20 August 2009: Morning By The Morning News — 20 Aug 2009 Times reports on how in 2004 the C.I.A. hired Blackwater in a secret assassination program--though no missions were carried out. Election day in Afghanistan: Some polling sites have been closed due to attacks; overall voter turnout is low. "We have to wait to be asked now." In Iraq, U.S. troops stood by helplessly during Wednesday's insurgent attacks. How three "vaguely nerdy" Democrats came to control New York's political campaigns--and dislike each other in the process. In China's second incidence of mass lead poisoning in the past month, more than 1,300 children fall ill in the Hunan province. The naming rules of Renaissance Italy, and why we rarely use Galileo's surname. At Infinite Summer, Kevin Guilfoile wonders if anybody will still be reading Infinite Jest 100 years from now. (It really does take that long.) A group of Swiss robots learn the art of deception to procure a good meal. College leagues see bloggers, independent media types as a threat to potential revenue. Tumultuous union politics threaten to throw a wrench in the future of the labor movement. Interactive map of U.S. hate groups. The humans and the monsters worked together to take a harmful situation and turn it into a positive one.
