Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Stories below the fold

WTF is going on in North Korea?

and thank the Lord the THAD missiles are finally being sent to South Korea. The bad news is that Seole is so close to the DMZ that an ordinary cannon could decimate the city. The good news is that the traffic is so bad that their tanks probably would be stuck in traffic if they invaded.

North Korea is facing another famine, and China is pressuring them to get real.

SP discusses the problem of North Korea in a podcast. mp3 link

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the bad news is that  Iran is also feeling their oats and pursuing long range missiles and the bomb..

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Deep in this article about nemesis and fake news (right wing analysis) is this small factoid::all those illegal aliens being sent back were actually ordered deported when Obama was president.

usually in every media report of a victimized illegal alien, one also finds buried incidental information showing that the detainee had previously been convicted for such crimes as drunk driving, or had engaged in voting fraud, or had committed identity theft or falsified a government document, or had failed to show up for a prior deportation hearing.
Sigh. Don't blame the president: Change the law...

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Obama might not have ordered Trump tower to be wiretapped, but according to Wikileaks, everyone else is being spied on. (AlJ report)

Documents show CIA malware systems have targeted iPhones, Android systems, Microsoft software and Samsung smart TVs. -
it used to be that when our patients told us that the TV was spying on them, we got out the thorazine. Now it might not be a delusion but true. Sigh.

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the backstory on Trump's ban of some countries' refugees to stop terrorism might be due to what is in this report:

From StrategyPage:

Intel analysts, taking all availabledata (refugee reports, prisoner interrogations, Internet chatter, aerial surveillance and captured documents) are pretty certain that ISIL has shifted most of its personnel into or towards Syria and the ISIL capital Raqqa. From there ISIL is trying to get a lot of their veteran operatives out of Syria. ISIL leaders are telling their followers to prepare for setbacks and a shift to clandestine operations (and lots of terror attacks) rather than administering territory.
Italics mine
the bad news is that this ban won't stop these bozos:

 This worries Western nations who have noted lots of their Moslem citizens going to Syria to join ISIL. Rather than being killed in combat (or executed for deserting) these foreign volunteers are now encouraged to go home and continue the fight. Not all who return are full of fight and some go to work for the police (often when the alternative is prison) to catch the true believers before they can do some damage.
most of the terrorism in the US was by US citizens who got inspired by these bozos, alas. And most were crazies who had been reported to authorities by other Muslims, but their reports ignored by the authorities out of political correctness. By making the Muslim community the enemy, this cooperation might be lost.

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could a magnetic shield allow Mars to get an atmosphere?

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Via Archeoblog: Florida 7000 years old "bog bodies" (actually skeletons) 



 there was an elderly woman who also needed such long-term care. Our ancient ancestors apparently tended carefully to each other despite their constant need to keep themselves safe and alive.
That care extended through life and death, as  people were buried with personal items and carefully  wrapped in fabric of a surprisingly detailed weave.
Researchers say such intricate work had to have been made on looms too large and complicated to be moved around much.
They cared for their sick and elderly, but that part about looms implies the locals were settled down, not hunter-gatherers on the move.

remember this the next time you read propaganda that "we can't afford" to take care of the elderly, sick or crippled. And this applies to Republicans pushing health care cuts and Democrats pushing euthanasia as the answer to those inconvenient grannies.

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Father Z links to an article on the church's problems.
Ifor later reading.

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Both Father Z and one of those giving a speech on culture mentioned an Italian teenager who was a computer geek, Carlo Acutis ... Italian press article here

He's being checked out to see if he is a saint, and if he gets a miracle he could be the first saint of the internet thereby showing that even geeks can be saints. (/s).

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