Sultan Erdogan sets new (low) standards of Authoritarianism

John J Kelly

Turkey’s military has been escalating vicious attacks against the Kurdish population under the pretext of fighting ISIS. Last week, a petition of condemnation was circulated by 1,200 Turkish academics calling themselves “Academicians for Peace.” President Erdoğan then issued a tirade against intellectuals, adopting what Noam Chomsky referred to in an email to the undersigned as “the George W. Bush line: you’re with me or you’re with the terrorists."

Latest

Afghan elections audit nearly over, Abdullah grandstanding

September 10, 2014

Though neither candidate will ostensibly tolerate serving 'under' the other, perhaps it is time for Abdullah to accept that he has been offered high office in a Ghani administration and his supporters and the Tajik and other minorities will find their interests better served by a government of unity than by a return to mayhem, which favours the Taliban.

Afghan elections look like going to a second round

April 11, 2014

As forecast (thus passim) Ashraf Ghani Amadzai and Abdulllah Abdullah appear to have polled around 44 and 42 per cent of the votes cast, with Rassoul trailing at under 10... More

Why the 2014 Afghan elections matter and why Ghani should win

March 31, 2014

Events in the Ukraine and elsewhere have contributed to a relative lack of western media coverage of the 2014 Afghan elections, due to start on April 5. There are several... More

More women need mobile phones in emerging economies

March 5, 2014

Julia Hobsbawm, a Professor of Networking no less, invited me to the Connected Women Summit, where I expected to find a bunch of high powered women discussing how to become even more so.... More

How to rescue your waterlogged iPhone

February 19, 2014

Last weekend I fell in the canal with my iPhone in the back pocket of my jeans. We'll cut quickly to the lessons learned. These are: 1. Don't try and... More

I wandered Lonely as a Cloud, too fat to see my feet

February 10, 2014

Copeland in West Cumbria is the fattest local authority area in England, according to government data. The borough has 75.9% of its population classed as overweight or obese. Overall, 63.8%... More

When Market Research Art meets Big Data Science

February 3, 2014

In the Dark Ages, before ‘click if you like,’ the intentions of a nation were predicted by nth samples of, say, 1014 correctly profiled individuals. Tiny focus groups would lend insights... More

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Elsewhere on the web

Eight facts everyone should know about the rise of ISIS and the new war in Iraq

Ian Sinclair

Interesting and informative stuff from Ian Sinclair at StopWar.uk.org. For example, I didn’t know that ISIS have issued a Fatwa on cigarettes, amongst other things.

http://stopwar.org.uk/news/eight-facts-everyone-should-know-about-the-rise-of-isis-and-the-new-war-in-iraq

Stopwar.uk.org

Embattled Turkish PM attempts to bring the army back onside

Fulya Ozerkan

Turkey’s embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears willing to mend fences with the once all-powerful army which he fought hard to rein in, as he seeks to defeat an influential organisation accused of trying to topple his government…

Middle East Online