Jon Israelson: The World

Thu, 11 Mar 2004 16:18:45 GMT

The great escape. Immediately after 9/11, dozens of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family fled the U.S. in a secret airlift authorized by the Bush White House. One passenger was an alleged al-Qaida go-between, who may have known about the terror attacks in advance. Our first excerpt from "House of Bush, House of Saud." [Salon.com]

I first came across this story while reading Michael Moore's Dude Where's My Country. Basically a day or so after 9/11, when all civilian air traffic was shut down (and I was stranded in Houston), the Bush administration allowed a couple of private jets to fly all over the U.S. picking up Saudi royals and bin Landens and then take them overseas where they would be "safe". A little odd considering that most of the 9/11 al-Qaida terrorists were Saudi citizens and a bin Laden holds the top spot within al-Qaida. Seems like you would want to at least talk to those people to see if they had any useful info. Of course, the Bush family has had very close personal and business ties to both the Saudi royal family and the bin Landen family for many years (read Moore's book for the full story). It also raises the question of why this hasn't been covered more by the press?

Wed, 18 Feb 2004 22:01:50 GMT

Suburban life with SUVs.

Just another day in the Boston suburbs with the family SUV... (story).

This SUV story from Qatar shows that ours is a global culture.

Finally there is Malcolm Gladwell's recent New Yorker article with stats showing that drivers are vastly safer inside a minivan than inside an SUV (not to mention the fact that people outside the vehicle are much more likely to be harmed by an SUV).

[Philip Greenspun Weblog]

Wed, 18 Feb 2004 21:53:16 GMT

Scientists: Bush Distorts Science

It's notable that 20 of the 60 scientists that issued and signed this report are Nobel laureates. You think they might have a point?

Tue, 10 Feb 2004 00:01:08 GMT

I, Cringely has a couple of good articles on the whole outsourcing issue. Check them out here and here.

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 22:39:12 GMT

The True Costs of S.U.V.'s. The private incentive to choose a safe vehicle may, perversely, reduce overall safety. By Hal R. Varian. [New York Times: Business]

Thu, 18 Dec 2003 22:26:20 GMT

"Moving to India is not a luxury. It is a necessity". American workers won't like what venture capitalist Ravi Chiruvolu says about why his tech start-ups are built using Indian workers. But they'd better listen. [Salon.com]

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 22:15:38 GMT

The Pain of Coping When a Job Is Snatched Away. Even if the job market picks up, the long-term unemployed will be left with painful economic scars. By Jill Andresky Fraser. [New York Times: Business]

Thu, 21 Aug 2003 15:04:46 GMT

Sea Sponge Inspires Better Fiber-Optic Cables [Scientific American]

Biology rules!

Thu, 21 Aug 2003 15:00:44 GMT

IBM lays off 15,000, HP 1300. This time, we're coming for you (middle class) kids [The Register]

IBM Global Services is a huge organization, but 14,000 jobs cut? Wow.

Tue, 22 Jul 2003 17:24:26 GMT

I.B.M. Explores Shift of White-Collar Jobs Overseas. A tape of an internal discussion provides a revealing look at how companies are grappling with a growing trend. By Steven Greenhouse. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

I think that this is the best quotes from the article:

"Increased global trade was supposed to lead to better jobs and higher standards of living," said Donald A. Manzullo, an Illinois Republican who is the committee chairman. "The assumption was that while lower-skilled jobs would be done elsewhere, it would allow Americans to focus on higher-skilled, higher-paying opportunities. But what do you tell the Ph.D., or professional engineer, or architect, or accountant, or computer scientist to do next? Where do you tell them to go?"

On the other hand, Tom pointed me to this viewpoint by Bruce Eckel.

Mon, 21 Jul 2003 15:51:39 GMT

In Iraq, Shiites are wild card. Questions over Iraq's future are creating a duel between mullahs and dividing the Shiite community. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]