Random Thought

Yes,it is mainly Minnesota and Seattle.I hate the ownership of OKC more than I hate the Yankees,except for A-Rod who is a douchebag.

I wonder what they are going to do about the years 1930-1945.They already have the Koreans and
Chinese pissed at them for pretty much trying to gloss over the whole "Comfort Women" thing.As well as the way the Chinese were treated in the occupied parts during WWII including the whole Rape of
Nanking.

I think Abe's going to be walking a fine line between the Ultra-Nationalists and the Moderates.

I dunno. It's interesting that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is only 1/3 of his coalition while the Buddhist party provides 2/3.
The majority of the japanese people already made it clear they do not wish him doing all these changes. They only approve of his Abenomics. He's been elected so it's not like they can stop him so easily if he does. But then again it's Japan. A PM may have to step down for all kinds of possible reasons. The results of Abenomics will appear in 2 years time, though. He probably will stay at least that long if not for the full 4 years.

Putin also says russia has to endure 2 more years. Meanwhile he wants to prepare the return of Russia...what ever that means. The rouble has lost at least 50% while the interest rose to 17%. Switzerland is happily lending russia money. It's a good future bank business. Switzerland is also happy about the new US-Cuba relationship. Maybe Cuba becomes another paradise for tax evasion.

I may be a bit off about this but aren't all these so called -nomics that are nicknamed after various
Presidents and PMs of First World countries just really variations of Keynesianism? Except for
Reaganomics which I think was based on the Chicago School IIRC.

Well Cuba certainly needs the new flow of cash since it looks like something stuck in the Twilight Zone.Of course the older group of Cubans in Miami are angry and are pretty much influencing
some of the hotter headed Neo-Cons like Rubio and Cruz.
OTOH you do have some one like Powell who is taking a cool and calm rational perspective,which is why he made such a good Secretary of State.

Actually, (eco)-nomics named after politicians/head of states is not the norm. Usually they are named either after the theory or similar or after the guy who thought it out.
Abe having his strategy named after him is a big issue in economic circles...

Imho they aren't so wrong in wanting to get rid of the communist Cuban government by 'starving' the country. But then again imho I doubt the top brass would suffer at all. The population will end up dead. The only real change is for the population to organize a revolution. And we all know that's not gonna happen.
OB of course wants to increase his counts on "change" made during his presidency even if he has to bend the laws...

Well sanctions and boycotts really rarely work the way those imposing them expect.For one thing it only strengthens the tie with the dictator in charge.

Looks like the Pakistanis have arrested some more of the terrorists involved in the school massacre.

Time had some predictions for 2015 that were multiple choice,you get to fill in the blanks by making your own choices.So here are mine:
1.President Obama will send additional forces to Iraq to fight ISIS:(a)within 100 days of his State of the Union message.

2.By year's end (b)the Kurdish peshmerga will have the upper hand in Iraq.

3.Kobe Brant will finally give up the throne in 2015(actually more likely than Elizabeth II stepping
down).

4.Pope Francis' visit to Philadelphia in September will be remembered for: (a)the million-person
crowd on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

5.(this was a toughy so I chose two)In 2015: (b)shale-oil-carrying railroad cars and (c) 3-D
printers will prove to be the premium commodities.

6.In July NASA's New Horizions will (IIRC): (d)Continue to study of comet 67P when in elliptical
orbit.(You can correct me if I'm wrong here Almael)

7.Hillary Clinton's chief anatgonist in the Democratic Party in 2015 will be: (c)Bubba...er...Bill
Clinton.

8.Republicans in Congress will: (d)Fail to repeal Obamacare or overturn Obama's immigration
orders(talk about a basic no brainer!)

9.The Apple Watch which goes on sale in 2015 will: (b) fail,crippling CEO Tim Cook's ability
to lead the company into new areas.(Can you say Edsel? )

10.The Surprise in Star Wars:The Force Awakenswill be:The cantina band is still playing the same damn song!

1. TIME isn't up to date or what? Special Operations Forces have already been re-inforced such that there's not enough people to send. The SAS has been diverted from other missions, as well as other NATO SOF troops are gathered. There's a dire deficit of SOF.

2.Nah, imho things have peaked out already. They can't take or control the Sunni areas so they will just hold the non-sunni areas.

3. & 4. Yeah.

5. b)

6. There's no return plan for New Horizions so it will stay which actually makes me worry as this could change its flightpath.

7.

8. yeah

9. Tim Cook's already failed in people's eyes

10. That's actually the good news! What if JJ changes it? Major outcry!

Well yeah...the worse thing that could happen would be that Jar Jar makes a return and we don't want that.

For Christmas this year I got The Wolverine.Hugh Jackman + Martial Arts + Action + Japan
+ Sexy Japanese co-stars...

I got Persona 4. Not what I would have wanted but I guess it's the opportunity to take a look. I'm definitely gaining some pounds this time. I guess I can't avoid having a load of work out.

An AirAsia airplane got lost near a certain island. It's a 7 year old Airbus 320-200...brand new. Preliminary radar data seems to indicate it was ascending when it vanished. Somehow reminds me of the AirFrance flgiht that went missing over the Atlantic. That was one really stupid incident. Makes me upset thinking about it.

Since we are at it. On Tuesday night an (christian) Adivasi village, India, was massacre by so called rebels. Regardless of who the indigenous people there have been under constant attacks from all sides for awhile as people want to take their land. In any case, we got a little exodus at hand.

I wonder if the Conspiracy People are going to start up with stories of a Bermuda Triangle in Asia now.

Well I expect that was more religious than actually doing with anything about who was there first.

I got The Wolverine for Christmas myself.Wondered why my sister in Alaska wanted to know if
I liked The X-Men.

Looks like Jim Harbaugh is going to Michigan now after loosing to Seattle and San Francisco being out
of the playoffs.I think the writing was on the wall last year when they lost the NFC Championship game.

You bet there are people going to joke about a triangle.
It seems the wreck has been found as the corpses are being collected. At least it looks like a quick death/crash and the families don't have to suffer from waiting for news too long.

Apropos Wolverine

It's good that they're getting some sort of closure so soon.

Interesting the Idaho Court of Appeals threw out a Black defendant's guilty verdict in a sex case because
the prosecutor quoted from the lyrics for the song Dixie
Seriously?
They claimed it was overly racist.I'm still trying to figure that one out,even Lincoln liked Dixie.

So put that on the list of things that are no longer kosher according to the PC Police.

I'm beginning to think that everything that was alright when I was a kid is going to become either
illegal or political incorrect these days.

Pft. Reductio ad absurdum. There's a need for lots of sensible/reasonable laws but too many lawyers&courts are living off of certain grey areas...may as well forget it.

Gee, waiting on the supreme court's decisions on liberty coming up next this year. This will be historic or biggest fail.

BTW: Happy New Year!!

Yes Happy New Year everyone.

Watched part of Minnesota getting pasted by Missouri in the Citrus Bowl yesterday and then some of
Oregon's run over of Florida State in the Rose Bowl.Ironically it was pretty close until the second half.
Then Oregon basically ran all over FSU.

Sad news in politics was that Mario Cuomo the former governor of New York died.

Added Kill La Kill now to my list of anime to see.

Only 4 days to Agent Carter. I'm psyched.

Now North Korea gets sanctioned. Cutting their internet off is best imho.

I hear Presley's private jets are up for sale. Honestly who wants these old planes?

Private collector maybe.That's all I can think of,either that or some sort of air museum.Or the ultimate
Presley fan.IF one has that kind of money.

I watched Galavant yesterday on ABC.Really looks to be their answer to Spamalot.

Tonight the return of Gotham and tommorrow Agent Carter.Psyched.

The CES (consumer electronics) in Las Vegas is causing a lot of talk regarding some new stuff as usual. NVidia wants to sell the Tegra X1 GPU as the heart for cars with self navigation. Well, purely technically it's not the best that could be done. From a signal processing point of view the GPU is slow. They try to convince people that it uses a neural network technology, hence, it's faster. But they conveniently leave out the fact that whether it's regular signal processing or a neural system they both use the same type of Fourier transformation

Anyway, I'm more interested in "liquid cooled clothing" that are supposed to be there but I can't find them. I found only this on the net
http://www.veskimo.com/why-best-cooling-vest.php

Edit: Toyota says they will release over a thousand patents on hydrogen car technology to the public!

It would be interesting to see what they're doing with the technology.

Saw The Wolverine movie on Monday. I would suppose that the anime is about the same basic
premise but fills in some of the gaps that the movie left because of length.
My favorite character was the red headed Japanese woman.Kicks butt is smart and looks great!
Favorite line:" It's not my day to die!"
Actually when you think of it the whole thing is a Red Herring until the reveal of the Big Bad.

Yesterday finally Marvel's Agent Carter.Great fun.
Loved the way they intersperse the action with the fictional "Captain America" radio show and showed
Carter getting irked because her character "Nurse Peggy Carver" was being portrayed as the stereotypical damsel in distress.Of course if she were in that position I'm sure it would be the
Nazis who would be screaming like girly girls!

Oh...and Monday...the insanity level of Gotham just got darker and deeper now that Gordon's
been exiled to Arkham.

Yeah, Carter was fun.


After the frenzy this morning over the Paris attack it's finally "over", although, the culprits got away. Too bad the police wasn't able to do a thing. So far the top echelon of the newspaper got killed during a morning meeting (4 cartoonist,4 editors). 11 others got injured. Two policemen nearby got killed (by surprise). Another two (1 runover, 1?) died. My condolences to the families especially this time of year.
I have no doubt it could have been worse.
Well, they got it coming, the newspaper & France. There's no excuse for anyone. Since before 9/11 it's generally known there were 11 million weapons within the muslimg community. Switzerland had the largest cache of ~14 millions and also well known for gold & weapons trafficking. There have been shooting incidences at the german border, too. There's no way this can be solved.

And what's with the Ukraine hacking the German Chancellor office over german support money?

On some good news a leader of the LRA got apprehended.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army

Indian engineer fired after skipping work for 24 years
http://newagebd.net/84377/indian-engineer-fired-after-skipping-work-for-24-years/
It's not just Hinduism & cast system that's the reason for india not taking good care of the population but also their government work ethics.
Some news on a long time problem with infrastructure: 1 in 2 people poop in the streets
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/31/us-india-toilets-idUSKBN0K90O720141231

Boko Harem has leveled 16 villages...
http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/Boko-Haram-Destroys-16-Towns-Villages-in-Fresh-Assault/876376

Last month Japan passed tighter controls on 'dangerous drugs' / "quasi legal drugs"and now started a crackdown on shops. Well, this topic is quit controversial aside from typical Japanese methods of keeping it under wraps. The truth is these drugs have been legal since the 70's and they are way more dangerous than heroine/cocaine/etc. Roughly comparable with Meth or worse. The problem is they are natural like nicotine which is legal. Some even say the government is actually involved in the business...

http://www.outlookindia.com/news/article/Runaway-North-Korean-Soldier-Kills-Four-Chinese-Reports/875718
still no news since.

@Mitsuki: You might be interested in the mini-PC at CES.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/hands-on-with-intels-new-mini-desktops-faster-smaller-more-expandable/?comments=1
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/hands-on-both-of-hps-cheap-mini-desktops-are-easy-to-open-and-upgrade/
Above 400 bucks you might be better of with a complete ordinary PC. You should at least look for one with two USB-, mouse-, keyboard-, monitor/display-connection.

Well I have a cousin who used to work for HP( IIRC) could ask him,if I remember,the next time he's around(he lives in Seattle area).Though I'm thinking if I ever get my own computer it might be a
Mac since my sister in Alaska has had one and is high on it.

South Korea is thinking of kicking a Korean woman from California out of the country because she
violated their law of 'praising North Korea'.She claims she didn't mean to do it on purpose.

What do you think of the earthquakes in northern Texas?
Not too big but they did manage to make the news here.

Well, there are user advantages and disadvantages. As far as security goes it's more deceiving than real. If you get the chance try it out in stores first (BestBuy, Fry's etc.).

Here's a good detailed (collective) article on the South Korean case
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/south-korea-deports-american-writer-for-praising-north-korea/
In any case, deportation is not acceptable these days.
On the other hand things are worse in turkey where foreign/domestic are being harassed, searched and arrested for even less.
http://kurdishmatters.com/

It's not the first time in recent years there's an Earthquake in TX. Now, I think it's all due to fracking in Oklahoma.
http://www.npr.org/2014/07/31/336765936/is-fracking-to-blame-for-increase-in-quakes-in-oklahoma
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11413
AFAIK there are over 100 (200) paper suggesting or confirming this but politically they don't exists.
I have first hand experience as a kid on earthquake myself, although, not connected to these cases. It was at night and was some 4.x magnitude but wasn't much felt so I was only a bit distressed by the sound of it. It's like a low roar coming from the (ground) surrounding. I guess it's not something most people would notice, though.

Niger abandons Boko Haram battle = not care
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30743030
It's only a matter of time until the whole north is gone.

China scraps rare earth export limit
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20150106_31.html
Nice, hopefully we consumers will see some price effect, too.

The House has passed the bill for the Keystone XL pipeline. Looks like it's already decided then.

People are speculating whether the Kouachis were alone or part of a larger group. Well, they mistook the house when they started ...so despite so called well planned-attack they obviously didn't do the recon themselves. They didn't prepare their car and forgot things inside. Obviously they were just ready on call.
Looks like the female accomplice has made it out of the country and supposedly made it to Syria via Turkey.

There's a bit of anger on twitter (#JeSuisJuif) about the jewish victims being ignored.
Well, there has been a row of heinous attacks on jews in the later half of 2014 such that there was an emergency meeting of the community. I don't mean the ones on the synagogues. Where have people been then?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/07/antisemitism-rise-europe-worst-since-nazis
http://www.timesofisrael.com/minister-rape-of-french-jew-was-anti-semitic-attack/
http://news.yahoo.com/france-attack-highlights-anti-semitism-concerns-104714235.html
It's not just some attack in some public places but also attack at homes. Then the faithful have lost their faith in France, too. There's no doubt going to be another wave of people leaving.

---------
the SpaceX rocket's first stage failed to make a return landing and crashed. At first they canceled it and yet went on with the test. I guess they already knew it would fail.

Japan plans to make the first hydrogen powered "town" with the olympic town being build now. They already have introduced he first hydrogen gas station last December.

Vive le federation!
Sour le drapeau tricolore
vive la Liberté.
vive l'Égalité.
vive la Fraternité.
La plume est plus forte que l'epee.
Je ne suis pas d’accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je défendrai jusqu’à la mort votre droit de le dire.