On May 26, 2003, L. Paul Bremer declared Iraq “open for business.” Four years on, business is booming, albeit not as the former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority intended.

...

In the face of the “creative destruction” wrought by invading forces, regular people articulate alternative paths of “creative destruction” that may express themselves with reference to alternative political and economic projects, or simply arise in the struggle to get by. Absent clear boundaries, strategy is reduced to tactics. The agents of a war economy thus do not necessarily fight to win as such: They are engaged within and act so as to reproduce an emergent, constantly shifting tactical environment. Meanwhile, there will be no single declaration of victory, no event signaling the end of one order and the beginning of a new one. Sadly, the one thing we can be sure of is that Bremer’s cohorts in the political risk business will be there to profit from his mistakes.

On its face, this publication appears questionable, but their background page notes:

According to a leading analyst, Graham Fuller of the Rand Corporation (and co-author of The Zapatista "Social Netwar" in Mexico), "Middle East Report is the single most valuable periodical I receive on Middle East affairs, offering a wealth of material unavailable elsewhere. This outstanding journal provides truly fresh, unconventional, insightful information and views that are still essential to my research even years after publication."

I can't find that quote independently sourced by RAND or Fuller, but presumably he wouldn't let it stand misquoted ...

The War Economy of Iraq

I already told you to see this film, but I'm going to mention it again.

Little Dieter Needs to Fly was a powerfully incantatory film, in part because of the actual Dengler's matter-of-fact description of running barefoot through the tangled tropical foliage—dodging monsoons, sliding down ravines, fending off leeches, eating snakes, and fighting delirium as well as sudden attacks by Laotian tribals. Rescue Dawn, which rivals Apocalypto as a jungle marathon, has all this and more. Bale even looks authentically starved (as in The Machinist) ... Rescue Dawn is the closest thing to a "real" movie that Herzog has ever made.

See also, coming soon:

A conversation with Charlie Rose and actor Christian Bale about his new movie Rescue Dawn. The film is based on the true story of Dieter Dengler, a fighter pilot shot down during the Vietnam war and taken hostage at a POW camp.

Here are more quotes from an interview with Herzog:

What's your next adventure as a "soldier of cinema"?

I shot a film in Antarctica. The tentative title is Encounters at the End of the World. It's not about fluffy penguins—but it does have a sequence about insanity and a primitive form of prostitution among penguins.

Can you wait?

Rescue Dawn: Werner Herzog Takes His Hero Worship Hollywood

Life on the streets with the anti-narcotics police of Guinea Bissau and Liberia. See the accompanying article.

Cocaine Country - Photo Essays - TIME

SoundExchange says that it has offered small webcasters (those with revenues of under $1.2 million) a subsidy that would extend the current, revenue-based agreement until 2010. Yet webcasters, still hoping for a more beneficial outcome, have also petitioned the DC Circuit Court of Appeals for a stay of the rate increase.

The Last Stand of Internet Radio?

Gary Ziak came across the remains of about 10 bears last week. While the heads, hides and paws piled at Jewell Meadows weren't visible from the highway, turkey vultures circling the heap were, said Ziak, who builds roads for Nygaard Logging. His curiosity turned into alarm when he took a closer look.

One bad apple ...

Like sea lions snacking on Columbia River salmon, it's not the entire bear species causing problems. Bark-peeling is a learned behavior, Higgins said, pointing to research by Wildlife Services in Olympia, Wash.

"One bear will teach another bear, and then that bear will do it," he said. "There are bears that peel and bears that don't peel. We target peeling bears."

And of course, I can't pass up this opportunity:

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The "Bear Patrol" is working like a charm!
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: [uncomprehendingly] Thanks, honey.
Lisa: By your logic, I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Hmm. How does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work; it's just a stupid rock!
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: (pause) Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

Bear carcasses spark alarm

Click through for the pictures, I'm told; the writing is apparently somewhat hyperbolic. More photos here.

When I began reporting from Iraq in 2002, I was still a wild and somewhat naïve twenty-four-year-old kid. Five years later, I was battle-weary. I had been there longer than the American military and had kept returning long after most members of the “coalition of the willing” had pulled out. Iraq had become my initiation, my rite of passage, but instead of granting me a new sense of myself and a new identity, Iraq had become my identity. Without Iraq, I was nothing. Just another photographer hanging around New York. In Iraq, I had a purpose, a mission; I felt important. I didn’t want to go back, but I needed to—and for the worst possible reason: I wasn’t ready for it to end. After twelve months away, I had a craving that only Iraq could satisfy.

A rotting corpse is devoured by dogs after having lain there for at least nine days.

Last Photographs, by Ashley Gilbertson

Cruising the pack-ice very slowly, we discovered this Polar Bear and her cubs in the afternoon of June 18th 2006, in the Hinlopen Strait on the east side of Spitsbergen. They had just caught a Bearded Seal and were feasting on it. We were very lucky to be able to watch this wonderful event for almost three quarters of an hour.

Polar Bears of Spitsbergen

Just because they’re cute and small doesn’t mean the Aranzi Aronzo characters don’t have real lives. Some of them are really deep. Some of them, like Terry the Aranzi store-dog/mascot, are not so deep. We’d go so far as to say he’s a little dim-witted. But you want to know what they’re up to right? Where they’ve been, where they want to be?

The Aranzi Machine Gun series is no firearm catalog. It’s a massive assault of cuteness and ridiculousness, with a special craft section at the end of every issue, to make practical use of the hilarious (if useless) inside scoops you got in the rest of the book.

Scary Cute Aranzi Aronzo

The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein was born in Missouri, and his fiction was mostly set in the future and on distant planets. But there's no question that Heinlein—born 100 years ago this week—was one of Southern California's great prophets.

Heinlein is truly the bard of Southern California.

L.A.'s Nostradamus

Consider the implications of the fact that a suite full of inexpensive machines -- say between $5,000 and $25,000 in cost -- can be used to fabricate just about anything, given a little training on the machines and a good bit of ingenuity.

The author focuses on the power of his team getting a fablab. I would ask, consider the implications of a fablab-powered insurgency. Whereas Negroponte seeks one laptop per child in Africa, a wealthy extremist might establish a One FabLab Per Jihadist program throughout the Middle East. Maybe it would even be a BioFabLab.

Counterinsurgents Should Consider a 'Fabrication Cell'