HOT5 Daily 2/19/2009

1. "Bird & Fortune explain the financial crisis." A must see.

Representative Sample: It's a video.

2. "SO WHO REALLY DECIDES?" Why African governments may turn to private military contractors.

Representative Sample: Many governments in Africa are faced with growing external military threats, insurgencies, political upheaval and an escalation in violent crime.

3. "The Liberty to Blaspheme" In defense of free speech against religious extremists.

Representative Sample: Once again, religious lunatics and terrorists have hijacked the marketplace of ideas and twisted the universal right of free speech into a right, possessed exclusively by themselves, to never be offended.

4. "High Stakes Gamble"  Future consequences of today's budget decisions. 

Representative Sample: U.S. budget insanity means that the air power roadmap will have a high risk of becoming strategically weak.

5. "Collective Religious Rituals, Not Religious Devotion, Spur Support for Suicide Attacks"  Interesting study on correlation between support for suicide bombing and elements of religion.

Representative Sample: researchers found that the relationship between religion and support suicide attacks is real but is unrelated to devotion to particular religious beliefs or religious belief in general.

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