top ten stories

December 18, 2007 12:45 PM

Here are the ten stories you probably missed this year From Foreign Policy. I certainly missed a lot of them. Sorry about the single link.
posted by donfactor (13 comments total)

Single links are good, if they're good. This was good.
posted by OmieWise at 12:52 PM on December 18, 2007 [3 favorites]

This emerging threat may explain why in September the U.S. Air Force quietly decided to form a Cyberspace Command.

I assume that since the Air Force is involved, this Cyberspace Command will be up in the sky? Some sort of Net, up in the Sky?
posted by dersins at 12:56 PM on December 18, 2007 [4 favorites]

Please do not apologize for your post in the post itself, thanks.
posted by empath at 1:02 PM on December 18, 2007 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty happy that the word "cyberspace" has found a home.
posted by wemayfreeze at 1:02 PM on December 18, 2007

/petpeeve
posted by empath at 1:02 PM on December 18, 2007

Thanks, dersins. Now I'm going to fret for the rest of the day.
posted by Caduceus at 1:20 PM on December 18, 2007

Interesting post, thanks. I'm quite surprised that the story at #3 has not been given more play by our media.
posted by never used baby shoes at 1:22 PM on December 18, 2007

SWORDS, eh? Never read any PK Dick or saw Screamers, I guess.
Rice with breast milk. Should do well in Japan.

I think the cyberwar stuff has been all over the news tho, especially with Russia nailing Estonia.
(It’s a nice one link)
posted by Smedleyman at 1:59 PM on December 18, 2007

Good post. Thanks.
posted by languagehat at 2:28 PM on December 18, 2007

These are very interesting stories, but I kept wishing for links to more information. Having spent some time googling around, here are a few:

1. Cyberwar in Estonia. Or was it?
2. 700 miles of border fence whittled down to 370 miles.
3. Former bin Laden mentor Salman al-Awdah denounces al-Qaeda.
4. US Army builds military base directly atop an Iraqi oil platform in the Al Far peninsula. Quoth the Corp of Engineers: great job! More about the US as protector of Iraqi oil facilities.
5. Cubans have been quietly fleeing to the United States - I can't find the U of Miami study online, but here is some general demographic info on immigration, and here is an editorial about the disparate treatment of Haitian refugees. According to a Jacksonville newspaper, Cubans like Jacksonville because it is nice there.
6. Rice modified with human genes is coming to a grocery store near you. Anheuser-Busch boycotts it in Missouri. (Oops, no it doesn't.)
7. The Thai junta gives itself a raise. (Can't find the Bangkok Post editorial online anywhere.)
8. Dengue Fever is on the rise (a UN report warns that global warming will exacerbate the problem.)
9. American Jews Turn away from Israel - here's the study (843k PDF) from one of the authors' home page.
10. Armed robots take the field in Iraq.

posted by whir at 2:30 PM on December 18, 2007 [4 favorites]

Robots, cyberwars, rice with human genes? Not only are we living in the future, but we should fear it.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:34 PM on December 18, 2007

Those "armed robots" aren't really robots, are they? If so, then we've been seeing UAVs -- including armed ones -- for years now, so how is this news exactly?
posted by pax digita at 4:14 PM on December 18, 2007

whir, thanks for that list. I wished the same thing, but was too lazy to do anything about it.
posted by OmieWise at 6:29 AM on December 19, 2007