links for 2011-02-14

"As Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down Friday (and the hashtag grew in popularity on Twitter), Ghonim told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: 'If you want to liberate a government, give them the Internet.'"

"The first stage of the Holocaust memorial’s partnership with Google includes about 130,000 photographs in full resolution, hosted on a Google server, with the option for users to add commentary, including historical background and personal family stories. The long-term goal is to include Yad Vashem’s larger archive of millions of documents, including survivor testimonials, diaries, letters and manuscripts."

"Republican Rep. Robert Watson referred to Guatemalans when he joked about the legislature's priorities during the Chamber of Commerce's annual lunch for lawmakers Wednesday. Watson said its priorities were right 'if you are a Guatemalan gay man who likes to gamble and smokes marijuana.'"

"Small family farms are considered economically "inefficient" because their yields feed their communities and not the global market. But family farms actually have higher productivity per hectare than their larger counterparts. Nevertheless, investment in them has been reduced in the last 20 years in favour of industrial farming."

"I feel a little queasy that we have to sell the drive for cultural autonomy and respect for foraging peoples with the whole ‘never seen a white man’ drivel. The term ‘uncontacted’ is part of the problem; ‘isolated’ would be better, as these groups have seldom ‘never seen a white man.’ They usually have developed a habit of reacting hostilely when they do, perhaps suggesting that it’s not so much lack of contact, but certain kinds of contact that they have experienced."

"As resource companies push ever deeper into Australia’s remotest areas, however, Aboriginal leaders are leveraging their rights as traditional landowners to negotiate deals with companies and governments that are seeking to develop their holdings. They say the potential windfall — hundreds of millions of dollars — will rescue their communities from their long dependence on welfare and state subsidies."