Word: masterful
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...bombs are currently made out of triacetone-triperoxide (a substance also found in shoe-bomber suspect Richard Reid's sneakers). The explosive is simple to produce, although volatile. Several dozen Palestinians have died preparing the bombs. Hamas, which sometimes builds devices for the other groups, has four or five master bombmakers who prepare the explosives, according to Israeli estimates, and about 25 additional activists who make other parts of the bombs--often tinkering in rented apartments and garages to avoid capture. The total cost of each explosive belt is $1,500 to $4,300 depending on quality, according to Hamas...
...militant leaders and weapons makers who organize the missions. But as the pool of suicide bombers grows, the need for infrastructure diminishes. Recruiters are not much needed when volunteers are abundant. And bomb builders have proved to be replaceable. For example, Israeli forces managed to assassinate a Hamas master bombmaker on Jan. 22. The disruption led to a slight dip in attacks. But the organization's bombmaking expertise bounced back within a couple of months, Israeli security officials concede. "These operations cannot, absolutely cannot, be stopped," says Marzouk. "Nothing, neither policies nor military barricades, can prevent a person who chooses...
...CULTURAL ALCHEMY As a younger man, Thithpheng Maniphone was silversmith to Laos' royalty. These days, the 72-year-old master artisan is happy to let anybody buy his wares or watch him work. Banging hammers, hissing flames and puffing bellows greet visitors to his studio, as Thithpheng and his apprentices turn lumps of silver into intricately patterned bowls, goblets, knives, ceremonial swords and jewelry. "My work symbolizes life and Lao culture," says Thithpheng. You can find him in Luang Prabang's silversmith precinct, off Thanon Chao Fa Ngum...
...booming one. The center's droves of eager young disciples turned out to be the next best thing to slave labor as they were willing to work tirelessly for almost no money as part of their spiritual training. Female acolytes ready to have sex with Zen Center's new master were another perquisite of Baker's office. Driving a white BMW and consorting with the likes of Jerry Brown and Linda Rondstadt, Baker grew increasingly out of touch with the center's early, earthy spirit, and ever more adept at concealing or justifying his behavior with an arsenal...
...really no completely clean, morally unambiguous figures in Downing's story?and that includes even Shunryu Suzuki himself, who, wise and lovable as he might have been, certainly suffered from his own distinctive set of follies and foibles. Evangelizing America, it turns out, was only part of the master's plan. He also nurtured the somewhat grandiose dream of using his new American followers to help him revitalize Zen in Japan itself, where empty formalism and corruption were increasingly becoming the norm. By almost all accounts, Suzuki's choice to leave Baker as his only legitimate American dharma heir...