Sunday, August 31, 2014

Pinoy peacekeepers safe

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/08/31/the-battle-of-the-gulang-heights/


Golan heights story ignored

Is the msm noticing that syrian rebels are attacking UN peacekeepers in the Golan heights?

Some peacekèers from fiji were ordered to surrender their àrms and taken captive, but a second group of pinoys fought back.

http://www.mb.com.ph/pinoys-clash-with-syrian-rebels/

They are there to keep the area demilitarized since you can bombard all of galilee feom the area.

Science stuff around the web

The Nose knows the bee's knees...

using nose cartilege stem cells to fix knees.

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anti depressants for post op pain?

I used them for chronic pain, telling my patients who insisted they weren't depressed that it might not stop the pain but it increased their pain threshold.

Of course, now they can smoke pot and not care that they are hurting. But the long halflife and sedative side effects suggest prozac might be a better way to go.

------------------------------
TYWKIDBI reports Professor Feynman's lectures are on line.

it seems to be the text version: some of his lectures are on youtube however. try here or google his name for more.

Feynman's search for TUVA was a pbs special that first alerted me to his ability to communicate; later I read his autobiography and even later he became famous for showing reporters in two seconds why the "o rings" of the spaceshuttle failed.



and the Tuvan people are genetically linked to the Navajo and other dene peoples.

====================

and via TYWKIWDBI:

Bug photo of the day


Image (credit June Aubrey Young) via the QI elves'Twitter feed.



Dog item of the day

Dog turns on stove, causes house fire

article includes this link:

This site offers nine steps to prevent pets from igniting your stove, including removing the stove knobs

Family news

Lolo is feeling better. Joy and Chano are doing well. I finally got my new ID card, after six visits by Joy and one by me, so I now have proof I live here legally. (I'm a permanent resident).

We're still waiting for the check for our big Christmas order last year. Last month it was because they should have paid last year, and it wasn't on this year's budget. Now it is because the person who has to sign the check is "on vacation".

And then the Philippines wonders why they are losing business to other nearby countries.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Rewrite the history books

Smithsonian suggests: The Kennewick man is probably related to Japan's "hairy" Ainu ethnic group.

headsup Instapundit

And the Navajo and Tinglit languages suggests that they have connections with a language in central Siberia.

Their migration to New Mexico was later than other native American tribal groups, and the Tinglit are not related to the Inuit.

and are the Hopi related to those living in Tibet?

Although both groups are mystical, I suspect this observation might be related to the New Age fascination with hopi/mayan/tibet being "spiritual" like them, never mind that Tibet is Buddhist, and most Pueblo are Catholic, and many Mayans are born again Christians, thanks to their rejection of "liberation theology" that got a lot of them killed...

this is similar to claims of early settlers that Native American tribes understood Welsh, or Hebrew.

The irony of all of this is that it misses the real story. Read the book 1491, or books about the real history of the Americas. For all the talk of Incans, and Aztecs being highly civilized, the dirty little secret is that both groups were late comers who conquered earlier empires (which is why it was so easy for the Spanish to conquer them: Lots of locals didn't like the usurpers. Indeed, if it wasn't for smallpox//hepatitis/influenza and other diseases accidentally introduced into the Americas, probably the locals would have thrown out the Europeans too.

And I say accidental, because the Spanish conquistadors were too dumb to spread germ warfare. The "smallpox blankets" were a much later, British idea...

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Parking, take two

via DaveBarry


Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as an Eagle Cam

LINK



it's an ongoing joke in the film "moms' night out", where everyone from the church ladies to the tatoo parlor bikers watch it...

Cat item of the day

PIZZACATS!




via Incrediblethings

Bug beauty

TYWKIWDBI has a photo of the prettiest beetle you ever saw


"The beetle family Phengodidae, known also as glowworm beetles."

From Project Noah, via A London Salmagundi.

Stuff around the web

John Paul Rubens: Painter and spy.

tea at trianon blog links to a review of the new book.

And notes one difference between the past and today:

Artists, historically, were viewed as craftsmen, who were given their talents by God to bring beauty and light into the world, to raise man up to God, by the medium of art. It is in the Netherlands that oil painting first became the supreme art by the genius of Jan van Eyck. It is in the Netherlands that an artist obtained nobility, fame, and wealth by respectability virtue and above all his devotion to the Catholic faith. That artist was Peter Paul Rubens....Like Raphael or Michaelangelo in the 16th century, for Rubens, classical and mythological themes were often used as an expression of Christian virtue, and they saw no particular contradiction in it.

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related item: Tolkien and Beowulf

“What are we to think of the nobility and heroism of the heathen past?  Was it all just evil, damned?” This question defined a serious controversy in the newly-Christian England of antiquity, and the consensus of Old English scholarship is that the Beowulf poem is, in part, a response to them. As Tolkien observes, the poem implicitly takes a side: “[T]he mere fact that the poet wrote a poem about the pagan past shows in general that he did not belong to the party that consigned the heroes (northern or classical) to perdition.”  Like Dante—who acknowledged Virgil as his guide and portrayed the pre-Christian Emperor Trajan in Paradise—the Beowulf poet recognizes that heathen expressions of truth, goodness, and beauty do have their place in the life of the Church.

I should note the subtle difference between this and today's multiculturalism: Multiculturalism denies anything can be good or bad (note that some were upset at ISIL being called "evil"). Catholic tradition sees all good things as a partial understanding of the real truth, and therefore to be encouraged or baptized into the faith, something that the Beowulf poet has done.

-------------------------

Freakonomics: discusses the high cost of "free" parking.

 Increasingly I think we’re paying for it in terms of the environmental harm that it causes. I did use data to estimate that parking subsidies in the United States are somewhere between 1 and 4 percent of the total GNP, which is about in the range of what we spend for Medicare or national defense. So that’s the cost of parking not paid for by drivers.

------------------------------

 from Improbable research: the paper claiming people got less upset if hurricanes had female names has been rebuked.

actually, here in the Philippines, we usually rename our typhoons to something easier than the "international" name, so they are easier to pronounce and remember.

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Ebola has killed over 120 health workers in Africa.

yes, but the real death toll will be those dying of treatable diseases such as diarrhea and malaria, not to mention those dying in childbirth who won't deliver in a hospital for fear of catching ebola.

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for later reading/watching:

One of our cities is missing.

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also for later reading: Uncle Orson discusses the common core controversy.

Summary: It is a good idea, but the bad news is that it was devised by the same idiots who gave us modern math and reading fads that didn't work, and also it will be coopted by the politically correct.

he also discusses Plato, General Sherman (he had Mistresses? Don't tell General Petreus!) and King Lear.

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a thoughful essay comparing Fergueson to Staten Island.

the social cohesiveness and trust was missing in Fergueson...

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if you think that the birthcontrol/abortion pill mandate will stop here, you might want to see that California demands Catholic universities pay for health insurance that cover all abortions.

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Wired discusses bees. and not just any bees, but BLUE BEES.

Bees in the genusThyreus are gasp-out-loud delightful with their shiny blues and teals.
Their beauty hides a deadly secret: the females are kleptoparasitic, a fancy way of saying they steal food and shelter from other bees. Thyreus bees don’t collect any pollen to store as food, and they don’t build nests. Instead of visiting flowers, they cruise around looking for underground nest openings of other bee species.

Includes a slideshow for later viewing.

-----------------------------

Instapundit reports insect farming is the future.

I am always sceptical, because although many cultures eat bugs (Pinoys eat crickets, The Shona eat flying ants, and out west the pioneers ate locusts) the dirty little secret is that these things are not every day food.

And the "yuck" factor is big.

The Shona eat flying ants, but shrimp and crustacean foods are taboo: Sister Euphrasia almost starved when she boarded with Italian nuns while studying for her master's degree, because the nuns were vegetarian and ate lots of cheap fish and shell fish and shrimp. It got so bad that she moved to an American convent where beef and chicken were on the menu.

although I believe Locusts are halal for some Muslims, most insects are not.

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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Stuff around the web

If you want a nice quiet movie to watch, try renting Belle

from wikipedia

real story here. and HERE.
==============================

heh. The missing emails are found: It's just too much trouble to dig them out of the archives.


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a non pc evaluation of the Fergueson case.

I figure it's about getting out the vote in the next election.

Any kid murdered for any reason is a tragedy, but when the CDC statistics and the gang murders of the inner city are ignored by the media, and this one murder promoted 24/7, one has to wonder if this is being pushed by a political agenda.

the problem with the cliches being pushed in the media is that too many folks watch CSI, and the evidence suggest it might be a case of self defense...Most ER docs see Orbital blowout fractures in domestic violence cases,
Being caught on surveillance tape threatening a small South Asian clerk doesn't help confirm white racism either.


"In the absence of a motor vehicle accident history...   Orbital fracture, an eye injury which is a break in the skull bone of the eye socket, is an injury that results when a great deal of force is applied to the victim's face or eye. "You can't get it with casual contact," said Goldberg. "The contact must be with a fist or something hard like a ball or a dashboard."
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Monday, August 25, 2014

Family news

Lolo  developed facial weakness and trouble walking and slept all day yesterday: I suspect he had a mini stroke. Today he seems fine.

Today is the Sandal festival, and floats with six foot shoes are all around downtown, along with bands and cops.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

The weak shall inherit nothing

It's not just in the Middle East where Obama is ignored and laughed at.

The headlines noted that the Chinese plane buzzed a US plane today, but the real story is that they are claiming territory of the Philippines (and Viet Nam, and Japan, and India).

Strategy Page article here.


and don't dare write against them. I got blitzed after one article by Chinese trolls saying that there was evidence of stone age Chinese tools on the small islands. By that definition, Norway owns Canada...and ignore the history of Chinese once owning Viet Nam...

and yesterday (no link) there was an article that the Chinese guaranteed they won't try to grab Mongolia.

The real loser here is actually Russia: If the Chinese aggression isn't stopped, they will try to grab Siberia.

---------------------
update

The headline in today's Manila Bulletin is about our peacekeepers returning from Liberia, and there is some worry they will bring Ebola back with them.

Not to mention the danger of it coming here if one of our nurses/doctors comes in contact with it and brings it home.

The doctor is back

The food of Dr. Who.
from epicurious


Saturday, August 23, 2014

Biology lesson of the day

Measuring inbreeding in the Greek gods the link includes a flow chart.

well, given the history of genetic problems in Pharaoh Ikhnaton and King Tut, and the Hapsburg Jaw and hemophilia in the descendants of Queen Victoria one does have to wonder.

First, there is Vulcan, who has withered legs (either from a spinal cord injury from his mother's abuse, or occult spina bifida) and then there are the Cyclops, from when Poseidon mates with sea nymphs.

On the other hand, Oedipus' kids turn out genetically okay...


Family news

Chano and Joy went to Manila for a delivery and to try to get a large check from a company who bought a large number of Christmas packaged brown rice gifts, and hasn't paid yet.

 Such things are one reason the Philippines has trouble attracting new businesses...along with all the red tape and lack of infrastructure...

I shouldn't complain too much: two guys cleaned out our open air ditches that serve as sewers yesterday, and the garbage is being collected. That is an improvement, since in the past the garbage was dumped across the street in the vacant lot and we had to gather our garbage in a trailer so we could dump it in the city dump a couple miles north of town.;

Friday, August 22, 2014

Jean Redpath rest in peace

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-28890309 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mU3S5bY3vgY

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Stuff around the net

Candles, fatwood, and sappy twigs. Headsup TYWKIWDBI

 ----------------

 yesterday I tried to post a cat video of sharknado,, but when I checked the web page later, the video was of a drunken lady... I apologize. Accept this as a shame offering.


 --------------------------

 the story behind the ice bucket challenge.

 heh. they stole t he idea from the Philippines.

 

Family news

It's a holiday (we have lots of them here) in rememberance of the slain Nino Aquino, who was killed by Marcos thugs (and whose wife later ran for president and led the people power revolution).

 Yes, he's the dad of the present president here, but here nepotism is considered normal: We figure the apple doesn't drop far from the tree, and at least he should be honest. How honest, I don't know: He's trying to prosecute the politicians who stole lots of stuff but they are making threats against him, both personal and claims that he steals too.

 The non PC part of all of this: Ninoy and Tita Cory are beloved, but the grandfather's actions are ignored.

But like your father stealing/taking bribes/dipping in the pot, such activity by one's ancestors happened in a lot of the elite families no one is so impolite to mention it

the town is having a bit "sandals" festival (aside from being a rice growing area, we also make fancy sandals here).

So we heard party noises and music until late at night. Two of the usual beggars (professional beggers, not poverty striken folks) came to ask for money to get snacks, and I laughed and gave them fifty cents. But usually I don't open the door at night. Of course, every ten year old kid is able to climb our garden wall (and they do, usually stealing mangos or guavas, although usually after asking permission). But most folks know about the dogs, so don't like coming into our inner sanctum.

 The new mayor, at least, keeps the streets a bit cleaner. Usually we shouldn't hold against her that her father ordered the hit against his political enemy that killed our nephew in the cross fire. But then, right after she won the election, the surviving son who witnessed the hit was shot at. They missed, but killed three innocent bystanders...the hit happened when he was on the way home from our cousin's funeral.

 Needless to say, we live and let live, and my stepson is too honest a Christian to let us have a gun (he gave away Lolo's illegal guns when he moved here 20 years ago).

 So now, we have George, the killer lab and five other smaller dogs for protection, and our only weapons are a crowbar, and a machete.

 We have had two local men (both older, one a FilAm US Navy veteran ) robbed and killed in the neighborhood in the last two years, so there is some danger... I rarely travel alone, but that's not because of politics but because although the local kidnapping club is gone, you never know when free lancers might try something.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Stuff around the web

Mainly bookmarked for later reading (on my tablet)

I ran across a new blog: Waiting for Godot to leave

lots of Flannery O'Connor and sarcasm against the trends in goody two shoes Catholicism etc. and how these good folk ignore reality.

best description is this Key quote by O'Connor: They're good but they're not right.

----------------------------

update: not all Christians are hypocrites, as the PC atheists try to imply. Some actually walk the walk. GetReligion has a story about a girl who almost  was made dead died, but is now adopted into a family in Boston

if the story sounds familiar, it's probably because you read Dean Koontz' recent best seller, which has  a similar story as a subplot....

-----------------------

Downton Abbey season five starts in the UK in Sept but on PBS early next year. Can't wait.

I just spotted an add for Fargo on a local station, so we tend to be a couple months or a year behind the BBC and US.

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Chano and Joy are spending a lot of time at the farm trying to get certified as organic growers.

One problem: lots of weeds from neighboring fields, meaning more controlled flooding and tilling to kill weeds without using chemicals.

Of course, this increases the methane/greenhouse gas emission, but that's not yet a major problem here.

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Science headline of the day comes from MomJones:

Should We Regulate Poop As a Drug?


this is about a nasty type of diarrhea caused by too many antibiotics, and a germ called C Difficile takes over. It can weaken those already who are weak from end stage diabetes or cancer.

The treatment is to kill the bacteria (e.g. metronidazole) but it tends to come back after the next course of antibiotics, so someone got the idea to give a poop enema to replace "good germs" into the bowel.

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br />



Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Stuff around the net for later reading

Parenting tips from Special ops school ...s
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Notes about Empire magazine article on the Hobbit 3


------------------------------

no, I'm not writing about the latest crime of the century. All the right wing blogs have been full of worry about the militarization of the police for at least a year. I mean, shooting a jaywalker when he tries to head butt you? No billy club or taser available?

  but the presence of the usual suspects make me think that a lot of this is being stoked to get out the vote in November. So the president should be ashamed of his minions, but won't be...

Teen agers can be influenced by film and media to hate and verbally or physically abuse the cops trying to keep the peace and the result is the death of the kid. I remember how once my kid was pulled over for speeding, but the kid with him urged him to go faster and not get a ticket. Luckily he ignored his friend, since this could have resulted in two dead kids from an accident...

---------------------------------------

LATimes reports that Syria's WMD are destroyed.

good news (if true).

-----------------------

If you are into Malachy Martin/Art Bell type stuff, this might sound familiar.
headsup from LesFemmes.

But as a doc, voices in the head are more probably psychosis, perhaps from too much cocaine etc.

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Musical Interlude of the day



the story behind the lament is here

Family news

Chano has another farm inspection today. She stayed overnight in our guest room.

Of course, just to make her feel at home, the dogs decided to have a free for all in the courtyard when she was eating breakfast upstairs. Sigh.

And the male dog that Lolo brought from the farm half dead six months ago and seemed to be doing well got an infection and died. The vet gave him a shot of antibiotic, but it didn't work. We didn't leave him overnight at the vet since he was still eating and drinking a bit, and is still half wild and won't let anyone touch him. Sigh.

Lolo is okay however, and two of the three white dogs are pregnant, so we will have puppies in another couple of months.

Ruby is taking a class on Saturday: I think it is on journalism. She is using my computer on and off for reports, since her computer died in the typhoon last year, and her moms is being used at the farm.

Since I can surf but not blog on my tablet, it means no posting here.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Monday, August 11, 2014

You know that the NYTimes might be biased and publishing nonsense

 When comic writer Dave Barry fisks an article about Miami that the editors there thought was good enough to publish.
The New York Times published this amazing essay by a woman named Pamela Druckerman, who used to live in Miami (she now lives in Paris) and came back to visit for a couple of weeks, then wrote about it. Here's one of the amazing paragraphs:
 Most locals also don’t seem bothered that Miami is one of America’s most unequal cities, with lots of very poor people living close to rich ones. Miami’s have-nots are easy to ignore, since — if they’re not cleaning your house or parking your car — you just drive past them. 
 Isn't that amazing? She's here two weeks and she knows how "most locals" feel about income inequality! I've lived here almost thirty years, and I'd never claim to know that. 

It's about ridiculing the natives, as Dave Barry points out, quoting this egregious statement.

Miami may one day be the city for normal-looking people with semi-intellectual aspirations and a mild social conscience. But it’s not there yet. 

 Read more here: http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/2014/08/the-new-york-times-published-this-brilliant-column-by-this-brilliant-essayist.html#storylink=cpy

Yes, the people of Miami aren't "normal looking people". Why?
A lot of folks in Miami tend to be Hispanics, mainly Cuban Americans, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Nicaraguans and Colombian Americans..

 You thought that ridiculing Hispanics was taboo? Not if you are a NYTimes writer or editor.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

It's a bird, it's a plane...it's a robot?

Forget Transformers: it's an Origami robot




OH NO NOT MY BABY WALL

When I was in private practice and did deliveries, I would take two polaroid photos of the new moms and their babies, give one to mom and post the other on the wall (with their verbal permission of course).

Now, the NYTimes says it is illegal, thanks to privacy laws


Under the law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, baby photos are a type of protected health information, no less than a medical chart, birth date or Social Security number, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Even if a parent sends in the photo, it is considered private unless the parent also sends written authorization for its posting, which almost no one does..

so the government can legally spy on your email and blogposts, and hackers are stealing your information and medical records all the time, but I bet instead of real enforcement of privacy laws, they'll just start bullying docs.

Tolkien movies?

a movie is in the works about CSLewis and Tolkien in the early years of WWII when Tolkien was working on the LOTR. Simon West, of the Expendables 2 is tasked to direct.

and relevant magazine has suggestions on how to cast them. HA.





British superstars: check. Resemblances to Lewis and Tolkien: check. Most of their fanbases are self-professed nerds: check.

Read more at http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/who-should-play-lewis-and-tolkien-upcoming-movie-about-their-lives#foTDhK2gGzzydw4O.99



headsup Father L

Kickstarting new books

Although historical novelist MariaElena Vidal has published several books, her new book on Ireland was turned down due to her inclusion of "occult" practices of Ireland.

So she's self publishing, and asks you if you will help her via Kickstarter.

I can't send money but if you have extra, consider sending some.

she's a filAm and her blog TeaAtTrianon is usually full of interesting stuff.

Stuff around the net

SciFi writer Uncle Orson reviews books on WWI and WWII and the civil war
and the movies Sex Tape, the latest Planet of the Apes movie, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

bookmarked for later reading.

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the Terry Schiavo case that didn't happen.
NotDeadYet discussed Haleigh Poutre's near death due to bioethics, and links to her story in the Boston Globe.

Haleigh defied everyone’s expectations, and while she was never going to return to being the cheerful brown-haired girl who rode bicycles and twirled in dance recitals, she was not, as doctors had predicted, doomed to a life of virtually no awareness.
does anyone notice that the latest book by Koontz has one such character whose story is similar to Haleigh (and his Frankenstein books have a subplot on autism)? Stephen King sometimes includes real characters who have a handicap in his stories too...

------------------------------------------------

also bioethics related: Iran sells kidneys legally.
of course, the problem is that when there is money to be made, there is corruption.
From the Payvand Iran News story:

On Sunday July 20, CASKP chief Mostafa Qasemi told the Fars News Agency: “These patients enter the country with false documents; doctors do not examine their documents and are paid millions to carry out a kidney transplant for them.”
just like here, you have to bribe authorities to look the other way, and the docs and middle men get most of the profit...

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the Iberian peninsula at night.

Image Credit: NASA
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the latest "WAGD" fad in the UK: Ban killer cats.

heh. Maybe the professor in the story should just borrow my killer lab George to chase away the cats.

-----------------------------------
the cars that are the most hacked.


paper tiger headline of the day: both China and ASEAN laugh at America's proposals for the west Philippine sea grab.

this could turn into a war... after all, Putin got away with it, didn't he?

----------------------------------------
Ebola? Well, they are worried here because of the many many Pinoy nurses and docs all over the world. True, Saudi has stopped haj visitors from some affected countries, but that won't stop normal travelers.

Ditto for MERS.

not yet in the headlines: pneumonic plague cases in Colorado and China, where it seems quarantine and treatment has prevented spread.

--------------------------
what? No helmet?

and then there is this


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Family news

the big meeting/inspection on Friday went well.

Usually we cook for our own parties, but this time we got it catered: traditional Pinoy food but no lechon since it was a small meeting.

We ate the left over pancit etc. and got mild diarrhea on Saturday morning. I figure it was because the food was merienda (eaten at 3 pm) and we ate at 6, without refrigerating the leftovers. This is what happens with staph food poisoning, and the longer it sits out, the worse the symptoms. Alas, we had packed up all the leftovers to take to the farm on Saturday, and they weren't put into the refrigerator until 7 pm, meaning they probably would be a problem if eaten, so we had to throw out all that lovely food. Sigh.

Two of the white dogs look pregnant already (two weeks after they were in heat?) and the third one doesn't, but she never looks fat. Sigh. Hope they carry the puppies to term. Last time, they were so infected with ticks (and anemic) they miscarried all at the same time. I have since treated them with Frontline for three months, (money money money) and the staff now is here long enough for the dogs to give them a bath without biting, so they are tick free.

The black cat almost mauled by the killer lab George is okay: He came back to eat.

It is again hot, and my cracked rib is aching so I didn't go to church. I even missed the barangay fiesta yesterday (St. Lawrence). Oh well.

Saturday, August 09, 2014

Iraq? America F*** Yeah.

StrategyPage points out how America has been working behind the scenes, and that America is now an ally of Iran and the Shiite Iraqi militias.

And they point out the irony that Iran hated the west so much that they protected the Alqaeda types. So blowback happens at many levels.

more HERE.


The ISIL advance sent over half a million civilians running. 

hell, even the Pope said bomb the bastards.

This, and the 60 thousand dead in Syria and the one million refugees from that country are why so many people are demonstrating against Muslim atrocities....not.

an article about tunnels here.

mainly bookmarked for later reading.

And I'm reading a biography of Alexander II of Russia (including how they lost their Blacksea ports in the Crimean war).  They need the port for exports in winter.
And it relates how the Czars have a long history of defending Christian in the then Ottoman Empire, and also the Slavs who were oppressed by the Ottomans, only to find that the UK and Austria Hungary opposed them out of fear of Russia getting too strong. So Putin's actions are understandable in view of history, where the Russian leader saw himself as the leader of a Pan Slavic area of Europe.

-----------------------------------------------

Update: I'm also listening to Professor Bob's podcast about the KultureKampf of Bismark against the Catholic church. link2 I didn't realize it was that bad. Sounds like President Obama's puppet masters are taking a page from history to try it again.


he also has podcasts on the Crimean war, which I haven't listened to yet.

FAMILY NEWS

Big meeting yesterday with bigshots investigating the organic farm.

I got my computer back: Ruby made a film about the farm and business using my computer. I'll post it later if I find it

The dogs are out of captivity (in the yard, where there was plenty of room but no people to pet them).

Our killer dog George mauled one of our black cats that was fleeing the dogs in the side yard. He was hurt but not killed, and ran away when I went to check him. Either he'll be back in a few days or we'll find him dead....one of the problems of having tomcats who wander around is that they tend to disappear. Sigh.

Friday, August 08, 2014

Musical interlude of the day

family news

big visitors coming today.

The dogs are exiled to the side yard, meaning the cats can't come in or out our side window...one slept on our bed, until the fleas caused me to kick her out to the cat's room (a sitting room where we hand clothes in the wet season).

Thursday, August 07, 2014

Family news

Chano is still busy with visitors/inspectors at the farm/training center.

We are fine.

The news is nuts: sounds like Obama read Mark Steyn's book after america, and decided it sounded like a good idea (uh, Mr President: Steyn is a satirist...)

Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Slow blogging

Ruby borrowed amy computer so I am mainly using my tablet and it is hard to blog with it.

Family news: They are having the farm inspected to try to get an award for best organic farm in the area. so usually they are busy.

Lolo is feeling better...right now he is giving Papadog a bath. Yuck. The poor old dog is half blind with cataracts but he keeps getting in with the female dogs on the other side of the house who are in heat, and getting into fights. Never too old, eh?