Random Thought

Looks like the iraqi people are motivated enough to fight.
Although, it seems half of Parliament supports ISIL It's an indication that ultimately there's going to be a civil war between Sunni and Shias.

Anyway, fightings are increasing in the Ukraine. It appears the separatist received 3 tanks (T-72?) from russia. If true it looks like Putin is playing on time until the gas problem becomes important again.

One news that went under is that PR companies pledge to leave and respect wikipedia as a "neutral" information hub.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statement_on_Wikipedia_from_participating_communications_firms

The families of the MH370 flight are receiving money as compensation and probably to shut them off.

Dinosaurs are 'neither warm nor cold blooded'
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0088834
I dunno, perhaps they do have that special ability which allows them to adjust to various climatic areas. If for real it certainly revolutionizes biology.

It's certainly looking like some type of Civil War is brewing in Iraq.Interesting that so far the Kurds have managed to keep out of it.Kurdistan is the only place in Iraq that seems to have some semblance of
normalcy.Then again the Insurgents such as ISIS are probably wary of trying to fight the Kurds who have, after all a long history of fighting the Iraqis.

Another interesting thing is that the Separatists in Ukraine,despite being Anti-Western and Anti-American have adopted a form of the Confederate Flag as a symbol.Though the article in Reason Online where I read it today indicated that the person who was responsible for adopting it just thought it looked cool without even being aware of it's past.It's basically a variation of the Confederate Battle Flag without the stars.

The article also said that some version of the Confederate Flag was also flown when the Berlin Wall
came down.  

Well, the shias already setup recruiting centers. Iran already has moved troops since day one and has announced their readiness. It's a matter of time. ISIL doesn't have that many troops. If they get defeated soon it probably won't be a civil war. If it takes longer then it's certain to become a civil war.
As to Obama, great speech on not doing anything and following the law by consulting congress (again).

It got the same colors so it kind of figures. Could as well be the union jack
You mean the Andrew's cross type of flags. -_^  (But wilipedia's biased editor groups use the term Saltire cross.) I guess just like him most people see it as something cool without any other thoughts.  I wonder what the appropriate/standard interpretation is. Is it defiance, sacrifice, or else?

Another solar flare warning. The second large scale event this year. Well, it's an active year so no surprise here. It likely will pass without anyone noticing (again).

Shias and Sunnis don't need much excuse to fight each other as they pretty much hate each other more than
they hate 'Infidels' so no surprise that the Shiite militas are recruiting like wild now.

The government forces in Syria seem to be on a roll now.

Casey Kasem's obituary was in the paper today.Was interesting to read that his parents belonged to the
Druze sect.Didn't know that.Knew that he was Arab to be more precise Lebanese but didn't know the
part of his parents being Druze.
He's probably most remembered now for the voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo and his work
on America's Top Forty.
One of the most talented and distinctive voice artists in America is now silenced.

Yeah, but still I think the majority is tired of it all. In any case either way is in our interest. It's only a problem if iraq befriends iran. I would have bet on more state sanctioned PMCs but Obama already sent troops over. Still the pay for PMCs must be quite good these days.

Russia stopped gas delivery to the Ukraine and I hear the EU wants to supply gas. It sounds strange since the EU needs russian gas, too. Or is that a kind of workaround cycle russian gas->EU->Ukraine? I also heard russia is about to introduce new guns & such. *shrugs* There was mentioning of the GM-94 grenade launcher rifle with a thermobaric round that can destroy 8 mm of armor or anything within 3 m. That's scary yet it's supposed to be safe at 10 m distance.

Considering china is gonna have troops with the ZH-05 next year, presumably overtake western armies, the modern battlefield is like a mine/grenade/bomb field. Normal bullets are the least of your worry.

Thailand troops going from door to door and telling the cambodian people they better leave ...and that it's not a threat but an advisory? Even the non-issue Thailand is a dangerous place these days.

I'm more and more of the opinion that we really need to scale down our military and make it more into a Special Forces type wherein every soldier,sailor,marine and airman is trained to be a combat unit of one
and is capable of fighting in any terrain or climate with any type of weapon avaible.In other words the traditional type of military is no longer viable
in an age where Terrorists can attack any place at a moment's notice.
So our military has to be more mobile and also more streamlined and
tougher.

I read today that ISIS was finally turned back just 35 miles north of
Iraq so it looks like the Shiites aren't going to be caught napping.The
Kurds also look like they're willing to fight.
Ironically the main reason they're in Iraq is that Assad kicked their butts
in Syria.

Agree but I think we are already at optimum. What we need are battlesuits a la bubblegum crisis rather than the HAL-5 derivative exoskeletons now in development.
For one the elite soldier is a rare animal, only 30% of the soldiers who think are eligible actually pass. And of those only 1% are tier 1 material. Tier levels as in
Tier 1: ACE/Delta, DEVGRU
Tier 2: Green Beret, Ranger, SEAL
Force Recon
Pararescue
Paratroopers
normal cannon fodder foot folk

The normal foot folk is still needed for holding bases, support roles, logistics, administrations.
Second, elites are expensive to train and to equip. I think this is actually the most reason we are not doing it. Even though, cost wise only 1-2% of overall military budget is enough or for the cost of one or two of the latest destroyer. It's the miltary-industry complex's fault the interest are elsewhere. After all we have necglected for 2-3 decades to significantly improved soldier survival/effectiveness. for example since the war on terror we went through 3-4 generations of body armor improvements but before only one or two at best. (about 4x times higher pacing time wise)

Imho it would have happened sooner or later but imho we made it sooner. *shrugs*
In any case it looks like it has reached its high and is only trying to secure its routes and holdings while staging propaganda strikes. I doubt they get completely wiped out but close to be over.

And it looks like we are going back into Iraq. I would think this mess would be enough to make even
a staunch neocon into at least a semi-non-interventionist.Then again who knows?
What really helped me become more and more of a non-interventionist was watching those ads for
groups like Wounded Warriors(I also give money to them every so often).Nothing like seeing men and
women come home with half a body to convince one of the futility and uselessness of war or should.

Back on the homefront:MLB lost one of it's greats this past week with the death of Tony Gwynn.
He died from cancer of the mouth associated with chewing tobacco.
Ironically the day he died the Padres,for which he played his entire career and became known as
Mr.Padre,started a 4 game split series with the Mariners.2 games in Seattle and 2 in San Diego.
IIRC the home team won all the games.
RIP Tony Gwynn.  

As some contemporary people would say: "being a superpower comes with responsibilities". And yeah, the VA issue kind of got forgotten thanks to recent events. Well, not really surprising as these kind of things have become pretty common these days not just limited to VAs only.
It seems ISIL secured their 2nd route to Syria (turkey). Assad is probably not going to do much about it in order to get back at us.


Now, it seems Putin is showing a bit of leniency ... but I think it's a typical push and shove tactic. In any case it's all political show from both sides. The action on the ground is what's important and they don't look like anything has changed.

---------
RIP Tony. Should have chewed bubble gum!

And since we are at it. Hair dryer is bad for hair!!
If you dry against the air stream your hair gets split. Oooh! The horror!

I just wipe off with the old towel.  

The Sunnis aren't too happy with Al-Maliki which is why they're welcoming ISIL/ISIS.
I read at Lewrockwell that in Fullujah they still have only about 3 hours of electricity every day and
the sewage and water systems are still broken despite promises.If ISIL/ISIS can get the utilities working
properly than not too many people are really going to protest their presence.
What a lot of people forget is that despite the designation of 'Terrorist' and 'Islamic Extremist' a lot of
these people are well educated.They're also pretty savvy when it comes to the internet and social media,
which is how they're winning over so many people who would otherwise reject their message.

Well, imho it's partly incompetence on all levels, bad work discipline as well as not caring enough. More or less typical for developing country except they got all the money they want. Besides it works for the government if people stay unable to access TV/Radio/internet as often. So we won't see much improvement for a while.
So yeah they could sway people "that" easily.
The Levant(ISIL) are about to establish another route to Jordan, hence, effectively cut Iraq off from most supply routes. Since they are not on good terms with Saudi Arabia, that's as good as the end. It takes some time (week) for the sea route to build up. So the Levant are on winning it strategically.
The most effective thing we can do and are doing is determine their leadership location and neutralize it. The hunt is on!

After the pope threaten the mafia with excommunication they are being rounded up in Operation Apocalypse.   On the side a case from 1909 was solved thanks to overhearing some bragging from some descendents.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27971542

On medical front there's a rare case of papules and muscle degeneration
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcpc1304161
It started with strange skin spots and muscle weakening. Then all kinds of damage/bleeding one after another. In part it's caused by immune reaction against his own body. The 32 year old patient died after 10 months of pain, inner & external bleeding and all. At least they put him in a coma in the end.

There's an interesting report about medial botched operations in germany. Of about 71xx complain cases 2243 were confirmed while 77 died. Reminds of a similar statistic in Britain
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/4779134.stm
There was also a similar report in the states sometime ago. Anyhow, imho it's too high a number.

The Christian woman who was arrested in Sudan and then released was arrested again and this time
her husband and children were as well.
It's a bit ironic considering all they wanted to do was to leave the country.It seems to be the same type of Catch-22 that the Soviets used to play with Jewish dissidents who wanted to move to Israel.

Actor Eli Wallach died overnight.He was in such iconic movies as The Magnificent Seven and one of the Godfather films.

She's free again. It's because she's christian that they can't flee the country. Just look at all the islamic "refugee" waves coming to europe they go freely through several countries without difficulty. If you look at others like north korea, cuba & vietnam in the past they get shot at, roped, rapped all they way and may not get accepted anywhere. Or take the syrian christians as example they can only go to jordan, iran etc but not europe or the states. There's a bunch of human rights trouble, inequality all over the place. For example ISIL fighters returning to the UK/Germany are not allowed to enter the country but that's all. If you were someone naturalized trough the green card you cannot visit your relatives for longer than 6 months without risking loosing your passport. If you have to abandon citizenship by law because you are not allowed to hold two nationalities, and then try to get it back you can't. Some other countries allow you to get it back, though. Of course people from certain countries cannot even take part in a green card lottery. If you were a rebel from syria providing some info you can get your citizenship right away. Others usually have to wait for a decade before they can even apply for citizenship. And then there are cases where your citizenship is ridiculed after some time. Even the certified/authenticated documents from the target country are no longer any worth not just from your original country. If you are in the EU and stuck somewhere you can't even return to your country because you cannot get any visa since they are no longer in use.

-----------
Anyway, Obama just asked for 500 millions for the syrian rebels...
What's he planning now that's it as good as over or are we relying on ISIL in syria again?

Who knows.  

Looks like Russia has a bit of a refugee problem now with Russian speakers and ethnic Russians poring in from East Ukraine to get out of the way of the fighting there.Though most of them are saying it's temporary
until things cool down again.

Now, that the EU affiliation treaty has been signed. It's pretty much over politically. Putin can't do much now other than start a war. There seems to be last ditch fighting from the hard core guys...

Now, that iraq got our help they finally start to take things back. I guess they were just waiting to cause pressure.

Some more ships sunk by chinese ships in south east asia.

Some more unnatural deaths in various african countries.
It's a typical day only that the Ebola outbreak has now reached regional epidemic scale. After 3 months the medical staff (among others Medecins Sans Frontieres, french part) at disposal are all exhausted and the breaking point has been reached. The WHO can't contain it any longer and is asking for general help. There's a bunch of obvious problems not being said due to panic potential...

On the ligher side I have come up with a brilliant suggestion for renaming the Redskins:
rename them the Nationals and then have the MLB team rename itself the Senators,make everyone
happy that way.  

Senators doesn't sound right for an awesome team. Well, they need to be approved when registering them.

Iran has send their aircraft to Iraq. And with new orders for russian aircrafts it looks like a shift away from the west.

Senators was the traditional name for the Washington D.C. MLB team. I really still don't understand why the current team was called Nationals instead of Senators.

I finally decided to switch out my DVD player with the one in the living room since I got tired of having to watch discs that don't play on the one on the other in the living room; so I simply took mine out and replaced it with the other- after much yelling and inward swearing I got it all fixed up.

Personally I'm offended that the NBA team in Boston calls itself the Celtics with a soft 'c' or
's' sound when in reality it should be the Celtics with a hard 'c' or 'k' sound since it is from the
Greek word 'keltoi'.     

And so Happy Fourth of July!  
The paper ironically enough reprinted a July 4.1821 address to Congress by John Quincy Adams
that is basically full of classical arguments against interventionism.It's the famous speech where he
states that America does not go 'abroad to search for monsters to destroy' .
Given the times we live in it's something we need to remember.I suppose some people if they read
it now without knowing the author might mistake it for something Pat Buchanan or Ron Paul might
have written.

Now that the separatists have retreated to Donetsk it really looks like the end is close.

There's been a bunch of some "funny" news this week (not really new but the media just brought them up as new):

http://rt.com/usa/physicist-huge-wall-against-tornado-198/
Some professor proposed building a wall in the american mid-west to prevent tornadoes. The wall is to be 150 feet wide and reach 1,000 feet high. Well, imho if the same volume is used to build concrete homes we would probable save a lot more homes from all kinds of natural disasters not just tornadoes.

Scientist warn of the attack of the monster rats on Britain!!!!
Just sensational news but amusing or maybe not.
These are quite typical in asia and africa, though. Actually, best known as HeroRat(TM) in the mine clearing business in africa.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589961/Monster-15-inch-rat-terrorises-Swedish-family-chewing-CONCRETE-wall-make-home-kitchen.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS1gh3QtB44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IxU-MZ12VE

Old and new inventions:
It seems the old "pawnee flying platform" idea is getting more and more attention again now that the hover bike seem to be successful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_UtPmb3Z-o
If I remember right it was canceled because it would have caused more loses than the possible gains.

I've been culling my anime to get list down a bit this weekend.I started by listing only those that
are currently listed as in stock and avaible at Rightstuf and then from there culled it down to
those that are listed as being $40 or under.
I got it down to 19 from 31.
Of the rest:Vividread I still want to save for Christmas,Sailor Moonhave to wait for the
DVDs to come out and will probably save for my birthday.The others whenever.Not in a hurry.I can
wait and hopefully they'll still be around.

  

Now as far as Dontesk goes, I did read in the paper today that the Separatists aren't exactly giving
up.They want Putin to intervene it seems or at least get Russia to help them some more.

Sadness in Brazil this week as the Germans wiped them out but good 7-0 in World Cup.
Not much happiness in that stadium when all was said and done.

The typhoon that's hitting Japan this week is said to be dumping as much as 2 months worth of rain
in some parts.

North Korea fired yet another missile into the sea....YAWN!

And now in Washington State you can get high legally,but a lot of people are complaining that the
pot stores are too expensive.

After only 30 minutes with 4:0 people already left as it was obvious impossible to catch up. As far I as I can see the brazil team were no good at defending. Maybe they never trained for this. Most of them just stood around and not providing good covering. *shrugs*

Imho forcing people to register when buying grass could reign a bit of control for their own sake.

The pope hired 3 bankers and one media person. I wonder how he will pay them after all their regular rate and bonuses in the wolrd is more than all the money in the bank.

Israel is doing a ground attack again. Well, it was obvious. It will probably going on for the next 6 days before the hamas is ready for talks when they exhaust all their rockets (as usual).

Life as normal then.

According to I09 the rumor is that Gus Van Sant has been named to helm the possible American
live action Death Note movie.
They also had pics of Sailor Moon socks featuring all 5 of the Inners.Only avaible through Japan Amazon.

Also at I09 was an interesting What If?featuring American actors that they thought would make interesting versions of the various Doctors.They used clips from various tv episodes and movies featuring the actors.It was rather fun.
Though Dick Van Dyke as the Second Doctor?! 
OTOH:I do agree with Vincent Price as the Third Doctor.  
Also Marty Feldman does have the hair and eyes and wacky attitude for the Fourth Doctor.
But the one that kinda made me go "HUH?!" was Tony Shaloub.Though I have to admit that
Sharona and Natalie did act like Monk's versions of Companions plus Stottlemyre would make a
good sub for the Brigadier and Randy for Benton.

American live action would be interesting to see how it turns out. I'm guessing it's probably be rewritten full of western TV tropes etc. and potentially turning it back because things become weird.

Dick Van Dyke isn't bad but too old now. How about Jim Carrey?   

Some time ago (last weeked) somewhere in a dark and closed room a group of people started to draft the constitution for an extraterrestrial human government e.g. Mars colony. Soon there's gonna be a guide for extraterrestrial rebellion, too.
Well, I'm a bit disappointing because they simply rely on existing ones instead of addressing the things that needed to be added now.