10 Thoughts for August 4, 2014

1. The absolute best deal in town (Portland) in classical music, is All Classical's *free* Thursdays @ Three. It's a free recital by professional musicians in a casual space -- no tie, no jacket, no worries.  Right now I'm streaming the recording from two weeks ago.
2. What do you think about the circumstances surrounding these health professionals who've contracted Ebola?  Being professionals or trained workers, they've taken the highest precautions to avoid transmission.  And yet so many of them have gotten sick, and many have died -- that's something I haven't been able to wrap my head around.  If what we are told about Ebola's transmissibilty is accurate, then few medical professional should be infected, especially not the top Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone.
3. The CIA implied that it broke federal laws when it spied on senate staffers who were putting together a report on CIA torture in Iraq, though we all know that no one will be prosecuted.  Then yesterday a report came out suggesting that the CIA censored most of the torture report, such that it may be postponed indefinitely.  This, of course, on top of the lies to Congress by the CIA director, who won't be prosecuted, either.  CIA 3 - USA 0.
4. By the way, who do you think is defending and obfuscating the question of torture by the CIA?  Nope, not Democrats; it's Republicans.  Mike Rogers said that he doesn't think the CIA spied on senate staff -- his reasoning shows either a total lack of knowledge or he's outright lying to Americans.  Saxby Chambliss said that waterboarding was not torture, that it yielded information that helped find Osama Bin Laden, and that he was against an investigation into waterboarding -- all of which makes you wonder, if waterboarding yielded useful intel, why did it take years after waterboarding had stopped, to find him?  The answer is, Chambliss is lying.
5. Apple Insider sinks to a new low, claiming that Androids are a big hit with Al Qaeda because they are insecure and therefore can be used for DDOS attacks as well as being used to target users.  That's about as stupid as you can get.  If the platform were insecure, using it would make the terrorists' phones all the more vulnerable.  The fact of the matter is, as the original source was referenced, the reason why Androids are so popular is because you can sideload your own apps which can make your phone safer than others.  For instance, you could sideload apps that only communicate with precise IP addresses you input, and block access to all other IP addresses, while using client-end encryption.
6. Perhaps God was upset with Putin?  I dare you not to laugh.
7. Speaking of Putin, Germany just exceeded the EU economic sanctions against Russia and stopped delivery of military-related technology.  The EU, in all of its fist-waving, had determined that military hardware and contracts that had been previously signed, would not be covered by their sanctions -- relieved was France, no less.
8. Have you seen the insane satellite imagery of storms in the southern Pacific?  It's a string of storms headed into the vicinity of Hawai'i, including Hurricane Iselle and Tropical Storm Julio.  This is crazy, folks.
9. As of this writing, Hurricane Iselle is a cat-4 hurricane and it won't start to weaken for another day, which, is cutting it really close.  On top of that, tropical storm Julio is just two days behind it, and will strengthen to a hurricane by tomorrow.  In 40+ years, this is the first time I've ever heard of two hurricanes in succession, in a single season, headed directly towards Hawai'i, let alone within a couple of days.  I'm almost sure this has something to do with global warming.  The odds are just to incredible to believe.  President Obama better rush back and get federal response teams ready, because this might be monumental.
10. Just got hit up by a pollster on Oregon elections and direction of the country.  Some questions aren't so easy to answer.  What effect have Merkley's economic policies had on the economy?  Not really, because they haven't been implemented with a no-show-do-nothing GOP.  What is my opinion of Monica Wehby?  I wanted to say neutral, but since her return to the public (in scheduled appearances) rather than seek the middle she's gone to the far right, which puzzled me, except perhaps the reason for her tactic can be explained by a quid pro quo with the Kochs who are pouring money into Oregon on her behalf?

Bonus: Natural and manmade features collide in this Google Maps / Earth section of Egypt.  The swirling and straight lines are vehicular tire traffic patterns.  The sinuous, fractal-like structures are probably ancient delta river deposits dating a few million years, remnants of a past path of the Nile.