The Olive Branch

The Economist Brazil's agricultural miracle How to feed the world The emerging conventional wisdom about world farming is gloomy. There is an alternative Aug 26th 2010 THE world is planting a vigorous new crop: “agro-pessimism”, or fear that mankind will not be able to feed itself except by wreckin...

Dayyan, as spokesman for the settlers, favors a one-state solution, “wholly in Israeli hands.” That’s the “only chance for security to prevail,” he says.

So this is the majority position of the settlers in the West Bank?

Be careful what you wish for Gerald, that hot tea could come flying at you leaving a nasty bump on the head and some modest scalding (physics and cell damage studies?) Jacob nothing to worry about. Dr. Lynn is a woman, therefore her aim is like her reverse parking Bloody Awful!! :twisted: Indeed Ge...

hey Oren,

Yes, now that you mention it, I think it was Fox.

I would love to see the original link on that one Margie.

Hmm... Lots of possibilities there. So, what would be the average velocity of an unladen tea cup? It depends, what is the size? quantity? amount? of force used to launch the unladen tea cup. Its one thing if it were just dropped on someone's head. That I believe is the gravitational constant? 32 me...

Well, you've got two central principles of chemical engineering right there Gerald. Ironing: heat transfer making tea: heat transfer and mass transfer Mr. Lynn is the electrical engineer so I'll leave him to the innards of the remote. I'll deal with the plastic encasing it (polymer science again). ...

"In the consensus system you cannot win everything and you cannot lose anything. This becomes difficult because compromise in Arab culture is not acceptable -- it's seen as a shame or a weakness," said Fuad Hussain, chief of staff to President Massoud Barzani of Iraqi Kurdistan. . "W...

This one is for, ah hell, I'm blanking on his name, our favorite poster of discussing the topic of Arab Honor. There are a few interesting quotes in here that I'm going to break out in the next post. Enjoy, JB Foreign Policy Beirut in Baghdad: Is the 'Lebanonization' of Iraq complete? Posted By Lar...

Hey Lynn, Here's my feeling on this. Everyone has been screaming bloody murder about whether Israel would, or the US should, go in all gangbusters and blow up the sites one-two-six. The arguments hinge on the idea that a violent attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear capacity would lead to war. . Here's ...

Congrats on the PhD Doc and to the baby on the way.

Mazel Tov on both accounts.

Congrats on the PhD Doc and to the baby on the way.

Mazel Tov on both accounts.

The Jefferey Goldberg article I posted in its namesake thread "The Point of No Return" is apparently part of a larger discussion published in "The Atlantic" magazine. A number of authors raise their opinions from several points of view. Here is a link to the head of the issue: ht...

Wall Street Journal CAPITAL JOURNAL AUGUST 24, 2010. Speed Bumps, and an Exit, on Iran's Nuclear Road By GERALD F. SEIB. Think of Iran's nuclear program as a car chugging down a highway, moving relentlessly ahead but with miles to go before reaching its destination. Now think of U.S. policy as an e...

Financial Times How Khamenei used alliance with hardliners By Najmeh Bozorgmehr Published: August 23 2010 22:16 For more than two decades, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been Iran’s supreme leader, positioned at the apex of his country’s labyrinthine power structure. While Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, his voc...

Washington Post Billions of aid dollars buy U.S. little goodwill in Pakistan By Griff Witte Tuesday, August 24, 2010; A01 TARBELA, PAKISTAN -- Everyone here remembers the Americans. They came with their blueprints, their engineering know-how and their money. By the time they left in the early 1970s...

The Point of No Return (Part II) JB Note, the whole article exceeded the character upload on the site so I needed to cut the last few paragraphs and place in a seperate post. Based on months of interviews, I have come to believe that the administration knows it is a near-certainty that Israel will ...

This article has sparked significant debate on the state of Iran's quest for nuclear weapons and a potential Israeli military response. September 2010 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE The Point of No Return By Jeffrey Goldberg For the Obama administration, the prospect of a nuclearized Iran is dismal to contempla...

It appears that Jeff is moving to a private contractor (post CIA employment).

Der Spiegel 08/16/2010 02:24 PM Escape to Norway Iranian Anti-Stoning Lawyer Continues Fight from Exile By Dieter Bednarz in Oslo Human rights lawyer Mohammad Mostafaei, who represented Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, was forced to flee Iran after the...

TIME Magazine Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 In Israel, Commerce amid Conflict By Stacy Perman The city of Nazareth — a town of 65,000 residents, bearing the weight of more than 2,000 years of history — sits at the southern end of Galilee, at the bottom of a sloping bowl formed out of a chalky mountain rang...

Economist Palestinian democracy Under threat from all sides Democracy is flagging in both the Palestinian territories Aug 12th 2010 | Gaza and ramallah HANNA NASIR, the head of Palestine’s Central Elections Commission, is not prone to expletives. But the Christian nuclear physicist and former dean ...

Anyone think the border incident was staged to take the pressure off of Hizbullah regarding the Hariri investigation? I'll take that as a lunch bet. I also think that it was more than just a one-off issue, but should be combined with the rocket attack from Gaza on Ashkalon, and the Grad rocket atta...

Hey, Dusty. Yea, Lefty. What do you get when you cross Holy water with castor oil? I don't know Lefty. What do you get? A religious movement. here's the link to the you-tube video of the song from the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O35iphfiMhs BAD JOKES Garrison Keeler Woody Harrelson and Jo...

Financial Times Sanctions choke supply of petrol to Iran By Carola Hoyos in London Published: August 11 2010 13:22 | Last updated: August 11 2010 19:17 Tougher sanctions against Iran appear to have halved the country’s petrol imports in July, according to the International Energy Agency. As a resul...

Washington Post Op-ed Netanyahu, the anti-Obama By George F. Will Thursday, August 12, 2010; A15 JERUSALEM Two photographs adorn the office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Together they illuminate a portentous fact: No two leaders of democracies are less alike -- in life experiences, ...

Saudis Push for Mecca Time To Replace Standard GMT Greenwich Mean Time has been the reference point for time zones—and lines of longitude—for centuries, but Saudi Arabia has said it is time for a change. By building the world's largest clock on top of the second-largest skyscaper in the world overl...

That said, just by reviewing the general tone of the political cartoonists, there is a strong groundswell against the mosque at that location at this time. What is also interesting is the cluelessness of the planners over the location of the site as this article in the NY Times points out: http://ww...

I have to be honest with you, the last one, showing the NYC scene, was poignent. (noting the sign for the Vietnamese restaurant in the page). . Yes, Americans eat sushi, go to German restaurants, and have no trouble with Cuban clubs. . But I remember back to the movie "The Aristocrats", th...

Daryl Cagle's website shows an interesting selection of political cartoons pointing to various POV's on the new 'al-Cordoba' center planned for building two blocks away from the site of the former Twin-Towers.

Here's the link:

http://www.cagle.com/news/GroundZeroMosque/main.asp

New Yorker: Letter from Tehran After the Crackdown Talking to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—and the opposition—about Iran today. by Jon Lee Anderson August 16, 2010 In a rare interview with a Western reporter in Iran, the President denied repressing the opposition. “Everyone is free,” he said. Related LinksA...

It is interesting. Honestly, I haven't read much of his work from 10 years ago, but just in the last few years, there has been a notable shift. Of course his old feelings have been replaced by another (in this case, Roger Cohen from the NYT).

Washington Post Op-ed The Economist's unforgivable silence on Sayyid Qutb's anti-Semitism By Richard Cohen Tuesday, August 10, 2010; A17 I always read the Economist magazine. I like many things about it, but I particularly cherish its book reviews. They are cogent and snappily written, and they oft...

Ah, you beat me to the punch line Shimon. It is interesting though how widespread MAD's influence has become. I haven't read the magazine (don't even know if its still being published), since summer camp and the "Spy vs. Spy" characters are still considered pop icons. (they were also used ...