Garvey’s Neighborhood

Большинство не-художественных книг можно легко читать с любого места, т.к. они, как правило, не имеют сквозного нарратива, а разбиты на отдельные кусочки. А журналы - тем более.
И все же я обычно читаю их подряд, а если нет - испытываю непонятное чувство вины, вроде как сжульничал.

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Нидаль Малик Хасан из форта Hood:

A recent classmate said Hasan once gave a jarring presentation to students in which he argued the war on terrorism was a war against Islam, and "made himself a lightning rod for things" when he felt his religious beliefs were challenged.
...
He said that at a class presentation by public health students, at which topics like dry cleaning chemicals and house mold were discussed, Hasan talked about U.S. military actions as a war on Islam. Hasan made clear he was a "vociferous opponent" of U.S. wars in Muslim countries, Finnell said.
...
"He said maybe Muslims should stand up and fight against the aggressor," retired Col. Terry Lee told Fox News. "At first we thought he meant help the armed forces, but apparently that wasn't the case. Other times he would make comments we shouldn't be in the war in the first place."
...
On a form filled out by those seeking spouses through a program at the mosque, Hasan listed his birthplace as Arlington, Va., but his nationality as Palestinian.
"I don't know why he listed Palestinian," Khan said, "He was not born in Palestine."
...
His fellow students complained to the faculty about Hasan's "anti-American propaganda," but said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim student kept officers from filing a formal written complaint.
...
Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year.
The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.
Hasan's eyes "lit up" when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki's teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday's horrific shooting spree.
...
Soldiers reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" — before opening fire Thursday, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the post commander.

Интересные личности служат в американской армии...
Тем временем BBC докладывает, кто на самом деле является жертвой: Shooting raises fears for Muslims in US army

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Интервью с пресс-секретарем правительства, 15 февраля 2009:

SCHIEFFER: Somehave said that unemployment may actually get to 10 percent. With this stimulus now passed, do you believe that we will not get to 10 percent unemployment?

GIBBS: You know, the economic team believes that this bill will help us stay away from those double-digit economic unemployment numbers. So we're certainly hopeful of that. Again you've seen, in just the last few months, the unemployment rate jump a lot each month. So we're certainly going to watch that as time goes on, to see and chart the progress of this economic recovery plan.
But I think the American people can feel good that Congress acted quickly.

Hope! Change! Quickly!

Progress of this plan:

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На экраны выходит фильм 2012, в котором показывается гибель цивилизации. Там со вкусом расхерачиваются Белый Дом, Сикстинская капелла, собор св. Петра и т.п. А теперь угадайте, какое известное строение создатели фильма побоялись тронуть на экране?
Правильно - Каабу.
"Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit, but my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, 'I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.' And he was right. We have to all, in the western world, think about this. You can actually let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have ... a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it's just something which I kind of didn't think was an important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out."

Следует ли удивлятся, что если тактика работает, то...

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Как Обама спасает рабочие места:

President Barack Obama's economic recovery program saved 935 jobs at the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, an impressive success story for the stimulus plan. Trouble is, only 508 people work there.

Очевидно, некоторые рабочие места были настолько хилыми, что их пришлось спасать дважды, а то и трижды. Но это не единственный способ спасения. Можно, например, считать за спасение рабочего места прибавку к зарплате:

About two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs claimed to be saved under one federal office, the Administration for Children and Families at Health and Human Services, actually weren't saved at all, according to a review of the latest data by The Associated Press. Instead, that figure includes more than 9,300 existing employees in hundreds of local agencies who received pay raises and benefits and whose jobs weren't saved.

И если вы думаете, что это какая-то случайная ошибка, ну там не в ту графу внесли, клерк ошибся, не ту кнопку нажал, то вот:

But officials defended the practice of counting raises as saved jobs.
"If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job," HHS spokesman Luis Rosero said.
/.../
Allen said a cost-of-living adjustment "may not be viewed traditionally as a job saved, but one could interpret it that, by providing COLA, you're retaining staff."

Понятно вам? Было приказано отчитаться об успехах соцсоревнования - вот и отчитались. Нетрадиционно. По заветам ЦСУ Госплана.

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Во время выборов вчера Обама расслаблялся - смотрел кино про себя, любимого, причем во второй (как минимум) раз:

During the 10AM ET hour of America’s Newsroom on Fox News Channel, fill-in co-host Martha Maccallum told viewers what President Obama watched on election night while Democrats suffered big losses in New Jersey and Virginia: “Robert Gibbs said, well, he was actually watching, you know, the HBO special about his year-long campaign and how it all went.”

А че, разве может быть что-то интереснее?

Update: говорят, не так всо это было.

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Посмотрел сейчас перевод своего ЖЖ на английский через Google Translate. Оказывается, он переводит гораздо лучше, чем я ожидал - некоторые посты выходят вполне осмысленными (гусары, молчать!). Многие фразы ясно переводятся идиоматически, не пословно. Интересно, как у него с китайским/японским?

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Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

Посмотрел первые серии FlashForward. Ничего, живенько, динамичнее Fringe (хотя, конечно, у последнего есть сумасшедший ученый, за что можно многое простить) - будем продолжать.

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Глава американского Security Theater дает отпор xkcd.  В числе прочего:

Additional information on Lithium (laptop) batteries: They’re permissible in checked and carry-on luggage when they’re in the devices they are intended for. Spare batteries are not permissible in checked baggage, but they can be transported in your carry-on luggage if they are packaged properly.

Кто-нибудь мне может обьяснить, почему батарейки можно носить с собой, но в багаж сдавать verboten? Я знаю, что некоторые батарейки имеют мерзкую тенденцию с самовозгоранию, но это происходит, когда они в рабочем состоянии, а не просто лежат в чемодане, разве нет? Если же они опасаются какой-нибудь гадости в форме батарейки, то чем помогает запрет только сдачи в багаж? Насколько я понимаю, багаж сканируют как раз более суровыми машинами, чем то, что берут с собой...

Бонус-трек: обьяснения про жидкости, с обещанием:

The choice is a total ban or this, and we are working very hard at a technology solution that should make this better all around. Think early 2009 for that.

Тут интересны сразу две вещи - обещание early 2009 (как там Брукс советовал, на 9 умножать? К 2017-му ждем) и красивый способ сказать "а ведь мы могли и бритвочкой полоснуть". 

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