Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
On the road with the day job this week ….
…. so I’ll be back here online Saturday – meanwhile, enjoy the Blog Roll members.
Take care, and enjoy the rest of the week!
MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – March 4, 2013
- One columnist’s perspective on pending defence cuts “…. One of the largest planned savings will be found in the military’s operations budget, which, after the completion of the Afghanistan training mission in 2014, will be reduced from $490 million to $5 million. To put a little perspective on how much $5 million buys you in terms of military overseas operations, the estimated expense for deploying a C-17 cargo plane and 35 personnel to Mali for one month is just over $18 million. In other words, the plan is to truly have a stay-at-home defence force ….”
- What one of Canada’s subs is up to in Halifax harbour – more here
- Historian on reconsidering whether Canada should stay in NATO “…. Instead of pledging fealty forever to the increasingly hollow shell of NATO, perhaps it’s time for Canadians to begin reassessing their place in the world, and to produce a national security strategy. What we need is an analysis of Canada’s defence and foreign policy requirements for the next 20 years. Any such review will surely give primacy to Canada’s alliance with the United States. But one question that must be asked is if NATO still serves our needs. If such an analysis says strongly that we need NATO to protect our national interests, so be it. But Canadians must ask the question ….”
- One blogger’s thoughts on how Canada oughta be pointing its Navy toward the Pacific
- Canadian paratroopers from Petawawa wrapping up a training exercise with the Americans in North Carolina - CF Info-machine pix here, Pentagon Info-machine pix here
- ceasefire.ca’s still pressing folks to send a letter to the PM to stop buying “killer drones” – wonder if one could rewrite a letter supporting such things using ceasefire.ca’s online form?
- A Tory MP talks up a veteran in the House of Commons
- The latest from Canada’s War Poet: “My head has been in nurses’ accounts of the First World War ….”
- “The 26th Annual National Cadet Biathlon Championship (started) on Sunday, March 3, 2013, in Valcartier, Quebec, with 138 cadet biathletes and 60 cadet officials from every province and territory in Canada. The championship will run until Friday, March 8, 2013 ….”
Technical difficulties = a bit of downtime :(
In the meantime, check out the blogs in the Blog Roll – good stuff there!
Thanks for your patience.
Don’t forget to track Santa (with NORAD’s help)
From this news release:
…. Special NORAD SantaCams, positioned around the world, will take photos and video of Santa and his sleigh as he journeys around the world. The SantaCams instantly download the photo and video imagery so that it may be viewed by children worldwide on the NORAD Tracks Santa website, www.noradsanta.org, on December 24. All related information will be available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese. On December 24, children can also receive updates on Santa’s Christmas Eve journey by calling the traditional “NORAD Tracks Santa” telephone hotline at 1-877-HI NORAD (1-877-446-6723), or by emailing NORAD at noradtrackssanta@gmail.com ….”
Enjoy, and have a safe & happy holiday season – don’t forget about the troops still out there working, wherever they happen to be.
Tech issues = back on Tuesday
Meanwhile, take in some of the great content from the blog roll on the right-hand side of the page.
What’s Canada Buying? October 11, 2012
- Wanted: someone to do part two of the expansion of the RCAF museum at Trenton for almost $1.8 million.
- Wanted: someone to expand the building where they keep the M-777 guns at Valcartier.
- Wanted: someone to develop a system to take a second look at intelligence analysis/work? “…. DRDC Valcartier has undertaken a research and development (R&D) Applied Re-search Projects (ARP) entitled “Self Improving Inference System (SIIS) to Support the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB) Process”. The main objective of the SIIS project is to produce a prototype of a self improving inference system to support the analysis and sensemaking aspects of the Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield/Intelligence Preparation of the Operational En-vironment (IPB/IPOE). This prototype must be capable of learning and improving based on both its current performance and operator feedback. The objective of the current contract is to develop a self improving inference proto-type to support the IPB/IPOE processes ….”
MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – October 11, 2012
- About. F**king. Time. “One injured soldier’s lawsuit has changed the way the government calculates benefits for veterans. Veterans Affairs Minister Steven Blaney announced Wednesday his department will immediately end deductions of veterans’ disability pensions when calculating their Earnings Loss and Canadian Forces Income Support benefits. The adjustment will cost the government almost $178 million over five years, Blaney said, noting further changes are on the way, including a similar adjustment to the calculation of War Veterans’ Allowance benefit. It was losing a five-year legal battle that spurred the government into making the changes ….” More from the VAC Info-machine here, and from other media here, here, here and here.
- “A former naval intelligence officer’s admission in court Wednesday to sharing military secrets with Russian agents was spurred by the “significant” amount of evidence against him, his lawyer says. But Mike Taylor insisted the data that his client, former Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle, leaked to the Russians did not put Canadian military personnel in danger. “At no time at all was any information passed that put lives and the physical safety of our Canadian Forces troops in jeopardy,” Taylor told Postmedia News in an interview Wednesday. Delisle, 41, the first person charged under the Security of Information Act, pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Halifax courtroom to two espionage-related charges and breach of trust in a case that experts have said underscores the need for Canada to remain vigilant against spy networks …. Delisle, who faces the possibility of life in prison, remains in custody. He is due back in court for sentencing on Jan. 10 ….” – more on this one here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, not to mention Russian media coverage here. You can also check out the latest via Google News here.
- Remember this one about the Edmonton store selling t-shirts that offended at least one ex-soldier? And how the reporter said “Staff there refused to comment and attempts to reach the store owner were not returned by press time”? Well, here’s a bit of the REST of the story, attributed to the owner of the store: “…. The only attempt she made was to talk to an employee of ours. The employee told her, as she should have, that she was not the person to talk to on behalf of the company, but we would be in at 10 am and gladly talk to her. No e-mails were sent. No attempt to phone either my wife or I were made. She did not leave a business card at the store with her information. No Facebook message was sent, and no twitter message was sent. All of these would have come directly to us and we would have gotten back to her immediately ….” Remember this next time you see/read a reporter saying “x could not be reached for comment.” Also, here’s more of the owner’s side: ” …. I give thanks every day for those who fought so we can enjoy our freedom, which includes being able to own and operate a local business, where the local press makes at least the very minimal attempt to provide a piece of journalism that includes balance and a chance at the truth. As a former member of the press (I was a reporter at the Calgary Sun for 2 years before getting into business for myself), the fact that this story was allowed to go to press without giving a local Alberta business at least the chance to respond is very disappointing. This would never have happened when I was with the Sun organization just over 5 years ago. WE sincerely apologize to anyone that has been offended and we are here to have a conversation with anyone who may wish it ….”
- “Captain Patrick “Paco” Gobeil, pilot of the 2012 CF-18 Demonstration Hornet, added to his list of accomplishments over the Labour Day weekend when he flew aerial demonstrations at two separate air shows in two nations in a continuous flight. “This was a first for us, so it was very important to make it all work,” said Capt Bruce Ehmann, special events coordinator at 1 Canadian Air Division, Winnipeg. Operating within a mere two-hour window, and with the assistance of a CC-130H Hercules tanker from 435 Transport and Rescue Squadron, 17 Wing Winnipeg, Man., Capt Gobeil represented the Canadian Forces in Toronto and Cleveland, Ohio, during a single flight. And he did it three days in a row ….”
- Hot off the Info-machine presses: Defence Minister returns home from conference
- This also just in: Parliamentary Secretary takes part in NATO meeting
- “Citing a rarely used national-security protocol, Ottawa has sent a signal to Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies that it would block the firm from bidding to build the Canadian government’s latest telecommunications and e-mail network. Shenzen-based Huawei is riding a storm of suspicion. On Monday, a powerful U.S. congressional committee called the company a threat to U.S. security and recommended that its products be excluded from government computer systems. Canada’s national surveillance and cryptology agency, the Communications Security Establishment, has warned the military of potential security risks in installing Huawei’s equipment ….” – more on this here.
- “Hollywood’s Ben Affleck lauded Canadian hero Ken Taylor and the Canada-U.S. relationship on Wednesday during a star-studded reception at the Canadian embassy on Capitol Hill as he promoted his new film, Argo. Any hard feelings between Taylor, Canada’s one-time ambassador to Iran, and the creative forces behind Argo seemed a thing of the past as Affleck spoke of Taylor’s courage in rescuing six American diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979. “What this movie is about is co-operation,” Affleck said. He also paid tribute to diplomats like Taylor who routinely and courageously put their lives on the line to help others ….”
- “Military divers will be scouring Lake Muskoka this weekend to survey the wreckage of a World War II-era aircraft that crashed there over 70 years ago. The survey dive will be conducted from Friday, October 12 to Monday, October 15 by divers from the military’s fleet diving unit. The wreckage is of one of two planes involved in a mid-air crash in December 1940 which claimed four lives. The aircraft were out looking for another aircraft that went missing in a blizzard the day before. Though one of the aircraft involved in the crash and the bodies of two pilots were recovered the following year, search efforts continued for the second plane, an RCAF Northop Nomad #3521, and its occupants. However, that second aircraft has remained underwater since, and remained largely forgotten until it was found a few years ago by a group of local men who formed the Lost Airmen in Muskoka Project (LAMP) to pick up the search. The missing aircraft is one of only three known models of its type that are still known to be in existence ….” – a bit more in the Info-machine public service announcement here, and a bit more on the type of plane in question here.
No Update 25 Sept 12
Back at ‘er with the latest 26 Sept 12.
In the meantime, check out some of the members of the Blog Roll – all good stuff!
A short break ….
…. while I’m traveling for work – back online 14 Sept 12 with the latest.
Meanwhile, check out the pages on my Blogroll underneath the search box on the right of the screen – good stuff to be seen at these sites as well.
