Goma falls to Rwanda

Rebels, called the M23, have taken Goma, the main city of North Kivu, one of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s eastern provinces. Their plan is to march to Bukavu, the main city of South Kivu, and from there, they say, across the massive country to Kinshasa, the Congo’s capital.

A geographical note is in order. The DRC’s principal cities are part of greater urban areas that cross international borders. Look at the capital, Kinshasa, on a map, and you will see Brazzaville, the capital of the other Congo, right next to it.

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Pillar of Defense Deaths until November 18

A map of deaths from Israel’s Pillar of Defense operation, inspired by the UK Guardian’s map of “incidents”. I added a timeline and removed anything that didn’t result in deaths, on the basis that war is mainly a collection of deaths, and not a collection of “incidents”. The geographical information could be more accurate, and I am happy to correct if anyone sends me corrections (I’ll also be updating as time goes on, using Maan News’s excellent feed). 2D version without timeline:

3D version with timeline (requires google earth plugin), or download the KML file to your computer and view it in google earth.

And the Google Fusion Table, another easy way to get this data, below.

Thanks to Jon Elmer for putting me on to the relevant data sources.

One less reader

Writing political books about, for example, Haiti, means knowing that every reader who gets the book is a victory. Consequently, having one less reader get the book is a serious matter.

I tried to send my book to Alex Hundert, a G20 defendant who is currently locked up in Penatanguishene. I was told that books have to go direct from the publisher, so I asked my Canadian publisher, BTL, to do it for me. They were quick and efficient and sent the book off.

The other day I got this back from my publisher:

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