A simple model of AI-aided economic growth
4 days ago
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
From WaPo: "Italian Premier Berlusconi reportedly punched"
ROME -- Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was punched in the face at the end of a rally in Milan on Sunday, new reports said. The attack occurred as the 73-year-old Berlusconi was signing autographs near his car, state TV said. TV showed the stunned leader with blood under his nose and on his mouth as he was lifted to his feet by aides.
Berlusconi was hustled into the back of a car by the aides, but he immediately got out, apparently in an effort to show he was not badly injured. After looking out into the crowd, the aides pulled the leader back into the vehicle.
Sky TG24 TV said Berlusconi was taken to a Milan hospital to be treated.
News reports said a man, in his 30s or early 40s, was immediately detained as the suspected assailant and taken to police headquarters.
Witnesses told reporters the assailant appeared to have punched Berlusconi while holding a metal object in his fist.
A spokesman for Berlusconi said he didn't immediately have any information about the incident, which happened after the premier delivered a long, rousing speech to his conservative supporters Sunday evening.
I'm not sure if this highlights the danger faced by leaders when "gate crashers" are able to get inside a security cordon - or if it just makes a couple of flaky media hounds seem less important since the only real damage they did was to their own (questionable) reputations.
From the WaPost: Oil theft by drug traffickers. At what point do we stop calling them simply "drug traffickers?"
Drug traffickers employing high-tech drills, miles of rubber hose and a fleet of stolen tanker trucks have siphoned more than $1 billion worth of oil from Mexico's pipelines over the past two years, in a vast and audacious conspiracy that is bleeding the national treasury, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials and the state-run oil company.
They field private armies that are often better-equipped than Mexican security forces. They make money through a variety of illicit businesses. They nearly own portions of the countryside (at least when there aren't federal forces standing on that particular piece of countryside). Are they really JUST drug traffickers?
From Michael Yon's "Arghandab & The Battle for Kandahar"
Russians say we repeat their mistakes but they are wrong. The Soviets employed true scorched-earth tactics—the same tactics that many armchair commanders at home would like to employ. Every time the Soviets whacked the Afghan hive, more hornets raged out. Soviets bullied their way around places like Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and were fantastically brutal in Afghanistan, using all the fire they could breathe. Their “Rules of Engagement,” if any, were probably more concerned with conserving ammunition. They tortured.
A great point that doesn't get emphasized strongly enough. The Soviets were defeated as much by their own remarkably bad decisions and poorly-trained force as they were by the mujahideen. The Coalition battle in Afghanistan bears very little resemblance to that - other than locations some key enemy leaders such as Hekmatyar.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Foreign Policy's Robert Haddick takes a look at the threat represented by Los Zetas
Los Zetas and other such transnational private military forces may be much more dangerous to stability and legitimate governance than al Qaeda or religion-inspired terror groups. The multi-billion-dollar drug-smuggling business seems to buy far more military capability, foot soldiers, high and low-level government officials, and neighborhood support than religious exhortation does. It is easy to organize against al Qaeda's highly unpopular vision of society. For Los Zetas, it's business, not political -- there can be a cut of the action for everyone. That might make Los Zetas and their private military cousins the more insidious threat to legitimate governance.
It's a valid point. There's a limit - even within Muslim-dominated territory - to how extreme Islamist terror organizations can get before they really get push back from the population. Los Zetas and similar organizations, that are business-oriented, are an altogether different threat.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
The Denver Posts chronicles an "American Soldier"
via denverpost.com
Interesting long-term project that demonstrates the power of different media to create an engaging story.
Friday, December 04, 2009
From the csmonitor: Swiss ban on minarets was a vote for tolerance and inclusion
"Here is the great paradox of today's Europe: that the working class, who voted for generations for the left, now find themselves voting for right-wing parties because they feel that the social democratic parties are out of touch."
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