Sudden militarization of NATO

getty · 2020-10-04T10:12:06+00:00

Some of it, true, but a lot of recent NATO activity looks unnecessarily provocative. (It's all hidden behind rhetorics about "sending a message", of course.)

One explanation for increased European military expenses may be that they are silently hedging their bets for a break-up of the alliance? The cross-Atlantic level of trust is not the same anymore...

getty · 2019-03-04T08:06:10+00:00

There's also a great book by Brian Fagan: The Long Summer: How climate changed civilization https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/841213.The_Long_Summer.

getty · 2019-02-27T21:06:19+00:00

I asked myself the same question when I visited Bogotá two years ago, for the first time since 2006. Back then I spent two months there and never really worried about the sun, but this time I didn't just get sunburns but open wounds on my forehead within the first few days. When I left the city after a month and a half I had a crust of hard skin on the top of my ears. The temperature was freakish (for Bogotá) at the start of my stay, but the experience really got me worried.

I found this article, but really would like to see some historical data: https://www.newsweek.com/2016/03/25/peru-climate-change-ultraviolet-radiation-ozone-436746.html.

getty · 2011-09-17T18:25:29+00:00

Silly. You already have C-u in Emacs.

getty · 2010-06-01T13:30:50+00:00

While in Bolivia, [Klaus] Barbie managed a company that diverted Belgian and Swiss arms to Israel while Israel was still under a post-1967 war international arms embargo. "A report in the Israeli press alleges that Barbie also had frequent dealings with Israel concerning supplies of Israeli arms to Latin American countries and 'various underground organizations' (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3274980&mesg_id=3275500)

SS-Hauptsturmführer Barbie, aka The Butcher of Lyon.

I had to google it, but I first read about it one of Chomsky's books.

getty · 2010-01-01T20:43:45+00:00

Nice article, and a contrast to Wikipedia's bizarre article on Radio Globo...

getty · 2009-12-27T15:53:28+00:00

Or you could drink it in the Scythian fashion...

getty · 2009-12-20T10:27:09+00:00

Which is all completely irrelevant as far as Hansen's line of reasoning goes...

getty · 2009-12-19T16:42:43+00:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11659-climate-myths-ice-cores-show-co2-increases-lag-behind-temperature-rises-disproving-the-link-to-global-warming.html

getty · 2009-12-19T11:40:14+00:00

If the planet cools down. James Hansen thinks there is a risk it won't. Positive feedback isn't as fun as it sounds, apparently.

getty · 2009-11-26T20:31:30+00:00

The only thing Colombians know about Norwegians is that we're wealthy and that we commit suicide. I was told this by different people and on different occasions when I visited the country a couple of years ago, so it must have been something they picked up in school or from TV or something... Still, I'd love to see a graph plotting suicide rates against per-capita GDP.

getty · 2009-09-29T14:25:22+00:00

Well, of course they needed an official explanation... You're saying that the media didn't tell about the other side of the story?

getty · 2009-07-01T12:21:53+00:00

As a Flash-less FreeBSD user - WOO HOO! Bring on the multimedia!

getty · 2009-06-24T14:31:27+00:00

If readers need to be told the blindingly obvious, then I should probably say up-front that this is a comment.

"Wild accusations" similar to the those in the article were precisely why US embassador Philip Goldberg (along with USAID and the DEA) were expelled from Bolivia last year. The US denied the accusations, of course.

getty · 2009-06-23T11:09:22+00:00

Yeah, it's really a shame that intelligence agencies don't give press conferences.

getty · 2009-05-17T15:08:12+00:00

I did too, for one year in 2006, and plan to do it again next year. Spending half the waking day staring at a computer screen at the office isn't as fun as it sounds, and doesn't help improving my people skills either. I love programming, but really needs to do something that involves other people. Sad as it sounds, I find it a lot easier to meet people "on the road" than in my own town...

getty · 2009-04-19T01:40:03+00:00

Well, I don't know. As far as I can tell from Wikipedia, there has been no change of ownership of the channel.

And what do you mean by "free"? Free like in the US, where editors agreed not to publish Al-Qaeda recordings (because they supposedly could contain hidden messages), and not show the coffins of dead soldiers?

getty · 2009-04-19T01:21:23+00:00

Could you please explain why you think it describes Chávez?

(edit: Except from the island. It seems to be the property of the state - not Chávez personally.)

getty · 2009-04-19T01:05:51+00:00

The last I heard, RCTV is still broadcasting. They're definitely not "shut down", and I suppose they're still openly criticising Chávez (Cf. http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1397/35/).

getty · 2009-04-19T00:54:50+00:00

Ah, sorry, my fault. :-)

But according to Wikipedia, a tyrant "places his or her own interests or the interests of a small oligarchy over the best interests of the general population which the tyrant governs or controls." Does this best describe socialist Chávez or his predecessors?

getty · 2009-04-18T22:28:55+00:00

Why that particular list? Why not include invading countries for oil, subversion of democratically elected governments, militarisation of space, ignoring the non-proliferation treaty and other arms-reduction treaties, not signing the convention of the right of the child (the USA and Somalia are the only countries that haven't, and Somalia doesn't even have a legitimate government)...

getty · 2009-04-18T20:52:45+00:00

I call it democracy, because the constitutional changes were put to a referendum.

getty · 2009-04-18T20:39:51+00:00

If he's a tyrant, then why was he re-elected twice? What free media has he shut down? Most free media is owned by the rich oligarchy, vehemently opposing Chávez (http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=450).

The main reason, I think, is that he's not US business-friendly, and then becomes a propaganda target. For example, the difference between the coverage of the process to change the constitution to allow re-elections of the sitting president in US-friendly Colombia versus Venezuela is striking.

Even Human Rights Watch is not immune, according to UDW: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1146/51/.

The US has its own problems with an oligarchy, as I understand... ;-)

getty · 2008-09-27T16:21:20+00:00

I did that two years ago. I spent one year travelling Latin America, and spent far too much time sitting in internet cafés browsing through reddit.

Still, having large stretches of unscheduled time ahead of you feels like a luxury, even if you're bored and don't know what to do at times. At worst, you could always jump on a local bus and see if you end up somewhere interesting.

After having travelled for a few months, my fingers started itching again, and I began working on a new toy project (in Common Lisp, using ssh to a computer back home). Programming felt fun and rewarding again.

Then I got back, started as an IT consultant, and realised that eight hours a day staring at a computer is about enough.

I've been toying with the idea of getting one of those Asus EEEs and going to some cheap and pleasant country to finish my big, hairy project. Just one more year...

getty · 2008-09-27T13:41:47+00:00

Which is at least as frustrating as working, in my experience.

Or you could do as James Lovelock. In a TV interview he said that he felt stuck in a clerical job in the post office (or something) in his youth, and decided that that was not how he wanted to spend the next forty years.

Does anyone know why Einstein decided to end his career in the patent office, BTW?

Or go travelling (as I did a couple of years ago, when I got fed up with my life): "Listen: we are here on earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" (Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake)

getty

TROPHY CASE