] The White House is vowing a strong retaliatory response
] after the BBC aired live video of President Bush getting
] his hair coiffed in the Oval Office as he squirmed in his
] chair and practiced on the teleprompter minutes before
] Wednesday night's speech announcing the launch of
] military operations against Saddam Hussein.
]
] "The facts are that it was an unauthorized use of footage
] and video," a senior White House official told us, asking
] not to be named. "Both the BBC and CBS have apologized,
] and it would be understandable if this were the only time
] this has happened. I'm not suggesting it was intentional,
] but this kind of thing has happened more than once."
]
] Henceforth, the official said, the White House -- not the
] networks -- will throw the switches that make pool feeds
] available to broadcast outlets. "There have been too many
] incidents," the official said, listing various
] presidential speeches allegedly marred by pool-feed
] glitches. "We have to make sure we are comfortable with
] the situation."

Someone really needs to meme a link to video of this..

BBC Catches Bush Getting Primed for Battle

] Traveling unescorted into Safwan today, I got a far
] different picture. Rather than affection and
] appreciation, I saw a lot of hostility toward the
] coalition forces, the United States and President Bush.
]
] Some were even directed towards the media. (It was the
] first time I heard somebody refer to me as a "Satan.")
]
] To be sure, conversations with people on the street here
] begin relatively calmly. But the more they talked, the
] angrier they got.
]
] In part, much of their discontent stems from the unknown.
] In speaking with them, the newly-liberated Iraqis ask the
] same questions that seem to nag many outside Iraq.
]
] Why are you here in this country? Are you trying to take
] over? Are you going to take our country forever? Are the
] Israelis coming next? Are you here to steal our oil? When
] are you going to get out?

... much of this will subside fast if aid follows on the heels of the troops.. and transition from occupation to self governance moves at a rapid rate.

Of course, the war is far from over too..

ABCNEWS.com : 'Liberated' Iraqis Question U.S. Motives

Yahoo's current search popularity statistics.

Yahoo! Buzz

] Thousands of Arabs seething with anger about a heavy
] U.S.-led bombing of Baghdad protested for a third day on
] Saturday, amid concern the demonstrations could threaten
] stability in the volatile region.
]
] With live footage of the fiery explosions and burning
] buildings in Iraq beamed into most Arab homes, feelings
] are running high over what many consider a sinister ploy
] to dominate the Arab world.
]
] "Did you see all those bombs falling on TV? All the poor
] people? And for what? America wants to subjugate the
] entire region for the sake of Israel. They want to bring
] the Arabs to their knees," said 50-year-old Egyptian
] housewife Samia.
]
] Some analysts say the widespread and sometimes violent
] anti-war protests, from Arab states in the Gulf to
] Morocco on the Atlantic, have the potential to undermine
] stability in a region described by one expert as a
] "cauldron of discontent."

Reuters | Arabs Seethe as TV Brings Iraq Destruction Home

To make the fibres, Yushan Yan and a team of engineers from the University of California at Riverside give the silk thread a glassy coating, and then extract the silk by baking. They soon expect to be able to make hollow fibres with cores just two nanometres wide - or 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.

New Scientist | Spider silk delivers finest optical fibres

Fiction came before fact in the genesis of no-rules tournaments. Long before real full-contact inter-style competitions began, dozens of Hong Kong movies focused on imaginary secret tournaments in which fighters of different styles were lured to the mysterious East and forced to fight each other to the death: sumo vs. karate, judo vs. kickboxing, boxers against capoeira masters, aikido gurus against wrestlers. Despite the fact that every one of these movies made money from the hordes of dreaming nerds around the world, it wasn’t till the late eighties some entrepreneur in the US got the obvious idea of doing one of those tournaments for real.

eXile #162 - Nostalgia for the Blood Mop - by John Dolan

] The argument put forward by Berman, who is one of the
] most elegant and provocative thinkers to emerge from
] America's New Left, will both infuriate and engage
] those on all sides of the political spectrum. In a
] recent interview with Salon, Berman insisted that
] while he does not support the Bush administration
] -- actually, he detests how President Bush has handled
] the case for war and warns "we will pay for it" -- he
] thinks it was also dangerous for the antiwar movement
] to ignore the threat that was posed by a ruthless Iraqi
] regime that killed a million people and threatened the
] stability of the world.
]
] We spoke with Berman in New York, before and after
] bombs started falling on Baghdad.

p2. Osama is no Hitler -- or is he?
p3. Trying to save the world, Bush terrifies it
p4. We are all Noam Chomsky

Salon.com Books | Bush is an idiot, but he was right about Saddam

] An RAF aircraft is missing, following reports that it was
] hit by an American missile.
]
] It was not yet known what type of aircraft was involved
] or how many crew were on board, although a search for
] survivors is underway.
]
] It is thought the plane was brought down by a US Patriot
] anti-missile system stationed in the Gulf to protect
] Kuwait and coalition forces stationed there.

Also, Reuters news alert: (Sun March 23, 2003 02:57 AM ET)
] LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said it appeared that a Royal
] Air Force plane that went missing in the Gulf on Sunday
] had been shot down by a U.S. Patriot missile.
]
] "It appears the RAF aircraft was engaged by a Patriot
] missile near the Kuwaiti border. The crew are missing .
] I can't confirm the type of aircraft or the number of
] crew," said a spokesman for Britain's Defense Ministry.

BBC NEWS | UK | RAF aircraft hit by US Patriot missile

] U.S. Army General Guy Shields, director of the Coalition
] Press Information Center in Kuwait, said he had reports
] that reporters came under fire in four separate incidents
] while operating independently of U.S. or British forces.
]
] "We have had phone calls from journalists who have called
] the press desk while under fire screaming for help," he
] told a news briefing.

US Has Reports of 3 Media Casualties in South Iraq (washingtonpost.com)

] TotalFinaElf (TOTF.PA) shut its oil production facilities
] in Nigeria's western delta and evacuated workers on
] Saturday because of spiraling violence that has left
] dozens of people dead, company officials said.
]
] A Reuters correspondent saw a helicopter land in the oil
] city of Warri, bringing the first group of workers
] fleeing tribal fighting in oilfields around the Escravos
] export terminal.
]
] The group was accompanied by armed soldiers.
]
] The officials said the helicopters were ferrying
] frightened workers from various TotalFinaElf facilities
] including the Opumami tank farm, the French oil firm's
] most important facility in the Obodo district where it
] produces 7,500 barrels per day of crude.
]
] But there was no immediate official confirmation to
] reports that militants had set fire to part of the tank
] farm.

Reuters | Violence in Nigeria Oil Fields