Wrestling With History
Sometimes you have to fight the war you have, not the war you wish you had

a fasinating look at Rumsfeld, his work at the Pentagon and his role before the invasion and amidst the insurgency to transform the US military to conform to his vision of 21st century needs and how this has effected his management of the insurgency

Wrestling With History

Call centres, contact centres ... regardless of their name, regardless of their location, they're still the same: tough to work in, frustrating to deal with

life as a call center battery chicken

Guardian Unlimited Money | Work | Battery operated

The riots that have convulsed France over the past week have raised huge questions over the country's ability to integrate its Muslim population - concerns which have implications for the rest of Europe

relates well with the Francis Fukuyama article

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | The week Paris burned

DUBAI (Reuters) - Exploding buildings, booby-trapped cars and bloodied victims are making their debut on Arab satellite television in daring dramas that deal with Islamist militancy in al Qaeda's main breeding ground.

The shows' producers say they are another battleground in the war on home-grown religious zealotry, which many Middle East governments are confronting by crackdowns and media campaigns.

"Al Tareeq Al-Waer", or "The Rugged Path", and "Al-Hur Al-Ayn", or "The Beautiful Maidens", have been airing during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a time of peak viewing in the Middle East.

They both deal with intransigent interpretations of Islam, such as the one espoused by Saudi-born al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and the social problems that push some to extremism.

Editor's Choice News Article | Reuters.co.uk

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's hard-line government said Wednesday it was removing 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of warmer ties with the West, from their posts in a shake-up that comes as the Islamic republic takes a more confrontational international stance.

Iran Removes 40 Envoys in Shake-Up

Nearly exact self-similar fractal forms occur do in nature, but I'd never seen such a beautiful and perfect example until, some time after moving to Switzerland, I came across a chou Romanesco like the one above in a grocery store. This is so visually stunning an object that on first encounter it's hard to imagine you're looking at a garden vegetable rather than an alien artefact created with molecular nanotechnology.

Coolest vegetable ever.

Fractal Food

Buster the German Shepherd could have had a great career as a British police dog had it not been for one flaw: his complete lack of interest in fighting crime.

Lazy British Police Dog Relieved of Duties - Yahoo! News

Jello wrote:

Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, and colleagues decided to see what effects a synthetic cannabinoid called HU210 had on rats' brains.

They tested a synthetic cannabinoid that is NOT present in marijuana.

In another study, Barr Jacobs, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, gave mice the natural cannabinoid found in marijuana, THC (D9-tetrahydrocannabinol)). But he says he detected no neurogenesis, no matter what dose he gave or the length of time he gave it for. He will present his results at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC in November.

Tests with the real deal show no such signs of 'cell growth in the brain.'

Emphasis on might here.

there are also studies which suggest a link between mental health problems and marijuana
having been a heavy marijuana user in my early 20s and having suffered over the past 12 years bouts of mental health difficulties ranging from psychotic episodes to suicide attempts i would urge caution.
I don't know catagorically that there is a causal link ( i did have mental health problems prior to my drug use) however just as some people are susceptable to becoming alcoholics i believe my drug use triggered problems. I also believe that for the majority marijuana, like alcohol, is not a problem and can be used harmlessly and should be legalised subject to health warnings.

RE: New Scientist Breaking News - Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain

If you spend any time on the Internet sending e-mail or browsing the Web, then you use domain name servers without even realizing it. Domain name servers, or DNS, are an incredibly important but completely hidden part of the Internet, and they are fascinating! The DNS system forms one of the largest and most active distributed databases on the planet. Without DNS, the Internet would shut down very quickly.

In this edition of HowStuffWorks, we will take a look at the DNS system so you can understand how it works and appreciate its amazing capabilities.

DNS for Dummies

Howstuffworks

The two-sentence statement from the IRA, announcing that it had disposed of its arms, ended with an enigma: Who exactly is P O'Neill of the Irish Republican Publicity Bureau, Dublin, the name that appears at the end of IRA statements?

Given the well-documented history of the Irish republican movement's leadership during the past 30 years, P O'Neill is probably nobody but a committee, perhaps the so-called "Army Council" of seven leading republicans.

But the use of the name on scores of IRA public statements, which have sought to justify the movement's armed conflict, poses a question: just how does a supposedly secret organisation communicate with the outside world?

BBC NEWS | Magazine | So who is P O'Neill?