Dan O'Huiginn

Disclaimer

I use this blog to write on subjects I don't know much about. Chances are, most posts will be incorrect in some major way. Here's some guidance on when I'm more or less likely to know what I'm talking about:
  • Languages: English is the only one I speak fluently. My translations from French, German or Russian are probably about 80% correct - I've spent some time living in France, Germany and Russia, and had some formal education in French and Russian. Translations from Sanskrit, Latin and Classical Greek will be shakier - in theory I should read them well (degree in Sanskrit, A-levels in Latin and Greek), but in practice I don't. Anything else: trust me as far as you'd trust babelfish.
  • Politics: same drill here. I have studied South Asian politics (which means less than you might expect) and have a general interest in Iraqi politics (which means more than you might expect). I know plenty of facts about Central Asia and the Caucasus - but I've never lived there, my interest waxes and wanes, and so my perspective is pretty skewed. Likewise I find Russian politics fascinating but mysterious; my brief quasi-internship at a Russian news agency mainly just taught me how repetitive wire reports can get.
  • Economics and Social Science. I wish I'd studied these, but I haven't. I've sat in on a few lectures, talked to some economists, read a few books and a lot of papers. Overall, I expect to be wrong about economics at least as often as I'm right.
  • Technology. I program for a living, so I should have some competence here. As regards programming languages I know Python well, C, PHP and Javascript passably, and dabble in everything else. With OSs I know Debian/Ubuntu well, other Linux flavours passably, and almost nothing about Windows/Mac. I have no background in academic computer science. I'm moderately familiar with MMORPGs from my work on Runescape, but that world is changing fast and I make little attempt to stay up-to-date.

Copyright

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Short Posts

Kildare Street: an Irish version of they work for you

Brazilians phreaking US military satellites

Arrest of Jersey State Senator. I know none of the background to this, but it sounds spectacularly hideous.

Rowenna Davis gets it right. Again. (This time, inheritance tax)

Cheekly: Russia is using the Georgian protests as an excuse to move more troops into Abkhazia [RFE/RL]

Scraps of Moscow on Moldova

Tyler Cowen: 'the United States is...a countercyclical asset'. Good article

Good: Rue89 pick up experimental chimp's investigation into AstraZeneca editing Wikipedia to pimp their drugs. Bad: they don't bother naming or linking to him.

Unsure what to make of the protests in Moldova. The communists won, in a fairish election, in line with earlier predictions? Sounds like the opposition ought to put up with it -- though I'd be pretty pissed off if I were one of them.

Helena Cobban on Waltz with Bashir

Shoe attack on Indian minister. The tactic is catching.

Tamil protest in London

What is a Weapon of Mass Destruction? In US law, apparently anything down to a grenade can be classed as WMD.

Is Pornography the New Tobacco? Nice analogy, hope it doesn't hold.

John Swenson-Wright on North Korean missile tests.

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