An unhappy announcement

I will no longer be participating in Today in Iraq. I hope to write more about Iraq here, and perhaps there will be other opportunities for me to help bring the story of that unhappy land to English language readers. Unfortunately an interloper, for motives which are not clear to me, seized control of the site from the community which had been sustaining it, and the project is effectively over.

This medium, obviously, presents a whole new context for human interaction and communication. It's obviously more remote than the personal contact our species grew up with, but it can bring us into closer interaction than mere pen pals. For one thing, web sites are material resources that people can control, improve, or damage. That gives us something to collaborate or fight over, honorably or dishonorably, honestly or dishonestly. So, just as in the world of atoms, watch out for con artists, thieves, and liars in the world of bits.