Remembering Brad Graham - MetaTalkVia PhotojojoAward-winning photojournaist James Pomerantz is studying for an MFA in Photography, and now you can read the books that he’s reading. His list is dense and scholarly but your grey matter (and your photographic output) will thank you for peeking over James’ shoulder.
Hollywood star's sexual conquests said to have included Isabelle Adjani, Diane Keaton and Madonna
Conquests? Is this the Guardian I'm reading? Surely some of these women were as equally enthusiastic as Beatty? Maybe some of them even seduced him? With his dark-blue uniform, earpiece and walkie-talkie, Yousaf Rahman could pass for a police officer as he patrols the streets of Bradford's Manningham neighbourhood. Like an officer of the law, he responds to emergency calls, visits crime scenes and pursues suspects.OK, I made it up. They aren't actually Muslims...they are Jews. Feel better now?
However, he is a member not of the constabulary but of the Manningham Islamic Rescue Patrol, a group of devout Muslim men who, for the past two years, have been “policing” the streets of their community...
Set up nearly two years ago, the group now has 22 patrolling members, a headquarters and even a 24-hour emergency number, staffed by six operators, which residents call to report crime. “Every house and child in the community knows this number off by heart,” said Mr Rahman, one of the group’s committee members.
What a sad and pathetic little country we have become if we can't just suck up a little 'alarm and distress'.Seven Muslim protesters accused of screaming insults at soldiers during an Iraq homecoming parade refused to stand for a judge yesterday.The men are alleged to have shouted 'murderers', 'rapists', 'terrorists' and 'baby killers' while waving placards at the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment marching through Luton.
Pictures obtained through use of a scanner that uses a low-energy full-body x-ray. Professor Rolf Michel, the head of the Commission on Radiological Protection at Germany's Environment Ministry, has warned against the using x-ray scanners on humans at airports. Long-term exposure to frequent fliers, he said, have the potential to cause cancer.
Atheists have begun a campaign against (Ireland's) new blasphemy law, which came into force on January 1st as part of the Defamation Act.
The group Atheist Ireland has published 25 quotes it says are blasphemous, attributed to people from Jesus Christ to Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern.
Under the new law, which the group is campaigning to have repealed, blasphemy is punishable by a fine of up to €25,000.
It defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, and intending by such publication to cause such outrage.
The weeks before Christmas brought no hint of terror. But by the afternoon of December 21, 2003, police stood guard in heavy assault gear on the streets of Manhattan. Fighter jets patrolled the skies. When a gift box was left on Fifth Avenue, it was labeled a suspicious package and 5,000 people in the Metropolitan Museum of Art were herded into the cold.Read the whole, bizarre story
DHS secretary Tom Ridge announced the terror alert. “There’s continued discussion,” he told reporters, “these are from credible sources—about near-term attacks that could either rival or exceed what we experienced on September 11.” The New York Times reported that intelligence sources warned “about some unspecified but spectacular attack.”
The financial markets trembled. By Tuesday the panic had ratcheted up as the Associated Press reported threats to “power plants, dams and even oil facilities in Alaska.” The feds forced the cancellation of dozens of French, British and Mexican commercial “flights of interest” and pushed foreign governments to put armed air marshals on certain flights. Air France flight 68 was canceled, as was Air France flight 70. By Christmas the headline in the Los Angeles Times was "Six Flights Canceled as Signs of Terror Plot Point to L.A." Journalists speculated over the basis for these terror alerts. “Credible sources,” Ridge said. “Intelligence chatter,” said CNN.
But there were no real intercepts, no new informants, no increase in chatter. And the suspicious package turned out to contain a stuffed snowman. This was, instead, the beginning of a bizarre scam. Behind that terror alert, and a string of contracts and intrigue that continues to this date, there is one unlikely character.
The man’s name is Dennis Montgomery, a self-proclaimed scientist who said he could predict terrorist attacks. Operating with a small software development company, he apparently convinced the Bush White House, the CIA, the Air Force and other agencies that Al Jazeera—the Qatari-owned TV network—was unwittingly transmitting target data to Al Qaeda sleepers.
Senior Labour figures have voiced concerns that Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq inquiry in the coming weeks will wreck any prospect of him helping the party at the general election.What? Are there still people within Labour who think Blair could bring any help to them during the election campaign?
Seven Muslim protesters accused of screaming insults at soldiers during an Iraq homecoming parade refused to stand for a judge yesterday.The men are alleged to have shouted 'murderers', 'rapists', 'terrorists' and 'baby killers' while waving placards at the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment marching through Luton.
