thegipples

Art - Public Art, Eyesore to Eye Candy - NYTimes.com

Rated Aug 24 2008 • 1 review • arts, sculpture, public art • nytimes.com

"But over the past 15 years public sculpture -- that is, static, often figurative objects of varying sizes in outdoor public spaces -- has become one of contemporary art's more exciting areas of endeavor and certainly its most dramatically improved one."

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Fear Keeps Iraqis Out of Their Baghdad Homes - NYTimes.com

Rated Aug 24 2008 • 0 reviews • iraq • nytimes.com

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Al-Qaeda Masters Terrorism On the Cheap - washingtonpost.com

Rated Aug 24 2008 • 1 review • terrorism, usa, al qaeda • washingtonpost.com

From the page: "Although al-Qaeda spent an estimated $500,000 to plan and execute the Sept. 11 attacks, many of the group's bombings and assaults since then in Europe, North Africa and Southeast Asia have cost one-tenth as much, or less.

The cheap plots are evidence that the U.S. government and its allies fundamentally miscalculated in assuming they could defeat the network by hunting for wealthy financiers and freezing bank accounts, according to many U.S. and European counterterrorism officials."

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AgentQuery :: Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher

Rated Aug 23 2008 • 1 review • books, agents, book publishing, novels, getting an agent • agentquery.com

From the page: "Are we advocating selling out? Not entirely. We just want writers to mentally prepare themselves. It's easy to tell yourself that you don't care about being published while you're writing the great American novel. But four years later, when you're finished with your masterpiece, and you begin shopping it around, you'll find it hard to swallow all those positive rejections from literary agents who say, "Wow, you're such a beautiful writer, but sorry, I can't sell your book."

Plot over prose is the mantra of publishing nowadays. Just prepare yourself.

One final thought, novelists… write a query letter and start soliciting agents, but ONLY if you�ve finished the whole manuscript. Agents will want to see the whole polished book before they extend representation to a newbie unpublished author, so don�t query agents until your novel is complete. "

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http://aestheticapparatus.com/admin/product_fullsize/D5E6...

Rated Aug 23 2008 • 0 reviews • arts • aestheticapparatus.com

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Missile defence in Europe: Behind Americas shield | The...

Rated Aug 23 2008 • 1 review • politics, russia, usa, europe, iran • economist.com

From the page: "THE east Europeans have little reason to fear a strike from Iran. So why are they eagerly signing up to America�s system to intercept Iranian missiles? Because they are scared of Russia. Within days of Russia�s invasion of Georgia, Poland had agreed to host ten American interceptors. Ukraine offered to link up its early-warning radars and contribute to surveillance in space. The Czech Republic had already agreed to host the missile-tracking radar.

�oeWe have crossed the Rubicon,” said the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, as the deal was done. Russia said any country involved in America�s missile defences made itself a legitimate target for nuclear attack. Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, who went to Poland to sign the deal this week, retorted that such threatening language �oeisn�t tolerable”.

Missile defences cannot fend off Russia�s huge arsenal, but countries hosting them place themselves under America�s umbrella, in effect becoming part of the defence of its homeland. American officials said the war in Georgia could have made further delay seem like surrender to Russia. But Mr Tusk offered another view: after Russia�s invasion, America at last accepted Polish demands for help in modernising its armed forces, and for the deployment of an American Patriot anti-aircraft (and anti-missile) battery in Poland.

Iran strengthened America�s case by boasting (apparently falsely) this week that it had tested a missile capable of launching satellites. Previously Iran claimed its missiles could reach targets as far away as Ukraine and the Balkans. But if it ever put objects into orbit, that would allow it to fire warheads a lot farther. The Kremlin still plays down the Iranian threat, and says America�s real objective is to neutralise Russia�s nuclear forces. America has invited the Russians to join in, to no avail."

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the sky from &Petits Tsingy& on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Rated Aug 23 2008 • 0 reviews • photography • flickr.com

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http://rephoto.jpn.org/img/photo/hBfwhVvhfcvtqbh4ixyMQlGz...

Rated Aug 23 2008 • 0 reviews • photography • jpn.org

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