Saw the recent Frontline documentary on PBS today, its about a company of soldiers in Iraq, the trials and tribulations they face. I think its a fair and balanced look at it. From what I got out of it is that the work they do is incredibly dangerous, and everyone has incredible courage and fortitude to survive it. For example, one part of the company the camera crew 'bonded' to was called the Misfits. A few days after the crew gets there the Misfits are ambushed, and one person got shot by a sniper. He got up, shot the sniper, and then collapsed, mortally wounded. The Misfits were then ordered out of the combat area, but still wanted to return to avenge his death. So, it was couragous for the soldier who was mortally wounded, to rise up and shoot his enemy, and it was couragous of them to want to go back and continue the fight.

Another problem was that the local shiek was corrupt, allowing a major insurgent effort to be established in his area, and making the local venders pay him for a new marketplace that the US military setup and paid for. The US built the new marketplace, but nobody would go inside, for fear of siding with the US, and because of the Shiek.

Still another problem was the effect of the occupation on the normal citizens, miles long gas lines, due to interruption in supplies by insurgent attacks, lots of collateral damage when the insurgents and US forces clash, etc. The company was on a major op when suddenly the company's doctor shot a dog while the camera crew was filming it, claiming the dog was about to attack him, when clearly that was not the case. The good side of the op was that several dozen were arrested, a major weapons cache was found in one of the mosques (by the Iraqi national guard), and the attacks on US forces stopped.

I guess its hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the people hate the occupiers, and everything we do is spurned or thwarted; they attack with little reciprocation, because the US forces don't know who is behind the attack, it's a cascade of events. I don't think the war will be won in the next few years, but hopefully by the end of 5 years. I think the turning point will come this year or next, either the attacks will escalate or diminish. The people need jobs, infrastructure, etc. The disparity between the rich (Saddam's ilk) and the poor (everyone else) is just astounding.

Well i've actually started to write the thesis. It goes slowly of course. For my masters thesis i did a rather simple 'this is the field' type format, very much like a review. For this, though, my boss does not want that, but instead a basically logical foundation for why we are doing the study. The difficulty is that it's hard to write such a foundation without really going into detail about the system I'm working in, etc. Anyway i've already made a few starts, hopefully the latest one will be solid enough to build on.
As they say the only way out is through. It's possible i can wrap up the major experiments in 2 months. After that i'm not sure will be required, hopefully not much.

I've been busy with work, and trying to graduate, etc etc. Also becoming a little bored with blogging so I'm taking a short break.

They're everywhere these days. Last year it was "The Year of the Blog". Last week Jon Stewart had a whole 8 min (1/3) of his show dedicated to blogging. Now, CNN is discussing the blogging software that I used to use, LiveJournal, and how it got bought out by Moveable type. Supposed to be a win/win situation, everyone seems happy by the deal. And its a cute story, the husband/wife team who founded Moveable Type (The big name in the blogsphere) were born 6 days apart. Also this is another story how a venture capitalist convinced a 'mom & pop' corner store company to a global company with millions in profits. Not surprising that a VC got into it, something like 50% of VC is done in Silicon ValleyStory here.

How many people have seen that stupid Tickle ad saying if you can match one half of a circle with another half to make a filled-in circle, you must be really smart? Well i got pissed enough to photoshop the thing. I thought none of the above choices were the perfect match, but it turns out the third one was. Here's the picture.

I haven't said anything about them. I'm glad they went through relatively normally, when previously many predicted total chaos on that day. Anyway this is a great post about it from an Iraqi. You can really feel the emotion and happiness they are expressing.

Elements of the 1st Infantry division (the "Big Red One") are coming back to Germany, on schedule. What's interesting to me is that they were in Iraq longer than they thought, but still within the 12-13 month timeframe that is usual. Some others are not so lucky, they've been there 15 months or so. But hopefully we'll start to draw down forces and keep them down, until the Iraqis can take over in a few years. The mission is getting done, despite the costs.

N Korea claims they have nukes. It's been pretty widely reported for the last two years that they do, they just don't admit them (like Isreal). So now what? Either the chinese help, or they implode within a decade. Either way, they probably won't use them. It's a stuffed animal mentality. If they do use them, then the 'gravest possible' outcome will result, we'll nuke them back. Their country is small enough to obliterate from the face of the earth without serious global catastrophy. So, I think they may be paranoid, but not stupid.

Not found in the usual wired press, but from Mudville Gazette. (Link here)

Hard to believe, but possible.

In some silly romcom (Romantic Comedy) somewhere. The muslim part is different though. (link)

This report by a NIH whistleblower uncovered serious problems at the NIH, at a time when the Bush admin is seeking to dramatically increase AIDS funding. Poor science is never a good underpining of public policy, and I'm glad the whistleblower spoke out.

Well i totally missed it. This weekend was filled with work and errands. My weekends tend to go in cycles, either i'm doing fun stuff all weekend, or boring but necessary stuff. ANyway the superbowl ads are here if you want to see them. But the site is pretty slow today (for obvious reasons)

Strange but true.
Here is the Foxnews story
Here is the scrappleface response to that story