Joshua Tree Report: January 8th, 2017

This is the Joshua Tree Report for January 8th, 2017.

General Data

The temperature in Cody is 21° Fahrenheit and the weather is fair. The temperature in Kirkwall is 8° centigrade and the weather is windy. The temperature in Muscat is 18° centigrade and the weather is clear. A barrel of crude oil is selling at $53.99, and $0.81 currently exchanges for £1. This week's geospatial image is the Musandam Fjords in northern Oman.

In the News

Here are a few of this week's top stories.

White House fails to make case that Russian hackers tampered with election (Ars Technica)

U.S. Intelligence Got the Wrong Cyber Bear (Bloomberg)

The FBI Never Asked For Access To Hacked Computer Servers (BuzzFeed News)

FBI Says the Democratic Party Wouldn't Let Agents See the Hacked Email Servers (Wired)

Emails were leaked, not hacked (Baltimore Sun)

How Did the Houthis Manage to Lob a Ballistic Missile at Mecca? (War is Boring)

Taiwan politician's funeral features 50 pole dancers (BBC)

Top Podcasts

These were my favorite podcasts from this week.

Comics Manifest #064: You Can See Opportunities That No One Else Can With David Malki!: I love Malki(!)'s comic, Wondermark, but the highlight of this podcast was hearing Malki(!)'s recollection of his Kickstarter campaign.

The Sci-Fi Christian: Episode 531: We’re Done with Rogue One: I saw Rogue One. It was okay. I disliked a lot of the things that the guys at The Sci-Fi Christian (and the slightly more colorful crowd at Red Letter Media) disliked about the film.

The National Archives: Defeating the Zeppelins: This was part of my continuing effort to become an expert in the First World War. I found this podcast pretty enlightening, even though the Zeppelin war is well outside my own personal bailiwick.

SpyCast: Able Archer 83: An Interview with Nate Jones: Able Archer 83 was a NATO exercise that almost led to nuclear war. The interview with FOIA superhero Nate Jones was pretty fascinating for a student of strategic nuclear doctrine.

SOFREP Radio Episode 013 - Dishonorable Action Figure Therapy: This is an early episode of SOFREP Radio from 2012. The podcast leaves some things to be desired; the reason I found it entertaining is the political commentary (albeit from laymen) from prior to the 2012 election, and one guy suggests (pretty vehemently, actually) that elections should be put online because the technology to make the process secure existed in 2012. Given the bulk of this week's news items and the continuing controversy about the 2016 election, I found this highly amusing.

Course Report

ENG 199: I read a few pages from The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard.
PAC 130: I did some deliberate stretching on Thursday night, and again on Sunday night.
BA 480: I read a few pages from The Design and Evaluation of Physical Protection Systems by Mary Lynn Garcia.
HST 406 (O): I read five chapters from Life of a Regiment, Vol. IV by Cyril Falls, and did some work on various aspects of my master spreadsheet for the project.
REL 199: I read four chapters in Esther and Zechariah, which counts for absolutely nothing. But, the term is young, and tomorrow commences a new week.

Quote of the Week

"In Pakistan's case, when I first got there [in 2001], and landed in Islamabad, I had a great little map, and it showed what I was gonna do, showed a little ship out in the ocean and an arrow going to Afghanistan, and this sort of thing. And I walked in to see our ambassador there, I'd landed at midnight, walked into her office about eight o'clock in the morning, and she said, 'Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my country?' and I thought, 'This isn't going to go so well.' So I said, 'Well, Madame Ambassador, my name's Jim Mattis. I'm gonna take about a thousand of my best friends up in Afghanistan and kill some people.' And she said, 'Really, General?' And I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' She said, 'Well, sit down, I think I can help you.'"
- General James N. Mattis, USMC (Ret.), 2014