Missing Mary Road

The Times/UK launches a brilliant piece of investigative journalism that confirms what we’ve already known – that US forces have been pursuing the Global War on Terror from inside Pakistani territory as early as October 2001. What they judiciously add to the global knowledgebase is an exact location within Pakistan and composition of those forces.

The CIA is secretly using an airbase in southern Pakistan to launch the Predator drones that observe and attack al-Qaeda and Taleban militants on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan, a Times investigation has found.

The Pakistani and US governments have repeatedly denied that Washington is running military operations, covert or otherwise, on Pakistani territory — a hugely sensitive issue in the predominantly Muslim country.

The Pakistani Government has also repeatedly demanded that the US halt drone attacks on northern tribal areas that it says have caused hundreds of civilian casualties and fuelled anti-American sentiment.

But The Times has discovered that the CIA has been using the Shamsi airfield — originally built by Arab sheikhs for falconry expeditions in the southwestern province of Baluchistan — for at least a year. The strip, which is about 30 miles from the Afghan border, allows US forces to launch a Drone within minutes of receiving actionable intelligence as well as allowing them to attack targets further afield.

It was known that US special forces used Shamsi during the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, but the Pakistani Government declared publicly in 2006 that the Americans had left it and two other airbases.

I would like to introduce you to the recently launched News Watch Pakistan. I would appreciate if anyone feels like it to check it out, review it, link to it and provide feedback for it. Given the lack of quality news sites out there some will find it very useful. It currently features live news from Pakistan (updated every 60 seconds), multiple perspectives, a minimalist interface and some other features. News Watch is currently taking on feature requests and adding new features on a regular basis. Please pass the word to avid readers or whomever you think will benefit.

You aren’t going to read about this in the US press, they are too busy lying about everything they report. We have to read about it in a British newspaper. Goldman Sachs just took a $12B bailout package and have set aside $14B in bonuses for the executives.

Goldman Sachs is on course to pay its top City bankers multimillion-pound bonuses – despite asking the U.S. government for an emergency bail-out.

The struggling Wall Street bank has set aside £7billion for salaries and 2008 year-end bonuses, it emerged yesterday.

Each of the firm’s 443 partners is on course to pocket an average Christmas bonus of more than £3million.

The size of the pay pool comfortably dwarfs the £6.1billion lifeline which the U.S. government is throwing to Goldman as part of its £430billion bail-out.

As Washington pours money into the bank, the cash will immediately be channelled to Goldman’s already well-heeled employees.

while i’m thinking about forwards, theres a huge repository of email forwards that have been running around the nets for donkeys years. you can find it at the forward garden.

So, a neutron walked into a bar and said “I’d like a drink, please.”

After the bartender gave him one, he said “How much will that be?”

“For you?” said the bartender “No charge.”

though the ‘S’ will be reflected backwards in the clouds, i still find it funny. maybe bizarro did it.

a short history of the 21st century by chuck klosterman. every entry is worth the read.

DEC. 31, 2014: Billed as “the floating Dubai,” the inaugural space hotel opens its doors. Financed by Google, the cost is $2 million per room, per evening. Kanye West performs in the ballroom on opening night.

MAY 24, 2029: Eighty-eight-year-old Bob Dylan celebrates his birthday with the online release of “Oh, By the Way,” a fourteen-minute song explicitly explaining the details of his 1966 motorcycle crash, his brief conversion to Christianity during the seventies, and what it was like to have sex with Joan Baez. When asked why he chose to release such personal material at this point in his life, Dylan cryptically replies, “That seems like a question you should be asking Bob Dylan.”

A short film by a friend’s cousin about Obama-Biden and the war in Iraq. Thought I would share.

Zardari met with Palin. Here are the excerpts from his brief conversation with Sarah Palin

Ever since Senator John McCain made Ms. Palin the first woman to serve on a Republican presidential ticket, pundits and politicians have been walking on eggshells for fear of saying anything about her that might come off as sexist. But in an exchange captured by television cameras, Ms. Palin was greeted by Asif Ali Zardari, the new president of Pakistan, and a delegation of Pakistani officials.

“I am honored to meet you,” Ms. Palin said.
“You are even more gorgeous than you are on the (inaudible),” Mr. Zardari said.
“You are so nice,” Ms. Palin replied. “Thank you.”
“Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you,” Mr. Zardari continued. At which point an aide told the two to shake hands.
“I’m supposed to pose again,” Ms. Palin said.
“If he’s insisting,” Mr. Zardari said, “I might hug.”

for those interested in the story………. here’s the full article

some great shots of oases in deserts across the world. click for more.

thanks hem.

Man’s Body Found 11 Months After Suicide
“Sohn seemed to have hung himself from a pipe in the kitchen, police said. The new owner, Kim, had mistaken the body for a mannequin twice before realizing that it was a dead body.”

The Sarah Palin Effect

World’s First Synthetic Tree: May Lead To Technologies For Heat Transfer, Soil Remediation

Indian teenage suicide over black hole test:
“Chayya Lal, 16, from the central state of Madhya Pradesh, committed suicide after watching television reports on how the particle-smashing test in Geneva could bring about doomsday, Indian newspapers reported.”

Protective Skin Could Herald in Tiny Satellite Fleet :
team of researchers has created a thin plastic-like coating that can switch from cooling to warming with a quick pulse of electricity

one of the few websites that i actually sit and read rants from is a website by a unique individual who speaks of Homer and relates it to the current political construct across the globe. at the same time, he does so with a comedic tone unlike any other. it’s wonderful. similarly, speaking of manfredd mann and cold stone ice cream in the same paragraph is not easy to do, but the satire behind this young writer makes it wonderful to read. so when he left a note around here and said that this was one of his favourite blogs, i was much obliged. i wouldn’t think too much of being tagged or linked to, but coming from him it’s quite fun to note that i’ve been given the brilliante blog award.

now the rules of the game are as follows:

1. the purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogosphere (quad erat demonstradum).
2. when you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.
3. choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
4. show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘brilliante weblog.’
5. show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).
6. and then we pass it on!

so here goes nothing…

seems like the desi blogosphere is primarily comprised of people just linking to other desi blogs which really defeats the purpose of this exercise. so i suppose i might as well expand a bit further to some other sites that i read but i doubt they really know that i read them.

1. vleeptronz – for being an inquisitive planet where bob the new englander is only trying to learn more about planet earth with wiggly gif’s and molly ringwald
2. phd comics – for students everywhere, piled higher and deeper
3. the big picture – for helping me rediscover the joy of photography again
4. the google operating system – for reminding us that google has been developing an operating system since they formed ten years ago
5. what would tyler durden do – for keeping me in the loop
6. whedonesque – for browncoats everywhere
7. wwdn in exile – for being a geek and a fun writer and staying cool after being a part of one of the best television series ever

so there you go, 7 more sites to peruse and enjoy. have fun.

live blogging the startup of the LHC going on at Cosmic Variance.

Opera’s founder and CEO Jon von Tetzchner posted his thoughts on the Choose Opera blog about new Google Chrome browser, which was released yesterday.

A lot of companies want to put their stamp on the Web, and a browser is the primary tool to bring that experience to life. So it was with no real surprise that Google launched a browser yesterday. It is flattering that they chose several features from Opera to include in their browser.

We believe in offering free choice of browsers. We welcome competition because it helps drive the Web forward and offers more robust choices for consumers.

As you know, Google has been a great partner to Opera in the past and will be in the future. Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, and our desktop browser all include Google as the default search. We are also working with them to bring Gears into our desktop and mobile products. Collaboration with Google will continue to be an important aspect of our product development.

In welcoming Google to the browser industry, we also call on them to seize the new responsibility they now have to ensure their products and services work in all browsers. This way, they will protect the free and open Web.

Update: More from the CEO here.

Imitation is the best form of flattery.

and also Google Chrome ‘borrows’ from Opera browser Opera CEO welcomes Chrome to browser wars

Exxon Mobil Corp. said its second-quarter net income rose 14% as record oil prices once again yielded a new high in quarterly profits for a U.S. company

The world’s biggest non-government oil company had net income of $11.68 billion, or $2.22 a share, up from $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, a year earlier. …