Musical Interlude from the Andes

Chicom Cybercrime and Western Stupidity

"the capitalists will sell us the rope to hang them."

VI Lenin on the often moral flexibility of businessmen.

They (Capitalist) will furnish which will serve to support of the Communist Party in their countries and, by supplying us materials and technical equipment which we lack, will restore our military industry, necessary for our future attack against our suppliers. To put it in other words, they will work for the preparation of their own suicide.

VI Lenin, fully footnoted quote in

Respectfully quoted: a dictionary of quotations.

We have already been suffered through one Cold War. Now because some short sighted stupidity of bottom feeders another Cold War, at least, is due. In today's Globe & Mail there are two competing stories about pleasures and pains of doing business in the territory currently controlled by the Chinese Communist Regime. In the hard news section is a scary story, Foreign journalists in China target of computer attack. In the aptly named business section of the Globe & Mail, ROB, is a more upbeat story of the China trade, Interac ABMs to accept Chinese debit cards.

Screens scrapes of both articles after the jump. The G&M only allows access to the old articles for a limited time.

Jon Stewart Fails a Nerd Test

On tonight's episode, 9/27/09, Jon Stewart had on Bruce Bueno de Mesquita to discuss his book The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future. He is political scientist who developed methods to predict near term events with amazing accuracy. When Jon asks Bruce if he can predict anything Bruce denies he "is any Hari Seldon". The reference flies over the head Jon.

Hari Seldon is the Asimov character who creates The Foundation in The Foundation series.

Bad nerd. Bad nerd.

Comic Book Guy would be disappointed.

Map of the Inbred

(from consang.net a consanguinity/endogamy resource site.)

One of stereotypes about Appalachia is that it is filled violent retarded rednecks. In reality Appalachia is not a hotbed for cousin marriage despite folklore. On the other hand in the Arab/Muslim world, isn't it sad when cousins marry, has in reality all the negative stereotypes associated with Appalachia. The region, the Arab/Muslim world, filled with inbred, retarded, angry, violent racists, see Rage Boy.

"Pay No Attention" to the Crazy Guy

Oh, I'm sorry.
Is suicide taboo.
Gosh, if broken a rule on my first day I'll kill myself

House MD, (damaged goods),
dealing with the damaged goods of group.
House S06E01,E02

More about House the drugie on this review of his cases on Television Without Pity.

House is so smart he can see through the mundane and jump to the most ludicrous conclusion possible, which, of course, is usually the correct one. And that's why he gets to be high at work and you don't.

Too Handicapped to have a Handicap

He was a great account man.
A prodigy.
Could talk a Scotsman out of a penny.
Now that's all over.
English Suit #1

I don't know if that's true.
Don

The man is missing a foot.
How is he going to work.
The can't walk.
English Suit #2

The doctors say
he'll
never


golf again.
English Suit #1

Discussing Guy Mackendick maimed in
freak lawnmower accident, Mad Men S03E06

Bellum Stellae

(link from MaskedPickle on
AH.com thread Photos from Alternate Worlds.)

Soviet / American Anthem Mashup

While following up a story on slashdot about Russian attempts to enforce their IP for the AK47 design I ended up on a page of Russian/Soviet anthems. Here is a version of the American anthem the Star Spangled Banner sung to the tune of the Soviet Anthem — by Iron Curtain. To me this song like everything associated with Stalin is tainted. It is an anthem not of dying for your country, or living for it, by the anthem to be sung while being murdered by your country for some grand and meaningless purpose.

Update
Repaired the broken link.
09/21/08

Battle of The Atlantic Resources

(U-boat bunker at La Pallice / La Rochelle

© Pascal Blijkers - 2007 )

I found a great site devoted to Uboats and to the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII, uboats.net. The above is part of series of images of an abandoned UBoat pen in France. Also listed is the naval resources and losses on both sides. As the site is named it has more informational on Uboats than on any other navy or ship type. Some of the detailed listed is convoy battles, events of the day, biographies, ship histories.

This makes me want to fire up my favorite uboat game and play all night.

Latest Plague Game on Newgrounds - American Swine

Pandemic: American Swine is a plague game focusing on swine flu in the US. It is based current characteristics of a variant of H1N1 emerging in Mexico and spreading to nearby by border states.

Have fun. The first time I played this game I wiped out the Americans. The earth will come later.

Advice for Teens

Rachel, did you just throw up?

...

I tried, but just don't have the gag reflex.

One day when you're older that will turn out to be a gift.

Student and Counselor in Glee S01E02

"Used" Houses

It's great but there are nine foreclosures on our street. Why can't we buy one of those? They're half the price.

Will Schuester

I'm not raising our baby in a used house. They're not clean.

Terri Schuester

The Schuesters in Glee S01E02

Sawdust Furniture

Stools and coffee tables made with sawdust and resin. See Core77, This Just Inbox: Furniture made from wood shavings and resin, for full story.

True Stories about LA Organized Crime

LA is the birthplace of the hard boiled detective story. I never really understood the evolution of this genre and why it first appeared in LA rather than New York or Berlin or Paris or Cleveland. In this discussion on KRCW program, Politics of Culture, two true crime historians delve into the organized crime history of Los Angles. Instead of having working class gangs based in ethnic loyalties and/or working class work sites like the docks, trucking or waste management. The mob in LA was based in the mayor's office, the police department and the chamber of commerce. A ruling class mob.

As an aside in the movie Pleasantville the town isn't run by an elected civic government but by a self-selected Chamber of Commerce.

Ancient Language Maps

In a Google quest to understand a new security protocol I came across a scholarly group that studies Indo-European. The above, distribution of IE languages in 500 AD, is a part of a series ethno-linguistic maps of Indo-European. There is also an Indo-European Etymological Dictionary. And many books available with free PDFsL like this one, A Grammar of Modern Indo-European, which includes this description of the "widely accepted deities".

• Djḗus Patḗr is believed to have been the original name of God of the Daylight Sky and the chief god of the Indo-European pantheon. He survives in Greek Zeus (genitive case Diòs), Latin Jupiter, Sanskrit Dyaus/Dyaus Pita, Baltic Dievas, Germanic Tiwaz (ON Tyr, OHG Ziu), Armenian Astwatz,and the Gaulish Dispater (c.f. also deus pater in the Vulgate, e. g. Jude 1:1).
  

• Pltaw Mātḗr (Dhghōm) is believed to have been the name of an Earth Mother goddess, Skr. Prthivi. Another name of the Indo-European Mother-Earth would be Dhghōm Mātḗr, as in Albanian Dhe Motë, Avestan Zamyat, Slavic Mati Zemlja, Lithuanian Ţemyna, Latvian Zemes Mate, maybe Greek Dēmēter.
  

• A Thunder God, possibly associated with the oak, and in some traditions syncretized with Djḗus. A name Pérqunos root per-q- or per-g- is suggested by Balto-Slavic *Perkúnos, Norse Fjörgyn, Albanian Perëndi and Vedic Parjanya. An onomatopoeic root tar is continued in Gaulish Taranis and Hittite Tarhunt. A word for ―thunder‖ itself was (s)tene-, continued in Germanic *Þunraz (thunder personified), and became Thor.
  

• Áusōs is believed to have been the goddess of dawn, continued in Greek mythology as Eos, in Rome as Auror-a, in Vedic as Ushas, in Lithuanian mythology as Aušra or Auštaras, in Armenian as Astghik and possibly also in Germanic mythology as Eastre.
  

Hitler as Emo

"The cover to early Emo artist Adolf Hitler's self titled album, he is credited with being the first Emo, giving it's name, and starting the new genre."

From Rattslinger in AH.com's
"Photos from Alternative Worlds".

The Appeal of The Panzer

“…I asked myself why German armour has long held its fascination for those of us predisposed to such things in the first place. I believe it is because they looked the part: capable, efficient and above all, lethal. One can imagine the Panther, with it’s sloping armour and vaulting drive sprockets, ranging over the battlefield, stiff-arming it’s opponents with it’s ‘75’ until the odds against them simply became overwhelming…” Bill Auerbach - introduction to ‘Last of the Panzers’, Arms & Armour Press 1984

Quoted on the homepage of Schwerpunkt, a military modeling site.

Auschwitz with Dolls and Action Figures

While looking on flickr this image pops out. It looks like someone staged a scene from Auschwitz with dolls and action figures. The photo is from guido z's photo stream.

Action figures are dolls for boys.

Don't Make Your Salt Shaker Cry

Canadian Army Mines and Boobytraps Manual

I am reading Canadian military Mines and Boobtraps, 1999 on Wikileaks right now. In a section about detecting minefields lists among other indicators these these signs :

f. empty containers of mines and components or explosive
packaging, wrapping and seals which may have been left
deliberately and booby trapped;
g. human and livestock corpses;

In a later section about dogs to detect mines it lists among other "unavoidable limitations".

(3) inexplicable off day in a dog.

The correct procedure for search individual mines in a minefield is laid out as.

"Ferro-magnetic objects should not be used to prod for mines, except in an operational emergency where it is deemed that the risk of personal injury due to accidental detonation is less than the operational risk."

The manual lists how to arm , disarm and place the mine various mines Canada had in its inventory at the time. The claymore helpfully has “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY” written on the side that faces the enemy so that it always sited with “FRONT TOWARD ENEMY”.

New Paper Based Image Editing Program

The people at Worth1000 has created their own web based suite of image editing tools called Aviary. They have just a new module called Crane which what previously could only be done on a computer. This announcement has more than a passing resemblance to a Swedish Photoshop ad that recreated the layout in real life, see Reality as Photoshop.

Malaysian Employers Complain About "Expensive" Employees

In many developed countries the average industrial wage tracks pretty closely to GNP per capita, as example here is a report with the Irish Republic's industrial wage. However in Malaysia employers have so hated the idea of paying people enough to live on that want to import workers form Bangladesh and other poverty stricken areas, Foreign Employees Limited, Malaysia Is Suffering Through a Labor Shortage, see Money for Nothing. For the record they don't a labor shortage but a shortage of people willing to accept crap wages. This also the reason that "business" Republicans in the US want there to a floating population of illegal aliens willing to accept crap wages.

There must be a rule of acquisition that everything is negotiable up or down, except wages for employees.

Malaysia
GNP per capita
$14,071
Industrial wage
650 to 700 ringgit ($183 to $197) per month
or $2196 to $2364 per year

as comparison
Ireland
GNP per capita
$49,095
Industrial Wage
$46604