I Miss My VCR.

Conditions: Sunny, Kind of Warm.


Hillary Drinks The Kool-Aid.

Being a Democrat, you'd think Hillary Clinton would consider a different approach to things like military aggression and war than the Republican candidates, each of whom are engaged in a battle of oneupmanship, seeing who's the biggest asshole in the 'torture/kill/destroy' category of American leadership. (How many more Guantanamos are you going to build this week, Mitt?) Anyway, Hillary has decided that being the only women candidate, like, ever, isn't enough to distinguish her from her fellow democratic candidates, so she's also decided to be the most Republican of the Democratic candidates as well.

In an article for Foreign Affairs magazine intended as a blueprint for the foreign policy of a future Clinton White House, the Democratic frontrunner argues that Iran poses a long term strategic challenge to American and its allies, and that it must not be permitted to build or acquire nuclear weapons.

"If Iran does not comply with its own commitments and the will of the international community, all options must remain on the table," Ms Clinton said.

- The Guardian

Now on the surface it sounds somewhat tame. Not even any mention of blood. But diplomatically, this is essentially the same as taking out a gun and putting it on the desk. "All options on the table" is diplo-speak for "If I feel like it, I will kill you and everyone you know", and frankly it's the exact attitude from the American Political Elite that I'm sick to death of. Tough-talking is bullshit. Posturing is childish. And, perhaps most importantly, military invasions are worthless. Or are we all idiots? Don't answer that.



Radiohead Crazy Like The Fox.

So, a while ago I mentioned about how RadioHead's latest album was coming out digitally on their website, and you could pay whatever you wanted. There's an uncertainty about this being either a brilliant idea, or a profoundly stupid one. But the word is now that it was in fact, a low-quality appetizer, rather than the succulent main course.

The sentiment among many fans seems to have gone from admiration for the group's willingness to let the consumer decide how much to pay for the new album to anger over the low quality of the downloads — and dismay over the band's manager's statement that the you-choose-the-price downloads were just a promotional tool for the release of the physical CD.

The first bone of contention arose October 9 — the day before Rainbows became available for download — when fans who ordered the album (either in its download-only form or as a deluxe, $81 "discbox" version) received an e-mail from Radiohead's official online store, announcing that "the album [would] come as a 48.4 MB ZIP file containing 10 x 160 [kilobits per second], DRM-free MP3s."
[...]

And, as it turns out, the latter speculation seems to be true — especially after comments made by the band's managers, Chris Hufford and Bryce Edge, began to make their way around the Internet on Thursday (October 11) — which brings us to bone of contention number three.

In an interview with U.K. trade publication Music Week, Hufford and Bryce spoke at length about the downloadable version of Rainbows and how it plays into the larger plan of releasing a physical copy of the album in stores next year.

"In November we have to start with the mass-market plans and get them under way," Hufford told the magazine.

"If we didn't believe that when people hear the music they will want to buy the CD, then we wouldn't do what we are doing," Edge said.

- MTV.com

So, it turns out the band wasn't interesting in committing financial suicide after all, in fact it wanted to use the new media to generate interest in the old one. And that then explains the 'pay what you want' strategy for the download. Well played, Radiohead. Well played.



The Navy Fights The Right Fight?

The American Navy tends to get overlooked in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I mean, they're out there, 24/7, but they're kinda out of sight. And with no enemy navy to deal with, it's a bit of an easy battle. But a new strategy announced today points to the Navy deciding that instead of just blowing things up all the time, there might be a better way to fight terrorism.

The strategy, shaped by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the wars that followed, stresses preventing conflict as much as winning wars, and recognizes that "no one nation" can secure the world's waters against terrorism and other threats.
[...]

The new approach marks a stark departure from the last U.S. maritime strategy, conceived by the Navy in the 1980s, which focused heavily on offensive operations against the Soviet Union. "This isn't just a strategy about putting ordnance on a target or sinking someone else's fleet," said a senior Navy official, who like some others spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Soft power, the humanitarian and economic efforts, have been elevated to the same level as high-end naval warfare," said another Navy official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity because the strategy had not been officially unveiled.

The 16-page document was developed over two years and outlines six imperatives. These include the traditional missions of concentrating major combat forces in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and Western Pacific to deter or fight potential conflicts. Protecting vital sea lanes represents a growing priority, it said, as seaborne trade has more than quadrupled over the last four decades and now accounts for 90 percent of all international commerce and two-thirds of global petroleum trade.

- Washingtonpost.com

My natural wariness of the armed forces makes me skeptical, but as far as I can tell, they're saying all the right things, at least.



The Folly Of Man.

Through the course of human history, mankind has proven himself adept and building dangerous things, and then killing himself with them. Sometimes on purpose, mostly not. It's basically a sad indictment of our innate stupidity, stubbornness, and unwillingness to learn. To think we're really no different to ancient man accidentally falling into his own fire, makes you want to wash your hands of the whole damn species.

[ Johannesburg, 16 October 2007 ] - The National Defence Force is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday.

SA National Defence Force spokesman brigadier general Kwena Mangope says the cause of the malfunction is not yet known and will be determined by a Board of Inquiry. The police are conducting a separate investigation into the incident.

Media reports say the shooting exercise, using live ammunition, took place at the SA Army's Combat Training Centre, at Lohatlha, in the Northern Cape, as part of an annual force preparation endeavour.

Mangope told The Star that it “is assumed that there was a mechanical problem, which led to the accident. The gun, which was fully loaded, did not fire as it normally should have," he said. "It appears as though the gun, which is computerised, jammed before there was some sort of explosion, and then it opened fire uncontrollably, killing and injuring the soldiers."

Other reports have suggested a computer error might have been to blame. Defence pundit Helmoed-Römer Heitman told the Weekend Argus that if “the cause lay in computer error, the reason for the tragedy might never be found”.

- ITweb.co.za

Oh yes, because lord knows those software glitches are caused by the Angry Mountain Demon, and there's simply nothing we can do about them, except maybe sprinkle some chicken blood on the keyboard while hopping on one foot and singing 'purple rain'.

- More.



Have We Learned Nothing?

And continuing the theme, the Americans are still pushing their Missile Shield on a flat-out suspicious Russia. Gee, American missiles on a hair trigger sitting right on the border of your country? What's not to like about that? I mean, surely the Americans wouldn't mind Russia setting up missiles in, let's say, i don't know, Cuba maybe? They'd be cool about that, right?

President Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia was developing a new generation of nuclear weapons as part of a "big, grandiose" plan to boost the country's defences against the US.

Speaking during his annual live question-and-answer session, Mr Putin said Russia was upgrading its nuclear arsenal, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear submarines and strategic bombers. It was also developing "completely new strategic [nuclear] complexes", he said.

"Our plans are not simply considerable, but huge. At the same time they are absolutely realistic. I have no doubts we will accomplish them," Mr Putin said, during a three-hour phone-in programme shown across Russia on state-run TV.

Mr Putin said Russia would defend itself if the US goes ahead with its plan to install elements of its missile shield in central Europe. "I can assure you that such steps are being prepared and we will take them," he said.

His comments follow unsuccessful talks last week with the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates. Mr Putin began their meeting in Moscow by signalling that Russia might dump the intermediate-range nuclear missiles treaty.

- The Guardian

Holy Tapdancing Crap! Son of a Well-Build Whore! Great Freaking Scott! Oh that's great, that's just fracking great. Sometimes you just want to take everybody and slam their heads together.




Right Back Atcha, Buddy.




Assuming we should even bother at this point, a bunch of Scottish Researchers think that, were the Earth to be threatened by a giant space rock, we could knock it out of the way using a bunch of orbiting mirrors.

Up to 5,000 could be used to focus sunlight on to the asteroid, melting the rock and altering its orbital path away from the Earth.

The doomsday scheme was devised after a team at the university compared nine methods of deflecting near-Earth objects - asteroids and comets. The results were unveiled at the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire as part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1, which marked the start of the space age.

The research team compared the mirror technique with eight others, including different types of nuclear explosion and fixing a propulsion system to the asteroid.

The nuclear options and the mirrors would be more effective than the others, but scientists fear the risk of flying debris from a nuclear blast.

The orbiting mirrors would be used to focus sunlight on an area of the asteroid between 0.5 and 1.5 metres wide, heating the rock to around 2,100C - hot enough to melt the surface of the asteroid and create a thrust which would nudge it off course.

- Scotsman.com

In a few days, this system could alter the course of a small asteroid, but for something big enough to threaten the race itself, 3 or more years of sunlight-aiming would be required. That's a lot of time for something to go wrong, or get sabotaged. I mean, why not get knocked out of existence at this point? We seem to be in a race to do it ourselves, anyway.



VCR Still Gone.

I took my VCR to one of those big up-market appliance fixit joints, only to pick it back up later once they realized it was "old". Why own an old thing when you can buy a shiny new one, they seemed to be saying. Actually, that's exactly what they said. So, cursing their name and shaking their dust from my shoes, I crossed town to a small shabby repair store, stuffed full of old stuff and manned by an older guy wearing coveralls. He seemed much more hopeful of effecting repairs, so my fingers are crossed. Hell it's tough living without a VCR, though. How do the homeless do it?



Car Update!

After getting it repaired and re-tyred this week (which wasn't as expensive as I feared. thank you, Japanese mass tyre exporters!), we're all set for another attempt at a warrant. Fingers crossed!



And Finally.

Most hobbies are meaningless, but this one has a special pointlessness all it's own.







End transmission.