Indian Patent Office nixes HepC patent

Gilead Sciences charges $84,000 for their hepatitis treatment Sovaldi. They've worked out patent deals with a lot of countries - but India has denied them an Indian patent. The result: in India, generics will be legal, even for export. Interesting!

Conspiracies versus conspiracy theories

Dave Neiwert writes some really kick-ass stuff. Here's a piece from 2004 comparing conspiracies (which demonstrably exist) with American paranoia in the form of conspiracy theories (which posit global conspiracies that don't exist).

It's pretty good reading! I'd love to track this kind of thing in a conspiracy theory database.

Meme: all terrorists are Muslims

It's difficult even to comprehend somebody honestly saying something this stupid, but our assumptions make morons of us all. Here are some facts, with decent linkage. Muslims account for less than 2% of terrorist attacks in Europe, In the US, it's more like 6%. 42% are committed by Latino groups, 24% by "extreme left-wing actors", whatever that means. More Americans die by being crushed under refrigerators than due to attacks by Muslims. More Americans were killed by toddlers in 2013 than by Muslims, assuming none of those toddlers were Muslims.

Since 9/11, Muslim terrorists have killed 37 Americans. During that time, 190,000 Americans were murdered by other Americans. So you tell me - is it sane to freak out about Islam?

David Brin on clash of memic systems

With reference to Charlie Hebdo, David Brin weighs in with some pretty good thoughts.

No fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value

Well, this is an interesting legal analysis. Not only is it the stupidest idea ever, the usual excuse that they're legally forced to maximize shareholder value doesn't hold water, either.

Neiwert on the Right's self-distancing from Breivik (2011)

David Neiwert has been posting some of his older work on Facebook lately. This is a great one.

Archetype: the Magic Negro

Great piece by Nnedi Okorafor about Steve Barne's Magic Negro archetype (I guess Steve didn't invent it, but I heard about it first from him, too) in the work of Stephen King. The Magic Negro is a self-sacrificing Person of Color (generally black, sometimes Amerind) who allows the (white) protagonist of the story to succeed - in movies, generally at the cost of their own life.

The Magic Negro is harmless because he is pure, and is pure because he is (as a primitive) in touch with his magical pre-technological self. I think he's a Person of Color because of the inherent magicalness of the Other - I mean seriously, Africa is drenched with story, so it's perfectly logical to imagine this Magic Negro archetype coming from Africa. And pre-Columbian America works just as well.

Isn't Sean Connery a Magical Negro in Highlander, really? He's Egyptian, sure - the point being he's foreign.

Steve's (and Okorafor's) position is that, in the context of American racial issues, the harmlessness of the Magic Negro makes him an acceptable character. He's almost always the only black in a cast of whites, and he dies safely. Steve can be quite cutting about it, in his own always-nice way. And he's so very right, too.

Anyway. The Magic Negro. Interesting stuff.

The American right wing does story better

Good piece in Salon about how the Right's use of narrative wins them elections despite visibly far worse results.

8 reasons young Americans don't fight back any more

Interesting. The student debt seems most salient to me, honestly.

Top ten ways Islamic law prohibits terrorism, also interesting analysis of the Charlie Hebdo thing

Juan Cole is pretty brilliant. Charlie Hebdo article, drawing a parallel with the Stalinist tactic of "sharpening contradictions".

Before and after the media knows somebody is a cop

The language the media uses to describe policemen's actions is very, very stylized.