Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Photo of the day


Credit: Samuel Hartman

Skywatcher Samuel Hartman of State College, Pa., snapped this photo of the amazing Oct. 24, 2011 northern lights display. The aurora display was created from charged solar particles from an Oct. 22 sun storm that took two days to reach Earth.


from SpaceCom

a history of recent solar storms causing similar auroras LINK

A lot of conspiracy sites say such auroras predict war, but since there are wars and disasters nearly every year, that doesn't say much. This one caused spectacular auroras, but the real worry is that a "big one" will zap computers world wide.

But even the Solar storm site does mention the big solar storm of January 1938, calling it the "Fatima storm"......because at Fatima one of the prophacies was that a "light in the sky" would be a warning of a coming war.

The Great Aurora was seen over the whole of Europe and as far south as Southern Australia, Sicily, Portugal and across the Atlantic to Bermuda and Southern California...Fire department of Salzburg was called out to quench what residents thought was their town in flame... This same impression of the aurora also struck Londoners during the January 1938 aurora who also thought their entire city was aflame... In San Diego, forest officials in the town of Descanso about 40 miles east, were routed out of bed on January 22 to respond to reports of 'great fire in the back country'. ... Meanwhile, in Scotland, many of the more superstitious people living in the lowlands 'shook their heads and declared the northern lights always spelled ill-omen for Scotland. The phenomenon also had some side effects. It was responsible for delaying express trains on the Manchester to Sheffield line after electrical disturbance hit the signaling apparatus...

Albert Speer's biography has a chilling rememberance of the storm, or maybe another storm, since his jail memoirs thought it was in 1939 discussed a red aurora that was present when Hitler's minions were discussing the upcoming war...but he remembers it in July or August 1939, when there was no big solar storm...since his memoirs were written in jail, he might have had a selective memory.


In the course of the night we stood on the terrace of the Berghof
with Hitler and marveled at a rare natural spectacle. Northern lights 1
of unusual intensity threw red light on the legend-haunted Untersberg
across the valley, while the sky above shimmered in all the colors of
the rainbow. The last act of Gotterdammerung could not have been more
effectively staged. The same red light bathed our faces and our hands.
The display produced a curiously pensive mood among us. Abruptly
turning to one of his military adjutants, Hitler said: "Looks like a great
deal of blood. This time we won t bring it off without violence/' 2


(book link at archives.com)

Happy St. Crispin's day

For those who remember Shakespeare...





it is also the anniversary of several other battles including the battle of Leyte gulf.

actually, it was Oct 25...headsup Father Z

Dog photo of the day

Baxter is busy as a bee...

Nope, the world hasn't ended yet

The "we're all gonna die" post of the day is a Reuter's article on the population implosion.

---------------------------
and it's not just Europe: Spengler's discussion of Iran ends with this note:

Iran is suffering the fastest fertility decline on record, any time, ever. The average Iranian has six or seven brothers and sisters, but will have one or two children. The population pyramid will invert: within a single generation
.

he has a book about the problem of depopulation, and notes that parts of Asia and also Turkey have the same problem.

------------------------------------------
Iran's problem is their private terrorist organization, the QUDS, is all over the place causing trouble.

Once you get to know Quds Force a little better, the Saudi ambassador assassination plot does not seem so outrageous. Quds Force has always tolerated, and sometimes indulged, mavericks who were willing to undertake high-risk (but high-payoff) operations overseas.

-----------------------
but not everything in Iran is war, religion or politics:

Amir has photos of the memorials to Steve Jobs in the Apple store in Tehran.

photos of their computer mall here.
Blogging is big in Iran, and Farsi is one of the most common languages on the net.

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

Iran has a long history...and there is a course about it on itunesU..., if that link doesn't work check HERE.

My main interest for podcasts is the neolithic revolution and Bronze age classical history, but I'm starting to work through Herodotus, and need some background on Persia....

-------------------------------
Speaking of neolithic ages: A lecture I listened to last night said that Neanderthals probably didn't bury their dead, since the "ritual objects" near the skeletons were probably just trash that landed near the body...the only burial that raises questions was a child's body in a small cave like hole...
it was downloaded awhile back from a video

lecture is from the Penn museum.

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

here in the Philippines, a minor war has broken out in Mindanao after the Abus got more aggressive.

The AFP is after the "MILF by day, Abus by night" folk...the MILF who is trying for peace is upset (but of course not upset enough to turn in their relatives), but Erap (former president Estrada) was on TV yesterday supporting military action...since Erap is a commoner he probably speaks for the majority of ordinary folks...but of course, the Churches and the US are pressuring PNoy to talk peace.


The MILF want to take over their island, never mind that the majority who live there are not Muslim. The Muslims are angy because many locals have lived there only for 50 years... but the indigenous say the Moro pirates moved in and stole their land only in 1457 so so stop complaining.

It's not really about religion: it's about money: who gets to siphon off a share of all that development money. Even if the radicals got everything and chased off all the non Muslims, you would get wars there between the clan chiefs over who gets the loot (the terrible Manguindanao massacre was mainly about staying in power to get rich by corruption...)


so it looks like PNoy, like Obama, started out as the peace president but is stuck fighting a war because some thought working for peace meant you were a weakling.
---------------------------------------

in a related item: the priest killed in the south was killed for defending the indigenous tribes from having their land destroyed by mining companies (open pit mines). Many mines have their own private militias to guard the mines from NPA or MILF attacks, but now PNoy will be pressured to eliminate these private armies.

The problem is that you can always hire an ex soldier or ex-NPA hitman to do the job for a price...that way, you can keep the investigation from targeting the guy who ordered the killing, as in the killing of our nephew...

A parallel in European history is how the medieval kings got rid of the local barons' castles and private armies to stop local wars and uprisings.

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

other news: Our lovely ex president Gloria and the former "first gentleman" have been given subpoenas.

-----------------------------------
Thailand is in terrible shape from the flooding, which continues as the rainwater flows downstream through Bangkok...a story that is dominating the news here in Asia. The loss of the rice will lead to an increased price for rice, although probably not a shortage.

Flooding has damaged 13 percent of crop areas in Thailand, 6 percent in the Philippines, 12 percent in Cambodia and 7.5 percent in Laos, according to the UN Food & Agriculture Organization.

And here's a factoid of the day that I learned:
Strategy page points out that since a lot of hard drives are made there, expect the prices to go up again...fiberoptics plants have also been damaged

Internet back on

for now anyway.

we are fine.

Ruby's birthday is tomorrow and she is going to Manila for shopping and for an enrichment program at her "home school" sponsor.

the harvest has been lousy...even the field we expected to have a good yield was poor (although we suspect the farmer who rents the field harvested some pn the sly to make up for his own farm's poor yield...sigh...impossible to prove).

Monday, October 24, 2011

Internet outage

they are fixing the internet over the weekend. It should be on line but it's still off. Maybe it's our modem.

I will resume blogging when we're back on line.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Learn something new every day

Learn something new every day is the way to stay young.

So over the weekend, I downloaded a TV series (I often download TV shows, because they are either not on our channels or so we can watch them when we want to see them) to watch, and later found the download was a PAL iso, which won't play on our DVD player, although I could watch it on the computer. Alas, my software wouldn't rip it to AVI either.

So I googled and found this advice, used the free program to peak into the instructions to change it to our type of DVD....neat. Ready to burn...

But I don't need the high resolution film, so once I had changed the instructions, my dvd ripper would actually rip it back to the avi, so I can save space by ripping the series onto one disc.


yes, I know: Any 10 year old like Ruby knows such things already, but I'm still learning about computers and P2P stuff...

Family news

Brownout again this morning so we're on generator. So I may not blog a lot today (when brown out is going on the internet is on and off).

They are continuing to clean up in preparation for a conference of pastors being held in our meeting area Friday.

The dogs are in exile in the garden or in our house, and Lolo and I will hide out here with the dogs.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Musical interlude of the day

Pumpkin ideas

how to make a cylon Jackolanturn

sci fi fantasy - Sci-Fi Pumpkins
see more



or you could always make a HelloKitty pumpkin

Via Hellokittyhell

Haloween costume for your cat

See, first take your cat to ComicCon and then, he's ready for Haloween.

funny pictures - And While You're At It Where the Hell is My Lightsaber?
see more Lolcats and funny pictures.

Headlines below the fold

Well, the world didn't end with Comet Elenin or planet Nibaru in September.

But don't worry: "Reverend" Camping is betting it really, really will end next week.

---------------------------
How global warming will shake up the NBA.

The "discovered" if you don't eat as much, you tend to grow less. well, duuuh. But then they make this statement:

Studies have shown that global warming will affect regions of the Earth differently -- some countries will see stark affects, and others won't. Applying that concept, one over time could find soccer or basketball players who grow up in drought-stricken regions -- say, the state of Texas (the Dallas Mavericks's current crop is pictured above) -- outclassed by athletes from currently underrated, rain-drenched locales such as the Indian state of Assam. Scouts pay attention.


So absurd in so many ways...the main one being that a rain drenched locale, where insects abound, crops rot and landslides kill folks, does not always correlate with the ability to eat food...

Uh, fellows, it's bad science like this that makes a lot of folks sceptical about global warming.

-------------------------
Another priest killed in the Southern Philippines. Since he is Italian it made the headlines. The real question is who did it? The Muslim terrorists tend to kidnap Italians, because they pay huge ransoms, and unlike a Filipino priest two years ago who was killed fighting off the kidnappers, there is no evidence the priest resisted being kidnapped.

The paper hints it was his opposition to mining in the area. That makes more sense...

----------------------------------
Laura Pollan has died of Dengue fever...

Ziva Sahl, blogging at babalu, said:

I will forever hold in my heart the image of Laura Pollán, dressed in white, carrying gladiolus, leading the column of Las Damas de Blanco. How many of us waited every Sunday for news of their weekly act of brave resistance, their peaceful, dignified walk down Havana’s 5th Avenue, as we prayed for their safety, the release of their husbands and all political prisoners, and inspired by their bravery and dignity, dared to hope for more, so much more for Cuba.

-------------------------------
can yoga relieve pain?

It's a good exercize which can help in musculoskeltal aches and pains, but the real pain relief part is based on the relaxation/deep concentration side effects of good yoga.

It's a variation of self hypnosis, and yes in suggestible people it will relieve pain (as will biofeedback, relaxation technique, music, prayer, faith healing, and placebo pills).

Ah, but how can you tell if you are one of the folks that can benefit. The eyeroll test, described in this PDF paper. It's a neurological ability, not anything magic.
But note:
if you have ADD or other mental reasons that you can't concentrate, however, the test might not be accurate.

---------------------------------
If you see a small helicopter drone flying over your areas in New Zealand, don't worry: It's Peter Jackson saving money...

here's an example of what it can do

OM-Copter demonstration from omstudios on Vimeo.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Get your costumes out

one advantage of going to ComicCon is that you can use your costume for the Halloween party.

Instructables has these costumes to make.

Bobette Fett



the perfect Zombie

Mario Brothers


and for Luke: Megaman

Compare and contrast

Occupy Wall street:

Hundreds of people have been arrested in New York since the protests began last month. On Wednesday, the biggest crowd so far of about 5,000 people marched on New York's financial district,


ComicCon NYC


100,000 guests expected at New York City's second biggest annual event

Gift item of the day


A solid gold HelloKitty HandGrenade.


for when the pink HelloKitty Handgranades clash with your outfit.

headsup HelloKittyHell

Politics Uggh...

DayByDay:


Does the "occupy wall street" crowd remind you of something?
No, I wasn't around Berlin in 1939....


-------------------
Would you buy a used bomb from this man?


Dr. E on that Iranian incident: even the green opposition will back their government on this one.

------------------------
Colombian violence down but not out: alas, the violence has moved to areas of Native tribes, who are being caught in the crossfire.

----------------------------
The right wing blogs are blasting President Obama for sending in a small number of special forces types to Uganda, but I see three advantages to it.

One, it is a reward for Uganda sending peacekeeping troops to Somalia etc.

two: It will give Uganda needed expertise to track the LPA terrorists (similar to how the US is helping the AFP to get the radicals in the south).

Three: He now can say he is fighting "christian terrorists" too...

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Update

blogging has been light all week because of internet instability

today they are fixing the phone line that carries the internet, so hopefully back to blogging next week.

we are okay

Friday, October 14, 2011

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Musical interlude of the day

the entire movie "The Little Colonel" is HERE

a bit dated, to say the least, but it does show the dancing of the great Bo Jangles



alas, he is most famous for this song (which used his name but really wasn't about Mr. Robinson).

This version is by another song and dance man:

Insomnia downloads of the week

The King of Ireland's Son

audio

by Padraic Colum (1881-1972)

The King of Ireland's Son is a children's novel published in Ireland in 1916 written by Padraic Colum, and illustrated by Willy Pogany. It is the story of the eldest of the King of Ireland's sons, and his adventures winning and then finding Fedelma, the Enchanter's Daughter, who after being won is kidnapped from him by the King of the Land of Mist. It is solidly based in Irish folklore, itself being originally a folktale. (Introduction by Wikipedia)
and there's more:
  1. Colum, Padraic. "Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy, The" · (readers)
  2. Colum, Padraic. "Children of Odin, The" · (readers)
  3. Colum, Padraic. "Girl Who Sat by the Ashes, The" · (readers)
  4. Colum, Padraic. "King of Ireland's Son, The" · (readers)
  5. Colum, Padraic. "Plougher, The" (in "Short Poetry Collection 050") · (readers)
and the related:

Irish Wit and Humor

by Anonymous

Excerpted anecdotes from the biographies of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell, relating humorous snippets of politics in 18th and 19th century Ireland. For some these may be poignant in addition to being humorous and for others they may be humorous in addition to being poignant. ( Summary by JCarson )


for "Little Colonel" fans:

The Little Colonel's Holidays

audiolink

by Annie Fellows Johnston (1863 - 1931)

"What happened after the Little Colonel's house party?" they demand, and they send letters to the Valley by the score, asking "Did Betty go blind?" "Did the two little Knights of Kentucky ever meet Joyce again or find the Gate of the Giant Scissors?" Did the Little Colonel ever have any more good times at Locust, or did Eugenia ever forget that she too had started out to build a Road of the Loving Heart?

other "Little Colonel" books:
  1. Johnston, Annie Fellows. "Little Colonel's House Party, The" · (readers)
  2. Johnston, Annie Fellows. "Little Colonel, The" · (readers)
  3. Johnston, Annie Fellows. "Two Little Knights of Kentucky" ·


but if you really can't get to sleep, try THIS

A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, vol 5

by François Pierre Guillaume Guizot (1787-1874)
Translated by Robert Black

Link

Headlines below the fold

Terror plot, rogue element, or a way to justify "fast and furious"? the source of the plot data was a Zeta drug informant.

The UKGuardian's take HERE.
sounds like someone was watching too many movies and decided to become a "do it yourself" terrorist, or else it was another FBI sting.

(I remember when a big mouth good old boy was acquitted for a "plot" to blow up a dam in Pennsylvania. He got off, because as one local noted, everyone knew he was all talk, no action...and, as one person put it: it was common knowledge that if you met a stranger in a bar who offered help you blow something up, it was probably an FBI agent trying to get you into trouble.)

-----------------------
a lot of the Wall Street protesters are liberal arts students from prosperous families who studied at ivy league universities and who now find they can't find jobs to pay back their huge debts.

I have a solution for them: Come to Manila! Most of our cousins study here for their nursing or medical degrees....

Factoid of the day: 100 Iranian DENTAL student in the Philippines are suing for discriminatory practices. From Wikipedia:


Iranians were the third-largest group of 9(f) student visa holders that year, amounting to 2,980 persons, behind Chinese and Koreans.[9] Among these are a number of Iranian medical students in Cebu, who in 2010 fell victim to the a tragic and widely-reported bus accident which led to an inquiry by the Iranian embassy

The accident was a tour bus that fell off a road into a chasm...alas not an uncommon occurrence here.

in comparison, almost half a million Iranians and IranianAmericans live in America, many of whom fled since the revolution (and some fled the Shah). The Persian diaspora includes Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians...
-------------------------------

Syria is still a hot spot, but no one in the US seems to worry about it.

----------------------------
Pakistan being unfriendly? No problem...the TransSiberian railroad is near by, and they are discussing reopening the silk road pass to China...

---------------------------
Uncle Orson discusses the hard heartedness that makes some of us dislike Republicans....he even throws the Bible at the anti immigrant religious right....

-----------------------------
Egypt is running out of food...which explains the pogrom against the Copts
and the weapons being smuggled into Egypt from Libya...
Austin Bay discusses here.
Turkey/Iraq model or back to the seventh century?

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Articles that make you go WTF



NASA photo of the day goggle-eye nebulae in Orion...
----------------------------
The latest disease: TextNeck.

Doctors and chiropractors said hunching over mobile gadgets was causing increased incidence of neck and shoulder aches and pains. They also warned that “all that curving of the body to text, type, watch videos, and play games could cause debilitating pain that lasts a lifetime.”


actually, there used to be all sorts of attachments for telephones so your secretary didn't hurt her neck...I finally bought my secretary a headset...

-------------------------------
Eating chocolate will reduce your chance of having a stroke.

-----------------------
Targeting high risk behavior groups rather than the general public will stop the spread of HIV. This goes against the PC insistance that "anyone can catch HIV"...Promoting hedonism under the guise of "safe sex" is objected to in many countries.

-----------------------------
First there came extreme ironing

Photo source, and check out more

then came Extreme cello playing
(website and photosource HERE)



and now, Extreme Jacuzzi...


Headsup DaveBarry

Liberia

Two African women from Liberia won the Nobel peace prize.

I was in Liberia before the first civil war broke out. It was a corrupt oligarchy, where the American-Liberians ran the place, and locals had little power or money.

I left/was thrown out just before the first civil war started there. (visa problems, and it was easier to return to the US and get a new visa than try to bribe folks to update it there). Two days later, they started an uprising, killed the president, and were shooting looters in front of the Hilton, where I used to disco dance. So I stayed safe at home, and wasn't there several months later when the US Marines had to evacuate all US citizens in August.


There was a terrible civil war, followed by "peace" when Charles Taylor "won" the election. This was followed by a second civil war, which is where the women played an active role in establishing peace.

But don't let the "peace and light" stuff fool you. It was the US Marines who were the tipping point. Without them, the African peacekeepers and these "peaceful" women would have had no chance.

Full article on my Makaipa blog.

And AlJazeerah has a good article on the real problems: corruption and the disconnect between the westernized elite and the poor.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Sunday, October 09, 2011

Sigh...flood water not receding

most of our folks are back in their houses (I just gave the cook some money to buy insecticide for a house of one of her relatives).

Lots of folks with sores on their legs etc. coming for money to help them buy Amoxicillin so they don't get leptospirosis...


and now the Bulletin is saying the flooding could continue for another month, as the rain continues on and off and the swollen rivers flow downstream.

Latest data released by the NDRRMC also showed “Pedring” affected 643,154 families or 2,989,419 people in 3,464 villages from 310 towns and 42 cities in 35 provinces. Of these, a total of 18,845 families or 81,041 people are currently staying in 128 evacuation centers.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

“Quiel,” on the other hand, affected 219,645 families or 1,085,857 people in 1,719 villages from 133 towns and 10 cities in 17 provinces.

Of these, at least 6,304 families or 27,886 people are temporarily being served in 207 evacuation centers.



those who didn't clean the silting of the rivers and misjudged the water for the dams are of course blaming global warming.

But Google's "Way back" machine has the story of the 1936 flood...LINK which killed over 300 in our province alone...

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Gimli factoids

Gimli Manitoba has the largest population of ethnic Icelanders outside of Iceland.

They named their town after the "Hall of Gimli"

and in the Eddas, Gimli is not a person but a place:

From eNotes:

In Norse mythology, Gimlé (alternately Gimli) was a place where the survivors of Ragnarök were to live. It is mentioned in the Prose Edda and Völuspá and described as the most beautiful place on Earth, more beautiful than the Sun.

Quarantine


Right now I'm listening to a Yale Course on the history of epidemic disease. Anyone who thinks the past was wonderful, or that vaccinations are a conspiracy theory should listen to the course.

One of the items discussed was quarantine by the Italian republics.

Photo via Atlas Obscura:

more HERE

The famous Gudridors....


Among the ten female explorers (many of whom seem to be eccentric 18th century rich Englishwomen), this one stands out:

Gudridur
who according to the sagas, traveled to Greenland and Vinland, had a baby in Vineland, married a couple of times, became a Christian, and later traveled to Rome before returning to Iceland to become a hermit.
A story of her travels can be found HERE. and a map HERE. Another little known fact: Gudridur Irish, descended from an Irish freedman.

But she isn't the only Gudridur who made it into the history books.

Guðríður Símonardóttir (1598 – December 18, 1682) was one of 242 people abducted from the Westman Islands, Iceland in 1627.[1] The attacks by Barbary corsairs came to be known as the Turkish abductions and Guðríður became known as Tyrkja-Gudda.

And another little known fact is that many Icelanders emigrated to the Americas:

During the 19th century several waves of emigrants left Iceland. The first one went during the 1850s to Utah but organized emigration on a large scale started in the 1870s, mainly to Canada, North-Dakota and Minnesota. Almost a quarter of the entire population of Iceland emigrated between 1870 and 1914
.

There is even an Utah Icelandic Society, and every year they hold celebrations in Spanish Fork Utah...and one of the early Icelandic settlers was Gudradur Ulfsdottir. The story of the Icelandic settlers there can be found HERE.

An article on those who settled in "New Iceland" Manitoba (and found it too cold) is found HERE.
and yes, Tolkien fans, the nearby town of Gimli Canada was also settled by Icelandic immigrants.

That town is most famous for the "Gimli Glider", one of the classic air crash stories where by some miracle and some good flying skills, everyone got out alive...

one more piece of trivia:

The DNA of Scandanavians includes Celtic and other strains, but one mystery is that some of the population has a genetic marker found mostly in Native Americans. LINK2

Another article HERE says one skeleton was Arab
(From a Rus trading connection with the Arabs?)

---------------------------------
the original link for the previous post are headsup by FTJoeCarter.

Factoid of the day

No, nuking a volcano probably wouldn't help stop the eruption, but this is interesting:

Conventional bombs have been used to divert lava flow, as the US Air Force did with flows emanating from the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii, sufficiently diverting the lava flow away from the city of Hilo. The results were published as Diversion of lava flows by aerial bombing - lessons from Mauna Loa volcano, Hawaii in 1980.



Diverting lava flows was done in Iceland in 1973, by spraying water and cooling the slow flows Story here.



It's not just the oozing lava that destroys, but the Lahar/volcanic dust, that turns to mud with heavy rain.

After Pinatubo, we lost one city to the Lahar, and built dikes to protect Pampanga. official report here.

it was a limited success, but thanks to our lovely ex president Gloria, the abandoned Clark AFB is now a business/tourist center and Mt Pinatubo is an eco tourist area.



Friday, October 07, 2011




Ruby is getting to be a little lady.

Cat item of the day

funny pictures - CAT Stat #39
see more Lolcats and funny pictures.

Move over Ipad

I am lusting for an IPad but can't afford one. (25000 pesos/500 dollars)

An alternative is the cheaper 7000 peso (120 dollar) android computers they are promoting here for high school kids to read books on (and of course connect with their friends and play games). The only reason I haven't bought one of these is that their battery life is short. I would buy a Kindle, but they are not easily available here, and of course, there is the problem in translating my pdf file books to their system.

Now the LATimes reports that India has underpriced them both with a $10 dollar tablet computer, using a stripped down Android system.

Here, it is practical: We can't afford books. Especially textbooks.

So putting school books on tablets alone will save money. Lots of free books on line, (example LINK LINK2, LINK3) and in worst case scenerios, there is always the Pirate bay, which has medical and college textbooks to pirate.

One of these days, they will make Kindle downloads cheaper than used paperbacks, but since I can't download anything from Amazon, because of copyright restrictions, I have to wait two years to get most best sellers at our used book kiosk. They also get a lot of trade paperbacks (I've picked up books on Roman history, the Inklings, biography and even books on Turkish history or the history of the Aztecs and Incan civilizations there).

As ebooks take over the world, there is a real danger that we in Asia won't have access to buy such used paperbacks, so one hopes that someone gets the message and makes cheap ebooks for the masses.

Aviation stories

what will the US do if China shoots their GPS/communications satellites out of the sky?

Replace them with UAV's and weather balloons.

No mention on what they will do if a solar flare knocks them out, or if the civilians would be able to use them.

-------------------
The Ipod, Iphone clones and Ipads have revolutionized the military, and are important for carrying maps and manuals and for their GPS system...

Unlike the past, where defense research led to civilian breakthroughs, this is using civilian technology to aid the military.

--------------------------
A note on how the old reliable DC-3 and it's clones are still being used.

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Smithsonian Space and Air magazine has an article about the stranding and eventual rescue of a C 47 crew in Greenland in 1948. (As most aviation buffs know, the C 47 was the military version of the DC3)

after two failed attempts to rescue them using gliders, they put skis on another C 47 and got the men out.

If some of this sounds familiar to movie buffs, it might be it's similarity to the old John Wayne movie "Island in the Sky" made in 1953. However, the novel and screenplay was based on an Ernest Gann story, that had been published years earlier

The script was based on a true story about a flight in February 1943, although, unlike the story of the film, the co-pilot did not die. In his autobiography Fate Is the Hunter – on which the movie of the same name is very loosely based – Gann related the true story and his role as one of the search pilots while serving with Air Transport Command at Presque Isle Airfield, Maine.


Air Force Special Ops did lots of rescues.

Popular Science article about them LINK

Thursday, October 06, 2011

History lesson of the day

The story of the Nisei battalion that saved the lost Texans is well known in some circles, but like much of the heroism of the past, is being forgotten today.

From HistoryNet: American Samurai

you can read more about them at the "Go For Broke" webpage



Factoid of the day

according to Alabamakitchenblog, it's illegal to sell a live armadillo in Texas.

Why? because they might have leprosy (Hansen's disease)...you can even catch it if you handling the critters to eat their meat.


so if you are hungry, use rubber gloves...recipes here.


and Armadillo origami:

The "WAGD" headline of the day

Roving armadillos could be heading for the Washington area, biologists say

(headsup DaveBarry)

and it's armadillo, not amaraillo

Headline below the fold

StrategyPage update on Pakistan doesn't sound good. Paranoia and corruption of the status quo, versus an eighth century type Islamic state, or maybe reform are their choices.

Alternatives for the Afghans are shipping via Russia and making nice with India.
and not even China is going to pour money into Pakistan to be stolen..

more here about Pakistan's electricity protests and floods. and then there are those "blasphemy" laws...

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SmartPhones and Ipads at war. The ipod generation isn't waiting for the Army to supply them, they just use their own.

--------------------------------------
Obama's policies are threatening religious freedom...

no, it's not Sarah Palin, it's the opinion of the US Catholic bishops...

-----------------------
Sarah Palin decides to stay home and take care of her kids (and make lots of money). Good for her.

----------------------------
when the facts don't agree with the books, back the facts and throw out the books... scientist wins the Nobel prize for Chemistry for discovering/inventing crazy crystals. The article compares his persecution to Gallileo...

the Economist explains what he discovered and how these crystals could be useful

The discovery of quasicrystals—in effect, three-dimensional Penrose tiles—has revolutionised materials science. Others, with eight- and 12-fold symmetry are now known. They often have interesting properties, such as poor heat conductivity (which makes them good insulators) and low friction (which makes them slippery).

another report:


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Bad news of the day: The Friendly's goes bankrupt.

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Another "time to rewrite the history books" article: Pottery has been found in China that dates back 15,000 years

and pots usually were used to store grain. Did they cultivate rice that far back? Or use the pots to make beer?

Steve Jobs, Rest in Peace

Steve Jobs of Apple computer etc. has died of cancer.

I posted this before, but it is worth posting again.



Transcript here.

Pnoy visits the flooded provinces.



PNoy finally gets his feet wet. My report HERE

The bad news? Another storm on the way...

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Attention kids

you are now free to download songs.

Actually, I like "elevator music" and download it from youtube (download flv and rip to mp3).

But if I ever need to replace my Matt Monroe CD's I am happy I can do it legally.

Poetry corner


today's poem, by TheBeachcomber, comes to us via CigarettesmokingBlog.

Christopher Robin visits the House


There are Communists and Socialists and Conservatives and things,
There are cranks, and dupes, and forgers and their slimy underlings,
There’s a roaring man with a ruddy face, and another as quiet as a mouse —
But I gave a bun to the Premier when I went down to the House.

There’s a man who brays “Protection,” and a lady who curses drink,
And at least three hundred and forty-six who never knew how to think,
There’s one who cries the Millennium, and one with a permanent grouse,
But I gave a bun to the Premier when I went down to the House.

There’s a wretched, lonely Liberal, with a face as long as a flute,
And a man who spends his leisure hours in making a corner in jute,
There’s every shade of incompetence, and all humbug under the sun,
But whenever I go down to the House the Premier takes the bun.


for those who never had a four year old, the poem can be found HERE.
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and the factoid of the day comes from a book review on that blog:

The book also notes that the SAS's best Arabists were all Scotsmen -- something to do with glottal stops and rolled R's coming easier to them.


well, that leaves me out. I still can't pronouce the Lingual/dental rolling R (described here) of Spanish and Tagalog and some dialects of German.

However, I am good at the uvular rolling R of French and High German which wikipedia says is used by those speaking Arabic in Mosul and a few other areas.

Musical interlude of the day

Science news below the fold

While CNN is busy following the Michael Jackson death trial, the rest of the world is following the Nobel Prizes.

Nobel Prize for Medicine: for their studies of how the immune system works went to scientist Bruce Beutler, Jules Hoffmann, and Ralph Steinman.

The Nobel prize in physics went to those who invented the concept of dark energy.


New Nobel laureates Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess of the U.S. and Brian Schmidt of Australia contributed to the discovery that the universe is not only expanding but also speeding up.

The finding led to the now widely accepted theory of dark energy, a mysterious force that repels gravity. Measurements show that dark energy accounts for about 74 percent of the substance of the universe.


a long lecture about dark energy that includes Dr. Perlmutter is HERE.

a shorter version for the rest of us dummies is this:


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Factoid of the day

NatGeo explains why Dr. Bunsen's burner is so important to science

Bunsen's tweaking of the burner design—Bunsen-like burners existed before their namesake—turned out to be vital to a larger goal: helping to pioneer the field of spectral analysis, or spectroscopy.

In spectral analysis, "every element sends out a specific color when heated with a flame," explained Bunsen scholar Christine Nawa.

"And only the Bunsen burner was able to create colorless, very hot flames, so that one could see the color of each element clearly," said Nawa, a visiting fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia.


But of course, most of us only know him from his namesake, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew:

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Musical interlude of the day



Turn up speakers and dance!

Wall Street blame take two

Freakonomics has a summary of who is to blame LINK

blame the accountants? Blame Andrew Cuomo? Blame low interest rates? blame Greed (or wanting more than 1 percent back on your investment)? Blame Obama's medical bill? Blame the Fed for paying banks not to lend?

Their analysis seems about right, but what do I know?

But unlike the unwashed clowns protesting on Wall street, they do have suggestions:

So rather than planning an occupation, let’s focus on solutions:
  1. The Federal Reserve should stay out of it: stop paying the banks to hold our money instead of lending it out...
  2. Let’s bring back the uptick rule, and make it harder to short the market. What does this do? It makes stocks go up so companies can raise more money to hire people.
  3. None of the stimulus from Obama or the Fed has helped the franchise business. There are about one million franchises in the U.S. employing over 10 million people. How about we give those franchises a tax break so they can hire more people....



and the good news?

They aren't as morbidly pessimistic about the European default as some....go read the whole thing.

Cat item of the day

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures,

Familiy news

Joy was up early getting ready to go to the farm and supervise the harvest/threshing/drying.

Chano said the last field we harvested was one third down, so not a disaster, but other farmers were not so lucky.

And the news reports that some areas downstream near the coast are still flooded.

The bad news is that every time I put on CNN international, they seem to be giving a report on the Michael Jackson trial.

Priorities I guess.

Stuff below the fold

Strategypage has a podcast on Pakistan and a written report on Afghanistan

If the US pulls out, Pakistan thinks China will fill in the gap, but the dirty little secret is that China wants the natural gas/oil from the silk road area, and isn't happy with Pakistan's support of terrorist groups in their western region.
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GetReligion discusses the coverage (or lack of coversage) of the Washington Mosque's links with several different terrorists.

unlike the Catholic pedophilia problem, no one wants to blame the entire mosque/religion for a few criminals.

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The Demands of the "Occupy Wall Street" folks are nice, but where is all the money going to come from?

Dustbury's take.

Next Top Ten Demands of Occupy Wall Street movement:

Unemployment benefits extended to 99 years
New logo for Bank of AmeriKKKa
Tim Tebow off television forever
Selective Service reactivated to select dates for Janeane Garofalo
Government to ration meat, Michael Moore to receive first batch of ration coupons
Investment bank to be renamed “Goldman Sucks”
Jersey Shore recast with progressives, plus Snooki
Global Temperature Saving enacted, thermometers to be set back 5 degrees in March, forward again in November
Double Rainbow Guy to be named Secretary of something
More cowbell!


My take here...


the usual idiots, of course... one conspiracy site claims they are being funded by Obama's Wall street buddies.

as the saying goes: fish, barrel, glock....

or maybe not...Mythbusters report

When Jamie fired a shotgun into a barrel stocked with 30 plastic fish suspended at varying depths, he struck only three of them, for a 10 percent hit rate. That stat may not be impressive, but the after effects of the shotgun shell in the water will compensate for any missed targets.


Yeah. That's why so many Filipino fishermen use dynamite to fish.

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whoops

Monday, October 03, 2011

Stuff that makes you go "huh"?



The Iranian Defense Force holds it's first protest of their "don't ask don't tell" law.

Headsup DaveBarry
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and here is the entire IgNoblePrize ceremony

flood photos

today's NEJournal has flood photos from this province.

Musical interlude of the day

Failure is not an option


Remembering the days when folks believed that


Gene Kranz (foreground, back to camera), an Apollo 13 Flight Director, watches Apollo 13 astronaut and lunar module pilot Fred Haise onscreen in the Mission Operations Control Room, during the mission's fourth television transmission on the evening of April 13, 1970. Shortly after the transmission, an explosion occurred that ended any hope of a lunar landing and jeopardized the lives of the crew. Image Credit: NASA

Headlines below the fold

It's drier today and lots of folks cleaning up, but downstream there are still problems in Bulacan

BBC report here.

the good news? PNoy returned from Japan with promises of investments
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The return of the European Bison.

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Father Z instructs you how to save a wet book.

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Remembering Afghanistan's history

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Sunday, October 02, 2011

The WTF quote of the day

Erin Larkins, a graduate student at Columbia University who says she and her boyfriend have $130,000 combined in student loan debt, was among the thousands of protesters on the bridge. She said a friend persuaded her to join the march and she's glad she did.

"I don't think we're asking for much, just to wake up every morning not worrying whether we can pay the rent, or whether our next meal will be rice and beans again," Larkins wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

Uh maybe she should have gotten a job?
Or gone to a cheaper university?
Or maybe she or her boyfriend should flip a coin and then decide which one will quit their cushy graduate schooling and go to work while putting the other one through?

I mean, when our Pinoys can find jobs teaching school in the USA, working as caretakers/nurses, or working in the oil shale industry in Alberta Canada, one suspects that these "kids" are just not trying very hard to grow up...

Family news

They are still cleaning up in Bulacan and Pampanga but we are okay from the latest rain (only signal 2 so nothing blew down this time).

And although lots of flood damage from last week, no new damage or floods in town Saturday.

Lolo is well and we went to church (which was half empty). Everyone is busy cleaning up.

However both the electricity and internet are going on and off so expect little or no posting.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Headlines that make you go WTF

A new book about the happy friendly Gulag: They were only in there to be "rehabilitated"

the Soviet authorities used the Gulag not only to punish and kill, but also to “correct.” They invested significant resources in the reeducation, rehabilitation, and redemption of prisoners, over 20% of whom were released every year. The vast majority of Gulag prisoners did not die there; they survived the experience and (for good or ill) were changed by it.

Yeah, and if during some years a quarter of them starved to death, well, that was an accident...

of course, the dirty little secret is that most of the deaths under Stalin were executions or letting the Ukrainians etc. starve at home quietly...

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Obama's assault against religion? No, not a conspiracy theory from Coast to coast, but from the US Catholic bishop's organization and via the Anchoress:

In a tacit acknowledgment that this violates the Constitution’s cherished respect for religious liberty, HHS provides an exemption for religious employers — but with a catch. The church agency can only claim exemption if it primarily serves people of its own faith. It also must meet other requirements, such as employing mostly people of its own faith.

This means HHS is setting itself up to determine what constitutes church ministry and who Jesus meant when he referred to serving “the least of my brethren.”


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"Shangri La" isn't what it is hyped up to be story of the day: A lot of street kids in urban Nepal are left alone because their parents work overseas, so they get into sniffing glue and other drugs.

we have all these problems in the Philippines, and the hope is that if PNoy cleans up the government, that will lead to more international investment and local jobs, so the OFW can come home...

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Psychologist in the UK says moms cause sexism by reinforcing gender stereotypes.

The phenomenon could be explained by children spending more time with her, the household chores she encourages them to do, the gifts they are given and the roles they infer and the important role she plays in the transference of values.....

She outlines that "some researchers state that mothers tend to socialise more with their daughters and fathers do so more with their sons. Our study confirms this hypothesis."

Yeah, blame the Barbie dolls (emphasis mine)...

so now they plan to intervene

Furthermore, the researchers explain the importance of implementing educational programmes during infancy and adolescence as a way of encouraging gender equality, reducing sexism and preventing gender-based violence.

Yes, they want to take away your girl's Barbie dolls and teach them to love GI Joe.

Guess they've never heard we gals can do both. Combat Barbie anyone?

GI Joe/Barbie X rated joke here...

Sigh. Flooding in Bulacan



From the Manila Bulletin:
Residents of flood-hit Calumpit, Bulacan ride a banca after they were rescued when floodwaters washed away their houses, Friday, September 30, 2011. A state of emergency has been declared in Calumpit, Bulacan, because of neck-deep floods submerging houses and forcing residents to flee to safer grounds. The massive flooding was allegedly spawned by excess water released by dams in Central Luzon. (Photo by MARK BALMORES)


Our floods have improved, and folks are cleaning up.

But the rain is coming downstream and the floods in some areas are still bad, mainly due to the need to release the high water levels before the next typhoon which is supposed to hit north of Luzon today. (The "eye" will hit the north instead of going over central Luzon, but it does mean more water).

We lost some of our rice crop from the flooding, but I don't know how bad it was until this next storm goes through. North of town, it is very flat and the canal irrigation water is close by, of course, and the fields are one foot above the top of the canal...

this gives you an idea on how flat our area is, and how close to the canals some folks houses are built...
From ito's anniversary

From ito's anniversary