thanks to MetaFilter

Cool Web Graphics

Eric Stamen does some interesting stuff and links to the like minded. These are some current links from his blog.

16thandmission
This is an interactive piece that Eric has done, which he describes as "This interface is an investigation of the corner of 16th and Mission Streets in San Francisco." A more complete explanation. It's interactive so move that mouse around and click on things.

SHOWstudio Interactive
This is beautiful. Put your sound on and play with your mouse. So to speak.

Bits and Pieces
Daniel Brown did the SHOWstudio Interactive. This is something else he has done.

I Can't Stop Thinking
Scott McCloud has dome some innovative books on what comics are. This is part of his ongoing experiments in different ways of presenting comics online.

Microwave Experiments
This isn't about web graphics. But as Eric says, "I love the internet..."

Israel/Palestine

The situation in Israel/Palestine is degenerating quickly. This could destabilize the entire region.

Sharon aims to stir uprising against Arafat

The Israeli army drove deeper into Yasser Arafat's shrinking realm yesterday, storming four West Bank villages with tanks and helicopter gunships, killing eight Palestinians, and arresting more than 40 others.

In the Gaza Strip, F-16 fighter planes bombed a building in Gaza City used by Mr Arafat's elite Force 17 unit, injuring five people, and damaged an empty building near by. An Israeli security source said the planes had attacked "military targets alone".

With Mr Arafat made a virtual prisoner in his Ramal lah headquarters by the tanks 100 metres from his door, Israel attacked four Palestinian sites in the West Bank simultaneously: Hebron and the villages of Dura, Salfit and Assira Ashmalia.

In Salfit its troops killed six Palestinian policemen. In Hebron they pursued four armed Palestinians in a car, opened fire and killed two.

The scale of yesterday's raids was intended to show Mr Arafat that he is no longer master of the West Bank and Gaza.

'Israeli death squad disarmed men and shot them'

The salami solution to Palestine
Breaking relations with Arafat has left few options

Israel aims to destroy Arafat's power but save his life

Israel's military has been ordered to destroy the authority of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Israeli military sources said the current military operation is meant to whittle away Arafat's rule until the point where he either flees into exile or succumbs to the demands of Israel and the United States to crack down on Islamic insurgents. The sources said Arafat himself is not a target of assassination.

thanks to Drudge Report

Arafat adviser: IDF attacks are 'declaration of war'

IDF strikes on Palestinian cities, institutions, and the TV and radio building in Ramallah constitute "a declaration of war against the Palestinian people," Nabil Abu Rudaineh, an adviser to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat, said yesterday.

"Mr. Sharon's war against the Palestinian people is pushing the situation toward further tension and instability," Rudaineh said in a press statement. "Israel has officially begun a war aiming at the destruction of the Palestine National Authority [which] has always been Ariel Sharon's goal and plan," Palestinian Minister for Culture and Information Yasser Abed Rabbo said in a statement to the press. "Israel's aggression since last night included acts of revenge aiming to destroy all the accomplishments of the Palestine National Authority and were in no way related to fighting terrorism," he added.

Left-wing MKs decry cabinet decision

The security cabinet's decision that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is "irrelevant" is itself irrelevant, MKs from the Left said yesterday.

"It expresses a certain amount of frustration, and is an important, maybe even a worthy wish, but you cannot simply wish reality away," said former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami (Labor).

"Arafat is the leader of the Palestinian people and that is who we have to deal with."

Arafat Won't fight his own people
...even if he has to fight everyone else

The Arrogance of Occupation
An Israeli Political Scientist speaks out

Settler Violence and September 11
A Report from the Mean Streets of Hebron