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By Agence France-Presse Friday, January 31, 2014 18:48 EST   The Pentagon has tallied reports of a shameful litany of bad behavior among its officers and employees in a voluminous tome entitled “The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failures.” From bribery to kickbacks to falsifying travel expenses, the document is designed as a guide — and a warning — to teach troops and civil servants about ethics laws. Written in a breezy style free of bureaucratic jargon, the annual catalogue is updated every year with fresh examples of poor judgement and scams gone wrong. Published by the General Counsel’s Standards of Conduct Office, this year’s edition includes the story of three generals and an admiral who extended an official trip to Tokyo by a day so they could enjoy a round of golf — at a cost to taxpayers of about $3,000. That case was listed under the heading: “A Swing and a Miss for Senior Officers Using Government Funds on Golf Outing.” In another entry...

The effort to depict drone warfare as some sort of courageous and noble act is intensifying: The Pentagon is considering awarding a Distinguished Warfare Medal to drone pilots who work on military bases often far removed from the battlefield. . . . [Army Institute of Heraldry chief Charles] Mugno said most combat decorations require “boots on the ground” in a combat zone, but he noted that “emerging technologies” such as drones and cyber combat missions are now handled by troops far removed from combat . The Pentagon has not formally endorsed the medal, but Mugno’s institute has completed six alternate designs for commission approval. . . . The proposed medal would rank between the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Soldier’s Medal for exceptional conduct outside a combat zone. So medals would be awarded for sitting safely ensconced in a bunker on U.S. soil and launching bombs with a video joystick at human beings thousands of miles away. Justifying drone warfare require...

Designer dreams up pen that perfectly replicates colors in the environment Real-life Photoshop Tool: Now if only they found some way to make an "undo" function in real life By Stuart Fox Most of the Photoshop tools familiar to artists import old school analog devices onto the computer. Before computers, artists would use actual razors to crop, and physical scissors and glue to cut and paste. But South Korean designer Jinsun Park has envisioned a pen that reverses the process, taking a tool developed for the computer and porting it to physical reality. Park has designed a concept pen that adapts Photoshop's eyedropper tool for real life. On one end of the pen is a camera that captures a complex, real world color. Then, like an inkjet printer, a computer in the pen calculates the mixture of red, green and blue ink needed to replicate the color photographed by the camera. Ink in the perfect proportions then flows out of the ball point on the other end of the pen. Col...

By Asif Haroon Raja, Published in Asian Tribune, Feb 25, 2009 It is now getting clear as to why FATA has been declared most dangerous place on earth. After making series of allegations that FATA is the main breeding ground where militants and suicide bombers are trained for launching into Afghanistan; where the entire senior leadership of Al-Qaeda and Taliban is housed; and from where possible attack on US homeland would take off, so far not a single training camp has been located in FATA, nor any high-profile militant leader nabbed or killed. This is in spite of continuous hovering of spy planes and next door US-NATO troops equipped with latest state-of-the-art surveillance and detection gadgets breathing over Pakistan’s neck, and RAW-CIA-Mossad agents having infiltrated into FATA in big numbers. If CIA controlled drones can hit suspected houses, madrassas and Hujras based on intelligence, why have they been unable to detect so-called training sites and the top wanted leaders? Why hav...

Dear Brother and friend AbdelBari Atwan, Editor of Al-Quds London An Open Letter on the Murder of Palestine, from George Galloway MP It has been said that you, Sir, are the "last Arab". We both know that is not true, there are still others, but millions of us know why it was said of you. You are a Knight of the Arabs that's for sure. Born in a Gazan refugee camp, you are a Prince among men. I have known you for thirty years; back then you still had some of the dust of the camp about you. Now you are an ever-present commentator in the media, publish the Arab world's only independent newspaper, and are highly respected by all who know you. Together we have fought in the land of Balfour and Sykes, of Anthony Eden and Anthony Blair, many great political battles. Many tears and much blood has flown over those years, and before, and it's not going to stop now. I am moved to write having seen yet another of your heart-piercing interviews on television. You leave the inte...