Former Vice President Dick Cheney has lambasted the Obama administration for its announcement that it will cut 8% out of the military budget and reduce standing army troop levels to the lowest level since before World War II (from 550,000 at the height of the Iraq War to 440,000). Cheney told CNN he believed that […]
Angelina Jolie launches Syria Refugee Appeal; UNICEF: 2,000 Syrian Children in Lebanon at Risk of Death
(UNICEF writes): UNICEF report: Silent threat emerging among Syrian refugee children in Lebanon BEIRUT, 25 February 2014 – A UNICEF-led joint nutrition assessment on the situation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon was launched today, revealing malnutrition as a silent, emerging threat. UNICEF, in partnership with Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), the UN Refugee Agency […]
A World Multiply Endangered: Horseman of the Four Apocalypses
(Ira Chernus) For those of us of a certain age, it seems as if the world has always been ending. It’s easy now to forget just how deep fears and fantasies about a nuclear apocalypse went in the “golden” 1950s. And I’m not just thinking about kids like me “ducking and covering” at the advice of Bert the […]
Obama Plans for complete US Withdrawal from Afghanistan in December
(By Juan Cole) America’s longest war may be over by the end of this year, and it is making Afghans and neighbors like Pakistan nervous. On Tuesday President Obama called Afghan president Hamid Karzai for the first time since last summer, saying that since Karzai had declined to sign a Bilateral Security Agreement, he had […]
As Egyptian Gov’t Falls, Leftist Presidential Candidate seeks Youth Vote
(Via AFP) Egypt presidential hopeful fears return to autocracy (via AFP) Presidential hopeful Hamdeen Sabbahi said he fears a return to autocratic rule in Egypt, telling AFP that the army chief, a likely election frontrunner, has failed to dispel these concerns. Sabbahi, 59, who came third in the 2012 presidential election… —— Related video: […]
4 Darknesses: Internet being Manipulated, Deceived by Western Intel Trolls
(By Juan Cole) Researchers on online behavior have shown that internet trolls (people who use insincere techniques to disrupt conversations) really are psychopaths, marked by narcisssism, sadism, Machiavellianism. Professors Eric Buckels, Paul Trapnell, and Delroy Paulhus administered surveys to students and found that about 6 percent of them enjoyed messing with other people’s heads on […]
The Promise and Existential Risks of Nanotechnology
Video by Dr. Kim Solez on Existential Risks [of Nanotechnology] prepared for the Lifeboat Foundation The Bill Joy video excerpt from the year 2000 in “The Future Doesn’t Need Us” segment at 7:05 no longer exists separately on the net so this is one of the few places where one can still see it. See […]
Not to Reason Why: A New Crimean “War”?
(Juan Cole) The Russian-speaking population of the Crimean Peninsula in the Ukraine is upset by the popular movement in the west of the country that has overthrown president Viktor Yanukovych and is said to be forming militias. On some government buildings, Ukrainian flags have been replaced by Russian ones. Sevastopol is an important Black Sea […]
Not only Big Brother but Big Corporation is Tracking you Online Too
(Via Techdirt) What Happens When You Marry The NSA’s Surveillance Database With Amazon’s Personalized Marketing? (via Techdirt) By now, most people who shop online are aware of the way in which companies try to tailor their offers based on your previous purchasing and browsing history. Being followed by strangely relevant ads everywhere is bad enough, […]
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