The safety of Americans has lessened dramatically since Bush took office. This is perhaps reflected most clearly in the numbers of investors dropping the dollar from their portfolio. There is a lot of irony in the fact that the oil barons who are close friends of the President are the ones looking to reduce their risk of association:
Qatari Prime Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said on US TV that the government-backed $50bn Qatari Investment Authority (QIA) now had less than 40 per cent of its investments in dollars, down from a high two years ago of 99 per cent.
The fast-growth emerging markets are also stepping back. That’s a stunning decline. One question worth considering is whether this is good for big business partners in America, the ones who back the Republican campaigners, as they have diverse overseas investments to reduce their own risk. And if so, does the increased risk position these big corporatists into an even more powerful buy strategy while the domestic/smaller populist companies are left vulnerable.
Illegible words on church headstones could be read once more thanks to a scan technology developed in the US.
[…]
A computer matches the patterns to a database of signature carvings which reveals the words.
What they don’t realize is that this could be used to scan people’s homes for tombstones turned into fireplaces and floors. It always annoyed me to find gravestones stolen from cemetaries around the midwest.
The article makes some other suggestions:
The researchers believe the technology will also have practical applications in other industry sectors, such as the security and medical fields.
Dr Cai said: “We may use the technology for the future UAVs (Unmanned Aviation vehicles) to detect ground signatures of ancient ruins and help medical doctors to diagnose patients’ well-being through tongue inspection.”
The technology could also be used to predict a possible tsunami by examining the patterns on the surface of the world’s oceans.
Could be? Hard to see how static scans of tombstone carvings could evolve to global wave monitoring, but I guess that is the exciting aspect of detection engines.
Peace – The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops.
[…]
Economics – Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan for patenting a device that can catch bank robbers by dropping a net over them.
Now if someone could just combine the two, the Air Force could drop a love net over their enemies.
from Espana En El Corazon (Spain in Our Hearts)
by Pablo Neruda
translated by Donald Walsh
Nothing, not even victory
will erase the terrible hollow of the blood:
nothing, neither the sea, nor the passage
of sand and time, nor the geranium flaming
upon the grave.
The Spanish Civil War generated a wealth of literature and art. In contrast, even in this age of information there seems to be very little escaping places like Darfur, Iraq or Afghanistan and making it to the mainstream media. Thank goodness for the individuals who took time to get their blogs flowing, like A Glimpse of Iraq:
Poetry is so central in Iraqi people’s sentiment and disposition that any glimpse of Iraq would be incomplete without some mention of it.
For centuries, poetry was the first religion for many people. People’s collective wisdom, their history and heritage, their values and ideals, their pride and achievements are all preserved in poetry lines.
You won’t find that recognition on CNN, or even most poetry sites in America.