Word: zone
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...Visits by individual VIPs and congressional delegations are carefully stage-managed, and follow a predictable course. A visitor gets to spend some time in one or more U.S. military bases, is briefed by General David Petraeus and his senior commanders, then takes a helicopter ride to the Green Zone for a meal with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and a briefing by his top diplomats. Then, another chopper ride to the airport, and a flight home...
...Obviously, the visiting VIPs can't shake off their military security and go roaming in the Red Zone - that would be taking an absurd risk. Nor is there much point to the military's high-security walkabouts; remember John McCain's farcical visit to a Baghdad marketplace last year? In light of the security constraints, the only way to get a real sense of life outside the Green Zone is to meet with ordinary Iraqis - the people outside the protected bubble, who live the consequences of U.S. policy...
...First, he should invite a group of Baghdad journalists - mostly Iraqis, but also a few Westerners who've been in Iraq for several years - for a chat. This would not be a press conference; Obama would be asking all the questions. The majority of journalists live in the Red Zone and see much more of Iraqi life than anybody in the Iraqi government or the U.S. embassy. Iraqi journalists don't need to "embed" with U.S. troops in order to get to dangerous districts like Sadr City or Amariyah - they live in those neighborhoods, and they could tell Obama...
Kidney stones are already more common in the warmer Southern states than in the North. Urologists even talk about a "kidney stone belt," a high-risk zone through the South where populations are more likely to develop stones - crystallized chemicals (usually calcium, phosphates and oxalates from an ordinary diet) that form in the urinary tract, and often cause sharp, intense pain when they pass. The Texas researchers used regional data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to predict how this belt might grow, publishing their report this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...
...course, if you're in the risk zone, there are easier ways to prevent stones than by slashing greenhouse-gas emissions (though that might not be a bad idea for the heat waves and the smog). Drink plenty of fluids, and your body will be better able to dilute the relevant minerals...