Sadr’s Tête à Tête
It’s no surprise that so few stopped to absorb the disastrous six-day battle of Basra that ended last week — a mini-Tet that belied the “success†of the surge … the political coalition and...
meehawl all that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned
Negativ African Landers
After his impassioned defense of aid, an African man in the audience asked Bono, “Where do you place the African person as a thinker, a creator of wealth?” Visibly wounded by the question, confused...
Walmart’s Corporate Socialism
Sam “Walmart” Walton practiced corporate socialism. As much as he could, he put the public’s money to work for his benefit. Free land, long-term leases at below-market rates, pocketing sales taxes, even getting workers...
My Own Private Iowa
So we’re driving NY–>San Diego with a car full of crap and I am pleased to find that in the middle of the scary Great Iowan Corn Wilderness I can tether the PC to...
Black Rent Iraq Blowback
“The only reason anything works or anybody deals with us is because we give them money,” says a young Army intelligence officer. The 2nd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, which patrols Osama’s territory, is...
Measuring Small Victories
Many months ago I emailed a friend in Google, peeved that it was impossible to get the US version of Google Maps to print out distances in metric. Apparently, someone eventually fixed this and...
A Great Disturbance in the Nerd Force
Gary Gygax, who co-created the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons and helped start the role-playing phenomenon, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva. He was 69. The thing I liked most about...
Heavy Mixer
[Florida’s] first ethanol-production factory put in a request for 400,000 gallons (1.5m litres) a day of city water. The request by US Envirofuels would make the facility one of [Tampa’s] top ten water consumers...
Bacterial Bukkakke, Redux
Mainstream media is amazed to rediscover, every few years, that white fluffy clouds are in fact basically enormous migratory reproductive organs for bacteria super colonies. Atmospheric scientists have long known that under most conditions...
That’s Another Few For The Fire
The dead have quit rotting in German cemeteries — they are turning into wax-like corpses … Corpses are no longer decaying … Instead, the deceased become waxen, an uncanny process that has become so...