Disgruntled Nerds with a Voice
Glück Mittwoch, my Freunds. That's right, it's Wednesday already. Here are a few items that I ran across today.
Most of the today's items are from the BBC. First, they're curious as to how real the terror threat in Mauritania is. They've had a couple of terrorist attacks in the past year, so I'm going to go out on a limb and think that there's at least some danger there. A large statue of Marcus Aurelius has been found in Turkey - several major archaeological finds of the Roman era have occurred in Turkey lately - and there's been an explosion at a political rally in Balochistan. Finally from the BBC, it appears that Afghanistan's opium trade is declining. Of course, the BBC has an uncanny ability to spin numbers in order to find the black cloud within every silver lining. Observe:
Let me think here... If opium has declined everywhere else, and broken even in Helmand, doesn't it stand to reason that Helmand would increase its opium growth ratio relative to the rest of the country? Yep, that's right, the BBC and their crack team of statistical analysts strikes again!
There were two interesting articles from SpaceWar today, both of them from UPI. First, columnist Claude Salhani thinks that Russia's invasion of Georgia could alter the path of politics in the Middle East, even forcing the Iranian regime to rethink their hatred of America. Don't quit your day job, Claude. Meanwhile, there's an interesting blurb about a new style of airborne IEDs that combine explosives with rockets. They're probably too little, too late, and they're apparently very inaccurate, but American troops are taking them very seriously.
And from the Wired defense blog: girls of the IDF.
Remember how I asked about video games yesterday? Well, something I've found exceptionally interesting on YouTube is the number of folks who review old Nintendo games. What's really interesting is that there seem to be to of the same kind of reviewer: James, the Angry Video Game Nerd; and Chris Bores, the Irate Gamer. Now, I don't know, and don't really care that much, but I'm guessing that the Irate Gamer is basically a ripoff of the Angry Video Game Nerd. They've even reviewed the same equipment, some of the same games, and both of them review movies. Someone's ripping off someone else. Wow, did I really just analyze that? Anyway, they're both somewhat entertaining, although Chris just doesn't have the screen presence that James has. Simply shocking... Well, not really, but it's entertaining to see that nerds are still talking about Nintendo after about twenty years. Holy smokes, that makes me feel old.
Today's video is a live performance of Malaguena Salerosa by Chingon, from the Kill Bill Part 2 premiere party. Even if it's in Spanish, it's a pretty kickass song.
Tomorrow is Election Thursday, and I'll be posting a piece that I wrote for my parallel writing endeavour. Have a great Wednesday!
Most of the today's items are from the BBC. First, they're curious as to how real the terror threat in Mauritania is. They've had a couple of terrorist attacks in the past year, so I'm going to go out on a limb and think that there's at least some danger there. A large statue of Marcus Aurelius has been found in Turkey - several major archaeological finds of the Roman era have occurred in Turkey lately - and there's been an explosion at a political rally in Balochistan. Finally from the BBC, it appears that Afghanistan's opium trade is declining. Of course, the BBC has an uncanny ability to spin numbers in order to find the black cloud within every silver lining. Observe:
There is one glaring example, however, of where things have not gone right.
The southern province of Helmand, where British troops are fighting a fierce counter-insurgency campaign against the Taleban, now produces nearly two-thirds of Afghanistan's opium - up from about 50% last year.
Let me think here... If opium has declined everywhere else, and broken even in Helmand, doesn't it stand to reason that Helmand would increase its opium growth ratio relative to the rest of the country? Yep, that's right, the BBC and their crack team of statistical analysts strikes again!
There were two interesting articles from SpaceWar today, both of them from UPI. First, columnist Claude Salhani thinks that Russia's invasion of Georgia could alter the path of politics in the Middle East, even forcing the Iranian regime to rethink their hatred of America. Don't quit your day job, Claude. Meanwhile, there's an interesting blurb about a new style of airborne IEDs that combine explosives with rockets. They're probably too little, too late, and they're apparently very inaccurate, but American troops are taking them very seriously.
And from the Wired defense blog: girls of the IDF.
Remember how I asked about video games yesterday? Well, something I've found exceptionally interesting on YouTube is the number of folks who review old Nintendo games. What's really interesting is that there seem to be to of the same kind of reviewer: James, the Angry Video Game Nerd; and Chris Bores, the Irate Gamer. Now, I don't know, and don't really care that much, but I'm guessing that the Irate Gamer is basically a ripoff of the Angry Video Game Nerd. They've even reviewed the same equipment, some of the same games, and both of them review movies. Someone's ripping off someone else. Wow, did I really just analyze that? Anyway, they're both somewhat entertaining, although Chris just doesn't have the screen presence that James has. Simply shocking... Well, not really, but it's entertaining to see that nerds are still talking about Nintendo after about twenty years. Holy smokes, that makes me feel old.
Today's video is a live performance of Malaguena Salerosa by Chingon, from the Kill Bill Part 2 premiere party. Even if it's in Spanish, it's a pretty kickass song.
Tomorrow is Election Thursday, and I'll be posting a piece that I wrote for my parallel writing endeavour. Have a great Wednesday!
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