Remember Bosnia? The country that fought a three-year civil war in the 1990s with 100,000 dead continues its downward slide. Since the Dayton peace accord, which sort of ended the war in 1995, Bosnia has been divided into two entities—one called the Republika Srpska (RS) with a Serbian majority and the other a federation of … Continue reading
While we were killing time in Peshawar waiting for the fighting in the Khyber Pass to die down enough for us to make it through to Afghanistan, we kept casting about for new things to see. Alleged (I’m very skeptical of this) to be one of the intellectual birthplaces of the Taliban, I was interested … Continue reading
I stumbled across what I think is an interesting series of interviews with Taliban members in Newsweek magazine. I have posted it below for your convenience: By the way, I also strongly suggest the series in the New York Times by David Rohde about his capture and subsequent escape from the Taliban… The Taliban in … Continue reading
How Rare Is Gold And Platinum? The Velvet Rocket has noted before just how precious the precious metals actually are… Gold might seem ubiquitous, as it is found on the hands of millions of brides, but approximately 161,000 tons of the yellow metal have been mined over the entire history of mankind. That’s sounds like … Continue reading
Your New Motown Pad – Now 90% Cheaper Bricks-and-mortar real estate definitely isn’t my game. But I was shocked by a statistic published in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal. According to real-estate research firm First American CoreLogic, the median selling price for a home in Detroit is now a stageringly meager $7,100, down from $73,000 … Continue reading
Two hundred miles northeast of Anchorage, Alaska, there’s a massive military facility tucked deep in the black pine forests named the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (H.A.A.R.P.). What goes on here at HAARP? Depends on whom you ask… Self-declared “researchers” like Nick Begich (more on him below) say the collection of transmitters and receivers … Continue reading
Taken by Justin Ames in Kayseri, Turkey… Continue reading
The Velvet Rocket 