Day: October 23, 2013

Notes from JWR:

This is the sad 30th anniversary of the Barracks Bombings, in Beirut. Two separate truck bombs took the lives of 299 U.S. and French servicemen, as well as five Lebanese civilians. — Today we present another entry for Round 49 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The $8,455 worth of prizes for this round include: First Prize: A.) Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate, good for any one, two, or three course. (A $1,195 value.) B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military …


The Bugs No One Talks About, by J.T.

Parasites effect a vast number of the world’s population, and they are seen as directly decreasing the productivity of people, and increasing the morbidity/mortality of affected persons.  I have witnessed numerous children afflicted with taeniasis (tapeworm), ascariasis (roundworm), and giardiasis while on a medical mission trip to a remote region in Peru.  The burden of parasitic infections in these children was immense and contributed to stunted growth, fatigue, and likely cognitive delays.  Though in North America we typically do not worry about parasitic diseases, this is only a recent phenomenon that has occurred in the past 60 to 80 years.  …


Letter Re: Constructing In-House Caches

I have just finished listening to the audiobook of your novel Expatriates with great enjoyment. Eric Dove does a great job voicing the various characters and, to this yank’s ear, a credible “Aussie” accent was required. I wanted to add a bit to the account of Chuck’s rifle hide behind wall paneling. I am a cabinet maker and have spent more than a few hours puzzling over the various problems and pitfalls of concealed storage. Several are present in Chuck’s solution. While I do not like Velcro (as it wears out, accumulates litter and makes noise) if dots are to …


Economics and Investing:

Faber: Fed’s QE Causing ‘Colossal Asset Bubble’ (Thanks to B.B. for the link.) Andre D. sent: Down and out: the French flee a nation in despair. Mike Williamson wrote to mention that it is pitiful to see young Frenchmen actively seeking job experience in Vietnam, because of the relative economic freedom versus socialist France. Also from Andre: Barroso in urgent push for extra €2.7bn Commission budget – EC no longer able to shoulder financial obligations, says parliament president Items from The Economatrix: Maguire Predicted Gold Surge – Now Says West Is Collapsing The Frightening Reality About What Is Happening In …


Odds ‘n Sods:

I find it interesting that Tom Hardy, the British actor who plays Max Rockatansky in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road movie (aka Mad Max 4) was born in 1977. That coincidentally was just one year before Mel Gibson was hired to play the original Mad Max. And Hardy was just four years old when the second movie in the series (The Road Warrior) was released. Mel Gibson reportedly has a cameo role in the new film as “The Old Drifter.”    o o o Pierre M. sent: Obama’s war: Afghan special forces commander defects with guns to insurgents    …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“Whether for good or bad, surveillance machines are going to get smarter. They’re already starting to recognise people’s faces in the street, and systems that spot abnormal behavior will not be far behind… Once connected to such intelligent systems, closed-circuit television (CCTV) will shift from being a mainly passive device for gathering evidence after a crime, to a tool for crime prevention…[The system works by detecting any behaviors that deviate from the ‘normal’ range of human behavior:] the computer recognises them as patterns. If anyone deviates from these patterns, the system sounds the alarm… it spots any abnormal behavior.” – …