Local teen listens to life in Afghanistan's war zone

sfgate: "On the first day of class this fall, Hyder Akbar's college literature teacher had an idea for an icebreaking exercise. Students would come up with two truths and one lie about themselves. Then the others would try to guess which was the lie.

This is what Akbar wrote: 1) 'Although I am 18, I am often mistaken for someone older; 2) I play guitar in a rock band; 3) Three weeks ago I got ambushed by al Qaeda in Afghanistan.''

Akbar says his friends would have spotted the fabrication immediately.

'Actually,'' he admits, 'I don't even play the guitar.''

But the ambush? Absolutely. He can not only tell you about it, but he also has an audiotape. And you can hear it at noon Saturday on KQED when the Concord teenager makes his second appearance on the award-winning national radio documentary show 'This American Life.'' Akbar won a documentary award for his first audio diary, called 'Come Back to Afghanistan,'' which was the story of his trip to Kabul in the summer of 2002."

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At USDA, the Mouse Is in the House

(washingtonpost.com) : "Employees at the Department of Agriculture's main cafeteria were just sitting down to lunch on Friday when security guards ordered everyone in the huge eatery to leave. Al Qaeda? Bomb scare? No. Mouse droppings. The D.C. Department of Health closed the cafeteria for failing to pass inspection. Yes, the USDA, home to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the meat and poultry inspectors -- the agency that is part of the federal system for protecting the nation's food supply, was in violation of the D.C. Health Code. There were several citations, according to the inspection report, including: 'water leaking excessively' in the ceiling, employees not wearing hair restraints, and inadequate cleaning of the inside of ice machines, cabinets, surfaces and equipment. The biggest problem, however, seemed to be mouse droppings found everywhere -- in the dry storage room, by the salad bar, behind the ovens, near the serving line, ...

Artist turns animals into everyday objects

Ananova - A Chilean artist is making a name for herself with an exhibition in which stuffed animals are transformed into household objects. Artworks on display include a chick turned into a lamp, and 'sheep bag' - a lamb carcass fitted with handles. Artist Caterina Purdy says her exhibition at the Experimental Arts Centre in Santiago is intended to be humorous but also makes a serious point. She told Las Ultimas Noticias online: 'It is possible to see my work as something scary, but I find it beautiful. 'There is also irony and humour in my objects as well as a criticism of the way animals are treated by society.'"

BW Online | March 1, 2004 | Software : "As Stephen and Deepa emerge this summer from graduate school -- one in Pittsburgh, the other in Bombay -- they'll find that their decisions of a half-decade ago placed their dreams on a collision course. The Internet links that were being pieced together at the turn of the century now provide broadband connections between multinational companies and brainy programmers the world over. For Deepa and tens of thousands of other Indian students, the globalization of technology offers the promise of power and riches in a blossoming local tech industry. But for Stephen and his classmates in the U.S., the sudden need to compete with workers across the world ushers in an era of uncertainty. Will good jobs be waiting for them when they graduate? 'I might have been better served getting an MBA,' Stephen says."

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