Wednesday 17 December 2008
Those U.S. Army-Navy jocks take their football seriously!
West Point airdrops Army propaganda on Naval Academy
Psychological operation rattles midshipmen before big game
Recordonline.com, December 06, 2008
WEST POINT — Army cadets and aviators from West Point waged an aerial ambush over hapless midshipmen and sailors at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis this week.
At 12:05 p.m. Thursday, as the midshipmen gathered for lunch formation, a green and white Bell UH-1 series Iroquois, better known as a "Huey," pounded into view. From its side door, soldiers launched an exploding box of propaganda, including hundreds of dollar-bill-sized "Trash Navy" leaflets and inflatable plastic swords.
"They were all looking up at us and shaking their fists," said Senior cadet Gary Haning, 22, of Maryland. He helped with the airdrop from the Superintendent's bird. The "psychological operation" was designed to rattle the Navy before Saturday's annual football grudge match in Philadelphia.......
Follow the link to see the video of the leaflet drop:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081206/NEWS/81206008
Tuesday 16 December 2008
Iz waitin' Santa (a message for those who will be alone on Christmas Day)
Conroy cleans up without a universal Internet censor
Today the AFP announced the identification of 22 Australian men following a 12-month investigation into an online child abuse image and video-sharing network. The AFP's Child Protection Operations Teams seized more than 15,000 videos and 500,000 images of child abuse.
I'm willing to hazard a guess that this sting would be more effective than the Minister's plan to impose mandatory national ISP-level filtering to censor the Australian Internet and, probably didn't cost as much as any proposed implementation phase of Conroy's mad scheme.
With his national 'live' trial now in tatters, as Australian ISPs realise just how many problems he is wishing on their commercial business, Senator Conroy appears ready to conduct another 'closed' trial (this time without any ISP customers involved) in order to save face an push forward with the Great Firewall of Australia.
Has the Prime Minister considered that perhaps the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is becoming tired and emotional?
Just in time for Christmas?
"A Toronto-based researcher has built what he claims is the world's first fully functional female robot -- a lifelike android named Aiko that is capable of recognizing faces, identifying medication, and even buttering toast.
33-year-old researcher Le Trung, a graduate of York University, built Aiko with silicon and computer parts. Programming her internal software took over a year. To date, Trung has spent $24,000 building his robo-girl. Aiko sports delicate, Geisha-like features and is armed with sensors that allow her to respond to touch and voice commands. A camera in her neck provides her with visual input. All told, the robot weighs in at about 70 pounds. With a vocabulary of more than 13,000 words, Aiko can, among other things, tell you what the weather is outside. Despite her lifelike appearance and 32-23-33, anatomically correct measurements, Trung insists Aiko is not a s*x doll. "I'm attached to it, but do I sleep with it? No," said Aiko, in an interview published Thursday in Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper."
Aussie farmers will remain faithful to the real flesh-and-blood version though - a robot couldn't do as much farm work at Teh Wife, carry heavy loads like The Ute or be as faithful as The Heeler.
And they would know it would be London to a brick that Aiko would break down more times than the bore pump!
Monday 15 December 2008
Transcript of new Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme white paper: Mr. Five Per Cent seals the fate of NSW North Coast communities
The white paper's foreword disappointingly states:
The Australian Government has a substantial commitment to reduce our carbon pollution by 60 per cent of 2000 levels by 2050.
By 2020, we have committed to reduce Australia's carbon pollution by up to 15 per cent below 2000 levels in the context of a global agreement where major economies agree to substantially restrain carbon pollution and advanced economies take on reductions comparable to Australia.
We have also committed to an unconditional 5 per cent reduction in carbon pollution below 2000 levels by 2020, which represents a significant cut of around 27 per cent on a per capita basis.
By harnessing the innovation and efficiency of the market, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will allow Australia to meet these serious targets at the lowest overall cost to our economy.
With a 5% reduction on Australia's total greenhouse gas levels in 2000 as the bench mark, the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Climate Change Minister are literally planning to do so little, and to move so slowly, in mitigating climate change impacts that the very worst of predicted negative effects will inevitably slam into New South Wales coastal communities.
With such low national carbon emissions targets it won't matter how many billions in seed money or compensation Rudd and his ministers throw at industry or business; our Northern Rivers homes will still be swept out to sea in massive storm surges or turned into rubble by increasingly violent East Coast Lows.
At this point in time even the climate change denialist Howard Government (if it had remained in office) would have been setting that 5% target, so it is hypocritical of Rudd, Swann and Wong to present today's white paper as a breakthrough when it is really a capitulation to the interests of big business at the expense of the ordinary citizen.
Summary of 15 December 2008 white paper here.
Volumes 1 & 2 of full white paper downloadable here.
Thinking of making paperless Christmas cards this year?
Go to Google Images and search for appropriate pictures such as Christmas tree, Christmas scene, Christmas bells, Santa Claus.
- Download your favourite images to Desktop.
- Create an e-mail and give it a coloured or patterned background.
- Insert a picture and centre it.
- Pick the font type and colour you fancy and write your message.
* If you want to caption the picture with a personal message, pimp the card or create a Christmas collage, then go to BIG HUGE Labs and take advantage of the free, easy to use tools there.
If you are into prepared e-cards there are downloadable examples at Yahoo! Kids or personalise those found at ecards4ever.