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Another response to the FP article on breaking up the Congo:
"Congo, in short, exists because 68 million Congolese believe they belong to it. And unlike the country's borders, the idea of being Congolese was never imposed. To be Congolese is to share a complex memory of tragic historical events: the collective suffering of Leopold's colonial rule, the deaths of 5 to 8 million who perished in that time, the brutal 32-year kleptocracy of Mobutu Sese Seko, and a fratricidal war triggered by his ouster that at one point drew in the armies of nine bordering countries."
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Video tour of the Gins and Arakawa Reversible Destiny Lofts, via Pink Tentacles
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The Arakawa and Gins Reversible Destiny lofts in Japan, including some discussion of the Reversible Destiny philosophy
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A house by Japanese/American conceptual architects Arakawa and Gins, as part of their "reversible destiny" project. Living in the house is supposed to revitalize the inhabitant by challenging them at all turns, preventing them from becoming too comfortable.
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An angry and thoughtful plea for the survival of foreign correspondents, based on the miserably bad coverage of Somali pirate attacks in most mainstream media (with a notable tip of the hat to Al Jazeera English).
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Reacting to social media spam on StyleFeeder… wisely by not cutting off India, the country where most of their spam originates. Makes a good case that social media sites are being shortsighted if they simply wall off countries where they don't see themselves doing business.
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The growth of social software sites in developing nations may be placing a fiscal strain on companies like YouTube or Facebook, as banner ads are hard to sell on these sites. Fair enough, but it seems like a great problem for someone to solve, building syndication networks for the developing world. And the implications for speech of turning off these services in some countries is an ugly and scary one.