romunov’s blog et al

Reidblog posted an exerp from an interview with Iranian president via Der Spiegl.

I don’t think people not involved should take any credit for whatever “his country” did, may that be good or bad. No point in making someone ashamed/proud, they probably weren’t even born at the time. People just fail to get the point.
To put it into perspective; it’s like your dad killed someone, and you would be told to be ashamed of yourself and have to pay reparations for what your grandpa did.

At least that’s the way I see it.
I guess we have to ask ourselves, in the end, who benefits from crushing dissent and forbidden debate?

Commenting on the Haditha massacre and the eventual cover-up:

“No, I do not think it would have come out, and it’s unfortunate because this is how you lose the Iraqi people.”

No, that’s not the way you lose Iraqis. By killing them, you lose Iraqis. Physically and mentally, respectively.

link

For what its worth, Qurac sounds a lot like “penis” (but not as politely) in Slovene and probably a number of other Slavic languages.

Here’s the story:

“Superman and archvillain US President Lex Luthor tangled in 2003 over plans to invade the imaginary Middle Eastern country of Qurac, which was linked to weapons of mass destruction.”

link

You will notice that qurac is quite popular. Southern people just can’t hold back their lust for profanity.

… before I rush off to revise botany.

The insurgents have become quite skilled in killing US troops. They killed over 60 this month alone!

People have been calling for exit for a long time. But watch what you wish for. The move may not be west, but rather east…

There’s a debate over the Puddle about global warming, in my opinion largely thanks to big oil corporations. There are people who try to deflect the criticism by asserting that “they hate the industry”.
Well, I think nothing can be farther from the truth. The industry has brought us many good things (well, some might prove fatal), and now, the technology has advanced to the point where industry can be clean and relatively safe for most. However this means they need to invest more in “defences” and development, which means less money for rich old farts.
It’s all about the money, really.

I wonder, if they spent all the money devoted to Iraq (and eventually Iran) on various research, where would we be now? But I digress. Back to the subject of global warming (or, none like it hot!).

The 928 papers were divided into six categories: explicit endorsement of the consensus position, evaluation of impacts, mitigation proposals, methods, paleoclimate analysis, and rejection of the consensus position. Of all the papers, 75% fell into the first three categories, either explicitly or implicitly accepting the consensus view; 25% dealt with methods or paleoclimate, taking no position on current anthropogenic climate change. Remarkably, none of the papers disagreed with the consensus position.

Admittedly, authors evaluating impacts, developing methods, or studying paleoclimatic change might believe that current climate change is natural. However, none of these papers argued that point.

link

Looks like someone suggested that WRH article be deleted. The discussion could get interesting!

Some have been performing abortions for defects that could have been corrected.
Well, I don’t go on about the morality of such things, rather, I will link to a bit on how healthy lobsters shun their sick conspecifics. It’s the way natural selection works. If you avoid a sick subject, your chances of getting the disease are smaller, hence more chance of survival. It would seem such tactics work out. Natural selection can work the other way too. In the end, what works best for the population persists, and what doesn’t, goes into oblivion.

I guess I could track paralells to the abortion issue. Making defected babies can, at this point, go both ways. They can be good for a society, or not. Only time will tell, though.
Mutations can sometimes be good. Scientist beliefe, that a certain mutation allowed a “monkey” to walk on two hind legs most of the time. They assume, that such animal was able to carry more food, or had some other advantage over others. This perhaps gave it sexual advantage, and natural selection played its course.

The walking biped could have been a weirdo at the time, but look at us today.

In any case, birth defects will in my opinion, be on the rise. With all available synthetic materials, exhaust fumes and radiation, things will get… interesting, to put it charitably. Cancer and defects in Iraq have gone up considerably since the invasion, and I would bet my farm that it’s not because of greasy popcorn.

I don’t know what all the fuss is all about. I will shut up when they offer something similar to a nation already possessing nuclear weapons. End the hypocracy NOW.

Jabing may not be for you!

National post has published a “retraction”, an apology if you will, about the fake Iranian story where Jews and others would have to wear Nazi style badges. Look who coocked everything up:

Apologizing to the Iranian government and nation, the National Post, in its Wednesday edition, admitted that the story had been concocted by a Jewish human rights group based in Los Angeles and confirmed by two Iranian exiles in Canada who told the paper they had heard the same story from their contacts in Iran.

You won’t hear this from anyone, ever. I wonder if MEMRI had anything to do with this?

another post^post (post on post), this time by kvatch @ blognonymous

I used to watch a lot of TV as a little boy. Too mach, some said. I mostly watched cartoons. I was about 12-14 of age. We used to have Sky One, Sky Movies et al, but then our cable provider chickened out and unplugged it, because they used cracked d-card. So, we went from a lot of good programs to zero. Then all of a sudden Cartoon Network came online. I loved the program - for a little while. Then I saw all the cartoons - 10 times, and things got “a bit” boring. I switched to other channels like Animal planet and even more Discovery. Then my “phase-out” era started. It ended when I got broadband around 2002. I really haven’t “watched” TV since.

My experience has left me, if nothing else, with basic knowledge of English. Something my younger brother and sister failed to do.
In school, I got poked a lot about watching cartoons and got all sort of shit from my classmates. Well, it soon paid off, because I was top in my English class with no real problem (I never studied for tests and was always first one to volunteer for oral exam).

I guess English has shaped me into a person I am today. I don’t know how would I live without it. Slovene language is used by nearly 2 million people - which is pretty small. I don’t know how people live without English - it seems like a handycap to me.

Nuff rambling, off to do something more productive.

post on post:

It would be kinda lame to have THREE members of one family run as presidents (and get “elected”), all males, mind you. It would make sense if they were born leaders, but instead are only born rich, and getting richer with every sprung tooth.

link @ another day in the empire

Speaking of presidents, I just remembered a conversation on some IRC channel about some person from Arizona. May god have mercy on his soul:

< taskforce > Damn, these rainbows in CFG are harder to kill than Dick Chaney’s hunting buddies.
< Hideki > sorry, I dont get that one
< taskforce > Oh come on. You must know he shut his hunting partner accidentally.
< taskforce > And the dude didn’t die.
< Hideki > no, im not familiar with it
< @Chaos_Lord> * taskforce falls dead.
< taskforce > Vice president dick chaney a couple months ago accidentally shot his bird hunting partner in texas.
< Hideki > ah
< Hideki > never heard of it
< Hideki > and in all actuality, I never even knew the vice-presidents name
< @Chaos_Lord> ….. Hideki is a 38 year old Arizona resident…

Here’s a funny clip from Ace ventura (you know, the movie). I thought it was pretty funny.

This worm (Driloleilus americanus) is one neat creature. It’s totally white and smells like lilies. Only a few sightings have been reported - discovery in 1897 and later in 1978 and 2005.
To make things square, I found a green earth worm.

link
link #2

… I do question the official occount of the events that took roots after the war.

While it’s flattering that you did a whole post about the denying, I would like to note that had the issue been settled, and the “holocausters” had irrefutable proof of the mass gassings and so forth, we wouldn’t have this conversation.
If the holocaust “deniers” are so wrong, why do they drag them from court to court, deny them legal council and smear them in every way they can, if they’re wrong? Wouldn’t it be easier and more practical to just discredit them by pointing to FACTS?

For instance, one of the argument I’ve heard is piles of shaven hair. Well why wouldn’t there be? Typhus was plaguing the camps. It’s “flee-born”, so the best way to prevent fleas from biting you is to shave all your hair so they can’t take refuge. Another good measure is to fumigate clothes, bedding, whathave you. At the time, Zyklon-B was widely used.

I would also like to point at the chemical analysis done a few decades ago. They found minimal amounts of Zyklon-B (cianide derived substance, along with some other stuff). Fortunately, they did found huge amounts of it in Auschwitz. I’ll leave it up to you to find out in what building.

There’s many more examples like this, well described in David Cole’s visit to the Auschwitz in early nineties.

I would also like to point out to Benjamin Freedman’s speech from sixties, or something thereabout. I’ve always wondered what made Germans so susceptable to Hitler’s ravings, and I think he puts it well into perspective.

Probably the best source of information about the care of inmates of labor camps is the ICRC report (see here).
They do report that the prisoners were in bad shape, but mostly due to food and medicine shortage. Some might know that Germany was in mids of a brutal war at the time, and they couldn’t spare as much food as they wanted. In fact, some prisoners even protested against Allied bombings that interrupted food supply.

It’s all out there, one just needs the will to find it.

The title is from Green day’s Boulevard of broken dreams, if anyone wondered…

This should be interesing:

Also known as Eckbom syndrome, delusional parasitosis is a psychiatric disorder in which patients fervently believe their bodies are infected by skin parasites that do not exist.

link

It kinda reminds me of mass delusions in the middle ages when people ate bread from mold-infected wheat. The mold produces an alkaloid that resembles LSD.

Kudos to Samuel Weinstein for donating blood to a little boy during surgery only to return and proceed with the operation.

That’s it, no more monkey sex for this peep.

I hate sports, especially team games, but I just might watch the World Cup, it might get interesting Isn’t it interesting that Israel is always able to tell about a terrorist attack forehand?

US car makers keep making bad shit. GM recalled 30k corvettes.

Like I said a few days ago, Iraq is no turist destination. Athletes have been shot for wearing shorts. This is why I think Iraq should have only rocks and sticks. They’re still in the Dark ages, geesh.

That reminds me, I just got lust to play settlers 4. Unfortunately, I don’t have the game at home. Just as well, I need to study anyway.

Joy of life is to be exposed to DU dust. This is what awaits YOUR kids. DU dust is easily airborn, and some (unofficial) reports have recorded it in India and England. Way to go, Homo sapiens.

It would appear that no Arab names were on planes that crashed on the day of September eleventh.

“Anti-semitism”

Another nice post from Daniel about paper flytraps.
Next to being harmful, these traps are worthless. I often laugh at people who place them OUTSIDE, where influx of insects is enormous. People just fail to grasp that this is THE biggest group of animals on this planet, if they wanted, they could very well eat us alive. The way to deal with this is to learn to live with them. And give them no reason to multiply profusely.

Went butterfly and grass hunting today. Click “more” for… well, more!
(more…)

The US is waving red flags that they’re going to bomb Iran. I guess there’s no country in the world that can stop this non-sense, the best Iran can do is try to defend itself with shooting a lot of thingies in the sky. I guess the people of US could tar and feather the baboon who’s about to plunge them into another wreckless war that will probably destroy their government (national dept will hit rock ceiling eventually). I’m no economist and I don’t know if that would work, but replacing the majority of administration and nationalizing key infrastructure (banks look good) could perhaps aid in the dire situation they’ve gotten themselves into. I fear the support for such an action is low, with most people “having it well” for the time being. Really sad that the dog has to bite you in the ass before you take action. I wonder if xanex has anything to do with the current lethergy, a lot of adults and even kids are high a lot of the time on it, or similar drugs.

Another thing to nationalize is the pharmasutical companies. Health should not be in hands of greedy old men who can’t get an erection, and the only thing that is stopping them from liquifying human organs is good will.

But, I guess anti communism propaganda during the cold war paid off. They will eventually learn that the only way to live peacefuly is to share, at least a little. Do onto others what they do to you.

Which brings me to my next point. I’ve been thinking a lot about the way I think, and why. I can find only a few other people who can compare to what I think (that I know of). I’ve come to a conclusion, that my values are actually pretty similar to what Jesus allegedly preached (or his homies) preached. What I did was gave a bit of twist. I took out the religious part and what’s left is just nice clean morals, washed at 45°, dried over a fan.

I’ve met a lot of people who say they’re religious, go to Church and all, yet they fail to comfort to even the simplest ideals set forth in a package that comes as a “religios person” (I’m presuming here, bare with me). They belive in this or that, but they don’t believe in holding one’s legs together up till the wedding night. Probably a lot more examples…
People will do what pleases them, with little regard for others (like smoking, for instance). In my opinion, very childish behaviour, and not very safe, either. If everyone grabs what they want (=! need), we’ll end up with scourged Earth.

Piss ya all!

p.s.
I won’t apologize for a lenghty post, reading is not THAT hard. I do understand people who’re on a tight schedule. Speaking of which, I got to go buy groceries for my grandma, study a lot of botany and perhaps squeeze some guitar playing somewhere. Perhaps my books have arrived today (not likely), my day would be sealed - I would just HAVE TO read Pegasus bridge!

This is from Progress report mailing list:

White collar crime prosecutors will remain busy because “fraud in the workplace is alive and well in the post-Enron era.” The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners calculated the U.S. lost $638 billion from fraud in 2005. (Up from $600 billion in 2002.) PricewaterhouseCoopers found that since 2003, worldwide fraud losses have increased 50 percent.

I wonder if they included the tax cuts.

And just a little to think about for our American friends who bitch about “high” gas prices.
They pay about (national average) $2,88 per gallon. We here pay about $4,7 per gallon. Our average income is about $660 (roughly $8k/year) which, by American standards, classifies us as poor. So don’t you be bitching (even politicians) that poor people and even middle class won’t be able to afford higher gas prices to drive to work.

ROFL! I had to laugh when I read that DeLay lead item is Colbert’s report on Greenwald, where he (Colbert) plays a conservative. Also, check out his gig at the correspondence dinner and see for yourself what kind of person Colbert probably is. Oh, the irony…

Just in time to stem the tide of ballooning public suspicion of the official story of 9/11 sparked by the newly released Pentagon tapes, the newly camera shy Osama bin Laden takes full responsibility for 9/11!

link

I think it was OBL’s first tape after 9/11 where he claims he had nothing to do with 9/11.

Canadian newspaper writes a retraction on fabricated story about the Iraninan “nazi” patches.

I wonder how long will it take before they cyanide So even if Israel unilaterally attacks Iran (with no evidence that they’re building a nuke), GWB will stand in Iran’s way?
The logic behind Israel’s desire to stop anyone from having nukes has always failed the smell test with me. There is some evidence about the Israel’s nuke program, yet they somehow don’t take that into account when it comes to dealings with other countries (the one’s they’re not trying to build a wall around). Hypocracy at its peak.

Iranian students have a bit bigger problems than Slovene.

And know who is filling the pockets of American politicians.

qrswave: Bush gets A+ from Olmert
And isn’t it convenient, that US troops are exactly between Iran and Israel? What are the odds, huh?

Added Damien on the blogroll. A lot of 9/11 stuff.

Lew has a nice piece on THE DECIDER.

Janez Potocnik has brought to my attention the ITER project. Looks like just what we need.

ITER is an international project to construct and operate an experimental fusion reactor aiming at proof of the scientific and engineering feasibility of the fusion which is expected to be an ultimate source of energy for human kind with almost inexhaustible supply of the fuel and environmental friendliness. About 10 years of construction and 20 years of operation are foreseen.

There are some promising countries involved, including India and China. From what I read, both countries together produce 500.000 graduates per year. Just to give you a general idea of how much that is, the US produces about 15.000 (probably lower, could be 12 or 13k, but I don’t remember exactly). This is also one of the reasons US and other companies are moving to China and India - labor is cheaper and more experienced.