Monday, 13 March 2017

Joshua Tree Report Special Edition: 13 March 2017

This is a special edition of the Joshua Tree Report. It covers February 20th through March 12th.

General Data

The temperature in Cody is 57° Fahrenheit and the weather is mostly cloudy. The temperature in Kirkwall is 6° centigrade and the weather is rainy. The temperature in Muscat is 33° centigrade and the weather is clear. A barrel of crude oil is selling at $48.40, and $1.22 currently exchanges for £1. This week's geospatial image is the Cydonia, the location of the infamous "Face on Mars".

In the News

Here are a few of the recent weeks' top stories.

  • Why the French elections will change the face of Europe (al Jazeera)
  • Why is UAE building a military base in Somaliland? (BBC)
  • Navistar to upgrade MRAP vehicles for UAE (UPI)
  • Mass Spying Isn’t Just Intrusive - It’s Ineffective (Wired)
  • Iranian ships 'force' US and Royal Navy vessels to change course (BBC)
  • Mike Pence used an AOL e-mail account for state business and it got hacked (Ars Technica)
  • Yahoo cookie hacks affected 32 million accounts, CEO foregoes bonus (Ars Technica)
  • WikiLeaks Releases CIA Hacking Tools (Schneier on Security)
  • All Bets Are Off as a Surprise Offensive Roils the Libyan War (War is Boring)
  • Factions fight for two Libyan oil terminals (al Jazeera)
  • Scottish independence: SNP's economic case 'should not include oil' (BBC)
  • Penny Wise, Pound Foolish: Trump's Misguided Views of European Defense Spending (War on the Rocks)
  • Trumpeting the Alliance: How Much Will the United States and Japan Lean on Each Other (War on the Rocks)
  • Preventing a Credibility Crisis in America's Most Important Alliance (War on the Rocks)
  • That Time Chechen Rebels Floated Into Combat on Inner Tubes (War is Boring)
  • Catholic dissent: When wrong turns out to be right (U.S. Catholic)
  • Doner kebab and integration: A story worth telling (al Jazeera)
  • Kuwait cracks down on state employees faking work (BBC)
  • Watch Dubai evolve from desert to cosmopolitan in 32 years (Khaleej Times)
  • New Zealand garden gnome thefts 'fund meth trade' (BBC)
  • Origin of Wireless Security: The Marconi Radio Hack of 1903 (Hackaday)
  • As CRT Supplies Vanish the Classic Arcade Machine is Virtually Dead (Gizmodo)

    Top Podcasts

    These were my favorite podcasts from the recent weeks.

  • DocArchive: The Colony (BBC World Service)
  • Episode 190 - Burnout (The Southern Fried Security Podcast)
  • Episode 220 - Dana Perino (SOFREP Radio)
  • How statistics lost their power, and why we should fear what comes next - podcast (The Guardian)
  • Inquiry: Can You Believe What You Read on WikiLeaks? (BBC World Service)
  • IQ2: Has the U.S.-Saudi "Special Relationship" Outlived its Usefulness? (Intelligence Squared U.S.)
  • IQ2: Should We Give Trump a Chance? (Intelligence Squared U.S.)
  • No, the Trump transition isn’t endangering U.S. nukes. Here’s what to really worry about (War College)
  • The Bannon effect and a brief history of the National Security Council (War College)
  • Peacetime diplomacy and the New European Order (The National Archives)
  • The Art of Manliness #239: Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts (The Art of Manliness)
  • The Art of Manliness #255: The Joy of Missing Out - Getting Control of Your Digital Life (The Art of Manliness)
  • The Art of Manliness #274: Building Your Band of Brothers (The Art of Manliness)
  • The Art of Manliness #278: The Surprising Benefits of Marriage for Men (The Art of Manliness)
  • Whassigo - Wednesday 1st March 2017 (BBC Radio Orkney)

    Course Report

    ENG 199: I worked on an outline for an upcoming lecture on Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger.
    PAC 130: Due to unforeseen circumstances, PAC 199 is cancelled until further notice.
    BA 480: I did nothing.
    HST 406 (O): I re-outlined my manuscript, and made some edits (additions and culls) to my master Great War timeline.
    REL 199: I completed Symbolon 1:5 and 2:5.

    Quote of the Week
    "The power of enduring privations is one of the finest virtues in a soldier, and without it no army is animated with the true military spirit; but such privation must be of a temporary kind, commanded by the force of circumstances, and not the consequence of a wretchedly bad system, or of a parsimonious abstract calculation of the smallest ration that a man can exist upon."
    - Carl von Clausewitz, On War, Book V, Chapter XIV: Subsistence
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