The Doomsday Plane – TIME

Posted by Matt in February 4th, 2010 | no comment

Published in Military, Air Force Crew, Cold War Relic, Doomsday Plane, Fuel Nozzle, Handful, Launch, Midair, Midst, Missile Silos, Nuclear Attack, Nuclear War, Robert Gates, Secretary Of Defense, Secretary Of Defense Robert Gates, Space Creature, Survivor, Tankers, Time Secretary, War Zones, Windshield

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates flies around the world to war zones and allies, to China and Russia and Suriname, on a Cold War relic called the Doomsday Plane. Forged in the 1970s by Boeing, it was designed to stay aloft even in the midst of nuclear war. It’s an airborne Pentagon. The plane is [...]

President Bachelet of Chile Rides High as Term Ends – NYTimes.com

Posted by Matt in October 28th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Americas, Ambitious Program, American President, Bachelet, Billions Of Dollars, Brazil, Chile, Chile Government, Commodity Boom, Copper Sales, Economy, Financial Crisis, Global Financial Crisis, Handful, Latin American Leaders, Lula Da Silva, Money, Nytimes, Pension Reform, Pollsters, Popularity, Recession, Stunning Turnaround

Analysts and pollsters attribute her stunning turnaround to her handling of the economy during the global financial crisis and to her decision to save billions of dollars in revenues from copper sales during the last commodity boom. That aggressive saving gave the country money to spend on pension reform and Ms. Bachelet’s ambitious program of [...]

Dollar’s days of dominance may end – Washington Times

Posted by Matt in September 29th, 2009 | no comment

Published in U.S., China, Dollar, Dominance, European Countries, George W Bush, Handful, Japan, President George W Bush, United States, Washington Times, World Economy, world-war-II, Zoellick

Mr. Zoellick, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, noted that the world economic order established after World War II, with the United States and a handful of European countries largely dominating, is quickly coming to an end.
China is expected to displace Japan within months as the world’s second-largest economy.
Dollar’s days of dominance [...]

Muslims find new Ramadan fast partners: Christians | Everyday Christian

Posted by Matt in September 22nd, 2009 | no comment

Published in Islam, Break, Christians, Church Of Christ, Food And Drink, Glass Of Water, Google, Handful, Hardware Store, Holy Month Of Ramadan, Month Of Ramadan, Muslim Families, Muslims, Ramadan, Self Restraint, Sterling Drive, Sundown, Sunrise

Like Muslims worldwide, Ben Ries has refrained from food and drink from sunrise to sundown in an act of self-restraint during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ends this weekend.
Each evening, the 31-year-old Ries joins Muslim families in a room above a hardware store in Bellingham, Wash., to find fellowship and break the fast [...]

Iran’s rebellious students: Go underground | The Economist

Posted by Matt in July 15th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Iran, Blogged, Crackdown, Crossroads, Economist, Facebook, Flock Browser, Handful, Isfahan, Message System, New Ways, Normality, Persia Iran, Plain Clothes, Pollution Levels, Public Holidays, Security Forces, Security Men, tehran, Text Message, Young Ones

On the surface, normality is returning. Underground, things may be different
DESPITE a renewed crackdown by the security forces, Iran’s students are looking for clever new ways to keep their campaign for democracy going. But it is a struggle. Nearly all foreign journalists, bar a handful of agency reporters, are being kept out, so that channel [...]

FT.com / Asia-Pacific – India to launch first nuclear submarine

Posted by Matt in July 15th, 2009 | no comment

Published in India, Asia India, Asia-Pacific, Blogged, Dry Dock, Financial Times, First Nuclear Submarine, Flock Browser, Government Officials, Handful, Launch, Manmohan, Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, Sea Trials, Technology

India is expected to launch a locally built nuclear-powered submarine later this month, making it one of only a handful of countries with the technology to produce such a vessel.
Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, is scheduled to visit the Visakhapatnam naval base in Andhra Pradesh on July 26 to inspect the submarine before it is [...]

Why did so many experts fail to predict the economic crisis?

Posted by Matt in July 7th, 2009 | no comment

Published in Economy, Financial, Decades, Economic Crisis, Economists, Economy, Eeconomic Crisis, Failure, Financial Crisis, Foresight, Global Financial Crisis, Great Depression, Handful, Self Criticism, Subplot, Waking Hours

One intriguing subplot of the economic crisis is the failure of most economists to predict it. Here we have the most spectacular economic and financial crisis in decades—possibly since the Great Depression—and the one group that spends most of its waking hours analyzing the economy basically missed it. Oh, a few economists can legitimately claim [...]

A World of Trouble

Posted by Matt in April 3rd, 2009 | no comment

Published in Economy, Financial, Chile, Correspondents, Countries, Financial Crisis, Global Economic Crisis, Global Financial Crisis, GlobalPost.Com, Ground Truth, Handful, Housing Bubble, International News, Islamic Insurgency, Moguls, Ordinary People, Recent Articles, Saudi Economy, Scope, Shockwaves, Surfeit, Taiwan, Thailand, World Of Pain, World Of Trouble, Worry

20 correspondents, 20 countries and a world of pain. Meet the ground truth of the global economic crisis.
To understand what’s unfolding we asked 20 GlobalPost correspondents in 20 countries to report on the ground truth of this deepening crisis. In other words, what’s really happening, and how are people being affected by a world of [...]

Somalia’s Pirates Flourish in a Lawless Nation

Posted by Matt in November 28th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Africa, 50 Million, Chaos, Countless Children, Desperation, Economy, Flourish, Handful, Lawlessness, Mogadishu, Piracy, Pirate, Pirates, Pirates Of Somalia, Profits, Somalia

This is the story of Somalia’s booming, not-so-underground pirate economy. The country is in chaos, countless children are starving and people are killing one another in the streets of Mogadishu, the capital, for a handful of grain.
But one particular line of work — piracy — seems to be benefiting quite openly from all this lawlessness [...]

“Zero Chance” of War Between U.S. and Russia

Posted by Matt in June 28th, 2008 | no comment

Published in Nuclear, Russia, U.S., War, 21st Century, American Flag, Bestselling Author, Confrontation, Contributor, Flag Officers, Handful, Mark Helprin, Militaries, Moseley, Nation State, Oil Wealth, Pacifism, Pundits, Russian View, Secretary Of The Air Force, Soviets, Wall Street Journal, Western Europe, Zero Chance

According to Gen. Michael Moseley, who was recently dismissed from his position as U.S. Secretary of the Air Force, “there is almost zero chance we will fight a nation state” in the 21st century.
While senior American flag officers acknowledge the increasing unlikelihood of great power war in the 21st century, a handful of U.S. think [...]