Worthwhile Time Killers
Hey folks! I've been pretty bad about putting up real posts lately, although I know you all love Fly Reports. Over the last few weeks, I've collected a smattering of links that I want to share. I also have a couple of quick things to mention; between that, and a few other items, I'm preparing to cross "writing" off of my "To Do" list for today! Read on.
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I have no clue whether any of you will be interested in either of these two links, but I found both of them pretty interesting so I'll put them up. As many of you will know, I recently concluded about a year and half working at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, in the Mojave Desert. A couple of weeks ago, I plugged the name of a terrain feature into Google, and accidentally ran across the Virtual Combat Training Center. I've barely looked at it, but some of the scenarios seemed pretty interesting, so I thought I'd share. The other semi-related find, located by plugging the phrase "OPFOR" into a Google image search, is archived issues of Red Thrust Star, the official Opposing Forces (OPFOR) magazine/newsletter of the U.S. Army. From both tactical and historical perspectives, reading through a few of the articles has been completely and totally fascinating to me, particularly the three-part series on the catastrophe that was the Russian invasion of Grozny, Chechnya. Some of the topics are dry to the non-military reader (hell, some of them are even dry to me), but if you're at all interested in military topics, you owe it to yourself to go check it out.
* * *
I've really been enjoying my Sansa Connect over the last few weeks. After some initial technical hurdles (most of which have been bypassed at his point), I've gotten into a great rhythm with the thing, adding new and existing audio to it every morning before work. A few months ago, when I was envisioning a then-imminent move to the Washington, DC area, I envisioned getting an mp3 player and listening to news podcasts every morning on the Metro. That scenario didn't exactly play out the way I was hoping, although in the end I wound up getting hired by the same company (for a better-paying job, probably in a better area for the time being). I know what you're thinking: "Where's this going, Fly?" Well, I've started downloading news podcasts every morning from the BBC. I realize that the BBC is not the reputable institution it once was; this article puts it in stark detail. Of course, if you know what kind of bias and chicanery to watch out for, it can be a good way to see what the other side thinks, even if you're educated enough to know better (and I know that everyone who leaves comments here on an occasional basis is precisely that). Anyway, the BBC's radio services, disreputable though they may be, have recently initiated an impressive new range of programming; I've been listening most frequently to the half hour Global News podcasts.
Yet another bastion of liberalism and conspiracy theories is the University of California at Berkeley; surprise, surprise, they're podcasting and webcasting some of their courses. You can check out their selection here. I've focused primarily on IAS 180, "Issues in Foreign Policy after 911", and I'm also trying to listen in on History 4A (The Ancient Mediterranean World) and 167B (The Rise and Fall of the Second Reich). I obviously don't agree wholeheartedly with the political leanings, or even all of the information, that's presented in IAS 180, but it's decidedly more moderate than some of the lunatics out there - for a Berkeley course, I've been very impressed that the first two guest speakers have been relatively moderate.
Finally, I'm not sure about other areas of Old Dominion, but my particular locale is worthless when it comes to talk radio. Luckily, my favorite host, Michael Medved, podcasts for premium members. I finally purchased a year-long premium membership this evening and delighted in nearly two uninterrupted hours (no commercial breaks!) of the Michael Medved show. I adored it in Hometown, I adored it whenever I could get it at Zoo Station, and don't know if I could have gone three or four years without it.
* * *
The aforementioned Berkeley course on 9/11 reminded me of a PBS special I saw online a couple of years ago; Harry Kreisler, the professor who runs the course, referenced it, and within thirty seconds I'd found that it's still online on the PBS website. The program is titled al Qaeda's New Front, and it discusses al Qaeda's operations in Europe, along with the precarious issue of a growing Islamic demographic on the European continent. Bored at work? Go have a look.
The other thing I found, completely on accident, is a new YouTube-hosted web series. It's titled Afterworld, and I'm embedding the first episode below.
* * *
A couple of quick housekeeping items, and then I need to post this and go to bed.
I've written several articles over the past few weeks, and none of them have appeared here... Yet. I've promised several times to get on that, and failed miserably at keeping those promises. The reason for this is that these articles are being published elsewhere, and currently I don't have the software installed (Microsoft Word; I know, pathetic!) to allow me to post links within the articles as I do here. Thus, if I want to add links, I have to actually go back through the articles themselves, as well as the news stories, and remedy that; that's a significant portion of time for each individual article. There is no good reason why this process shouldn't begin soon, and I'm dedicated to making it happen; please stick with me. The added bonus is that with this new writing gig keeping me accountable, there should be more in-depth articles every couple of weeks here at TSTF.
Normally I post the infamous Stuff Fly Wants list on the 26th of every month. Between a couple of other projects, and a maintenance emergency here at Van Dieman's Station that threw my entire week off kilter, I'm delaying that post until later today, or possibly tomorrow. I appreciate your patience; let's face it, between the Fly Report and Stuff Fly Wants, the drawing power of this blog is pretty much soulless lists of mundane data compiled by yours truly. In a story related to that, I took the first steps in revising and updating my book list; as several of the new books that aren't on the list are back in Hometown, that will be an ongoing project.
I have a post about Iraq that needs to be written, and I'm going to try to write that today, too. I got into a long and engaged discussion with a friend of mine who went to Columbia University, inspired by none other than the episode with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad earlier this week (there are some great political cartoons about the event over at Cox and Forkum), and it really inspired me to think about a couple of foreign policy issues and how they relate to politics in America and abroad. Hopefully that will be up today or tomorrow, too.
And finally, today's Fly Report random quote was inspired by Gus, one of my best friends and an occasional commentator here at TSTF. Don't be mistaken: I came up with the quote, but he was responsible for half of the inspiration that went into it. My thanks to you, Gus, and I wish you good fortune in the endeavour of preventing St. Jen from growing a mullet.
I have no clue whether any of you will be interested in either of these two links, but I found both of them pretty interesting so I'll put them up. As many of you will know, I recently concluded about a year and half working at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, in the Mojave Desert. A couple of weeks ago, I plugged the name of a terrain feature into Google, and accidentally ran across the Virtual Combat Training Center. I've barely looked at it, but some of the scenarios seemed pretty interesting, so I thought I'd share. The other semi-related find, located by plugging the phrase "OPFOR" into a Google image search, is archived issues of Red Thrust Star, the official Opposing Forces (OPFOR) magazine/newsletter of the U.S. Army. From both tactical and historical perspectives, reading through a few of the articles has been completely and totally fascinating to me, particularly the three-part series on the catastrophe that was the Russian invasion of Grozny, Chechnya. Some of the topics are dry to the non-military reader (hell, some of them are even dry to me), but if you're at all interested in military topics, you owe it to yourself to go check it out.
I've really been enjoying my Sansa Connect over the last few weeks. After some initial technical hurdles (most of which have been bypassed at his point), I've gotten into a great rhythm with the thing, adding new and existing audio to it every morning before work. A few months ago, when I was envisioning a then-imminent move to the Washington, DC area, I envisioned getting an mp3 player and listening to news podcasts every morning on the Metro. That scenario didn't exactly play out the way I was hoping, although in the end I wound up getting hired by the same company (for a better-paying job, probably in a better area for the time being). I know what you're thinking: "Where's this going, Fly?" Well, I've started downloading news podcasts every morning from the BBC. I realize that the BBC is not the reputable institution it once was; this article puts it in stark detail. Of course, if you know what kind of bias and chicanery to watch out for, it can be a good way to see what the other side thinks, even if you're educated enough to know better (and I know that everyone who leaves comments here on an occasional basis is precisely that). Anyway, the BBC's radio services, disreputable though they may be, have recently initiated an impressive new range of programming; I've been listening most frequently to the half hour Global News podcasts.
Yet another bastion of liberalism and conspiracy theories is the University of California at Berkeley; surprise, surprise, they're podcasting and webcasting some of their courses. You can check out their selection here. I've focused primarily on IAS 180, "Issues in Foreign Policy after 911", and I'm also trying to listen in on History 4A (The Ancient Mediterranean World) and 167B (The Rise and Fall of the Second Reich). I obviously don't agree wholeheartedly with the political leanings, or even all of the information, that's presented in IAS 180, but it's decidedly more moderate than some of the lunatics out there - for a Berkeley course, I've been very impressed that the first two guest speakers have been relatively moderate.
Finally, I'm not sure about other areas of Old Dominion, but my particular locale is worthless when it comes to talk radio. Luckily, my favorite host, Michael Medved, podcasts for premium members. I finally purchased a year-long premium membership this evening and delighted in nearly two uninterrupted hours (no commercial breaks!) of the Michael Medved show. I adored it in Hometown, I adored it whenever I could get it at Zoo Station, and don't know if I could have gone three or four years without it.
The aforementioned Berkeley course on 9/11 reminded me of a PBS special I saw online a couple of years ago; Harry Kreisler, the professor who runs the course, referenced it, and within thirty seconds I'd found that it's still online on the PBS website. The program is titled al Qaeda's New Front, and it discusses al Qaeda's operations in Europe, along with the precarious issue of a growing Islamic demographic on the European continent. Bored at work? Go have a look.
The other thing I found, completely on accident, is a new YouTube-hosted web series. It's titled Afterworld, and I'm embedding the first episode below.
A couple of quick housekeeping items, and then I need to post this and go to bed.
I've written several articles over the past few weeks, and none of them have appeared here... Yet. I've promised several times to get on that, and failed miserably at keeping those promises. The reason for this is that these articles are being published elsewhere, and currently I don't have the software installed (Microsoft Word; I know, pathetic!) to allow me to post links within the articles as I do here. Thus, if I want to add links, I have to actually go back through the articles themselves, as well as the news stories, and remedy that; that's a significant portion of time for each individual article. There is no good reason why this process shouldn't begin soon, and I'm dedicated to making it happen; please stick with me. The added bonus is that with this new writing gig keeping me accountable, there should be more in-depth articles every couple of weeks here at TSTF.
Normally I post the infamous Stuff Fly Wants list on the 26th of every month. Between a couple of other projects, and a maintenance emergency here at Van Dieman's Station that threw my entire week off kilter, I'm delaying that post until later today, or possibly tomorrow. I appreciate your patience; let's face it, between the Fly Report and Stuff Fly Wants, the drawing power of this blog is pretty much soulless lists of mundane data compiled by yours truly. In a story related to that, I took the first steps in revising and updating my book list; as several of the new books that aren't on the list are back in Hometown, that will be an ongoing project.
I have a post about Iraq that needs to be written, and I'm going to try to write that today, too. I got into a long and engaged discussion with a friend of mine who went to Columbia University, inspired by none other than the episode with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad earlier this week (there are some great political cartoons about the event over at Cox and Forkum), and it really inspired me to think about a couple of foreign policy issues and how they relate to politics in America and abroad. Hopefully that will be up today or tomorrow, too.
And finally, today's Fly Report random quote was inspired by Gus, one of my best friends and an occasional commentator here at TSTF. Don't be mistaken: I came up with the quote, but he was responsible for half of the inspiration that went into it. My thanks to you, Gus, and I wish you good fortune in the endeavour of preventing St. Jen from growing a mullet.
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