Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th Nuclear Weapon

TEHRAN—Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America's uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon. "Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran," said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and "everything they need" to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material. "Obviously, the prospect of this happening is very distressing to Iran and all countries like Iran. After all, the United States is a volatile nation that's proven it needs little provocation to attack anyone anywhere in the world whom it perceives to be a threat." Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.

mood: silly

Acer Aspire One D250 purchased off the shelf from WALMART in october.

Ran Windows only long enough to download 4-5 linux releases to see which ones ran out-of-the-box.

Meego ran perfectly, but was way too limited in functionality... looks like runs well on Nokia phones though!

Decided on Redhat's Fedora release 15, it is working FANTASTICLY.  
Here's what I mean:

[edgar@radexfour ~]$ uptime
 18:17:46 up 17 days,  6:01,  4 users,  load average: 1.50, 2.78, 2.46
[edgar@radexfour ~]$ uname -a
Linux radexfour 2.6.41.10-3.fc15.i686 #1 SMP Mon Jan 23 15:44:18 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

So, now that I've dumped the touch-screen (which was great btw) TX2 running UBUNTU (the motherboard died... in addition to the poor fit Ubuntu made).  I'm back on line;  I can write again!

I have to admit:  I have been slightly untrue, as I have been seeing another journal.

agilelamb.wordpress.com is about a silly and petty issue that came up in Sarasota, Florida in 1998 and is now, for some odd reason holding up the processing of my passport.

As a footnote, I note that most issues in Sarasota are silly and petty;  trivial crimes are so much easier to prosecute, with little or no danger of backlash.  The serious crimes, on the other hand deal with heavy hitters; it is somewhat more dangerous making unfounded accusations in those cases.  Risk taking isn't really all that much fun, and in Sarasota in particular, there isn't much support for it.

Heck, the big easy is just around the corner; why make a sweat when gay boy is so close, just for your personal whipping needs.

Actually, went back, then here, then back and now I'm here again.

Aside from the point, which is that I've been around.  (and around and around ... 3 times truth be known)

Let's see:

1999-2001  UK-ISRAEL-AUSTRALIA  (NEW ZEALAND)-THAILAND-HAWAII
travel time: 25 months.  
2001-2002  HAWAII - NEW ZEALAND - FIJI - HAWAII
travel time: 10 months.  New passport replaces one stolen in Fiji.
2002-2004  HAWAII - THAILAND - HAWAII
travel time: 12 months
2004-2006  HAWAII - New Mexico USA (Ist planetary loop, closed in New Mexico, I was there in 1994) - PANAMA - COSTA RICA - NEW MEXICO
2006-2007  New Mexico - UK - AUSTRALIA - NEW ZEALAND - THAILAND - New Mexico (2nd planetary loop)
2007-2008  Bought my van, spent the winter in Corpus Christi, TX.   Brrr.   Flew back to Thailand because I missed the place. - ARIZONA
2008-2009 ARIZONA - TEXAS - ARIZONA - THAILAND - ARIZONA
2009-2010 ""
2010-2011 Something similar.   I have the "exact" itinerary as recollected on my Ipad.
2011-2012 This time I took Emirates Airlines Houston - Dubai - Bangkok, completing a 3rd planetary loop on arrival in Bangkok...  purpose was not to do the loop, it just happened to be the cheapest ticket available.  Likewise the destination:  Thailand just happens to be the cheapest tropical destination that I know of.

Bunch of places not really mentioned:  a week in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. A couple weeks in Sihanookville, Cambodia.  A couple weeks in Penang, Malaysia.  A couple weekends in Vientaine, Laos.  Some day trips into Burma.  Really my recent travels have been focused on avoiding adventures, as opposed to seeking them. 

So anyways, I've been too busy to keep up to date in the journal.  I'll try to do some catching up now, but I don't promise to tell everything.

That would spoil the fun, wouldn't it?  Just the essentials, a taste if you will.

mood: awake tags: adventure, bad television, burma, travel, vinegar hummingbird, visas

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand's birthday today (he is 46), and Tomorrow is the birthday of U.S. President Barack Obama, who will be 49.

August, so exciting.

Picked up a few CDs across the bridge from Burmese immigration on the far side of the river; 50Bt (~$1.80) each, mint copies of the Johnny Cash memorial album and James Taylor “Covers” complete with the little fold-out pamphlets.

It was my recompense for Burmese immigrations policy of holding on to your passport. I'm very touchy about that sort of thing, feel nude without it. Probably not a bad policy in the end; too many “lost passport issues”, although at the time I thought it was to keep me from pulling a “Rambo 4” vis-a-vis my rendezvous with the arms-merchants up river.

So it's the usual chaos on walking into Burma, to be greeted by a pack of scammers, beggars and some who are perhaps legitimate escorts sent by city hall to ensure local prosperity.


Check time on phone: 12:30. Have to be back at the Van in Mae Sae by One Oclock, or I'll have to hitch my way home.

Walked down a side street, all the while my “City Hall” escort is telling me all the wonderful things I can find and do in Burma, who doesn't seem to understand when I tell him I'm only going to be here for another ten minutes, maximum.

Browse some more CDs at a little shop, Hmm mp3 cd with about 15 albums on it including Ricky Martin, Janet Jackson, Metalica … sort of mediocre, but sometimes I like to sort through that stuff listening on planes and whatnot...

Only 15Bt (about 45 cents)...

Time to go back

Retrace my steps past the $5/kilo tiger prawns (huge!), 50 cents/kilo nuts... stamp out of Burma … trailed by a little kid who looks like “boy” in the movie “River Queen”, I'm worrying about having my stuff together for Thai immigration, otherwise I'd give him a few cents...

Back to the Van, I'm about 4 minutes early, it arrives and we promptly leave … five minutes later would not have worked.

Never really listened to Janet Jackson before. “F for Adam bbbzzzzt!”

Not bad at all.

tags: adventure, burma, rambo, travel, visas

Which basicly describes the last twenty-five years of my life.

I live in "Emergency Mode" full time, going from adventure to adventure...

Except it isn't really adventure; it's "my life".

That phrase again.

Important to emphasise; similar to a car accident, the driver of the car that hits the pedestrian thinks

"boy, that didn't hurt at all"

whereas the poor victim is like

"the world is pain"

What else can you say? The victim's life is not the driver's life, the one's pain is not the other.

So if there is a car accident in a forest, and there is noone there to hear it, is there still pain?

The sophist says "No"



So I have been reluctant to unload the details of all my "adventures" here, because for me they aren't adventures, they are real life... often somewhat uncomfortable, sometimes painful having their roots in my upbringing as the .5 child in a 2.5 child household.

But yes, it could be told as such, it could be seen that way.

My summer was spent bouncing around the southwest, exploring and living... having "adventures"... which had to end when the weather turned cold.

Where to go

Spent a week South of the Border, in MayheeKho... little island in the Desert, "Puerto Penasco". NO economy whatsoever except what they can sponge off the gringos, real lodgings quite expensive in the winter, although it looks like you can park an RV cheap. Not so good really.

The other dodge I am familiar with is SE Asia, a place that is growing like crazy, full of developing world ills... sometimes bad air, wierd food ...etc. Yet even still, interesting because it is so different, "exotic". Cheap too, compared to the US and Mexico.

So I decided to take my chances and spend the winter here, in Chiang-Mai Thailand. It has been working out. The Apartment had some problems, the biggest of which was a fungus which was living in the pidgeon dung plastered to the air-cooler on the balcony of my 15th floor unit.

After two months of scrubbing EVERYTHING in the balcony every day, I would say I have the upper hand finally, AND the microwave is back in operation, after replacing a light-bulb and a fuse inside... AND I got rid of the plastic base of the "coffee maker", mounting it to the lid of a mayonaise jar...

What can I say, just adventure after adventure. Really too much to talk about.

Have my hammock set up on the balcony, great view of the Ping River... Put the couch out there tonight as well.

But soon it will be time to leave.

Only I don't want to go,

and that brings us the the dilemma of the present a question best asked in solitude and quiet, to hear the answer that comes from the whispering wind, the chirping birds,

The roar of the monsoon rains,,,

Definitely I will be OUT of here by then!

Flying beds

For a long time, I have had this reoccurring fantasy as I drift off to sleep; that my bed can fly. Usually there is a control device that can control the thrusters that lift each corner respectively, and program it to fly anywhere. Of course screaming above the city at Mach 1 would be a bit windy, so there needs to be some kind of force-field to keep the wind-chill to something comfortable... and also, make it invisible so that I wouldn't get a set of F-14 escorts.

Then I always think that this whole business of unlicensed flying IS somewhat risky even with the *smartest* control device; so perhaps it's just as well that the bed would never fit through the window and could never get out of the house?

Well this problem has been *solved*... the hotel I stayed at when I took this video has rooms with huge windows which open to leave a two-meter space large enough to fly any bed through. A Grand Central Station of bed flying!

So I moved the bed near the window, steadied the camera in my arms and let it roll, to which I've put Raccoon's song "Sparks":

Punchline?

mood: Twitty