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In April of 1998, President Clinton sent his United Nations Ambassador, Bill Richardson, to South Asia. Richardson's stops included New Delhi, Islamabad, and, most unusually, Kabul, where he held the first (and, as it turned out, the last) Cabinet-level negotiations between the United States and the Taliban leaders of Afghanistan. Richardson, who is now the governor of New Mexico, is an effective diplomat. (He returned to international diplomacy briefly last month, when he met with two North Korean envoys in Santa Fe.) He is irreverent, and he is not timid, and his trip might have been a diplomatic success if it had not been an intelligence failure.
During the stop in New Delhi, Richardson met with officials of the new Hindu-nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party. In one encounter, Richardson asked the defense minister, George Fernandes, if his country planned to explode any of its nuclear weapons. The Indians had not tested their bomb since 1974, but in early 1998 the newspapers in New Delhi—and in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital—were filled with speculation about the new government's intentions. The B.J.P. had stated in its election platform that it would "not be dictated to by anybody in matters of security and in the exercise of the nuclear option."
Fernandes, a self-described pacifist, told Richardson that India had no intention of exploding a nuclear device. Then he changed the subject to the situation in Burma. In other meetings, Richardson was given the same soothing message, and the mission to India was so relaxed that the Assistant Secretary of State, Karl Inderfurth, who was managing the trip, spent part of one day trying to set up a cricket demonstration for Richardson, a former minor-league baseball player. The demonstration was interrupted only once, so that Richardson could receive a six-minute intelligence briefing from a New Delhi-based C.I.A. officer.
I accompanied Richardson on the trip, and he allowed me to follow him into many of his meetings, except for C.I.A. briefings. But it is clear that no one from the C.I.A. told Richardson that the Indians were about to explode five nuclear devices in the Rajasthan desert, which is what they did less than a month after the delegation left South Asia. Not long ago, one of Richardson's former top aides, Calvin Mitchell, told me, "Even after we returned from the region, we received no intelligence that the Indians had lied to us."
Richardson was equally ill-informed in Afghanistan. In a single day, we visited Kabul and Sheberghan, a town in the north held by anti-Taliban rebels, and flew back to Islamabad at sundown. It was a strange day; at one stop, a senior National Security Council official fell into a sewage ditch, and the NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell was nearly trampled by a posse of Uzbek horsemen. Nothing was stranger, however, than the meeting with the Taliban.
"We have a whole range of issues we're going to bring up with the Taliban leadership," Inderfurth had told me the day before the trip. Osama bin Laden, the Taliban's most famous guest, "is just one," he said.
The American delegation was met at the Kabul airport by Taliban gunmen in pickup trucks, who drove us to the Presidential Palace. The freewheeling Richardson decided to include me in the delegation, telling me to identify myself as a "note-taker," should anyone ask. An honor guard of Pashtun fighters greeted us and led us through a series of musty corridors to a small room with gray walls. The room was undecorated, except for a bookcase holding the collected works of Washington Irving. We had a long wait before the Taliban delegation arrived. It was led by Mohammed Rabbani, the deputy to Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader (who rarely left Kandahar, and who in any case refused to meet non-Muslims). The Taliban men were ignorant of diplomatic niceties, and Richardson's icebreaking small talk was met by incomprehension. But Richardson gamely moved through the issues. He expressed the Clinton Administration's concern that the Taliban was shielding a terrorist. Rabbani, who sweated profusely throughout the meeting, responded, "He is our guest here. He is under our control."
Richardson persisted; so did the Taliban. Richardson consulted his State Department and N.S.C. advisers; we waited to see how far he would push the matter. He dropped it, and continued with the agenda, which included a discussion of the possibility of running an oil pipeline across parts of Taliban territory. We were then led to a banquet hall, where we were served rice and pigeon as gunmen circled the table.
Calvin Mitchell said, "We certainly didn't know much about Osama at the time. We didn't know the extent of his network or that he was bankrolling the entire Taliban."
When I reached Richardson recently at the governor's mansion in Santa Fe, he recalled his post-mission frustration. "When a foreign leader wants to deceive you, even the best intelligence is not going to prove in a foolproof way that the leader is deceiving you," he said. "But we need to have a better way of sensing the deception of foreign leaders."
Shortly after the failure to predict India's nuclear tests, George Tenet, the C.I.A. director, asked a retired Navy admiral, David Jeremiah, to conduct an investigation. At the time, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan—who had long emphasized a need to improve intelligence collection and analysis, as well as the oversight of the more than thirty-billion-dollar national intelligence apparatus—said, "The question is: Why don't we learn to read? What's the State Department for? The political leadership in India as much as said they were going to begin testing. There's a tendency at the State Department to say, 'Gee, the C.I.A. never told us.' "
Jeremiah found that the United States had an insufficient number of satellites focussed on India; that the intelligence community's photograph analysts were overworked and undertrained; and that the C.I.A. had too few spies on the ground. But underscoring all this, Jeremiah said, was a particularly American sort of assumption: both intelligence analysts and policymakers assumed that the Indians would not test their nuclear weapons because Americans would not, in similar circumstances, test nuclear weapons. In the world of intelligence, this is known as mirror-imaging: the projection of American values and behavior onto America's enemies and rivals. "I suppose my bottom line is that both the intelligence and the policy communities had an underlying mind-set going into these tests that the B.J.P. would behave as we behave," Jeremiah said at a press conference held to announce his findings.
America's early assessment of bin Laden was similarly flawed. In the American mind, of course, the bin Laden of April, 1998, was not the bin Laden of September, 2001. But his intentions were no secret. Two months before the Richardson meeting, bin Laden had issued a fatwa, a religious ruling, in which he called on Muslims to kill Americans—civilians and military. Yet, among the group of Americans travelling with Richardson five years ago, the fatwa was a passing source of black humor; the threat seemed too outlandish to be taken seriously.
In the foreword to Roberta Wohlstetter's classic 1962 study, "Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision," the national-security expert Thomas Schelling wrote that America's ability to be surprised by the actions of its enemies is the result of a "poverty of expectations." He went on, "There is a tendency in our planning to confuse the unfamiliar with the improbable. The contingency we have not considered seriously looks strange; what looks strange is thought improbable; what is improbable need not be considered seriously."
Wohlstetter's work revealed that Pearl Harbor was not much of a surprise at all. It showed that the American government's fatal mistake was not a failure to pick up signals—overheard conversations, decoded cables, unusual ship movements—but a failure to separate out signals from noise, to understand which signals were meaningful, and to imagine that the Japanese might do something as irrational as attacking the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific fleet. In other words, the Americans heard the signals but didn't listen to them.
One day earlier this winter, I visited Fort Meade, outside Baltimore, which is the home of the National Security Agency, the country's main signals-intelligence group. The director of the N.S.A. is a cerebral, well-respected Air Force general named Michael Hayden, and I spoke to him about the challenges of signal collection. We sat in his office, a large room with a view of the N.S.A.'s obsessively guarded complex of black buildings. The office had been scrubbed of classified material in anticipation of my visit.
"Our noise-to-signal ratio is twenty to one, that one being something useful," Hayden told me. "Not necessarily tactically useful, just remotely useful. But even this is misleading, because it's twenty to one after we've done all sorts of things to make it humanly intelligible. You have to collect, process, translate, move it down the funnel, transform it from noise into a signal, before you know if it's useful."
I asked Hayden whether he thought Pearl Harbor or September 11th had been the greater surprise. "Pearl Harbor was, essentially, not a surprise," he said. "It was that one could not divine the meaningful signals from the thousands that were out there." He thought about the question a little longer and added, "I'm going to say, and I might change my mind, perhaps it was more a failure of imagination this time than last. We failed to see how absolute their"—Al Qaeda's—"world view is. A signals-intelligence agency gets inside the head of an adversary, if you're doing your job at all. You get to know the inside of a target. But I don't think we properly appreciated how capable and how different, how evil, that mind-set is."
Hayden also suggested that September 11th was the greater surprise, because the United States was, in effect, already at war with bin Laden. "Al Qaeda had attacked us before," he pointed out, "and we had a broad effort against the group." He noted that, after the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in East Africa, Tenet had told the intelligence community that he was "declaring war" on Al Qaeda. Nevertheless, Hayden said, America was surprised.
I asked Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretary of Defense, the same question when, in late January, I met with him in his office in the Pentagon. Rumsfeld was moving troops to the Persian Gulf that day, but in our discussion he focussed on the role of surprise in intelligence failure. He wasn't interested in assigning blame for the failure to predict or stop the September 11th attacks; in fact, he objected when I used the word "failure," preferring, as Tenet does, the word "defeat." He said, "When you hear people criticizing the agency, I think it's important to reverse it and say, 'People ought to really critique how professional and how substantive the users of intelligence are in contributing critical feedback.' " In other words, the blame for "defeats" in intelligence can be ascribed as much to executive-branch policymakers and the intelligence committees of Congress as it can to Middle East analysts in the cubicles of the C.I.A. Echoing Moynihan's argument, Rumsfeld also said that policymakers mistakenly assume that information must be secret in order to have value. "There's something about me, I suppose, and others possibly, where we read intel and we begin to think that this is the sum total of what we know about a subject and not really go in and probe the open sources, which are rich in many cases," he said.
In the late nineteen-nineties, Rumsfeld, who was then working in private industry (he had already had one tour as Secretary of Defense, under President Ford), chaired a commission set up by Congress to examine the ballistic-missile programs of America's rivals and enemies. The commission, whose members included Rumsfeld's current deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, concluded that American intelligence agencies did not possess the analytic depth or the right methods of analysis to accurately assess the threat. "Intelligence assessments and estimates must be grounded in the facts," the commission concluded. "But to be useful, they cannot be limited to reporting only what is known about a particular program. Yet, in a large number of cases examined, Commissioners found analysts unwilling to make estimates that extended beyond the hard evidence they had in hand, which effectively precluded developing and testing alternative hypotheses about the actual foreign programs taking place."
Rumsfeld is especially drawn to Schelling's theory of surprise; he believes that surprise is often the by-product of analytical timidity. "The poverty of expectations—the failure of imagination—I found this just so interesting," Rumsfeld said. "We tend to hear what we expect to hear, whether it's bad or good. Human nature is that way. Unless something is jarring, you tend to stay on your track and get it reinforced rather than recalibrated. If I as a policymaker fail to make a conscious decision that you want to go around three hundred and sixty degrees and test things, you're likely to stay in a rut. And we've seen our country do that."
Rumsfeld believes that one long-held belief among Middle East analysts is overdue for reconsideration: the idea that doctrinal differences prevent Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and religious and secular Muslims, from pursuing common projects in anti-American terrorism. This is a subject of great relevance today, because the Bush Administration contends that Baghdad is a sponsor of Al Qaeda; critics of the Administration's foreign policy argue that bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are natural enemies. "The argument is that Al Qaeda has got a religious motivation, somehow or other, and the Iraqi regime is considered to be a secular regime," Rumsfeld said. "The answer to that is, so what? The Iraqi regime will use anything it can to its advantage. Why wouldn't they use any implement at hand?"
Rumsfeld's work on the ballistic-missile commission convinced him that intelligence analysts were not asking themselves the full range of questions on any given subject—including what they didn't know. Rumsfeld gave me a copy of some aphorisms he had collected during the process of assessing the ballistic-missile threat. "Some of these are humorous," he said, not quite accurately. One was "There are knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns." (The saying is attributed, naturally, to "Unknown.") "I think this construct is just powerful," Rumsfeld said. "The unknown unknowns, we do not even know we don't know them."
During the commission's hearings, Rumsfeld went on, intelligence analysts would brief the commission members. "They'd say, 'This is a fact.' And we'd say, 'Well, when did you learn it?' 'On this day, X.' 'And when did it start?' 'Back here, several years back.' And, of course, it's embarrassing. When you get some pieces of information, the implication is, you know, that you've done a good job. But the real question is: When did it actually start and when did we find out about it?"
In the case of the missile programs of two countries he would not name, he said, "There were instances in which we didn't know something until two, four, six, eight, twelve, and, in one case, thirteen years after it happened. If we didn't know this for five years, that means that there may very well be things that started five years ago that we don't know about at all."
Rumsfeld said that the ideas contained in the commission's report are spreading through the fourteen organizations that make up the intelligence community (these range from the Defense Intelligence Agency to Coast Guard intelligence). "You find not infrequently now that there will be a section, and it will have a fairly typical analysis, and then it will be followed by a section labelled 'What we don't know.' "
There have been frequent reports of tension between the Defense Department and the C.I.A., particularly on the question of the links between Saddam and Al Qaeda. But the two men who lead these bureaucracies have kind words for each other.
"Rumsfeld should get a hell of a lot of credit for challenging the conventional wisdom, for challenging the bureaucracy," Tenet told me not long ago in his office at C.I.A. headquarters, in Langley, Virginia. Tenet, who does not conform to the patrician mold of the C.I.A.'s early directors—he is Greek-American and a proud son of Queens—seemed tired on the gray morning we met. His office is long and narrow; a torn American flag rescued from the ruins of the World Trade Center hung on the wall over his shoulder.
When Tenet and Rumsfeld talk about intelligence theory, it is hard to see major differences. Of his own agency Tenet said, "We spend a great deal of time encouraging analysts to get out of their own skins, to try to think the way the enemy thinks." He also said, "We're emphasizing the point, as the saying goes, that intelligence work is often not about evidence but about the absence of evidence." (Aides to both Tenet and Rumsfeld claim that their man devised this formula.)
Tenet, who became the C.I.A. director in 1997 (he was a Clinton appointee), gained the trust of President Bush early in the Administration, and he has survived thanks to the C.I.A.'s work during the war in Afghanistan; to his desire to rebuild the C.I.A.'s clandestine service, which had fallen into disrepair during the Clinton years; and to the fact that, while the C.I.A. committed major blunders in the days leading up to September 11th, the F.B.I.'s mistakes were catastrophic. In addition, he is able to communicate effectively on Capitol Hill.
In his office, Tenet listed questions that he thinks should be asked about the C.I.A.'s performance. "Are we making steady progress in penetration? Yes. Do we have success in technical intelligence-gathering? Yes. Did we stop the attacks? No." Tenet went on, "The Israelis probably have as ironclad a structure to deter terrorism as anybody in the world, but they continue to lose people. The way they think about this is that they are in a constant state of war and there are wins and losses in a war. This changes their mind-set." He added, "Failure means you're not paying attention. You knew about the target but you didn't do anything about it. Defeat is what happens in a war against an agile enemy who will find ways to beat you."
Tenet doesn't think that America has experienced the worst of Al Qaeda terrorism. "My worry is that, whatever we learn, it will never be enough. There will be another attack. They will take advantage of seams in our security. If you're looking for infallibility in the intelligence system, you're going to be constantly surprised and pained. You're dealing with an enemy that has studied your homeland extremely well."
As in the days before Pearl Harbor, there was no lack of meaningful signals in the weeks before September 11th. In fact, Tenet spent the summer of 2001 hectoring lawmakers and Administration officials about the danger he saw on the horizon. "George just badgered me," Porter Goss, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, told me. Goss, a Florida Republican who is a former C.I.A. officer and an ally of Tenet's, said that he had agreed to be badgered. "I understood what was happening," Goss said. "But we failed anyway. We knew what was coming, but we could not sing the song in a key that anyone would hear."
The C.I.A., of course, did not know the time or the place of the anticipated attack, and so could offer no tactical intelligence. It made at least one critical error, when it learned, long before September 11th, that two of the hijackers, who had attended a crucial Al Qaeda planning meeting in Malaysia, were travelling to America. Despite this knowledge, the C.I.A. did not place the men's names on terrorist watch lists until August of 2001.
Tenet, while admitting that his agency made mistakes, said that excessive focus on such mistakes obscures larger truths. "People can fault individual decisions," he said. "But it's vignette-driven. 'Why didn't you watch-list these particular guys?' But with these vignettes you're going to miss the bigger picture—that they're going to come in using different techniques next time." Many intelligence officials assume that watch lists have only limited value; terrorists, they say, will travel to post-9/11 America using false documents.
The desire to identify the people responsible for intelligence failure is natural, but it may be irrelevant, according to Thomas Schelling, who teaches at the University of Maryland. "I tend to think there's too much interest in finding blame for September 11th," Schelling said. "Surprise has two very different meanings. One is 'I didn't expect it,' and the other is 'I couldn't anticipate everything.' It seems to me that if smart people had somehow made a list of one hundred potential Al Qaeda targets, and then from that figured out that they might hijack airplanes and use them in attacks, they would still have a hard time telling the officials of airports what to be on the lookout for, or what these men would need to hijack a plane. I tend to think that what Al Qaeda did was beautifully conceived but not terribly difficult to do. Once they had the concept, the rest was easy."
On the question of failure of imagination, Tenet seemed to disagree with Rumsfeld. "We don't have an absence of imagination," he said. "What we have is threat fatigue. We're inundated by this stuff. We have to guard against numbness as we go through intense periods of threat reporting."
Top C.I.A. officials told me that analysts in the agency's Counterterrorist Center had imagined the airborne suicide attack as a tactic, but had also imagined dozens of other ways in which terrorists could strike American targets. I asked one official why his analysts could not match a target to a technique—why they couldn't guess that the World Trade Center, which had been the target of one terrorist attack, in 1993, would be the target of another, from the air. "We had reports over the last six or eight years that Al Qaeda people are interested in aviation," this person told me. "You have concrete knowledge that the World Trade Center is a target. What keeps those two pieces of information from joining? Well, if we took every credible tactic we hear about and applied it to every credible target, the alarm would be sounded every day."
But Tenet said that his analysts have been encouraged to extend themselves, to lower the threshold for what is credible. In intelligence, he said, "very few snippets of evidence can take you to a judicial conclusion. Nothing is crystal clear." He's also pushing his analysts to think in different ways. "We're moving people away from linear thinking," he said, and added, "It takes years and years to walk back the risk aversion in a bureaucracy, but we're doing it."
In the ideological taxonomy of the Bush Administration, the C.I.A., because it has long downplayed the theory of an Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, has been regarded as being on the side of the doves. The hawks have accused the C.I.A. of politicizing the intelligence process by dismissing information that would substantiate the connection—and in that way strengthen the Administration's case against Iraq.
A key moment in this argument took place one weekday last August, when a small group of Defense Department officials drove from the Pentagon to the headquarters of the C.I.A., for what they expected to be a tension-filled meeting with the agency's top analysts. Leading the Pentagon team was Douglas Feith, the Under-Secretary of Defense for policy, who is considered to be an Iraq hawk in the style of his superiors, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. Feith brought with him a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, Tina Shelton, and a Naval intelligence reservist, Christopher Carney. The Defense Department had asked Shelton and Carney to reëxamine evidence collected by the C.I.A. about the relationship between terrorist networks and their state sponsors, including Iraq and Al Qaeda, and to re-analyze the data in the manner suggested by Rumsfeld's ballistic-missile-threat commission; that is, to build a hypothesis, and then see if the data supported the hypothesis, rather than the reverse. "If you take thirty movie reviewers and show them the same movie," Feith told me, "they will understand its meaning in thirty different ways, and they will even understand the plot in different ways, and I'm not talking about watching 'Rashomon.' "
The presentation was made in a small conference room, and as many as twenty C.I.A. executives and analysts crowded in, along with the director of the D.I.A., Vice-Admiral Lowell E. Jacoby, and Tenet himself. According to several people with knowledge of the meeting, Carney and Shelton told the C.I.A. officials that, based on their own reading of agency intelligence, it appeared likely that Saddam's relationship with Al Qaeda was serious and that it dated back to the terror group's early days in Sudan. Bin Laden had his headquarters in Khartoum in the early nineteen-nineties, before moving to Afghanistan, in 1996. "These people weren't hired to do alternative analysis," Feith claimed. "But once they read deeply into the material, which, by the way, was good C.I.A. material, they came up with some fresh connections and ideas and analysis." Feith went on, "When we fed this analysis back into the C.I.A., they were happy to receive it. Tenet understands, as Rumsfeld understands, that an extra set of eyes on intelligence material is a good thing."
The Defense team had expected resistance from C.I.A. officials, but, to the surprise of many in the room, Tenet was open to the Pentagon analysis. However, one top official familiar with Tenet's thinking told me that early last year, well before the August meeting, C.I.A. officials had asked the agency's Red Cell team, an internal think tank, to undertake "a different sort of analysis, 'go a little more hypothetical on the question, and see what you come up with.' They gave us a report, and it seemed pretty hypothetical. But then it stopped seeming so hypothetical."
There's nothing new about hypothesis-driven analysis. Angelo Codevilla, a Boston University professor of international relations and a former senior staff member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, pointed to the risks—in particular that "you put the monkey on the back of the policymaker. This is dangerous if you have policymakers who don't want to hear more than one opinion. George Bush, just like his father, doesn't like to be faced with choices." Codevilla also said that analysts could "stray too far from the data," adding that the real problem is that "the C.I.A. has not been gathering enough quality data." According to a senior Administration official, the C.I.A. itself is split on the question of a Baghdad-Al Qaeda connection: analysts in the agency's Near East-South Asia division discount the notion; the Counterterrorist Center supports it. The senior Administration official told me that Tenet tends to agree with the Counterterrorist Center.
When I saw Tenet, I asked if he now considered Saddam to be a primary sponsor of Al Qaeda. "Well, read my letter to Senator Graham," Tenet replied.
In October of 2002, when Bob Graham was the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Tenet wrote to him, explaining the C.I.A.'s understanding of the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection. It is a curious letter, which begins with a statement that "Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attacks with conventional or CBW"—chemical and biological weapons—"against the United States." At the same time, Tenet said, Iraq has "provided training to Al Qaeda members in the areas of poisons and gases and making conventional bombs." Tenet added, "Credible information indicates that Iraq and Al Qaeda have discussed safe haven and reciprocal non-aggression," and he suggested that, even without an American attack on Iraq, "Baghdad's links to terrorists will increase."
The evolution of Tenet's beliefs has made those opposed to an invasion of Iraq uneasy. Senator Graham thinks that the C.I.A.'s "evolved" understanding of the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection is the result of pressure from Rumsfeld. "Maybe the C.I.A. has been coöpted in this whole thing," Graham told me. "I'm not personalizing it to George, but institutionally the C.I.A. is being challenged by a very aggressive Defense Department."
Others who have watched Tenet, however, say that he does not trim his opinions for political reasons. "I find him to be a straightforward person on analysis," Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, who until recently was the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, told me. Pelosi added that she considers Iran a greater terrorist threat than Iraq.
Tenet's thinking on the subject was deliberate, according to several agency sources. Information gleaned from the interrogations of high-level Al Qaeda prisoners pushed Tenet to rethink the opinion, advanced by C.I.A. officials such as Paul Pillar, the National Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, that ideological differences between the secular Saddam and Islamic radicals, such as Al Qaeda, made it unlikely that these two enemies of America would form an alliance. Clearly, the Rumsfeld view, which maintains that the commonly held hatred of the United States trumps ideology and theology, is ascendant, at the C.I.A. as well as at the Pentagon. Pillar himself, in a faxed comment, conceded that, "despite major differences, tactical coöperation is possible," but added that "the contingency that would be most likely to motivate Saddam to develop a relationship with radical Islamists that would be deeper than limited tactical cooperation would be a belief that he was about to lose power"—such as in a United States-led attack on Iraq.
According to several intelligence officials I spoke to, the relationship between bin Laden and Saddam's regime was brokered in the early nineteen-nineties by the then de-facto leader of Sudan, the pan-Islamist radical Hassan al-Tourabi. Tourabi, sources say, persuaded the ostensibly secular Saddam to add to the Iraqi flag the words "Allahu Akbar," as a concession to Muslim radicals.
In interviews with senior officials, the following picture emerged: American intelligence believes that Al Qaeda and Saddam reached a non-aggression agreement in 1993, and that the relationship deepened further in the mid-nineteen-nineties, when an Al Qaeda operative—a native-born Iraqi who goes by the name Abu Abdullah al-Iraqi—was dispatched by bin Laden to ask the Iraqis for help in poison-gas training. Al-Iraqi's mission was successful, and an unknown number of trainers from an Iraqi secret-police organization called Unit 999 were dispatched to camps in Afghanistan to instruct Al Qaeda terrorists. (Training in hijacking techniques was also provided to foreign Islamist radicals inside Iraq, according to two Iraqi defectors quoted in a report in the Times in November of 2001.) Another Al Qaeda operative, the Iraqi-born Mamdouh Salim, who goes by the name Abu Hajer al-Iraqi, also served as a liaison in the mid-nineteen-nineties to Iraqi intelligence. Salim, according to a recent book, "The Age of Sacred Terror," by the former N.S.C. officials Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, was bin Laden's chief procurer of weapons of mass destruction, and was involved in the early nineties in chemical-weapons development in Sudan. Salim was arrested in Germany in 1998 and was extradited to the United States. He is awaiting trial in New York on charges related to the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings; he was convicted last April of stabbing a Manhattan prison guard in the eye with a sharpened comb.
Intelligence officials told me that the agency also takes seriously reports that an Iraqi known as Abu Wa'el, whose real name is Saadoun Mahmoud Abdulatif al-Ani, is the liaison of Saddam's intelligence service to a radical Muslim group called Ansar al-Islam, which controls a small enclave in northern Iraq; the group is believed by American and Kurdish intelligence officials to be affiliated with Al Qaeda. I learned of another possible connection early last year, while I was interviewing Al Qaeda operatives in a Kurdish prison in Sulaimaniya. There, a man whom Kurdish intelligence officials identified as a captured Iraqi agent told me that in 1992 he served as a bodyguard to Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's deputy, when Zawahiri secretly visited Baghdad.
Ansar al-Islam was created on September 1, 2001, when two Kurdish radical groups merged forces. According to Barham Salih, the Prime Minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the group seized a chain of villages in the mountainous region outside the city of Halabja, and made a safe haven for Al Qaeda fighters. "Our intelligence information confirmed that the group was declared on September 1st at the behest of bin Laden and Al Qaeda," Prime Minister Salih told me last week, in a telephone conversation from Davos, Switzerland. "It was meant to be an alternative base of operations, since they were apparently anticipating that Afghanistan was going to become a denied area to them."
Salih also said that a month before the September 11th attacks a senior Al Qaeda operative called Abdulrahman al-Shami was dispatched from Afghanistan to the Kurdish mountain town of Biyara, to organize the Ansar al-Islam enclave. Shami was killed in November, 2001, in a battle with the pro-American forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
The Ansar al-Islam enclave, according to Salih and American intelligence officials, soon became the base of operations of an Al Qaeda subgroup called Jund al-Shams, or Soldiers of the Levant, which operates mainly in Jordan and Syria. Jund al-Shams is controlled by a man named Mussa'ab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian of Palestinian extraction. Zarqawi is believed by European intelligence agencies to be Al Qaeda's main specialist in chemical and biological terrorism. Zarqawi is also believed to be behind the assassination, on October 28th, of an American A.I.D. official in Jordan, and also two unsuccessful assassination attempts: last February 20th, Ali Bourjaq, a Jordanian secret-police official, escaped injury when a bomb detonated near his home; and on April 2nd gunmen opened fire on Prime Minister Salih's home in Sulaimaniya. Salih was unhurt, but five of his bodyguards were killed; two bystanders were killed in the Bourjaq assassination attempt.
The Administration believes that Zarqawi made his way to Baghdad after the United States' invasion of Afghanistan, when he was wounded. According to American sources, Zarqawi was treated in a Baghdad hospital but disappeared from Baghdad shortly after the Jordanian government asked Iraq to extradite him. American intelligence officials believe that Zarqawi was also among an unknown number of Al Qaeda terrorists who have sought refuge in the Ansar al-Islam over the past seventeen months.
Recently, I asked two former C.I.A. directors, James Woolsey and Robert Gates, to talk about the problem of analyzing an incomplete set of evidence—the same challenge that stymied intelligence analysts in the days before December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001.
Woolsey, who served as President Clinton's first C.I.A. director, said that it is now illogical to doubt the notion that Saddam collaborates with Islamist terrorism, and that he would provide chemical or biological weapons to Al Qaeda. "At Salman Pak"—a training camp near Baghdad—"we know there were Islamist terrorists training to hijack airplanes in groups of four or five with short knives," Woolsey told me. "I mean, hello? If we had seen after December 7, 1941, a fake American battleship in a lake in northern Italy, and a group of Asian pilots training there, would we have said, 'Well, you can't prove that they were Japanese'?"
Gates, who was C.I.A. director under George H. W. Bush, said that the evidence linking Saddam to Al Qaeda is not irrefutable, but he noted that ambiguous evidence is an occupational hazard in intelligence work. Gates suggested that the current debate over Iraq's ties to terrorism is reminiscent of a debate about the Soviet Union twenty years ago. Then, he said, "you had analysts in the C.I.A. who said, 'Absolutely not, it would be contrary to their interests to support unpredictable, uncontrollable groups.' There were other analysts who said, 'Baloney.' They had a lot of good history, and circumstantial reporting on their side, but they didn't have good evidence. Once the Soviet Union collapsed, and we got hold of the East German Stasi records, we learned, of course, that both the East Germans and the Soviets were supporting Baader-Meinhof and other terrorist groups."
Gates continued, "I have always argued, in light of my fairly detailed knowledge of the shortcomings of our intelligence capabilities, that the fact that we don't have reliable human intelligence that proves something conclusively is happening is no proof at all that nothing is happening. In these situations, the evidence will almost always be ambiguous. On capabilities, it's not ambiguous. Can Saddam produce these weapons of mass destruction? Yes."
The ambiguity, Gates said, has to do with "intentions," and he went on, "If the stakes and the consequences are small, you're going to want ninety-per-cent assurance. It's a risk calculus. On the other hand, if your worry is along the lines of what Rumsfeld is saying—another major attack on the U.S., possibly with biological or chemical weapons—and you look at the consequences of September 11th, then the equation of risk changes. You have to be prepared to go forward with a lot lower level of confidence in the evidence you have. A fifty-per-cent chance of such an attack happening is so terrible that it changes the calculation of risk." ♦


text:
Rams Defeat John Jay for First win of Season
Farmingdale State - 6, John Jay - 3
Farmingdale, N.Y. - The Farmingdale State women's tennis team earned their first win of the season with a 6-3 non-conference victory over John Jay. The Rams now stand at 1-2, while John Jay drops to 1-4 overall.
Farmingdale State swept the doubles competition, led by Vanessa Josma (Massapequa, N.Y./Amityville Memorial) and Jamie Pendergast's 8-5 win at first doubles. Regina Cane (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst) and Laura Earlie (Moriches, N.Y./William Floyd) notched a 8-3 win at second doubles and the tandem of Simonette Clarke (Amityville, N.Y./Amityville) and Nairobi de la Cruz earned a 9-8 victory, giving the Rams a 3-0 advantage heading into the singles matches.
Pendergast defeated Lauren Mallon (Staten Island, N.Y./St. Savioiur) of John Jay 6-0, 6-2 at third singles and Earlie earned the win over Jessina Eng (Brooklyn, N.Y./Fort Hamilton) by the same margin. Clarke was victorious over Katherine Seo (Queens, N.Y./Forest Hills) 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 at fifth singles.
Farmingdale State will travel to Bard for a Skyline Conference matchup on Saturday, September 18th at 1:00 p.m.

subset: commoncrawl


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Home ›
Archive - Apr 3, 2013
Aaron Gordon scores 24 to lead West to 110-99 in McDonald's game
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 6:07pm.
Related Players:
Mercury News boys basketball player of the year: Mitty's Aaron Gordon in his own league
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 6:02pm.
San Jose Mercury News/Darren Sabedra
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Canadian phenom Andrew Wiggins leads East team at All-American game
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 5:59pm.
Toronto Globe and Mail/Lori Ewing
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Cal junior Allen Crabbe declares for NBA Draft
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 3:02pm.
San Francisco Chronicle
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NC State's Rodney Purvis barred from transferring to Missouri, Cincinnati
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 2:59pm.
NBC Sports/Daniel Martin
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Report: Mike Shaw to transfer to Bradley
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 2:57pm.
NBC Sports/Rob Dauster
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Trey Burke, Anthony Davis, and Players of the Year winning National Titles
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 2:55pm.
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Marshall Henderson announces plans to return for senior year, tone down act in letter to fans
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 2:54pm.
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Marshall Henderson's open letter to Ole Miss fans
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 2:53pm.
USA Today/Chris Chase
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Warren puts NBA on hold, will return for N.C. State
On Wed, 04/03/2013 - 1:20pm.
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text:
Welcome to Rock & Road Cycles, Wangaratta
Rock & Road Cycles, North East Victoria
Welcome to Rock & Road Cycles!
Rock and Road Cycles are the LARGEST STOCKISTS of GIANT bicycles in North East Victoria. Also dealing with Tour de France winning TREK bikes, the ultimate kids bike BYK and a great range of accessories all at competitive and affordable prices.
Shoprider Mobility Scooters are our choice in quality scooters. Designed with strength and durability in mind, Shoprider scooters are very low maintenance and with our pickup and delivery service you can have peace of mind with servicing and repairs.
Even if you didn't get your bike from us, we can look after it in our fully equipped workshop. Your favourite bike shop will be Rock and Road Cycles.
Rock and Road Cycles is located at 21 Rowan Street Wangaratta, Victoria Australia.
Rock & Road Cycles
21 Rowan Street
Wangaratta Vic 3677
Ph: 03 5721 4744
Store Opening Hours:
Mon to Fri: 9:00am to 5:30pm
Like us on Facebook
|Copyright © 2019 Rock & Road Cycles | Site by WangNET Web Services


text:
The Lone Werewolf
Paperback, 160 Pages
Price: $12.95
Prints in 3-5 business days
Retired Union officer is given the gift of Skin-walker (Native American shape-shifter). Not long after learning about his abilities to shift into many animal forms, including a half-man, half-wolf form. A Lone Werewolf is forced to use his abilities against evil. When General Custer's wife is kidnapped and taken hostage within an impenetrable fortress, it's up to The Lone Werewolf of put his mystical magic to work to save her. When the territory is terrorizes by a tribe of Native American Vampires, it's up to The Lone Werewolf to take them on single-handed. Is our new hero up to the task?
Ratings & ReviewsLog in to review this item
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Product Details
- 9781612356242
- Copyright
- Tim Forder (Standard Copyright License)
- Edition
- First Edition
- Publisher
- http://www.melange-books.com
- Published
- July 22, 2013
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 160
- Binding
- Perfect-bound Paperback
- Interior Ink
- Black & white
- Weight
- 0.65 lbs.
- Dimensions (inches)
- 6 wide x 9 tall
- Product ID
- 21125606
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text:
Cheeseburger day is celebrated annually on the 18th September. The best way to celebrate the holiday is to eat a lot of cheeseburgers!
September 13 is National Peanut Day, a day to pay homage to mighty and tasty peanut.
Creative lobster and discounts & allowances design elements will boost your sales in National Lobster Day marketing.
Halloween is just around the corner! Unleash your creativity for making stunning Halloween Party invitations like a pro with these creative spider web design elements.
Watermelon is called "the king of midsummer", refreshing and quenching thirst, tastes sweet and juicy, is a good summer fruit.
Summer is coming to an end and teachers from all over the country are preparing for the school year with welcome poster designing, course planning and classroom decorating.


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The Office of Deacons identifies, forms, and educates aspirants and candidates for the permanent diaconate in the Diocese of Salina. The first class of deacons was ordained on January 3, 2009 by Bishop Coakley at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Salina. Below are pictured left to right: Deacon Don Schmidt, Deacon Mark Roberti, Deacon Tom Koerner, Deacon Larry Erpelding, Deacon Buzz Harris, Deacon Dick Kramer, Deacon Terry Chaput.
Father Frank Coady serves as diocesan director of the diaconate program.
|Rev. Frank Coady, S.T.D.
|(785) 827-8746


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Quilt designer: Roseann Meehan Kermes
From American Patchwork & Quilting, October 2007
Designer Notes
This "Spooky Hollow" table topper (using a fabric collection of the same name by Andover) is the perfect fall project—fast, fun, and oh-so-adorable. Designer Roseann Meehan Kermes used the wide stripe in this fabric collection for the pumpkin and cat outer borders. Follow her lead and fussy-cut the particular scene you want (pumpkins and crows or cats and cauldrons) from the wide stripe.
5/8 yard black print (quilt center, binding)
2 — 9x22" pieces (fat eighths) lime green prints (borders)
2 — 9x22" pieces (fat eighths) purple prints (borders)
5/8 yard wide stripe print (outer border)
7/8 yard backing fabric
28" square batting
Finished quilt: 22" square
Finished Four-Patch blocks: 2" and 4" square
Quantities are for 100% cotton, 44/45"-wide fabrics. Measurements include 1/4" seam allowances. Sew with right sides together unless otherwise stated.


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Review: Hispaniola Mamajuana (Herbal Rum Liqueur)
Posted by Arctic Wolf on April 20, 2010
Hispaniola Mamajuana is a liqueur based upon a herb infused rum and wine drink called mamajuana which is indigenous to the Isle of Hispaniola (modern island of Dominican Republic and Haiti). The original mamajuana was a medicinal drink whose roots reach back to the original inhabitants of Hispaniola, the Taino, (who Columbus mistakenly called Indians). This original drink was more of a tea beverage made by boiling local roots and perhaps bark. As the drink evolved, honey was added as a sweetener, and over time rum and wine were added and the drink became the mamajuana known on the Island today.
In doing my research on this unique product, I came across a few suggestions that the original drink has medicinal properties to help with everything from arthritis to toothaches. But the most intriguing suggestion is that it has the ability to increase potency in men, and desire in women. It is playfully called 'Viagra Dominica' by its adherents. This means my review should be most interesting as I, like you, am genuinely skeptical, but genuinely curious about Hispaniola Mamajuana.
Hispaniola Mamajuana is produced by Mardi S.A. made from aged rum and honey as well as a secret recipe of over twenty different herbs and spices. It bottled at 30 % alcohol by volume. My sample for this review was provided by Rum Runner Imports who are bringing the product to market in my home Province.
Here is an excerpt from the review:
"….There seems to be a myriad of aromas trying to escape as soon as the glass is poured. Anise, woody herbs, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, honey, and faint airs of brown sugar all rise up in a stew of exotic aroma. The nose is aggressive and almost seems medicinal with hints of menthol. (I guess I should not be surprised as the original mamajuana is considered a medicine in folklore.)…"
You may read the full review here:
Review: Hispaniola Mamajuana (Herbal Rum Liqueur)
As usual I have included a couple of original recipes for your enjoyment!
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.


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CA 19-9 assay
Pronunciation: (... A-say)
A laboratory test that measures the level of CA 19-9 in the blood. CA 19-9 is a substance released into the blood by both cancer cells and normal cells. Higher than normal amounts of CA 19-9 in the blood can be a sign of pancreatic or other types of cancer or other conditions. The amount of CA 19-9 in the blood can be used to help keep track of how well cancer treatments are working or if cancer has come back. CA 19-9 is a type of tumor marker.
Source: NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms2004-06-23 Date last modified: 2010-10-06


text:
Wordless Wednesday: Remember Maddie
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Tribute to Our Madeline from Mike and Heather on Vimeo.
My Wordless Wednesday is Dedicated to Heather at The Spohrs are Multiplying and Mike at The Newborn Identity. I watched this video and CRIED (at work mind you!). I cry for their loss & for the World's loss. But God has gained another Angel. And a beautiful one at that!


text: Joseph Casey graduated from Boston State College in 1969 and finished his outstanding basketball career as the school's all-time leader in games played (105) and rebounds (1,799) and ripped down a school-record 17.4 boards per outing. He also holds the season-rebounding mark with 501 caroms during the 1966-67 season and pulled down a single-game school-record 34 rebounds in 1968. The center starred at BSC from 1965-69, scoring 1,256 points to rank third all-time and led his teams to a 71-35 mark for a .670 winning percentage over that span. He was named to the New England Small College Athletic Conference All-Conference squad for the 1966-67 campaign and helped the Warriors to an appearance in the NAIA National Championship Tournament, while posting an 18-7 mark. As a freshman, Casey was a member of the school's 23-5 team, the best record in school history, and as a senior, he was selected as a co-captain for the 1968-69 Boston State team and earned the Scholar Athlete Award.


text:
Immersive Technologies' E14 Conversion Kit provides the ultimate in training realism for mines focused on increasing operator safety, improving productivity and reducing levels of unscheduled maintenance.
The Conversion Kit includes a complete replica cab of the Hitachi Construction Machinery EX5500-5 with fully functional controls and instrumentation sourced directly from Hitachi.
These include an operational Easy-to-Monitor Curved Instrument Panel, positioned so that the operator can continually monitor the status of key functions during operation, and back-lit meters and monitors.
After extensive review of the simulation industry, Hitachi entered into a license agreement with Immersive Technologies in 2007 (Renewed in 2013). Hitachi exclusively allows Immersive Technologies to use its proprietary machine information to ensure its simulators are engineered to the highest fidelity and realism.
As part of this agreement Hitachi exclusively recommend Immersive Technologies' Advanced Equipment Simulators to Hitachi dealers and mining customers worldwide.
Immersive Technologies' SimControl software includes a range of specific operator errors for recording and measuring incorrect operator behaviours. In addition, SimControl software includes events which allow a trainer to initiate machine faults or incidents in order to train and assess operators in responding appropriately. This combination of errors and events provide a mechanism to ensure operators are working at maximum efficiency while minimizing equipment damage. It also ensures operators are able to avoid or respond correctly to hazards and potentially life threatening scenarios.
Compatible with:
*If the equipment you need is not listed above please contact us today to discuss upcoming Conversion Kit releases.
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Traveling with or on behalf of a Missionary, Humanitarian, Adoption or Group organization? Looking for the lowest airfare? Welcome to EconomyTravel.com.
Since 1988, EconomyTravel.com has been offering very low Missionary, Humanitarian, Adoption, and Group airfare pricing to Livingston, Zambia and the rest of Africa. Our special airfare contracts are with some of the best airlines in the world including British Airways and Lufthansa.
We offer discounted round-trip and one-way airfares to Livingston with no advance purchase!
Because of qualification requirements, we cannot quote live airfares on the internet booking engine, so you must either call us or fill out the form to the right.
Why we offer lower airfares to Livingston:
Our advantage is upfront pricing with no hidden fees or hidden taxes - just quick quotes on established airlines. We own the airline contracts so there are no middlemen or double markups for you. You can book your ticket TODAY, raise money and pay close to your departure date/s on some fares!
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text:
Are you ready for round two? I am.
When the county basketball teams take to the court in a few days, more will be at stake than another check in the win column — county pride is on the line. Pride that goes a long way when two rival schools separated by just four miles go at it in a heated showdown.
The Henry County and Eminence girls' basketball teams will play each other this Friday at 6 p.m., followed by the boys at 7:30. And as always, I'm excited to get the show started.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Henry County Local, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
|ZIP Code:


text:
Housing markets about to get squeezed
Some communities will likely be hit harder by mortgage loan limits
A plan to lower the cap on federally backed mortgages may hit home buyers particularly hard in several pockets of the country, new data shows.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency plans to reduce the maximum size of mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this January. The current limits are $417,000 in most parts of the country and up to $625,500 in more expensive markets. The agency hasn't announced how much it will lower loan caps, but data compiled for MarketWatch by Lender Processing Services, a mortgage-data tracking firm, shows that a decline of just $25,000 from the current caps would impact hundreds of thousands of home buyers in middle-priced and upper-middle-priced housing markets — areas that are relatively upscale but far from the most expensive. "You are really talking about communities that are comfortably well-to-do; you're not talking about communities with large numbers of hedge fund managers and the like," says Robert Hockett, a professor of law at Cornell Law School with expertise in real estate finance.
In total, more than 214,000 of the agency-backed mortgages originated last year were within $25,000 of the current caps, according to LPS. For the first six months of this year, the number was just over 95,000. By one measure, they're most in demand in Cook County, Ill., where 10,510 mortgages originated in 2012 and 4,137 during the first six months of this year were within $25,000 of current cap levels — the highest number in any county nationwide, according to LPS. In contrast, Manhattan, which has some of the most expensive real estate in the country, had just 1,187 and 460 of such large loans, respectively, for each time frame.
Nationally, these loans have accounted for less than 3% of all Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages given to borrowers during this time, though the share is much higher in some regions. In Colorado, North Carolina and South Carolina as well as in the District of Columbia, they account for more than 5% of agency mortgages that borrowers signed up for last year. They had over a 10% share in three Colorado counties, Boulder, Denver and Gunnison, during the first half of this year.
A greater number of borrowers could be impacted if mortgage caps drop by a larger amount. Housing experts say a $25,000 drop is likely conservative, and if the real cut is bigger, more borrowers will be left with fewer mortgage options going forward.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages weren't always so generous. They were mostly capped at $417,000 until 2008, when legislation increased their loan limits in more expensive markets, and by late 2011 they settled at the levels currently still in place. The moves were meant to stimulate home buying and lending in the wake of the housing downturn. As private investors fled the mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac took their place and have since been buying most of the mortgages that lenders have been providing to borrowers. Higher caps on federally backed mortgages allowed more buyers, who might have otherwise been unable to buy a home, to qualify for those loans.
Now that the housing recovery is gaining steam, the government is trying to reduce its role in the mortgage market. A spokesperson for the FHFA says that the agency "shares the administration's view that a gradual reduction in loan limits is an appropriate and effective approach to reducing taxpayers' mortgage risk exposure, shrinking the footprint of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the marketplace, and expanding the role of private capital in mortgage finance."
But analysts caution that lowering their caps could have a domino effect on home sales. Many borrowers who use the maximum dollar amount of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans tend to live in high-cost areas and rely on these mortgages to buy homes. If they're unable to get financing, given that the private mortgage market is more selective, sales could stall and prices as a result may drop, says Jack McCabe, an independent housing analyst in Deerfield Beach, Fla. "This will be a real eye-opener," he says.
In some areas, it would take just a small number of buyers to shake up home sales: In Cape May County, N.J., just 313 mortgages within $25,000 of the agency caps were given out during the first six months of the year, and they accounted for nearly 11% of all agency mortgages given in that time in the county. In Garrett County, Md., it was just 26 mortgages, which accounted for almost 8%.
The change would also come at an inopportune time for buyers: With home prices rising in many markets, experts say, it's likely that a growing number of buyers will need larger-size mortgages.
To get a mortgage, most of these buyers will have to turn to private lenders, which include banks, credit unions, and independent mortgage lenders, who originate mortgages to borrowers on their own terms and either hold them on their books or sell them to a small number of private investors. But private lenders have been very selective over the past few years, lending mostly to affluent borrowers with large down payments who are buying multi-million-dollar homes. In many cases, these borrowers have the cash to buy their home outright.
It remains to be seen whether these lenders will open up to more borrowers. "If the private market doesn't step in to take borrowers who are less than perfect, then those are the people who are going to be on the losing end of this," says Georgette Chapman Phillips, professor of real estate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
Posted on September 16, 2013, in Uncategorized and tagged Cornell Law School, fanniemae, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, freddiemac, MarketWatch, Mortgage loan, Real Estate. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.


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Install free 'DropBox' (http://db.tt/qXsCrvx) on your computer. Then everytime you want to share a file (including big-uns) you simply drop it into your DropBox, you copy the provided 'public link', and post that URL here on the board.
Anybody who wants that file simply clicks on it to download it.
video Human Planet - People of the Trees (213,8MB) - download from http://tinyurl.com/638mmte (expires after a week).


text:
Attention Mole People!
Attention all mole people and those that live mole-people adjacent (hint that's all of you). I Cheyenne Wright -- LORD OF THE MOLE PEOPLE have been nominated for at least FIVE ENnie awards!!!
The ENnies are an award given out at Gen Con each year in support of the years best tabletop games and gaming supplements.
If you think I have been a benevolent overlord, or if you are a surface dweller that likes the support of the load bearing bedrock beneath your homes -- Good News!
THE VOTING BOOTH IS NOW OPEN - http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/
Go! Vote! If I were to recommend some entries that are good options for keeping your homes where you left them they would be...
PRODUCT OF THE YEAR - Deadlands Noir
BEST SETTING - Deadlands Noir
BEST SUPPLEMENT - Deadlands Noir Companion
BEST ART, INTERIOR - Deadlands Noir
BEST CARTOGRAPHY - Deadlands Noir Map: New Orleans & Hexaco
BEST MINIATURES PRODUCT - Weird Wars Rome: Enemies of Rome Figure Flats
BEST FREE PRODUCT - Super Power Companion: Villain Supplement
--- All of these were crafted with pride in the Dark warrens of Moletopia. Show your Civic Pride/Fear and VOTE!
In other news...


text:
The Azure Code Samples are currently available in English
Getting Started with Azure Storage in Azure CLI 2.0
Demonstrates how to use the Azure Storage service in Azure CLI 2.0.
If you don't have a Microsoft Azure subscription you can get a FREE trial account here
Running this sample
If you have Python installed, you can use
pip install azure-clifrom the command-line to install Azure CLI. You can also refer to the Azure CLI How-to guide. Once the Azure CLI has been installed, you will be able to use the azure command from your command-line interface (Bash, Terminal, Command prompt) to access the Azure CLI commands.
Download or clone this repo.
git clone https://github.com/Azure-Samples/storage-cli-2-getting-started.git
Edit a script you would like to use. This repo provides batch scripts for Windows Command Line and shell scripts for Mac and Linux terminals.
Within the script, provide the appropriate values for each variable (e.g. Storage Account Name, Storage Account Key, etc.) Note: The angled brackets should not be included in the values you provide.
Run the script in your terminal of choice. For example, in Windows Command Line:
C:\storage-cli-getting-started\Batch Scripts>AzureBlobs.bat.


text:
Important Tour Update
Hi Guys!
We've had to do some last-minute re-scheduling for the coming book tour, which means three of our scheduled stops are moving to new cities. We've already contacted the attendees who RSVP'd for the affected cities, so hopefully this isn't too much of a shock for anyone, but just in case here are the shows that have been cancelled:
New Orleans
In their place, we've now added shows in these three cities:
Ottawa, Ontario (10/29)
Oklahoma City (11/9)
Austin, Texas (11/15 or 11/16)
These changes were not made lightly, and John and I have lost a lot of sleep the past few weeks determining the best way to see as many of you readers as we possibly can. Everyone who RSVP'd for the cancelled shows is getting free bookplates, and based on all the e-mails and feedback we've been getting we think this was the right call to make.
Hit the links for the new cities above to go to each show's Evite page, where you'll find all the details and can RSVP. As with all our stops, there will be a fun show, cupcake contest, free cake, prizes, and lots of laughs.
Thanks for your patience and understanding, everyone, and we'll see some of you soon!
Also, if you haven't RSVP'd for one of our other locations yet, head over to our Tour Page for details and all the links. Your RSVP helps our bakers know how much cake to bring. :)


text:
Give Now
WFIU Public Radio
WTIU Public Television
Choose which station to support!
Arborvitae cones. Look around your yard for a variety of beautiful evergreen colors and textures!
Here are some tips for quick and easy and green holiday decor.
An example of an autumn flower arrangement.
The majority of items for your table centerpiece can be scrounged from the garden and yard.
What is RSS? RSS makes it possible to subscribe to a website's updates instead of visiting it by delivering new posts to your RSS reader automatically. Choose to receive some or all of the updates from Focus on Flowers:
Focus on Flowers is a weekly podcast and public radio program about flower gardening hosted by master gardener Moya Andews. Learn More »
Moya Andrews is a Master Gardener and a member of the Bloomington Garden Club in Bloomington, Indiana. Learn more »
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text:
DOHA (Bloomberg) -- Qatar, the world's biggest seller of liquefied natural gas, can still access shipping routes to deliver oil and gas to buyers after Saudi Arabia and other neighboring states barred the emirate from exporting through their territorial waters.
State producer Qatargas told Japan's Jera that it would keep supplying LNG as normal in spite of the Saudi-led severing of diplomatic ties with Qatar, Jera spokesman Atsuo Sawaki said by phone. Jera is Japan's biggest buyer of Qatari LNG under long-term contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
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Market Watch
Headline crude prices for the week beginning 9 September 2019 – Brent: US$61/b; WTI: US$56/b
Headlines of the week
Natural Gas/LNG
Detailed market research and continuous tracking of market developments—as well as deep, on-the-ground expertise across the globe—informs our outlook on global gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG). We forecast gas demand and then use our infrastructure and contract models to forecast supply-and-demand balances, corresponding gas flows, and pricing implications to 2035.Executive summary
The past year saw the natural-gas market grow at its fastest rate in almost a decade, supported by booming domestic markets in China and the United States and an expanding global gas trade to serve Asian markets. While the pace of growth is set to slow, gas remains the fastest-growing fossil fuel and the only fossil fuel expected to grow beyond 2035.Global gas: Demand expected to grow 0.9 percent per annum to 2035
While we expect coal demand to peak before 2025 and oil demand to peak around 2033, gas demand will continue to grow until 2035, albeit at a slower rate than seen previously. The power-generation and industrial sectors in Asia and North America and the residential and commercial sectors in Southeast Asia, including China, will drive the expected gas-demand growth. Strong growth from these regions will more than offset the demand declines from the mature gas markets of Europe and Northeast Asia.
Gas supply to meet this demand will come mainly from Africa, China, Russia, and the shale-gas-rich United States. China will double its conventional gas production from 2018 to 2035. Gas production in Europe will decline rapidly.LNG: Demand expected to grow 3.6 percent per annum to 2035, with market rebalancing expected in 2027–28
We expect LNG demand to outpace overall gas demand as Asian markets rely on more distant supplies, Europe increases its gas-import dependence, and US producers seek overseas markets for their gas (both pipe and LNG). China will be a major driver of LNG-demand growth, as its domestic supply and pipeline flows will be insufficient to meet rising demand. Similarly, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and South Asia will rely on LNG to meet the growing demand to replace declining domestic supplies. We also expect Europe to increase LNG imports to help offset declining domestic supply.
Demand growth by the middle of next decade should balance the excess LNG capacity in the current market and planned capacity additions. We expect that further capacity growth of around 250 billion cubic meters will be necessary to meet demand to 2035.
With growing shale-gas production in the United States, the country is in a position to join Australia and Qatar as a top global LNG exporter. A number of competing US projects represent the long-run marginal LNG-supply capacity.Key themes uncovered
Over the course of our analysis, we uncovered five key themes to watch for in the global gas market:
Challenges in a growing market
Gas looks the best bet of fossil fuels through the energy transition. Coal demand has already peaked while oil has a decade or so of slowing growth before electric vehicles start to make real inroads in transportation. Gas, blessed with lower carbon intensity and ample resource, is set for steady growth through 2040 on our base case projections.
LNG is surfing that wave. The LNG market will more than double in size to over 1000 bcm by 2040, a growth rate eclipsed only by renewables. A niche market not long ago, shipped LNG volumes will exceed global pipeline exports within six years.The bullish prospects will buoy spirits as industry leaders meet at Gastech, LNG's annual gathering – held, appropriately and for the first time, in Houston – September 17-19.
Investors are scrambling to grab a piece of the action. We are witnessing a supply boom the scale of which the industry has never experienced before. Around US$240 billion will be spent between 2019 and 2025 on greenfield and brownfield LNG supply projects, backfill and finishing construction for those already underway.50% to be added to global supply
In total, these projects will bring another 182 mmtpa to market, adding 50% to global supply. Over 100 mmtpa is from the US alone, most of the rest from Qatar, Russia, Canada, and Mozambique. Still, more capital will be needed to meet demand growth beyond the mid-2020s. But the rapid growth also presents major challenges for sellers and buyers to adapt to changes in the market.
There is a risk of bottlenecks as this new supply arrives on the market. The industry will have to balance sizeable waves of fresh sales volumes with demand growing in fits and starts and across an array of disparate marketplaces – some mature, many fledglings, a good few in between.
India has built three new re-gas terminals, but imports are actually down in 2019. The pipeline network to get the gas to regional consumers has yet to be completed. Pakistan has a gas distribution network serving its northern industrial centres. But the main LNG import terminals are in the south of the country, and the commitment to invest in additional transmission lines taking gas north is fraught with political uncertainty.
China is still wrestling with third-party access and regulation of the pipeline business that is PetroChina's core asset. Any delay could dull the growth rate in Asia's LNG hotspot. Europe is at the early stages of replacing its rapidly depleting sources of indigenous piped gas with huge volumes of LNG imports delivered to the coast. Will Europe's gas market adapt seamlessly to a growing reliance on LNG – especially when tested at extreme winter peaks? Time will tell.
The point-to-point business model that has served sellers (and buyers) so well over the last 60 years will be tested by market access and other factors. Buyers facing mounting competition in their domestic market will increasingly demand flexibility on volume and price, and contracts that are diverse in duration and indexation. These traditional suppliers risk leaving value, perhaps a lot of value, on the table.
In the future, sellers need to be more sophisticated. The full toolkit will have a portfolio of LNG, a mixture of equity and third-party contracted gas; a trading capability to optimise on volume and price; and the requisite logistics – access to physical capacity of ships and re-gas terminals to shift LNG to where it's wanted. Enlightened producers have begun to move to an integrated model, better equipped to meet these demands and capture value through the chain. Pure traders will muscle in too.
Some integrated players will think big picture, LNG becoming central to an energy transition strategy. As Big Oil morphs into Big Energy, LNG will sit alongside a renewables and gas-fired power generation portfolio feeding all the way through to gas and electricity customers.
LNG trumps pipe exports...
...as the big suppliers crank up volumes


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- Live Insects
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Pinhead Crickets (Qty of 250)
(Ex GST: $7.95)
|Available Discount
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NOTE: Purchased in lots of 250! Meaning Qty 1 = 250
Please note that all of our live insects can only be purchased in lots/quantities of 250 via our website - e.g. 250, 500, 750 and so on.
If you require a custom amount of any of our live insects, please contact us by phone on (07) 5533 8375 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.com to process your order any further.
Whilst we do freight reptile livestock around Australia (excluding Tasmania), it is subject to relative import/export wildlife permits for each state/territory. We will also need to confirm that the purchaser carries the appropriate license for the specie(s) they are attempting to purchase.
In saying that, once your order has been placed, you will receive a phone call from the Livefoods Unlimited staff in order to process your enquiry any further.
Note: Shipping costs will not be calculated, and no reptile livestock orders will be dispatched until after we have made contact.
If you have any further questions or are unsure about any of the above, please contact us prior to placing an order for live insects and/or live reptiles.
Bulk orders of pinhead live crickets purchased in lots of 250.
These have been the mainstay of commercial insect production for decades and are still the preferred food for birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insectivorous mammals and invertebrates. They are fast growing, reaching maturity in just six weeks at ideal temperatures, nutritious when raised on the appropriate diet, hardy and relatively easy to handle.
Livefoods Unlimited crickets are sold in four sizes pinhead, small, medium and large. Pinhead crickets are traditionally new hatchlings but at Livefoods we believe they are more useful for most animals at around 7-10 days of age when they are about 2-3mm in length and have increased their nutritional value by consuming a quality diet for a few days. Small crickets are generally 5-8mm in length, mediums 10-15mm and large around 15-20mm after they have gone through their final moult and developed wings. All adult crickets have wings but they are folded away neatly beneath the dark brown wing covers on the back and are rarely used except if jumping and gliding down from a significant height. Winged adult crickets are not able to fly upwards and they are not as adept at climbing smooth surfaces so they are not as escape prone as cockroaches, although they are prodigious jumpers so it is a good idea not to build up their hiding places too close to the top of the box if no lid is used.
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Nebraska State Journal Building
North from Roof of Burr Block
North on Eleventh from N
North on Tenth
Northeast from Roof on Burr Block
O Street
O Street, East 11thLincoln The Capitol City of Nebraska
Odd Fellows Hall
Old Post Office Building (City Hall)
Olschlagers Saloon Lincoln
Opelt Hotel
Post Office
Richards Block
Sheedy BuildingLincoln The Capitol City of Nebraska
State National Bank BuildingLincoln The Capitol City of Nebraska
Tenth and O streets
View on O Street (Richards Block)
West on P
Home • Explore the City • Spatial Narratives • Interpretation and Narrative • Comments?
Guides and Resources • Archive of Documents • About the Project
Directed by Timothy R. Mahoney, Plains Humanities Alliance, in collaboration with the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities.
Funded by the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities, the Nebraska Humanities Council, and the Plains Humanities Alliance.
© 2007–2008, University of Nebraska–Lincoln


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Caught On Tape! Is This Police Officer Using Excessive Force In Smith Homes, Greensboto North Carolina? "Call My Momma"
Credit to Frank for sending this through. CopWatch reports "THIS IS THE ORIGINAL VIDEO, posted Saturday, Aug. 9, 2008. Police kick and beat a young man who is not fighting back in a Greensboro public housing project. If you have experienced or witnessed police brutality in Greensboro or elsewhere in North Carolina, contact Copwatch at 336-554-2848 or see http://ncoct22.org".
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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The Jabra PRO 920 is a professional, entry-level wireless headset designed for use with desk phones. Perfect for first-time wireless headset users, it offers all the essential features of a wireless headset in a simple design at an attractive price.
In addition to greater freedom and comfort, Jabra PRO 920 offers crystal-clear audio and quality-enhancing features such as Jabra SafeTone™ that protects hearing by cutting off loud noises and securing safe average sound levels. A noise-cancelling microphone eliminates unwanted background noise from offices and call center environments while Digital Signal Processing technology enhances speech clarity. Jabra PRO 920 is also easy to deploy and use and is compatible with all leading desk phones. User-friendly voice prompts make set-up a breeze, and the simple and intuitive call-control buttons make it easy to control calls from the headset.
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Selectable range settings — lets you adjust the range for high density environments.
Also Consider...


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Christian Marclay: The Clock
Organized by the National Gallery of Canada
Visit the microsite for a twitter feed and visitor reviews. Please use #wagtheclock when talking about the exhibit.
This fall the WAG presents Christian Marclay's The Clock as part of our continuing partnership with the National Gallery of Canada, NCG@WAG.
Marclay's extraordinary production has garnered international acclaim and wowed audiences since it first went on display at White Cube in London in 2010. The work went on to win a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennial in 2011. The Clock is an ode to time and cinema made up of thousands of film clips compiled into a 24-hour single channel real time video. This ambitious project explores the wonderment and illusion of cinema through a dizzying chronology in which theatrical and real time fold into one.
Christian Marclay was born in California, raised in Switzerland and is now based between New York and London. He became fascinated with collaging sound and image in the late 1970s while he was a student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston and Cooper Union in New York. Marclay played music with bands in underground club scenes, using records and turntables. His innovative artistic practice continues to combine aural and visual sources with a keen sensibility toward complex editing, sampling and looping techniques. Christian Marclay's experimental work with sound, video, and film has been extremely influential on a younger generation of artists for whom the idea of digital sampling and mixing recordings is now a given.
The National Gallery of Canada at the Winnipeg Art Gallery is a three-year collaborative partnership that features a series of exclusive exhibitions at the WAG drawn from the NGC's extensive contemporary art collection.
Access to the exhibition space is subject to availability; limited seated and standing room. Undetermined waiting time is to be expected. No reservations. No photography or recording.
Purchased 2011 with the generous support of Jay Smith and Laura Rapp, and Carol and Morton Rapp, Toronto. Jointly owned by the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Winnipeg Free Press - An epic depiction of unreal time you can set your watch by, Randall King
Shaw TV Winnipeg - The Clock, 24 Hour Movie @ the WAG
CBC Manitoba Scene • Time to go see The Clock at the WAG, Alison Gillmor
The New Yorker - How Christian Marclay created the ultimate digital mosaic
Related Programs & Events
Past Programs & Events
Christian Marclay The Clock
Find out why Canadian Art called The Clock the single most celebrated work of 21st-century art in the world
Thursday October 10, 2013 at 7pm
Time Travellers Family Sunday
It's all about time at this fun-filled family afternoon.
Sunday, October 13, 2013 from 1:30pm to 4pm
Christian Marclay's The Clock
A discussion of this award-winning film with Curator Paul Butler, followed by a screening.
Wednesday October 16, 2013 at 12pm
Gallery Ball 2013
Join in the gala event of the season with the WAG's Gallery Ball. The Ball raises funds for youth programming at the WAG, a staple in our community for over 75 years.
Saturday, October 19, 2013 from 6pm to 12am
The Clock - 24-hour screenings
Your chance to see this unique film in its entirely over the full 24-hour period it represents.
Friday, November 1, 2013 to Saturday, November 2, 2013 Friday, November 22, 2013 to Saturday, November 23, 2013 Tuesday, December 31, 2013 to Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Tick Talk: A panel discussion about The Clock
Friday November 22, 2013 at 7:30pm
Art Eats: The Clock
Dinner at Storm Bistro, curator talk, and exclusive viewing of Christian Marclay's The Clock.
Thursday December 5, 2013 at 6pm
Gallery Hours
- Tuesday 11am-5pm
- Wednesday 11am-5pm
- Thursday 11am-5pm
- Friday 11am-9pm
- Saturday 11am-5pm
- Sunday 11am-5pm
- Closed Monday


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Peterborough United Vs Hull City, Sat 10 Sep 2011
Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson faces a selection dilemma ahead of the visit of Hull.
Several players played their way into Ferguson`s thoughts with their performances during a friendly run-out at St Albans on Monday night.
Recent signings Emile Sinclair, Daniel Kearns, Ben Gordon and Josh Thompson lined up for a strong Posh side while goalkeeper Joe Lewis came through his first match since May unscathed after recovering from a knee injury.
However, Ferguson has said that Paul Jones will keep his place in goal despite the return of Lewis.
Nicky Ajose has played just 22 minutes of first-team football since his summer arrival from Manchester United due to a hamstring injury, but the striker came through the entire 90 minutes against St Albans and could be included in the squad.
Defender Gabby Zakuani is also fit again after being sidelined by a toe problem.
Hull's latest loan signing Martyn Waghorn is hoping to make his full debut.
The 21-year-old Leicester striker, who arrived at the KC Stadium last week, scored his second goal in as many games for England Under-21s as they beat Israel 4-1 in Monday night's friendly at Oakwell.
Aaron Mclean partnered Matty Fryatt in attack as the Tigers clinched their first home win of the season against Reading in their last match, so manager Nigel Pearson must decide whether to make changes to accommodate Waghorn.
Pearson, who has no new injury or suspension problems, is still without defender Paul McShane (calf) and winger Cameron Stewart (knee ligaments).
The Tigers boss is not expected to make too many changes after his side clinched only their second league win of the season against Reading.
Copyright (c) PA Sport 2009, All Rights Reserved.News Now - Sport News


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Jake Adelstein was more than just a stranger in a strange land when he took a job as a journalist at Japan's largest newspaper in 1992.
On top of trying to figure out a foreign culture, he was tasked with delving into an underground world of organized crime and seedy crooks.
Then there was the matter of his religion. During his job interview, he was asked what he thought about the theory that Jews (like him) control the world economy. If that was true, he replied, "do you think… I'd be applying for a job as a newspaper reporter here?"
10 novels in translation you should know
Armed with a protective bit of attitude, Adelstein stayed at the newspaper until 2005. He writes about his years of crime reporting in his well-received 2009 book Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan.
Adelstein left the newspaper Yomiuri Shinbun newspaper in 2005 and now works with Polaris Project Japan, an organization that combats human trafficking and sexual exploitation. I asked him this week to provide some insight into how the recent disasters are affecting the country he knows so well.
Q: What kinds of responses to the disasters have been quintessentially Japanese, things that people wouldn't do in, say, the US?
What is very Japanese is the mood of austerity that has led numerous organizations to cancel events and many shrines to cancel their annual festivals. The word 自粛 (jishuku, "to refrain") is constantly on the lips of people. This is partly in respect for those who are suffering and to express mourning.
Ironically, as one Buddhist priest said to me today, these moves actually hurt the economy and burden the survivors with the sense that their sadness has become everyone's sadness.
It would be much better if Japan continued to hold their annual festivals and turned them into "recovery festivals" where people could donate food and money to the reconstruction effort while enjoying life. In the midst of death, it may be a good thing to celebrate being alive. It's not a notion that is easily accepted in Japan.
There are some cultural values that emphasized in Japan more than they are in other cultures. Japan places great value on reciprocity, and that helps explain why people are giving to each other and why they are seemingly well-behaved in comparison to other countries.
The country also values politeness and decorum. There's a famous saying, 親しい仲にも礼儀あり, shitashii naka ni mo reigi ari. Even amongst the closest of friends, there must be decorum.
Q: Do you think Americans misunderstand anything about the disasters? What are we missing?
In terms of the nuclear reactor, I don't think that Americans know that the managing firm Tokyo Electric Power Company was caught covering up faults and problems at their nuclear power plants in the past, and that it resulted in the Fukushima reactor being shut down for inspections.
It is also unclear when TEPCO was allowed to start using plutonium on site. The permission to use plutonium was rescinded once before.
Also, another thing that Americans don't understand is that TEPCO is one of the largest advertisers in Japan, and thus there exists a general media reluctance to bash them and thus lose ad revenue. That's the power they have over the press.
Q. What other insight can you provide for Americans trying to better understand what's going on?
Tokyo Governor Ishihara and that loud-mouthed Glenn Beck have both made statements that implied the earthquake was "divine punishment." It's an offensive thing to say. That's not how most Japanese look at it. Japanese people are in general not very religious, but the concept of karma is ingrained in the culture. It's an individual issue; people don't talk about "collective karma." Natural disasters are off the karmic scale.
The following is from Hokukyo, a Japanese Buddhist sutra. It captures the mindset of many people in Japan: Earthquakes don't turn people into saints. Disaster does not always bring out the best in people. The response to the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake was horrific. Rumors ruined lives, and they're starting again.
However, I think the passage below illustrates what many people in Japan have realized: we may be in different layers of society, we may be different nationalities, but we're all human, we all fear death, we all love life. When we remember that we act with kindness and compassion towards others.
All beings quiver before violence.
All beings fear death.
All beings love life.
Remember that you are like them.
As they are like you.
Then whom would you hurt?
What harm would you do?
He who seeks happiness
By hurting others who seek happiness
Will never find happiness.
Not in the sky,
Nor in the depths of the sea,
Nor in the deepest mountains,
Can you hide from your misdeeds.
Randy Dotinga is a regular contributor to the Monitor's book pages.
Join the Monitor's book discussion on Facebook and Twitter.
Gandhi biography discussing his sexuality is banned in some Indian states


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Possible Duplicate:
Does Gmail sends "suspicious sign-in prevented " emails or is it a trick?
I've just received the following notification, apparently from GMail:
Unusual sign-in location
Someone signed in from a location that isn't typical for your account. If it wasn't you, change your password immediately. Learn more
1. Review unusual sign-ins.
Prevented application sign-in
unknown.com | 22.214.171.124
Aug 13, 2012 8:30:10 PM
Is it legitimate?


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Two years ago I added a three to five minute speech to my Peace with Justice unit in Honors English IV. I said at the time and continue to say that the speeches made the unit. For the 10 years or so before that the unit was just lacking. It is not lacking any more and the speech featured here, by senior Logan Hill, is just one of 48 reasons why:
As I evaluate and consider all the things I have learned in this "Peace with Justice" unit, I have come to understand that the most important lessons I will take from this part of Honors English IV were not taught — they were realized. This unit was not about learning some great new truth about the universe I had not known before but about seeing the things it seems like all of us know and few of us recognize.
All of us in this room are human beings who think our lives are just as instrumental in some Great Plan as everyone else's. We all believe that life is "The Odyssey," and that we are Odysseus. The world is just a blank slate on which we can draw out our own image, write our own stories, and design our legacy.
Yes, the world is an epic poem but it is no "Odyssey." No one is a bigger hero voyaging across the seas of life that I am, and I am no greater a hero that you are. We each get a line in a seven-billion-line epic. Some of us will get a few lines, and a few will get stanzas. The thing that makes this life the greatest literary work is that it began at the dawn of time, and will end when there is not a single person left to contribute.
We all have something to offer. Each of us was born to different parents, who were born of different parents than we were. We've lived different lives and had different experiences. We met different people and shared different stories. We've spent our time on this Earth, since the time our fragile minds started looking around with curious eyes, creating a perception. I see the world through different eyes than you do. This isn't something that should be feared. It isn't a problem that we all have varying interpretations of the world, rather it's a beautiful fact of life that makes each one of us an anomaly.
If each of us has a different perception of life, and no one is any more important than another, then each individual viewpoint is part of the entire picture. This podium has three dimensions: a length, width, and height. If our brains could only see the podium in one dimension it wouldn't make sense. It wouldn't look like a podium. However, you add a second dimension and it starts to look distinguishable. By adding a third dimension you get a view from every possible angle and the podium becomes a recognizable and unique object.
Civilization has seven-billion dimensions, seven billion different ways you can spin it and look at it that provide an entirely new view of the world. The more of these perspectives that we take the time to hear and understand the clearer our interpretation of reality starts to become. The view from each individual's eyes can only see one page of a seven-billion page book. One page might be interesting and it could be filled with useful information. But the more pages you read the more the book begins to make sense.
It's important to take time to listen to our fellow human beings. I've come to realize that simply being nice is not enough to support either peace or justice alone, never mind together. Being friendly is a good start -- it beings with a "Hi, how are you?" but peace with justice comes when you actually care to hear the answer after the question. Every morning when Mr. MacKenzie asks me how I'm doing today, I know he's not just saying it as a formality. It's not merely a courtesy gesture or the polite thing to do; I believe he asks me how I'm doing because he sincerely wants to make sure I'm doing all right, and if not, he wants to offer and helping hand. See, Mr. Mac recognizes something it's taken me a while to notice. Often times people just need someone to listen. But equally as often we just need to listen to someone.
When we hear someone out, let them tell us what's bothering them and why, express their feelings and opinions freely and we embrace them, then we extend our brains' capacity to see from a whole new angle. The more we learn from our fellow human beings, the more we let them share with us, the bigger difference we're going to make in their lives and the bigger change they will make in ours. Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Every time someone comes to us for a shoulder to cry on or an ear to listen, we make a change in them. And there is an equivalent change in us.
The key to peace with justice begins with being here to lend people assistance whenever possible; it starts when I make the decision to make each of you a priority. The foundation of peace with justice in my life would be that when I say "Hi, how are you?" it's not just a greeting, but I'm actually concerned how you're doing today. And if it's bad, I really want to make it better.
Maybe I can offer you some advice from my own perspective. But at the very least I can hear you out, because just my listening could make a world of difference — to you and me.
Steve MacKenzie teaches English at Somersworth High School and can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Peace with justice (and each other)
Two years ago I added a three to five minute speech to my Peace with Justice unit in Honors English IV. I said at the time and continue to say that the speeches made the unit. For the 10 years or so before that the unit was just lacking. It is not lacking any more and the speech featured here, by senior Logan Hill, is just one of 48 reasons why: