MAQzine

Student 'addiction' to technology 'similar to drug cravings', study finds   Withdrawal symptoms experienced by young people deprived of gadgets and technology is compared to those felt by drug addicts or smokers going “cold turkey”, a study has concluded. By   Andrew Hough   7:30AM BST 08 Apr 2011 Researchers found nearly   four in five students had significant mental and physical distress, panic, confusion and extreme isolation when forced to unplug from technology for an entire day. They found college students at campuses across the globe admitted being “addicted” to modern technology such as mobile phones, laptops and television as well as social networking such as Facebook and Twitter. A “clear majority" of almost 1,000 university students, interviewed at 12 campuses in 10 countries, including Britain, America and China, were unable to voluntarily avoid their gadgets for one full day, they concluded. The University of Maryland research described students...

I had just returned home with family when it started raining and just a few minutes later we heard that there has been heavy rain and hailing in parts of the city.  What I missed, to regret forever in the rest of life, was captured by others. Here are some photos and a video clip of the snowy-makeover of my Lahore by mother nature on the evening of Saturday the 26th of February, 2011. All photo credits to my son Abdullah's friend Umar.

MONDAY, FEB 21, 2011 13:22 ET BY   GLENN GREENWALD (updated below - Update II - Update III [Tues.] - Update IV [Tues.]) Earlier today, I   wrote in detail   about new developments in the case of Raymond Davis, the former Special Forces soldier who shot and killed two Pakistanis on January 27, sparking a diplomatic conflict between the U.S. (which is demanding that he be released on the ground of "diplomatic immunity") and Pakistan (whose population is demanding justice and insisting that he was no "diplomat").  But I want to flag this new story separately because it's really quite amazing and revealing. Yesterday, as I noted earlier,   The Guardian  reported   that Davis -- despite Obama's description of him as "our diplomat in Pakistan " -- actually works for the CIA, and further noted that Pakistani officials believe he worked with Blackwater.  When reporting that,   The Guardian noted that man...

February 21, 2011 American Held in Pakistan Shootings Worked With the C.I.A. By MARK MAZZETTI, ASHLEY PARKER, JANE PERLEZ and ERIC SCHMITT WASHINGTON — The American arrested in  Pakistan  after shooting two men at a crowded traffic stop was part of a covert,  C.I.A. -led team of operatives conducting surveillance on militant groups deep inside the country, according to American government officials. Working from a safe house in the eastern city of Lahore , the detained American contractor, Raymond A. Davis, a retired Special Forces soldier, carried out scouting and other reconnaissance missions as a security officer for a Central Intelligence Agency task force of case officers and technical surveillance experts, the officials said. Mr. Davis’s arrest and detention, which came after what American officials have described as a botched robbery attempt, has inadvertently pulled back the curtain on a web of covert American operations inside Pakistan , part of a secret war ...