A.E.Brain

Whatever bug is going around at the moment, I've got it again, so blogging will be light for a few days. Felt lousy Thursday morning, surfaced briefly to do a bit of blogging, then crawled back into bed and have stayed there for most of the time, gulping pseudoephedrine, paracetamol, and codeine.

I made the mistake of attempting to do some Perl scripting... but I'm sure I can undo the damage when I feel a bit better. (Note to self : Perl is bad enough when you're feeling well... never attempt it when under the influence of anti-flu medication.)

So here's a URL, which can be filed under 'Brains' or 'Space'. It also describes the way I feel at the moment.

From NASA, Spinning Brains.

From the Grauniad :

Reviewing someone's first novel, it is customary to be polite about it, to find things to praise in it. So let me say straight away that James Thackara's The Book Of Kings is printed on very nice paper; the typeface is clear and readable, and Samantha Nundy's photograph of the author is in focus. And, given that it's 773 pages long, the author has shown a commendable degree of application and spent a great deal of time on the project....

Via Normblog

PRO:

From the New Yorker :

For years, the military has offered its recruits free tuition, specialized training, and a host of other benefits to compensate for the tremendous sacrifices they are called upon to make. Lately, many of them have been taking advantage of another perk: free cosmetic surgery.

“Anyone wearing a uniform is eligible,” Dr. Bob Lyons, the chief of plastic surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center, said recently, in his office in San Antonio. It is true: personnel in all four branches of the military and members of their immediate families can get face-lifts, nose jobs, breast enlargements, liposuction, or any other kind of elective cosmetic alteration, at taxpayer expense. (For breast enlargements, patients must supply their own implants.) There is no limit on the number of cosmetic surgeries one soldier can have, although, Lyons said, “we don’t do extreme makeovers in the military.”
[...]
Janis Garcia, a former lieutenant commander and jag attorney in the Navy, who is married to a retired Navy fighter pilot, says she grew up hating the way she looked. “I wouldn’t even smile in my own wedding pictures.” She checked in to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego for a nose job, a chin realignment, and a jaw reconstruction, free of charge. She also had her teeth straightened. “It changed my appearance drastically, and I became a more confident person,” she said. “It literally changed the direction of my life.” The doctors told her the work she had done would have cost her nearly a hundred thousand dollars.
[...]
The Army’s rationale is that, as a spokeswoman said, “the surgeons have to have someone to practice on.” “The benefit of offering elective cosmetic surgery to soldiers is more for the surgeon than for the patient,” Lyons said. “If there’s a happy soldier or sailor at the end of that operation, that’s an added benefit, but that’s not the reason we do it. We do it to maintain our skills”—skills that are critical, he added, when it comes to doing reconstructive surgery on soldiers who have been wounded.

CON:

From The Australian :

US food technologists have invented dried rations that a soldier can rehydrate by using dirty water or even his own urine, the British weekly New Scientist reports.

The ration is surrounded by a plastic membrane made of a nanofibre that, according to its inventors, can filter out 99.9 per cent of microbes and the most harmful toxic compounds, allowing only clean water to get to the preserved food.

So far, only one prototype - chicken and rice - has been tested, but the menu will be expanded to incorporate other down-home favourites if the concept proves popular.

The inventors are the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts.

Two years ago, their men and women came up with an "indestructible sandwich" that could stay fresh for three years.

I was under the impression that this type of sandwich had been invented by British Rail at their culinary training laboratories restaurant at Crewe some time in the 50's... and that specimens of the original batch are still being served on Australian Country trains. They were last time I travelled by rail, anyway.

The definative annotation.

Though I like Don McLean's reputed remark about the subject :

When asked about the meaning of "American Pie" Don Mclean replied, "It means I never have to work again".

Days of Futures Past was the 1967 Moody Blues Album, which is really quite appropriate. Those were the Days (my friend), but now... File this one under 'Space'.

From NASA :

A cutting-edge science experiment left behind in the Sea of Tranquility by Apollo 11 astronauts is still running today.
[...]
Ringed by footprints, sitting in the moondust, lies a 2-foot wide panel studded with 100 mirrors pointing at Earth: the "lunar laser ranging retroreflector array." Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong put it there on July 21, 1969, about an hour before the end of their final moonwalk. Thirty-five years later, it's the only Apollo science experiment still running.

University of Maryland physics professor Carroll Alley was the project's principal investigator during the Apollo years, and he follows its progress today. "Using these mirrors," explains Alley, "we can 'ping' the moon with laser pulses and measure the Earth-moon distance very precisely. This is a wonderful way to learn about the moon's orbit and to test theories of gravity."
[...]
More and better data could reveal strange fluctuations in gravity, amendments to Einstein, the "sloshing" of the moon's core. Time will tell ... and there's plenty of time. Lunar mirrors require no power source. They haven't been covered with moondust or pelted by meteoroids, as early Apollo planners feared. Lunar ranging should continue for decades, perhaps for centuries.

It's a good job we placed this reflector 35 years ago, because we couldn't do it today. the question is, will be able to do it 10 years from now? 15? 20? And will the anthem played be the "Star-Mangled SpannerStar-Spangled Banner" or "The East is Red"?

As an Australian... I don't mind who does it , as long as it gets done. The old bit about 'We came in peace for all Mankind', remember? Or probably not, unless you're well into middle age. Memories of Futures, Past.

I confess I was moderately surprised when Australia voted not to censure Israel in the UN for putting up the protective barrier. I expected - or rather hoped - that we would abstain, but feared that we'd go along with the majority out of a misplaced respect for the International Court of Justice. I'm glad I was wrong.

The inimitable and inestimable Tim Blair has a rogue's gallery of who voted Yes, and who voted No. In the comments section, you'll also find the roll call of the absent and the abstentions.
So why did we do it? Here's the Official Line :

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Australia does not approve of the barrier's path but says the court was not the right place to raise the issue.

"We believe that taking this matter of the security barrier to the International Court of Justice was the wrong decision," he said.

"The second thing is that Israel must find ways of defending itself against terrorists and it isn't reasonable to tell the Israelis that they can't erect a security barrier to protect the people of Israel from suicide homicide bombers."

Mr Downer added: "I have always been opposed to this case being taken to the court of justice because the court of justice does not have the jurisdiction to make a determination on this matter.

"It can only give an advisory opinion and it's created a political controversy surrounding the court of justice and I regret that."

I happen to agree with him on every single point (and there are lots of points). Anyone with Internet access can see that while the number of attempted suicide bombings has risen exponentially, the number of successful ones has dropped to almost none. But there's a bit more to it than that.

First, the Israeli Supreme Court found that parts of the Barrier caused undue hardship to local Palestinians : so the Israelis are already spending over$15 Million Aussie Dollars making the neccessary mods. There is already a functioning system for review and modification for the future (the barrier is less than 1/3 complete) to avoid un-neccessary injustice.

Secondly, and most contentiously, there's the matter of the placement as a de-facto border between two states, Israel and Palestine, mainly on disputed territory. Here's the Israeli view :

The former "Green Line" was the armistice line between Israel and Jordan during the years 1949-1967. It was not the final border between the countries which was to be determined in peace negotiations. The "Green Line" ceased to exist following the Arab threat to Israel's existence in the spring of 1967 which led to the Six Day War in June of that year. The drafters of UN Security Council Resolution 242 in November 1967 recognized that the pre-June 1967 lines were not secure.

While the final border between Israel and the Palestinians has to be determined in negotiations, the route of the anti-terrorism fence is determined solely by the immediate and pressing need to save Israeli lives by preventing Palestinian terrorists from reaching the Israeli populations. Thus, the fence is being built wherever this can be achieved most effectively. To put it arbitrarily anywhere else, such as along the pre-June 1967 lines, would have nothing to do with security and, therefore, nothing to do with the purpose of the fence.

Although the Barrier ('Fence' as the Israelis call it, 'Wall' as the ICJ calls it - it's 3% concrete, 97% wire) is inside the 'Green Line' for a few hundred metres, that's less than 1%. The question is, have the Palestinians forfeited any rights to the 'benefit of the doubt'? And have the Israelis earned it, regardless of their de-facto military superiority? I'd have to say, yes, and yes. Although the Barrier is outside the 'Green Line', it's not far from it, it cuts through non-urban land, and is no huge Land Grab. Anyone else would have put it along the border with the bit of Palestine that was given to the Arabs, namely, Jordan. And should the Palestinians ever really make a sincere effort for Peace, then such a barrier would be redundant, and could be dispensed with. It's likely it will become the de-facto border, but it's not certain. That's up to the Palestinians.

Thirdly, there's a small matter of blatant hypocracy.

From the Monday Morning of Lebanon :

But in Kashmir itself, India is taking measures which, if they do not lead to war, are raising angry feelings in a sensitive spot. It is building a “wall of separation” to divide the Indian-controlled from the Pakistani-controlled parts of the territory.
An Indian army captain says that, when completed, the wall will protect his people from attacks by Muslim extremists.
Once the thousand-kilometer high-tech fence is finished, militants will no longer be able to infiltrate his side of the disputed territory and kill his soldiers and civilians, he says.
On the other side of the barrier, anguished Muslim villagers protest that it is taking their land and cutting them off from their loved ones.
As the World Court was about to rule on Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank, the arguments, so regularly rehearsed, certainly sounded familiar.

India voted "Yes" to condemn.

Then there's the little matter of the Saudi-Yemen er, fence? From the Grauniad :

The head of Saudi Arabia's border guard, Talal Anqawi, told an Arab newspaper last week that the barrier was being constructed inside Saudi territory but did not specify the exact location. He also dismissed comparisons with Israel's West Bank barrier, which has sparked international condemnation.

"What is being constructed inside our borders with Yemen is a sort of screen ... which aims to prevent infiltration and smuggling," he said. "It does not resemble a wall in any way."

The Grauniad doesn't say whether he was able to say it with a straight face, as the border between Yemen and Saudi has been the subject of contention (and several wars) since the two countries were founded. Saudi voted "Yes" to condemn, of course.

Finally there's this little graphic, which I think on its own provides a full and complete justification. Although I would have preferred a less racist labelling (there's a lot of Bedouin in the IDF, and it's insulting to them), it's the way that Hamas and Co think, so after some consideration, I've left it as the original artist intended.

I'd like to give credit to the artist, but I downloaded it ages ago, and can't find the original site

From the ABC comes a story about the recent assassination (via Car Booby Trap) of a senior Hezbollah figure in Lebanon.:

Jund Ash Sham, which announced its formation a few weeks ago in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Helweh, issued a statement claiming responsiblity.

It was the first time that a Sunni group has allegedly claimed an attack on a rival figure in Lebanon's Shiite community, the largest in the country.

"We have executed one of the symbols of treachery, the Shiite Ghaleb Awwali," said Jund Ash-Sham, which refers to Damascus at the time of the seventh century Ommayyad Islamic califate.

"This is the start of a real and decisive battle between Islam and heresy."

Jund Ash-Sham is a splinter group of Osbat al-Nour, a tiny group that sought refuge in the Palestinian refugee camp in Ain al-Helweh after deadly armed clashes with the Lebanese army in northern Lebanon, in January 2000.

The grouping is made up of mostly Sunni fundamentalist Palestinians, and some Lebanese from extremist circles that oppose Shiites, particularly the Islamic republic of Iran.

Considered more radical than Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Jund Ash Sham also opposes all other secular and nationalist Palestinian movements.

Splitters!

Via Tim Blair, a host of BBC Audio Bloopers. I particularly feel for the female news announcer who stuggled valiantly on with her task before succumbing to what is known in Oz as a 'Technicolour Yawn'.

And via Llama Butchers, here is a hilarious recording of an emergency service for those whose hair colour is a lighter shade of pale : BlondeStar.

Actually, 8 virusses/trojans, but one of them - Netsky.Q - had infected 1767 files.

Today I spent most of the daylight hours doing a clean-up of a small network in the neighbourhood. The 4 XP machines that were being used by teenagers were almost virus-free : just a residue of some KAZAA-provided spyware in the backup files. They had freeware virus scanners on, that had been updated regularly (though not to the latest version - I fixed that too).

But the Win98 machine being used for administration ( and with a very obsolete copy of Norton Anti-Virus on it ), had 1775 files infected with various nasties. Mostly Netsky.Q, but a few other trojans, diallers, and downloaders too. That was about 5% of the total files on the disk.

The moral of the story : a Virus Scanner that is not regularly updated - at least monthly, but weekly is better - just provides you with a false sense of security. Even the very best, most costly Pro virus scanner there is, if it's not been updated for 12 months, is useless compared with a freeware one that's only a month old.

I'm recommending they buy a small network license for AVG. Cost is USD 150, and they may get a discount as they're a non-profit organisation. No names, no pack drill.

AVG is of course free for personal home use.

And I suppose this Blog has finally come-of-age. I had to remove the first bit of Robot-generated Spam in the comments of a previous post. Obviously Blogger/Blogspot isn't too choosy about who is allowed to be a 'registered user'.

I'm still getting the odd e-mail thanking me for help with SACHOST too. It's still out there. *SIGH*

(From StuffYouCanUse.com)

Otherwise known as The Elephant Test.

The procedure is simple - Each subject is sent to Africa to hunt elephants. The subsequent elephant-hunting behaviour is then categorized by comparison to the classification rules outlined below. The subject should be assigned to the general job classification that best matches the observed behaviour....

There are other variants of this classic.

MATHEMATICIANS hunt elephants by going to Africa, throwing out everything that is not an elephant, and catching one of whatever is left.
EXPERIENCED MATHEMATICIANS will attempt to prove the existence of at least one unique elephant before proceeding to step 1 as a subordinate exercise.
PROFESSORS OF MATHEMATICS will prove the existence of at least one unique elephant and then leave the detection and capture of an actual elephant as an exercise for their graduate students....

And while we're on the subject of Matehmatical jokes, there's Subliminal Nonsense, from a German Mathematics Student currently at Trinity College, Cambridge. Not just humour, but a few small animated .Gifs like the one below, and links to a variety of on-line games.

Anyone who's interested in the problems in the Middle East - and they affect all of us - should read this.

It's an article about Benny Morris's lonely quest for an objective assessment of what really happened in 1948.

Morris attempted to write an objective history of what happened in 1948, letting the blame fall as it may, based on all the written evidence and no particular agenda. His book has recently been revised, based on documents from Israeli archives released under the '50 year rule'.

The reason he's now changed his views on what was justifiable or not, is based upon the happenings since 2000.

In the 1990's, when he published the first edition of his book, it was possible to believe that Palestinians would shortly accept Israel's right to exist. It's not possible now.

Morris does not deny that 'ethnic cleansing' occurred in 1948. Not organised, not widespread, but it did occur, and he can prove it, no matter what Zionist fanatics can say.

The difference is, that now he sees that there either had to be an ethnic cleansing of Jews, or of Arabs, solely because the Palestinians cannot currently live alongside Jews. The Israeli Jews, and Israeli Arabs (Bedouin etc) are willing. The Palestinians are not, and have shown this repeatedly since 2000.

I'm not completely sure he's correct. How much of the Terrorism against Israel has broad-based popular support, and how much is an artifact of Arafat and Co? And if it does have widespread support, how much of that is an artifact of 50 years continuous propaganda in brainwashing the Mob? Living together may have been possible in 1948 (though given the terrorism in the 30's, and the many instances of Arab Xenophobia expressed in pogroms against Jews, this is dubious), and hopefully it may be possible some time in the future. But I don't see that it's possible now.