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POPSAnti-US Feeling Running High as CIA Drones Take a Civilian Toll
Many Pakistanis see the US military presence in their region as the cause of militant extremism, not its cure. Reaction to Obama's speech was ambivalent, with rightwing commentators insisting his true aim is to invade Pakistan and capture its nuclear weapons. The hostility means that, in Pakistan, Obama relies more heavily on spies than soldiers. Obama's favoured tactic has been the use of CIA-operated pilotless drones, which have made over 80 strikes in the tribal belt since 2006, half of them this year. Targets included the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, killed last August, and al-Qaida leaders. Today the New York Times said the CIA is pushing to extend drone strikes into Balochistan province, further west along the Afghan border. While the drones put few American lives in danger, they still carry substantial risks. Strikes that have killed at least 750 people in the past two years have provoked public hostility. Any move into Balochistan is likely to spark a fierc
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POPSDigital Sound Separator The new tool promises to give musicians and producers powerful new ways to manipulate recordings both old and new.It might let studio engineers peer inside a chord-heavy rhythm-guitar part and nudge individual notes into tune. Or it could let them salvage unheard takes by classic musicians like Duke Ellington or Jimi Hendrix, left unreleased due to out-of-tune instruments or misplayed notes. It will certainly give musicians new ability to sculpt sound, such as prerecorded samples or loops, as if they were modeling clay.
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POPSCritter Tracking Lessons 101 Really fascinating study on animal tracks with PICTURES of the tracks! I love pictures! I plan to print the entire article. Hope you find it informative, too.
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POPSCome Fry With Me: Mark Steyn Wow. 443,243 miles. How many flying polar bears does Dr. Pachauri kill in an average quarter? Well, not to worry, he probably offsets his record-breaking ursocide with carbon credits from carbon billionaire Al Gore. And in any case it's okay to devastate the planet on IPCC business " plus the occasional cricket match: So strong is his love for cricket that his colleagues recall the time the Nobel winner took a break during a seminar in New York and flew in to Delhi over the weekend to attend a practice session for a match before flying back. Again, he flew in for a day, just to play that match. And why not? Aside from a slight increase in the risk of polar bears dropping from the skies onto stray Indian bowlers and wicket-keepers, where's the harm? P.S. I like the headline on Dr. Pachauri's climate'n'cricket story: "Heat On Cricket Pitch Warms This Climate Change Laureate."
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POPSAre "Cheeky" Cemetery Campers The Nouveau "Chic" Of Travelers?
Let's step away from Christmas for just a sec and channel Halloween again - I came across this article from news.com.au complaining about so-called "cheeky," low-budget travelers pitching tents in a local graveyard. The article derides such travelers as part of the "backpacker brigade" descending on the hapless Town of Darwin, Australia. The article goes on to refer to such travelers as "tight-fisted." Possibly. But, if you do a Google search on the phrase "haunted travel destinations, guess how many hits you get? As of about 2 minutes ago, 3.6 million, to be exact. So, that got me to thinking. Instead of posting no camping signs on the headstones, as town officials apparently have done, Darwin ought to consider its name, think "survival of the fittest," and tap into the haunted travel craze. I clipped just two hits from my Google search, which includes a specialized haunted travel channel on travelchannel.com, nicely sub-divided into one's choice of aliens, creepies, an
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POPS Veterans Day 2009: Thank you
They are casualties of war… and as far as I’m concerned, Sergeant Kimberly Munley, who took their cowardly attacker down, is a veteran today. The terrorist enemy doesn’t have a formal chain of command that can sign an armistice, they don’t muster on clearly defined battlefields, and they’re quite happy to benefit from the efforts of deranged fanboys. If we don’t stand behind our professional soldiers, and give them the tools to do their jobs now, we will all become soldiers before this enemy is defeated. Somewhere in the world tomorrow, an American soldier will ring in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day with gunfire. Another will arrive home after an honorable tour of duty, perhaps passing brothers and sisters in arms saying farewell to their families. A mother’s tears will fall on a letter from the far side of the world. Old veterans will spend a beautiful afternoon watching children play beneath the flag they raised at Anzio, Guadalcanal, Incheon, or Khe Sanh.
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POPSAnother Nail in Cable's Coffin I'm not watching cable TV just because I'm not free to choose (I mean completely free) and of course of commercials. In goal oriented information is not easy to insert manipulative technique. Apple QuickTime player is the best in quality and stability, the same for their hardware. So welcome, Apple, in our virtual life.
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POPS "Truth to Power" by Mark Steyn He came; he saw; he stimulated: “If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists.” I suppose so. He could invade somewhere and force the natives to accept degrading roles in NEA-funded performance art. He could take out the Iranian nuclear program by carpet-bombing it with unreadable literary novels. That is, if you “accept the premise” that the United States is the most powerful country in the world. Rocco Landesman may, but it’s not clear, from his actions (or inactions) in Eastern Europe, Iran, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, that the president does. But, even so, it seems an odd pitch to “American artists.” Rocco Landesman, Speaking Goof to Power, isn’t the first Obama groupie to enjoy the kinky frisson of groveling obsequiousness, but he’s set an impressive new standard in public revelation thereof.
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POPSNoNotes Makes Attending Class Optional The company uses the tagline “you do the learning, we’ll take the notes.” It’s a bit pricey but the having the notes printed out would be great. I remember a cartoon of a lecture hall without students or teacher, instead, the students desks each had a tape deck recording while at the teacher’s desk was a tape deck playing back the lesson. (old cartoon). :)
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POPS The $cience of Harry Potter The museum defends the intellectual value of what is sure to be a cash cow of an exhibit by noting that the 200 movie props it features offer a window into innovation. “You see these props and think, ‘How did they do that?’ It is an inspiration for people to explore what it took to create these movie worlds,” said Paul Fontaine, vice president of education at the museum. And that inspiration is essential to scientific innovation, he says. “When you think of the foundations of science, it is creativity; what it takes to transform fantasy to the screen. We hope people take away those foundation skills,” Fontaine said. The museum is home to displays about DNA, electricity, astronomy and anatomy. But some area academics agree a re-creation of Hogwarts is not out of place. Andrew Cohen, physics professor at Boston University, references popular movies in his lectures to make complex theories tangible. So, could Hagrid’s Care of Magical Creatures
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POPSSan Francisco test drives Universal Health Care: Result - Good More: The program, now in its third year, is proving popular. More than 43,000 people were enrolled as of June, up from 24,000 a year before. One reason for the jump: the income test for eligibility was relaxed in February to include people whose income was 500 percent of the poverty level--about $54,000 for a single person and $110,000 for a family of four. The program costs San Francisco about $280 per person per month. How are the results? Hospital admissions of plan members have dropped, and the average stay for those who wind up in the hospital has been cut almost in half, Varney reports. Those changes suggest chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, asthma and hypertension, are being managed better, reducing the need for crisis care.
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POPSThe A-B-C-D-E of Travel Photography At first glance, the picture above depicts a nun walking. But as you look at more details within the picture, you get a full sense of where she is. She isn’t carrying a bag or other personal effects which suggests she is someplace familiar. The direction and length of her shadow suggests mid to late afternoon, and the Slavic-type text on the walls suggests somewhere in Central or Eastern Europe. So the picture transports you to a monastery or nunnery in Eastern Europe around late afternoon. __________________________________ Ever glanced in exasperation at travel photographs wondering why yours taken of the same landscapes or subjects never turn out as stunning? Great travel photographs share a few similarities even though their subjects may be as different as a sweeping landscape or a brooding portrait. Above are a few primer concepts that will guarantee better travel shots from even a simple point-and-shoot camera.
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POPSMusipedia ythm-based Search For an even simpler (but less specific) way of searching, try the Rhythm-based "Query by Tapping" search method.
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