August 30, 2013

DR Congo rebels announce troop withdrawal

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/08/201383084041158640.html

The M23 rebel movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be withdrawing troops from the frontline of fighting with Congolese and UN forces, according to the group's chief.

Bertrand Bisimwa, the civilian president of M23, told Al Jazeera on Friday that his troops were withdrawing in order to allow what he called independent verifiers to enter the area of the battle to assess where shells had fallen in the nearby city of Goma and across the border in Rwanda.

He denied that his troops were withdrawing because of battlefield casualties, an assertion that the government made.

Bisimwa did not clarify how far back the M23 would be withdrawing, Al Jazeera's Malcom Webb reported from the eastern city of Goma.

August 30, 2013

How many neurons did you fry/drown when you were younger ?

Several. I'm glad I still have most of mine.

August 30, 2013

Much respect to the UK people and Parliament for defeating the Syria resolution

I think all UK DU'ers can feel proud of their nation for this.

Sincerely yours,

Steve aka an Anglophile

August 29, 2013

GRC's Interactive Brute Force Password “Search Space” Calculator

https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

Interesting service.

August 29, 2013

UK Telegraph ! : The rush to judgment on Syria is a catastrophic and deadly error

By Peter Oborne 7:00AM BST 29 Aug 2013

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10271248/The-rush-to-judgment-on-Syria-is-a-catastrophic-and-deadly-error.html

It is more than 10 years since Parliament last voted on whether or not to go to war. This was on March 18 2003, when a stirring speech by Tony Blair convinced many sceptical MPs of the case for military action against Iraq.

But Mr Blair’s claim that Britain possessed “extensive, detailed and authoritative” evidence concerning Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction turned out to be nonsense, and we invaded the country on the back of a false prospectus. The consequences were terrible: countless Iraqis were killed in the civil war that followed, along with 179 British soldiers.

The similarities with today’s Commons vote are haunting. The Prime Minister is contemplating an attack on Iraq’s near neighbour Syria, also ruled by a Baathist regime. At the heart of the issue are allegations about weapons of mass destruction. Once again, Britain finds herself in alliance with the United States, and without the authority of the United Nations.

Many of the same voices are cheering us on. Most zealous of all is Tony Blair, while Alastair Campbell, the New Labour propagandist who spread the stories about WMD in Iraq, said yesterday that it would be “irresponsible and incredibly dangerous” not to intervene in Syria.

August 29, 2013

Debate in UK House of Commons on Syria, live link here

http://www.bloomberg.com/live-stream/

or here:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2013/august/commons-debate-on-syria/

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UK House of Lords debate here:


http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2013/august/lords-debates-syria/

August 29, 2013

Congo, beyond the conflict: Six reasons why it matters

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/28/opinion/congo-beyond-the-conflict/index.html?hpt=hp_c5

Editor's note: Vava Tampa, a native of Congo, is the founder of Save the Congo, a London-based campaign to tackle "the impunity, insecurity, institutional failure and the international trade of minerals funding the wars in Democratic Republic of the Congo."

(CNN) -- Mention DR Congo, Sub-Saharan Africa's largest country, and what comes to mind? Probably conflict minerals, proxy wars, the rape capital of the world, or the trigger for the 19th century "Scramble for Africa."

But beyond the despair, there is another country; a country not like any other country in the world -- a country with rich ancient traditions, a colorful cultural energy and creativity, amazing potential and much, much more.

Ask historians or archaeologists -- one of the earliest known mathematical objects, the Ishango bone, was not made in Ancient Greece, Mesopotamia or Renaissance Europe but around Congo's Lake Edward around 18,000 BC.

August 29, 2013

xpost from CHaS: poll on DU performance

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10957770

Just trying to be helpful here.

August 29, 2013

poll on DU performance

How often do you experience slow performance on DU ? Meaning, you click a link to start a post, view a link or reply to a thread, and it takes over 5 seconds to do what you wish to do. For me, it's at least once a day every single day for the last month or so.

Skinner says anything over one second is unacceptable performance.

August 29, 2013

my son is sick (probably nothing serious)

Hematuria. We're going to an urgent Care center later today because he has no GP/pediatrician here locally.

It's probably just a UTI from what I'm reading (he has no other symptoms), but yes when he told me, it freaked me out.

Wish him luck. Thanks.