text:
The End of the CMP?
An executive order - likely to be ruled unconstitutional after the damage is done - may well kill the 110 year old Civilian Marksmanship Program.
The White House announced on Thursday that it intends to "ban almost all re-imports of military surplus firearms to private entities" through executive order, which would effectively shut down the 110-year-old Civilian Marksmanship Program.
In a Fact Sheet published on Whitehouse.gov today referencing the upcoming executive order the ban on importing military weapons is designed to "keep military-grade firearms off our streets." Exceptions for import may be allowed for museums.
The CMP tightly controls the distribution of obsolete military weapons. The program was created by the U.S. Congress as part of the 1903 War Department Appropriations Act with the purpose of allowing civilians to hone their marksmanship skills, should they later be called into military service.
Bullets! - HOOP-EX
A HOOP-EX is the same as a LEAP-EX, just not as high. Oftentimes, the rehearsals for LEAP-EXs turn into HOOP-EXs.
Gametalk - Realism
With regards to wargaming, define "realism".
Blunt Talk from Senior Leaders
It was supposed to be a non-attributed talk about strategic Landpower but the attributable quotes are quite telling.
"I don't believe in non-attribution," said Maj. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, the director of force management and development at SOCOM and a co-host of the conference. "Anything I say I stand behind," he said. "You can quote me."
The veteran special operator was well worth quoting. For example, when one participant said the strategic landpower effort was created in large part to institutionalize a decade of improvements since 9/11, such as better interservice cooperation and new skills in working with local populations, Sacolick — who was present at the creation of the concept — bluntly said, that's wrong.
"It wasn't built on 10 years of kumbayah on the battlefield; it was built on 10 years of frustration [and] not working together properly," Sacolick said. "It wasn't 10 years of wonderful success. It was 10 years of abject failure that we don't want to repeat."
"There is too much self-congratulatory talk," agreed RAND scholar Linda Robinson, who also gave me permission to quote her by name. "Looking at everything that has happened over the last decade until now, we are not good enough at 'shape and influence'" — the military terms for getting people, groups, and governments to do what we want without having to shoot at them first.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, said Sacolick, "most of our successes on both those fronts came not from shooting people but from talking to them…. living with people and talking to them in their native language." That said, he added bluntly, soft-speaking won't be taken seriously unless you have the proverbial big stick to back it up. "What makes my guys effective in Afghanistan is not their diplomatic skills, quite frankly," he said. "It's the threat of force."
Progressive or Tiered - It's the Same Damned Thing
And it means our entire Army won't be ready fight when it's time.
"We're looking at having certain number of brigades at a higher level of readiness," Gen. John Campbell told me last week. "Many of our units will go down much lower."
"Some people would call that tiered readiness, where we said we never were going to go again," the Vice-Chief went on, referring to the Cold War practice where units not in West Germany or South Korea sometimes never received their full allotment of troops, equipment, and training dollars. "I'd call it progressive readiness."
A preliminary plan may be ready for public discussion within weeks, Campbell said. "We're working through that now," he said, as the service builds its 2015-2019 budget plan, the Program Objective Memorandum.
Campbell's remarks suggest new willingness on the Army leadership's part to shift it position on readiness, one that's been urged by many thinktanks.
"While Army leaders have avoided cutting readiness to every extent possible, it is no longer feasible under current budget plans – even before sequestration moves into year two," argues Mackenzie Eaglen, one of the think tank experts who recommended cutting readiness levels to guarantee the military's ability to develop and buy new weapons.
"There is already a readiness shortfall this year that is being funded through war spending and additional untold readiness gaps based on all the services receiving fewer resources than expected when Congress finally passed a defense appropriations bill for 2013," she said.
So is this really a new condition? Or just putting a label on something that's been happening all along?
Medal of Honor awarded to Army SSG Ty Carter
Another hero earning America's highest honor.
Staff Sgt. Ty M. Carter received the Medal of Honor during a ceremony Monday at the White House, marking the first time since the Vietnam War that two living service members have earned the nation's highest award for valor for actions in the same battle.
Carter is the second soldier to receive the Medal of Honor for actions during the Oct. 3, 2009, battle at Combat Outpost Keating in eastern Afghanistan.
Former Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, who did not attend Monday's ceremony because of a previous commitment to attend a benefit event for homeless veterans in California, received the Medal of Honor Feb. 11.
go read the rest.
Sound Off! Non-wargames!
If forced to choose between them, would you rather play...
tabletop pen-and-paper RPG?
console-based first-person shooter?
GrogHeads.com Calls for Research
From the other site I work with, GrogHeads.com
GrogHeads Staff, 26 August 2013
Hobby games and gamers - especially in the strategy gaming and wargaming world - have rarely been the subjects of much serious published research inquiry. And yet, some of us know from personal experience that such research is, in fact, being conducted in graduate schools and academic institutions all over. Distinct from marketing analyses in that they are not focused on improving commercial performance, these studies are frequently conceptualized and executed by members of the broader gaming community who are seeking to fuse their love for the hobby with an academic persuit in the social sciences or humanities. Although there are a few academic outlets for such research - the journal Simulation & Gaming springs to mind - not every paper was written with the intention of journal or conference submission. Nevertheless, the research is still interesting and useful, and for GrogHeads everywhere it is certainly relevant. Papers shared may inspire better research by later investigators, and the ideas discussed may help designers and developers craft better games. Here at GrogHeads, we're kicking off a new monthly series on Research and Gaming. The first of these papers was published in early August, and we plan to follow with one each month. And we'd like you to submit your research to us. We're not a peer-reviewed journal, but we do have some academics on our staff and among our "Friends of GrogHeads" network that include PhD's in history, political science, and business, as well as other grad degrees in social sciences and the humanities. So if you've got something interesting that you want to share, here's your chance. Email us your papers at research-at-grogheads-dot-com . Make sure you include all of your citations and footnotes in the document, and attach any graphics as separate files. We will also need a short bio from you about who you are and how people can contact you. One great way for people to contact you is to create an account in our forums, so that you can join any discussions of feedback that go on there. We even have an area dedicated to references and research. A few caveats, of course:
Don't send us something you're hoping to see presented at a conference, or in a peer-reviewed journal
Don't send us something you expect to try to claim on a CV when you're hunting for a future academic job
Don't send us blatant marketing, political, or religious tracts
Don't expect detailed, in-depth critiques of your work from our advisory team, but do expect a lot of questions from our audience, many of whom do not have a great academic background, and for whom there will need to be some gentler discussion of the finer points of how your research got to where it is.
So please send us your tired, huddled research projects yearning to breathe free, and let's share them with the wider gaming audience. Who knows what great insights they may spawn for someone else to build on, what feedback you'll get to improve your own work. Either way, it'll be in the public and being discussed, which sure beats languishing on a digital shelf somewhere, next to the Ark of the Covenant.
The idea here is not to start some guerilla journal, but rather to give folks an outlet for cool papers they write but are never going to publish or disseminate beyond their classroom.
Labels: R+D, Wargames
Some Common Sense From the American Public?
Looks like the US public is not interested in diving into Syria.
Americans strongly oppose U.S. intervention in Syria's civil war and believe Washington should stay out of the conflict even if reports that Syria's government used deadly chemicals to attack civilians are confirmed, a Reuters/Ipsos poll says.
About 60 percent of Americans surveyed said the United States should not intervene in Syria's civil war, while just 9 percent thought President Barack Obama should act.
But I have to wonder if this is a true appreciation of the total lack of strategic interest, or just deployment fatigue.
LOVEINT at the NSA
I mean, if you're going to be a stalker, and work for the NSA, you're going to be one hell of a stalker.
The "LOVEINT" examples constitute most episodes of willful misconduct by NSA employees, officials said.
In the wake of revelations last week that NSA had violated privacy rules on nearly 3,000 occasions in a one-year period, NSA Chief Compliance Officer John DeLong emphasized in a conference call with reporters last week that those errors were unintentional. He did say that there have been "a couple" of willful violations in the past decade. He said he didn't have the exact figures at the moment.
NSA said in a statement Friday that there have been "very rare" instances of willful violations of any kind in the past decade, and none have violated key surveillance laws. "NSA has zero tolerance for willful violations of the agency's authorities" and responds "as appropriate."
The LOVEINT violations involved overseas communications, officials said, such as spying on a partner or spouse. In each instance, the employee was punished either with an administrative action or termination.
And hey, if you're going to start violating even more 4th Amendment rights, why not have a Senator defending you.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, said the NSA told her committee about a set of "isolated cases" that have occurred about once a year for the last 10 years, where NSA personnel have violated NSA procedures.
She said "in most instances" the violations didn't involve an American's personal information. She added that she's seen no evidence that any of the violations involved the use of NSA's domestic surveillance infrastructure, which is governed by a law known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
UN Intervention Brigade Fires First Shots in Anger
The UN's "intervention brigade" is shooting at rebels threatening Goma.
A special U.N. brigade formed to neutralise armed groups in Congo has taken its first military action, firing artillery at rebels menacing the border city of Goma, U.N. and Congolese military officers said on Friday.
The force of Tanzanian, South African and Malawian soldiers was backing the Congolese army against M23 fighters, whose brief occupation of the city last year damaged the image of the U.N. mission in Congo and led the Security Council to create the brigade.
The United Nations pledged in July to prevent the rebels from getting back within range of the city of about a million people on the Rwandan border.
But M23 this week entered a security zone ringing Goma that was established by the new, robustly-mandated Intervention Brigade earlier this month.
At least three people were killed on Thursday when shells landed on the city.
"Of course we responded with artillery as we cannot accept any threat to the population. That's why we retaliated," U.N. Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Basse told Reuters by telephone from Goma referring to Thursday's fighting.
Is the US Preparing for Action in Syria?
It looks like there's some prep going on for possible US action in Syria as the President weighs his options.
U.S. naval forces are moving closer to Syria as President Barack Obama considers military options for responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad government. The president emphasized that a quick intervention in the Syrian civil war was problematic, given the international considerations that should precede a military strike.
The White House said the president would meet Saturday with his national security team to consider possible next steps by the United States. Officials say once the facts are clear, Obama will make a decision about how to proceed.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to discuss any specific force movements while saying that Obama had asked the Pentagon to prepare military options for Syria. U.S. defense officials told The Associated Press that the Navy had sent a fourth warship armed with ballistic missiles into the eastern Mediterranean Sea but without immediate orders for any missile launch into Syria.
U.S. Navy ships are capable of a variety of military action, including launching Tomahawk cruise missiles, as they did against Libya in 2011 as part of an international action that led to the overthrow of the Libyan government.
"The Defense Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for contingencies, and that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options — whatever options the president might choose," Hagel told reporters traveling with him to Asia.
I hope - I really, really hope - that before any action is taken, that there's a definitive answer to the question "tell me how this ends." And I don't mean a random cruise missile strike here or there. How does the Syrian Civil War end, and what role does the US play in it, and what does the US get out of it? Because, quite frankly, if we don't get anything out of it, there's no reason to go in there.
Time to Intervene in Syria? To What Effect?
The drumbeat is beginning to pound for intervention in Syria.
Following reports of a large-scale chemical weapons strike, pressure is mounting on the United States and its Western allies to act to halt the violence in Syria.
But, with politicians and public alike loathe to get sucked into another drawn out land war in the Middle East, what military options remain on the table?
And so far it's been GEN Dempsey as the voice of reason.
Effectively ruling out U.S. cruise missile attacks and other options that wouldn't require U.S. troops on the ground, Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a letter to a congressman that the military is clearly capable of taking out Syrian President Bashar Assad's air force and shifting the balance of the Arab country's 2½-year war back toward the armed opposition.
But he said such an approach would plunge the United States deep into another war in the Arab world and offer no strategy for peace in a nation plagued by ethnic rivalries.
"Syria today is not about choosing between two sides but rather about choosing one among many sides," Dempsey said in the letter Aug. 19 to Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. "It is my belief that the side we choose must be ready to promote their interests and ours when the balance shifts in their favor. Today, they are not."
The reality is that you cannot effect change on the ground without putting troops on the ground. Kosovo, Libya, and 10+ years of no-fly zones over Iraq have taught us that lesson. Are we prepared to put troops on the ground in Syria? Hard to believe we would.
Bullets! - Gigs
If you say "I'll take the gig for (fill in inspectable item)..." and then follow it up with "... Someone and I did (this much of it) but we didn't do (the rest of it)" then all you've done is rope someone else into what you ciaimed was "your" gig. If you take responsibility, take it all. Otherwise, just say "I told this person to do it and they didn't."
GameTalk - Low-Tech Sci-Fi
How far "backwards" should sci-fi games represent the low-tech? A caveman with a spear can kill a power-armor grunt with the right hit, but do you need to account for them in the game? If so, how?
Gas Attack in Syria?
Seems there might have been an overnight gas attack in Syria against the rebels.
Syrian activists accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of launching a nerve gas attack that killed at least 213 people on Wednesday, in what would, if confirmed, be by far the worst reported use of poison gas in the two-year-old civil war.
Reuters was not able to verify the accounts independently and they were denied by Syrian state television, which said they were disseminated deliberately to distract a team of United Nations chemical weapons experts which arrived three days ago.
The U.N. team is in Syria investigating allegations that both rebels and army forces used poison gas in the past, one of the main disputes in international diplomacy over Syria.
Activists said rockets with chemical agents hit the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar before dawn.
Given that chemical weapons may be the 'trigger' that the international community needs to finally intervene in a major way, is there a chance that the rebels could've done this? It seems pretty far out there, but is it, really?
Sound Off! Better Lessons for the Future
Should the US military learn more of their lessons for the future from
The Vietnam War?
Gulf War II (Iraq 03-08)
Is Egypt Paralleling the Weimar Republic?
I'll leave it to guys like Rex and Volko to dig through the nitty-gritty of how accurate the comparisons are, but Reilly's article contrasting Egypt's military to the inaction of the Weimar Reichswehr in 1933 is at least quite thought-provoking. To me, one of the keys in the 'rush out of totalitarianism is nicely encapsulated below. Essentially, when political opposition is outlawed, it is the religious opposition that becomes the organized, structured, and mobilizable when political competition becomes acceptable.
Bernard Lewis predicted this mess when he said that the rush to early elections after the fall of Mubarak would lead, as did similar events in the Weimar Republic, to the ascension of the most dangerous elements society – meaning victory for the Muslim Brotherhood. In an interview with David Horowitz in the Jerusalem Post (February 25, 2011), Lewis cautioned that the discourse in Egypt is still "religiously defined" and that "the language of Western democracy is for the most part newly translated and not intelligible to the great masses." How many Egyptians, for instance, actually believe that Copts and Muslims, men and women, believers and nonbelievers, are equal—to say nothing of Jews and Muslims? Pressing for elections now, he warned, could lead to catastrophe, as only religious parties are well enough organized to take advantage of them. (Lewis preferred first to see the development of local self-governing institutions.) Therefore, he said, "I don't see elections, Western-style, as the answer to the problem. I see it rather as a dangerous aggravation of a problem. The Western-style election…has no relevance at all to the situation in most Middle Eastern countries. It can only lead to one direction, as it did in [Weimar] Germany, for example." He was right. True to form, once in power, the Muslim brotherhood and Morsi went methodically about trying to monopolize power. Morsi assigned himself powers that a Pharaoh would have envied.
The Extended History of HTS - From "Success" to... what, exactly?
Newsweek's got an interesting history of the Human Terrain System program. An excerpt from the opening:
Known as AF1, Tracy's group was the first Human Terrain Team to deploy in the field—and it quickly made an impact. In one community, Tracy pointed out that the Haqqani network, an anti-American group of insurgents, was gaining strength because an uncommonly large number of Afghan widows depended on their sons for support. With few jobs available, many young men were forced to join the insurgency to earn money. On the advice of the Human Terrain Team, soldiers started a job-training program that put the widows to work and cut the insurgents' supply of recruits. The Human Terrain Team even convinced the Army to refurbish a mosque on the American base—a project that was credited with cutting insurgent rocket attacks.
Not all of Tracy's insights led to perfect results, but on the whole the experiment appeared to be a major success. Tracy was "taking the population and dissecting it," an officer who worked with her told The Christian Science Monitor; she was giving soldiers "data points" that helped them resolve local disputes and identify problems before they turned violent. Col. Martin Schweitzer, the commander of the brigade with which Tracy had deployed, would become one of the Human Terrain System's biggest supporters. He believed that Tracy and her team had made U.S. soldiers and Afghans safer while speeding the work of connecting Afghans to their government. When Schweitzer had arrived in Khost, only 19 of 86 districts supported the U.S.-backed Afghan government. By the end of his deployment, he estimated that 72 of them did. He credited Tracy and her team with reducing his unit's combat operations in the province by 60 percent to 70 percent.
Brit-Spain Snit of Gibraltar Spices Up With Warships
Claiming "scheduled exercises," the British navy arrived in Gibraltar and puts a convenient force in place in case Spanish fishing fleets get a little frisky.
British warships arrived in Gibraltar on Monday for scheduled exercises amid tensions with Spain over fishing around the British Mediterranean enclave.
Although British, Spanish and Gibraltarian authorities have said the navy's arrival at the British overseas territory is long-scheduled, some in Spain see it as provocative.
At about 0800 GMT the frigate HMS Westminster sailed into the port of Gibraltar flanked by two smaller ships.
It was followed an hour later by the auxiliary ship Lyme Bay, part of a task force of four warships and five other vessels that left Portsmouth and Plymouth about a week ago for exercises in the Mediterranean and the Gulf with various allies.
Gibraltar's creation of an artificial reef with concrete blocks, which Spanish fishermen say blocks their access to certain waters, has prompted Spain to toughen its border checks, leading to long queues for workers and tourists entering Gibraltar.
Spain claims the territory, population just 30,000, which it ceded to Britain by treaty 300 years ago.
Bright Star Canceled Over Egyptian Non-Coup
Still won't call it coup... but in canceling the Bright Star exercises, the administration is treating it like one, except to cut off aid and stop spending money on the military there.
"While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt, our traditional cooperation cannot continue as usual when civilians are being killed in the streets and rights are being rolled back," Obama said in a brief statement from his Martha's Vineyard vacation spot.
"As a result, this morning, we notified the Egyptian government that we are canceling our biannual joint military exercise, which was scheduled for next month," the president said, warning that the U.S. response may not stop there.
"Going forward, I've asked my national security team to assess the implications of the actions taken by the interim government and further steps that we may take as necessary with respect to the U.S.-Egyptian relationship," Obama said.
Navy Names Next Littoral Combat Ship USS Indianapolis
The Navy has announce the next LCS will be named the "Indianapolis"
Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced today that the next Freedom-variant littoral combat ship (LCS) will be named USS Indianapolis.
USS Indianapolis, designated LCS 17, will be the fourth ship to bear the name. A previous Indianapolis, USS Indianapolis (CA 35) is best known for its role in World War II, where it operated from Pearl Harbor and throughout the Pacific escorting convoys and attacking enemy submarines.
Indianapolis' service ended when it was sunk by a Japanese torpedo minutes after midnight July 30, 1945. Only 317 of the 1,196 sailors serving aboard the ship survived after five days afloat in the Pacific Ocean. Indianapolis earned 10 battle stars for the ship's distinguished World War II service.
"I chose to name this ship Indianapolis because of the legacy this name holds," Mabus said. "When people hear Indianapolis, they will be reminded of the incredible bravery and sense of duty with which our men and women in uniform serve."
LCSs are designed to defeat littoral threats, and provide access and dominance in coastal waters. A fast, agile surface combatant, LCS provides war fighting capabilities and operational flexibility to execute focused missions close to the shore, such as mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare, and surface warfare.
Indianapolis will be built with modular design incorporating mission packages that can be changed out quickly as combat needs demand. These mission packages are supported by detachments that deploy manned and unmanned vehicles, and sensors in support of mine, undersea and surface warfare missions.
Construction of LCS 17 is contingent upon Congressional authorization and appropriation of fiscal year 2014 funding. The ship will be 388 feet long, have a waterline beam length of 58 feet and make speeds in excess of 40 knots. The construction will be led by a Lockheed Martin industry team in Marinette, Wis.
For more news from secretary of the Navy, visit http://www.navy.mil/SECNAV.
A Cheaper, Stronger US Army
The National Interest has an interesting thought piece on how to build a cheaper, stronger Army. An excerpt:
It seems counterintuitive to suggest that the U.S. could produce a smaller force while increasing its fighting strength. Yet for the reasons outlined in this article that is precisely what we argue. In order to facilitate the most effective and efficient Department of Defense, we contend it is beneficial to first revise the National Military Strategy. This revision will more effectively support the president's overall National Security Strategy. Reorienting the DoD into a set of forces that are actually joint in execution will strengthen the American military and thus enhance overall national security.
In support of the president's four strategic objectives, we recommend a complimentary four-point military strategy:
· defend the American homeland, vital national interests, and friendly nations;
· maintain open access to the global lines of communication in the domains of air, land, sea, space and cyber;
· prevent any state, or combinations of states (or nonstate actors) from dominating by force of arms the European-Asian land mass or allied nations;
· support peaceful relations between nations and foster greater understanding among international militaries
DOD Announces Same-Sex Spouse Benefits
DADT is barely repealed, but not that states are recognizing same-sex couples, the DoD is extending same-sex spouse benefits
Today, the Department of Defense announced its plan to extend benefits to same-sex spouses of uniformed service members and Department of Defense civilian employees.
After a review of the department's benefit policies following the Supreme Court's ruling that Section Three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional, and in consultation with the Department of Justice and other executive branch agencies, the Defense Department will make spousal and family benefits available no later than Sept. 3, 2013, regardless of sexual orientation, as long as service member-sponsors provide a valid marriage certificate.
The Department of Defense remains committed to ensuring that all men and women who serve in the U.S. military, and their families, are treated fairly and equally as the law directs.
Entitlements such as TRICARE enrollment, basic allowance for housing (BAH) and family separation allowance are retroactive to the date of the Supreme Court's decision. Any claims to entitlements before that date will not be granted. For those members married after June 26, 2013, entitlements begin at the date of marriage.
We recognize that same-sex military couples who are not stationed in a jurisdiction that permits same-sex marriage would have to travel to another jurisdiction to marry. That is why the department will implement policies to allow military personnel in such a relationship non-chargeable leave for the purpose of travelling to a jurisdiction where such a marriage may occur. This will provide accelerated access to the full range of benefits offered to married military couples throughout the department, and help level the playing field between opposite-sex and same-sex couples seeking to be married.
For civilian benefits administered government-wide to federal employees, the Department of Defense will follow the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Labor's guidance to ensure that the same benefits currently available to heterosexual spouses are also available to legally married same-sex spouses.
Be prepared for same-sex couples in military housing, among other things.
5,000-year-old board game pieces found
Over in Turkey, archaeologists have dug up a set of game tokens from 5000 years ago.
Intricately carved tokens from a nearly 5,000-year old board game have been unearthed in southeast Turkey, reports Discovery News. The 49 found pieces may be the oldest gaming tokens ever recovered, and they should help to back the current theory that board games originated in the Middle East over five millennia ago. "Some [tokens] depict pigs, dogs, and pyramids, others feature round and bullet shapes," Haluk Sağlamtimur, a researcher with Ege University who helped to uncover the tokens, tells Discovery. The researchers also found dice and circular tokens among the pieces, which were painted in colors including black, blue, green, red, and white.
The tokens were found at Başur Höyük, a burial plot in Turkey. In the past, similar pieces have been found in both Syria and Iraq, but not as part of a set. "They were found as isolated, single objects," Sağlamtimur tells Discovery. "Our gaming pieces were found all together in the same cluster. It's a unique finding, a rather complete set of a chess-like game. We are puzzling over its strategy."
The researchers don't have the game's rules figured out just yet, but they hypothesize that it was in some way based around the number four. According to Discovery, the game pieces were found at the plots alongside thousands of beads, painted pottery, a bronze spearhead, and other artifacts. Archaeologists have previously unearthed other board games from around the same time period, including a 60-piece backgammon set, Senet, and the Royal Game of Ur. Even if the researchers can't recreate the new game just yet, Discovery notes that their finding could represent the period's most elaborate game pieces ever found.
No word on whether there were nearby cave drawing arguing for the preference of abstract symbols over 'realistic' carved figures.
A Clear Mis-allocation of Available Resources?
Hmmmm... a Gulf II war story from over on CSW
I had my own run-in with the "keep it under the table" forces of darkness... I was assigned as liaison for the amphibious forces at 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain in the lead-up to the invasion. About a week before the attack there was a huge kerflufle about wanting to get humanitarian relief supplies into southern Iraq as soon as possible after the border was crossed, but in such a way that the MSRs going north out of Kuwait wouldn't be impacted. The obvious solution was to bring them in by sea, but there was concern about the Shatt-al-Arab being mined and the facilities at the port of Basra being damaged (both by Iraqi sabotage and Coalition bombing). A rushed scheme to clear the water way was concocted, but Brown&Root were adamant that it would take them a minimum of four months to restore the port to operational condition. At this point, after consulting with the various commands I was representing, I proposed that we send a large SeaBee detachment from Kuwait (where their mission to offload the USMC pre-positioning ships and construct an elevated causeway to facilitate resupply cargo discharge was complete, so they were basically sitting idle) up to Basra to repair the port. The SeaBees had the expertise, the necessary construction gear and materials, had vehicles to transport themselves to the site, and had the weapons and training to provide their own security -- more importantly, the 0-6 in charge of the battalion was absolutely confident he could have the port open for business within two weeks and fully functional within a month. It sounded like a real win/win scenario to us. But after I floated the idea up the chain, and 5th Fleet gave a provisional green light to the plan, word came back from SecDef (not CENTCOM, not JCS -- SecDef) that the proposal was rejected and we were not to bring it up again. At my Admiral's request I sent an e-mail to the contact back at the five-sided-funny-farm asking what part of our concept they had issue with so we could submit a revised plan. That evening I took a secure phone call from some O-6 staffer with the SecDef's office telling me very coldly and clearly that I was to NEVER bring up the topic again and that if I did I'd be relieved and sent home (with the veiled implication that disiplinary action wouldn't be out of the question). We dutifully dropped the subject.
There's no independent verification of this, so take it for what it's worth, but it's an interesting indictment of how the occupation was run. By: Brant
Labels: Contractors, Idiots, Middle East, Pentagon, US Navy
GameTalk - Maps?
Satellite maps, artistic designs, or sparse utilitarianism?
Sound Off! WWII Movies
Better flick...
A Bridge Too Far?
The Longest Day?
and why do you prefer it?
AFRICOM Taking a Hit?
Stripes Central talks about what might happen to AFRICOMif budget cuts start to take down the COCOMs.
That the Defense Department may be pondering a future without AFRICOM is no surprise to those who have followed the rocky history of the command, which has been a source of controversy since its inception in 2008.
It began with a backlash on the continent amid fears that establishing the command signaled a militarization of U.S. foreign policy in Africa. As part of an effort to assuage those fears, AFRICOM abandoned plans for a headquarters on the continent, in favor of staying put in Stuttgart, Germany.
But should AFRICOM be eliminated? Supporters argue that such a move would send the wrong signal to the African continent at a time when there is a host of security challenges, most notably the rise of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
Critics can counter that abolishing a headquarters doesn't mean the end of U.S. military engagement in Africa. After all, the U.S. military was in Africa long before AFRICOM, which inherited from EUCOM many longstanding missions there.
Even after AFRICOM's launch, EUCOM hasn't left Africa behind. For example, it was EUCOM that functioned as the de facto force provider for Operation Odyssey Dawn, the initial phase of the 2011 bombardment campaign over Libya. EUCOM also provided key command-and-control support to AFRICOM as it struggled to find its footing in that mission — the command's first fighting campaign.
AFRICOM, formed in recognition of the growing strategic significance of the resource-rich continent, came about at a time when the Pentagon was flush with cash. If responsibility for Africa were to return to EUCOM, it's not clear how much money would be saved. EUCOM, also headquartered in Stuttgart, would likely need to be beefed up to continue the missions now being led by its sister command.
USAction! Take Charge!
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Moore shouts orders to his team during during Khaan Quest 2013 at Five Hills Training Area in Mongolia, Aug. 08, 2013. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Robert Bush
Labels: Exercises, USAction, USMC
Some Hard Truths Glossed Over in our Vocabulary
Dave Maxwell has a very thoughtful article about "Unconventional Warfare" and whether or not it's the exclusive purview of the SF guys (hint: he says "no"). But just as interesting is the way he frames UW. Here's the intro:
"US Army Special Forces is the only force in the Department of Defense organized, trained, equipped, educated, and optimized for the conduct of unconventional warfare."
I have written those words many times in the past thirty plus years of my military service. With those words I have implied that the unconventional warfare mission belongs solely to US Army Special Forces (SF). I was wrong.
I began to realize this in 2009, when I participated in a working group established by the US Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School to re-examine the definition of unconventional warfare. The revised definition that resulted was a compromise that did not satisfy everyone in the Special Forces (SF) or wider Special Operations Forces (SOF) community. Nonetheless, the definition currently resides in Joint Publication 1-02 the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms and is now the foundation for US military unconventional warfare doctrine: Unconventional warfare consists of "activities to enable a resistance or insurgency to coerce, disrupt or overthrow a government or occupying power through and with an underground, auxiliary, and guerrilla force in a denied area."
But here's where he goes 90% of the way in tying together the uncomfortable vocabulary that most of us hard core militarists inherently understand, but that the rest of the country is likely loath to admit
Due to the prevailing wisdom that SF owns the UW mission, many senior decision makers, policymakers and strategists both inside the Beltway and at the Geographic Combatant Commands (GCC) rarely consider the strategic option of conducting UW. Furthermore, as evidenced by our myopic view of terrorism, we do not fully comprehend that our enemies are, in fact, conducting unconventional warfare. As a result, we do not consider potential strategies to conduct "counter-unconventional warfare," instead focusing solely on the means and methods of counterterrorism.
(our emphasis)
See, in admitting that AQ is conducting "unconventional warfare" we can easily hit the button on the Patented GrogNews Vocabulary Substitution Machine™ (not sold in stores) and swap out "UW" for "insurgency":
Due to the prevailing wisdom that SF owns the insurgency mission, many senior decision makers, policymakers and strategists both inside the Beltway and at the Geographic Combatant Commands (GCC) rarely consider the strategic option of conducting insurgencies. Furthermore, as evidenced by our myopic view of terrorism, we do not fully comprehend that our enemies are, in fact, conducting insurgencies. As a result, we do not consider potential strategies to conduct "counter-insurgency," instead focusing solely on the means and methods of counterterrorism.
Hmmmm... we know we're conducting counter-insurgencies, right? We've been talking about it for 10 years now. We know that AQ is formenting insurgencies all over the world. But we have to be very careful about how we frame the UW-COIN vocabulary substitution. If we admit that AQ has been conducting worldwide UW, but then focus on their terror campaigns, what does it say about the US that we have a dedicated UW doctrine, when UW becomes a synonym for "terrorism"?
So we have a doctrine in the US for conducting UW (read: insurgency). We don't particularly want a doctrine for conducting UW (read: terrorism). And I'm OK with that.
What do you think? How would the US public react if it became explicitly clear that we had, and actively developed, trained, and disseminated doctrine about creating insurgencies in places where we don't like the government? Is it better that we obfuscate the capability behind the kabuki dance of shuffled vocabulary words? Or is this something that deserves a serious and sober conversation with the American public* that they might fully understand the broad spectrum of capabilities that we offer our government through the use of the military?
*note that I am fully aware of the general inability of the American public to make mature and thoughtful decisions regarding complex socio-geo-political issues like this
Labels: Al Qaeda, Blog, Doctrine, Insurgency, Pentagon, US
82d Prepping for Syria?
This op-ed discusses the 82d's training missions for Syria as though they were an open fact, but the real meat of the article is the broader strategic discussion by GEN Dempsey about the dangers of overcommitment.
It is nighttime in mid-July in a forest somewhere in North Carolina, but the scene is far from the quiet idyll that we'd all expect. More than 4,000 paratroopers from Fort Bragg's 82nd Airborne Division are in the heat of battle, an exercise designed to simulate a chemical weapons raid. Their imagined setting: Syria.
Maj. Gen. John Nicholson was frank: "As we look at the evolving situation – Syria and other places around the world – we're preparing to deal with the reality of securing chemical weapons."
This is the 82nd's job. The country wouldn't expect anything less, and North Carolina is fortunate to be home to such an elite and essential force. For strategic purposes, though, the real action would come a week later on Capitol Hill.
On July 19, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs (and a Duke alumnus), offered an unvarnished perspective to the Senate Armed Services' Committee on intervening in Syria. "Some options may not be feasible in time or cost without compromising our security elsewhere," he wrote. "Once we take action, we should be prepared for what comes next."
That's about as close as you'll come to hearing the top brass say, "We've seen this before, and it's a bad idea." Dempsey's right.
Another Meaningless Wargaming Poll
poll by twiigs.com
Labels: Poll, Wargame Design
Saudis Trying to Inject Selves into Syrian-Russian Relationship
Can the Saudis get the Russians to back off their support for Syria's Assad regime?
Saudi Arabia has offered Russia economic incentives including a major arms deal and a pledge not to challenge Russian gas sales if Moscow scales back support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Middle East sources and Western diplomats said on Wednesday.
The proposed deal between two of the leading power brokers in Syria's devastating civil war was set out by Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week, they said.
Russia has supported Assad with arms and diplomatic cover throughout the war and any change in Moscow's stance would remove a major obstacle to action on Syria by the United Nations Security Council.
Syrian opposition sources close to Saudi Arabia said Prince Bandar offered to buy up to $15 billion of Russian weapons as well as ensuring that Gulf gas would not threaten Russia's position as a main gas supplier to Europe.
So I'm immediately going for a Civ V analogy here, where Arabia is offering Russia a big trade of GPT and Oil in exchange for withdrawing a pledge to protect the Damascus city-state. Not e perfect analogy, I know, but that's what came to mind.
GameTalk - Combat Resolution
Buckets of dice? Or CRTs? Which one would you use when?
Sound Off! Indirect Fire!
Mortars? or Cannons?
Philippine Navy Upgrading to Counter China
Taking possession of a former USCG cutter, the Philippine navy is upgrading their fleet.
The Philippines took possession of a former U.S. Coast Guard ship on Tuesday, part of its biggest military upgrade in decades, as a stronger economy allows it to raise spending to counter China's growing assertiveness in disputed waters.
The military build-up, which is heavily focused on maritime capability, is likely to add to tension over the South China Sea that has threatened to draw in the United States as it refocuses its military attention on Asia.
President Benigno Aquino and senior ministers watched as the frigate, BRP Ramon Alcaraz, sailed into the Philippines' Subic Bay, a former U.S. naval base, after a two-month voyage from South Carolina, where its 88 Philippine crew trained for a year.
The 46-year-old Hamilton-class cutter, the second of its type the Philippines has received from its U.S. ally, will be used to patrol areas of the South China Sea near the Philippine coast that have become a major source of tension with Beijing.
Canadian Defence "Reforms" Coming?
As reported by The Economist, policy in Canada is being more greatly constrained by budget reality and taking its toll on future readiness.
The Conservatives set out to reverse what they claimed was neglect of the armed forces, pouring money into troops and equipment. Defence spending had already started to rise again in the last few years of Liberal government; but in the first two years of a Conservative one it shot up to C$19.2 billion ($17.1 billion) in 2008-09 from C$15.7 billion in 2006-07. To existing orders for support vehicles, search-and-rescue helicopters and howitzers, the Conservatives added plans to buy F-35 fighter jets for the air force, support ships and Arctic patrol vessels for the navy, plus a polar icebreaker for the Coast Guard, and some transport helicopters. The opposition parties called the 2008 "Canada First" defence strategy more of a shopping list than a policy document.
The Conservatives have also worked to change the image of the Canadian armed forces from peacekeepers (a Liberal idea) to fighters. They celebrated military milestones. The government spent C$28m to mark the bicentenary of the War of 1812 between what was then a group of British colonies and the United States. Red Fridays, when Canadians wear red to support the troops, won political support. The image makeover was helped by the fact that Canadian forces were fighting in Afghanistan and were led by a charismatic and outspoken chief of the defence staff, General Rick Hillier.
Circumstances have changed. General Hillier has retired. Canada is no longer fighting in Afghanistan, although 950 trainers will remain until next year as part of the international effort to create an Afghan army. Money is tight. The federal budget slipped back into deficit in 2008-09 and the government's determination to return to surplus before the next election in 2015 means even a favoured department like defence is not being spared. It lost just over C$2 billion in the first two rounds of government-wide spending cuts and looks likely to lose as much again as the 2015 deadline looms. The "Canada First" strategy is unaffordable and there are mutterings about a new decade of darkness.
Wait, huh? Ghana has a Navy?!
And not only that - they're capturing pirates!
Ghana's navy has intercepted a ship and arrested its crew on suspicion of involvement in the hijacking of an oil products tanker off Gabon last month, Ghana's government said.
Pirate attacks in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea have almost doubled from last year, jacking up insurance costs for shipping companies. Experts say gangs based in the waters off Africa's top oil producer Nigeria are extending their reach.
Pirates seized the Maltese-flagged Cotton tanker with its 24-member crew on July 15 near Gabon's Port Gentil, in the first reported attack in that area for five years. The ship was released the following week.
Ghana's deputy Information Minister Felix Kwakye Ofosu said the vessel intercepted by Ghana's navy, the MT Mustard, was believed to have been used to siphon about 3,500 tonnes of fuel from the Cotton.
It later sailed into Ghanaian waters, first docking at the eastern port of Tema before heading for an offshore oil facility off the town of Saltpond.
"The vessel was intercepted off the coast of Saltpond and the crew arrested by the Ghana Navy," Ofosu said in a statement released late on Thursday.
Conveniently-Scheduled Joint US-SA Exercises?
Do you think the joint exercises in South Africa right now were timed at all to coincide with Zimbabwe's elections? Maybe having a broad spectrum of US capabilities a 2-hour flight away has helped keep possible violence in check in Mugabeland?
Approximately 700 U.S. and 3,000 South African Defense Force service members gathered [in Port Elizabeth, Republic of South Africa] for the opening ceremony of Exercise Shared Accord 13, July 24. This is the second exercise of its type between these two countries and is the result of bilateral discussions that originated in 2009, and were approved in 2010. "This particular exercise is aimed at specifically providing collective training for the United States and the South African National Defense Force while building interoperability and mutual understanding between the two armed forces," said South African Maj. Gen. Ephraim Phako, deputy chief of Joint Operations.
So what exactly did we deploy out there?
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, will be making-up the bulk of U.S. forces involved in the exercise. They will be joined by service members with 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Special Forces Group, 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, District of Columbia Army National Guard, Rhode Island Air National Guard, New York Army National Guard, 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Medical Command and 1172nd Movement Control Team.
Let's face it, the outcome of the 'election' was never in doubt, but the potential violence surrounding it always could've been worse. After all, last time there was an "election" the Mugabians weren't so thrilled about it.
Mr Mugabe was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying the veterans had asked approval to take up arms but he had dissuaded them. They said Zimbabwe was won 'by the barrel of the gun' and should not be surrendered by a vote, he said.
View Larger Map By: Brant
Labels: Africa, AFRICOM, Deployment, Exercises, US Army
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For years Intuit fought with ways to enforce QuickBooks licensing in a hosted environment and in February of 2010, the Intuit Commercial Hosting program was launched with a few select hosting providers being licensed. Today there are still fewer than a dozen Intuit Authorized Commercial Host companies on the planet.
The Authorized Intuit Commercial Hosting program is a way for Intuit to license seasoned hosting companies in the delivery of QuickBooks applications, and enforces guidelines relating to the treatment of the customer, installation of software, and the hosting of data.
The Authorized Intuit Commercial Hosting providers for QuickBooks are the only lawful entities allowed to lease QuickBooks desktop editions. Leasing QuickBooks licenses as part of a subscription service provides businesses and accountants with a new affordable alternative to buying QuickBooks each year, and helps offset the hosting fees. Leasing QuickBooks allows users to always be on the latest edition for a fraction of the cost that buying annual editions is.
However, Intuit Commercial Hosting does not support QuickBooks in a hosted environment, and therein lies the rub: Companies that choose to host QuickBooks are left to troubleshoot and setup by themselves with no support.
Intuit Authorized Commercial Hosts have been through an Intuit audit as well as MSP Alliance Accreditation and are seasoned professionals at hosting QuickBooks in the cloud. The technology and infrastructure is already developed and implemented for thousands of users. Authorized Intuit commercial hosting also provides a higher level of software support from Intuit and have Cloud professionals on staff. Another issue relating to QuickBooks support on desktop editions in the Cloud (not through an Authorized Commercial Host) is the end-user support for the user-owned QuickBooks license is now in violation of QuickBook's EULA and Intuit will not support that license. So companies using unauthorized hosts risk losing their support and serviceability of purchased QuickBooks licenses.
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Dave Grohl Serenaded a Nurse Recovering from COVID-19 on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live': Watch
By Lars Brandle
Simone Joyner/Getty Images
Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters performs live on the Main Stage during day three of Reading Festival 2019 at Richfield Avenue on Aug. 25, 2019 in Reading, England.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear surgical masks and scrubs.
Dave Grohl paid tribute to one of the normal-size giants who walk among us when he Zoomed in for a surprise appearance Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The real surprise lay in wait for emergency and trauma nurse TJ Riley from Jacobi Medical Center in The Bronx, NY who has battled with COVID-19.
Riley is also a big-time Foo Fighters fan. Grohl made his day/month/year by serenading the nurse with "Everlong," the classic stadium rock anthem from 1997's The Color and the Shape.
When Grohl's smiling, bearded face pulled up on screen, Riley did what any other super-fan would: he threw his hands up and let fly with a string of expletives. "Dave, I'm a huge, huge fan," he confirmed. And his friends are going to be so jealous. "I'm going a little out of my mind right now. I think I'm having a coronavirus dream," he quipped. "This is crazy."
All-Star Cover of Foo Fighters' 'Times Like These' On Track For U.K. No. 1
The Hall of Famer hit an acoustic version of the song and dedicated it Riley. "Really TJ, thank you so much for everything that you'd done for so many people," Grohl enthused. "It's much appreciated. And Jimmy, thanks so much for honoring such brilliant people, for doing the right thing."
Before the big surprise, Riley explained traumatic injuries are down, coronavirus infections are up in his hospital. Way up. "The whole hospital is focused on the coronavirus," he said. "All the units that we have, they're all pretty much COVID-19 units." Some 60% of his co-workers have contracted the virus, he explained. Riley was the first.
The "heathcare hero of the week" also bagged $10,000 and every nurse in his department scored gift packages, donated by apparel company Life is Good.
Jazmine Sullivan Opens Up About Her New Album 'Heaux Tales,' Sexuality & More | Billboard News

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Ladder For Shropshire
Top 100 manufacturing award for Shropshire engineer
By James Pugh | Business | Published: Nov 14, 2019
A Shropshire female engineer has been named as one of the UK's outstanding manufacturing professionals.
Carolyn Lee
Carolyn Lee, who is a contracts engineer manager at at Telford-based Filtermist Systems Ltd, has been featured in The Manufacturer's Top 100 list at an event in Liverpool.
The prestigious competition is designed to create more role models to help inspire the next generation of engineers and she was named in the 'Young Pioneer' category that recognises 'a person who has made an impact disproportionate to their years, providing inspiration for the future of manufacturing in the UK'.
Judges praised the combined engineering graduate for the way she has smashed industry stereotypes to secure a senior position at just 27-years-old and for how she is now using her skills to help companies create cleaner and safer work environments for their staff.
"This is a major honour for me, especially when you consider the quality of manufacturing people that have made the list, including names from Airbus, BAE Systems and Nissan," said Carolyn, who prior to joining Filtermist Systems spent eight years in engine development and industrial plant with Jaguar Land Rover.
"The Top 100 recognition will support my aim to inspire more young girls to consider a career in this sector, so that it's no longer a rarity to see females on the shop floor, in senior engineering teams and on the board of major manufacturers.
"We've got to make it the norm so there's not men and women engineers, just engineers that are really good."
Carolyn has been at Filtermist Systems for just under a year and in that time has helped lead a concerted move into offering turnkey clean air solutions for customers in the automotive, aerospace, food processing, paper and woodworking sectors.
Her significant experience in managing complex and demanding projects, as well as considerable expertise in health and safety, and workplace legislation has proven extremely popular with clients.
She added: "We help companies explore how they can protect and better control their working environment to deliver improved productivity, quality and workplace conditions.
"This has seen our business evolve into a solutions provider, which means we will work with the client from the initial design of the extraction system, right through to specifying the filtration technology, installation, commissioning and then, if required, ongoing support."
James Stansfield, CEO of Filtermist Systems, said: "We are very passionate about investing in the next generation of engineers through apprenticeships, recruiting the best graduates and our internal training schemes.
"Carolyn is a fantastic ambassador for manufacturing and shows what can be achieved at a relatively young age. Recognition as part of The Manufacturer Top 100 is another way of taking our industry's message out to the wider public; modern manufacturing is a fantastically diverse industry which offers a vast array of careers."
Business News Business Picks
By James Pugh
@JamesP_Star
Shropshire Star Business and Farming Editor.
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Home Blog Meyer Lemon vs. Improved Meyer Lemon: What's the difference?
Meyer Lemon vs. Improved Meyer Lemon: What's the difference?
If you've at all pondered or researched purchasing a lemon tree, you might have come across the variety "Improved Meyer lemon." You then probably wondered, "what's the difference between a Meyer lemon and an Improved Meyer lemon?"
While it might initially seem like there are two varieties of Meyer lemon trees available, the Meyer lemon and Improved Meyer lemon, this is not really the case. Nowadays, all Meyer lemon trees for sale in the US should be Improved Meyer lemons, even if they are not explicitly labeled or marketed as such.
The Improved Meyer lemon is a strand of Meyer lemon that was developed in the 1940s to be resistant to a fatal kind of citrus disease. Apart from this, there is no difference between the Improved Meyer lemon variety, and the old Meyer lemon variety.
Read on to find out more about why and how the "Improved Meyer lemon" came to be.
Characteristics of the Meyer Lemon
Identified by Frank Meyer in the early 1900s and thought to be the cross of a lemon and a mandarin, the Meyer lemon has a rich history and has become a beloved feature of many gardens and kitchens across the world.
The fruit of a Meyer lemon tree is rounder, and its skin bears a warmer, yellow-orange color than that of a true lemon. Thought to be the cross of a lemon and mandarin orange, the Meyer lemon is a slightly sweeter and less acidic sister to the common supermarket Lisbon and Eureka lemons. The skin of a Meyer lemon is also softer and thinner than that of a common lemon.
Native to China, the Meyer lemon tree is bushy and thorn-less, and considered a semi-dwarf variety, making it favorable for container or backyard gardening. The Meyer lemon tree is also more resistant to both heat and cold damage than the common lemon tree, which makes it a favorable variety for its adaptability to the edges of the lemon tree growing zones.
Frank Meyer's Discovery
The "discovery" of the Meyer lemon and its introduction to the United States is largely credited to a man named Frank N. Meyer. While wandering the globe as a botanical explorer for the US Department of Agriculture, Frank Meyer came across the lemon tree in small village near Beijing, China, where it was commonly kept as an ornamental tree on patios and porches. After cutting open a fruit and sampling its impressive and tart yet sweet flavor, Meyer sent cuttings back to the US, where botanists began to cultivate the tree in California.
The Meyer lemon had a slow climb to widespread recognition in the US, primarily due to the fact that its thinner skin made it more difficult to ship and sell at markets before spoiling. Nevertheless, after first finding favor with choosy chefs, the Meyer lemon's distinctive flavor slowly won over the taste buds and hearts of many Americans.
Citrus Disease & the Introduction of the Improved Meyer Lemon
By the mid-1900s, Meyer lemon trees were becoming popular and widely grown in California and other parts of the States. However, during this time, millions of lemon trees were dying from a ruthless outbreak of citrus disease, citrus tristeza. It was discovered that most Meyer lemons being grown were symptomless carriers of this fatal kind of citrus disease. This disease was being passed from Meyer lemons along to other varieties of lemons and was causing a crisis in the lemon industry.
In response to this desperate crisis and after much research, a strand of Meyer lemon tree was discovered that was resistant to citrus tristeza. This strand was dubbed the "Improved Meyer lemon" and was released for propagation, while all other Meyer lemons being grown were destroyed in an effort to save other lemon trees.
The Improved Meyer Lemon Today
Today in the United States, all Meyer lemons being sold should be the "Improved" Meyer lemon variety, whether or not they are advertised as such.
With the exception of being immune to citrus tristeza, the Improved Meyer lemon tree has no differences from that of the old Meyer lemon variety. You have no reason to shy away from a Meyer lemon tree label as "Improved," as the Improved Meyer lemon has all of the beloved characteristics that you would expect from a Meyer lemon. From the fragrant and sweeter fruit, to the softer, deeply golden skin, your Improved Meyer lemon will delight you from garden to kitchen.
While the distribution of the Meyer lemon has been historically hindered by its thinner skin, advancements in shipping today might surprisingly grace you with the presence of Meyer lemons in your local market on chance occasion, even if you don't live in the subtropical locale of sunny California or Florida. This is more likely during peak Meyer lemon harvest seasons of winter and spring.
You don't have to wait for the unpredictable occasion of Meyer lemons showing up at your local market, however, if you decide to grow your own! The Meyer lemon is a surprisingly forgiving and rewarding houseplant, provided it receives enough light and the proper amount of irrigation. Check out other articles on this site for resources on growing your own Meyer lemon tree.
The Meyer Lemon is Your New Favorite Flavor the Kitchen
While Meyer lemons are sweeter than the traditional lemon, they are still a bit tart to eat outright as one would graze on an orange or a grapefruit. That said, Meyer lemons lend dynamic flavor to many recipes, both sweet and savory. Enjoy the Meyer lemon as a prominent addition to an Italian lemon, garlic, pasta dish, or as a punchy, leading flavor in a batch of decadent, buttery lemon bars. Any recipe you might use the common lemon for would be enhanced by the substitution of a Meyer lemon. The Meyer lemon also makes an incredible lemonade. The options in the kitchen for the distinguished Meyer lemon are as limitless as your imagination.
Keep in mind, that while the "Improved Meyer lemon" is resistant to the citrus disease that was causing such a disruption in the cultivation of lemon crops in the 1940s, the Improved Meyer lemon is not immune to all diseases. Take care to note abnormal changes in your plant's appearance, such as the yellowing or curling of leaves, and to appropriately treat it for pests or other afflictions.
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Flooding Threatens Coastal Water Quality
Updated 4:40 p.m. Friday with statement from NCDEQ
The coal-fired units at the Sutton Plant near Wilmington were retired in November 2013. Photo: Duke Energy
NORTH CAROLINA COAST — Environmental threats are posed by flooding at two coal ash plants, several hog lagoons suffering degrees of flooding and damage and a partially treated sewage spill into the Cape Fear River after a treatment plant power failure, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
Duke Energy notified state regulators that the 1,100-acre former cooling pond for the L.V. Sutton Power Station near Wilmington was inundated by floodwaters from the nearby Cape Fear River, putting the reservoir at the highest alert level under its emergency action plan. The company said Friday that coal ash may be spilling into the river.
The coal-fired Sutton plant was retired in 2013 and replaced with a new generating station that runs off natural gas. Sutton Lake is now used for public recreation, including fishing and boating.
According to a Duke spokeswoman, the dam, which is adjacent to three large coal-ash dumps, appeared stable and Duke officials were monitoring the site with helicopters and drones. She said that the high-water level warning meant that if the berm were to break, minimal impact would be felt downriver.
A landfill under construction at the Sutton site meant to hold coal ash, which contains arsenic, mercury and other toxic metals, ruptured over the weekend, spilling enough material to fill 180 dump trucks. During the heavy rains, parts of the top level of the landfill washed away, leaving exposed coal ash.
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality released a statement Friday afternoon explaining that teams from three DEQ regulatory divisions have been closely monitoring conditions at Duke Energy's Sutton facility and have remained in contact with onsite engineers throughout the week.
"During that time, floodwaters from the Cape Fear River have flowed into Sutton Lake on the north side and back into the river on the south side. This morning, state dam safety officials were notified of a dam breach of between 100 and 200 feet at the south end of Sutton Lake," according to the statement. "Additional reports indicate there are other smaller breaches in the dam. Although river flooding has approached the two inactive coal ash basins at the facility, it appears there are currently no structural issues with those impoundments."
The state agency's dam safety engineers are working with the Department of Transportation to perform drone inspections to determine real-time site conditions. "While the state is currently in emergency response mode, a thorough investigation of events will soon follow to ensure that Duke Energy is held responsible for any environmental impacts by their coal ash facilities."
At the H.F. Lee Power Plant near Goldsboro, three old coal-ash dumps capped with soil were underwater Thursday after the Neuse River flooded. State environmental regulators visited the site but were unable to make a full assessment because of high water levels.
The Duke spokeswoman told the Associated Press that it appears the release of coal ash at the site was minimal but will learn more as flooding recedes.
State officials told the Associated Press Thursday that reports were received of earthen dams at three hog lagoons breaching, spilling out feces and urine, and another three lagoons had sustained structural damage. Additionally, 21 lagoons were flooded by nearby rivers, 30 overflowed and another 75 lagoons were listed as being at risk of overtopping.
About 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs were killed due to rising rivers inundating dozens of farm buildings, according to state officials.
Floodwaters inundate lake at NC power plant, raising alarm
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The Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), founded in 1879, is the country's most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organisation: a patron and promoter of the arts in Jamaica, sponsoring exhibitions and awards. It is also the country's museums authority, as well as administering other national arts and cultural outlets including the National Gallery, the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, and the Jamaica Journal.

History
The Institute of Jamaica was established in 1879 by Sir Anthony Musgrave, then governor of Jamaica, "For the Encouragement of Literature, Science and Art in Jamaica", and as such was designed to help Government in the promotion and preservation of culture in the island. It is Jamaica's "most significant cultural, artistic and scientific organization". In the words of the late Edna Manley: "When I pay tribute to the Institute, I like to think back over the years to the twenties - when there was almost nothing that stood for the encouragement of any of the Arts or Sciences. Only the Institute stood like a beacon in its attempt to create an atmosphere where creativity could hope to flourish. The Institute stood for integrity. It also had the strength and intelligence to survive. Let the Institute survive, beaming aloft its flame of integrity."

The IOJ is located at 10-16 East Street, Kingston, Jamaica, and has responsibility for the following organizations:

 The African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica /Jamaica Memory Bank (ACIJ/JMB).
Liberty Hall: Legacy of Marcus Garvey – a project of the ACIJ/JMB
 The Jamaica Music Museum (JAMM)
 The Junior Centres (Programmes Coordination)
 The Natural History Museum of Jamaica
 The Museums of History and Ethnography
 The National Gallery of Jamaica

The function of the Institute varies according to the role of each division. These include: to establish and maintain museums and galleries for the collection, preservation and presentation of artefacts and art treasures (National Museum Jamaica); to maintain and display Jamaica's flora and fauna collections (Natural History); to document and disseminate information on the impact of the African presence in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean (ACIJ/JMB), with Liberty Hall as a unit of the ACIJ formed to promote the memory of Marcus Garvey including through educational programmes and exhibitions; to develop the potential of children in visual and performing arts and to broaden their appreciation of Jamaica's culture (Junior Centres); and to acquire Jamaican art for public display (National Gallery).

Publications
The IOJ publishes Jamaica Journal, originally the Journal of the Institute of Jamaica, established in 1896.

Awards
The Musgrave Medal has been awarded by the Institute of Jamaica since 1897 for excellence in the fields of arts, sciences and literature.

The Gleaner Company presented the Institute of Jamaica with the Gleaner Honour Award "For its unyielding and invaluable contribution to Arts and Culture in 2014, staunchly preserving Jamaica's heritage."

References

External links
 Official website.
 Institute of Jamaica page at Visit Jamaica.

Organisations based in Jamaica
Organizations established in 1879

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Oscar winning musician Andre Previn dies at 89 - Daily News Egypt
World Oscar winning musician Andre Previn dies at 89
Oscar winning musician Andre Previn dies at 89
Deutsche Welle March 1, 2019 Be the first to comment
The Berlin-born pianist, composer and conductor won four Oscars for his musical work on films and conducted all of Europe's great orchestras. He has died in New York at the age of 89.The death of the four-time Oscar winner and ten-time Grammy winner was announced on Thursday in New York. His manager Linda Petrikova said Previn died in his Manhattan home.
Born in Berlin in 1929 or 1930, Previn fled the Nazi regime with his brother and parents in 1938, first for Paris and then to Los Angeles where he grew up and became a naturalized citizen in 1943.
His father was a lawyer and music teacher and as a boy Previn was classically trained but began composing and arranging Hollywood film scores when he was still in high school.
Aged 17, he found work through one of his father's cousins who was a musical director at Universal studios. Previn started writing film scores and worked as a jazz pianist, appearing with singers including Ella Fitzgerald.
Oscars and Grammys
Previn was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and won four for his orchestrations: "Gigi" (1958), "Porgy and Bess" (1959), "Irma La Douce" (1963) and "My Fair Lady" (1964). He won Grammys for Gigi, and two years later for best jazz performance for selections from "West Side Story."
Classical career
He left Hollywood in 1965 to develop a career as a classical conductor and was named musical director of the Houston Symphony in 1967 where he succeeded Sir John Barbirolli. Thirty years later he had conducted every major orchestra in Europe. He was principal conductor with the London Symphony Orchestra from 1968-79, where he made dozens of recordings.
A colorful private life
Married five times, most notably to actor Mia Farrow and later to violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, his private life was related in his memoir of his Hollywood days "No Minor Chords" which also included revelations about people he met, such as Lenny Bruce and Ava Gardner.
He and Farrow adopted a Korean orphan, Soon-Yi, who in the 1990s became involved with Farrow's then boyfriend Woody Allen. Speaking later about Allen, Previn said: "I would cheerfully run him over with a steamroller."
Opera and more awards
His first opera, "A Streetcar Named Desire" was premiered at San Francisco Opera in 1998.
He won another Grammy in 2005, this time for a recording of the "Violin Concerto 'Anne-Sophie'" which he wrote for Mutter. It won for best instrumental soloist performance with orchestra. The orchestra was conducted by Previn.
In 2005 he was awarded the international Glenn Gould Prize and in 2008 won Gramophone magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in classical, film, and jazz music.
Read more: Andre Previn, the restless multi-talent at 85
Back to jazz
Previn appreciated and played the jazz he first encountered in his teens throughout his life: "I'm naturally curious about a lot of different disciplines in music and I enjoy doing them," he said. "I always liked improvising. During the time that I didn't play jazz, I always listened to it."
Asked in an 80th birthday interview if he had any regrets he admitted "Privately, yes."
"I've made some very poor choices in my private life. But, as a professional, no, not really." He added: "I don't tend to take myself all that seriously."
jm/aw (Reuters, AP)
Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.
Topics: Andre Previn
Source: DW Global
https://www.dw.com/en/oscar-winning-musician-andre-previn-dies-at-89/a-47732666?maca=en-rss_en_DailyNewsEgypt-14679-xml-mrss
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March 1, 2019 Breaking News


The Nabil-directed clip for the 'Astroworld' single is a shimmering, psychedelic narrative.
The Drake-featuring single is currently sitting at number two on the Billboard charts. This flip could send it to the stratosphere.


On June 18, 2018, the City Council approved Ordinance 1377 to create, provide structure, and responsibilities for a Human Relations Commission. The board of directors disseminate information and conduct public meetings regarding diversity recognition and anti-discriminatory practice, engage and cooperate with persons in organizations interested in similar objectives, and otherwise act to promote human and civil rights for all citizens and visitors of Vermillion. The Commission also receives complaints related to discrimination in employment, labor organizations, housing, providing public accommodations or services, banking, and in general circumstances.
Six of the seven terms of office are for three years. The seventh term is designated as a one-year term to be filled by an individual enrolled in post-secondary education. The initial terms of office were staggered, and three of those terms will be expiring in May 2019. One term is 1-year and is for a post-secondary student which will expire in May 2020. The other two terms are for three years and will expire in May 2022. To be eligible for this Board position, you must be a resident of Vermillion. If interested, please complete an Expression of Interest form can be submitted via the City's website.
Completed Expression of Interest Forms are due in the City Manager's office by noon on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. It is anticipated that City Council will appoint members to the board at their May 6, 2019 meeting.


With an ever-growing threat from cyber attacks, we now live in a world where security operation centers (SOC) are the norm. These typically feature a number of cybersecurity analysts watching screens for alerts, and then following a play book for any alerts that occur. When done well, these operations will usually identify and remediate common attacks very quickly. For example, responding to an alert about a malware attack on a system, they would typically block the system from the network, and send field personnel to clean it up.
These SOC operations are usually reliable and scalable, and they can be trusted to resolve common issues with little intervention. Therein lies the problem, however. Today's bad actors know the same playbooks, and they know how to use them to avoid detection. Their tactics change frequently, often faster than a playbook can be updated to reflect a new technique. It is impossible to keep up with the bad actors using only this approach.
Now, I am not suggesting that we eliminate the concept of SOC operations. They do serve a useful purpose, in identifying the common issues that still occur. If that is our only approach, however, I believe we are doomed to fail in our efforts to protect our organizations.
I have worked in Information Technology for more years than I care to admit. During my formative years, I did not have access to complex monitoring systems or dashboards we have today. I learned to diagnose issues based on gut feel, and a bunch of detective work. Given that my dad made his living as a private detective, I guess I came by it honestly.
To keep up with the enemy, today's cybersecurity analysts need to adopt the same approach. They need to be part detective, able to see beyond what the monitors and dashboards are and are telling them. They need to be allowed to follow their gut wherever it takes them. They need to learn to think like the very attackers they are combating.
Recently, the team I manage began seeing alerts for traffic to and from unknown public IP addresses, which seemed to correspond to some unknown internal traffic. Since neither by itself seemed significant, many analysts would tend to disregard it. In the case of my team, however, the analyst was suspicious. He did some research on the public addresses and found them to be associated with a known group of bad actors. He blocked the addresses at the firewall and proceeded to track down the internal traffic.
After a good bit of research, the team determined that the report of the addresses being associated with the hacking group was wrong, but in the process, discovered a VPN configuration issue on some workstations, which caused them to be directed to an advertising site for any failed searches.
The above example had a happy ending, but the detective work could well have resulted in a more significant finding. While we all hope every such investigation will result in a false positive, we must follow each lead, just to make sure.
In my experience, some folks have the basic mindset to do the kind of detective work needed to be a good cybersecurity analyst, and others are better suited to other work. Trying to get a team member without the necessary abilities to do the work will just frustrate both employee and manager. Make the best hiring decisions possible to avoid this.
When you have the right people, don't be afraid to let them follow their guts, when appropriate. While I am certainly a fan of metrics, we should not adopt the mindset that the number of tickets closed or issues resolved is the best measure for folks doing the analyst job. Look, rather, at their actual success at protecting your organization from attack.
If you want your analysts to be effective, don't skimp on the tools. The more data they have at their fingertips, the better the quality of their analysis. At a minimum, have a good Security Incident and Event Management (SIEM) system with every bit of data you can stuff into it. Select and use the threat intelligence feeds that are most appropriate for your industry. Give them good PCs, an isolated environment for testing and detonation, and preferably a completely separate Internet connection than your organization uses for business.
Much of the work the analysts do will still be routine, do don't ditch the playbook. For basic investigations, they should stick with that. Make sure, however, that they feel empowered to move off of the play book when they have a sense that something more is going on.
There is nothing like talking about a specific successful incident analysis to encourage your analysts to keep up their efforts. Further, having them walk through the process they followed can be of great benefit in training others on the team.
The bottom line — the adversaries we face in information security every day are as familiar with our play books as we are. As such, we must go beyond the basics, and follow our instincts to get the job done. Fill your team with folks that can do this and keep out of their way.


text:
New Orleans Pelicans eye NBA Development League team in Gulf South
Updated: 6:11 PM CDT Mar 31, 2017
The New Orleans Pelicans said Friday it will launch its own NBA Development League team with the intention of playing in the 2018-2019 season, when the league will be known as the NBA Gatorade League (NBA G League).The team is sending a request for proposal (RFP) to 11 different cities and/or communities across Louisiana (seven), Mississippi (two), Alabama (one) and Florida (one). The cities were selected based on research from the team and the NBA.Officials said the team will be owned and operated by Pelicans owner Tom Benson and will be a direct, one-to-one affiliate of the Pelicans."Our goal is to establish a Development League team in nearby proximity to our home base of New Orleans," Benson said. "I have been very impressed with the growth and structure of the NBA Developmental League. It is a wise and necessary investment into the future of the Pelicans. The team will provide us with a better platform of developing our younger players and staff. It also will allow us the opportunity to widen the spectrum of fans that come in contact with our organization on a regional basis. In addition, it will provide us with the opportunities to further promote the game of basketball and further our community support to the region. This will be a very significant addition for a city near us as it will add global exposure and bring professional basketball to their town."The D-League is the NBA's official minor league, which was founded in 2001. The NBA D-League currently features 22 teams with direct affiliations to NBA teams. An additional three teams, affiliated with the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks will join what will be known as the NBA G League for the 2017-2018 season.The NBA D-League is made up of 50 regular season games plus a postseason, and runs from November to April. The league fosters the connections to the communities that the teams serve and promotes health and wellness, supports local needs and interests, and assists in educational development through NBA D-League Cares programs.As the research and development arm of the NBA, the NBA D-League seeks to advance the game of basketball. Almost 40 percent of current NBA players have NBA D-League experience as connectivity between the NBA and the NBA's official minor league continues to grow, the Pelicans said.More information about the Pelicans and the NBA can be found online.Keep up with local news, weather and current events with the WDSU app here. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news right in your inbox. Click here to sign up!
The New Orleans Pelicans said Friday it will launch its own NBA Development League team with the intention of playing in the 2018-2019 season, when the league will be known as the NBA Gatorade League (NBA G League).
The team is sending a request for proposal (RFP) to 11 different cities and/or communities across Louisiana (seven), Mississippi (two), Alabama (one) and Florida (one). The cities were selected based on research from the team and the NBA.
Officials said the team will be owned and operated by Pelicans owner Tom Benson and will be a direct, one-to-one affiliate of the Pelicans.
"Our goal is to establish a Development League team in nearby proximity to our home base of New Orleans," Benson said. "I have been very impressed with the growth and structure of the NBA Developmental League. It is a wise and necessary investment into the future of the Pelicans. The team will provide us with a better platform of developing our younger players and staff. It also will allow us the opportunity to widen the spectrum of fans that come in contact with our organization on a regional basis. In addition, it will provide us with the opportunities to further promote the game of basketball and further our community support to the region. This will be a very significant addition for a city near us as it will add global exposure and bring professional basketball to their town."
The D-League is the NBA's official minor league, which was founded in 2001. The NBA D-League currently features 22 teams with direct affiliations to NBA teams. An additional three teams, affiliated with the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies and Milwaukee Bucks will join what will be known as the NBA G League for the 2017-2018 season.
The NBA D-League is made up of 50 regular season games plus a postseason, and runs from November to April. The league fosters the connections to the communities that the teams serve and promotes health and wellness, supports local needs and interests, and assists in educational development through NBA D-League Cares programs.
As the research and development arm of the NBA, the NBA D-League seeks to advance the game of basketball. Almost 40 percent of current NBA players have NBA D-League experience as connectivity between the NBA and the NBA's official minor league continues to grow, the Pelicans said.
More information about the Pelicans and the NBA can be found online.


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text:
shared_examples "a compiler" do

  describe "#initialize" do
    context "when given no arguments" do
      it "should raise an ArgumentError" do
        expect{ described_class.new }.to \
          raise_error(ArgumentError)
      end
    end

    context "when a hash without a :libraries key" do
      it "should raise an ArgumentError" do
        expect{ described_class.new({}) }.to \
          raise_error(KeyError)
      end
    end

    context "when given no libraries" do
      it "should raise an ArgumentError" do
        expect{ described_class.new(libraries:[]) }.to \
          raise_error(ArgumentError)
      end
    end

    context "when given invalid libraries" do
      it "should raise an ArgumentError" do
        expect{ described_class.new(libraries:['x']) }.to \
          raise_error(ArgumentError, 'x is an invalid library')
        expect{ described_class.new(libraries:['x','y']) }.to \
          raise_error(ArgumentError, 'x, y are invalid libraries')
      end
    end
  end

end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub