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Being "always on" is being always off, to something. |
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Supplier Under Scrutiny on Arms for Afghans |
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Topic: War on Terrorism |
7:23 am EDT, Mar 28, 2008 |
Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur. With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan’s army and police forces. Since then, the company has provided ammunition that is more than 40 years old and in decomposing packaging, according to an examination of the munitions by The New York Times and interviews with American and Afghan officials. Much of the ammunition comes from the aging stockpiles of the old Communist bloc, including stockpiles that the State Department and NATO have determined to be unreliable and obsolete, and have spent millions of dollars to have destroyed. In purchasing munitions, the contractor has also worked with middlemen and a shell company on a federal list of entities suspected of illegal arms trafficking.
(This story is also mentioned here.) Supplier Under Scrutiny on Arms for Afghans |
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The age of the anti-Cassandra |
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Topic: Politics and Law |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
Reading some of today’s news, it suddenly struck me: we’re living in the age of the anti-Cassandra. Cassandra had the gift of prophecy — she saw, correctly, what was coming — but was under a curse: nobody would believe her. Today, our public discourse is dominated by people who have been wrong about everything — but are still, mysteriously, treated as men of wisdom, whose judgments should be believed. Those who were actually right about the major issues of the day can’t get a word in edgewise.
The age of the anti-Cassandra |
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At war with the utopia of modernity |
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Topic: Politics and Law |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
Tibetans' rage is directed not at communist rule, but the consumerist threat to their traditions and sacred lands
At war with the utopia of modernity |
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ZuiPrezi - nonlinear presentation editor |
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Topic: High Tech Developments |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
ZuiPrezi is a nonlinear presentation editor, with a very intuitive interface support for many platforms and online sharing. With the help of ZuiPrezi you can create dynamic and visually structured zooming presentations using texts, videos, drawings, and present it as a very dynamic and free experience.
ZuiPrezi - nonlinear presentation editor |
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Topic: Health and Wellness |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
The superfit walk among us. They saunter or strut, depending on whether they’re showcasing their magnificent agility or their oxlike strength. They ignore the chatter in the health media over treadmill technique and pedometer steps. They scoff even at seemingly rigorous practices like Mysore Ashtanga yoga and marathon training. They are America’s self-styled fitness elite, adherents of a punishing online exercise regime called CrossFit, which orders its followers to cultivate a distinctly martial — not to say paranoid — ideal of “physical preparedness.”
God’s Workout |
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Bell crimps P2P file-sharing during peak hours |
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Topic: High Tech Developments |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
Bell Canada is slowing down access on its Sympatico internet servers for users who file share during prime time to prevent them from clogging the network, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Bell crimps P2P file-sharing during peak hours |
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In Fallujah, Peace Through Brute Strength |
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Topic: War on Terrorism |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
Zobaie, 51, knows the nature of the men in black masks. He is a former insurgent. Now, as the police chief, he has turned against the insurgency, especially al-Qaeda in Iraq. The U.S. military showcases Fallujah as a model city where U.S. policies are finally paying off and is spending hundreds of millions of dollars in the region to promote the rule of law and a variety of nation-building efforts. But the security that has been achieved here is fragile, the result of harsh tactics recalling the rule of Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown five years ago. Even as they work alongside U.S. forces, Zobaie's men admit they have beaten and tortured suspects to force confessions and exact revenge.
In Fallujah, Peace Through Brute Strength |
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The News Business: Out of Print |
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Topic: Society |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
We need to consider what will become of those people, both at home and abroad, who depend on such journalistic enterprises to keep them safe from various forms of torture, oppression, and injustice. “People do awful things to each other,” the veteran war photographer George Guthrie says in “Night and Day,” Tom Stoppard’s 1978 play about foreign correspondents. “But it’s worse in places where everybody is kept in the dark.” Ever since James Franklin’s New England Courant started coming off the presses, the daily newspaper, more than any other medium, has provided the information that the nation needed if it was to be kept out of “the dark.” Just how an Internet-based news culture can spread the kind of “light” that is necessary to prevent terrible things, without the armies of reporters and photographers that newspapers have traditionally employed, is a question that even the most ardent democrat in John Dewey’s tradition may not wish to see answered.
The News Business: Out of Print |
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Taffy DB : A JavaScript database for your browser |
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Topic: High Tech Developments |
7:26 am EDT, Mar 27, 2008 |
Taffy DB is a free and opensource JavaScript library that acts as thin data layer inside Web 2.0 and Ajax applications.
Taffy DB : A JavaScript database for your browser |
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