Posted by miri On 4 July, 2008
National Geographic has wonderful photos of translucent creatures. I found this guy to be particularly cute.
A photographer’s strobe gives a violet sheen to this translucent juvenile roundbelly cowfish off the coast of Kona, Hawaii. Also known as the transparent boxfish, the roundbelly cowfish has two short horns in front of its eyes.
Posted by miri On 4 July, 2008
by William Tarr
Posted by miri On 3 July, 2008
Playing the Statue of Liberty for eight hours a day, sweating underneath those robes in the glaring sun, makes for classic immigrant labor. It’s hot in there, it’s physical work, and sometimes, literally, they get pushed around, shoved off the pedestal by a mean-spirited joker or a strong wind.
But to each of them, the job has an elevated meaning. They’re independent entrepreneurs, after all. “Nobody tells us what to do,†said Sue, the first Miss Liberty.
Posted by miri On 3 July, 2008
I apply the Abraham Lincoln test for moral casuistry: “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.†Well, then, if waterboarding does not constitute torture, then there is no such thing as torture.
Posted by miri On 3 July, 2008
Nah, the war wasn’t about oil….
Bush administration officials knew that a Texas oil company with close ties to President Bush was planning to sign an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that ran counter to American policy and undercut Iraq’s central government, a Congressional committee has concluded.
…
The Kurdistan deal, by ceding responsibility for writing contracts directly to a regional government, infuriated Iraqi officials. But State Department officials did nothing to discourage the deal and in some cases appeared to welcome it, the documents show.
…
The release of the documents comes as the administration is defending help that United States officials provided in drawing up a separate set of no-bid contracts, still pending, between Iraq’s Oil Ministry in Baghdad and five major Western oil companies to provide services at other Iraqi oil fields.
In the no-bid contracts, the administration said it had provided what it called purely technical help writing the contracts. The United States played no role in choosing the companies, the administration has said.
Posted by miri On 3 July, 2008
I guess learning is evil…or at least looks like pure evil.
Posted by miri On 2 July, 2008
(Turn the volume down lest you have to listen to Whitney Houston.)
I admit that the pure cynic in me spent most of the ending braced for gore…
Posted by miri On 2 July, 2008
Posted by miri On 1 July, 2008
Who said the real estate market wasn’t still booming?
The search teams comb through the backyards of the half-million-dollar homes with metal detectors, placing red flags on the manicured lawns every time they get a hit. To the shock of residents, they sometimes find live bombs.
The Army Corps of Engineers digs up metal in search for live bombs in an Orlando neighborhood.The bombs are left over from a 12,000-acre World War II bombing range. The area has become an Orlando neighborhood with thousands of homes.
Posted by miri On 1 July, 2008
