A new documentary series created by Stephen Hawking posits the mathematical certainty of extraterrestrial life – but the brilliant theoretical scientist recommends against trying to establish contact. “To my mathematical brain, the numbers [of planets] alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” Hawking says. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually …
Continue reading “The Alien Menace!”
At least four Iraqis were killed and 34 people were wounded in today’s incidents. Two Indian nationals were killed in a blast in Arbil as well. Also, the Islamic State of Iraq confirmed two militants killed last week were Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, but reports that Saddam’s vice president, Izzat al-Douri, was killed or captured were premature.
Attacks tapered off today, but at least eight Iraqis were killed and 21 more wounded in new violence. Also, a U.S. Dept. of Defense employee of unknown nationality died of unreported causes. Meanwhile, an offer to restart the Mahdi Army was turned down by Iraqi officials, but rogue elements could be operating within the official security forces.
GAZA CITY – Nine-year-old Ismail spends every afternoon herding his family’s flock of sheep and goats, a scraggly group of roughly 20 animals. They live in a shanty house district near Tel el Howa in Gaza City, where growth is sparse to nonexistent. "I walk all over to find food for the animals," he says, …
Continue reading “Israel Winning Its War on Goats”
I wonder whether Americans realize that they have a Vienna sausage military at filet mignon prices. The sorry performance in recent wars is just one example of the ongoing rot, but the whole enterprise has become unbalanced, aimed at fighting the kinds of enemies we don’t have instead of the ones we have recently chosen …
Continue reading “Damn the Torpedoes, Fools’ Greed Ahead”
On Feb. 24, as I reported in "The Black Hole of Guantánamo," Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. granted the habeas corpus petition of Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman, a Yemeni who was seized crossing the border from Afghanistan to Pakistan in December 2001. In the absence of the judge’s unclassified opinion explaining why he had …
Continue reading “Judge Rules Yemeni’s Detention at Guantánamo Based Solely on Torture”
The Barack Obama administration’s declaration in its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) that it is reserving the right to use nuclear weapons against Iran represents a new element in a strategy of persuading Tehran that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites is a serious possibility if Iran does not bow to the demand that it …
Continue reading “US Nuclear Option on Iran Linked to Israeli Attack Threat”
Updated at 8:30 p.m. EDT, April 23, 2010
At least 13 bombs were detonated near Shi’ite targets in Baghdad and Sadr City today, while a Sunni town in Anbar province was the focus of another series of blasts. Overall, at least 75 Iraqis were killed and 303 more were wounded across the country. One U.S. soldier died from non-combat injuries. The attacks came just days after several prominent arrests and killings of militants possibly damaged the al-Qaeda network in Iraq. Last night, Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani asked remaining al-Qaeda members turn themselves in. The blasts could be in retaliation. Also, a second Navy SEAL has been cleared of wrongdoing in an alleged abuse case.
While the Iranian government has intensified its aggressive efforts to expand Internet filters, Austin Heap, a young programmer in the U.S., says he has developed software that would enable Iranians to evade their censors. In response to the widespread crackdown following Iran’s June 2009 presidential elections, the San Francisco-based Censorship Research Center (CRC) developed a …
Continue reading “New Software Could Outwit Tehran’s Censors”
Just like they were with Iraq, says Ron Paul
