Ain’t No Mountain Low Enough — Gray 2006 (725): 2 — ScienceNOW
Over 8 years, Douglas-Hamilton and colleagues tracked 60 elephants with global positioning technology.By plotting the routes on topographical maps, they learned that the pachyderms consistently avoided all slopes with inclines over 33 degrees.
Well, that’s settled. No elephant mountaineers, ever.
Technorati Tags: elephants, travel cost, science
(DV) Jayne: Bush Does Iraq — Anatomy of a Failed Operation
Afterwards we will be able to carry on with our lives just as Spaniards have done since the seventeenth century, just as the French have done since Waterloo, and just as the English and Germans have done since the end of World War II. And, lest we forget, just as Canada has done since its very beginning. Of course our imperial pretensions will be far more modest than before, but we shall be better for it. And eventually we might live down our infamous reputation acquired in both Vietnam and Iraq.
We seem stymied in the sixtieth year of our hegemonic fling, half the period of time enjoyed by England. Like Germany, which consumed itself in the seven decades that elapsed between the Franco-Prussian War and Hitler’s defeat, our claim to imperial status seems in trouble almost before it began, and without the many cultural benefits that both England and Germany enjoyed during their heyday — their science, philosophy, literature, music and art. Like Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, we have little to show for our successes. Spain invented Don Quixote; we’ve invented electronic technology and the atomic bomb.
Does this mean that the Iraq debacle predicts utter collapse for the United States? Not at all. One suspects a “soft landing” will happen instead. Bush or one of his successors in the White House will find a respectable way to remove the American presence from Iraq, and our political and economic leadership will do everything necessary to maneuver a gentle aftermath when the dollar finally bottoms out, as it shall. Afterwards we will be able to carry on with our lives just as Spaniards have done since the seventeenth century, just as the French have done since Waterloo, and just as the English and Germans have done since the end of World War II. And, lest we forget, just as Canada has done since its very beginning. Of course our imperial pretensions will be far more modest than before, but we shall be better for it. And eventually we might live down our infamous reputation acquired in both Vietnam and Iraq.
A pleasingly sensible assessment compared to Kevin Phillips’s overheated appraisal.
Technorati Tags: american theocracy
The secret’s out: `Da Vinci’ mania fading - Yahoo! News
NEW YORK - It couldn’t last forever, right? Simmered by three years of lawsuits, religious debates and conspiracy theories, brought to a boil in May by the Hollywood movie, the craze for all things “Da Vinci Code” is finally fading, publishers and booksellers agree.“I would definitely say it’s slowing down,” Barnes & Noble fiction buyer Sessalee Hensley says. “Once everybody got past the movie, the whole thing peaked.”
No more “Da Vinci” spinoffs. Yay!
I saw this coming two years ago when I published THE SOLOMON KEY AND BEYOND.
Technorati Tags: dan brown, solomon, da vinci code
CNN.com - Al Qaeda: War with Israel is ‘jihad’ - Jul 27, 2006
“All the world is a battlefield open in front of us,” said the Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri, second-in-command to Osama bin Laden
Harry Potter and the Positive Impact
On the day that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince arrives in paperback, consumer trend-tracking company Yankelovich has released a study demonstrating the power J.K. Rowling has on children’s reading habits.More than half of kids ages 5-17 say they did not read books for fun before the Harry Potter series came along, according to the report, which surveyed 500 children and 500 parents nationwide. Among parents, 76 percent say reading the series has helped their child perform better in school, while 65 percent of children agree.
“While the overwhelming success of Harry Potter is undeniable, this study quantifies for the first time the impact children and parents believe the series has had on helping kids to read and learn and indicated that the right book can even lure older kids to stay engaged with reading,” says Dr. Hal Quinley from Yankelovich.
The Harry Potter study found that the average age at which readers pick up Harry Potter is 9, and many older children will read and re-read the books as they get older.
Technorati Tags: rowling, harry potter
Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - The spirit of resistance
As southern Lebanon is turned into a wasteland mirroring the Gaza gulag, Washington neo-cons may stridently celebrate the contours of a final solution for the Hamas-Hezbollah “problem”. Or should they?Israel’s feverish military machine at least conveys the impression it knows exactly what it’s doing - with its made-in-the-USA bombs destroying not just military but civilian targets. But this does not mean Israel is winning its war against Hezbollah.
Asia Times Online :: the best of Pepe Escobar
An extreme traveler, Pepe’s nose for news has taken him to all parts of the Pepe Escobar globe. He was in Afghanistan and interviewed the military leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, Ahmad Shah Masoud, a couple of weeks before his assassination (Masoud: From warrior to statesman , Sep 11, 2001). Two weeks before September 11, 2001, while Pepe was in the tribal areas of Pakistan, ATol published his prophetic piece, Get Osama! Now! Or else … (Aug 30, 2001). Pepe was one of the first journalists to reach Kabul after the Taliban’s retreat, and more recently he has explored and reported from Iraq, Iran, Central Asia, US and China.
Pepe Escobar will be writing GLOBALISTAN: A GAZETTEER TO THE REMIXED WORLD OF THE 21ST CENTURY for Nimble Books. We’re shooting for publication in November 2006.
Technorati Tags: Escobar, globalistan, global, politics
tdaxp : review of “misquotes in misquoting jesus” by dillon burroughs. after my review i received a copy of misquotes in misquoting jesus: why you can still believe, from the publishing company, nimble books. mr. burroughs (thm, …