Danny's Pathologically Polymathic: December 2008

hundreds killed, thousands injured by Gaza bombing - Guardian - Boycott Committee

I have written to my local member of parliament requesting that Australia break off diplomatic relations with Israel and impose a trade embargo

CEO of US refiner calls for petrol tax hike - CNN

suggesting a slow rise to $2/gallon

Elsevier publishes a crackpot mathematics journal - UTexas [via /.]

in which the chief editor has published 300 papers of his own!

UK bailiffs can now use force to collect debts - Times

further erosion of civil liberties in Britain

New York is taxing soft drinks - Economist

Lords and Lemurs:
Mad Scientists, Kings with Spears, and the Survival of Diversity in Madagascar [review]

tensions with India increase army influence in Pakistan - FL

1000 years of The Tale of Genji - Economist

update on baby-swinging video case - SMH - ABC

Australian laws criminalising possession of child abuse materials go way too far

how the Madoff fallout hits one family - Mwatch

Israel tightens its grip on the Gaza Ghetto - EI

1.5 million people are without fuel or medicine and slowly starving

selling the family farm - HCN [via Kos]

some common tourist scams - RickSteves [via Schneier]

shoe stories from Iraq, five years apart - Informed

an upbeat view of Icelanders' ability to recover - Times

it's one of the few countries in the world that's cheaper for Australian tourists...

picking teachers is like picking quarterbacks - NYer

"Teaching should be open to anyone with a pulse and a college degree -- and teachers should be judged after they have started their jobs, not before."

lessons from the failure of Iceland's banks - Economist

"the euro question could be as significant, in its way, as Iceland's decision to adopt Christianity 1000 years ago"

my speech to today's anti-censorship rally - danny

Australian child pornography laws go too far - MGK - NewMatilda

War Trash [review]

a novel about a Chinese prisoner-of-war held in Korea

Madonna is shameless, but Pinochet was a great man - SMH

how many people has Madonna murdered?

Charter 08: a statement signed by hundreds of prominent Chinese - NYROB

Artificial Sunshine: A Social History of Domestic Lighting [review]

in the backwash of censorship - Offworld

to support filtering, Disney games come with "a comprehensive dictionary of obscenity-laden slang and an extensive catalog of sexual perversions"

imagining some not so successful holiday specials - Scalzi [via RW]

including "Ayn Rand's A Selfish Christmas (1951)" and "Noam Chomsky: Deconstructing Christmas (1998)"

routes are limited for trucking supplies into Afghanistan - Guardian

Pride and Prejudice as a Facebook feed - MuchAdo [via CT]

high culture is going popular - IntelligentLife

Australian court rules that cartoon kids are people, at least in porn - News [via EFA]

if cartoon characters are people, what happens if they're murdered?

Wikipedia is now on a British "child pornography" blacklist - ZDnet - Register

I recommend UK readers boycott Virgin Media, Be/O2/Telefonica, EasyNet/UK Online, PlusNet, Demon and Opal

serious problems with Thailand's monarchy - Economist

Indonesia's new anti-porn law is in action - Time

and it has Bali threatening to secede

no jobs for China's graduates - Guardian

it sounds a bit like the imperial system: "a record 775,000 applicants sat civil service exams - 130,000 more than last year - for only 13,500 jobs"

a new look at Michael Foot - CT

the largest toothless pterosaur yet found - Guardian

mass opposition to net censorship in Australia - Age

Obama's grandfather was tortured by the British - Guardian

the French and the British did appalling things trying to hang on to their African colonies after the war

a 25-book list of the best translated fiction of 2008 - 3%

interesting looking book - The Public Domain [free online]

will the US end up with a Value Added Tax? - CNN

six posts on the Bombay attack - Chapati

an interview with Arturo Perez-Reverte - LAHerTrib [via CR]