Friday 12 December 2014

Israel complains to Thailand about Nazi representations


How incredibly ironic - Thai minister meets Israeli ambassador after Hitler gaffe in official film

It's Monty Python on Viagra and Ice

Israel - openly apartheid state and well known for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a country of people who have wrenched every shred of sympathy for the suffering of their ancestors from the western world, interminably

gets on Thailand's back for artistic investigation of Nazi symbolism

sheesh

I hear there's moves afoot to make Israel formally the Jewish home nation - excluding all others on the basis of some shady confusion between race, religion and Randian American pop-culture

What an insidious group of people - what gall to insist to anyone that holocaust education be mandatory in schools. Shouldn't the mandatory education be about the murderously biblical approach to the Palestinian people?

evil

p

Sunday 9 November 2014

The price of Marijuana in Thailand.


Did some simple calculations form the news item below.

They got 614 kilograms in 648 (supposedly kilo) sticks of compressed marijuana they valued at 9 million Baht.

so B9,000,000 / 648 = B13,888.89 per 0.95 kg stick which presumably go to a dealer network

assuming that dealers are selling in units of money eg B1000, B500, and say B200

let's say that you bought B1000 worth from a dealer

anything less than 72 grams (2.539 ounces) is profit

let's say that you only get half an ounce for that so the dealer makes 2 ounces in profit I (another 4 B1000 sales)

the dealer would potentially make up to 55K Baht if all his deals were for 1000 but i would not be surprised if they sell in smaller sizes in which case there would be more profit

that's, say, $2000 profit per stick

sounds like so very little to risk your freedom for - so nobody is really making big money out of it

except whoever gets the B9 million ($275,000)

p

ps, very rough yes and lots of assumptions but something to start with

pps

Another news report here suggests that the 1 kg sticks are worth more like 8,000 baht - so down line dealers are making even less than i calculated above. Either that or my street price calculations are not very good. If anyone out there actually knows how much the street price is (and for what weight) i'd be interested to know.




Marijuana worth B9m seized

Police on Saturday seized 614 kilogrammes of marijuana with a street value of more than 9 million baht and arrested a 34-year-old man in Chumphon. 
Officers manning a checkpoint on Phetkasem Road in Pathiu district of the southern province made the discovery when they stoped a suspicious-looking pickup truck at about 11.30 am on Saturday. They found 648 bricks of marijuana wrapped in black plastic bags inside fertiliser sacks in the rear of the pickup, Manager Onlinereported.
The marijuana originally came from Laos and was smuggled across the Mekong River in Nong Khai province, police said. The seized drugs were worth more than 9 million baht.
Driver Somchai Ketsri, 34, a native of Phichit province, confessed his involvement in the operation, the officers added.
Police said Mr Somchai told them that he had been hired by a man identified only as Bank, the son of a bottled drinking water producer in Nakhon Pathom, for 50,000 baht to deliver the drugs to a dealer in Songkhla. Mr Bank paid him 30,000 baht in advance and the rest was to be paid after the drugs were delivered.
Two other men, identified only as Somkhid and Bao, travelled ahead of Mr Somchai in another pickup. Their job was to alert him if they spotted any police checkpoints.
Police said the arrest of the suspect followed information from a police informant that a drug smuggling gang was about to smuggle marijuana from the Northeast into the South. The drugs were believed to be destined for tourist destinations in southern provinces.
Police are now hunting for other members of the gang.

A Chinese silk road backed up by $4 TRILLION


I thought it might be April 1 when i first read this (copied in full below)

Chinese getting itchy holding all those Daliesque US dollars? Or is it just claiming name space for the future?

p


  • Published:  | Viewed: 1,485 | Comments: 1
  • Online news: Asia
BEIJING — Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged $40 billion to set up a "Silk Road Fund" that will finance the construction of infrastructure linking markets across Asia. 
The fund's goal is to "break the connectivity bottleneck" in Asia, the official Xinhua News Agency cited Xi as saying during a meeting with officials from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tajikistan.
Representatives from the US Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization were also present, according to Xinhua.
Providing financial support for neighbouring countries bolsters China's push to expand its influence in Asia. Xi first proposed reviving the centuries-old Silk Road trading route a year ago during a visit to Kazakhstan, with the plan envisioning an economic cooperation bloc through to the Mediterranean.
The Silk Road fund will be open and welcome investors from Asia and beyond to actively participate in projects, Xi was cited by Xinhua as saying at the meeting.
China will set aside tens of billions of dollars from its $4 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves to finance the fund, government officials familiar with the matter said this week. The country also plans to set aside about 100 billion yuan to build domestic infrastructure that will link up with projects being constructed overseas, according to other government officials familiar with the plan.
The world's second-largest economy has also promoted the creation of a $50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which would also help finance construction in the region. India, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand were among 21 countries to sign a memorandum for its establishment last month.
The US has opposed the bank, a potential rival to institutions such as the Asian Development Bank, and has asked its allies not to participate, the New York Times reported.

Thursday 30 October 2014

From kittens to Ebola.

Existence is pointless,

Attachment to any outcome is pointless.

Underlying all religions

and

the ultimate conclusion of our sciences

is

that we're pointless.

All that's left is how we manage ourselves along the way.


It only matters to us and our neighbors – from virus to vampire squid.

From kittens to Ebola.

Pointless. Pointless. Pointless.

The best we can come up with is “hey [insert special being here] look what a good job we're doing”.


p

Friday 29 August 2014

Friday 15 August 2014

Australian Real Estate


The real story

Australian strategists let themselves think that Australia's best interests are served by balancing Chinese interests across a more feared threat. Indonesia.

But it's become a closed system game involving many interests in areas such as real estate and minerals.

"It's going to happen anyway. Let's make the most of it."

Seems to be the prominent underlying effect.

Let's all profit as much as we  can before anyone can take it away from us.

Destiny is met on any road you take to avoid it.

Party on.

pop

ps let's not forget that people will bet on derivatives against any current state so everything is always possible if someone can work out how to milk it or even precipitate it.

p

Friday 8 August 2014

“Let’s be very clear about this – Russia has been a bully”


Tony Abbott

your colours fly true for any who know more than the slipperiest of evidence

You back America knowing full well that what America is selling is not what everyone wants (Biden, fracking, energy "independence" from Russia etc etc)

The US involvement in the Ukraine is far from either transparent or honest

Therefore your weasely Blair-like support tells every educated person on the planet that you are not doing anything but sticking Australia's tongue right up the asshole of the US Military-Industrial complex

Shame on you at so many levels

Fuck you on so many levels

You're a cunt Tony - a total cunt - because any shred of humanity you have you are happy to sell to anyone big enough

And if you think you do it on behalf of "Australians"?

bullshit

you're a fucking heartless cunt Tony Abbott and so are all your fucking minions

open your fucking eyes

cunts



p

Animated Intro: Israel & Palestine




Israel and Palestine - An Animated Introduction from Rashad Nasir on Vimeo.


p

Thursday 7 August 2014

Israel shoots fleeing civilians

from Stuff:

RUTH POLLARD/ Fairfax NZ
At least 14 members of Tamer Abu Rujalia's family were killed in the fighting over the past month.

Some men held a child in each arm, those who could raised their hands in the air in surrender. Others had white flags, while four of the strongest carried elderly relatives on their shoulders.
But as the extended Abu Rujaila family - a terrified group of 30 children, 30 women and 25 men - made their hesitant way towards the Israeli tanks stationed at the entrance to their village, they say the soldiers opened fire.
The group had already counted 17 bodies on the street and it was when they met a larger gathering of around 3000 residents also trying to flee that at least 35 people were shot and many seriously injured.
The decision to flee their homes in the centre of the southern Gazan village of Khuza'a on July 25 was an agonising one, says 38-year-old Tamer Abu Rujaila.
They had endured three days of furious bombardment from Israel's military in which many of the houses around them had been systematically destroyed.
From July 22 to July 25, their lives had been, quite literally, torn to shreds as they remained trapped in the firestorm of air strikes, tank and artillery shelling.
At least 14 members of the family were killed, Tamer says.
An Israeli F-16 had dropped a bomb on the house next door to Tamer's, killing his uncle Helmi, his son Abbas, 21 and daughter Nahad, 22.
Local residents and rescue workers are still searching for Helmi's body, while another cousin, 25-year-old Mahmoud, was only just pulled from the rubble hours before Fairfax Media arrived. His brother, 21-year-old Mohamed, had been found five days earlier.
But no matter how bad the bombardment, Tamer, his wife Maysaa Sulaiman Abu Rujaila, 27, and their four children were convinced they would be killed if they tried to escape.
Then Israel fired a large mine-clearing charge into the cluster of houses in Tamer's street and the force of the blast convinced him that they must take the chance and evacuate.
"I felt it would be certain death if we stayed," he says. "We tried to contact the Red Cross but they did not respond, so we decided to hold white flags and walk out."
Major Arye Shalicar from the Israel Defence Forces said: "At this point it is very hard to check each single allegation but we have a major-general who is about to look into each single incident during the operation and is going to put together a report.
"We have time and again proven that we do everything in our power to not hurt civilians even though they were deliberately put into the front lines by Hamas. We have called, we have warned through the radio, SMS, flyers, leaflets and even knocking on the roof [firing a small warning missile which hits the building's roof] to make sure that no civilian is going to be hurt."
The children did not want to leave, Tamer says, especially his eight-year-old son Ahmad, who had already sustained shrapnel injuries and was terrified.
What did he say to Ahmad to make him evacuate?
Tamer's eyes fill with tears: "Nothing I said would change his mind, so I took him in my arms and carried him out."
The injured fell around them, those who were still standing were separated into small groups and searched by the IDF soldiers.
Eventually they made it to the relative safety of Abassan village, but that too was short-lived - Tamer's uncle Ismail Abu Rujaila, 52, was killed in an air strike soon after - and they moved on to a UN school in Khan Younis.
Others were not so lucky.
Khuza'a, with a population of around 10,000, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups during the IDF's ground invasion of Gaza. A quiet, farming community lying on the eastern edge of the city of Khan Younis, it is in sight of the Israeli border.
And while Israeli forces issued general warnings to Khuza'a residents to leave the area before July 21, many were too scared, or infirm, to flee.
"The failure of civilians to abide by warnings does not make them lawful targets of attack," says Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson, "and deliberately attacking them is a war crime."
Human Rights Watch, along with local groups such as al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, are investigating several incidents between July 23 and 25 when, local residents said, Israeli forces opened fire on civilians trying to flee Khuza'a. There were no Palestinian fighters present at the time and no firefights were taking place, the witnesses said.
Another family - the Najjar family - has reported that the first man to leave the house on the orders of Israeli soldiers, Shadid al-Najjar, was shot in the jaw, Human Rights Watch said.
In yet another incident, also on July 23, Israeli soldiers fired on a group of civilians who had been told to leave their home in Khuza'a, killing Mohammed al-Najjar, a witness said.
Like most residents, the Abu Rujaila family only returned to Khuza'a on Tuesday, as the latest 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire began. In some streets it seems there is not a house left standing, with many four-storey apartment blocks almost blown underground with the force of the blasts.
They found their houses ransacked by Israeli soldiers who appeared to have occupied them for days after their evacuation. A local clinic that provided psychosocial support for Palestinian children was also torn apart, with Hebrew graffiti visible on several walls throughout the centre.
As Fairfax Media left the village, hundreds of residents were searching through the rubble of their houses, some were sitting in shock outside, while a bulldozer was kicking up sand and dust, still searching for the body of Helmi Abu Rujaila - another civilian casualty in a war in which at least 1886 Palestinians have died, including 432 children.
- Sydney Morning Herald
screen shot:


Wednesday 6 August 2014

Ex-Israeli soldier speaks out




Proving that within the mess there are still ethical beings

p

ps i found this here

pps  for backup of what he says about the US check this out

cunts, low life stinking murdering cunts




more



Saturday 2 August 2014

if you could fight with the native Americans against the blue-coats, would you?


I asked that of a couple of mid-twenty year old Americans

when talking about Iraq, Gaza...

One said why would you go back and fight with a losing side?

The other avoided the issue branching off to you can't travel in time

Americans have no soul

they, even the most open minded, think Muslims are all terrorists yet when questioned about who Muslims are and how populations came to be Muslim they have no knowledge

Americans have been indoctrinated to see Muslims just as they saw "red-indians"

there are almost none of them that have any clue whatsoever that there might be something inherently wrong in killing and destroying millions of people

they suspect something is wrong but they just don't have the mental constructs to grasp it

it's frightening

ignorance - THAT'S the core issue of humanity

dumb fuck stupid fucking Ignorance

Israel - you black hearted blot on the world - you too

p


Wednesday 30 July 2014

Securency corruption case order leaked


Securency - the makers of plastic bank notes and previously owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia has copped its fair share of flak for various corruption allegations.

Currently in front of a court that has suppressed even knowledge of the court case.

In true modern capitalist style.

I knew one of the accused. He was a free-loading wheeler-dealer involved with illegal immigration scams to New Zealand.

I was surprised to see his name there - but only by how high he has risen in the system.

Assuming of course that he's the person I knew

pop



Why we still have nuclear weapons programs


Our nuclear weapons are a convenient excuse for our military elites to maintain deep underground shelters

so when we get whacked by an asteroid

they'll have somewhere to hide

they're paranoid enough

p


TruthDig: David Duke on Israel


I got this from TruthDig: Anti-Semites Exploit Israel’s Gaza Incursion

Nice - post it and at the same time show you are not antisemitic. Safe? Doubt it.

I, on the other hand, say what i think: Israel has become a terrible terrorist state intent on genocide.

Israel is doing everything inhumanly possible to further antisemitism, anti-zionism

I met a really drunk Israeli once who told me that Israel has a 1,000 year plan to rid the world of lower forms of humanity

man was he drunk




pop

Monday 28 July 2014

AI bots hide themselves disguised as people


potentially millions and millions of them - they scale as the issues escalate

they have facebook accounts

tumblr

flickr not so much

they respond to triggering events but acting as a human. The simplest ones just post a ref to a body of media 
that sells a message or more, notify a superior intelligence, and move on.

The worst are worse than your imagination.

Because if you can think of it so can an advanced AI system.

p


Sunday 27 July 2014

The chairman of the NSW Community Relations Commission turned out to be a gormless cunt



Alhadeff resigns over Israel email

so, is it only the public that recognizes distinctions in right and wrong?

Politicians don't seem to as a whole.

Some might say at least he resigned. Bull-shit - he had no choice. He proved he was either a complete fool or a shill that briefly exposed the soft underbelly of the monster whose arms are all our politicians and their non-human pupeteers.

Gone.

Demoted to junior officer for ever.

p

Saturday 19 July 2014

the war you don't see


for those of us who watched knowing that it was all lies this is nothing new and no revelation


for anyone alive out there with any sort of human heart who is not aware

then here - the truth





fuck!!!!!


how do we live with ourselves for these crimes of ours?


it could have been my son who said "nice" the the butchering of Reuters reporters and children and other innocents

fuck!!!!

what monsters we are

i'll give you a startling clue

if they own a blackberry they are the killers - whatever country they are in


if they own an apple they are the apparatchik

and so, therefore, also the killers

the rest?


cannon fodder to these monsters the system breeds for and streams towards and rewards and rewards and rewards

Tony Blair you worm

George Bush you slime

All of you American cunt warmongers and your friends worldwide

fuck you to hell

it's unbearable to know that i am a part of this totally insidious machine

p


Friday 4 July 2014

Apple? F!ck Apple.


I've almost always hated Apple. Even when i was at uni studying computer science i detested much about the company and its products

what really clinched it for me though was iTunes

Charging the same price for a song as i'd always paid for a song might have been ok except for the fact that for that price i'd always previously received a solid object - a record or a CD

Yes i know- it's capitalism - if you have a lead in a market milk it for everything you can

Everything I hated about Microsoft goes double for Apple

fuck em

I'll stick with anyone else, even the detestable Microsoft and the frighteningly monstrous Google if it means i never have to endure anything about Apple

the worst thing about Apple?

The people that own them. Frankly, if you instantaneously zapped out of existence all owners of an iPhone you'd pretty much take out every low life on the planet - a few innocents would also meet their demise but that's their fault for lacking discernment

low-lifes?

yes, rich fucks and even more importantly the children of rich fucks - those most obnoxious of creatures detested by all - even, i imagine, their own parents, or, if not them, then the next door neighbors parents

the only thing i like about Apple is how much they make those lowest of lowlife creatures suffer in the name of being able to brandish that Christian Cross of evil: the iPhone:

Apple users?

Die in hell you bunch of pseudo-educated creeps:

Tuesday 1 July 2014

Bird singing contests in Thailand


In Southern Thailand the Red-whiskered Bulbul (นกกรงหัวจุก Nok krong hua juk) is so popular that there are some places where every house has dozens of caged birds hanging around the house. Some older men spend their retirement showing and trading birds. A good bird can cost as much as $5,000. Almost every day you will see a man riding his motorcycle while holding a covered cage in his left hand.

Yesterday i was lucky enough to catch a bird-song contest.


The caged birds are hung from a frame and judges stand at a distance listening to the birds.

After a few minutes the chief judge blows a whistle:



and the judges then move to the birds that they thought sounded loudest and sweetest and mark a score on a card hanging beneath the cage:



This is repeated many times. The bird owners sit around and talk bird-talk:



It's a big day for bird lovers and everyone gets in on the fun:


more info here and here

you can hear what the birds sound like in this vid:




pop


ps

good owners hang their birds in low stress locations away from other birds except when "training" - hanging birds in the sun close to each other to stress them and listen for the health of their protests

then they go back for the easy life

all the while in a cage

p

I know - it's Aliens


or maybe Satan is amidst the US elite pulling the strings


i really cannot fathom how such evil can survive in our world

i guess it's because i am naive, ignorant, silly



I recently watched "The Internet's own Boy - the story of Arron Swartz. Sad, terrible story of the insidious power of the state.

I thought once that the only act of true "goodness" is to kill anyone rich.

If each and every one of us made it our one life goal to kill a rich person then eventually they would all be gone and maybe we could have true democracy

or even no government

ho hum, dream on

pop


Sunday 29 June 2014

Australia and Iraq


seems to me:

Perth man Junaid Thorne investigated over alleged support for terrorist organisation ISIS

(1: copied this date in full below)


has some interesting issues

check for example Wikipedia on ISIL and on List of organisations outlawed in Australia for terrorism

and Anti-Terrorism Act (No. 2) 2005

i really can't find the place that says that a person may not exercise free speech about things they believe - even to the point of writing or saying things in support of a foreign group involved in activities in their own countries

would not that be essentially the same as an Australian supporting in words the actions of America, Britain and Australia when they execute activities that many people find thoroughly objectionable on moral and ethical grounds?


correct me where i err or direct me to exact paragraphs in statute

if i'm right did not a minister lie?

p

1

Perth man Junaid Thorne investigated over alleged support for terrorist organisation ISIS

Updated Sat 28 Jun 2014, 7:05pm AEST
The Federal Government has confirmed it is investigating a Perth man who apparently supports a militant group believed responsible for mass killings in Iraq.
Junaid Thorne, an Australian citizen, was deported from Saudi Arabia last year after protesting his brother's imprisonment.
His brother was jailed for terrorism offences in the Islamic state but was released earlier this year.
The ABC is not aware of any charges laid against Mr Thorne. He has been been contacted for comment.
Mr Thorne is involved with a group called Millatu Ibrahim Perth.
A Facebook page that states it is managed by Mr Thorne and his students has a series of posts that praises the taking Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The militant group have created chaos in Iraq in recent weeks as they attempt to overrun the government in Baghdad.
"Our brothers in the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham liberate the town of Al Mawssil, and take over the Prison of Tasfeeraat rescuing 600 people from there," he said.
"May Allah reward them for such a heroic and glorious act. Congratulations to our Ummah this victory and liberation."
Another post criticises a statement from the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) defending itself from comments it is not doing enough to stop young Australian men from joining armed conflict in Syria.
ANIC issued a statement saying senior members of the Muslim community were working to prevent Australians becoming involved in the conflict, following perceived criticism from NSW counter terrorism squad assistant commissioner Peter Dein.
The Facebook post brands it a "statement of embarrassment".
"The cries and calls for help from our suffering brothers and sisters seem to fall on the deaf ears of our so-called 'Imams' as they continue to abandon their religious duties, replacing it with betrayal and loyalty to their masters from the Kuffar [non-believers]," it says.
Mr Thorne also appears in videos of sermons he delivers to small groups on his interpretation of Islam.

Government looking into online posts

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop today confirmed matters relating to Mr Thorne's online posts were under investigation.
"Any promotion or support for terrorism is against the law in our country," she said.
"And [ISIS] is a proscribed terrorist organisation."
Promoting or engaging with terrorist organisations can be punishable by severe penalties, including up to 25 years imprisonment, she said.
"We have estimated there are about 150 Australians who have engaged directly in supporting terrorist organisations in Syria, in Iraq or also remaining here in Australia," she said.
"We are taking a range of measures to address what we see as a considerable security risk."
Mr Thorne, an Australian who spent many years living in Saudi Arabia, had his passport taken by Saudi authorities after being detained for protesting against the ongoing detention of his brother, Shayden, in 2011.
Mr Thorne has always maintained his brother's confessions to the crimes were extracted as a result of torture.
Mr Thorne went into hiding in Saudi Arabia after his passport was confiscated, but he eventually turned himself in to authorities and the deportation process began.

challenge


for such courses as CELTA held in Thailand


you have to redraft the course to allow you to teach Thais just the phonetics of all the troublesome phonemes - any grammar you teach is just as a vehicle for the phonetics*


you also have to design in some sessions of one on one (ideally on selected and student-targeted phonemes - note you can use the students who get it right early to help you teach - has a snowball effect)


for the extra keen:

The one on one sessions would ideally be in front of an already accepted video camera so that you can capture perfect examples from students so that they can see themselves with perfect delivery

that can take time but the right video app will make it easier - you choose - there are many now (just have to allow you to mark a clip with a score on the fly - eg a star


(one day an app will use video and sound to recognise phonemes and tell you what they think you intended

soon probably)

)

pop

*the reason for this is that Thais get a LOT of grammar and vocabulary instruction - so the course could focus on what your devout students really need and what will benefit all others enormously








Saturday 28 June 2014

Australian Broadcasting Corporation now stooge to Darwinian forces.


to me, with my now finely tuned suspicious mind, the article at:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-27/isis-committing-mass-executions-in-iraq-hrw-says/5556612

looks like one of those propaganda publications produced as a prelude to what is now the new modern war - new war.

I looked at every single picture published on the ISIL twitter feed and it was impossible for me to assert that it was witness to  murder.

I really looked but every scene had holes in it - it was not enough evidence to allow us to say that these massacres are truth.

Remember the news reports for Iraq in the first war - the murdered incubator babies turned out to be an inhumane hoax of every worst kind.

We need more evidence than this you scum-bags and the phrasing of your headline and the facts of your story are at terribly violent odds.

Dear Tony, you child of Satan.


p




below - copied in full from source, this date


Iraq crisis: 'Strong evidence' ISIS committing mass executions, war crimes, Human Rights Watch says

Updated 2 hours 19 minutes ago
Satellite imagery strongly suggests the extremist Sunni group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has conducted mass executions in Iraq, lobby group Human Rights Watch says.
ISIS, radical Islamists who want to re-create a mediaeval-style caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria, has stormed largely unopposed across much of northern Iraq, taking cities including Mosul and Tikrit, seizing border posts with Syria and advancing to within some 100 km of the capital Baghdad
In mid June, ISIS posted pictures on Twitter that appeared to show the massacre of 1,700 Iraqi soldiers after the fall of the city of Tikrit.
However there has been no independent verification.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said that between 160 and 190 men were killed in at least two locations in and around Tikrit - the hometown of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein - between June 11 and 14.
It said that the death toll could be much higher, but the difficulty of locating bodies and getting to the area had prevented a full investigation.
"The photos and satellite images from Tikrit provide strong evidence of a horrible war crime that needs further investigation," Human Rights Watch emergencies director Peter Bouckaert said in a statement.
"They and other abusive forces should know that the eyes of Iraqis and the world are watching."
It was not immediately possible to get comment from ISIS.

1,000 killed in fighting: UN

The United Nations said on Tuesday that at least 1,000 people, mainly civilians, had been killed and roughly the same number injured in fighting and other violence in Iraq in June as ISIS swept through the north.
Victims included a number of confirmed summary executions committed by ISIS as well as prisoners killed by retreating Iraqi forces.
HRW counted the bodies visible in the available ISIS photographs and estimated that ISIS killed between 90 and 110 men in one trench and between 35 and 40 men in the second.
A further photograph shows a large trench with between 35 and 40 prisoners shot but Human Rights Watch said it had not been able to pinpoint the site.
A UN human rights spokesman said on Tuesday that ISIS had broadcast dozens of videos showing cruel treatment, beheadings and shootings of captured soldiers, police officers and people apparently targeted because of their religion or ethnicity, including Shi'ites and minorities such as Christians.
Northern units of Iraq's million-strong army, trained and equipped by the US, largely evaporated after Sunni Islamist fighters led by the ISIS launched their assault.
In Tikrit on Friday, Iraqi army helicopters fired on a university campus in an effort to dislodge ISIL fighters, a day after launching an airborne assault on the city.

Sunday 22 June 2014

Look at this and see the end of days




lots of guns on a drone to control riots at those South African mines that are such a problem

here's the cunt firm: http://www.desert-wolf.com

and here's where this info came from:

http://www.desert-wolf.com/dw/products/unmanned-aerial-systems/skunk-riot-control-copter.html

here's their assume-everyone-else-is-as-infantile text in full, low life cunts



The Skunk is equipped with 4 high-capacity paint ball barrels releasing at up to 20 paint balls per second each, with 80 Pepper balls per second stopping any crowd in its tracks.
The current hopper capacity of 4000 balls and with a High Pressure Carbon Fiber Air system it allows for real stopping power. Bright strobe lights, blinding Lasers and with on-board speakers enables communication and warnings to the crowd.
Equipped with a FLIR Thermal camera, full HD video colour camera, on board recording, full telemetry data link and long range control link, this unit is unique.
The powerful Octa copters can also be operated in formation by a single operator. The Desert Wolf Pangolin ground control station is used for system management. What makes the Pangolin unique is the operator and his team are also under full video and audio surveillance. Every move, every decision, every command is recorded.
The lifting capability of the Skunk is 45 Kg due to the eight powerful electric motors with 16 Inch props.
Skunk DW1
The operator has full control over each marker. He can select the RED paint marker and mark the protester who carries dangerous weapons, he can select the BLUE marker to mark the vandalising protestors and if needed the Pepper balls to stop the advancing crowd before they get into a "Life threatening situation" 
He can also set the releasing frequency of each marker from as low as 1 ball per second up to 20 balls per second. If all markers releases at maximum rate, the you disperse 80 balls per second. This high frequency will only be used in an extreme "Life threatening situation".
The system also has a number of safety systems and features. Desert Wolf will continue to improve the design and ensure a safe and reliable product. Our aim is to assist in preventing another Marikana, we were there and it should never happen again.

Saturday 21 June 2014

False righteousness or simply conditioning?



i had recently read a book about research in honesty when i saw it again in a blog post by a post doctoral researcher.

Something didn't feel right.

These all seem to confuse honesty with custom (no matter the claim that it was assessing how people deal with issues of honesty).


That's not honesty.

Honesty is seeing the thing for what it is.

Not pointing at behavior and trying use it to define an imaginary cultural line with some absolute truth.

I wonder what sort of automaton or apparatchik mind would happily put their name to such a document.

p

Wednesday 28 May 2014

a dragon tale


Riding about Nakhon on a 200cc Chinese bike is really lovely.

Here's a taste of Ai Khiao. You'll have to see the falls for yourself.



on flicker here.

p

Saturday 24 May 2014

Hard Drive Magnets: mount a Cree 30W LED spotlight on a dirt bike


I bought one of these Cree 30W LEDs


note i've attached a Hard Drive Magnet to a rubber doorstop and bolted the Cree to that

fits in my hand (see the magnet?)



I mounted a frame on my bike - made from a small folding stool frame, a piece of wood and some convenient iron based attachments - note the pipe clamps near the sunglasses. Note also the yellow stretchy holds the frame down against the faring - YMMV



after i place the spot on the frame i just clip on my power cord



I have so much wire because it doubles as a workshop or emergency light if i have a breakdown at night

then i just plug it in to the 12V socket i previously installed



those rare earth magnets - they are versatile and, for now, cheap because there are a lot of hard disks out there that are dead or dying

p


Friday 23 May 2014

Thai coup 2014


not much out there in the MSM has any value on this issue or anything much else about Thailand

but I've found a couple of things interesting

this one:



and the Economist:

[...] In late November the king signed a decree mandating that all decisions by the powerful defence council were subject to veto by the crown prince. The council includes the service heads and the permanent defence secretary. The heir apparent is now, in effect, their boss [...]

Al Jaseera:

If Thailand’s royalist elite can learn to live with democracy, the country may be able to move forward. The alternative is that Thailand’s crisis is settled with violence and bloodshed rather than compromise and negotiation

The Diplomat:

The fear of losing hard-won privileges to the rural masses is a very real one for the royalist elites, sections of the military and many middle-class Bangkokians


i'm interested in this organisation: The Thai Crown Property Bureau


this was a quick (few hours) assessment of this material:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Property_Bureau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chirayu_Isarangkul
http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmontlake/2012/01/20/in-thailand-a-rare-peek-at-his-majestys-balance-sheet/
http://politicalprisonersofthailand.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/thai-monarchy-a-factor-in-dispute/
http://robinlea.com/pub/JCA-Thailand-the_good_coup/08-The_crown_property_bureau_and_the_crisis_of_1997.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Vajiralongkorn

please correct any errors and notify me of corrections

pop


Wednesday 21 May 2014

Wanted: Thai Architect


Here's a house in Nakhon Si Thammarat that was started but never finished - perhaps because the owners were wiped out by the Asian crisis of 97/98.


note the 4 large car-ports on the road.


note how thin the floors are though the framing seems ok



if i could figure out how to complete the house, and how much that might cost, I might be interested in trying to do it.

Anybody out there?

p