It’s been that kind of day (Slow News) - 17 Feb 11

The world has not held up its end of the bargain.

I have combed the newspapers, watched the morning shows and generally tried all I know but the world just hasn’t done its job today. The news isn’t up to its normal weird enough caliber to make it worthy of being discussed.

Oh yah, those guys over in North Korea appointed a 29 year old to be their number two guy. According to a New York Times article that I read early this morning (after the paper finally arrived – getting worse every day around here), this kid has been given the rank of four-star general and a host of political jobs (wonder if he really has to accomplish anything?) as he has dad looking over his shoulder.

Ya gotta be kidding me! This is the best they can do for leadership – a pipsqueak of a 29 year-old? Giving a 29 year-old these duties and responsibilities is somewhat akin to Justin Beaver being placed on the Joint Chiefs or taking over in Afghanistan for Gen. Petraeus; like Bernie Madoff taking control of the New York Stock Exchange; like Kinky Friedman taking over Ford Motor Company or general Motors; or like my brother (computer guru that he is) taking over Microsoft or Google. What will these guys do next? Ya just gotta be kidding me!

Kyodo News/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Maummar al-Gaddafi is now in the sights of the revolution spreading through the Middle East and Northern Africa. Kadafi-Gaddafi (whichever it is) has been in power since 1972; that’s a long time. Even the Bahrain regime is now under fire. Until we see more of a trend from the Iran group of non-contents, the entire region remains ripe for it still all to turn south and we’ll be right back in the same fix we have always been. They have to do it; we can’t do it for them. You are right; we have tried; but you must finally realize that we are really not very good at it. Is this guy in need of a good barber?

Wikipedia

What is the world coming to? Even Ken Jennings and that upstart Brad Rutter got beat by Watson, IBM’s supercomputer. I think somebody was slipping him the answers – probably Vanna White. It’s just not right!

(AP Photo/Jeopardy Productions, Inc., Carol Kaelson)

(AP Photo/Jeopardy Productions, Inc.)

Did ya know that King Tut’s dad was missing – actually it was a statue of Tut’s famous dad that had gone missing from the Cairo Museum during the last couple of weeks. I didn’t know Tut’s dad was missing until I ran across this tit-bit. My first guess was that it was a home invasion; but it looks like the thieves either didn’t know what they had, didn’t like it or just got scared and got rid of it. Seems as though that a sixteen year-old found the statue next to a garbage bin and he and his family returned it to the museum.

Ahmed Amin/SCA

Let us all hope that tomorrow is a better news day.

Military Industrial Complex misses out on low tech weapons delivery system – 09 Feb 11

I’ve been watching the news for the last week or so and am fully convinced that the military industrial complex is completely missing the boat on jumping into the fray with a labor saving and leap in technology in the weapons systems be used in the current discontent. I know they can improve on (1) multiplicity of weaponry, (2) effectiveness of results and (3)transportation and deliverability. It just seems to me to be a no-brainer.

My wonderment peaked when I saw this picture in my Saturday morning paper. Just how does this protester go about selecting his rocks? From the looks of what he has in front of him; he is fairly mono-rocko. They all look to have come from the same source. What if he encounters a multiplicity of opposition targets? How will he ever be able to apply the right kinda chunk to ward off his nemeses? What is this guy gonna do if he has to deploy across the square at a moments notice?

One of thousands of protesters guards the perimeter of Liberation Square against pro-Mubarak supporters who tried to infiltrate the square, Friday, February 4, 2011, in Cairo, Egypt.

Carolyn Cole - MCT

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/02/04/968566/protests-continue-in-egypt-020411.html

Wouldn’t he be much better off if he had an assortment of rocks to chunk. After all, doesn’t he encounter different kinds of protestors//anti-protestors? Shouldn’t he//she be carrying a variety of warheads.

I am proposing the development of the Low Tech Rock Delivery and Transport System (LoTeRkD&TS). This shouldn’t be that hard of a task for an industry capable of developing and turning out the range of weaponry they currently unleash on the armies of the world today.

Here’s some options I came up with just walking around my own forty acres (most of the forty belongs to my neighbors and the city).

Smooth Alaskan river rock (with hefty bulk)

Lava rock (capable of multiple scrapes and cuts upon contact)

Flat skipping stone rock (good for glancing blows and striking multiple targets on a single bound)

Oval skipping stone rock (good for glancing blows and striking multiple targets on a single bound)

Any kid in the neighborhood will tell you this style of projectile is good for multiple targets within the same chunk – 5 & maybe 6 hits are not out of the question.

Flint rock (capable of igniting incendiary devices at distance)

Concrete rock (contains multiple warheads – splits apart on impact striking multiple targets within radius of 5 yards)

Multifaceted Rock (delivers a hurt from any angle)

Hard Core Rock (just damn hard!)

I think the addition of a light weight transport device would enhance the chunker’s mobility and delivery opportunities – carrying around all those loose projectiles has got to be a task and just fraught with happenstance.

Compare this transport device to the bulky wooden box pictured.

Tumblers come from various web-sites and generally cost under $100 each – these could sell through the Defense Industry procurement systems easily for $10,000 or more per unit – easily. Just check out the attached site http://rocktumbler.com/compare-rock-tumblers.shtml for details. Each of these should be able to become mobile-tumblers and have hand cranked attachments added for under another $5000 in mark-up. To compete with heavy duty fracusses, the large capacity tumblers should be able to go for as much as $20,000 – I mean, here the sky is the limit – literally thousands of these units could see action in a discontent demonstration lasting as long as the current has.

Here are a few of the polishers available on the market (see site above for details):

If the current disagreement goes on much longer and the defense industry doesn’t get involved, I’m just gonna have to get in there myself and see if I can make a little dough on the deal. These Rock Chunkers need help I know we can improve their battlefield situation. You got any ideas – I welcome the competition.

Democracy in the Middle-East and George W. Bush - 03 Feb 11

With the final outcome very much still in doubt; is democracy actually gaining a strong foothold in the Middle-East? What’s your guess?

Regardless of which side you stand on; how much of this current movement do we (or are we) going to give George W. Bush credit for? Would it have been taking place had GWB not directed the invasion of Iraq back when he did? Maybe you might even add token credit to the senior Bush – you could probably make a case there also.

Without the fall of Saddam, would any of the current movement have taken shape?

I’m sorry. It just seems that today I have more questions than answers. The entire situation could still go almost any direction, particularly in Egypt. Who has the power and power could still be used to put the entire situation down.

Who stands to be the biggest winner in the region? If the extremist don’t manage to gain the upper hand; it will be the people – the ones that deserve it. It would be a shame for the people to have started this all and then have the country fall into the hands of the undeserving suppressors of human rights who manage to use their biased religious outlook to blindside others into directing their hatred at us instead of working for the betterment of their brethren. Let’s hope this does not prove to be the final direction.

It would be a just and fitting outcome for democracy to prevail and the people of the region become valued players on the world stage.

I guess the biggest question still looming out there is: Does the movement stand any chance whatsoever making its way into Iran?

Obama Opportunity Squandered? - 01 Feb 11

A great opportunity (as I see it) is right on our doorstep and it will be, very unfortunately, squandered. I do not see that there is anything we can do whatsoever about making something worthwhile out of the situation that confronts us.

It seems to me from what video I have seen on the world and broadcast channels that the people of the Mid-East feel that they have a friend in Barack Obama. It looks to me very much like the roar that was raised overseas when the Nobel Prize was announced. They feel like there is a kinship there that probably doesn’t actually exist. The race issue may be the link; I do not know but it just seems to me to be the most direct link.

Every broadcast I have seen there has been just as many Pro-Obama signs and there has been Anti-Mubarak signs. It could be they the press is leading me astray but I don’t think so in this case. They haven’t seemed to make the link.

In any event, here we sit – probably on our thumbs. What can we do? All the diplomats that I have seen and heard interviewed have stated that we are diplomatically trapped between the preverbal rock and hard spot. If we support Mabarak and he topples; we have made the wrong choice. If we support the protestors and Mubarak prevails; we have made the wrong choice. Can we just sit it out? Probably not for long.

Wouldn’t it be nice for our leader to be the one with all the right answers for a change – lately this hasn’t been the case. It should make no difference witch party our leader stands with. This is a REAL opportunity for world leadership and in this case Barack Obama is exactly the right leader at the exact right time and the exact right place. Like it or not, not one of any of our recent presidents have had this unique kinship with the populous of that region of the world – not one. Mr. Obama is it – the only it.

I hope there are great minds thinking this through and I hope that those great minds are seriously working the right and appropriate angles. Let’s hope they make the right choices.