Three day weekend! - 3 July 2008
Jul. 3rd, 2008 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptReleased for the weekend! And going to be spending much of it away from my computers, so there shouldn't be a whole lot of posting from me over this weekend.
Starting internationally, as almost always, the Iran rhetoric steps up a notch, with the United States proclaiming the Straight of Hormuz will be kept open, even if Iran decides to block it. This coming as Iran dismisses the idea that Israel or the U.S. will strike at them any time soon.
Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was freed from the control of the FARC after an impressive deceit by the national army forces. Along with Betancourt, several foreign contractors were rescued when the helicopter that was supposed to have been revolutionaries transporting them to another camp turned out to be soldiers. It is an intelligence and planning triumph for the national forces of Colombia.
In Australia, Gadrasil, a vaccine against common HPV strains, claimed to be harmful by Junior Anti-Sex League, err, Judicial Watch, despite not trying to prove causality and counting as harmed those who suffered serious ill effects long after getting the vaccine. We went over this nonsense in America, and now it's moved over to Australia. It looks like the vaccine alarmists won't find a hold there, either. So where will they move to next?
Unprecedented numbers of women casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan means... the rules barring women from serving in combat units below brigade level should be more vigorously enforced, according to CNS. Wait, what? You're honestly saying that the duties of family life and motherhood are so important that they override any desire that women have to fight in the conflict? That's the reason why women are being held away from front-line duty? And in a conflict with no defined front line, where people in supposedly non-combat positions can still get attacked, the only logical conclusion I can see out of wanting to keep the women safe from harm is to ban them completely from serving in any war like this. I'm sure that would go over well. "Yes, women, we still think of you as wives and mothers first, so to protect you and your future family, we're not going to let you serve in the military until we return to more conventional fighting."
In domestic matters, economic stimulus has turned into other kinds of stimulus, as the adult industry reports a strong uptick in sales and subscriptions after the economic stimulus refund was distributed. Probably not what the administration wanted people to spend their money on, but hey, they're spending it, right?
With regard to candidate things, touting one's military service is not a smart campaign strategy, according to history, as the person with the more impressive military record has lost five times out of the six most recent Presidential elections. Instead of being an automatic advantage, perhaps good military service should be considered an automatic handicap.
Into the opinion places - No Touch Monkey quotes Captain Vimes' opinion of The People as a whole, which poetically resembles the MiB opinion of them: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals, and you know it." Vimes, however, notes that The People tend to run into problems when a person expects them to behave nobly or revolutionary or up to some expectation.
Diana West praises a Danish politician for speaking inconvenient truths about Islamic culture, while noting that because of that speech, the politician is now completely under lock and key. The actions of a few radicals have hampered the freedom of the politician. West also agrees with his premise that the culture of a nation should be more dominant than any immigrant culture, and that Denmark would do well to stop letting Muslims into the country, even if they are peaceful ones, so that Islamic culture doesn't take over, with the potential threat that Sharia law and religion-based assassinations will follow if immigration continues and "cultural relativism" continues to dominate.
The Science (SCIENCE!) and Technology (EXPLOSIONS!) department has built a better mousetrap, namely a robot that automatically would Digg stories. Not only that, but the developer of the robot was arrested for his creation.
Thanks to the powers of the Internets, one can now figure out where the hole would end up if one went tunnelling straight through the earth and managed to survive the trip. Lots of land-to-ocean trips, I suspect. There are some other strange maps out there, too, like overlaying the Armstrong-Aldrin moon walks onto a footie pitch to find out that they're about the same distance covered.
Speaking of the Internets, Youtube was ordered to turn over 12 terabytes worth of data on people uploading and watching videos, over Google's objections that the request was overly burdensome and would expose private individuals' data. The judge determined that the 12 TB would be "easy to copy" and dismissed the exposure claim as "speculative".
Not too soon after calling a halt on solar development on public land to study the effects of solar, the Bureau of Land Management reversed themselves and began processing new applications. Amazing what high oil prices will do to your sense of motivation regarding renewable resources. The study and review will continue, but new applications will be reviewed and processed as well.
A man completed a trip from Hawaii to Japan using a wave-powered boat. The trip took longer than expected, but the proof of concept still applies. Perhaps charting out wave patterns along the journey would make it possible to move faster.
And last for this entry... BEES! Lots of them. So, now, Run Away! and we'll see you on Monday.
Starting internationally, as almost always, the Iran rhetoric steps up a notch, with the United States proclaiming the Straight of Hormuz will be kept open, even if Iran decides to block it. This coming as Iran dismisses the idea that Israel or the U.S. will strike at them any time soon.
Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt was freed from the control of the FARC after an impressive deceit by the national army forces. Along with Betancourt, several foreign contractors were rescued when the helicopter that was supposed to have been revolutionaries transporting them to another camp turned out to be soldiers. It is an intelligence and planning triumph for the national forces of Colombia.
In Australia, Gadrasil, a vaccine against common HPV strains, claimed to be harmful by Junior Anti-Sex League, err, Judicial Watch, despite not trying to prove causality and counting as harmed those who suffered serious ill effects long after getting the vaccine. We went over this nonsense in America, and now it's moved over to Australia. It looks like the vaccine alarmists won't find a hold there, either. So where will they move to next?
Unprecedented numbers of women casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan means... the rules barring women from serving in combat units below brigade level should be more vigorously enforced, according to CNS. Wait, what? You're honestly saying that the duties of family life and motherhood are so important that they override any desire that women have to fight in the conflict? That's the reason why women are being held away from front-line duty? And in a conflict with no defined front line, where people in supposedly non-combat positions can still get attacked, the only logical conclusion I can see out of wanting to keep the women safe from harm is to ban them completely from serving in any war like this. I'm sure that would go over well. "Yes, women, we still think of you as wives and mothers first, so to protect you and your future family, we're not going to let you serve in the military until we return to more conventional fighting."
In domestic matters, economic stimulus has turned into other kinds of stimulus, as the adult industry reports a strong uptick in sales and subscriptions after the economic stimulus refund was distributed. Probably not what the administration wanted people to spend their money on, but hey, they're spending it, right?
With regard to candidate things, touting one's military service is not a smart campaign strategy, according to history, as the person with the more impressive military record has lost five times out of the six most recent Presidential elections. Instead of being an automatic advantage, perhaps good military service should be considered an automatic handicap.
Into the opinion places - No Touch Monkey quotes Captain Vimes' opinion of The People as a whole, which poetically resembles the MiB opinion of them: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals, and you know it." Vimes, however, notes that The People tend to run into problems when a person expects them to behave nobly or revolutionary or up to some expectation.
Diana West praises a Danish politician for speaking inconvenient truths about Islamic culture, while noting that because of that speech, the politician is now completely under lock and key. The actions of a few radicals have hampered the freedom of the politician. West also agrees with his premise that the culture of a nation should be more dominant than any immigrant culture, and that Denmark would do well to stop letting Muslims into the country, even if they are peaceful ones, so that Islamic culture doesn't take over, with the potential threat that Sharia law and religion-based assassinations will follow if immigration continues and "cultural relativism" continues to dominate.
The Science (SCIENCE!) and Technology (EXPLOSIONS!) department has built a better mousetrap, namely a robot that automatically would Digg stories. Not only that, but the developer of the robot was arrested for his creation.
Thanks to the powers of the Internets, one can now figure out where the hole would end up if one went tunnelling straight through the earth and managed to survive the trip. Lots of land-to-ocean trips, I suspect. There are some other strange maps out there, too, like overlaying the Armstrong-Aldrin moon walks onto a footie pitch to find out that they're about the same distance covered.
Speaking of the Internets, Youtube was ordered to turn over 12 terabytes worth of data on people uploading and watching videos, over Google's objections that the request was overly burdensome and would expose private individuals' data. The judge determined that the 12 TB would be "easy to copy" and dismissed the exposure claim as "speculative".
Not too soon after calling a halt on solar development on public land to study the effects of solar, the Bureau of Land Management reversed themselves and began processing new applications. Amazing what high oil prices will do to your sense of motivation regarding renewable resources. The study and review will continue, but new applications will be reviewed and processed as well.
A man completed a trip from Hawaii to Japan using a wave-powered boat. The trip took longer than expected, but the proof of concept still applies. Perhaps charting out wave patterns along the journey would make it possible to move faster.
And last for this entry... BEES! Lots of them. So, now, Run Away! and we'll see you on Monday.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 02:45 am (UTC)Don't make assumptions on decisions like that without looking into why the military is pressured to make said decisions. Please. That particular issue - female combat deaths - is something that receives pressure from all sides of the spectrum, for all types of reasons... not just "chivalry".
no subject
Date: 2008-07-06 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-06 04:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-06 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-06 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-06 10:05 pm (UTC)