Global Voices Online

David Read, a blogger in Bishkek, writes about the trials and tribulations of getting a wireless broadband connection in Kyrgyzstan.

Nessuna writes about seeing yesterday's eclipse from Armenia and posts to some photos and local online discussions.

Ivan Lenin at Rush-Mush links to an English translation of a Belarusian protestor's jail journal. (Written by LJ user forion in Belarusian, translated by LJ user kapitan-tanaka.)

The beatroot writes about a 56-year-old Polish rock musician turned politician and the problems he's facing. “After making a lot of money over the years, he must have got bored – like ageing rock stars do – and thought that he would represent the very un-rock and roll Law and Justice (PiS) in the Senate at last September’s general election. But already he looks like he would rather be back in the recording studio, fiddling with the mixing knobs.”

Sean Guillory guestblogs at Publius Pundit on racism and xenophobia in today's Russia.

Know anything about Moroccan saffron? Several hundred hectares of flowers grown on light chalky hillsides at an altitude of between 1200 and 2000 metres (4000 - 6500 feet). Each September the bulbs are planted and come into flower towards the end of October when the harvesting takes place. Harvesting is no easy job, the delicate procedure taking between fifteen and twenty days and only during the early hours of the morning before the flower heads open to the sun, El Glaoui said. Read more and see some photos.

The image of a certain society as perceived by other societies is never the same, as human perceptions differ on an individual level, this is one cause of stereotypes, since each human or society have different levels of knowledge and concepts about a certain object applied whenever trying to percieve this object, Rami said.

The media is a double-edged sword when it comes to stereotyping, internet, for example, provides a wealth of knowledge about cultures across the globe, yet, it could also be a tool for effective, mass-stereotyping, especially when it comes to news services. Want examples?

Apart from the dentist and her really low sinuses story, the elections day ends and Jerusalemgypsy goes home:

Back home, my Good Daughter told me her new boyfriend voted for Jewish right-wing extremist Baruch Marzel.

“WHAT!!!!???” shrieked I.

“Don't worry mom. I'll change him.” said she.

IraqiPundit wonders what NYT is talking about here. Arab influence in Iraq? What influence are these supposed analysts operating under? Arab countries traditionally sided with Saddam against the Iraqi people. And since the removal of Saddam, Arab countries have (unofficially) influenced Iraq only by sending suicide killers into our midst. True, Iraqis don't want Iranian killers either. But Ghaddafi was recently quoted as saying that he still believe Saddam is Iraq's legitimate leader, IraqiPundit said.