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He added, “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

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The event of the week occurred last Wednesday and I was surprised it wasn’t covered by Western press. It’s not that big a deal, but it enraged people in Baghdad and it can also give a better picture of what has been going on with our *heroic* National Guard. There was an explosion on Wednesday in Baghdad and the wounded were all taken to Yarmuk Hospital, one of the larger hospitals in Baghdad. The number of wounded were around 30- most of them National Guard. In the hospital, it was chaos- patients wounded in this latest explosion, patients from other explosions and various patients from gunshot wounds, etc. The doctors were running around everywhere, trying to be in four different places at once.

Apparently, there weren’t enough beds. Many of the wounded were in the hallways and outside of the rooms. The stories vary. One doctor told me that some of the National Guard began screaming at the doctors, telling them to ignore the civilians and tend to the wounds of the Guard. A nurse said that the National Guard who weren’t wounded began pulling civilians out of the beds and replacing them with wounded National Guard. The gist of it is generally the same; the doctors refused the idea of not treating civilians and preferring the National Guard over them and suddenly a fight broke out. The doctors threatened a strike if the National Guard began pulling the civilians out of beds.

The National Guard decided the solution to the crisis would be the following- they’d gather up some of the doctors and nurses and beat them in front of the patients. So several doctors were rounded up and attacked by several National Guard (someone said there was liberal use of electric batons and the butts of some Klashnikovs).

The doctors decided to go on strike.

Verifying the bombing, per CNN.

Verifying the Doctor’s Strike (with a photo of docs on strike), per Morocco Times

America-hating Muslim media? How about The Times of India?

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“The Axum Obelisk, which has adorned a Roman piazza for the last 67 years, is waiting to be shipped back to Ethiopia.”

A remarkable event will occur in April: the return to Ethiopia of the 1700-year-old Axum Obelisk. Seized by dictator Benito Mussolini in 1937, this funerary monument — a 78-foot-tall royal grave marker — was one of the most important surviving artifacts of a pre-Christian site in northern Ethiopia; for years it has been decoration in front of the U.N.’s Food & Agriculture Organization headquarters, down the road from Rome’s Coliseum. Its weight is a point of dispute: the BBC says it’s 160 tons; ABC News says it’s 200 tons; the more-scientific Ethiopians say it’s 188 tons. NPR offers a wonderful audio interview with Richard Pankhurst, of the Committee for the Return of the Axum Obelisk, about its homecoming to Ethiopia, where a national holiday is being declared.

How do you move an obelisk that weighs close to 200 tons? The ever-ingenious Italians are busting it into three pieces. Ethiopia has had to build a special runway for the only aircraft big enough to carry the pieces, the U.S.-built C5 Galaxy. (The first segment is currently in a warehouse near Rome’s Fiumicino airport awaiting transportation; the prerequisite Galaxy is not available.) The cost of moving it — $450 million dollars — will be borne by the Italian Government, perhaps to make up for their taking 60 years to fulfill their post-World War II pledge to return this national treasure to Ethiopia.

Like the Egyptian Pyramids, though, there was another design solution for moving such an artifact.

In the mid-1990s, I saw an exhibition at the New York Public Library of the greatest illustrated books of the 19th century, or some similar subject. One book stood out for me: a massive tome by Henry H. Gorringe, Lieutentant-Commander in the United States Navy, titled Egyptian Obelisks and dated 1882. It’s in my design collection because of a dubious memory that it’s the first book to document a from-start-to-finish design process, and through a range of appropirate media —artotypes, engravings and chromo-lithograghs. Of course, the process it documents is how one moves an obelisk.

In 1879, His Excellency Chérif Pacha, the Governor of Alexandria, gave a 71-foot obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle to the United States Government, to be elected in the city of New York. Funding for its transportation was provided by William H. Vanderbilt, to whom this book was dedicated. What follows is a geatly simpified rendition of how this 244-ton obelisk was moved, in over a hundred stages, over a two-year period and at a cost of approximately $100,000.

(more beautiful pictures and details in the quoted article)

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France’s National Library has airbrushed Jean-Paul Sartre’s trademark cigarette out of a poster of the chain-smoking philosopher to avoid prosecution under an anti-tobacco law.

“Smoking,” the Left-wing existentialist wrote, is “the symbolic equivalent of destructively appropriating the entire world.”

And yet in its poster for an exhibition to mark the hundredth anniversary of Sartre’s birth the Bibliothèque Nationale de France decided, destructively or not, to edit out the philosopher’s Gauloise.

The library’s president, Jean-Noël Jeanneney, confirmed that the cigarette had been discreetly smudged to comply with the 1991 loi Evin – a law banning tobacco advertising – but also so as not to frighten away potential sponsors from the exhibition, which opened yesterday.

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Un internaute, poursuivi pour avoir téléchargé ou copié près de 500 films sur l'internet ou des DVD, a été relaxé par la cour d'appel de Montpellier, déboutant 17 géants du cinéma qui s'étaient constitués parties civiles.

La cour a confirmé le jugement rendu par le tribunal de grande instance de Rodez (Aveyron) en octobre dernier. Dans son arrêt, elle rappelle que «lorsqu'une oeuvre a été divulguée, l'auteur ne peut interdire les copies ou reproductions strictement réservées à l'usage privé du copiste et non destinée à une utilisation collective», se fondant sur les articles L122-3 à 5 du code de procédure pénale français. 
Cette relaxe constitue une première brèche dans le domaine du téléchargement, a déclaré Me Joëlle Glock, l'un des avocats du prévenu, estimant que la cour de cassation devra se prononcer dans cette affaire. 
Le ministère public avait requis une amende de 5.000 euros devant la cour d'appel, à l'instar du parquet de Rodez qui avait fait appel de la décision de relaxe. 
Poursuivi pour «contrefaçon d'oeuvre de l'esprit», le prévenu, étudiant en informatique à l'époque des faits, avait téléchargé sur l'internet ou copié à partir de DVD prêtés 488 films de tous styles. Il avait admis avoir regardé ces copies en présence d'un ou deux amis et avoir prêté des CD Rom gravés à quelques copains. Il n'est
démontré aucun usage collectif, a estimé la cour d'appel. 
Parmi les dix-sept géants du cinéma, parties civiles déboutées, figurent des sociétés de production de films ou d'édition telles que Columbia Pictures Industries, Disney Enterprise, Dreamworks, Gaumont Columbia, MGM Entertainment, Paramount ou encore Warner Bros. Une action à laquelle s'étaient joints le Syndicat de l'édition vidéo et la Fédération nationale des distributeurs de films. 

Consommateurs, pas pirates

Lors de l'audience d'appel, en février, un des avocats de la défense, Me Eric Zapata, avait affirmé que son client avait le droit de copier des films à titre exclusivement privé, s'appuyant sur une directive européenne de mai 2001. Il avait rappelé que tout internaute, en achetant un ordinateur ou même un CD Rom, payait une taxe pour copie privée, avant de conclure: les internautes ne sont donc pas des pirates, juste des usagers consommateurs. Ce procès peut faire jurisprudence, apaiser les débats et surtout calmer les poursuites. 
En revanche, pour Me Christian Soulié, avocat des parties civiles, la confirmation de la relaxe risquait de mettre en danger l'ensemble du secteur culturel. Le téléchargement n'est pas forcément illégal. Ce qui est illégal, c'est de télécharger à partir de sources illicites. Et la première copie des films sur les sites d'échanges est toujours illégale, avait-il plaidé. 
Actuellement inscrit aux Assedic, l'internaute, qui a requis l'anonymat, est très soulagé. On me réclamait 15.000 euros d'intérêts. Finalement, je ne dois rien. Mais vu l'ampleur du téléchargement, il faut faire une loi, a-t-il dit. 
Toutefois, le jeune homme, assurant qu'il se rend toujours au cinéma et ne télécharge que sur des sites légaux, ne veut pas incarner le symbole qu'on peut faire n'importe quoi.

(An IT student was sued by 17 movie companies including all the big names and their French distributors for downloading 488 movies over a period of years. He admitted watching them privately, with one or two friends, and sharing a few copies.

The first court, and the appeal court, rejected a claim by the prosecutor against the defendant, accepting the defense’s argument that under European Union law, all surfers already pay a tax on blank media, PCs and blank CDs that covers their use of these material as consumers.)

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Apple’s newest CHUD 4.1.0 toolset includes an updated MONster.app. This updated version includes clues for a new Apple Quad G5 Power Mac, which would utilize two dual-core 970MP chips.

The above picture shows the older version of MONster.app on the left and the new version on the right. Note the added capability for up to 4 processors (or cores).

via

KOTO is a charity training restaurant for street children set up in 1996 in Hanoi, Vietnam by Vietnamese-Australian Jimmy Pham (pdf file).
Of the more than 100 or so former street kids who have learned cooking, waiting and bar skills, 100% of KOTO graduates have since become employed in hotels and restaurants in Hanoi.
KOTO stands for Know One Teach One and they provide uniforms, accomodation, most meals and a small wage during the traineeship.
Even Bill Clinton ate there.

Street children number something in the order of 20,000 or more in Vietnam and most head to the city from poor villages in the countryside, seeking their own slice of the wealth that transition to a market economy is said to generate. Most make little money shining shoes and selling postcards and many become involved in drugs, crime, prostitution or are harassed and arrested by the Police.
Hoa Sua restaurant is another exemplary training enterprise (French affiliation) run along similar lines to KOTO excepting that they also have bakery outlets and embroidery training.
These organizations are hopeful examples of education combatting the cycle of poverty.

In the seats at right, Stratosphere spokesman Mike Gilmartin (L) and a reporter take a spin on ‘Insanity,’ a new thrill ride, over 900-feet above the Las Vegas Strip at the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 10, 2005. REUTERS/Sam Morris/Las Vegas Sun

A Philippine Tarsier measuring 4-5 inches sits on a branch inside a captive breeding center in Loboc town on Bohol island, central Philippines on Friday March 11, 2005. The endangered animal, who feeds on tiny insects is believed to be the world’s smallest primate. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)