Hired Guns and Dropped Weblogs

Via evilegg, from the March 2004 Esquire, a 5-page essay on American contractors in Iraq, "Hired Guns."

There were no official guidelines. There was no one around to make the call but me, just as there would have been no one around to judge the consequences. I could have done anything. The only rules were those I imposed on myself. I hated it. It was an instructive experience. For a moment, I felt what it is to be an American civilian contractor in Iraq.

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From lj_biz: Weblogs.com closes its doors. Weblogs is a rather prominent blogging site, and the creator has shut it down with no warning, prompting rising concerns throughout the journalling/blogging world about similar failures elsewhere. (LiveJournal users need not be concerned.)

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0252:
Gosh, it would be nice if I was receiving email. My provider's mail server, I suppose, hasn't been passing mail to my mailbox since about 2pm yesterday, 13 hours ago. Their support site says they're short-staffed, too, and only the more critical requests will get rapid attention--I hope this failure is widespread enough that it gets fixed ASAP. :P