Our lunatic Military ... Nobel peace prize winner President Obama is in portugal for a 2 day Nato summit, in which he is trying to drum up Nato support for our ongoing invasion of Afghanistan. This goes on as we begin to introduce M1 Abrams tanks into Afghanistan. Previously we held out tanks, worrying that they would remind Afghans of the tank heavy Soviet invasion. But a senior Pentagon official says "We've taken the gloves off, and it's had a huge effect.". Another official opined that all the property damage is having a positive effect, because it forces the family, whose home has just been destroyed, to petition the governor with a damage claims. This officia stated "In effect, you're connecting the [Afghan] government to the people". No, I'm not making any of that up, although I wish I were. In other news, all the oppressive airport security is finally getting on people's nerves. Turns out they can deal with long lines, invasions of privacy, taking their shoes off and random laptop seizures, but they draw the line at being given the choice between having their genitals groped or having a 3D nudie photo of them taken.
Dear Prudence ... Hello.  I am not a nationally published advice columnist but I do play one on k5.
The continuing minor intellectual impact of kuro5hin.org ... A little under three years ago I surveyed our contributions to the academic literature, which, while they hardly live up to our true genius, are nonetheless nice to see. I decided to see what sort of additional impact we've had in the years since, but sadly the citations do not roll in at a high rate of speed. I have collected the meagre additions worth mentioning below.
Death, Facebook and Cognitive Dissonance ... Death: In the last few days a friend of mine passed away - of natural causes, but shockingly suddenly and prematurely. I am devastated and grieving - full of remorse for not stopping for a proper chat the last time I saw her, full of shame for not having kept in touch more diligently over the last couple of years.
My Half Ironman debut ... Sunday September 12th I raced in the Ironman 70.3 Muskoka. It was my first half-ironman distance triathlon ever. I finished, almost in the time I had set for myself (6h 2mins, my goal was 6 hours), so that was an accomplishment, but as always there is room for improvement.