Two Brilliant Videos Deconstructing the Racist Arguments Against Immigration
Part I
Part II
Sadly, only in Swedish. A translated version with English subtitles would be very powerful.
The bottom line is that all the racists’ arguments that immigrants take jobs, live off welfare, are responsible for a (non-existent) increase in crime, and don’t assimilate are refuted by the actual facts.
It ends with the Latin Kings’ “Fördomar”, a speech by Olof Palme decrying racism set to music.
Chinese terracotta soldiers
An exhibition of Chinese terracotta tomb warriors from the Qi and Han periods went on display at Stockholm’s Museum of National Antiquity August 28. There are ten of the larger than lifesize warriors from the tomb of the Qi First Emperor.
Little Venice in Colmar, Alsace
Sound and light show at Strasbourg Cathedral
The line waiting to buy the iPhone 4
…outside the Telia store, Fältöversten, Stockholm, 8:30 AM, July 30, 2010,
More California Poppies in Sweden
Gotta Be Careful What You Post Online If You’re a Journalist
From the BBC:
CNN has sacked a veteran Middle East editor after she wrote on Twitter that she “respected” a late senior Lebanese cleric said to have inspired Hezbollah.
A CNN official said Octavia Nasr was leaving the US TV news network because her credibility had been “compromised”.
Nasr has described her 140-character remarks about Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died on Sunday, as an “error of judgement”.
She said she had been referring to his “pioneering” views on women’s rights.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/us_and_canada/10549106.stm
The British ambassador to Lebanon is in trouble for the same reason. From the FT:
British ambassador’s praise of Fadlallah criticised
By Ferry Biedermann in Beirut
Published: July 9 2010 19:08 | Last updated: July 9 2010 19:08
Frances Guy, Britain’s ambassador to Lebanon, has been criticised by Israel over a blog posting on the death of the controversial senior Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah on July 4.
The British Foreign Office has removed the posting, titled “The Passing of Decent Men” from the UK’s Lebanon embassy web page.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f8ddc190-8b83-11df-ab4d-00144feab49a.html
Who Wants an IPhone 3G
While other operators seem to trying to unload the iPhone 3GS, now that the iPhone 4 is happening, Telia is behaving weirdly. It seems like they are giving an iPhone 3G with a pay-as-you-go subscription.
But who on Earth would want an iPhone 3G at this point?
Getting into eReading
Reading books and magazines on an ebook reader seems to be an acquired skill. I bought the Kindle version of “WordPress for Dummies” to help restart my blog (would have bought the iBook version but Amazon will take my kronor and the Swedish iBook store won’t).
Sadly it lacks an index, and if I want to just find something, it’s a lot easier to leaf thru a real book.
I would like to convert my magazine subscriptions to the iPad. I have stacks of old issues of Wired lying around. And the international sub price for Wired is astronomical!
But even Wired, which seems to be on the cutting edge of this revolution, doesn’t offer an eSubscription (yet), just single issues like the one I am reading now (the paper version still hasn’t arrived here).
Some very small Swedish newspapers already offer iPad versions. Hopefully the biggies won’t be too far behind.
Writing a blog
So my blog is up and running again at RadioWood.com, and hopefully copies of posts will now appear on Facebook and Twitter. Sadly, in upgrading to a modern version of WordPress, the entire old database was deleted, so this is a fresh start.
On the other hand, not sure I’m the one who should be blogging. My colleague Kris ought to have blogged the entire Eurovision Song Contest, and now he’s at the political week at Almedalen on Gotland. That’s what ought to be blogged!