US wars to cost $4 trillion, report finds

The Department of War (aka, the Pentagon) Did they ever figure out what hit it?

A new report out of Brown University estimates that the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan--will, all told, cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and soldiers.

Afghanistan is the Land of the Buddha, the original Kapilavastu, with the largest statues in the world. But archeologists are not likely to uncover its wonders before Chinese mining interests destroy artifacts in Mes Aynak and elsewhere.

• Rescuing Afghanistan's Buddhist history (WSJ)

The group of economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel, and political scientists involved in the project estimated that the cost of caring for the veterans injured in the wars will reach $1 trillion in 30 or 40 years.

In estimating the $4 trillion total, they did not take into account the $5.3 billion in reconstruction spending the government has promised Afghanistan, state and local contributions to veteran care, interest payments on war debt, or the costs of Medicare for veterans when they reach 65.

Elite warriors, each costing $1,000,000/year, needed to defeat Iron Age pastoralists? (veteranstoday.com)

The Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, has assessed the federal price tag for the wars at $1.8 trillion through 2021. The report says that is a gross underestimate, predicting that the government has already paid $2.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion. More

Shocking release of U.S. documents on Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – The Afghan government said Monday it was “shocked” as it sifted through tens of thousands of leaked U.S. military and diplomatic reports on the war in Afghanistan that a whistleblower website posted a day earlier. “The Afghan government is shocked with the report that has opened the reality of the Afghan war,” said Siamak Herawi, a government spokesman. WikiLeaks.org -- a whistleblower website...

• The preposterous war on Afghanistan
• What did USSR want with this ancient part of NW India?
• The price tag of Afghanistan dwarfs country's GDP

DSK and hacking the Int'l Monetary Fund

While lecherous International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, President of the World Bank, is being hung high after being accused of attempted rape of a hotel worker (prompting demonstrations and "Slut Walks") -- and Hillary Clinton is put forward as the leading candidate to replace him -- some state-funded entity [CIA, China, Israel, UK?] is upping the ante:

IMF Hacked; No End in Sight to Security Horror Shows
Ian Paul (PCWorld, June 12, 2011)
The recent online intrusion into International Monetary Fund servers may have been the work of malicious hackers working for a foreign government, according to online reports. The IMF is reportedly reluctant to disclose where it believes the attacks came from since 187 of the world's 194 nations (as recognized by the U.S. Department of State) are members of the fund. The hack's perpetrators obtained a "large quantity of data," including e-mail and other documents during the intrusion, according to Bloomberg. The attacks reportedly began before May 14 when IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York on sexual assault charges. The IMF provides, among other functions, economic assistance and policy advice to nations in financial distress to help stabilize the global economy. That means the global agency has, as The New York Times recently reported, "highly confidential information about the fiscal condition of many nations." As such, the IMF's files contain "political dynamite" that could affect global markets, according to the Times. It's not clear if the data stolen from the IMF was particularly sensitive. More

• What science tells about power and sexual infidelity (NPR)
• Schwarzenegger's wife blasts paparazzi
• What makes you different from Congressman Weiner?

Becoming part computer (common cyborgs)

Jerry lost half a digit and replaced it with a prosthetic finger with a USB drive inside. He explained on his blog that it's detachable: "When I'm using the USB, I just leave my finger inside the slot and pick it up after I'm ready."

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) - In Chris Harrison's ideal world, mobile phones would be the size of matchbooks. They'd have full-size keyboards. They'd browse the Web. They'd play videos. And, most importantly, you'd never have to touch them. Sound like too much to ask? Maybe not. Harrison, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University and a former intern at Microsoft Research, has developed a working prototype of a system called Skinput that does just that, essentially by turning a person's hand and forearm into a keyboard and screen. "People don't love the iPhone keyboard. They use them. But they don't love them," Harrison said in a interview at the recent Computer-Human Interaction conference. "If you could make the iPhone keyboard as big as an arm -- that would be huge." Using Skinput, a person could tap their thumb and middle finger together to answer a call; touch their forearm to go to the next track on a music player; or flick the center of their palm to select a menu item. More