Inventor of instant noodles dies at 96

Momofuku Ando, the Japanese inventor of instant noodles — a dish that has sustained American college students for decades — has died. He was 96.
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friday random ten

Photo by Ryan McManus

friday random ten (05/01/2007)


1. "Badlands" - Bruce Springsteen [Darkness on the Edge of Town]


2. "Happy When It Rains" - The Jesus and Mary Chain [Darklands]


3. "Y-Control" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs [Peel Sessions - 2002]


4. "The Ride" - Joan As Police Woman [Real Life]


5. "Kangaroo Court" - Adorable [Fake]


6. "Dust" - Silver Apples [Silver Apples]


7. "The City Never Sleeps" - The Fall [The Complete Peel Sessions Disc 5]


8. "Memo from Turner" - The Rolling Stones [Singles 1968-1971]


9. "Hang On" - Snapper [In Love With These Times - A Flying Nun Compilation]


10. "Why? (Full 12" Version)" - Bronski Beat [The Age Of Consent]

listen

Blundering Into Somalia Yet Again

Eric Margolis

Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia under cover of the Christmas holiday was a blatant aggression that is likely to widen the arc of conflict across the dangerously turbulent Horn of Africa. It also marks the opening of a new front in Washington’s war against Islamic militants and reformers.

Claims by Ethiopia that Somalia, a nation without any real military forces, threatened its border were as fanciful as assertions by Washington and Addis Ababa that the so-called "transitional government" they had installed in the town of Baidoa represented anything more than its own well-paid members.

The US-backed and financed Ethiopian offensive was clearly designed to crush the first stable government strife-torn Somalia has had in 15 years of civil war and anarchy. The new Islamic regime, known as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), recently managed to bring law and order to much of southern and central Somalia. In the north, a secessionist group has proclaimed something called independent "Puntland."

The Union of Islamic Courts ended Somalia’s long civil war by crushing local warlords who were being armed and financed by the CIA. The US claims the Islamic Courts is a second Taliban-style movement containing "terrorists" involved in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in East Africa who will turn Somalia into a hotbed of anti-American subversion. The UIC denies these allegations.

More important, under the Bush/Cheney Administration, any movement that has the audacity to call itself "Islamic" immediately becomes a target of American hostility. The embarrassing total defeat of US-backed Somali warlords by the Islamic Courts militia led directly to Washington’s decision to press Ethiopia to invade Somalia.

[snip]

Ethiopia’s war against Somalia presents a more dangerous regional threat than an Islamic-run Somalia. The Bush/Cheney Administration is again showing its reckless ignorance and arrogance by charging into a tribal conflict, as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq, about which it knows nothing. Once again, Washington’s "cure" will be shown to be far worse than the disease it claims to address.

A great idea for a "National Championship" game

Will Bunch

...The NCAA -- which never, ever, ever. ever thinks outside the box -- has a chance to do the good deed of a lifetime, both for America's fragile psyche and for the victims of our worst domestic tragedy. On Monday night, Jan. 15, undefeated Boise State must be matched against the winner of next week's "national championship game" between Ohio State and Florida.

In the New Orleans Superdome.

With every dollar from the game and from the telecast -- which would be the highest rated college game ever -- going to relief efforts for the victims of the post-Katrina levee failure. We're sure that NCAA can find some rule, or some excuse, for not playing this game.

Break it.

America needs this.

In Bookstores February 6, 2007