Austfonna in the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, the largest ice cap in the Eurasian Arctic. From the Daily Mail of the UK.Why Tunisians Voted for the Islamists from Der Spiegel [of Germany in English]
"In a major setback for Tunisia's elite, the Islamist Ennahda Party looks set to lead the country's first democratically elected government. They appealed to the common people who sought greater credibility in politics. But concerns the country might soon become a new theocracy are exaggerated, because Tunisian Islamists are looking to Turkey as their model."
No Apology Necessary: Barack Obama Shouldn't Have to Make Excuses for Sending Troops to Uganda (James Traub) from Foreign Policy Magazine
" The moral case for action against the LRA is much stronger than, say, the case for joining the NATO bombardment of Muammar al-Qaddafi's Libya. No less important, the Obama White House, State Department, and Pentagon have designed a complex and sophisticated approach that seems to have a real chance at bringing the LRA to book."
GOP Not Giving Obama Enough Credit on Libya (Norman Ornstein) from Roll Call
"In a functional political system, there would be bipartisan kudos for a president who has been tough enough to take on his own left while nailing Osama bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki ... but this should be the occasion for cooperation in the national interest, instead of ham-handed, partisan spite of the sort we have just seen from Rubio."
Oil’s New World Order (Daniel Yergin) from the Washington Post
"For more than five decades, the world’s oil map has centered on the Middle East. ... But today, what appeared irreversible is being reversed. The outline of a new world oil map is emerging, and it is centered not on the Middle East but on the Western Hemisphere. "
Occupy Wall Street: It’s Not a Hippie Thing (Roger Lowenstein) from Bloomberg Businessweek
"Don’t be fooled by the drum circles. Today’s protests have more in common with the anti-Hoover 1930s than the antiwar ’60s and ’70s."
Why Many in China Sympathize with Occupy Wall Street (Damien Ma) from the Atlantic
"Income inequality, a feeling of disenfranchisement, and a sense of injustice are fueling popular curiosity about the movement, in which a number of Chinese see parallels with their own complaints against their government."
Americans ’Hooked’ on Government Benefits from Bloomberg News Service
"Political dysfunction is often blamed for Congress’s inability to curb the U.S. budget deficit. An even bigger obstacle may be the American public. A record 49 percent of Americans live in a household where someone receives at least one type of government benefit, according to the U.S. Census Bureau."
Nope, Just Debt: The Next Big Credit Bubble? from the Economist [of London]
"Two things, however, are clear. The size of student debt is vast (see chart), and lots of borrowers are struggling."
Obama’s Miracle Is a Scandal-Free White House (Jonathan Alter) from the Bloomberg News Service
"President Barack Obama goes into the 2012 with a weak economy that may doom his reelection. But he has one asset that hasn’t received much attention: He’s honest. ... Although it’s possible that the Solyndra LLC story will become a classic feeding frenzy, don’t bet on it."
Hackers Threaten Fox News Over Occupy Wall Street Coverage from Reuters
"Anonymous, a group of hackers that has previously attacked Sony and Bay Area Rapid Transit, said it will shut down the Fox News website on November 5."
I LOVE IT!
Few Americans Take Immigrants’ Jobs in Alabama from the Charlotte Sun and Weekly Herald [of Florida]
"“You can’t find legal workers,” Horner said. “Basically they last a day or two, literally.” ... She plans to stop growing organically and start using a machine to pick the berries. “I did everything I possibly could to be legal and honest and not part of the problem,” Horner said."
Everything ... but pay your workers more. Isn't it interesting how the law of supply and demand ceases to function when it might work in the favor of workers.
GOP Campaign vs. the World (Clarence Page) from the Chicago Tribune
"Bachmann's flub would not be a big deal if it didn't appear amid a Republican field infected with a nose-thumbing strain of willful ignorance about the rest of the world."
HEAR! HEAR!
Elizabeth Warren’s Winning Formula (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post
"By the time the candidate arrived for the meeting – a prosaic organizing session for volunteers — there were nearly 300 people crammed into Local 7 to catch a glimpse of her. When she took the stage, a sea of cameras and smartphones rose, as if at a rock concert. All this for a law professor who specializes in contracts? But Elizabeth Warren, the former adviser to President Obama who is now trying to unseat Republican Sen. Scott Brown, is no mere professor, or candidate. She is a phenomenon."
Romney So Far: No Core Beliefs, Many Flip-Flops (Douglas MacKinnon) from the Investors Business Daily
"Is there anyone sane left in the GOP establishment? Does plain old common sense and gut instinct no longer matter to those who purport to speak for the party? Have conservative principles and traditional values become nothing more than meaningless rhetoric to those so desperate to hang on to imagined power? As the Republican establishment lines up like lemmings behind Mitt Romney, it would be illuminating and in fact critical to look at the news for just the last couple of days with regard to this untethered and pliable candidate."
Just Like Dukakis, Romney is Taking the Fun Out of New Hampshire (Steve Kornacki) from Salon
"This is shaping up to be the least suspenseful, least consequential New Hampshire primary since 1988."
Mitt Romney, the Pretzel Candidate (George F. Will) from the Washington Post
"Will conservativism really settle for this increasingly unelectable candidate?"
No Easy Way Out of Debates for Rick Perry (Molly Ball) from the Atlantic
"If he skips some of the upcoming GOP debates, the Texas governor will reinforce the idea he's not ready for prime time."
Rick Perry Has a Path to Recovery—and He's Already on It (Ed Kilgore) from the New Republic
"Perry may still yet emerge as the Viable Conservative Alternative to Mitt Romney. He might have failed his first audition for that role with the conservative wing of the GOP, but he still has an eminently viable path to recovery, one that he already appears to be employing with zeal: moving even further to the right."
Where Rick Perry’s Campaign Went Wrong (Jay Newton-Small) from Time Magazine
"...overconfidence may have been part of the problem. Perry and his team haven’t been in a close contest in more than a decade. ...they entered the campaign unprepared. Though Carney disputes this, several sources say they did little opposition research on their own candidate–a staple of modern presidential campaigns–assuming that he’d already been vetted by his six statewide wins."
WORLD WAR I NUGGET!!
Sex and the Somme: The Officially Sanctioned Brothels on the Front Line Laid Bare for the First Time from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"This establishment — marked by its red lamp — was one of the legendary maisons tolérées, or legalised brothels that dotted the towns of northern France. They housed professional prostitutes who worked under the discipline of a madame and were subject to regular medical inspections. By 1917, there were at least 137 such establishments spread across 35 towns."
A surprisingly rich long-form story from the Daily Mail!
GPS TECHNOLOGY NUGGET!!
Just Follow the Red Line: New Sat-Nav Projects Route in Head-up Display Over the Landscape (PHOTOS) from the Daily Mail [of the UK]
"Companies already make very basic units which just project a sat-nav display on screen - but Making Virtual Solid has unveiled a product that paints information 'into' the real world you see ahead of you."
Interesting display -- a little creepy actually.
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