Tuesday, January 19, 2010

HOT5 Daily 1/19/2010

1. "The subtleties of interrogation nothing like 24" Links to an article that should be must reading for anyone who wants to argue about "enhanced" interrogation.

Representative Sample: as enhanced techniques are applied, CIA interrogators like Harry would ask detainees questions to which the interrogators already know the answers — allowing them to judge whether the detainees were being truthful and determine when the terrorists had reached a level of compliance. Hayden said, “They are designed to create a state of cooperation, not to get specific truthful answers to a specific question.”

2. "A Little Too Close to the Battle in Kabul" A vivid report from a first-rate war correspondent. 

Representative Sample: The scene shifted quickly, like a movie reel sped up: The suicide bomber, stopped from entering Afghanistan’s Central Bank, burst into pieces at its footsteps. Six surviving gunmen, who had wanted to follow their comrade inside, dashed instead into a shopping center and let loose from the rooftop with rifles and grenades.

3. "See anything about this in your local paper" Israeli response to Haitian disaster.

Representative Sample: Despite its small size, Israel sent a large contingent of highly-trained aid workers to quake-stricken Haiti. Two jumbo jets carrying more than 220 doctors, nurses, civil engineers, and other Israeli army personnel, including a rescue team and field hospital, were among the first rescue teams to arrive in Haiti.

4. "Professors are ‘liberal’ cuz conservatives made them that way" An explanation.

Representative Sample:anyone weighing their career options doesn’t just look at their own interests and strengths, they also assess their chances in that particular career based on the people who are already there. If a non-leftist and/or religious student is observing, daily, the clannish, hyper-political intolerance of the people in charge of “educating” him/her, s/he might be hesistant to pursue career in academia where their success is dependent on people already hostile to them

5. "MIT: Unusual snail shell could be a model for better armor" Tanks with snail-pattern armor?

Representative Sample: the shell of the so-called "scaly-foot" snail is unlike any other naturally occurring or manmade armor. The study suggests that its unique three-layer structure dissipates energy that would cause weaker shells to fracture.

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