n2doc
n2doc's JournalBlackwater’s Afghan HQ Is Really Called ‘Camp Integrity’
By Spencer Ackerman
March 26, 2012
By September, the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan will be down to its pre-surge level of 68,000. For the next year after that, politicians and generals will debate how rapidly to bring additional troops home. And while all that happens, the world’s most infamous security company will retain its big compound in the capital city of Kabul.
Academi, once known as Blackwater, operates a 435,600 square-foot “forward operating base” — which is what the U.S. military calls its warzone outposts — called Camp Integrity. Among other things, it’s a hub for information about the sprawling campaign against Afghan narcotics. And it even has its own t-shirt for sale, shown above, on Academi’s online swag store.
The little-known facility, located near Kabul International Airport, has been home to Blackwater/Academi’s Afghanistan operations since 2009. The base features a “24/7 operations center, fueling stations, vehicle maintenance facility, lodging, office and conference space and a fortified armory,” says John Procter, a spokesman for the company. Some online descriptions of Camp Integrity describe it as a hub for security contractors from different companies as well.
Camp Integrity is unlikely to close any time soon. “Camp Integrity plays a valuable role in serving as a forward operating base for Academi’s employees and customers and will continue to do so as long as there is an operational need,” Procter tells Danger Room, though he declined to discuss “personnel or specific clients” in Afghanistan.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/academi-camp-integrity/
Just couldn't make this stuff up outside of a "Dr Strangelove" remake....
New McDonald's CEO to get 26% raise
By Emily Bryson York
Tribune reporter
10:28 a.m. CDT, March 26, 2012
McDonald's Corp. released additional details regarding its CEO transition in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday. The Oak Brook-based company's longtime CEO Jim Skinner is retiring at the end of June, and president and chief operating officer Don Thompson will assume the role.
As part of the promotion, Thompson receives a 26 percent increase in base pay, to $1.1 million. His annual bonus, capped at 150 percent of salary, could be as much as $1.65 million. He also can receive up to $8 million more as part of a cash bonus program.
Thompson will retain the title of president. In an interview last week, Skinner said that he and Thompson will choose the next chief operating officer in the coming months. As part of Skinner's retirement, he will relinquish his seat on the company's board.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-new-mcdonalds-ceo-to-get-26-raise-20120326,0,4022766.story
Hooked on Scaroin
Eric Zorn
Change of Subject
March 25, 2012
Watching primary election coverage last Tuesday evening, I noticed my fingernails and lips had taken on a bluish cast. I was short of breath, feeling disoriented and suffering from persistent dry mouth.
Luckily, my spin doctor was on call and able to gave me a swift diagnosis: Scaroin overdose.
Never heard of scaroin? Well, four years ago you'd never heard of hopium, either. Then my colleague John Kass identified it as the drug being peddled by then Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama — a mellowing narcotic named for Obama's relentless though unoriginal invocations of hope; a powerful political sedative that obliterated cynicism and left voters blissfully optimistic about the power of one man to transform and unite our nation.
Scaroin has nearly the opposite effect.
It's not smoked, snorted, inhaled or injected. Rather it's transmitted via stump speeches of Republican presidential candidates, notably the passages in which they attempt to scare voters with dystopian visions of the crumbling fascist nation that will be the United States of America if Obama is re-elected.
more
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-oped-0325-zorn-20120325,0,5050683.column
'Pink Slime' Producer Runs a Full Page Ad in the WSJ
The "pink slime" saga continues: The beef product, a low-cost ammonia-treated filler aka "Lean Finely Trimmed Beef" that ends up in ground beef and hamburger patties, is having a tough time these days. After an online petition led to a media frenzy, multiple grocery stores have pledged to stop using it and schools are pulling it from cafeterias (it will be banned from public school lunches in New York City schools next Fall).
Beef Products, Inc., the self-professed "world's leading producer of lean beef processed from fresh beef trimmings," is not going to watch its business go down in social media-fueled flames, so they did what any normal company in the big trouble would do: They ran a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal (the full ad is below). There's an editorial by Nancy Donley, President, STOP Foodborne Illness talking about how ammonia hydride and food-grade antimicrobial sprays are "necessary."
Eldon Roth, CEO of BPI also gets some space. He chimes in about the "campaign of lies and deceit that have been waged" by the "entertainment media, tabloid journalists, so-called national news." He says the "misinformation campaign" may result in the "loss of over 3,000" jobs. He also says that the "lean beef" from his company has been in over 300 billion meals.
more
http://eater.com/archives/2012/03/23/pink-slime-producer-runs-full-page-ad-in-wsj.php#more
Sanford, Fla, Neighborhood Watch News and Notes
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html#1
Who Needs Another Mountaintop When We Can Have a Giant Telescope?
Chilean technicians exploded the top off of Las Campanas Peak in the Atacama Desert to begin the construction of a telescope ten times as powerful as the Hubble on Friday morning. The event was so apparently so celebratory, they even put some red, white and blue coloring in the explosives so they'd look like fireworks and broadcast the whole thing on the Internet. Unfortunately, bad wiring meant that the dynamite blew up a minute and a half too soon, and so the Internet watchers did not get to enjoy the oh-so-symbolic countdown. It really did look quite awesome, though.
When you look at the facts about the new telescope's potential, "awesome" seems too small a word. It's called the Giant Magellan, after all. The $700 million research tool, collectively developed by the Carnegie Institute of Washington, Harvard and others, will use adaptive optics in order to help scientists peer more clearly into deep space than ever before. With 300 days of sunshine a year and practically no light pollution -- not many people live in the oppressively dry, terribly hot and horribly cold Atacama Desert -- the location is one of the best on Earth for a giant telescope. What's different about this telescope is the resolution. Whereas the Hubble is pretty good at being a telescope, it's a nightmare to fix. And thanks both to its location on the ground and a unique seven-mirror setup pictured to the right, the Giant Magellan is capable of capturing images of deep space like we've never seen, while not requiring a rocket launch every time there's a screw loose.
This is not the first mountaintop at Las Campanas that's been razed, and it's probably not the last. For the next six years, however, all attention is on Magellan. If completed on time, it stands the chance of beating its bigger, less creatively named and much more expensive European competitor, the European Extremely Large Telescope. Construction on that monstrosity is expected to begin later this year on the nearby Armazones Peak. Seriously, Europe: "Extremely Large?" That name sounds like a special edition Mountain Dew flavor or a Jonathan Safran Foer novel or something -- not a $1.4 billion science project.
more
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/03/who-needs-another-mountaintop-when-we-can-have-giant-telescope/50263/
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