And glacier melt has revealed 100 square meters of World War I munitions. The comments on that article are saddening.
Category: War
And so it ends
Arizona/Mexico Border Wars – 1979
"If you win, you can cross over; if we win, you throw pot over the fence."
Ministry of Truth to be created in California
A California corporation has been awarded has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom) to build the Ministry of Truth. "The project has been likened by web experts to China’s attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet."
The Centcom contract stipulates that each fake online persona must have a convincing background, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 US-based controllers should be able to operate false identities from their workstations "without fear of being discovered by sophisticated adversaries".
[Source, guardian.co.uk, Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media]
Now, before you grab your tinfoil hat (and mine is shinier than yours), note that "said none of the interventions would be in English, as it would be unlawful to ‘address US audiences’ with such technology"
…any English-language use of social media by Centcom was always clearly attributed. The languages in which the interventions are conducted include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.
In his evidence to the Senate committee, Gen Mattis said: "OEV seeks to disrupt recruitment and training of suicide bombers; deny safe havens for our adversaries; and counter extremist ideology and propaganda." He added that Centcom was working with “our coalition partners” to develop new techniques and tactics the US could use "to counter the adversary in the cyber domain".
[Source, guardian.co.uk, Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media]
See also: Inspector General – Information Operations Contracts in Iraq page 9, Operation Earnest Voice (OEV) – online engagement, The man behind Operation Earnest Voice, and Operation Earnest Voice Part III.
To remove any doubt, WMDs evidence was a lie
In case there is still any doubt, Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi has admitted to lying about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction. As I read this and watch the video, as an American citizen I feel heavy in my chest; despite my protests at the time, I feel guilty.
The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.
[Source, guardian.co.uk , Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war]
You should watch the video.
It works the same in any country.
Image source http://i.imgur.com/6v7tR.jpg
Naturally the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. –Hermann Goering
Did he really say it? According to Snopes, yes.
So why does the ice melt?
The country that brought us Chernobyl will now be floating 8 nuclear power plants on top of the world. Granted, the United States had Three Mile Island and I’m told by an old timer that apparently there is was a reactor meltdown in Oak Ridge in the 50s that was buried physically and by public relations but I cannot validate that. Let’s not forget who is the world leader in exploded nuclear bombs. As the arctic ice shrinks and exposes more land, a battle is brewing for the possible gas and oil reserves previously hidden by the ice. The major players will be Canada and Russia but other countries could try to stake claims. With these ships that could supply power to 45,000 for 12 years at a time..that’s 12 years without needing to return to port..Russia certainly has an advantage.
[Source, BBC, A rare view of Russia’s floating nuclear power station]
53 Years of Nuclear Bombs
How many nuclear bombs have been exploded? Many people would say, "One, over Japan" when it fact it was two, one over Hiroshima and another over Nagasaki. Would you believe that Britain has exploded a nuclear bomb in the United States? Would you believe that in 53 years 2053 nuclear bombs were exploded around the globe? I find the following video unsettling. It left me feeling hollow in my chest and subtly angry.
How to have sex while 5 children are in the house
Someone has finally figured out how to have intimate moments without fear of scaring the minds of your youth by having them accidentally walk in on mom and dad being gross. See this worksafe link for the details. Via BoingBoing.
- 1.25″ Polycarbonate Bulletproof Plating/Shielding
- Bio-Chemical Filtered Ventilation
- Rebreather
- Control Panel Mode Selection (i.e., Basic System Ops., Intruder Setting, Energy Status, Lock Down, etc.)
- Cover & Door Actuators w/ Emergency Release
- One way see through head cover (reflective mirror on 2 sides and front)
- Safety Features (Proximity Sensor, O2 Sensor, Smoke Det., Motion Det. Ect,)
- Emergency Communication system (Cellular, Short-wave Radio, CB ect.)
- Audio Amplifier (Amplify sound from out side unit)
- Air/Water Tight Sealing
- External Override Key Pad & Remote Control
- Battery Backup Power
- Toiletry system
Please remember the vasectomy campaign!
Road Side Wasps!
The terrorists are using trained wasps!
We are going to war!
The squirrels have been sent in!
A few weeks ago, 14 squirrels equipped with espionage systems of foreign intelligence services were captured by [Iranian] intelligence forces along the country’s borders. These trained squirrels, each of which weighed just over 700 grams, were released on the borders of the country for intelligence and espionage purposes. [Source]
I can’t get the squirrels out of my attic. How do you capture trained spying squirrels?! Perhaps Boris and Natasha were on contract! "We’v ‘ave Moose on our side now as doolble agent."
Thank you Ray Kurzweil!
Job Op Pays $240,000 per year
If you are a web developer (like me) and know AJAX, then you can get a job paying $240,000 per year.
Training on the application software will begin prior to deployment and will take place in Virginia. Deployment will be period of 6-12 months. A Department of Defense secret clearance within last 24 months. [Source]
Tempting?
No man left behind
Well, except for these three because they are only citizen contractors for Halliburton. Truck convoy ambush caught on tape. Military leaves unarmed civilians to die.
Iraq War News Comes From 9 People
Remember the embedded reporters? Yeah, Geraldo, that’s right. So, where does information about the war in Iraqi come from?
You’ll see that of those 9 reporters, 3 were from the Armed Forces’ Stars & Stripes, 1 from AFN (Armed Force Network), 1 from the Charlotte Observer, 1 from the BBC, 1 from the AP, 1 from RAI, and 1 from Polish Radio. All the rest of the "coverage" of the Iraq war on that day came from reporters hunkered down in the hotels and other locations under the rubric "Baghdad News Bureaus." [Source]
This chart shows the nine’s reporting locations on September 19, 2006.
Thanks to Instapundit for the link.
(Not thrilling audio. Just a simulcast of the above text to get my feet wet with audio.)
[audio:http://blog.siliconholler.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/embeddedreporters2.mp3] 00:01:17.06
