powers bill, which would give the government the right to scrutinise our online activities, has been described as draconian at worst, unenforceable at best. If the House of Lords can't stop it, writes "Westbrook" in ZDNet UK, you should find an ISP in Ireland and take your internet business elsewhere. Tuesday June 20
Calm down
Amid all the media hysteria about English football fans in Belgium, a dissenting voice. The Independent's John Lichfield, reporting from Charleroi, says there was no "riot"; there were fewer England fans than expected; and most of the arrests were made en masse. That said, he still gets a dig in at the majority of fans who are "aggressive, drunken, racist, foul-mouthed boors".The tree of knowledge
We are so often told that we are living in an information age that it has begun to become a cliché. But Robert Darnton, writing in the New York Review of Books, argues that its origins lie under a Parisian tree in 1750. Monday June 19
Nobody's children
Up to a million children in central and eastern Europe now rely on the state to bring them up, says Philippe Demenet in Le Monde Diplomatique. Their subsequent misery is all down to the region's transition towards a market economy, he adds.Cronje's shame
Hansiegate has rocked the cricketing world and left South Africa's once glorious sporting reputation in tatters. The full transcripts of Hansie Cronje's explosive testimony to the King Commission are now available online via South African news and info site Independent Online. Celeb sites try to make it pay
Fan sites litter the web, but until now celebrities have struggled to turn that obsession into hard cash. Asiaweek reports on a development that may soon change all that: stars in the far east have started charging fans for access. But will fans keep the faith? Friday June 16
Time ran out, boss
And now for something completely different: the San Francisco Examiner introduces Bernie, the first cockroach with a column on the internet. Though the style is halfway between E.J. Thribb and a haiku, the effect - especially this column in memory of journalists who have died in the line of fire - is strangely moving.Putin's public face
Amid the global furore over the arrest in Moscow of media mogul Vladimir Gusinsky, president Vladmir Putin has claimed that he was kept in the dark about it. The Moscow Times is incredulous. The burn rate
Now that crime news website APB News has run out of cash, Manhattan magazine The Village Voice looks at other internet publishers who are tightening their belts - not least the respected web magazine Salon.com. Via Robot Wisdom. The science of sex
We've all heard that people with symmetrical faces are perceived as being more attractive. This article from Nerve.com - an erotic magazine seeking a mainstream audience - uses digital imaging to illustrate the point, and suggests there may be valid genetic reasons behind it. A city's limits
Feed's "Street Level" report on the city life includes this panoramic view from Waterloo bridge - including Big Ben, the former County Hall and the London Eye. It loves the Eye itself, but sadly, not the view from the top. There's not much of a Waterloo sunset either... Thursday June 15
Why medicine is sick
Tony Blair has blamed many of the failings of the NHS on the "consultant is king" culture in medicine. But psychiatrist Peter Hardwick, writing in Hospital Doctor, says that doctors would have to be superhuman to meet the surreal pressures imposed on them - and many burn themselves out in a vain attempt to do so.The future of psychology
VS Ramachandran, a neurologist who is gaining worldwide respect for his work on human behaviour, believes the discovery of empathetic "mirror neurons" - which fire when you watch someone performing an activity - may help explain the great leap forward in human evolution in 40,000 BC. From Edge, a non-profit-making magazine, via Arts and Letters Daily. The shadow of a scandal
South Africa's Mail and Guardian returns to Excelsior, a small town which attracted global attention in 1971 because of a "sex ring" involving rich white men and their black maids. Despite the fact that prosecutions under apartheid "immorality" laws were dropped, none of the female accused has been employed since. Wednesday June 14
Divide and rule
South Korean president Kim Dae-jung enters his second day of talks this morning with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il. While the statist People's Korea calls reunification "the noblest revolutionary will for the Korean communists", Seoul's Korea Times is more cautious - believing the looming influence of Beijing and Moscow will perpetuate divisions between the two countries, not break them.Right charlies
Consortium News has uncovered a secret US government report which says the CIA turned a blind eye to evidence of cocaine trafficking by Nicaraguan contras in the 1980s - shedding new light on the government's own attempts to bury the issue. Sound familiar?
It's a culture of institutionalised sexism, where harassment is rife, the glass ceiling is permament and some women resort to sex to get to the top. No, it's not another series of This Life - but a feature on the struggles facing the fledgling female hacker. From ABC News. Tuesday June 13
Digital news - read all about it
Many of you might shudder at the thought, but Mike Wendland of the Poynter institute tried a brave experiment - life without a newspaper. How did he cope limiting himself to a daily dose of digital news via his Wap phone, PalmPilot and the web?A home-baked idea
The US version of Cosmopolitan has labelled them the "new housewife wannabes" - the women who want to step off the career ladder and return to nesting and preparing their husband's dinner. Suzanne Fields of the Washington Times picks up the debate. A row over death row
Republican presidential candidate George W Bush governs Texas, a state with a fearsome reputation for putting its murderous criminals to death. But the Chicago Tribune has looked into every execution under Bush - 131 in total - and has unearthed some startling new findings. Return of the big fish
For years China's brightest students headed west but, says the Far Eastern Economic Review, the brain drain could now be over. The lure is simple and is made possible by the nation's new economy: "In the States, you are just one of a million lawyers," says Alex Cai, founder of the Beilin Law Office. "But with our experience, if we come back to China, we can become part of the top 1%." Spare any change?
Briton Mark Malloch Brown heads the world's largest aid agency - the United Nations development programme - and has managed to ruffle a few feathers in his first year in the job. In a web exclusive, he talks to Newsweek about "donor fatigue" and the fact that there are only a handful of countries that donors truly "feel good about". Brat alert
Bringing up children is hard at the best of times, but when you're a millionaire it's a real headache. Are you spoiling them? When should they receive their trust fund? Problems, problems. But Forbes scoffs at the notion that children born with a silver spoon are doomed to be ne'er-do-wells and gives tips on how to bring up kids "amid opulence". Friday June 9
Britain's doublethink
As Amnesty International accuses Nato of war crimes in Yugoslavia, the House of Commons foreign affairs select committee rules that Nato's intervention was, while illegal under international law, justified on moral grounds. The Guardian's Isabel Hilton condemns such a sacrifice of principle. The reluctant ruler
Thomas Penfield Jackson, the US district judge who ruled that Microsoft should be broken up, has been accused of being biased and out to get the company. Not at all, he says in this interview with the Washington Post. Earth's double bind
For all the talk of global warming, scientists still do not have enough data to be absolutely certain that humanity is responsible, says the Christian Science Monitor, leaving governments with a way to weasel out of taking action to mitigate it. The iron lady of Bosnia
As a member of the Serbian Democratic Party she applauded the actions of Arkan, the notorious warlord, and called Bosnian Muslims "genetically deformed Serbs". Then she changed her political colours, indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic in 1996 and started cosying up to the West. Now, the lady's turning again. Weekly journal Central Europe Review profiles Biljana Plavsic. Thursday June 8
Ledward's defence
Here is the full text of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme interview in which gynaecologist Rodney Ledward, struck off after the general medical council found him guilty of botching 13 operations, describes himself as a "first-class consultant". No wonder his patients are shocked.Blood ties
For 10 days until Sunday June 4, an isolated spot on the border between Israel and Lebanon was left unguarded - and Israeli Arabs in their thousands took the opportunity to see their relatives on the Lebanese side. Ha'aretz describes the extraordinary scenes. Zimbabwe turns on its own
He has been an active member of Zanu PF since he was born. He has a framed portrait of Robert Mugabe hanging over his desk. Now, after losing a ZANU PF primary election in Harare North, he has resolved to stand as an independent - for which he has been expelled from the party and lives in fear of his life. The Zimbabwe Independent profiles Chester Mhende. Wednesday June 7
The forgotten refugees
Nine months after the East Timor crisis, refugees live side by side with Indonesian militiamen in squalid, makeshift West Timorese camps. With the deadline for their return imminent, CNN.com takes an inside look.The power of pesticides
If you still think organic food isn't worth the money, read the New Internationalist's scary special issue on the use of pesticides in agriculture. The keynote feature, "Pick your poison", includes links to features on pesticides' direct dangers to agricultural workers, their carcinogenic effects, and the benefits of more ecological farming. Sex on the menu?
Waitresses in Nepal's cabin restaurants, where tables are curtained off from each other, are putting up with institutionalised sexual harassment that often leads to prostitution, but have nowhere to turn for help. Education, Language and Development, a development resource centre, runs the story, which first appeared in the Kathmandu Post. Tuesday June 6
Taxing deadlines
Press freedom is suffering under Putin's Russia, says Moscow Times editor Matt Bivens in Brill's Content. Who's to say he's wrong? After all, would you argue with men wearing black ski masks, brandishing AK-47s and demanding $250,000 in "taxes"?London's melting pot
The National Geographic has visited London and likes what it sees. "Fifty nationalities with communities of more than 5,000 make their home in the city, and on any given day 300 languages are spoken," reports the famous magazine. But a "convivial mix"? When the shutters come down
Hollywood has come under fire for airbrushing some extra Yanks into history in the box-office smash, U-571. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, writing in Reason magazine, says that's not the only example of selective amnesia. Where are the films about communism? Monday June 5
You've got mail - again
Reporters in the US are beginning to get seriously irritated by spam - not from some college geek, but from the two men vying to become the next president. Hour by hour the email missives arrive from campaign headquarters, reports the New York Times, and the hacks are not happy.Body space
An astronaut's personal hygiene has long been the fascination of the public. Just how do they "do their thing" up there? Space.com's Yuri Karash finds out how researchers in Moscow are helping space travellers shampoo, shower and exfoliate in preparation for the occupation of the international space station. Friday June 2
How safe is ecstasy?
Like cannabis, ecstasy is a drug that splits mainstream opinion down the middle, between those who tout its therapeutic benefits and those who loudly warn of its perils. Time leads with an entertaining but remarkably balanced feature on the science behind the headlines.The missing fans
US "soccer" is still playing in front of too many empty seats, six years after the 1994 World Cup and 25 years since Pele went to ply his trade in New York. The San Francisco Examiner asks why the Yanks just won't take to the beautiful game. Thursday June 1
Portrait of a conflict
The latest addition to the Christian Science Monitor's excellent special report on the Chechen crisis is well worth a look. It profiles the aid organisations helping refugee children to use art to come to terms with their harrowing experiences, and hoping to avoid the creation of a new generation of Russian-hating rebel fighters. Liberal incivility
Ultra-conservative Brent Bozell, flagship columnist of CNSNews.com, rounds on the "liberal incivility" exhibited by a PBS News talk show host - cleverly letting a war of words eclipse the issues of gun ownership and control. Grass, the movie
Alternet, a public-interest and advocacy online magazine, recommends a new pro-cannabis documentary just released in New York. "Grass" catalogues 80 years of changing US government policies on prohibition. Sacred frenzy
If you think the ancient Olympics were a golden age of amateur sport, think again. Civilisation paints a picture of a bacchanalian, overcrowded, inadequately sanitised and insect-infested venue existing purely to perpetuate the cult of a few pampered heroes. A bit like Glastonbury then... May's weblog April's weblog Seen a must-read? Email us at weblog@guardianunlimited.co.uk
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