Reuters Oddments:
Cross-dressing heats up Texas Republican race. I hope it was a conservative neckline and hemline ...
Reuters:
U.S. Terrorism Policy Spawns Steady Staff Exodus. “Some also left because they felt President Bush had sidelined his counterterrorism experts and paid almost exclusive heed to the vice president, the defense secretary and other Cabinet members in planning the ‘war on terror,’ former counterterrorism officials said.”
New Scientist:
Experts divided over poison bomb claim. “... I think that going for fertiliser and nails seems more straightforward and is less likely not to work out ...”
WWF:
Eco-friendly living, made easy. “The homes are fitted with energy-efficient refrigerators, ovens, and other electrical appliances. Solar panels and an onsite combined heat and power plant — which runs on tree surgery waste — provide hot water and electricity.” Cool. I wonder why more developers in the US aren’t trying this? There’s certainly a market ...
Femail.co.UK:
Following up on the ‘nose picking’ link a week ago, here’s a treat: Eating worms is good for you.
IHT:
Media: homes of adultery and angst. Looking at ‘suburban novels.’ Well, David Lynch hasn’t written a novel yet ... the suburbs can be quite entertaining, you know ...
VOA:
Powerful Afghan Warlord Attacks Northern Province. “A fresh burst of factional fighting would be bad news for the Kabul government which is trying to ensure security for landmark elections due to be held in September.”
The Economist:
Science and the Bush Administration: Cheating nature? “One example cited in the UCS report involved William Miller, a psychologist and psychiatrist at the University of New Mexico. He said that when he was being interviewed for a position on a National Institute on Drug Abuse advisory panel, he was asked whether his views agreed with those of Mr Bush, and whether he had voted for him in 2000. Another is that of William Howard, an engineer who says that he was told by a member of the Army Science Board staff that his nomination to the board was turned down because he had contributed to John McCain’s presidential campaign.”
The Economist
thinks that John Kerry is in for some challenges, with the current jobs stats.
Commentary:
Fiddlers three. “Because he spent his peak years laboring anonymously in the Hollywood studios instead of performing in major American cities. As a result, he failed to win the critical acclaim that a violinist of his quality might reasonably have expected to receive.” I’ll have to listen to some of the classic movie scores more attentively ...
CNN:
Got got got got no time ...
busy today. More later.
NY Times:
Foraging for votes. Polls are a helpful guide, but a poor master. Don’t let polls influence your personal ethics.
NY Times Op-Ed Contributor:
Labor’s lost jobs. The Heritage Foundation uses smoke and mirrors. Yes, the unemployment rate is low [6.2% in the Carter ‘70’s, 7.3% in the Reagan 80’s, 5.8% in the Clinton 90’s]. But the other conclusions are shrouded in half-truths.
The statistics about the self-employed and limited liability startups are misleading. See the Small Business Administration’s FAQ for information on how many of these startups fail, and how often. This will also not prevent double-counting; many people work, and create secondary businesses. Neither are these startups necessarily sustaining family economic units. There’s a pretty huge rate of failure, for start-ups, that the statistics would have to take into account if you wish to play with these numbers.
If my memory serves, around 65% of Americans are in the labor force ... lowest since 1987. Americans who have been out of work for 27 weeks or greater make up 22.9% of the unemployed ... the worst showing in a half-century [I think there was a brief spike in the late 80’s, however, during Bush Sr.?].
It is a discouraging job market, and playing with the numbers doesn’t hide our economic pain.
SF New Mexican:
Critics: Uranium plant hurts nonproliferation. We don’t want it here, even if it means jobs. And furthermore, we don’t think it’s ethical, if we’re truly committed to nonproliferation.
SF New Mexican/AP:
Heavy rains fill northern lakes and add to runoff. “Navajo Reservoir, Heron Lake and El Vado Lake rose by as much as a foot a day last week, according to state parks officials, who said those parks will open sooner than expected.” Our poor northern lake/reservoirs have been suffering, the past couple of years. This is excellent news.
In the comments left yesterday,
Jeremiah pointed to this PDF from the California Attorney General’s office, on the subject of gas prices, margin, refining costs, etc. Total prices seem to have little correlation, over time, with crude oil prices.
BBC:
US courts Nepal as anti-terror partner. $40 mill in humanitarian aid, $17 mill in modern weaponry. “The Bush administration has also run into criticism for aiding an army that has been accused of - and admitted to - some egregious human rights abuses. Just 10 days before the collapse of peace talks last August, the army killed 21 people in the eastern district of Ramechhap. They were lined up and executed at the end of a three-hour march.” The latter, the weaponry, sounds like a really poor investment.
NY Times:
A great find on Metafilter ... Cheney Tax Plan From ‘86 Would Have Raised Gas Prices.
The American Prospect:
Collateral Damage. How the war in Iraq impacted the hunt for Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. “... the Fifth Group Special Forces, an elite unit trained in the local languages of Afghanistan and the Pakistani border region, was pulled off the al-Qaeda hunt and redeployed to Iraq. With the group’s members went America’s only two RC135 U spy planes. Scarce resources like Arabic translators with sufficient security clearances were seized by the Iraq campaign, as were the many FBI agents assigned to interview thousands of Iraqi Americans.”
Khaleej Times:
“Passion” flouts Islamic taboos to rapt Arab viewers. “Film critics said the Jewish outcry at the film seems to have encouraged conservative Arab governments to break their strict censorship rules and allow The Passion to be aired uncut.”
Institute of Science in Society:
Immunitor, of Thailand, seems to have found something effective against HIV/AIDS.
The Ledger/AP:
Texas Cops Find Dynamite Along Roadsides. “... one elderly man who had found some sticks told police he nearly put one on the stove as sausage.”
Reuters AlertNet:
As Rwanda marks genocide, killing rages in Sudan. “Like Rwanda before the genocide, the Darfur conflict has won scant international attention, unfolding in remote villages scattered across a region of seven million inhabitants with roughly the same surface area as Iraq.”
ENN:
Alaska offshore drilling plan opposed by Arctic natives. “Any spilled oil could become trapped under pack ice, impossible to clean up and unlikely to degrade in the frigid temperatures, they say. They also cite scientific studies showing that industrial noise, light, and traffic are extremely disruptive to whales and other wildlife.”
