I’ve always loved comic books–actually, any illustrated book. It seems insane that you wouldn’t. Why wouldn’t you want words and pictures to work together, in harmony? But many people don’t. They think the pictures are a shortcut, that the words cheapen the images. Continue reading
Category Archives: News
A wtf? moment at the Whitehouse press briefing
Tony Snow, the new Whitehouse Press Secretary, got a strange question on Tuesday at the daily briefing. I am not sure who asked it (perhaps the Foil?), and I am not even sure if I understand the question. I thought it was kind of funny though. Anyone care to shed some light on this for me?
Q A question on Iran. As far as Prime Minister of Israel’s visit is concerned, here at the White House is the first meeting after so many threats from the Iranian President — Iranian President and Hamas work on one, they are both friends and — so what do you think that is possible to have peace in the region when Iran President making so many threats, even today, that nuclear weapon he is making is supposed to be used on Israel?
MR. SNOW: Well, again, we’re engaged in ongoing diplomatic efforts to try to make sure that the government of Iran not only becomes a good neighbor in the region, but also renounces any nuclear ambitions.
Q On the economy, what message you think the President has for small investors and small businesses, because 20 years ago I invested $1,000 in an Indian-American Liberty National Bank in Washington. Today the value is $180, after 20 years — $1,000. I bought it from a credit line, 21 percent. So what advice will he have today for small investors as far as the economy is concerned?
MR. SNOW: You’re asking me what advice the President should have because you put your money in a bank account 20 years ago? I think I would encourage you to contact your personal investment counselor.
Q Today, what advice the President will have for me. Should I put $1,000 elsewhere? Should I invest it?
MR. SNOW: The President does not engage in handing out personal investment advice. [Link]
Come on. This is funny people! What the hell was all that about? Is Liberty National even an Indian-American owned bank?
The taming of Diego Garcia
“outrageous, unlawful and a breach of accepted moral standards.”- Sir Sydney Kentridge QC
A British court has just issued a decision that has significant implications for both the former inhabitants of Diego Garcia and for the U.S. military:
In a decision that could have ramifications for the huge US airbase on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, a British high court ruled earlier this month that attempts by the British government to keep the former residents of the Chagos islands from returning to the islands (which include Diego Garcia), even after they had won a court ruling in 2000 to do so, were “outrageous, unlawful and a breach of accepted moral standards.”
The British government expelled the Chagossians, the original inhabitants of the islands, some 40 years ago so the US could build the airbase at Diego Garcia, but a British court ruled in 2000 that the islanders had a right to return to their home. After the decision, then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the British government would not appeal the ruling.
But under pressure from the US, London changed directions in 2004, using what was called “Royal Perogative” to overrule the original decision. Government lawyers had argued that in a territory like Diego Garcia, the Queen (and her ministers) have unlimited power and can use Royal Perogative powers in these territories, despite the fact that she lost the right to use such powers in Britain in the 17th century. [Link]
NPR’s Morning Edition also featured a story about this on Tuesday morning. Roughly 2000 people were forced to leave Diego Garcia at the hands of the British in the 1960s. Domestic animals were gassed and most inhabitants were relocated to slums in the nation of Mauritius. The expulsion by the British involved a deal that would lease the island to the U.S. who needed it as a strategic base during the Cold War (good place for long-range bombers to take off from). The trade? The U.S. gave the Brits the Polaris missile system. About 2000 U.S. military personnel now live there. Ironic when you consider the number of people forced to leave was almost exactly the same. Continue reading
Our Influentials
During the Kaava debacle last month, and whatever you made of the whole story, one of the secondary plot lines had to do with the high-end college-prep tutoring business, which has always been around but has apparently now expanded to the extent that anxious parents will fork over up to $30,000 to make sure that their offspring gets into that place that starts with an H, or maybe that other place that starts with a Y. If you recall, we learned that KaavyaÂ’s parents bought for her the services of a firm called IvyWise, and its founder, Katherine Cohen, was repeatedly quoted at the crest of the scandal defending her former client, and thereby, one infers, her own integrity and that of her firm.
Now, from New York magazine’s recent annual compilation of “The Influentials” – the two-hundred-odd most influential people in the city, in that magazine’s judgment, we learn thar the person considered the father of this whole hyper-prep industry is desi. Here is Arun Alagappan’s citation in the mag:
Arun Alagappan Founder, Advantage Testing, Inc. Like it or not, high-end, one-on-one academic tutoring is a fixture of contemporary New York, and Alagappan is the father of the business. Twenty years ago, Alagappan, a Princeton philosophy major and Harvard Law grad, left the white-shoe law firm Sullivan and Cromwell to found Advantage Testing, a boutique tutoring service for college-bound high-school kids. Today, Alagappan and 100 fellow tutors work with up to 2,000 kids each year in subjects ranging from core academics and essay writing to SAT prep. Despite law-partner rates (Alagappan charges $685 for a 50-minute hour, although staff tutors charge less), a yearÂ’s wait is not uncommon for AlagappanÂ’s services. Alagappan insists he doesnÂ’t track test scores; regardless, Advantage has inspired dozens of high-priced imitators, and, for better or worse, transformed the precollege landscape.
Alagappan has a remarkably low-key public identity: Googling produces not much more than a sampler of stories from various years in the past two decades, where the only interesting change is the rising dollar cost of an hour of his services. Advantage Testing doesnÂ’t have an active website, just a phone number. I guess they have plenty of business on the word-of-mouth circuit, and they donÂ’t really need publicity.
The other desi that New York magazine saw fit to include in its “Influentials” was labor activist Saru Jayaraman, whom Manish blogged about here a long time ago. Here’s the commendation: Continue reading
The saga continues in Lanka
Things in present day Sri Lanka have been taking a depressing turn of late:
At least 150 people have fled the village of Allaipiddy in the northern Sri Lankan peninsula of Jaffna.
It follows last weekend’s murder of 13 Tamil civilians. The navy has been accused of the killings – they deny it.
Police and international truce monitors have both launched investigations into the incident.
The killings came only two days after Tamil Tiger rebels launched a suicide assault on a naval convoy in which 18 sailors died. [Link]
To take your minds off of the grim reality of the present I feel that I must point you to animator and SM commenter Nina Paley’s website. She has just released the newest segment of the her multi-part saga, Sita Sings the Blues. It is titled “Battle of Lanka.”
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A pivotal scene from “Battle of Lanka” |
Battle of Lanka was made about a year ago, and is chapter 4 in Sita Sings the Blues, after Hanuman Finds Sita and before Trial By Fire. In this episode, Rama, Hanuman, and the monkey armies cross the sea to Lanka to conquer Ravana and the rakshasas, and rescue the captive Sita. Assisting me was Jake Friedman, the only animation apprentice I’ve ever had. Jake wanted to learn Flash and had excellent animation chops and a good eye, so he came to Brooklyn almost every day for a month. Jake animated much of the monkey-on-demon violence: monkey swinging axe, monkey throwing axe, monkey bashing demon with club, monkey kicking demon, etc. A panorama of Jake’s animation occurs at 1:28, in which I took pretty much everything he’d animated on the project and composited it into a single scene. It’s worth multiple viewings, to catch all his lovingly considered variations. Thanks Jake… [Link]
Guest Blogger: Neeraja Viswanathan
Somebody told me that this blogosphere was small
we use to live in the same city, go to the same high school
and never met before
until I’m blogging on Sepia Mutiny
and peep this Indian queen from NYC
writing on her blog
while she’s practicing street law,
said she workin’ on a post and
could my click check her out,
she said she loved my posts from near Fargo
and that Kaavya sucks,
and now she’s stepping on this stage
to take a piece of our hearts…
My deepest apologies to both our readers and to The Roots. Sometimes I forget that I’m just a blogger and nothing more.
Our newest guest blogger is a lawyer, a blogger, and a published author, BUT NOT related to the disgraced chick-lit author. She’s the real deal. It turns out that we went to the same elementary, middle, and high school at the same time but have never met. Crazy.
But what really “got me” was this entry. Sublime. Please help me welcome Neeraja.
The cell phone as an anti-militancy weapon
An article by Reuters provides us a contrasting perspective on all the phone tapping and data mining that has been causing many of us here in the U.S. heartburn of late. India, where civil liberties may not be as pressing a concern when compared to terrorism, has found tapping quite useful:
Minutes after a bomb exploded recently in Kashmir and wounded Indian soldiers, a senior member of an Islamist rebel group called local newspaper offices to claim responsibility for the blast.
A few hours later, troops smashed the door of his hideout and arrested the militant “commander” after a brief gun battle.
Indian intelligence officers credited the bust in south Kashmir to the tracking of his mobile phone.
Until a few years ago, intelligence officials resisted attempts by the federal government to lift a ban on cell phone services in the region, fearing mobile phones would aid militants in planning attacks.
Now they know better and security officials say troops have eliminated many militants by tracking their mobile phones and tapping conservations, citing the example in south Kashmir.“Such a quick strike operation was just impossible three years ago,” a senior intelligence official told Reuters.[Link]
Not only is India using wiretapping to capture terrorists and prevent terrorism, it is also disseminating cell phones in order to help win the hearts and minds of those who they may eventually end up tapping. Huh?
In 2003, New Delhi allowed mobile services, eight years after the rest of India, now the world’s fastest-growing market for cellular services.At that time, India said it was a move to win the hearts and minds of Kashmiris, weary and alienated after years of conflict in India’s only Muslim-majority state which is also claimed by neighbor Pakistan.
After three years, there are now more than 850,000 mobile phone users in a state of 10 million people. And the spin-off for anti-insurgency operations has enthused security officials.
“So far, we have arrested or eliminated dozens of them (militants) including many senior commanders through mobile-tracking,” the intelligence officer said. [Link]
Dawud Brasco
An article out today in the NYTimes describes the exploits and background of a young Muslim Bangladeshi American who is a deep-cover NYPD officer (thanks to a tipster on the NEWS tab). This is like Donnie Brasco meets 21 Jump Street meets Alias.
A young police detective testified yesterday at the Herald Square bombing plot trial that he was recruited from the Police Academy 13 months after 9/11 to work deep undercover in the Muslim community to investigate Islamic extremists.The detective, a Muslim who came to America from Bangladesh when he was 7, testified that he was a 23-year-old college graduate when he was plucked from the academy in October 2002. He took an apartment in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where, he testified, his assignment was to be a “walking camera” among Muslims there.
He said he had no regular contact with the department other than through his handler, to whom he reported by e-mail at first. During two years of living in Bay Ridge, he was involved in “numerous” investigations, he testified, and was at times shadowed by a field team to ensure his safety. [Link]
They seriously need to make this into a movie if they haven’t already started. The existence of this undercover agent came to light at the Herald Square bombing plot trial in which a U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national are accused of plotting to bomb a subway station in New York. More about the detective now:
The detective testified that he graduated from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and entered the Police Academy in July 2002. In the middle of October, roughly halfway through his academy training, he left early when he was recruited to join the Intelligence Division, where he was assigned to the Special Services Unit, which runs the undercover program.
Within three weeks, according to his testimony, he made his first appearance at the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, a mosque on Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn, next door to the Islamic bookstore where Mr. Siraj worked. He testified that he spent time there periodically. Mr. Stolar, while questioning the detective, indicated that his reports showed he had seen Mr. Siraj 72 times over the two years, mostly in the bookstore. [Link]
Wait a minute. Is this for real? I don’t recall there being a show called Law & Order: Special Services Unit.
Your Mutiny needs you now!
Dear Readers,
For those of us that started Sepia Mutiny it has always been a labor of love. As most of you probably know THIS is not what any of us do full-time (although it may often seem like it). I am writing my Ph.D. dissertation right now and only get about 6 hours of sleep a night, Anna has a new demanding job, Vinod is on almost constant travel, Sajit just got married, and Ennis, Amardeep, Sidd, and Fofatlal are very busy as well. With Manish moving on to pursue other endeavours we are asking readers for help in keeping Sepia Mutiny going. Manish was not only a prolific blogger but also the person behind the technology that created this website. We need help now that he is gone. We are reaching out to our readers to recruit a few of you to join us in our North Dakota Bunker. You don’t have to be a blogger to be a Mutineer. This is what we need ASAP:
- Somebody who is very skilled in Moveable Type and PHP. Manish was the best at this but if you think you are pretty competent then he will be able to go over our site’s infrastructure with you so that at least you can understand most of it and take over his duties of site administration. Ideally we would like not only someone who can understand most of the current code, but also someone with ideas of their own. This includes technical improvements (e.g. the latest web technology trends like Digg) that can be incorporated into this site. We are looking for someone who has good ideas and a vision for improving Sepia Mutiny. Ideally this person would be based in North America because it makes communication times easier (which is very important for this particular task).
- Our hosting costs are getting too expensive. Please remember that we don’t have any annoying ads with which to generate revenue. We pay for the site with reader donations, selling t-shirts, and Amazon affiliate fees (if you buy a book off of Amazon by following a link within a post we get a small commission). Every time you visit our site it costs money. For the techies: Right now we use ~202 GB bandwidth a month. We need to upgrade to about 400 GB a month but that would cost us ~$300 a month with our current service provider. We just can’t afford that. Is there anyone out there who is a fan/dedicated reader of SM who can host us for free or knows someone who can (a reputable and reliable provider of course)? Please contact us if you can help out. If we don’t find a solution then we will probably have to implement some sort of ads for revenue.
- It is time to upgrade our website’s design. We want a sleek, sexy, creative new look without sacrificing page load time. If you are talented web designer and would like to donate your time and skills to the Mutiny then we have a set of bunker keys for you. Email us a web portfolio.
For numbers one and three above you will be putting in a lot of time and effort for no pay. You will however be a part of something that you hopefully love. You will also be able to display your skills and put your face and business logo up on our site (in a manner similar to the RocketPost logo you see on the right-hand sidebar.)
Please use the “Contact us” link at the top of the right-hand column if you can help out with any of these three.
Lastly, please bear with us for the next month or two. We have a virtual “Sorry for the Inconvenience Caused by Renovations” sign up. Thanks again everyone for your support of SM.
Meetup May 28th in Manhattan? Maybe!
Rumor has it that the most mysterious mutineer of them all (hint: it sure as hell ain’t ME) might be in Manhattan on May 28th…so maybe we should have a mini-meetup? Maybe I should overcome my Malayalee proclivity to massacre sentences via massive amounts of alliteration.
Maybe.
I know everyone who LIVES in New York City will leave town, but that just means that this post is dedicated to those mutineers who, like me, will be visiting the area for the holiday weekend; I’ll be in Lawn Guy Land for a wedding on Friday and Saturday. I know I’m not the only one who’ll be there, if only because this wedding has 800 guests.
Anyway, I’m happy to postpone my return trip to DC on Sunday from lunch-ish to something a little later on, if there’s good reason to and I can’t think of better reasons than you.
I shouldn’t say this, but if we do meetup, there’s the possibility of a mutineer mole, i.e. someone who blogs for us but wants to just hang back at his first live SM orgy. So it’s possible that three mutineers will be in Manhattan on May 28th, though considering the moley-moley-mole (Thanks Austin Powers!), maybe it’s more like 2.5. 😉
Comment away if we should seriously consider this. Some of us have Amtrak tickets to book. 😀
P.S. That picture is from the September 11, 2005 meetup at the Indian Bread Co.
P.P.S. Yes, we will have another DC meetup shortly. Or longly. Vatewer. Continue reading