Maggie Appleton
“Patriotism is the conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.”
—George Bernard Shaw
April 2010
11 posts
Pick One →
heyben.com
Greatest distraction ever? You are arbitrarily presented with two unrelated options to choose between.
Favourites so far:
The Afghan Conflict: A Map of Possible Scenarios
Details of the Map:
Read over the whole website TheAfghanConflict.de
View and download FULL MAP
Finding this has basically been the highlight of my month.
Alternate Path for Teachers Gains Ground - New York Times →
nytimes.com
New York Times Education article potentially affecting my choice in where I get a Masters of Arts in Teaching? Let’s hope Teach for America rolls their degree out within the next 3 years…
Play
Why I Love David Foster Wallace
A List of Words David Foster Wallace circled in his American Heritage Dictionary. Note that the automatic computer spellchecker thinks most of them need to be underlined in red.
New York Times Stellar Photojournalism of the Day
“President Obama appeared posed and ready for the photographers, while most of the other heads of state talked among themselves, during a group photo at the nuclear security conference in Washington.”
“Senegalese boys practiced traditional wrestling, known at Lutte, in the 400-year-old village of Ngor near Dakar, Senegal. Senegalese wrestling is a type of folk wrestling with the main objective to throw the opponent to the ground.”
“A farmer harvested wheat in Sanga village on the outskirts of Amritsar, India.”
Opium in Marjah
Afghan poppy farmers listened to instructions for a census data collection by Marines in Marjah. The Marines have started a programme that offers Afghan farmers incentives to turn away from growing poppies that fuel the heroin trade.
“When U.S. marines raided the notorious Lachoya opium bazaar in the southwestern Afghan region of Marjah at the start of their massive military offensive there last month, they found 700 kg of raw opium and 25 kilos of heroin. Anywhere else in the world, that would have been a major drug bust, but for Marjah, it was mere crumbs.”
“Marjah is just a scattering of dusty villages set amid 17,000 hectares of poppy fields. But its backwater appearance is deceptive: until last month, it was the hub of a dozen international drug syndicates reaching across borders as far away as Europe, Russia and the Far East. The U.N. reckons Marjah has the world’s highest concentration of opium production.”
TIME Article: Afghansitan’s Fix - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1971405,00.html
Related Reading to my current books:
