I found this essay, written by this guy for a miltary essay contest over a decade ago, quite an interesting read. Disguised as a science fictional story about the ‘US military coupe of 2012,’ it’s actually an analysis of everything he feels is wrong (or likely to go wrong with) the organization of the US military.
I haven’t thought enough about it to know if I agree with all of his points, but there were a couple of arguments that I found surprisingly convincing.
By LAURA KIRBY, Gazette Writer
SOUTH RANGE – They’ve been “critter catching” for the last three years, but they’ve never seen anything like it.
Brothers Cameron and Christopher Lystila each caught themselves a “mutant frog” at Lake Perrault within a week.“We’ve been catching frogs here for three years, we’ve never come across anything that’s mutant,” said the boys’ mother, Sherri.
Nine-year-old Christopher was enjoying Labor Day when he grabbed the one-eyed green leopard frog from the lake near South Range.
Later last week, brother Cameron, 7, found a similar oddity while creature hunting in the same spot. Both eyes intact, the second mutant frog had an extra leg.
“To see it first hand is actually quite a unique experience,” said Duane Pangrazzi, the boys’ science teacher. Pangrazzi said the one-eyed frog, under student observation for the past week in his South Range Elementary classroom, has been a hot topic of conversation, giving students a real-life scientific example, and even prompting some personal research.
“Nothing has ever been done to help a woman so that she does not get raped and I thought it was high time,” Sonette Ehlers, 57, said of the “rapex”, a device worn like a tampon that has sparked controversy in a country used to daily reports of violent crime.
Police statistics show more than 50,000 rapes are reported every year, while experts say the real figure could be four times that as they say most rapes of acquaintances or children are never reported.
Ehlers said the “rapex” hooks onto the rapist’s skin, allowing the victim time to escape and helping to identify perpetrators.
“He will obviously be too pre-occupied at this stage,” she told reporters in Kleinmond, a small holiday village about 100km (60 miles) east of Cape Town. “I promise you he is going to be too sore. He will go straight to hospital.”
The device, made of latex and held firm by shafts of sharp barbs, can only be removed from the man through surgery which will alert hospital staff, and ultimately, the police, she said.
This sounds to me like a less high-tech version of the device (I forget the name) that the girl YT wore in Snowcrash.
Adam found this nifty tool on the Voice of America web site that helps you learn how to pronounce all those funny foreign names you’re always reading in the paper.
Give yourself a crash course in proper pronounciation before your next trip so as not to embarass yourself.
Now, repeat after me, weer-YO-no sahs-tro-hahn-DOUGH-yo
From the Christian Science Monitor:
Huang fell for 2004’s widely lauded “The Coroner’s Lunch” and its tale of septuagenarian coroner Dr. Siri Paiboun’s struggle to find the truth behind a series of murders. First-time novelist Colin Cotterill “makes us understand what the system allows [Paiboun] to do, what the system prevents him from doing, and what he manages to accomplish anyway,” says Huang, owner of the Mysterious Bookshop in Carmel, Ind.
An academic tome might have accomplished the same goal of enlightening readers about Laotian culture. But detective novels are usually easier to read, and now, to a greater extent than ever before, they’re shedding light about the world outside the United States and Britain.
Every time I think I’ve plumbed the limits of human craziness, the internet proves me wrong.
Case in point: Primitivism.
I’m not going to bother to try and explain it, except to say that it’s what you get if you cross through ‘hippy’ and come out the other side. It would be sublime comedy if it weren’t so damn boring. And what kind of primitivist writes their official web page using CSS? For shame! Again for emphasis. For shame! You should be using HTML 1.0, if not gopher.
Do you think these people are the case for or against the primitivist philosophy?
The current issue of Newsweek apparently contains a large special on methamphetamines, which included what I personally find to be the most unintentionally hilarious web poll of all time.
Have you ever used crystal meth?
Yes 8%
No 90%
I don’t know 2%
Don’t miss your chance to vote before they replace it with the next survey.
The Washington Post has this article on the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to deport gang members who have immigrated to the US. The big ingenious move here was to have local law enforcement call customs and let them know that there is a Guatemalan gang hanging out in Adam’s Morgan or what have you:
Customs Jails 1,000 Suspected Gang Members
Federal immigration and customs officers have arrested more than 1,000 suspected gang members and associates so far this year as part of a nationwide campaign aimed at deporting illegal immigrants with suspected ties to violent criminal organizations, officials said yesterday.
Much like similar efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to target suspected terrorist sympathizers, the Department of Homeland Security’s anti-gang program seeks to use immigration laws to remove many alleged gang members from the country rather than pursue them through U.S. criminal courts, officials said.
The campaign, dubbed Operation Community Shield and overseen by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division, has resulted in arrests of 1,057 alleged gang members over the past five months — including 582 suspects apprehended during a concerted push in the last two weeks of July. Eleven of the suspects were arrested in the Washington area, officials said.
The operation got its start in March as a way to target Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a violent street organization active in Northern Virginia and other parts of the South. But the program has quickly expanded to encompass alleged members of 80 gangs in 25 states, including Latin Kings, Asian Boyz and Jamaican Posse.
The crackdown comes as part of a renewed concentration on violent street gangs by the federal law enforcement agencies after several years of focusing primarily on terrorism issues.
Under the ICE anti-gang program, local and state police departments have supplied federal immigration and customs agents with the names of thousands of suspected gang members. Federal agents are comparing those lists with federal immigration databases to target members or associates who are in the country illegally or who have committed serious crimes that make them eligible for deportation, officials said.
Chertoff said that more than 900 of those arrested so far are eligible for deportation. The rest will probably be prosecuted for crimes including immigration violations and illegal possession of a firearm, officials said.
Perhaps Japan could try something like this to deal with its Chinese gang problems. Of course the cops are probably in bed with the mobsters so it probably won’t work. But it’s an idea.
First NK shuns Japan at the 6-party talks, now their soccer team is making Japan look like a bunch of fancy boys. I gotta say, the North Koreans sure know how to make someone feel unwelcome:
Japan stunned by N. Korea at E. Asian c’ship
Monday, August 1, 2005 at 07:38 JST
DAEJEON — Japan’s hopes of lifting their first east Asian championship title suffered an unexpected blow on Sunday after a shock 1-0 defeat to North Korea on the opening day of the four-team tournament in South Korea.Kim Young Jun capitalized on some poor defending to strike the decisive goal in the 27th minute at Daejeon World Cup Stadium as North Korea avenged their recent 2-0 defeat in the Asian zone qualifying competition for next year’s World Cup finals.
I couldn’t find any pictures from the game but this was linked on Xinhua’s site:
Yowzer!
I’ve tried a couple of RSS readers briefly but haven’t found anything that I really loved. I know a lot of you reading this are using various RSS programs, so what would you recommend? For reference I’m running Windows, so don’t bother with any software that only runs on other platforms. Feel free to leave comments or just email me.
