"Xe, the US security firm formerly known as Blackwater, has reached a settlement in a number of lawsuits over the killings of Iraqi civilians." And how much? "Two sources with inside knowledge of Blackwater's settlement with Iraqi victims of a string of shootings, including the Nisour Square massacre, have confirmed to me that Blackwater is paying $100,000 for each of the Iraqis killed by its forces and between $20-30,000 to each Iraqi wounded.... Based on the number of dead and injured named in the civil lawsuits, the total amount paid by Blackwater is likely in the range of $5 million."

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Here is a very important video that you may not have seen. Produced by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, based on a 62-page report about sustainability and self-sufficiency in national food production and consumption, it's way more fun than it has any right to be. Animated in delightful, Lego-colored graphics, set to a bouncy little electronic number, it features full meals raining from the sky like in Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, line-dancing livestock, and neatly-dressed workmen engaged in a tug-of-war with an ear of corn. If Washington had an A.V. department this good in the '90s, The Starr Report would have been like Grand Theft Auto (that link is not entirely not NSFW).