This is how I spent my Saturday volunteering with the Australian American Association to put on a very nice service to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Coral Sea where Japan tried to invade Australia. It may not be one of the most well known battles of the second World War, but it was definitely one of the most important to the Australians and foreshadowed more major allied victories later in the war. There are only a few survivors left, but it is important to remember the lessons learned during World War II and to strive not to repeat the past.
Link with 13 notes
Balancing conservation and progress is challenging at the best of times, but particularly so when a city is expanding to meet and expanding military base which includes habitat for endangered species. It seem the US military is doing its best to create compromises that are best for itself, the neighbors and the golden cheeked warbler. Kudos to the military for trying to find solutions that work for everyone.
Link with 2 notes
Okay this is both a very cool new technology and also really scary if they law enforcement officers are thinking of deploying it within the US or other western countries (and it sounds like they are).
I read the longer reference article here:
It is longer and a little too enthusiastic about getting video footage of the thing in action against people for my liking, but interesting.
The Nature Conservancy is teaming up with the US Military to help ranchers in southern Arizona put their lands in conservation easements to protect them for generations to come. Southern Arizona is a fabulous birding hot spot with many species migrating back and forth to central America so this is a big win for the birding world.
I agree with parts of this article, but I strongly disagree with a lot of it as well. I think having a strong military is important and that the US had a lot of out of date hardware that they have been upgrading in recent years. However, I do think there are savings that could be made in the defense budget that would save money and maintain adequate defense. I think combining intelligence agencies, reducing overhead and administration, and reductions of troops in non-critical areas are all good things. But I also think it is important to keep our carrier groups in operation as they are are portable bases that can get to almost anywhere in the world quickly for both military and natural disaster aid reasons. I think it is important to keep our troops in strategic locations like Japan, Korea, and Germany to support our allies though in some cases those troop numbers may be higher than necessary.
This isn’t really surprising given other known activities of US Spy Ops, but it is still creepy. Who is real on the internets?
Link with 2 notes
Just in case you weren’t sure that the US actions in Libya were about oil…
This is rather disturbing.
