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Israel leaks plans for nuclear strike on Iran. The details were leaked (on purpose it appears) from Israeli military personal in order to test the waters, prepare the world, and/or put pressure on others to act first. One source: "As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished." Glad I don't live in the Middle East.
comment posted at 7:23 PM on Jan-7-07

Little Mosque on the Prairie is a new Canadian sitcom that premiers January 9th at 8:30 PM EST on the CBC. To promote the series, 135 kilograms of shawarma was served up (embedded Flash video) Thursday on a downtown Toronto street, with a flock of camels on hand to spread the halal-arity. Considerable buzz is being generated, with American talking heads discussing the effect this show may have, and why it would never have been created in the US. Says series creator Zarqa Nawaz: "North America should be the first place where a comedy like this would come about, where Muslims can be comfortable in their own skin."
comment posted at 5:41 PM on Jan-6-07

...The point that I do want to stress is that when this economy collapses, it is bound to be much worse. Another point I would like to stress is that collapse here is likely to be permanent. The factors that allowed Russia and the other former Soviet republics to recover are not present here. In spite of all this, I believe that in every age and circumstance, people can sometimes find not just a means and a reason to survive, but enlightenment, fulfillment, and freedom. If we can find them even after the economy collapses, then why not start looking for them now? Thank you.

Closing the 'Collapse Gap': the USSR was better prepared for peak oil than the US
comment posted at 10:40 AM on Jan-5-07

"And guess what software Osama Bin Laden uses on his laptop?"
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So, about Michael Crichton...
comment posted at 3:27 PM on Dec-18-06

ethnic cleansing from the Balkans to Israel the policies of ethnic cleansing employed by the Nazis are used against the Palestinians.
comment posted at 3:57 PM on Nov-30-06

William S. Burroughs' Thanksgiving Prayer
comment posted at 3:38 PM on Nov-23-06

Murder Update: "Syria's Lebanese allies are trying to undermine the Hariri investigation from within, and are expected to escalate their efforts very soon, maybe even this week."
comment posted at 3:35 PM on Nov-21-06

Stalin's death camps killed more people than Hitler's. America's army in 1939 was smaller than Poland's. The casualties of the 1944 Warsaw uprising were the equivalent of the September 11th, 2001 attack on the World Trade Centre, every day for two months.

Whatever you think about the second world war is wrong.
comment posted at 9:53 AM on Nov-17-06

Animated Boobs. [NSFW]
comment posted at 6:13 PM on Nov-3-06
comment posted at 6:14 PM on Nov-3-06

The Holocaust Cartoon Contest results are in and the winner is Moroccan cartoonist Abdellah Derkaoui, who won $12 000 for his effort, "depicting an Israeli crane piling large cement blocks on Israel's security wall and gradually obscuring Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem." The contest was launched in response to the Danish cartoon controversy (previously discussed), with the intent of testing the limits of freedom of expression, so please resist the urge to riot - YHBT. 204 of the entries are now on display.
comment posted at 6:35 PM on Nov-2-06

Sheikh Hilali, the mufti of Australia, has raised more than a few eyebrows when he declared that rape-victims are to blame for tempting men: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park and the cats come and eat it -- whose fault is it? The cats or the uncovered meat?" Needless to say, the mufti doesn't think the cats are to blame. Australians (including their PM) are not amused and call for the mufti to step down. Even many Islamic women think it's the mufti, and not the meat, that stinks. Others argue that at least the mufti (quickly christened the "rape cleric" by some news outlets) will force Muslims to fess up and take a stand on whether they really think that women are Satan's agents who incite rape with immodest dress. The Sheikh himself found it wisest to go on a "self-imposed holiday" to join the Hajj in Mecca, possibly to pray for attire with larger surface area, and left with the disingenuous remark that he might step down if someone could "prove" what his *real* intentions were when he made his controversial comments.
comment posted at 1:11 PM on Oct-28-06

SF writers only use six words. A collection of six word epics from the cream of contemporary SF writers. Can Mefi do better? I reckon!
comment posted at 11:53 PM on Oct-24-06

On October 11, 2006, a Tactical Nuclear Device appears to have exploded when fire broke out in an ammunition dump at Camp Falcon inside Iraq. Video from live nightly newscast in Baghdad caught the detonation - miles away - (3:58 marker) with its characteristic ENORMOUS blinding white flash, a rising core of fire then a small mushroom cloud!
comment posted at 11:35 PM on Oct-21-06

OCTOBER 22 IS INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY!!!
EVERY YEAR WE GET TOGETHER AND MAKE SALMON FOR TOAST, EVERY YEAR WE GET A CROCKETY BLOAT, EVERY YEAR WE GET DRUNK ON THE DOCKS, AND EVERY YEAR WE HAVE SEX WITH OUR CAPS LOCKS!!!!
comment posted at 9:04 PM on Oct-21-06

Old textbooks proposed as protective shields. One political candidate's idea is to reissue outdated textbooks and place them under desks so that students can use them defensively when a shooter opens fire. They actually stop most handgun bullets, although raise the specter of a passive bystander society.
comment posted at 11:20 AM on Oct-21-06

The French do some things well and, well, some things not so well. (see)
comment posted at 5:29 PM on Oct-20-06
comment posted at 10:18 AM on Oct-21-06

...Would it surprise you to learn that if the Johns Hopkins estimates of 400,000 to 800,000 deaths are correct -- and many experts in the survey field seem to suggest they probably are -- that the supposedly not-yet-civil-war in Iraq has already cost more lives, per capita, than our own Civil War (one in 40 of all Iraqis alive in 2003) ? And that these losses are comparable to what some European nations suffered in World War II ? You'd never know it from mainstream press coverage in the U.S. "Everybody knows the boat is leaking, everybody knows the captain lied," Leonard Cohen once sang. The question the new study raises: How many will go down with the ship, and will the press finally hold the captain fully accountable ?

Iraqi Death Rate May Top Our Civil War -- But Will the Press Confirm It ?
See also Debating the Body Count in Iraq
See also Deaths in Iraq: how many, and why it matters
See also The Science of Counting the Dead
See also How the Media Covered The Lancet’s Iraqi Casualty Study
See also More deadly than Saddam
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Swords and Sandals .. Create a gladiator, arm him up with a variety of armour and weapons, and send him into battle against a horde of crazy gladiators. [note: flash]
comment posted at 2:34 PM on Oct-19-06

As Americans, we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.
comment posted at 10:24 AM on Oct-19-06

The Beginning of the End of America. (YouTube, Keith Olbermann)
comment posted at 9:24 AM on Oct-19-06
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comment posted at 10:17 AM on Oct-21-06

Canada's governing Conservative Party has expelled one of its Members of Parliament -- for blogging. Garth Turner, Conservative MP for Halton, author of "The Turner Diaries Report" (link) was today suspended from the ruling party's caucus because of his blog. "There is [sic] attacks that were made on individuals, including the Prime Minister," explained Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer. "The theme of confidentiality was not being respected, in their opinion, and it restricted the ability for members to operate in a confidential way." At least one national pundit compares the exiling to 1984.
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