Slick!
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: News
The handover of power has already occurred. While we were sleeping here in the USA, the transfer of power to the Iraqis occurred. No one was told other than the Iraqis themselves. Personally, I think this was a really slick idea. Because on the day it was supposed to happen I bet that the terrorist groups were planning to attack and spoil the events. By doing it early and without fanfare, they were able to avoid that. Way to go US! I bet Al Qaida is really ticked! hahaha!

I've been praying for the safety of the Iraqi officials for a few weeks now and I believe that this is one of the results. In some future posts I will be speaking more about what I've been learning about how the world works, but we all have the power to create and shape the destiny of the world through meditation and prayer. If enough people were also meditating that the officials would be safe, then I feel that this is a direct result of that.

It's coming...
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
Today's the 27th and we hand over the government to Iraq on the 30th. That leaves just three days between. I think it's apparent by now that the US isn't going to back down. The stakes are WAY too high at this point. With the escalation of the violence and the parade of government officials who have touted the 30th changeover date it would be disastrous for us to change our minds. I think the only acceptable excuse would be the simultanious murder or capture of the entire governing council.

Here's my prediction for the next few years. First of all, the closer we get to the date, the more violence there will be in Iraq. After the date, violence will probably go down relatively speaking as people realize that they can't use the excuse that the US is tricking them. However, the violence will never go away. Iraq will become like Latin American countries. I bet that they will probably most closely mimic Columbia. The democracy will probably remain stable from the 30th onwards, but like the FARC in Columbia they'll probably continue to have the oil pipes blown up and people kidnapped. Then, the terrorists will evolve like the FARC to try and become a political party because they will see that while people hate terrorism, they hate giving in a lot more. So whatever they want to do they will decide to try negotiations and/or playing politics.

Of course, there were a lot of insurgencies in US history such as Shay's rebellion. So it IS possible that Iraqi political history will mimic ours. But that region is very different from this one and people there interpret things in a very different way. Comparing 18th century British with 21st century arabs is huge leap. They have different sensibilities and fears. Also, they don't have the advantage of forming their government in a near vacuum like the US did. Nowadays countries' destinies are so intertwined that everyone always has to be in everyone else's business. (eg taking over Iraq to get rid of Saddam)

Time will tell what happens.

Do you really need to copyright/trademark that?
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Track 10 - Punjabi Hit Squad
Topic: Summer General
My fiance told me that Corvette has a trademark on a color called "corvette red" and that no other car can be that specific shade of red. There are so many subtleties to color and I wondered about that.

Well, a few days ago I bothered to read the back of the package that holds the ear plugs we have to use at work to keep from going deaf and the company that we use has a trademark on using yellow for ear plugs. I couldn't believe it - I had to read it a few times.

So I wonder, what's the point in doing this? Well, for the ear plugs it's not too hard to figure out. You usually have them in your ears and when you don't they're so small and the strap holding the two pieces together is so small that there's no place to put the name of the company. Therefore they have to rely on the yellow colour for identification. So if someone is like, "wow, I really like these suckers" then they see that they're yellow and they know who made them. The other company's earplugs that we have there is orange, but I didn't check if they have orange trademarked.

However, for a Corvette you have many clues that it's a Corvette. First of all, they have that design where there are four huge lights on the car's butt. It looks VERY different from every other car's behind. Then there's the the general shape of the car. Finally, there's the fact that it says Corvette on it. You could say that people love red for fast cars, but I personally never new there was a "Corvette Red" I thought that any red car was the same red - give or take a little. I know some are more of a wine colour and some are more like an apple, but I thought that was more of a factor of the paint that happened to buy for their factory, not because someone had a particular shade trademarked.

All this makes me wonder now if all car companies have their particular shade of red/blue/etc trademarked or if it only matters for those nice cars like Corvettes. Like what about that sleak black of the Lincoln Continental? Is that particular black trademarked? Or Caddilac black or pink? Hmm...perhaps if I get bored after work I'll look it up on Google.

Come hither terrorists....we will not harm you.....
Mood:  chatty
Topic: News
Well, as most of you should have heard by now (this news item is a little old), Saudia Arabia has told terrorists in their country that they have one month to turn themselves in. If they do this and they haven't killed too many people then the government will pardon them and collect their weapons. So, is this the best thing to do with terrorists?

Well, Saudi Arabia's got a different story than Israel or the US. In those places the terrorists are primarily striking Americans and other foreigners. However, in Saudi Arabia there's a political group who's trying to use terrorism to undermine the monarchy. They want people to villify the Saudi government as a puppet of the US.

Therefore, Saudi Arabia is appealing to the masses. You see, this offer of amnesty to the terrorists aparently has pretty ancient roots. It goes back to the Koran and even recently (although I can't remember the case that the media cited) it's been used. So this is aparently not a very unusual proposition. It's also supposed to bring some legitimacy to the government because they're appealing to an Islamic tradition.

Also, for those terrorists who don't turn themselves in: all bets are off. The Saudi government will go after them and even kill them if they find them because they had a chance to turn themselves in. It's kinda like, "come now while we'll be nice to you or you'll regret it." Personally, I happen to like that. I'm not saying they should do that in the US, but I think it's a good policy for the Saudis.

some thoughts
Mood:  chatty
Topic: TM
Since we are all connected to each other through the unified field as Quantum Mechanics (and TM) tell us, then one person's anger is everyone's anger. It's localized at one point, but everyone feels it. Think of an earthquake. If the epicenter is in Japan their buildings will be razed, but the meters in California will still register the earthquake. In the same way, anger will have the largest effect on the person harboring it, however, it will affect everyone else in some small way. This is why some have suggested that positive attitudes and TM could go a long way towards world peace. The greater the number of people at peace, the greater the cumulative effect on humanity as a whole. I have to develop this more and see how it fits into other belief systems that I have, but I didn't want to forget it.

Late Father's Day Post
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
Here is a comic I meant to put up on father's day. Enjoy!

Fun with Outsourcing
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
According to a company memo, a certain company- let's call it company A- outsources its HR department to company B, an American company. Company B, in turn, outsources these same jobs to company C in India.

Now, I asked myself, why doesn't company A just outright source out to company C? Because just like a middle man with a regular product, not human jobs, this must increase the price. Each layer adds its own price on top so that it can make a profit.

I was only able to come up with one possible explanation. Basically, there is currently a big backlash against exporting jobs to India. I mean, people don't like job exportation to begin with, but India's been in the news recently so they're the one we love to hate for now. (Kinda how KFC is kitchen fresh chicken instead of kentucky FRIED chicken)

So anyway, I figure that company A doesn't want the bad rap for exporting jobs to India. So it exports to company B. Company A can then say truthfully that it's keeping business in America so therefore it's helping Joes get jobs, not Sikhs. Then it's all company B's fault that the jobs are going away.

I'm not sure what else could make sense. There's the slight probability that company B has connections that allows it to send work to India and make a profit and still be cheaper than if company A went straight to India. But I would think that eventually, co A would want to make the same ties. I don't know...but that's what I would do.

w00t!
Mood:  happy
Topic: Site Info
Real post later on today. For now I just wanted to say that Tripod got my dates back on the blog and I'm quite happy about that.

Grr
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Site Info
Why oh why does Tripod have to mess things up. Although, it's possible that it's just my computer being crappy at this moment, but it seems as though the dates on all my posts now revert to the topmost date....that is utterly annoying. I hope they fix that soon.

Hello Sunshine
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Summer General
Today's supposed to be the first day of Summer. Apparently God didn't remember to reprogram the weather droids because this morning when I woke up it was 45 degrees F in NE Pennsylvania. Not only that, but it was so foggy that I couldn't even see the billboards that were on the side of the road. THAT'S some fog!

Today's the longest day, "it's all down hill from here" as Mary said today, so let's see if I get impressed by the amount of time spent in Sunshine. Perhaps that'll be messed up too.

A final bit of happiness: I finally have internet at home. This should mean more posts, longer posts, and no posts between 7 am and 6 pm. So check back - hopefully they'll get back to this winter's standards.