Brendan I. Koerner's Blog, page 62

Off the Books

The worst thing about this tale of a Sri Lankan maid's suffering at the hands of her Saudi Arabian employers is that it's completely unsurprising. Though the torture the woman endured is notable for its brutality, such abuse is evidently commonplace in Saudi Arabia—to the point that foreign workers are taught to expect beatings:

The teacher held up an electric cake mixer and told the class of wide-eyed women before her to clean it properly. If it smells, "Mama," as the aspiring maids were...

Tragic Bait and Switch

There's no Earthly chunk of coral that's more deserving of good news than Bikini Atoll, which the American military infamously bombed to smithereens at the dawn of the Atomic Age. So it was heartening to learn that the island and its immediate surroundings were recently added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, a move that will hopefully do wonders for the tourist trade. (The International Atomic Energy Agency states that brief visits are okay, but that permanent resettlement remains risky...

There She Is, Miss Mizoram

Up to the jawline with work this p.m., so please forgive the video quickie—a look back at the mid-'80s beauty pageant scene in the North-East Indian state of Mizoram. Safe for work, unless your boss objects to one-piece swimsuits. Note the judges' archaic emphasis on body measurements—perhaps The Feminine Mystique had not yet been published in Mizo?

Needle in the Haystack?

It's been ages since I last checked in with Hugh Rienhoff, the Bay Area biotech entrepreneur who I profiled in the February 2009 issue of Wired. For those unfortunates among you who haven't read the piece, Rienhoff has spent much of the past six years analyzing his young daughter's DNA, in the hopes of discovering the reason she appears to be afflicted with a genetic disorder that bears some resemblance to Marfan syndrome. He does the bulk of this work in the attic of his home, where he...

Fortune's Supposed Favorites

The morning grog is heavy today, on account of the fact that I stayed up late watching Crossing the Line, a documentary about Virginia native James Joseph Dresnok's 1962 defection to North Korea. Despite some clunky Christian Slater narration, it's a stellar flick—a deeply researched portrait of a man whose tragic background made him yearn for radical change. Dresnok, like his fellow American defectors, had little to no interest in political ideology prior to his move across the...

"A Smith & Wesson Beats Four Aces"

It gives me tremendous pleasure to announce the long-awaited return of Bad Movie Friday, which has been on hiatus for a couple of weeks. I'm bringing it back after discovering a trove of utmost goodness on YouTube—namely, the collection of Andy Sidaris, previously lionized in this space as the writer-director behind the legendary Hard Ticket to Hawaii. Sidaris's entire oeuvre is a wonder to behold, but for the moment I've chosen to share his 1990 Erik Estrada vehicle Guns. I believe the jury ...

Demanding Satisfaction, to a Young Nation's Detriment

It doesn't take much imagination to mock Kentucky's oath of office, which contains this gloriously anachronistic bit of verbiage:

I do further solemnly swear (or affirm) that since the adoption of the present Constitution, I, being a citizen of this State, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person...

An Alternative to Patronymics

A long, drunken subway ride last night gave me the chance to finish The Black Nile, Dan Morrison's account of a harrowing trip he took from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea. There's enough grist in this excellent travelogue to craft a dozen killer Microkhan posts, but for now I'll just limit myself to a quick discussion of the Nuer, one of the major ethnic groups in southern Sudan.

Morrison, an occasional Microkhan correspondent now based in Dhaka, delves into the Nuer practice of...

Interview Zero

It's not very often that I can boast of a warm personal connection to a recently deceased celebrity, so please let me take a moment to vouch for the key role that Sir Frank Kermode played in my development as a writer.

No, I never had the privilege of studying under the lit-crit master. And even if I had, I very much doubt I'd taken much away from the experience—dissecting great works was never my strong suit. (Despite repeated attempts, for example, I've never gotten past page three of...

Suicide in Sri Lanka

My previous posts about suicide haven't been particularly cheery, and not just because of the grim subject matter. Everything I've seen in recent years has convinced me that our current anti-suicide measures aren't working particularly well, given the stability of America's suicide rate over the past half-century. It's quite discouraging to realize that innovations such as bridge-side barriers may not be so effective after all.

But the news out of South Asia offers a reason for hope. Sri...