Bosnia and Herzegovina has slipped further in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) scale. It was revealed at the CPI presentation held in Sarajevo on 17 November, that Bosnia and Herzegovina had ranked a score of 3.0 - a score shared by countries between 99th to 105th position - in an index that covers 180 countries. The Index ranks countries from those with the lowest level of corruption to those where the corruption is most prevalent (ranging from 10 – no corruption, to 1 – absolute corruption).

I'll post a complete Balkan breakdown shortly.

With 130,000 displaced Tamil civilians resettled and the rest to be done by the end of January 2010, the Sri Lankan government appears to have responded to intense international pressure over Tamil refugee camp living conditions and is getting the job done. The recent Sri Lankan war with the Tamil Tigers terrorist group left 288,000 Tamil citizens in refugee camps and put the Sri Lankan government in the hot seat with humanitarian groups. During their reign, the Tamil Tigers were the world's most prolific terrorist organization, and are credited with inventing the backpack bomb and the suicide vest. The war ended when the Sri Lankan military killed the Tamil Tiger's leadership in an Ambush in May.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health announced today to have found a mutated version of the influenza A(H1N1) virus in three patients in Norway who had tested positive for the new flu. It has been found in two patients who died from the new influenza A(H1N1) and in one patient with severe influenza disease. These were the two first patients who died from the new influenza in Norway. Some of those who died later have been examined without finding the same mutated virus. The mutation could possibly make the virus more prone to infect deeper in the airways and thus cause more severe disease. However "There is no indication that this change in the virus is of any importance for the effect of the vaccine or the effect of antiviral treatment," said Director General Geir Stene-Larsen at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] in May demonstrated the ability of mobile laser weapon systems to perform a unique mission: track and destroy small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). During the U.S. Air Force-sponsored tests at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake, Calif., the Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments (MATRIX), which was developed by Boeing under contract to the Air Force Research Laboratory, used a single, high-brightness laser beam to shoot down five UAVs at various ranges. Laser Avenger, a Boeing-funded initiative, also shot down a UAV. Representatives of the Air Force and Army observed the tests.



Commentary on Gizmodo is hysterical BTW. My favorite (relayed by diaperdodger: "OK, come on, that's just ridiculous. Why not have it shoot missiles too? Ooh and sharks, it could shoot sharks that bite the people they run into." Also: "I am pretty sure this is old news. I saw on tv where they did the test firing and it was pretty far off target. Thankfully the target they did hit was a house and no one was hurt, just a lot of popcorn was popped."

The government of Serbia announced today that it is now accepting bids for a second land line telephony provider, breaking the country's long-standing government monopoly. The announcement limits bidders to those with at least $297 million in revenue and a minimum user base of one million customers, and a $30 million deposit is required.

The reason for the unprecedented move was given by Telecommunications Minister Jasna Matić. "It's very difficult at this time to determine the right course of action. It's generally known that licenses for fixed telephone lines in this region haven't increased in price. Now, during this financial crisis, it's even more difficult to determine actual value. This is why we're leaving this for the market to decide."

Odd motivation, but hell ...

The below-pasted column is a year old. I'm also about to make a wholly specious argument from authority. Brian Kernighan (Google him) is smarter than all of us, so what he has to say carries more weight.

( What would Orwell do? )

What do you get when you add one part thermobaric explosive technology, one part lightweight weapons systems, and mix it all up with some American ingenuity? A best-of-breed shoulder-mounted weapon capable of staggering devastation. Other nations have versions of this technology, and have for some time, but ours is better. Which is why the Marines have been sort of quiet about the SMAW-NE and its strengths in urban combat.

It proved itself in spades on the deadly streets of Fallujah in 2004, which is why afterwards The Marine Corps Systems Command Program Manager for Ammunition at Quantico, VA responded by ponying up some decent cash to buy a stockpile of the enhanced ordnance from Talley Defense Systems in Mesa, AZ. At $4,700 each, the warheads aren't cheap, but compare that to the ability to flatten a structure with one trigger pull ...

I attended a talk on interpreting satellite imagery a couple years ago, and since then I've had a lot of fun with material from the various satellite photo providers out there. My most recent game is to find settled areas in NW Pakistan / SE Afghanistan (Khyber Pass doesn't count), and determine from structure placement, objects and location, approach paths, and overall location/defensibility whether or not the settlement is residential, commercial/agricultural, commercial/production, guerrilla, or military.

Try it! It's fun!

Patriarch Pavle, the 44th Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, has died at the age of 95.

Born Gojko Stojčević in the pastoral village of Kućanci, Patriarch Pavle's tenure was shrouded in controversy almost from the beginning of his ordainment in 1990. During the wave of nationalist and religious fervor that swept the Balkans in the 90s, Patriarch Pavle enjoyed enormous popularity from Serbian lay folk, and his picture still today adorns many a wall and iconostasis in Serbian households all over the world. His initial rapport with the corrupt and war-mongering regimes of Slobodan Milošević and Radovan Karadžić, however, aroused blistering criticism from many Orthodox church officials, and the Holy Synod itself publicly questioned his judgment on one occasion. His later support for opposition parties and his spiritual leadership of reformist movements eased criticism, but never completely quieted it. When Pavle fell ill in 2007, a temporary replacement was named to fulfill his duties during his convalescence, but he never recovered enough to resume his post.

from Stickyboy [my.email]
to info@ap.org
date Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 1:24 PM
subject Article Comments - "Swine flu causes surge of garlic sales in Serbia" by Dusan Stojanovic
mailed-by gmail.com

To Whom it May Concern,

I'm sure the AP's resources are a bit thin, but a bit of vetting might be in order, even for an article about Serbs by a Serb. I retrieved this piece from http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUAA2GCLG-ftUe92AbU5GN4aC4vgD9BUMV9G5 on 11/14/2009 and was somewhat disappointed to see so many falsehoods and stereotypes packed into a single work.

"The smell of the little white cloves also has become prevalent in public places as people munch on them as if eating apples."

I have shopped at piacas all over Belgrade and have never once witnessed this behavior, and I asked around and received a similar response from my friends in other cities in Serbia. Years ago in grade school, once in a while an friend's baba would force him to swallow a clove of whole garlic, but this was considered strange behavior even then, and he would be teased mercilessly. I would consider this to be a highly questionable assertion by the author.

"Garlic is kept on doorsteps or in pockets to keep vampires away, and under babies' pillows to ensure a healthy and prosperous life."

This is patently ridiculous. In all my experiences throughout Serbia, the Balkans, and Europe I've never witnessed or even heard of such behavior. It's possible that some superstitious individuals in rural areas may do such things, but the above sentence is nevertheless generally false and constitutes a grotesque mischaracterization of an intelligent, reasonable people.

"Serbs often consume garlic as a snack together with slivovitz, a strong plum brandy."

Again, contrary to the general truth: plum brandy is consumed with everything, but garlic is seldom eaten raw with sljiva alone.

"Serbian media often compare what happened at two popular music festivals as proof of the alleged medicinal virtues of garlic ..."

A single blog posting by Pavle Gvozdenovic is the source of this rumor, which again has no basis. Serbian media hasn't "often" compared any such thing, and a glance through b92.net, dnevnik.co.yu, politika.rs, and other news sites contained no mention of any such comparison.

I have to take issue with this article, in which the author obviously told outright lies intended to cast Serbs in an uneducated, superstitious, and wholly ridiculous light.

Respectfully,

Stickyboy

So when you insert a dual-layer DVDR into a burner and begin the burning process, the drive will attempt to burn to a couple of short sectors at the start of the disc to adjust the power of the laser to the media being used. If one is using dual-layer media that is sub-standard (apparently anything but fucking Verbatim), the sectors being written will give back such wildly disparate readings that the power calibration process will error out. And it is the most annoying fucking thing on the planet.

There was a time when the Maxell brand meant something pretty damned serious. I used to save my money to buy the legendary MAX-G metal tapes for archival-quality recordings, and the XLII-S were excellent in a pinch. Nowadays apparently they've sunk to re-branding Ritek optical media. It's okay though, my HP hardware that's having trouble is just a re-branded Lite-On drive.

Sigh.

Godwin was a goddamned goose-stepping jack-booted fascist nazi thug.

Selahattin Demirtas, the Deputy Chairman of the Kurdish party in Turkey's parliament, took the floor of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and spoke words that would have gotten him arrested and probably killed just a few years earlier.

During the last period of the Ottoman Empire, in 1915-16, the Union and Progress Party systematically pursued a policy of extermination of the Christians who had been the native peoples of the country for centuries.

No national security considerations can be an excuse for the annihilation of a population by means of forced displacement and massacres. Governments, in an effort to clear themselves of the guilt, resorted to denial and to distortion of historical facts to conceal the truth. They rewrote the history. In school books, Armenians are portrayed as hostile figures, exaggerating the incidents of violence by Armenian activists and never telling the truth about the massacred Armenians.

... I read this piece of shit. Choice quote:

Until recently, Serbian authorities have been reluctant to address Belgrade's responsibility for atrocities and war crimes for fear of provoking a nationalist backlash.

I know the show in general is insipid, but the first two minutes of the last episode of Castle ("Night of the Vampires" or some such) is worth downloading the entire 1.2 GB show. Hysterical. Awesome.

Just got back in from the National Championship Barbecue Cookoff in Meridian TX. I was a judge for the brisket category, and it was a complete blast. It wasn't just food; there were pony rides, a parade, a car show, great music, craft booths, and a wild west shootout show starring the Brazos River Gunslingers. The kids loved it, I got stuffed, and I'm pretty sure two or three people were flight-for-lifed out of there, either that or the National Guard helo pilot was giving sporadic rides.

Just before the commencement of the awards ceremony, with a thousand or so expectant cooks and happy attendees packed around the civic center's outdoor pavilion, the MC held a moment of silent prayer for our troops, wherever they may be, contending for the cause of freedom. Then came a thunderous applause that shook the earth and the trees, and I again remembered where my America will always be.

Reporters Without Borders has published their 2009 Press Freedom Index, and I note with some interest where Balkan states rank.

Kings was an orgasm of suspense. I don't remember when I last enjoyed the inaugural season of a television show so much, and I close the past season's last episode mid-story to learn that it was cancelled. Figures. I generally tend to learn about amazing, worthy shows long after they're past the ability for mere email campaigns to resurrect. So sad. So barren. Such a mirror to our retarded, empty-headed entertainment markets.

So it contains suggestive language that seeks to cement undue authority from power-grab laws, The Big Memo at least gives states some breathing room as regards their own intrastate regulation of Cannabis use. It's a step.