Iranian Economist, Saeed Leylaz, Gets 9 Years in Prison – NYTimes.com.

For some reason I saw the picture of this guy and started thinking the word “pervert.” Maybe it’s because I’m knee-deep in Foucault and I can’t stop thinking about the “pleasure” produced by power, but I’m reading all my fantasies about Persian autocrats, harems, and intellectuals/nobles suddenly dropped from favor and sentenced to execution by Xerxes into it. How could this Mr. Leylaz not know that this conviction was coming? He definitely loved participating in those protests and reveled in his own defiant risk-taking and righteousness. And the state is obviously experiencing delight in its power and in some ways the fulfillment of Mr. Leylaz’ martyr fantasy. I know – maybe I’m falling off the deep end of moral relativism, but there’s something to it, I think.

As mentioned before, post-colonialist theory really made me want to pick the NY Times reporters apart, and just disagree with every norm-dripping sentence they write.

Beautiful and tragic

Daul Kim.

Obsessed with Lady Gaga and Bad Romance

Found the blog of Nicola Formichetti – Lady Gaga’s stylist.

Here is a rundown of all the fashion from the video.

 

And…some beautiful Natalia Vodianova pics for a shoot that he also styled.

paper on soviet healthcare?

Well, I’ve finally decided on a topic. The wonderful Mr. Truslow at the Fung Library was extremely helpful, with his bowtie and wonderful red hair and little office crammed full of books on Russian history. I’d like to have a little office like that one day.

Why Soviet late-socialist healthcare? Well…Alex Copulsky told me I should study something relevant. It’s kind of relevant. Plus, I’d rather write/learn about the more positive aspects of socialism.

Michael Sowa

I found this artist from an illustration on the cover of Marina’s book Nocturno de Chile.

 

So tired. Really happy about the new HPR editorial board, though. These elections always reaffirm my belief in democracy and in small groups of nice people.

childhood flames. new beloved fashion blog of this little hapa girl. She’s 19, I think, and buys half her clothes from Target and H&M. What an inspiration! She’s made me crave sweaters and a pair of tough looking black leather (flat) boots. <3

Little Chinese babies are adorable, no?

via Tavi at style rookie.

Interesting business story

http://www.economist.com/people/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14857221&source=hptextfeature.

Really cool story about watch entrepreneur. He bought the rights to an old, out of business watch company, which had missed the technology of quartz watches. His marketing spin – “Since 1730 this company has never made quartz watches, and it never will”. Business boomed, and other Swiss watchmakers also refocused on mechanical watches. I also had a training at HSA this week (watching the IDEO shopping cart video, again). But yes! Creativity in business! It has a nice Marxist feel about it, for some reason. I think the inherent irrationalities of the system, as the Economist shows, is the reason that some forms of business will never just be about price wars and exploitation of workers. Strangely enough, it is those companies that Marx might criticize the most – like the LMVH conglomerate (owning luxury brands like Louis Vuitton) that put the most emphasis on craft, art, creativity (aka opposite of alienation, etc).

NYTimes video on Pakistan

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/11/11/world/1247465633296/tuning-out-the-taliban.html

Interesting video on cultural production and its reaction to politics in Pakistan. I feel like lately I’m starting to feel sympathy for a more critical view of America. Maybe it’s the comparison that a girl in section made today between Brezhnev Doctrine (interference in the Eastern Bloc) and the Monroe Doctrine (interference in Latin America), or the fact that America had nuclear missiles in Turkey way before the USSR tried to put them in Cuba, and after the Cuban Missile Crisis refused to remove those missiles. I don’t know – should I really be so surprised at the strong curating effect of AP United States History, that the history we learned was so one-sided?

This video just serves to undermine my belief in the possibility for learning the “objective truth” of history.