China dissident commits suicide after forcible deportation - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Topic: Current Events
8:15 am EDT, Jun 16, 2008
The suicide of a man who was forcibly returned to China by Australian immigration authorities has prompted calls by refugee advocates for better treatment of people seeking protection visas.
The suburban landscape has been marred by foreclosures and half-built communities abandoned in the subprime aftermath. But James Howard Kunstler, author of a dozen books, including The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape, thinks there's a bigger threat to those far-flung neighborhoods: the scarcity of oil. As Kunstler sees it, oil wells are running dry and the era of cheap fuel is over. Given the supply constraints, he says the U.S. will have to rethink suburban sprawl, bringing an end to strip malls, big-box stores, and other trappings of the automotive era. Kunstler, 59, predicts a return to towns and cities centered around a retail hub—not unlike his hometown of Saratoga Springs, N.Y. But the shift to this new paradigm, he says, will be painful. (Kunstler could be off the mark; he predicted technological Armageddon after Y2K.) BusinessWeek writer Mara Der Hovanesian spoke with Kunstler about suburbia, which he calls "the greatest misallocation of resources the world has ever known."
The Next Administration's Economy - Wall Street Column - Jesse Eisinger - Portfolio.com
Topic: Current Events
12:10 am EDT, Apr 15, 2008
The presidential campaign has gone on for so long that it feels like one of those bad dreams in which you run in slow motion but never get anywhere.
It's increasingly looking like the economic revival of the past few years—once celebrated on the right as the "Bush boom"—was a mirage, conjured up by excessive borrowing and irresponsible lending.
William F. Buckley Jr., the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House, died Wednesday. He was 82.
Who needs security when you have a robot? | ajc.com
Topic: Current Events
10:12 am EST, Feb 22, 2008
Late at night several times a week, Terrill powers up the 4-foot-tall, 300 pound device and reaches for a remote control packed with two joysticks and various knobs and switches. Standing on a nearby corner, he maneuvers the machine down the block, often to a daycare center where it accosts what Terrill says are drug dealers, vagrants and others who shouldn't be there.
He flashes the robot's spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot's sound system.
"I tell them they are trespassing, it's private property, and they have to leave," he said. "They throw bottles and cans at it. That's when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches."
OMG, I can't believe he actually built it, and I can't believe it actually works.
Put people in a crazy situation and people do crazy things
You have no right to a lawyer you have no right to witnesses You don't really know what the charges are And you certainly don't know what the secret evidence is against you
Its not about left or right, its about right and wrong
Secret Service presence has increased for Sen. Barack Obama since his dramatic win in Iowa, amid fears over the safety of the man seeking to become America's first black president.
A veterinary's arm dripping in a crocodile's mouth in southern Taiwan, China, April 11, 2007. The veterinary's arm was bitten off while he was treating the injured crocodile.
