Curated knowlege, trenchant insights & witty bon mots
From the BBC: The US Army is to apologise to the families of officers killed or wounded in action who were sent letters urging them to return to active duty. The letters were sent to more than 5,100 Army officers listed as recently having left the military. But this figure included about 75 officers killed [...]
Sun, January 7 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
Some oil experts think the Iraq conflict has actually helped drive the price of oil up. An excerpt from the NYT story: Milton R. Copulos, who is president of the National Defense Council Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Washington that lobbies for less reliance on foreign oil, laid out the more familiar case when he [...]
Sun, January 7 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
This NYT piece looks at why one person might jump to save a total stranger from an approaching subway train when most people wouldn't. Some excerpts: When Mr. Autrey saw the stranger, Cameron Hollopeter, 20, tumble onto the tracks, his brain reacted just as anyone else’s would. His thalamus, which absorbs sensory information, registered the fall, [...]
Sun, January 7 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off
The NYT reports there is a serious “parking rage” problem in the city that gave the world Rice-a-roni as a treat. And that rage is playing out with attacks on parking control officers (surprise, surprise). An excerpt: It bears the hallmarks of a classic urban scourge: back-channel sales, assaults on enforcement officials and even death. [...]
Sun, January 7 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page, Minutiae » Comments Off
Salon on the people who are really advising Dubya on Iraq: What they want is escalation, with 25,000 U.S. troops in Baghdad. An excerpt: (free with a day pass) Jan. 6, 2007 | WASHINGTON — Hawks gathered in the plush, carpeted suites of the conservative American Enterprise Institute on Friday to discuss a new course [...]
Sun, January 7 2007 » * Big Picture Stuff, Main Page » Comments Off