Quick number jolt: 240 dead contractors, 900+ wounded. They perform 30% of the military's Iraq functions. One agent can make up to $250,000 per year. Private military firms in 50 countries now rake in $100 billion a year.
It 's well thought and well written -- but premature. I think that blogging has not even begun to inflect. This is more like the stutters and pops you get when you're starting a motor.
It's becoming popular as an apartment pet, according to the New York Times. In the whole article, though, there's no mention anywhere about the number of these animals in New York, America, the world, etc. make me wonder (Thanks J.D.!)
I really wonder how I'd react. Pretty well, I think -- not 'cause I have better instincts, but just because I've had a damn lot of training and experience in dangerous situations. Like polar bear attacks and earthquakes.
I actually have pictures of the line forming at Ziegfeld's on May 10, which I will eventually post to Flickr just after it's too late and nobody cares anymore.
"We decided to remove useful functionality from a working product because these days, frankly, Apple scares us." Or so they ought to have said. (Thanks, The Tao of Mac
From my perspective it got clearly worse from 2000 to 2004, with 2001 being slightly better, to the point where the daily drive was a crushing burden to some of my commuting friends.
From the articles: "Dick Dasen was a successful entrepreneur and investor, an observant Christian, and a generous supporter of local charities. The story of his secret life seemed too extreme to be true."
“Almost every American I know does trade large portions of his life for entertainment, hour by weeknight hour, binge by Saturday binge, Facebook check by Facebook check. I’m one of them. In the course of writing this I’ve watched all 13 episodes of House of Cards and who knows how many more West Wing episodes, and I’ve spent any number of blurred hours falling down internet rabbit holes. All instead of reading, or writing, or working, or spending real time with people I love.”
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)