I know we’re gonna meet someday in the crumbled financial institutions of this land

A Financial Moron Explains the Wall Street Crisis
The Sub-Prime Primer (link from TWF)
Rooting for a Recession (found it in The Week)
Andrew Bird performsTables and Chairs

 

Breaking up with

In the coming weeks you will witness a sharp decline in the number of times I write about things I read in the NYT because I cancelled my subscription this afternoon. I have been getting home delivery of the Sunday paper for about five years, which has given me access to Times Select since that started up – whenever that was. The whole Times Select thing bothered me from the beginning, especially the irony of Kristof calling for poeple to DO SOMETHING ABOUT DARFUR, when “people” don’t have access to his articles – only Times Select members do. Idiocy.

My last bill from the NYT got lost in the shuffle of holiday mail and job interviews and being sick and general chaos. Last week I received a really snotty “you’re late with your payment” letter from them, which I did not appreciate – especially not after having always paid it on time over the course of five years. I also don’t really take advantage of the Times Select stuff. I read the Op-Eds regularly, but over the course of a month I NEVER use more than 3 of my 100 archived article privlege, so I’m not not getting my money’s worth on that one.

Today was the final straw. Air strikes in Somalia, Fierce Fighting in Baghdad – the NYT’s top stories were Mark McGwire not getting into the baseball hall of fame and silicone kitchen tools. Who fucking cares? I’m turning to BBC news and Christian Science Monitor, unless you have some better suggestions for me.

 

Muslims in the news

I literally stumbled across three stories just as I’m struggling through a section in my dissertation I’ve been putting off for a few weeks now – providing explanations for “Muslim distinctiveness” on AIDS-related outcomes in Malawi. Even though I have lots of possible explanations for my findings in my head and think I have a pretty good sense of what I want to say, I’m having a hard time acutally writing this part.

1 – I hope I get the opportunity to watch Little Mosque on the Prairie.

2 – I can’t even imagine what conducting a census in Nigeria would all entail, but they did it and the results are in. Apparently, the religious composition of Nigeria has not changed at all during the past 15 years, though the country’s population is growing rapidly – a 63% increase in 15 years – rapidly isn’t even the word. Religious tensions in Nigeria are serious, so serious that the government decided to axe the religion and ethnicity questions in this year’s census. This is really sad for someone (like me) who studies religion and relies on either having access to this kind of data or going out and collecting it herself.

3 – When I started writing this post, I just had 2 stories in mind; however since then, the United States began air strikes in Somalia. The story didn’t even make the headline on the New York Times, but is the BBC’s top story.

 

AIDS numbers

Failed Attempt At Hyperbole Yields Dead-On Statistic

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I actually found this while skimming someone else’s blog. It’s simultaneously very funny and not funny at all.