Iraq is rushing to digitize its national library under the threat of ISIS – Business Insider #ViaDiasporaNativeWebApp

The restoration process is nothing short of microsurgery, and the type damage to each document is a story — and a puzzle — on its own. Some manuscripts are torn from overuse and aging; others are burned or stained from attack or sabotage. And then there are some that were completely fossilized over time — the combined result of moisture and scorching temperatures — looking instead like large rocks dug up from the earth.

“Those are the most difficult books to restore,” said Fatma Khudair, the senior employee in the restoration department. “We apply steam using a specialized tool to try to loosen and separate the pages.

Technicians sterilize manuscripts and documents for 48 hours, washing them of dust and other impurities that accumulated over time. Then, they go page by page using Japanese tissue, specialized paper for book conservation and restoration, to either fill in torn edges or layer the more-delicate documents with a sheer coating to make them more durable.

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Popehat

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…the Southern District of New York, after hitting Reason with a federal grand jury subpoena to unmask anonymous hyperbolic commenters, secured a gag order that prevented them from writing about it.

Popehat

Call Me Daddy: Playing Son to My Fatherless Boyfriend | VICE | United States

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He picks me up from the train station and we go to an Indian restaurant
near his apartment. We sit next to a large Indian family. I imagine that
they’re all judging me, and it stings. They probably came here from
India to make better lives for their children. And look what they ended
up sitting next to: some nightmare vision of what America can do to your
kids, no matter how hard they study. When your boys come to America,
they’ll turn into dimpled twinks who will escape their ivory towers to
go on dates with sugar daddies twice their age.

Call Me Daddy: Playing Son to My Fatherless Boyfriend | VICE | United States

Execution date set again for Shafqat Hussain.

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http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/execution-date-set-for-pakistani-juvenile-despite-governments-inconsistent-claims-over-age-document-cover-up/ 

The Pakistani government put Shafqat on the newly created list of “terrorists” to be executed to show it was getting tough following the Peshawar school attack last year. Not only is he not a “terrorist,” his  confession was extracted through torture when he was 14. He has already spent a decade in prison as a result of a questionable investigation and a flawed conviction.

I came across this in January and signed the petition to stay his execution, which apparently succeeded. An inquiry was to be launched to scrutinize the investigation. Apparently things have gone sideways with the inquiry and the government is once again eager to kill him despite the failure of a proper inquiry.

Makes me think that someone with influence (or someone close to such a person) is responsible for the murder that he was convicted of, and they want the related proceedings to be wrapped up quickly, which will happen if he is executed.

If you’d like to help stop Shafqat’s execution, go here:
https://reprieve.bsd.net/page/speakout/save-shafqat/
… and enter your name and email address in order to send a letter to Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain. This worked last time, hopefully it will this time as well.

Execution date set again for Shafqat Hussain.