meehawl

After the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans … Before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O’Beirne’s office in the Pentagon … a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts … what seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration. O’Beirne’s staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O’Beirne’s office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq’s government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance — but had applied for a White House job — was sent to reopen Baghdad’s stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq’s $13 billion budget, even though they didn’t have a background in accounting.

Previously.

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The vole, a mouselike rodent, is not only the fastest evolving mammal, but also harbors a number of puzzling genetic traits that challenge current scientific understanding … [voles have] evolved in the last 500,000 to 2 million years. This means voles are evolving 60-100 times faster than the average vertebrate

If these numbers are taken at face value, then an average of 30 microtine speciation events have occurred every million years [vole] mtDNA genomes are evolving more rapidly than any other mammalian lineage we sampled, as gauged by the rate of nucleotide substitution across the entire mtDNA genome as well as at each individual protein-coding gene. Additionally, we compared substitution rates within the cytochrome b gene to seven other rodent genera and found that Microtus mtDNA is evolving fastest. The root cause of accelerated evolution in Microtus remains uncertain.

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Fully two-thirds of the [US] Army’s operating force, both active and reserve, is now reporting in as “unready”—that is, they lack the equipment, people, or training they need to execute their assigned missions. Not a single one of the Army’s Brigade Combat Teams—its core fighting units—currently in the United States is ready to deploy. In short, the Army has no strategic reserve.

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The gunman who went on a shooting rampage at a Montreal college Wednesday apparently left an online journal … Kimveer Gill was the author of an online diary posted at the website vampirefreaks.com … “Metal and Goth kick ass. Life is like a video game, you gotta die sometime”.

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Jessica Reif Cohen, a Merrill Lynch analyst, wrote in a note to clients Thursday that remarks two days before by Universal Chief Executive Officer Doug Morris meant Universal was getting set to sue not just the popular Web site, but possibly others that like YouTube rely on user-generated content.

Universal chief executive Doug Morris described video site YouTube and News Corp.’s social networking site MySpace as “copyright infringers” during a Merrill Lynch investors’ conference speech on Tuesday that was closed to the press. “The poster child for (user-generated media) sites are MySpace and YouTube … We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars … How we deal with these companies will be revealed shortly”.

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Ethanol production in the US was growing so rapidly it might drive up corn prices and push livestock producers into a costly scramble for grain … One-fifth of this year’s corn crop would be used in making ethanol for use in motor vehicles … The US corn stockpile is forecast to fall by 40 per cent in the coming year to 1.22 billion bushels (31 million tonnes).

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Physical cleansing has been a focal element in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. The prevalence of this practice suggests a psychological association between bodily purity and moral purity … we explored what we call the “Macbeth effect”—that is, a threat to one’s moral purity induces the need to cleanse oneself. This effect revealed itself through an increased mental accessibility of cleansing-related concepts, a greater desire for cleansing products, and a greater likelihood of taking antiseptic wipes. Furthermore, we showed that physical cleansing alleviates the upsetting consequences of unethical behavior and reduces threats to one’s moral self-image. Daily hygiene routines such as washing hands, as simple and benign as they might seem, can deliver a powerful antidote to threatened morality, enabling people to truly wash away their sins.

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Analysis of [cerebrospinal fluid] samples showed a differential distribution of metabolites in samples from healthy volunteers away from drug-naïve patients with first-onset schizophrenia … The metabolic profile … was characteristically altered in patients with schizophrenia … Whilst the drug-naïve patients with first-onset schizophrenia clustered very tightly together, a small number of samples did not show a clear separation … this may indicate the existence of schizophrenia subgroups … the increased concentrations of glucose together with other metabolic perturbations, such as lower levels of acetate and lactate, and a pH-dependent shift in glutamine resonances, may represent a more specific disease diagnostic for schizophrenia.

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Dramatic evidence that America is involved in illegal mercenary operations in east Africa has emerged … The leaked communications between US private military companies suggest the CIA had knowledge of the plans to run covert military operations inside Somalia – against UN rulings … One email dated Friday, 16 June, is from Michele Ballarin, chief executive of Select Armor – a US military firm … She refers to one ‘closed-door meeting’ with a senior UN figure and mentions there are ‘a number of Brit security firms’ also looking to get involved … She then suggests that the CIA have been kept informed of the plans.

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MORE Scots now favour living in an independent nation than remaining part of the United Kingdom … support for independence has almost doubled since 2000, a year after the founding of the Scottish parliament … [a] poll shows the Scottish National party neck and neck with Labour, enough to allow the SNP to lead a ruling coalition after next year’s Scottish election … The findings appear to reflect a growing disenchantment among voters at the limitations of devolved government. [Scottish National Party leader Alex] Salmond intends to hold a referendum on independence if his party takes power: 2007 is the 300th anniversary of the Act of Union.

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