My favorite part?

"Mr Putin's first victims were the media moguls Vladimir Gusinsky and Boris Berezovsky. "

The shiner is including Gusinsky here, as though Putin was doing the Russian people a great "reformation" service. When in fact, he went after Gusinsky because he had the [b]last[/b] independant national network in Russia, effectively [b]ending[/b] freedom of the press. Now everytime Putin doesn't like the way something is covered (i.e. Nord Ost), he threatens to end freedom of the press, to crackdown on "abuses" of the press... and the press get together and censor themselves. The print media has more autonomy... but no one really reads or relies on print media in Russia, because most papers are "yellow papers", used to attack the enemies of X organization/oligarch.

Berezovsky had a large part in putting him in power, and then he exiles Berezovsky. I don't take issue with that part of the sentence, because Berezovsky is a real thieving bastard. Things like the All Russian Automobile Alliance, where he issued "stock" to form a corporation... and then never did anything with it. Just took all the money. Many millions of dollars from the Russian people that were struggling with hyperinflation. Put simply, Berezovsky is a motherfucker, but even he was expelled because he was simply too powerful, because he posed competition... and because he had MOCT media, which could criticize the president.

I just find it hard to believe the way the Western Press covers Russia sometimes. X Oligarch getting sacked is not reform if he is replaced by an FSB official that is just as bad (the state still has shares in most large enterprises), who will continue to steal, and has the added job qualification of having committed crimes against the Russian people as a KGB agent.

Oh well, they do mention Putin's political motivation in questioning Xodorkovsky at the end.

BBC NEWS | Business | Prosecutors quiz Russia's richest man

] The United States is now clearly involved in a guerrilla
] war in the Sunni regions of Iraq. As a result, U.S.
] forces are engaging in counterinsurgency operations,
] which historically have proven most difficult and trying
] -- for both American forces and American politics.
] Suppressing a guerrilla operation without alienating the
] indigenous population represents an extreme challenge to
] the United States that at this point does not appear
] avoidable -- and the seriousness of which does not appear
] to be broadly understood.

While the US media is so confident that the US won the Iraq war that the subject has become passe, it turns out that the capitulation of troops was part of a deliberate strategy. Hussein may in fact still be in control of his military. The war is not over. The US has not won.

Iraq war actually isn't over.

] "There are so many cartoons where press people are saying
] 'Is it Vietnam yet?' hoping it is, and wondering if it
] is, and it isn't," Rumsfeld told reporters at the
] Pentagon. "It's a different time, it's a different era,
] it's a different place."

Wow Mr Rumsfeld, thank you for the clarification on that! You’re right. Iraq ISN’T Vietnam - I see now by my atlas that Vietnam is actually a small country in the orient thousands of miles away - no where near the Middle East!

I'm so glad we have government officials with your caliber of reasoning and deduction of logic to point out stuff that might other wise confuse us helpless sheep.

Laughing Boy

Support for Iraq war slipping

] Japanese bookstores are set to launch a national campaign
] to stop so-called "digital shoplifting" by customers
] using the lastest camera-equipped mobile phones.
]
] The Japanese Magazine Publishers Association says the
] practice is "information theft" and it wants it stopped.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Japan's 'digital shoplifting' plague

] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday
] suspended military assistance to nearly 50 countries,
] including Colombia and six nations seeking NATO
] membership, because they have supported the International
] Criminal Court and failed to exempt Americans from
] possible prosecution.

Hmmm... I suppose those countries will start buying more weapons from Russia, France and China now?

US Suspends all military aid to 50 countries

This link is basically slashdotted right now... I don't think these people really understand exactly how much people do not like telemarketing... Anyway, hopefully it will clear up in a few hours and we can get registered...

National Do Not Call List Online

] Foul play was immediately suspected as having a role in
] Lee's passing. Chow appeared on television to try to
] settle the public furor that quickly developed. He
] explained what happened, omitting only the fact that Lee
] had not died at home. The press soon uncovered the truth,
] however, and demanded to know what Chow was trying to
] cover up. R.D. Teare, a professor of forensic medicine at
] the University of London who had overseen more than
] 90,000 autopsies, was called in and declared that it was
] basically impossible for the cannabis to be a factor in
] Lee's death. In Teare's opinion, the edema was caused by
] hypersensitivity to either meprobamate or aspirin, or a
] combination of both. His view was accepted by
] authorities, and a determination of "misadventure" was
] stamped on Lee's death.

Watched Dragon, hadda check this out.

The Mystery of Bruce Lee's Death

] Sometimes you run across stories that leave you
] scratching your head. Well, we have just such a tale, one
] you might just have to see to believe. And, it's all
] about an Oklahoma City dog. But this is no ordinary dog.
]
] "She eats a lot and she plays. She's really spoiled,"
] said her owner, Laura Stringfellow.
]
] Meet Faith. All dog. Except for one thing.
]
]
] "She's very incredible," Stringfellow said.
]
]
] Faith walks upright, like a human.

OOOOOH. Good shit. I would pay for one of these. Which gene is it again that governs segmentation and limb development? If you can make a fish glow... why not make a 2 legged dog? I want.

A dog tale deserving of a 'standing' ovation

] Battlefield: Pirates' controls and gameplay are a little
] different, so to get the most out of the experience,
] please read the section on "The Units" because you may
] want to remap some keys, and optionally also "strategies"
] to get that edge on your rival pirates.
]
] Please be aware that this mod is probably a little
] different than what you're used to. Pirates hate being on
] land, they hate being in the air, and they hate
] newfangled contraptions.
]
] If you're looking for another mod full of running and
] gunning, dive-bombing, and blasting away with tanks, this
] probably isn't for you.
]
] If you get excited about the idea of sailing uncharted
] waters, searching the fog for rival ships, and
] maneuvering into the perfect position to lay iron unto
] your enemy before he can do the same to you, then you've
] come to the right place.

All you Battlefield 1942 players that are tired of the original, and the popular Desert Combat mod... this looks promising.

BF Pirates

] The Medtronic was originally developed as a tool for
] brain surgery: by stimulating or slowing down specific
] regions of the brain, it allowed doctors to monitor the
] effects of surgery in real time. But it also produced,
] they noted, strange and unexpected effects on patients'
] mental functions: one minute they would lose the ability
] to speak, another minute they would speak easily but
] would make odd linguistic errors and so on. A number of
] researchers started to look into the possibilities, but
] one in particular intrigued Snyder: that people
] undergoing transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS,
] could suddenly exhibit savant intelligence -- those
] isolated pockets of geniuslike mental ability that most
] often appear in autistic people.

Weird ...

Savant for a Day