Timing Error

FLASH FICTION WRITING CONTEST

Via io9, write a flash fiction story, five hundred words or less, inspired by spam in your inbox.

Cool.

"I'M TRYING TO SAVE THE PLANET"

A quote from Madam Speaker Pelosi.

Ecological economics is an interesting experiment; it will be fun seeing where it goes.

Farber and Bradley wrote a pretty good primer; but for the key writer (conceptualizer and modeler) I highly recommend Dr. Costanza's work.

Teasing out how, and what, becomes the Stewardship Paradigm (the rule setting agent) is a fun exercise.

...GOETH BEFORE, FALL, AND ALL THAT.

Pretty harsh criticism of Senator Obama's campaign, coming from the keyboard of the WAPOs Mr. Milbank.

BASIC SKETCH

Incorrect statement: "The purpose of State is to prevent wars".

Correct statement: "The purpose of State is to achieve national objectives short of war; the purpose of Defense is to achieve national objectives after war".

Somewhere, that all got lost.

FRACTIONAL RESERVE SOVEREIGNTY

The idea would work something like Fractional Reserve Banking: governments would keep enough sovereignty to stay solvent, and return the rest to the citizens for use. Or something like that.

The idea sends a tingle up my libertarian leg.

Anyways, a survey:

One town, many states.

Seasteading (via Opiniojuris)

A Thousand Islands (via Neatorama)

And maybe a thousand worlds: plutoids (those bastards are out there; we'll lasso them eventually :)

(Comparison from Solar Views; image by Calvin J. Hamilton).

It will be interesting to noggin out how all that would work.

BETWEEN THE PEN AND THE KEYBOARD

I've just finished downloading my first audiobook. I'm very excited (typing on my macbook air) about the incipient rumors of a mac tablet. I love my technology, and yet...

I love the written word. On hard paper. And pens.

Somewhere in the mail is a writing kit and and a 3 x 5 card holder, from these great folks:

I like to write, but I do not do enough of it. Hopefully, that will change.

Did some research on paper. Found out, well, you can't buy vellum or parchment at the local store. Interesting history. You can do great stuff with it, like illuminated manuscripts. I wish I had the time to do something like that.

Last, I want a writing desk.

I don't see my self turning into a luddite; I do see myself wanting to hold something permanent.

FASTER PLEASE: EVE UNVEILED

Burt Rutan unveils the first of, I hope, many, varied, slingshots towards the stars:

IT IS DONE

I do not think i'll ever take two classes at once: man, that was grueling. Add to it, I have an econ professor from the Austrian School and an essentially Neomalthusian geopolitics professor...well, my head was set to explode. On thing I did learn? Socialism/Communism? That's yesterdays news. 

You want power, control, money and wealth, then ecological economics is the game to be in; why, we are going to have to make up a new actor just to describe the phenomena.

FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: THE MAN OF SCRIPT

My Flash Fiction Friday for today. I'll have to wait for the internet to pay fair before I can fix the formatting (UPDATE: fixed).

Wendell bent over the leather bound book, in the reading room of the New York Public Library.

He dipped his quill into the inkwell and brought the pen over the clear, crisp, parchment page. He hesitated a moment, then wrote:

“The end…”

He paused.

Romulus Wendell Jones was old, at least in the telling of his body. His back ached, his shoulders were stiff and his knees complained. He’d lived on good life or several mediocre ones; it was all in the telling. Wendell was neither famous nor rich. He’d never left New York; the city held everything to be seen and anything to be done. Wendell embraced New York as he had embraced life; with anger and bitterness, with joy and laughter, with growth and with understanding. The story of the city was very much the story, writ large, of Wendell, a simple man who now sat bent, over a leather bound book, in the reading room of the New York Public Library.

 

Continue reading "FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: THE MAN OF SCRIPT" »

Probably the same way I do: Michael Yon sends a dispatch to your email box. 

We have won the war in Iraq.  By "we" I mean the Coalition and the Iraqis.  Unless there is some unexpected reversal, what lays ahead is the challenge of building a better Iraq.  There is still violence...
 
Personally, my optimism has never been higher for Iraq.

Iraq is a hell of alot quieter than it was a year ago. But don't take my word; Yon links to stats (.ppt). 

Slide five is particularly hopeful.

I'm listening to Senator Obama for the first time, live. No snippets, no interpretation.

It is a singularly bad speech; he needs to fire his speech writer.

One note, because it intersects with a discussion I had in class, we will have wars long after we leave the commodity of oil behind. Okay?

UPDATE: Broadband and cheap College as a response to 9/11?

1. Supporting surge misses broader strategic picture.

2. Petreaus stud. Troops cool.

3. Iraqi leaders have not met benchmarks.

4. Al Maliki calls for withdrawal. Quotes LTG Dubik. Rehashing NYT editorial.

5. President Bush and Senator McCain want to stay in Iraq. Unwilling to put smackdown on Iraqi politicians.

6. Embracing broader war on terror? 

7. True sucess in Iraq will not take place in surrender. True success when we leave. Achievable goal.

8. Need comphrehensive plan.

9. New mission: end war. Careful getting out as getting in; 16 month timeline.

10. Qoutes a bunch of years.

11. Keep residual force in Iraq as long as Iraq makes political adjustments.

12. We will make tactical adjustments; bug out of volatile areas last.

13. New coalition; Iraq's neighbors. Pushes stability.

14. No permanent bases in Iraq.

15. Succeed when every government in Arab world has embassy; government service to some kid in Basra.

16. Increasing ground forces by 65,000.

17. Senator McCain indefinite; lot of moolha spent.

18. I want out. I will end war as President.

19. Central front not in Iraq. Invades Pakistan and sends more troops to Afghanistan. 

20. Next attack will come from same region; we have five times the number of troops in Afghanistan.

21. Says NATO troops behaving heroically [Hmmmm....]

22. Two BDEs to Afghanistan. Kick our allies to fight. Nation building in Afghanistan. 1 Billion dollars to Afghanistan. Mentions poppy growers. Commitment to Afghanistan is enduring. More UAV, Cross border incursions. Demand more from Pakistan. Triple non-military aid to Pakistan. 

23. Securing all Nuclear material. Says President led us into a misguided war. Worry about failure of NPT (who?). Leading global effort to secure loose Nukes. Develop new defenses against new threat (bioweapons and cybering).

24. America seeks world with non nukes.

25. Jumping to Russia. Make nice with Russia. 

26. Keeping our obligations will give us credibility with Iran. Prevent Iran nukes is a vital goal. No tool of 'statecraft' [Nuance word] off table. Aggressive, principled diplomacy. Euro's doing great. 

27. Will meet with Iran's leader. choice: abandon nukes, terror, threats, then you get stuff. If you refuse, then sanctions, UN and other stuff. Threat of mounting pressure.

28. Goal Four: ending tyranny in our time. We ship 700 million bucks/day [sounds low] to terror dudes. Danger almost as bad as Global Warming [his speechwriter sucks!!!! too many themes and jumps]. He will end dependence on foreign oil. 15 billion/year to put America on Green-topia. Solar, wind, biofeuls, coal and nukes. Global action, global challenge. Reach out to China and India. 

29. Goal Five: weeeeeeeeeeeh. Damn. Ok, more alliances. New era of international cooperation. Good luck. UN reform; make it more perfect. Deepen engagement in Arab/Isreali dustup [is that still going on?].

We gonna pay development $$$$ to the world. Links back to Marshal Plan from beginning; 50 billion dollars to global aid [don't spend it on social sciences].

30. Our moment is now. Something, something. 

GOING TO BATHROOM

31. We know what must be done. Join, friends, partner, leads friends anew.

Wow. I thought he was a transcendental speaker. Not impressed with the speeches structure; I think that harmed him. There's a reason (you are speaking at the Woddy Wilson Center?) speech writers use lists. About fifty percent of the speech was the NYTimes editorial.

Otherwise, like the Afghanistan thing. Everything else? Mehh.

Blogging this would have been better with a gin and tonic. Next up, Senator McCain:

Waiting for Godot McCain, I stumble across this on INDYMAC, via wikipedia:

The company was founded as Countrywide Mortgage Investment in 1985 by David Loeb and Angelo Mozilo^[5][6] as a means of collateralizing Countrywide Financial loans too big to be sold to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. In 1997, Countrywide spun off IndyMac as an independent company.^[3]"IndyMac" is a contraction for Independent National Mortgage Corporation. "Mac" is an established contraction for "Mortgage Corporation", as in "Freddie Mac", a very common contraction for Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

Angelo is all over the board, isn't he? So, basically, INDYMAC choked on all of Countrywide's bad loans? Damn, better sew my mattress back up. 

McCain is up:

1. Create jobs, reduce dependence on oil, but I want to talk about (Afghanistan?)

2. Bush administration failed course. I called for Surge/Counterinsurgency. Senator Obama called for retreat. Quotes SEN O that Iraq "effectively a civil war. I don't know anyone that believes [Surge] will make difference on ground". OK, cheap political rimshots [pause buttons]. Oooh, quotes SEN O's speech of moments ago, "I had no doubt Surge would succeed". I'm going to pause on the politics bit and wait for him to get to policy.

3. Afghanistan Status Q not acceptable. Success of surge in Iraq = way to win in Afghanistan. 

4. Success breeds success; failure breeds failure. I know how to win wars [shit, share the secret]. Three BDEs to A-Stan [lace up your boots, boys].

5. Need a nationwide civ/mil campaign focused on population security. [Agent oriented process]

6. Need to head back into RC South (Kandahar). Violated Unity of Command [true]. Need a warlord like The Rock. 

7. Will bring unity of command to Washington. Need new war czar for A-Stan [geez...what is it with these CZARS?].

8. A-Stan army too small/only 80,000 troops. We need to double size; world should pay. 

9. Trustfund to provide increase A-Stan army size.

10. Crops, trafficking targeted. Envoy, something.

11. Pakistan on notice. Co-opt tribes; health services, education, etc. McCain as CinC will smackdown terrorists.

12. Promises to get OBL. 

13. Concluding. Laying out resume......

Even with my hackneyed typing, about less than half as long and one major theme. Much better constructed speech. Obama's wordsmith could learn: you don't spend the last five minutes before a speech cramming in the kitchen sink.

Nine U.S. Soldiers were killed in battle; enemy losses are approximately 200 (unclear at this time). The historic ratio, at least since Somalia, has been 1 US Soldier dead for every 10 enemy killed. I don't now why, but that has been my general observation. So, reading the New York Times, what happened?

1. The FOB was positioned very close to historic hotspots (Kashmir, Peshawar, NWFTA)

See map.

2. Some commander, at some level, assumed risk. The FOB was not fully constructed (HESCOs make a huge difference). Here's an image inside FOB Some Random; even fully reinforced, they are tiny. But defensible, once fully constructed.

American and Afghan forces started building the makeshift base just last week, and its defenses were not fully in place, one of the senior allied officials said. In some places, troops were using their vehicles as barriers against insurgents.

3. The enemy overran the observation post.

At the lightly fortified observation post nearby, American soldiers came under heavy fire from militants streaming through farmland under cover of darkness. Most of the American casualties took place there, a senior American military official said.

4. The enemy was going for a strategic win. An overrun US base would be like manna from heaven for them. They failed.

It was the first time insurgents had partly breached...

Translation: they died in the wire.

5. Airpower played a dual role: 

He said some local people might have joined the militants since a group of civilians were killed in American airstrikes on July 4 in the same area. “This made the people angry,” he said. “It was the same area. The airstrikes happened maybe one kilometer away from the base.”

Airpower is tactically wonderful but strategically imprecise.

American ground commanders immediately called in artillery and airstrikes from a B-1 bomber, as well as A-10 and F-15E attack planes. Apache helicopter gunships and a remotely piloted Predator aircraft fired Hellfire missiles at the insurgents, military officials said.

Errata:

a. June 2005 casualty spike? The tits up known as OP Red Wings.

b. I keep hearing we need to shift forces to Afghanistan. There are approximately 17,000 non-US NATO Soldiers in Iraq; the bulk of whom will not/can not fight. The Afghanistan 'Surge' (I hate that word) of US Troops is designed to fill the gap the bulk of those non-US NATO Troops currently occupy. 

c. The enemies rear areas are in an ungoverned frontier area. Just wanted to point that out.

Great symbols:

Silly idea.

I was perhaps a little to harsh, criticizing Obamagirl in the post below. It's obvious she's a smart, driven individual with a phenomenal set of ideas about campaigning. Besides, in finding things to like about Amber Lee, I won't come off like this curmudgeon:

So, what is great about Amber Lee?

1. She supports the military.

2. She 'toons well:

3. She associates eclectically:

 

In fact, if someone were to hold a gun to my head and told me I had to pick a flickr babe to have relations with outside marriage, then my top three would be:

1. Obamagirl.

2, Candice Michele (flickr link NSFW)

3. Elizabeth Kucinich (subject to availability)

So, again, Ms. Ettinger: my apologies.

(I really should be writing my paper)

It shapes the narrative in odd ways. Senator Obama's Icon-fu is pretty powerful; I have not seen something like it in quite awhile:

Obama's Icon-fu can lead to embarrassing displays of affection:

Lee predicted Obama would be elected in November.

"When that happens, it will change everything. ... You'll have to measure time by `Before Obama' and `After Obama,'" Lee said during the panel. "It's an exciting time to be alive now."

Obama's Icon-fu can stop you from asking pertinent questions, like is ObamaGirl even literate?

Or more importantly, do you even care?

Obama's Icon-fu is a strange and powerful technique let loose upon the world. It will work some strange magic.

1. Cool (tongue in cheek) history of the Stickman at the Uncyclopedia:

The Stick men were first depicted hunting a buffalo. These drawings are believed to be done by a human, suggesting that humans and stick men worked together in a community, with Sticks doing the actual work and humans sitting around drawing amateur pictures. Stick men obviously played an important role in human life, and eventually grew beyond the needs of the humans and left the planet.

I love stickmen, thanks, in part, to the awesome XKCD.

2. WITFITB*: A word used to describe my frustration in switching versions between Office 2007 (WIN) and Office 2008 (MAC).

3. I concur: send the space station to Mars. It's high time we put the smackdown on the Martians (and no, my hostility towards Martians will not be moderated by the fact they do not exist)

3. Tasks remaining: Homework Assignment 7 Assignment 8, Test #1, Test #3, Article Review II, Essay II and a paper on Ecological Economics (it's not easy being green)

*Where In The Fu@@ Is That Button?

Venice looms large in my mind (along with paper, pens, erotic arts and electronics...go figure) and the popular imagination.

I love images of Venice, real and imagined, from around the world. Here's a roundup:

1. The original

2.Little Venice, Mykonos

(Scott Photos)

3.  Venice in London

4. Venice in Benin

5. Eco-Venice

6. Venice Cali

(updated to remove photo at owner's request)

7. More as I find them...

(OK...back to book learning.)

Interesting fact:

Gerd Arntz designed around 4000 signs, which symbolized key data from industry, demographics, politics and economy, for the visual language Isotype.

Including this early representation of Rosie the Robot:

More links at metafilter: Gert Arntz and the origin of the stick figure.

A blog cooperative:

Via Justwhatever:

Persia, busted shaping the narrative. Danger Room rounds up the responses. My fav:

(Their bufoonery would be hilarious except for the amount of people they kill.)

Been missing in action this week; I think it was a mistake to attempt two classes, work and everything else. I've got about five thousand words due for school, a test, homework, a paper for an obscure professional journal to edit and a paper for another obscure professional journal to write.

So, I'm doing what any rational being would: I'm taking four days off to get ahead of the ball.

But I did make sure to get out a flash fiction story for this week and work up a neat header for the story. I get points for that, right? Please enjoy...

The State Department blimp hovered over the Arctic wasteland.

 

That’s not right; in school we learned there are no true frontiers. Every scrap of earth has some purpose. Frontiers were what you got before boundaries; boundaries were what you got when people moved in and started setting up markers.

 

So, the State Department blimp hovered over the Arctic frontier.

 

And it was definitely a frontier. The Moscow Machine was up here and so was Union. Of course, we had a piece or State Department wouldn’t have sent my team into here.

 

Oil. The last great rush of the mid twenty-first century was on and folks were moving into the Arctic in record numbers.

 

Continue reading "FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: ...FOR OIL" »

I started adding some, well, what do you call them, Title Pictures, to some of my stories. 

First new one up tomorrow.

I guess I can now go on record as referring to 'powerpoint' as a 'powerful, graphics editing tool'.

Another neat 365 day project: Monsters.

Another DRB pinch.

Lazy as@ authoritarian dictatorships, not so cool.

Pinched from DRB

Could anything be more wholesome for your post Independence Day cooldown*?

A collection overtime from Marine PAOs. QOTD: "The military is not fascist; it's the organization of society along military lines thats fascist."

*Sure to make some heads explode.

I did.

It passed quietly, for which I am grateful.

Dark Roasted Blend kicks around some ideas on "reality hacking".

(unrelated pic, also from DRB and pretty damn cool)

The most excellent Conceptship Blog rounds up some great visions of the future:

Exhausting week; apologies for being wordy.

Please enjoy this week's flash fiction titled, simply:

“I’ve seen wonders, Van.” said Barry, simply. “I never thought, growing up, I’d be doing this.”

Van was leaning forward in is chair, both hands holding his phone steady, so he could see Barry and his wife, Brenda, in the full screen. Barry was facing the wall phone while Brenda worked an improbable looking control panel. Van was alone in the downstairs living room; his wife, Marla, was upstairs sleeping. Outside, the river rolled gently past their cabin. The Cascade Mountains framed the scene.

“You should come,” Barry added. 

‘You’ was such an imprecise word, Van thought to himself. ‘You’ could be plural or singular. We or I. Van was very concerned about the preciseness of text; text was his job.

“She’s dying, Barry.” Van said, finally.

Continue reading "FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: VAN AND MARLA" »

Pretty cool collection over at National Geographic. Scooter, here below, is my fave.

Damninteresting sucks me in with another great hook:

The water became as acidic as lemon juice, creating a toxic brew of heavy metal poisons including arsenic, lead, and zinc. No fish live there, and no plants line the shores. There aren’t even any insects buzzing about. The Berkeley Pit had become one of the deadliest places on earth, too toxic even for microorganisms. Or so it was thought.

Read it all.

*Basically my worldview in a nutshell: life lives.

HOW DO YOU KNOW A WAR IS OVER?

Probably the same way I do: Michael Yon sends a dispatch to your email box. 

We have won the war in Iraq.  By "we" I mean the Coalition and the Iraqis.  Unless there is some unexpected reversal, what lays ahead is the challenge of building a better Iraq.  There is still violence...
 
Personally, my optimism has never been higher for Iraq.

Iraq is a hell of alot quieter than it was a year ago. But don't take my word; Yon links to stats (.ppt). 

Slide five is particularly hopeful.

WOW...

I'm listening to Senator Obama for the first time, live. No snippets, no interpretation.

It is a singularly bad speech; he needs to fire his speech writer.

One note, because it intersects with a discussion I had in class, we will have wars long after we leave the commodity of oil behind. Okay?

UPDATE: Broadband and cheap College as a response to 9/11?

1. Supporting surge misses broader strategic picture.

2. Petreaus stud. Troops cool.

3. Iraqi leaders have not met benchmarks.

4. Al Maliki calls for withdrawal. Quotes LTG Dubik. Rehashing NYT editorial.

5. President Bush and Senator McCain want to stay in Iraq. Unwilling to put smackdown on Iraqi politicians.

6. Embracing broader war on terror? 

7. True sucess in Iraq will not take place in surrender. True success when we leave. Achievable goal.

8. Need comphrehensive plan.

9. New mission: end war. Careful getting out as getting in; 16 month timeline.

10. Qoutes a bunch of years.

11. Keep residual force in Iraq as long as Iraq makes political adjustments.

12. We will make tactical adjustments; bug out of volatile areas last.

13. New coalition; Iraq's neighbors. Pushes stability.

14. No permanent bases in Iraq.

15. Succeed when every government in Arab world has embassy; government service to some kid in Basra.

16. Increasing ground forces by 65,000.

17. Senator McCain indefinite; lot of moolha spent.

18. I want out. I will end war as President.

19. Central front not in Iraq. Invades Pakistan and sends more troops to Afghanistan. 

20. Next attack will come from same region; we have five times the number of troops in Afghanistan.

21. Says NATO troops behaving heroically [Hmmmm....]

22. Two BDEs to Afghanistan. Kick our allies to fight. Nation building in Afghanistan. 1 Billion dollars to Afghanistan. Mentions poppy growers. Commitment to Afghanistan is enduring. More UAV, Cross border incursions. Demand more from Pakistan. Triple non-military aid to Pakistan. 

23. Securing all Nuclear material. Says President led us into a misguided war. Worry about failure of NPT (who?). Leading global effort to secure loose Nukes. Develop new defenses against new threat (bioweapons and cybering).

24. America seeks world with non nukes.

25. Jumping to Russia. Make nice with Russia. 

26. Keeping our obligations will give us credibility with Iran. Prevent Iran nukes is a vital goal. No tool of 'statecraft' [Nuance word] off table. Aggressive, principled diplomacy. Euro's doing great. 

27. Will meet with Iran's leader. choice: abandon nukes, terror, threats, then you get stuff. If you refuse, then sanctions, UN and other stuff. Threat of mounting pressure.

28. Goal Four: ending tyranny in our time. We ship 700 million bucks/day [sounds low] to terror dudes. Danger almost as bad as Global Warming [his speechwriter sucks!!!! too many themes and jumps]. He will end dependence on foreign oil. 15 billion/year to put America on Green-topia. Solar, wind, biofeuls, coal and nukes. Global action, global challenge. Reach out to China and India. 

29. Goal Five: weeeeeeeeeeeh. Damn. Ok, more alliances. New era of international cooperation. Good luck. UN reform; make it more perfect. Deepen engagement in Arab/Isreali dustup [is that still going on?].

We gonna pay development $$$$ to the world. Links back to Marshal Plan from beginning; 50 billion dollars to global aid [don't spend it on social sciences].

30. Our moment is now. Something, something. 

GOING TO BATHROOM

31. We know what must be done. Join, friends, partner, leads friends anew.

Wow. I thought he was a transcendental speaker. Not impressed with the speeches structure; I think that harmed him. There's a reason (you are speaking at the Woddy Wilson Center?) speech writers use lists. About fifty percent of the speech was the NYTimes editorial.

Otherwise, like the Afghanistan thing. Everything else? Mehh.

Blogging this would have been better with a gin and tonic. Next up, Senator McCain:

Waiting for Godot McCain, I stumble across this on INDYMAC, via wikipedia:

The company was founded as Countrywide Mortgage Investment in 1985 by David Loeb and Angelo Mozilo^[5][6] as a means of collateralizing Countrywide Financial loans too big to be sold to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. In 1997, Countrywide spun off IndyMac as an independent company.^[3]"IndyMac" is a contraction for Independent National Mortgage Corporation. "Mac" is an established contraction for "Mortgage Corporation", as in "Freddie Mac", a very common contraction for Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

Angelo is all over the board, isn't he? So, basically, INDYMAC choked on all of Countrywide's bad loans? Damn, better sew my mattress back up. 

McCain is up:

1. Create jobs, reduce dependence on oil, but I want to talk about (Afghanistan?)

2. Bush administration failed course. I called for Surge/Counterinsurgency. Senator Obama called for retreat. Quotes SEN O that Iraq "effectively a civil war. I don't know anyone that believes [Surge] will make difference on ground". OK, cheap political rimshots [pause buttons]. Oooh, quotes SEN O's speech of moments ago, "I had no doubt Surge would succeed". I'm going to pause on the politics bit and wait for him to get to policy.

3. Afghanistan Status Q not acceptable. Success of surge in Iraq = way to win in Afghanistan. 

4. Success breeds success; failure breeds failure. I know how to win wars [shit, share the secret]. Three BDEs to A-Stan [lace up your boots, boys].

5. Need a nationwide civ/mil campaign focused on population security. [Agent oriented process]

6. Need to head back into RC South (Kandahar). Violated Unity of Command [true]. Need a warlord like The Rock. 

7. Will bring unity of command to Washington. Need new war czar for A-Stan [geez...what is it with these CZARS?].

8. A-Stan army too small/only 80,000 troops. We need to double size; world should pay. 

9. Trustfund to provide increase A-Stan army size.

10. Crops, trafficking targeted. Envoy, something.

11. Pakistan on notice. Co-opt tribes; health services, education, etc. McCain as CinC will smackdown terrorists.

12. Promises to get OBL. 

13. Concluding. Laying out resume......

Even with my hackneyed typing, about less than half as long and one major theme. Much better constructed speech. Obama's wordsmith could learn: you don't spend the last five minutes before a speech cramming in the kitchen sink.

BROKEN ARROW: AN AFTER ACTION REVIEW

Nine U.S. Soldiers were killed in battle; enemy losses are approximately 200 (unclear at this time). The historic ratio, at least since Somalia, has been 1 US Soldier dead for every 10 enemy killed. I don't now why, but that has been my general observation. So, reading the New York Times, what happened?

1. The FOB was positioned very close to historic hotspots (Kashmir, Peshawar, NWFTA)

See map.

2. Some commander, at some level, assumed risk. The FOB was not fully constructed (HESCOs make a huge difference). Here's an image inside FOB Some Random; even fully reinforced, they are tiny. But defensible, once fully constructed.

American and Afghan forces started building the makeshift base just last week, and its defenses were not fully in place, one of the senior allied officials said. In some places, troops were using their vehicles as barriers against insurgents.

3. The enemy overran the observation post.

At the lightly fortified observation post nearby, American soldiers came under heavy fire from militants streaming through farmland under cover of darkness. Most of the American casualties took place there, a senior American military official said.

4. The enemy was going for a strategic win. An overrun US base would be like manna from heaven for them. They failed.

It was the first time insurgents had partly breached...

Translation: they died in the wire.

5. Airpower played a dual role: 

He said some local people might have joined the militants since a group of civilians were killed in American airstrikes on July 4 in the same area. “This made the people angry,” he said. “It was the same area. The airstrikes happened maybe one kilometer away from the base.”

Airpower is tactically wonderful but strategically imprecise.

American ground commanders immediately called in artillery and airstrikes from a B-1 bomber, as well as A-10 and F-15E attack planes. Apache helicopter gunships and a remotely piloted Predator aircraft fired Hellfire missiles at the insurgents, military officials said.

Errata:

a. June 2005 casualty spike? The tits up known as OP Red Wings.

b. I keep hearing we need to shift forces to Afghanistan. There are approximately 17,000 non-US NATO Soldiers in Iraq; the bulk of whom will not/can not fight. The Afghanistan 'Surge' (I hate that word) of US Troops is designed to fill the gap the bulk of those non-US NATO Troops currently occupy. 

c. The enemies rear areas are in an ungoverned frontier area. Just wanted to point that out.

THIRD PARTY IDEAS?

Great symbols:

Silly idea.

APOLOGIES TO AMBER LEE

I was perhaps a little to harsh, criticizing Obamagirl in the post below. It's obvious she's a smart, driven individual with a phenomenal set of ideas about campaigning. Besides, in finding things to like about Amber Lee, I won't come off like this curmudgeon:

So, what is great about Amber Lee?

1. She supports the military.

2. She 'toons well:

3. She associates eclectically:

 

In fact, if someone were to hold a gun to my head and told me I had to pick a flickr babe to have relations with outside marriage, then my top three would be:

1. Obamagirl.

2, Candice Michele (flickr link NSFW)

3. Elizabeth Kucinich (subject to availability)

So, again, Ms. Ettinger: my apologies.

(I really should be writing my paper)

THE POWER OF ICONOGRAPHY

It shapes the narrative in odd ways. Senator Obama's Icon-fu is pretty powerful; I have not seen something like it in quite awhile:

Obama's Icon-fu can lead to embarrassing displays of affection:

Lee predicted Obama would be elected in November.

"When that happens, it will change everything. ... You'll have to measure time by `Before Obama' and `After Obama,'" Lee said during the panel. "It's an exciting time to be alive now."

Obama's Icon-fu can stop you from asking pertinent questions, like is ObamaGirl even literate?

Or more importantly, do you even care?

Obama's Icon-fu is a strange and powerful technique let loose upon the world. It will work some strange magic.

S. MANASAPIEN AND OTHER THOUGHTS

1. Cool (tongue in cheek) history of the Stickman at the Uncyclopedia:

The Stick men were first depicted hunting a buffalo. These drawings are believed to be done by a human, suggesting that humans and stick men worked together in a community, with Sticks doing the actual work and humans sitting around drawing amateur pictures. Stick men obviously played an important role in human life, and eventually grew beyond the needs of the humans and left the planet.

I love stickmen, thanks, in part, to the awesome XKCD.

2. WITFITB*: A word used to describe my frustration in switching versions between Office 2007 (WIN) and Office 2008 (MAC).

3. I concur: send the space station to Mars. It's high time we put the smackdown on the Martians (and no, my hostility towards Martians will not be moderated by the fact they do not exist)

3. Tasks remaining: Homework Assignment 7 Assignment 8, Test #1, Test #3, Article Review II, Essay II and a paper on Ecological Economics (it's not easy being green)

*Where In The Fu@@ Is That Button?

LA SERENISSIMA(S)

Venice looms large in my mind (along with paper, pens, erotic arts and electronics...go figure) and the popular imagination.

I love images of Venice, real and imagined, from around the world. Here's a roundup:

1. The original

2.Little Venice, Mykonos

(Scott Photos)

3.  Venice in London

4. Venice in Benin

5. Eco-Venice

6. Venice Cali

(updated to remove photo at owner's request)

7. More as I find them...

(OK...back to book learning.)

VISUAL ICONOGRAPHY

Interesting fact:

Gerd Arntz designed around 4000 signs, which symbolized key data from industry, demographics, politics and economy, for the visual language Isotype.

Including this early representation of Rosie the Robot:

More links at metafilter: Gert Arntz and the origin of the stick figure.

ARTJUMBLE

A blog cooperative:

AWESOME BODYPAINT

Via Justwhatever:

HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR

Persia, busted shaping the narrative. Danger Room rounds up the responses. My fav:

(Their bufoonery would be hilarious except for the amount of people they kill.)

FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: ...FOR OIL

Been missing in action this week; I think it was a mistake to attempt two classes, work and everything else. I've got about five thousand words due for school, a test, homework, a paper for an obscure professional journal to edit and a paper for another obscure professional journal to write.

So, I'm doing what any rational being would: I'm taking four days off to get ahead of the ball.

But I did make sure to get out a flash fiction story for this week and work up a neat header for the story. I get points for that, right? Please enjoy...

The State Department blimp hovered over the Arctic wasteland.

 

That’s not right; in school we learned there are no true frontiers. Every scrap of earth has some purpose. Frontiers were what you got before boundaries; boundaries were what you got when people moved in and started setting up markers.

 

So, the State Department blimp hovered over the Arctic frontier.

 

And it was definitely a frontier. The Moscow Machine was up here and so was Union. Of course, we had a piece or State Department wouldn’t have sent my team into here.

 

Oil. The last great rush of the mid twenty-first century was on and folks were moving into the Arctic in record numbers.

 

Continue reading "FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: ...FOR OIL" »

I started adding some, well, what do you call them, Title Pictures, to some of my stories. 

First new one up tomorrow.

I guess I can now go on record as referring to 'powerpoint' as a 'powerful, graphics editing tool'.

Another neat 365 day project: Monsters.

Another DRB pinch.

Lazy as@ authoritarian dictatorships, not so cool.

Pinched from DRB

Could anything be more wholesome for your post Independence Day cooldown*?

A collection overtime from Marine PAOs. QOTD: "The military is not fascist; it's the organization of society along military lines thats fascist."

*Sure to make some heads explode.

I did.

It passed quietly, for which I am grateful.

Dark Roasted Blend kicks around some ideas on "reality hacking".

(unrelated pic, also from DRB and pretty damn cool)

The most excellent Conceptship Blog rounds up some great visions of the future:

Exhausting week; apologies for being wordy.

Please enjoy this week's flash fiction titled, simply:

“I’ve seen wonders, Van.” said Barry, simply. “I never thought, growing up, I’d be doing this.”

Van was leaning forward in is chair, both hands holding his phone steady, so he could see Barry and his wife, Brenda, in the full screen. Barry was facing the wall phone while Brenda worked an improbable looking control panel. Van was alone in the downstairs living room; his wife, Marla, was upstairs sleeping. Outside, the river rolled gently past their cabin. The Cascade Mountains framed the scene.

“You should come,” Barry added. 

‘You’ was such an imprecise word, Van thought to himself. ‘You’ could be plural or singular. We or I. Van was very concerned about the preciseness of text; text was his job.

“She’s dying, Barry.” Van said, finally.

Continue reading "FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: VAN AND MARLA" »

Pretty cool collection over at National Geographic. Scooter, here below, is my fave.

Damninteresting sucks me in with another great hook:

The water became as acidic as lemon juice, creating a toxic brew of heavy metal poisons including arsenic, lead, and zinc. No fish live there, and no plants line the shores. There aren’t even any insects buzzing about. The Berkeley Pit had become one of the deadliest places on earth, too toxic even for microorganisms. Or so it was thought.

Read it all.

*Basically my worldview in a nutshell: life lives.

FLASH FICTION HOUSKEEPING

I started adding some, well, what do you call them, Title Pictures, to some of my stories. 

First new one up tomorrow.

I guess I can now go on record as referring to 'powerpoint' as a 'powerful, graphics editing tool'.

REMEMBER: THEY'RE NOT MONSTERS IF YOU CAN TAX THEM

Another neat 365 day project: Monsters.

Another DRB pinch.

AUTHORITARIAN DICTATORSHIPS COOL...

Lazy as@ authoritarian dictatorships, not so cool.

Pinched from DRB

AAAWH, CUTE: CHEERLEADERS AND MARINES

Could anything be more wholesome for your post Independence Day cooldown*?

A collection overtime from Marine PAOs. QOTD: "The military is not fascist; it's the organization of society along military lines thats fascist."

*Sure to make some heads explode.

ENJOY YOUR 4TH OF JULY

I did.

It passed quietly, for which I am grateful.

HOW'S THE METANARRATIVE THING GOING?

Dark Roasted Blend kicks around some ideas on "reality hacking".

(unrelated pic, also from DRB and pretty damn cool)

I COULD GET LOST IN THEIR WORLD

The most excellent Conceptship Blog rounds up some great visions of the future:

FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: VAN AND MARLA

Exhausting week; apologies for being wordy.

Please enjoy this week's flash fiction titled, simply:

“I’ve seen wonders, Van.” said Barry, simply. “I never thought, growing up, I’d be doing this.”

Van was leaning forward in is chair, both hands holding his phone steady, so he could see Barry and his wife, Brenda, in the full screen. Barry was facing the wall phone while Brenda worked an improbable looking control panel. Van was alone in the downstairs living room; his wife, Marla, was upstairs sleeping. Outside, the river rolled gently past their cabin. The Cascade Mountains framed the scene.

“You should come,” Barry added. 

‘You’ was such an imprecise word, Van thought to himself. ‘You’ could be plural or singular. We or I. Van was very concerned about the preciseness of text; text was his job.

“She’s dying, Barry.” Van said, finally.

Continue reading "FLASH FICTION FRIDAY: VAN AND MARLA" »

Pretty cool collection over at National Geographic. Scooter, here below, is my fave.

Damninteresting sucks me in with another great hook:

The water became as acidic as lemon juice, creating a toxic brew of heavy metal poisons including arsenic, lead, and zinc. No fish live there, and no plants line the shores. There aren’t even any insects buzzing about. The Berkeley Pit had become one of the deadliest places on earth, too toxic even for microorganisms. Or so it was thought.

Read it all.

*Basically my worldview in a nutshell: life lives.

SEE THROUGH LIFE

Pretty cool collection over at National Geographic. Scooter, here below, is my fave.

Evolve Beyotches!*

Damninteresting sucks me in with another great hook:

The water became as acidic as lemon juice, creating a toxic brew of heavy metal poisons including arsenic, lead, and zinc. No fish live there, and no plants line the shores. There aren’t even any insects buzzing about. The Berkeley Pit had become one of the deadliest places on earth, too toxic even for microorganisms. Or so it was thought.

Read it all.

*Basically my worldview in a nutshell: life lives.