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Article: It’s Peter, Peter, the word eater

The man who spear-headed operations at Guantanamo Bay (2002-2004) and Abu Ghraib (2003/2004), Major General Geoffrey D Miller has been honoured with the Distinguished Service Medal, the Army’s fourth-highest award, before a crowd of 200 people in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes.

The ceremony was presided over by General Richard Cody, the Army’s No. 2 officer, who called Miller a “role model, innovator and leader”.

Not everyone seems to agree with this view.

“This is yet another case where you have somebody who is integrally involved in setting the stage for abuse - implementing tactics that people are now being prosecuted for - and rather than being held accountable, he’s getting honours,” said Amnesty International official Jumana Musa.

I don’t know whether he fits the bill as a role model, as he does lack certain accountability qualities. However, he is truly, an innovative leader.

Two out of three ain’t too bad I guess.

Articles:

• US army honours Guantanamo, Iraq chief
• Medal for top US detention officer
• Images of innovation (Google Images)

It seems that the original film containing the first moments Mankind stepped on the Moon has gone missing from NASA’s Goddard Space Centre in Maryland. Also among tapes feared missing are the original recordings of the other five Apollo moon landings.

I used to believe the U.S. sent the first Man to the moon on July 16, 1969. But it wasn’t until recently that I first began to have my doubts. So what caused me to question one of Man’s greatest technological endeavours?

The fact that it is the year 2006 and the Space Shuttle is still having hiccups getting off the ground! Yet, men walked, jumped, took snap shots, and played golf there 37 years ago! That’s a long time to improve on the proven technology they had.

NASA is still having problems with O-ring designs and bits of falling foam damaging the shuttle during lift-off. If current space technology is so failure prone, why not just go back to that awesome technology of yesteryear?

John F. Kennedy made a speech to Congress on May 25, 1961 expressing his concern about the Soviet’s technological advances. He challenged the nation to put a man on the moon within the decade. They pulled it off in 8 years…

…37 years later with vastly improved computing power, superior avionics, improvements in materials technology, huge advances in science and a shitload of funding, the space shuttle is spending more time on the launch pad than in space.

So, it was upon reading this news of the original moon landing films gone missing that I had to chuckle. I mean, how hard could it be to fake a moon landing?

Stanley Kubrick’s film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a great sci-fi film. It was shot in 1968. Change a few props, add some dirt and rocks. “Hey, presto!”, one authentic moonscape. People will believe anything. You don’t have to think back far to remember the last time we were all duped.

And now all the film recordings of that historical moment has gotten itself lost. We will never know their authenticity now! I guess we’ll just have to take their word on the matter…bahahaha!

Update 30/08/2009: Following the recent 40th anniversary of the “moon landings”, this week the Dutch government have discovered the “moon rock” a U.S. envoy gifted in 1969, is actually a piece of ordinary petrified wood. [Read more…]

Articles:

• One giant blunder for mankind: how NASA lost moon pictures
• Project Apollo
• Moon landing
• Apollo Moon landing hoax accusations
• Tale of the TV Tapes: Apollo 11 Mission Archive Mystery Unspools
• NASA can’t find original tape of moon landing
• Moon landing a Smart move
• Europe’s lunar mission gets a scare

This update sees many new features added to KQF (was called KQD).

In the last version you could add RSS feeds to your Dashboard, but now you will be able to add feeds to any part of your blog using a simple tag.

So, to display a feed in your templates, or post Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a sad day for cricket when Australia’s international umpire, Darrell Hair, tries to secretly extract $660,000 from cricket authorities for his “quiet” retirement. This all came about after Pakistan was accused of ball tampering.

Ball tampering is a funny subject. As a kid, I always wondered why bowlers used to always rub the ball near their crotch just before bowling. Obviously, now we all know it’s to give the ball that extra swing.

In the rule book, Law 42.3 (b) basically states that a player may not “alter the condition of the ball, except by polishing (no artificial substances)”. A bit vague and contradictory? Maybe.

However, at the end of the day, the umpire has the final say. Right or wrong, what’s said, goes. If anything, this little episode highlights an area of the game that probably needs a bit of clarification.

Articles:

• Umpire sought $660,000 payout
• Cricket’s hidden tactics are an open secret
• Cricket Tips #4: Shining the ball
• Day four: How the controversy unfolded

Video Clip:

• Fast Bowling

Alright then, it’s not exactly holy, but it might as well be a cow. A grilled cow with cheese and bacon in a bun.

“Would like like fries with that?”
“No thanks, just a coronary bypass please.”

That’s what you will probably need after eating one of these burgers. Hungry Jacks (Burger King) calls it the The BK Quad Stacker.

This is what you are in for:

1. Four beef patties
2. Four slices of cheese
3. Eight rashers of bacon
4. No lettuce
5. No sauce
6. On two buns
7. Followed by a quadruple bypass

Read the rest of this entry »