Newley Purnell

Dispatches from Bangkok

Archive for August, 2002

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In other news, here’s some interesting commentary on the risks and benefits of anti-malarial drugs.

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August 20th, 2002 at 12:31 pm

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Could the increase in Silicon Valley autism cases be related to “geek genes”?

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August 18th, 2002 at 2:00 pm

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“You Have to Be in Good Shape To Eat 4.21 Hot Dogs a Minute.”

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August 17th, 2002 at 4:14 pm

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“Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy Happen.”

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August 17th, 2002 at 2:43 pm

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Rocketinfo is the best news search engine I’ve seen. (Regular search engines only index the Web periodically, but news search engines do so on a daily basis–often several times a day–and include links to newly-posted news items.) News.google.com, Daypop.com, and Pandia are good, but from what I can tell, Rocketinfo takes the cake.

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August 15th, 2002 at 12:32 pm

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“The Gulag Argumento: Martin Amis swings at Stalin and hits his own best friend instead.”

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August 14th, 2002 at 8:23 pm

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Soccer news: following a strong World Cup showing, the US men’s national team has been ranked ninth in the world. This marks the first time the American team has cracked the top ten.

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August 14th, 2002 at 5:31 pm

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Here’s a visual demonstration of how an attack on Iraq might go down. With description in Spanish.

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August 14th, 2002 at 3:40 pm

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August 11th, 2002 at 6:38 pm

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NY Times (free registration required): “Across Africa, juju men…do a brisk business in the soccer season trying to influence the action on the field.”

BBC News: “Turkmenistan President Saparmurat Niyazov has announced his intention to officially rename all 12 months of the year in commemoration of the country’s heroes and most potent national symbols.”

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August 9th, 2002 at 10:40 am

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There’s only one David Brooks. In “Patio Man and the Sprawl People,” he examines the fast-growing suburbs he calls “Sprinkler Cities.”

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August 7th, 2002 at 12:20 pm

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“My So-Called Lungs,” (New York Times; free registration required) an audio diary created by Laura Rothenberg, a woman suffering from cystic fibrosis, ran yesterday on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” It’s quite moving; it’s available here.

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August 6th, 2002 at 12:08 pm

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A classic McSweeney’s yarn: “I Am Michiko Kakutani.” A contemporary McSweeney’s yarn: “This Office is Different.”

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August 5th, 2002 at 5:58 pm

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According to James B. Twitchell, luxury has been democratized.

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August 5th, 2002 at 11:20 am

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Japanese McDonald’s are slashing burger prices, and the Bangkok Skytrain is drowning in debt (they owe 35 billion baht, to be exact).

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August 5th, 2002 at 11:19 am

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