All the King's horses...

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A special Channel 4 News report from the combat medical hospitals in Iraq, shows the physical and psychological cost of the war.

At Baghdad's Combat Support Hospital, the Black Hawks are coming in thick and fast, ferrying America's war-wounded straight off the battlefield; more than 27,000 of them in four-and-a-bit years.

They are bloodying these operating tables day in, day out, more since the surge say the military medics; more US troops to be injured -- or killed. "We had the surge; and it kinda waxes and wanes; I don't know. We've had a lot more casualties coming in," says Major William White, Nurse Manager...

"That's the most horrific thing I've seen in my ten years in medicine. Can you ever be 100 per cent prepared for what you see? No." - Paul Corcoran, Chief Surgeon

The US takes almost half its casualties in Anbar Province,northwest of Baghdad. Orderlies and gurneys are on permanent standby at the Al-Asad Combat Hospital.







Wave that weenie

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The Very Model of a Modern Major Asshole by Jerome Doolittle

We will all be seeing a lot of David Howell Petraeus..., as he carries Bush’s water to Capitol Hill. Good old Dave! General Petraeus and I happen to go way back — to March 18, 2003. On that date, just before our army stepped off a cliff and into Baghdad, the general was doing pushups on a pier in Kuwait.

From the New York Times account:
 
David H. Petraeus, major general, 50 years old, was face down on a pier in the port of Kuwait, forehead to forehead with Jonathan Aleshire, a 19-year-old private …

At the port, what started out as a backslapping exercise by the general shifted after a good-natured jibe from one of the enlisted soldiers. Suddenly, the slight general — he is 5 feet 9, 150 pounds — was challenging the brawny private to a push-up showdown …

The general dipped to the ground, level as a plank of plywood, but for his head, which was cocked up. He stared at the private as they rose and fell, the private perhaps a half-beat behind the general …

At number 24, a little gasp emerged from the private. The general never blinked. Private Aleshire did another push-up, more like a shove-up, arms wobbling. When he rose for his 26th, he buckled. He was through. The general continued for at least another 20. When he stood, only a throbbing vein on his neck showed any evidence of exertion. ‘‘You can write that off on your income taxes as an educational expense,’’ General Petraeus told the private.

I knew immediately upon reading this that the general was an asshole.

World's End

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Thirty years ago he murdered two innocent young women. Yesterday the 'World's End' murders suspect escaped justice
For 30 agonising years, the families of Christine Eadie and Helen Scott had hoped for justice. Last night, after a sensational day of twists and turns, that hope had turned to dust.

The man police are convinced killed the young women is back in prison, but not for their murders. Instead, Angus Sinclair, already a convicted double killer and paedophile, watched impassively as a judge halted his trial for their murders, citing insufficient evidence. He can never be retried for the crime. The decision led to angry recriminations, with police officers privately blaming prosecutors for bungling the case. The Scotsman understands that the jury was not told that samples of DNA, which could be linked to Sinclair, were found in ligatures used to kill the women.
Police believe he may be responsible for five other unsolved murders.

Video report.

Take him out and shoot him.


Burn Baby, Burn?

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The real tragedy of 9/11...

...

is that it "justified" this:


The roof the roof the roof is on fire
The roof the roof the roof is on fire
The roof the roof the roof is on fire
We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn
Burn motherfucker burn

Everybody here we go
Ohh Ohh
C'mon party people
Ohh Ohh
Throw your hands in the air
Ohh Ohh
C'mon party people
Ohh Ohh
Wave 'em like you don't care
Ohh Ohh
C'mon party people
Ohh Ohh
Everybody say ho
Ohh Ohh
C'mon party people
Ohh Ohh
Everybody here we go


Being Mr Power

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At last! For those readers who simply must keep up to date about my eating habits, my cat's sinus problems, my son's progress at college, my bowels (the current hot story), or any of the other fascinating details of the life of the Power tribe there is now a page on this site devoted to your needs.

I've started a personal blog on a separate page so that I don't have to drop  postings about my latest visit to the nurse in between links to stories about world famine, war, death, destruction and Gordon Brown.

You'll find it in the sidebar - 'Take it personally' .

There is even an RSS feed


Help the search for the lost flyer from your desk

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Amazon Helps in Search for Steve Fossett
Steve Fossett, the millionaire adventurer, has been missing for days and now Amazon Mechanical Turk is being used to aid in the search. You can find all the details on the Amazon Web Services blog.

Several organizations have pulled together satellite imagery of the suspected crash zone and are asking people to look over the images and search for the plane which will measure 30 pixel wingspan and 21 pixels in length. They are requesting five to ten people to search each 256X256 pixel square to make sure nothing is missed. Time is of the essence in this matter, and the faster people work, the better.

For those unfamiliar with Amazon Mechanical Turk, it is a service of the mega-online store that lets people work on tasks that people are better suited at doing than computers, and requires a large, quickly assembled workforce.


OneWebDay September 22nd

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I'm not quite as optimistic as some of these people.

The very things they (and) I love about the web are the very things that government and big business hate about it, so I'll reserve my judgment for a while longer.

I'm from a generation of party (shared) telephone lines, a single black and white TV channel (on for just a few hours a day), telegrams, snail-mail and trunk calls to Australia costing half a week's wages so, for me, the Web is truly remarkable. But I still think there's nothing like receiving a hand-written letter and the sound of someone's voice trumps an email any day. On the other hand getting a video from across the world showing your grandchild's first steps is pretty special too. The great thing is, it's not an either/or, we can do the lot!



Via Mashable