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After two months of sifting the information, Hegland had her answer. 'The data was really clear,' she says. 'It was mind-boggling.' It showed that most of the detainees hadn’t been caught 'on the battlefield' but rather mostly in Pakistan; fewer than half were accused of fighting against the U.S., and there was scant evidence to confirm that they were even combatants. In other words, most of the detainees probably were entirely innocent. Just a few days after Hegland published a three-part series on her findings in early February, a law professor at Seton Hall University... and his son, ...who together have represented Guantanamo detainees, published a study that also used the Defense Department’s own data... Only 8 percent of detainees at Guantanamo were labeled by the Defense Department as 'al Qaeda fighters,' they found, and just 11 percent had been captured 'on the battlefield' by coalition forces.

Who are the Prisoners at Gitmo?
comment posted at 4:22 PM on Sep-19-06
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comment posted at 9:30 PM on Sep-21-06

A fair salty lesson in polishing up yer buccaneer's tongue. (via digg.) Two days hence is international Talk Like a Pirate Day. Plug in your pirate keyboard, cut out yer favorite pirate maskie and prepare for a day full of wenches, grog and keelhaulin. Harrr. Previously 1, 2
comment posted at 4:05 PM on Sep-17-06

President Bush is preparing an astonishing U-turn on global warming, senior Washington sources say.
comment posted at 11:24 AM on Sep-17-06

Friendster awarded patent on social networking.
comment posted at 5:32 PM on Sep-16-06

Studying obedience and conformity: The Stanford Prison Experiment has been discussed many times before (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and has been made into a number of movies. Now you can watch the incredible review film made by the experimenter, with extensive documentary footage, post-experiment interviews and commentary: The Stanford Prison Experiment. [google video, 50 mins]
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The Master Plan. For the new theorists of jihad, Al Qaeda is just the beginning.
comment posted at 5:00 PM on Sep-14-06

Beirut: Before and After
comment posted at 12:53 AM on Sep-7-06

The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities. Now that this former rogue nation has fallen in line, we can turn out attention to the real terrorist threat: Britain.
comment posted at 2:04 PM on Sep-5-06
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comment posted at 10:32 PM on Sep-7-06

Canada's a nice place to live. At least I think so, anyways. And so do, apparently, about 150 delegates from the International AIDS Conference. They've decided that they'd rather stay here than go back to their homes, mostly in Africa, and are claiming refugee status in order to meet this goal. While it's understandable that some of these claims may be legitimate, and that the home countries might not have been as enticingly developed as Canada, it does seem that for some "delegates", their claims are not what they may seem.
comment posted at 5:48 PM on Sep-1-06

What Would Jerry Do? German neighborhood evicts family for praying too loud. The U.S. State Department is critical of the level of religious freedom in Germany. But would a land nearly free of Scientologists and intolerant of overt displays really be so bad?
comment posted at 2:11 PM on Aug-29-06

NSFAWDWTSAMEHOS (Not Safe For Anyone Who Doesn't Want To See A Monkey Eating His Own Splooge) via
comment posted at 4:04 PM on Aug-19-06

"Inthewrongplaceness" is a live art installation whereupon a naked woman cradles a dead pig.
comment posted at 6:39 PM on Aug-19-06

Magician David Copperfield has succeeded where Alexander the Great and Ponce De Leon failed--he's discovered the fabled Fountain of Youth. As it turns out, it's conveniently located on his posh resort in the Exuma Chain, Bahama Islands.
comment posted at 3:54 PM on Aug-16-06

Grisha Perelman, where are you? Perelman has quite possibly solved one of mathematics biggest mysteries, Poincaré’s conjecture, but has since disappeared.
comment posted at 7:47 PM on Aug-15-06

I've long felt that the U.S. of A. "jumped the shark" as a country when we rejected the Metric System. The price of gasoline would still be under a dollar (per liter). Yet, we'd drive less because a short 20 mile trip would become a long 32 km trip. Then there's the most important measurement of all [maybe NSFW animated graph], providing us with the joy of 12.9(!) while we try to ignore that Japan is .1 ahead of us and France is .1 more than South Africa. (And is that Korean average North or South?)
comment posted at 12:30 PM on Aug-14-06

60 Minutes interview with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Some have described Iran's president as just another middle eastern wacko along the lines of Saddam and Bin Laden. After viewing the 60 Minutes interview, what is your take on things?
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comment posted at 3:57 PM on Aug-16-06

TERRA! Men With 1,000 Prepaid Cellphones Planned To Attack Mackinac Bridge. Or sell them in Texas. Or, you know, something.
comment posted at 8:11 PM on Aug-13-06

Websites that changed the world? Bestest best of the web? What have you done for me today, sugar? Aug 13, 2006 — TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] has launched a Web log, using his first entry to recount his poor upbringing and ask visitors to the site if they think the United States and Israel want to start a new world war. "Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another word war" ...word war?
comment posted at 2:17 PM on Aug-13-06

Homophobia, bad 'fan' art and childish humor abound at Craig Not Bond, which is campaigning for a boycott of the new Bond film Casino Royale. Why? Because Bond is clearly not a sissy blonde fag who can't drive a stick. A painful excursion down to the innermost (and utterly painful) depths of pissed off fandom.
comment posted at 9:40 PM on Aug-12-06

Life has stresses. Happiness has an important roll in people’s lives. If learning how to cook can make you happy, you will work towards learning how to improve your cooking skills, or if improving your social skills will suit you, you will learn how to actually achieve your goal by learning how to be more confident, charming and social, there's nothing wrong with that. I found a site on the Internet that teach men how to seduce women. I have mixed feelings about it, it looks convincing. I didn't get the books yet, but I would like to learn how to be better with women. I know some men might say they don't need help or that no other people is going to tell them how to be better at that. They might even hide it but lets face it, we are still human beings and social interaction plays a very important roll in all of us. Are there other sites that have this kind of information that seem reliable like those seduction tips? I am leaning towards buying it.
comment posted at 8:13 PM on Aug-12-06
comment posted at 8:26 PM on Aug-12-06

Not just another news blip; UN Security Council passes Lebanon cease-fire resolution. The resolution calls for a "full cessation of hostilities" and tells Hezbollah to stop all attacks immediately and Israel to end "all offensive operations". Let's hope this brings about an end to all the madness.
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comment posted at 11:50 AM on Aug-13-06

This Saturday, an aid convoy of internationals and civilians plans to make a political statement by risking their own lives to deliver desperately needed aid from Beirut to the south of Lebanon in defiance of the Israeli military. Israeli threats to bomb any moving traffic have put a halt to aid convoys through traditional channels and curtailed the ability of journalists to cover the conflict. But the activists are hoping extensive media coverage of their "non-violent direct action" generates political pressure to protect them as they head for the "no-drive" zone without any guarantee of safety from the Israeli government.
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Global warming, hooray!
comment posted at 3:53 PM on Aug-10-06

Right-wing bloggers accuse photojournalists of photoshopping, posing bodies, and engaging in fraud. Warning: Not for the sqeamish. I think my favorite is the guy who poses as being dead. Or perhaps the photoshop skills of Adnan Hajj. Also, this video shows Hezbollah fighters driving around in UN ambulances. Feels alot like Rather-gate around here.
comment posted at 11:01 PM on Aug-9-06
comment posted at 10:06 AM on Aug-10-06