On Wings Like Eagles
Wait, what? It's Wednesday already? Hmmmm. Okay, a few things.
Okay, first thing's first: Algeria has experienced its second bombing in a week at a police academy outside Algiers. (CNN, BBC, Guardian, Jerusalem Post). The attack was apparently a suicide VBIED (car bomb) attack near Boumerdes. No one has claimed responsibility, but the likely perpetrators are al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a group that I've written about previously. The attack killed forty-three and injured thirty-eight.
The DoD is apparently looking to purchase and employ manned UAVs. Yes, you read that right: manned unmanned aerial vehicles. Because of the sheer level of intelligence desired by American commanders, and the new capability of the Predator and Reaper UAVs to operate as an attack platform, their use in combat zones has skyrocketed. The military has decided to use conventional aircraft as surveillance platforms in an effort to shore up the need for intelligence and surveillance capabilities. Very interesting.
There's been a somewhat entertaining story floating around for the past few days: an Australian mayor in a remote mining town has made an appeal for ugly women to come to his town, where men outnumber women five to one. (BBC, Times, Fox) A lot of people are in an uproar about it, but when you think about it, it sort of makes sense in a twisted kind of way. The interesting thing about it is that elsewhere in Australia, ranchers have had enough trouble finding men to work their cattle ranches that they've seen the rise of "Jillaroos", or female cattle hands. (Times, BBC) What Australians need most, though, is some rain.
Okay, as you may notice from the random quote from today's Fly Report, one of the most entertaining details of Facebook is seeing women who would have never dated you in high school or college, posing half-naked. Whether it's in skimpy swimwear, or just without most of their clothes, girls on the Internet have this fascinating inclination to expose flesh while entirely forgetting who can see it. It actually reminds me of a fake motivational poster that I saw a few weeks back that said: "The cumulative number of girls who have posed nude on the Internet doubles every eighteen months." Probably right. Anyway, what brings this up in the first place is that on Sunday, as I was checking Facebook (I loathe MySpace), I noticed what appeared to be a very striking thumbnail of a girl I'd gone to college with, with whom I had enjoyed one date (eating Chinese food and seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) during the Summer of '03. She bailed on our second date, months later, and then went to France during my last year of school, and that was that. At any rate, this thumbnail appeared to be, and then turned out to be, a picture of her in nothing but her brassiere. Well, being as Puritanical and respectable as I am, you can imagine my reaction. If I remember correctly, it was something like this.
One of the ways that I'm working on learning Arabic is by trying to learn a word here or there from studying the Bible in Arabic. It's slow going, and it's a lot more copying than actual learning at the moment, but I've made some progress, and I'm hoping it's going to be a sort of snowball effect: the more words I learn, the more words I'll continue to learn, and it'll get easier. So, why am I posting this video?
That's a homemade music video of the song Drowning Man, from the classic U2 album War. Some of you (okay, probably none of you) may know that all of the members of U2 are Christians, and a lot of their lyrics are direct references to the Bible. In Seconds, they quote Isaiah 40:31:
So, that's one of the verses I've been trying to learn. Also, the song is pretty good, as is most of U2's catalog.
Finally, I'm getting some great ideas down in electrons for both of my spy novels, but mainly the first one. I've probably written six or seven pages in the last four or five days, and that's exceptionally exciting. It would be awesome to have the first one completely finished and squared away by the end of the year, although it could very well take me a bit longer than that. Very, very exciting.
Alright, folks, have a great Wednesday, and tune in tomorrow for Election Thursday!
Okay, first thing's first: Algeria has experienced its second bombing in a week at a police academy outside Algiers. (CNN, BBC, Guardian, Jerusalem Post). The attack was apparently a suicide VBIED (car bomb) attack near Boumerdes. No one has claimed responsibility, but the likely perpetrators are al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a group that I've written about previously. The attack killed forty-three and injured thirty-eight.
The DoD is apparently looking to purchase and employ manned UAVs. Yes, you read that right: manned unmanned aerial vehicles. Because of the sheer level of intelligence desired by American commanders, and the new capability of the Predator and Reaper UAVs to operate as an attack platform, their use in combat zones has skyrocketed. The military has decided to use conventional aircraft as surveillance platforms in an effort to shore up the need for intelligence and surveillance capabilities. Very interesting.
There's been a somewhat entertaining story floating around for the past few days: an Australian mayor in a remote mining town has made an appeal for ugly women to come to his town, where men outnumber women five to one. (BBC, Times, Fox) A lot of people are in an uproar about it, but when you think about it, it sort of makes sense in a twisted kind of way. The interesting thing about it is that elsewhere in Australia, ranchers have had enough trouble finding men to work their cattle ranches that they've seen the rise of "Jillaroos", or female cattle hands. (Times, BBC) What Australians need most, though, is some rain.
Okay, as you may notice from the random quote from today's Fly Report, one of the most entertaining details of Facebook is seeing women who would have never dated you in high school or college, posing half-naked. Whether it's in skimpy swimwear, or just without most of their clothes, girls on the Internet have this fascinating inclination to expose flesh while entirely forgetting who can see it. It actually reminds me of a fake motivational poster that I saw a few weeks back that said: "The cumulative number of girls who have posed nude on the Internet doubles every eighteen months." Probably right. Anyway, what brings this up in the first place is that on Sunday, as I was checking Facebook (I loathe MySpace), I noticed what appeared to be a very striking thumbnail of a girl I'd gone to college with, with whom I had enjoyed one date (eating Chinese food and seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) during the Summer of '03. She bailed on our second date, months later, and then went to France during my last year of school, and that was that. At any rate, this thumbnail appeared to be, and then turned out to be, a picture of her in nothing but her brassiere. Well, being as Puritanical and respectable as I am, you can imagine my reaction. If I remember correctly, it was something like this.
The Fly: Hmmmm... Well isn't that interesting.When I got back from church later that day (yes, church), she'd either hidden or taken down the picture. Again, fascinating. Maybe she'd been drunk-uploading the previous evening, as opposed to drunk dialing? Who's to say... Certainly not me, of course. However, the image will stay securely and safely locked down on my hard drive. Thanks, Facebook!
The Fly: *click*
The Fly: *save*
One of the ways that I'm working on learning Arabic is by trying to learn a word here or there from studying the Bible in Arabic. It's slow going, and it's a lot more copying than actual learning at the moment, but I've made some progress, and I'm hoping it's going to be a sort of snowball effect: the more words I learn, the more words I'll continue to learn, and it'll get easier. So, why am I posting this video?
That's a homemade music video of the song Drowning Man, from the classic U2 album War. Some of you (okay, probably none of you) may know that all of the members of U2 are Christians, and a lot of their lyrics are direct references to the Bible. In Seconds, they quote Isaiah 40:31:
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
So, that's one of the verses I've been trying to learn. Also, the song is pretty good, as is most of U2's catalog.
Finally, I'm getting some great ideas down in electrons for both of my spy novels, but mainly the first one. I've probably written six or seven pages in the last four or five days, and that's exceptionally exciting. It would be awesome to have the first one completely finished and squared away by the end of the year, although it could very well take me a bit longer than that. Very, very exciting.
Alright, folks, have a great Wednesday, and tune in tomorrow for Election Thursday!
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