Iraq war: Unanswered questions
One feature of the war in Iraq was the speed and immediacy with which many events were reported by the media. Some of these turned out to be not quite what they seemed, others are still surrounded by confusion. Was this the fog of war, effects-based warfare, propaganda, or error?
"...William Branigin, a reporter with the Washington Post embedded with the US Third Infantry, witnesses the shooting and has a different account. He says that 10 people were killed, and no warning shots were fired. He reports that after the shooting Captain Ronny Johnson, the commander at the checkpoint, yelled at his platoon commander: "You just [expletive] killed a family because you didn't fire a warning shot soon enough!" US forces, according to William Branigin, offered the survivors of the incident financial compensation. ..."

How Bush And Rumsfeld Traded American $, Citizenship And Residency In The US For The Capitulation Of Baghdad.
The deal includes, granting American citizenship and residency in the United States to some of the first echelon commanders (Republican Guards) and their families.
E mais isso:

O Saddam tem um gosto estranho para arte:

Irish pub kickstarts Kabul nightlife
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- In Taliban times, it would have been unimaginable: a fully stocked Irish pub serving whiskey and cold beer in the heart of Afghanistan's ultra-Islamic capital.

Acharam o que eles estavam procurando!

Six nerds in search of a computer game
The link is not immediately apparent, yet one American computer games company thinks its software designers could learn a lot from the likes of Homer and Wittgenstein.
Meu jogo favorito, baseado em Fausto:
First the player wires up his brain directly to the computer. He then has a thrilling choice:
(a) keep soul but die immediately by electrocution; or
(b) give soul to devil and in return have entire content of the internet downloaded instantly into brain.

O que será que este camelo está pensando?

A facilidade de acesso de outros ramos da Ciência à Estatística dá nisso:
Winning World Cup Lowers Heart Attack Deaths
LONDON (Reuters) - Winning soccer's World Cup not only lifts a nation's spirits, it lowers the death rate from heart attacks, doctors said Tuesday.
During the 1998 World Cup, when France defeated Brazil, deaths from heart attacks in men and women dropped on the day of the match, which was watched by 26 million French TV viewers.

Basra rebel who helped oust Saddam
"...
Our group has been fighting Saddam since 1991. We are led by Abu Hatum. He is like Robin Hood. He was in the Iraqi army, but thrown out for political reasons. They chased him and he fled first to Iran and then to America. In America he asked for help to fight Saddam.
He is a legend here. He lives in the marshes of southern Iraq and few people know what he looks like or where he is. He once ate in a restaurant table near Saddam's men, and when he left he paid their bill. 'Tell them Abu Hatum paid for them,' he told the waiter. ..."

Cool!

Mais uma foto ou uma palavra sobre este guri e eu vou organizar um vômito coletivo no consulado dos EUA.

UN chides Israel over Palestinians
The UN called for an end to Israel's "repressive measures" in the occupied territories
The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHCR) has sharply criticised Israel for its treatment of Palestinians and for its settlement of the occupied territories.
Meeting in annual session in Geneva, the commission approved four resolutions condemning what it termed Israel's repressive measures and calling for an end to Israeli settlement of the occupied territories.

Only the United States opposed all four resolutions.

Eastern approaches
Are Western economies threatened by EU enlargement?
Caramba, está acabando de ter uma guerra por causa disso (ou coisa semelhante, mudando East por "mais West"). Tipo, os EUA atacaram o Iraque porque ele estava negociando seu petróleo por euro e não por dólar, deixando os EUA totalmente fora da jogada. Por que ninguém vê isso?

Gamma-ray burst mystery solved
Scientists may have solved one of astronomy's major puzzles - the origin of powerful gamma-ray bursts.
For a few seconds a gamma-ray burst can pour out more radiation than anything else in the Cosmos.
About once a day a flash of high energy radiation coming from deep space and lasting only a few seconds is detected by satellite observatories orbiting the Earth. The enormous power of the energy bursts has long mystified astronomers.
Now, thanks to a burster that was remarkably close in cosmic terms, their true nature may have been revealed. The bursts seem to come from exploding stars called supernovae.

Srebrenica chief denies war crimes
A decorated Bosnian Muslim commander who headed the defence of Srebrenica against Bosnian Serb forces has appeared before the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Claro, ele só estava seguindo ordens...
Mas tem que ver que os responsáveis pelo massacre ainda estão soltos. Só prenderam este coitado porque ele é muslim e o tribunal pode estar tentando parecer menos parcial, pois até agora só processou sérvios.

Melhor artigo de hoje:
Lost No More: An Etruscan Rebirth
Passagens a serem destacadas:
"No one knows when the Etruscans came to Italy or where they came from. They spoke a language unlike any other known European tongue, one hard to read and surviving mostly as limited tomb inscriptions."
"This is the difference between us Romans and the Etruscans," Seneca wrote. "We believe that lightning is caused by clouds colliding, whereas they believe that clouds collide in order to create lightning. Since they attribute everything to gods, they are led to believe not that events have a meaning because they have happened, but that they happen in order to express a meaning."
"Primarily from tomb art, archaeologists have concluded that women had a fairly high status in Etruscan society, at least in contrast to Greeks and early Romans. Paintings showed women enjoying the food and dancing at feasts and reclining, often half naked, with their men. They also pictured them driving their own chariots. Inscriptions revealed that women could own or inherit real estate, and sometimes they ran businesses like pottery workshops." - eles já tinham suas Martha Stewarts... hehehe..
"Even more recently, Etruscan influence surfaced in disturbing form. One of their symbols of ruling power, a bundle of rods known as the fasces, had been adopted by Romans and was then unforgettably revived by Mussolini and the Fascists of modern history."

Alcohol-induced blackouts may lead to heavier drinking

Hahahahahahah...
Masked Wrestler Wins Japan Assembly Seat

Oooowwwhhh... não de novo:
Bush: Syria has chemical weapons
Minha professora de árabe é da Síria, e se esta coisa estourar ela talvez tenha que sair do país... ou minhas aulas vão ficar mais e mais sombrias.