Musings of a Madman

Chinese spies are aggressively stealing secrets to build up China’s military and economic power, a US advisory panel on US-China relations has warned.

Its members urged the US Congress to ensure the country was adequately protected against Chinese spying.

The report was published in the same week that US President Barack Obama made his first official visit to China.

A Chinese embassy spokesman in Washington dismissed the allegations as baseless and irresponsible.

Sophistication?

The report – which says China’s spying is becoming more intense and sophisticated – was produced by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

"China is changing the way that espionage is being done," said Carolyn Bartholomew, who chaired the commission…read more

The Royal Navy’s biggest and most powerful attack submarine has arrived at Faslane on the Clyde.

Astute, which measures nearly 328ft (100m) from bow to stern, set sail from Barrow in Cumbria for its first sea trials on Tuesday.

The vessel can be armed with 38 torpedoes and missiles – more than any previous Royal Navy submarine.

It sailed into the Clyde and up the Gareloch to its new home at the Scottish naval base.

The BAE Systems-built vessel is due to go into full service next year.

It will be able to circumnavigate the entire globe underwater and advanced nuclear technology means that it will never need to be refuelled.

The Royal Navy’s biggest and most powerful attack submarine has arrived at Faslane on the Clyde.

Astute, which measures nearly 328ft (100m) from bow to stern, set sail from Barrow in Cumbria for its first sea trials on Tuesday.

The vessel can be armed with 38 torpedoes and missiles – more than any previous Royal Navy submarine.

It sailed into the Clyde and up the Gareloch to its new home at the Scottish naval base.

Inside the submarine Astute

The BAE Systems-built vessel is due to go into full service next year.

It will be able to circumnavigate the entire globe underwater and advanced nuclear technology means that it will never need to be refuelled.  Read more….

Got these from a friend – some’s a bit quirky, but a little funny.

1.  I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

2.  Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

3.  The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

4.  Never take life seriously Nobody gets out alive anyway.

5.  There are two kinds of pedestrians: the quick and the dead..

6.  Life is sexually transmitted.

7.  Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

8.  The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

9.  Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

10.  Have you noticed since everyone has a camcorder these days no one talks about seeing UFOs like they used to?

11.  Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again

12.  All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

13.  In the 60′s, people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird and people take Prozac to make it normal.

14.  How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

15.  Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, ‘I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out?’

16.  Who was the first person to say, ‘See that chicken there? I’m going to eat the next thing that comes out of its butt.’

17.  Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

18.  If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a song about him?

19.  If quizzes are quizzical, what are tests?

20.  Do illiterate people get the full effect of Alphabet Soup?

To my fellow Brothers in Arms – both past and present, I salute you on this day.

This Veterans Day – I want to pay special tribute e to those who fought in the Pacific theater  WWII – in places like Guadalcanal, Marshall Is, Phillipine Sea, Leyte Gulf, Okinawa.  Your memory lives on.

As I write these words, our nation is at war. War is tough and nasty.  It rips at your very being and spits you out  like mere nothing.  As I reflect on years past, I suppose I could have spent my youth in some other vocation; I could have probably been an accountant  or even a policeman, but the confluence of time and fate has made me a military man.  In this vocation, I have found both meaning and value of things well beyond the material; and I have come to a cogent understanding of  and appreciate for, the utter complexities of living in a society such as our, froth with all the contradictions and tensions of race, sex, politics, etc…

So today is Veterans Day, a day with special meaning to those of us who wear the uniform…today is a proud one in the land of the brave”.

today And I am very proud to call so many other like me brother.  Today is our day.