Author's posts
Oct 18 2009
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
32 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Revolutionary Guards generals among 35 killed in Iran attack
by Jay Deshmukh, AFP
41 mins ago
| TEHRAN (AFP) – A suicide bomber blew himself up Sunday at a meeting in southeastern Iran of the elite Revolutionary Guards, killing seven commanders and 28 other people in an attack Tehran said was plotted on Pakistani soil.
Several tribal leaders at the meeting in Sistan-Baluchestan province — a hotbed of Sunni insurgency — also died in the blast while 28 people were injured. The attacker set off his explosives belt as the meeting got underway around 8.00 am (0430 GMT) at a gymnasium in the city of Pisheen, near the border with Pakistan, the state broadcaster said. |
Oct 17 2009
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 38 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Pakistan launches massive anti-Taliban offensive
by S.H. Khan, AFP
2 hrs 51 mins ago
| PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistani troops backed by fighter jets launched a major operation against the Taliban in South Waziristan on Saturday, sparking deadly clashes with heavily-armed rebels, officials said.
The mountain district is part of a tribal belt on the Afghan border that US officials call the most dangerous place in the world and is home to thousands of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked fighters branded a major threat to the West. Air strikes and heavy artillery pounded Taliban bases as troops advanced north, west and east after months spent planning an assault that is expected to pose a stern test for the military on terrain ideally suited to guerrillas. |
Oct 16 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 51 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Twin suicide blasts kill 11 in NW Pakistan
by Lehaz Ali, AFP
Fri Oct 16, 6:25 am ET
| PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A twin suicide attack tore through a police compound in Pakistan on Friday, killing 11 people and heightening public anger over security breaches behind a wave of recent attacks.
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed power with a weak government on the frontline of the US-led war on terror, has been battered by assaults that have left more than 170 people dead in 11 days. A woman suicide bomber on a motorbike and a car bomber unleashed fresh chaos Friday, detonating near a police investigations office in a garrison area of the northwestern city of Peshawar, bringing down a side of the building, police said. |
Oct 15 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 44 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 40 dead as militants ambush Pakistan police
by Nasir Jaffry, AFP
52 mins ago
| LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – Militants unleashed attacks in Pakistan on Thursday that left 40 people dead, storming police offices in Lahore and bombing targets in the northwest to escalate 11 days of carnage.
The coordinated assaults underscored the power of armed radicals to strike in the heart of Pakistan, and the weakness of poorly equipped security forces, despite promises of a new offensive against the Taliban. Nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led fight against terrorism, is reeling from two years of Taliban-linked attacks that have escalated with over 160 people killed since October 5. |
Oct 14 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 42 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Britain to send 500 extra troops to Afghanistan
by Katherine Haddon, AFP
2 hrs 13 mins ago
| LONDON (AFP) – Britain announced an extra 500 soldiers for Afghanistan Wednesday, as US President Barack Obama huddled with his war cabinet to decide whether to commit thousands more troops to the conflict.
But while pledging more forces, Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged NATO allies to do their “fair share” in the increasingly deadly and unpopular war and pressed Kabul to provide more troops and get tough on corruption. “We have agreed in principle a new British troop level of 9,500,” Brown said in a statement to the House of Commons. The Ministry of Defence confirmed this represented an increase of 500. |
Oct 14 2009
Wednesday Morning Science Supplement
Wednesday Morning Science Supplement is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Science |
1 Fight over future of Kashmir’s iconic Dal Lake
by Izhar Wani, AFP
36 mins ago
| SRINAGAR (AFP) – “I live here and I will die here,” insists Safder Hussain, one of thousands of farmers defying relocation from Kashmir’s famed Dal Lake which is slowly choking to death on sewage, silt and weeds.
The iconic mountain-ringed oasis that has seduced generations of visitors has shrunk to half its original size in the past two decades — and the government has pointed a finger of blame at Hussain and 90,000 other lake dwellers. For years they have eked out a tough but decent living, growing vegetables and fruit on floating “fields” made of reeds and composted weeds. |
Oct 13 2009
Afternoon Edition
About the Afternoon Edition–
I feel there are some meta aspects about how I choose and present my stories that will enhance your understanding of what you are reading and how you can use it.
I am not Magnifico
News Digest was not my idea and I was but a reluctant contributor and still am. To me it is a mere chore and my real challenge is to systematize my data collection to a sufficient extent that I can concentrate on content, presentation, and organization.
Those of you who have actually been able to experience a real programming environment will appreciate the combination of brief, visual c++, and some useful tools like the greenleaf window (character based) libraries.
Pretty easy to do some data management and prototyping; less so using Microsoft tools if you ask me, but the market has spoken.
In any event by limiting myself to one source of pretty uniform content I’m usually able to reduce my hand formatting and data collection times to a little over 2 hours daily for an output of 30 to 60 stories.
The reason I cut it off at 60 is because as JekyllnHyde has observed there is a limit on essay size, though you can always revise and expand through comments and traffic here has not yet reached the extent that you can’t duplicate the effects of pre-posting through pre-organizing (which I have demonstrated on numerous occasions Watson).
Magnifico disagrees with me about the number of stories to present you. He thinks it’s distracting and provides more commentary to focus your attention on particular issues.
I think it’s more important to keep you in touch with events you’re not seeing.
On being a filter
I look at over 500 stories an essay. I choose those I think will interest my audience or outrage them.
One of the reasons I use this source is it’s predictive of the content on your typical dead tree daily.
Out of that I deselect the too short to quote and the done to death. If the take of each wire service is significant I include them all without apology. I also follow the forgotten.
Of the categories I originally included I’m no longer tracking the ‘mosts’ (popular, emailed, and viewed). Science gets it’s own section when I remember I’m supposed to do it (like today). Politics is virtually entirely bullshit and you have to harvest your Business section after 6 pm (or better yet between midnight and 6 am) if you want topicality.
And you run out of room.
Presentation and Organization
Oh for HTML Pagemaker.
The colors are rotated to visually distinguish each story for your eyes and draw your attention! They are not at all related to topic.
To the extent that things are organized it’s mostly by the order in which they were captured and where. Those are the pink headlines and more importantly the source attributions.
Now if I were more efficient I might improve my organization… or not.
How to use this
Hopefully as illumination! Each selection is intended to inspire it’s own essay. Failing that to make you aware of something you’ve not seen elsewhere or remind you of conventional wisdom.
Sometimes I can’t restrain myself, but the commentary is not the message.
Link the source and not me. My reward is the “heh, scooped” I utter whenever Rachel or Keith or any of the Usual Suspects cover my clues.
And don’t think I don’t gloat.
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 46 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Romanian govt falls on no confidence vote
by Mihaela Rodina, AFP
Tue Oct 13, 11:24 am ET
| BUCHAREST (AFP) – Romania’s centre-right government collapsed Tuesday after losing a no-confidence vote, plunging the country further into political turmoil as it seeks to exit a deep recession.
It is the first time since the fall of the communist regime at the end of 1989 that a Romanian government has been toppled in such a manner. With Romania mired in recession and just over a month to go before presidential elections, a total of 254 parliamentary deputies and senators voted to oust Prime Minister Emil Boc and his Liberal-Democrats and 176 voted against, said parliamentary secretary Valeriu Zgonea. |
Oct 12 2009
Afternoon Edition
Afternoon Edition is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 36 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 41 dead as suicide blast hits northwest Pakistan
by Lehaz Ali, AFP
Mon Oct 12, 10:12 am ET
| PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – A devastating suicide bomb hit northwest Pakistan killing 41 people Monday, as the military geared up for an assault on Taliban rebels blamed for increasingly bloody and brazen attacks.
The bomber, reported to be aged about 13, flung himself at a military convoy passing through a busy market in Shangla, a northwest district near Swat where the army claimed to have flushed out Taliban rebels after a fierce offensive. But Islamist extremist groups appear far from quashed, with an audacious raid on army headquarters over the weekend leaving 23 people dead and underscoring the vulnerability of the nuclear-armed nation. Eight days of bloodshed. |
Oct 11 2009
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
Now with World and U.S. News. 57 Story Final.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Canadian ‘space clown’ returns to Earth
by Alexander Osipovich, AFP
Sun Oct 11, 8:33 am ET
| MOSCOW (AFP) – Canadian circus tycoon Guy Laliberte returned to Earth on Sunday, wearing his trademark red clown nose, when a Soyuz capsule carrying him and two astronauts landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
“Everything took place normally and on time,” said Vitaly Lopota, head of Energia, the Russian state-owned company which designs the Soyuz capsule, in televised remarks. “The crew is feeling excellent,” he added. |
Oct 11 2009
On ratings.
Yup, Pope ek the first is speaking for the church tonight and you better listen up.
Oct 10 2009
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
29 Top Story Final Edition.
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Clown beams message of water conservation from space
AFP
Sat Oct 10, 1:00 am ET
| MONTREAL (AFP) – The first clown in space, Guy Laliberte, has launched a 14-city poetic planetary extravaganza to promote clean drinking water, from the International Space Station.
The billionaire space tourist and founder of Cirque du Soleil described his journey as a “poetic, social mission.” The two-hour live One Drop show, broadcast online Friday included guests Al Gore, Bono, Salma Hayek, Peter Gabriel, Shakira, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and a musical theatrical performance by Laliberte’s circus troupe. |
Aunty Mame is a big fan.
Oct 07 2009
The Morning News
The Morning News is an Open Thread
34 Top Stories. You know you want to.
1 Reality TV shifting focus to everyday life
by Audrey Stuart, AFP
Wed Oct 7, 2:09 am ET
| CANNES, France (AFP) – Train to dance like Michael Jackson, cook like a chef, or just learn to be happy! Reality TV is here to stay, according to the experts, but is shifting from glamour to tackle everyday life.
Reality TV has steadily grown over the last decade, according to production companies and market watchers attending the MIPCOM entertainment industry fair taking place on the French Riviera this week. “We’re really astounded by the extraordinary rises in audiences for our shows this year,” Tony Cohen, CEO of leading reality and format production group, Freemantle Media, told a press conference. |