Weekly Reading: the DC Metro Suck, Camo of the World, PERFORMANCE, Poverty in America, the Big One, God's Death? and Naval Innvoation

This Map Shows Every Country's Military Camouflage Pattern
Just a cool little map.

The Death of God Is Greatly Exaggerated
Good Wall Street Journal article on the important advocacy work being done by Eric Metaxas.  And great points on the important role the Christian faith has played and continues to play in our society and culture.

Application Period Opens for CNO Rapid Innovation Cell
I don't think it's a question of whether or not this will prompt new 'innovations'--it will.  But the bigger question is what will be the allowable limits of innovations.  And if there are articial limits, is it really innovation?

The Infuriating History of How Metro Got So Bad
Yikes.  Looks like things have gotten worse...much much worse since we left DC a few years ago.

In the age of Amazon, used bookstores are making an unlikely comeback
Love to see the resurgence of used bookstores.  Bookstores are still amongst my favorite weekend activities (i.e., when I am not in Africa).

The Really Big One: The Earthquake That Will Destroy the Pacific Northwest
Easily one of the most terrifying articles that I've read...maybe ever.  The short of it: the entire Pacific NW is due for a cataclysmic natural disaster like none ever before experienced in the United States.

The Life and Times of Strider Wolf
Ugh.  Such a sad and depressing story about poverty in the United States.  But also an important story lest we forget the scope and depth of poverty in the U.S.

While DoD-centric, below is a great cheat-sheet for anyone looking to elevate their own performance...or more holistically evaluate a subordinate or peer.

FUUO's Pentagon Protesters of the Week Compendium

NOTE:  For those who don't know,  every Monday morning the Pentagon allows only the biggest idiots best and brightest dissenters to post up on the grassy area by the Metro entrance escalators and display their signs. 


I have three POTW entries to add however as my lovely wife and I (and our two pups) are about to begin our cross-country drive out to Monterey this week I am not sure I will have time.  And in the interest of "closing the loop" on my time in the Pentagon I wanted to include  a link to the wackjobs protesters who gave me a chuckle each Monday morning.


NOTE:  For those who don't know,  every Monday morning the Pentagon allows only the biggest idiots best and brightest dissenters to post up on the grassy area by the Metro entrance escalators and display their signs.  The tales of these cantankerous kvetches are below:

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/07/protesters-and-sorcerers.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-protester-of-week-singer-actress.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/05/pentagon-protesters-of-week-day-after.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-protester-of-week.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/03/protester-of-weak.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2011/01/protester-of-week-update.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/11/protesters-i-implore-you-step-up-your.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/10/protester-of-week-in-absentia.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/09/protester-of-week-practice-non-violence.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/09/protester-of-week-fyi-drones-are-always.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/09/protester-of-week-christians-dump-jews.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/09/protester-of-week-thank-you-pfc-bradley.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/protester-of-week-disarm-now.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/protester-of-week-best-part-of-waking.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/best-part-of-waking-up-smell-of-napalm.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/best-part-of-waking-uploving-your.html

FUUO's Pentagonisms:

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/11/pgon-ism-of-week-circle-wagons.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/12/pentagon-ism-of-week-bandwidth.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/10/pgon-ism-of-week-missionary-work.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/09/pgonism-of-week-bluf.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/08/pgon-ism-of-week-across-river.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/07/pentagon-ism-of-week-reaching-out.html

http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2010/07/pentagon-ism-of-week.html

http://famousdc.com/2010/09/03/for-unofficial-use-only/

For the Metro Ride Home: More Southern Sudans, Cellphone Civil Wars and Stetsons in Africa

Now here would be a great app: one that allows me to download a series of articles to my phone (or IPAD..one day) to read on my metro ride home (the majority of that ride I don't have an internet connection). 

Here are the articles I would read today (and yes, they are biased towards The Atlantic Monthly...sue me; it's just about my favorite magazine, aside from Cooks Illustrated--and don't snicker until you've read CI--if you are a clueless guy whose always wondered why his scrambled eggs or boneless skinless chicken breasts are inedible, CI will be an epiphany!).

This article is certainly a controversial one but definitely contains some ideas that merit debate and discussion.  The author also has a book on the FUUO Book List.  After South Sudan: The Case to Keep Dividing Africa  by G. Pascal Zachary. 

 

This article is sure to make you feel a twinge of guilt...especially if you are reading it on your smartphone.  I also learned that the mineral 'tungsten' is what makes my cell phone vibrate...who knew!  Is Your Cell Phone Fueling Civil War in Congo? by Erin Banco.  And there's no need to put your cellphone down just yet--the criminals/murderers/thugs/rapists are still going to be the evil scumbags they are with or without a mineral demand signal.

An interesting historical (if biased) look at the US' role throughout the years leading up to July 9th.  Worth the read if for nothing more than the accompanying photo of President Salva Kiir rocking a Stetson with President Bush.  US Played Key Role in Southern Sudan's Long Journey to Independence by Rebecca Hamilton.

Texas In Africa is an informative and solid blog I read every day (and follow on twitter).  I came across the following two articles from his post today:

When I first read Kristof's article I thought it was an okay read.  After I read Bohnstedt's blistering rebuttal to it, I was reminded that I am a neophyte idiot still have much to learn and need to read these fluff pieces with a much more discerning eye.
An African Adventure, and a Revelation by Nicholas Kristof.

Africa's Bright Side Is Always Ignored by Andrea Bohnstedt

If you are interested in Maritime Safety and Security then Information Dissemination should be on your daily read list (it's on mine).  And I am not just saying that because he gave FUUO a shoutout in his post below: http://www.informationdissemination.net/2011/07/river-wars.html

Links:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/after-south-sudan-the-case-to-keep-dividing-africa/241705/

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/is-your-cell-phone-fueling-civil-war-in-congo/241663/

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/us-played-key-role-in-southern-sudans-long-journey-to-independence/241660/

http://texasinafrica.blogspot.com/2011/07/while-we-were-out.html

http://the-star.co.ke/business/andrea-bohnstedt/31062-africas-bright-side-is-always-ignored-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/opinion/sunday/03kristof.html?pagewanted=4&_r=2

http://www.informationdissemination.net/2011/07/river-wars.html

'To kindle or not to kindle' or Things Fall Apart and sometimes that's just what we need

A few weeks ago I was reading the renowned Things Fall Apart on my metro trip home.  As I stepped off at L’Enfant Plaza to wait for the Green Line to U Street, a young African-American youth tapped my shoulder and asked how I liked the book.  He added that it was one of his favorite books, that he loved ‘the language of it.’
I always appreciate anyone with my shared love of language (and of literature in general) and as the youth trotted off, my thoughts meandered over to the eternal question:

Whether to sell out or not to sell out to kindle or not to kindle… 

To kindle or not to kindle; that is the question
Whether tis nobler with a heavy book to suffer
The weathered and ripped pages of outrageous fortune
Or to go digital against a sea of wasted trees

All superfluous melodramatics aside, books have always been a very personal thing for me.  Before I could read my parents spent hours on the sofa reading to me.  I still remember the trilling, speeding, beating of my heart when the concept of reading first ‘clicked’ for me.  It was one of those Dick and Jane books and suddenly I was READ-ING!  Dick was run-ning and I knew it because I READ IT MY-SELF!  I remember flip-ripping through those pages, run-ning to my mom to show her that I could READ! (I later went through a VERY short-lived phase where I would read EVERY billboard that we drove by, much to my parent’s chagrin)

Growing up I didn’t get to play video games and my brothers and I would get so foot-stomping-pee-our-pants-excited for Saturday trips to the Base library where we’d get to check out as many books as they would let us—I had a fondness for ones having to do with bears and dogs and the boys that befriended them, and oddly enough I can still recall a book about a muffin-baking dragon.



I tell you all this because here’s THE THING:

No one stops you on the metro, or on the bus or on the street to talk to you about how much they like the book that you are reading on your kindle.  Namely because the logistics for this to happen are just too difficult; someone would have to get all Michelle-Pfeiffer-UP-CLOSE-AND-PERSONAL on you to see what you were reading.  And nobody wants or needs that on the metro.  People like to keep their ‘bubble’ inflated while on the metro.

But books, books are a magical thing.  They are at once a most solitary, contemplative pursuit and at the same time a most common bonding, cohesive element.  They are both a just-me-myself-and-I-rainy-day companion and the excuse for book club wives everywhere to slam a case of Franzia on a Thursday night.

And they are courage-givers and door-openers.


 I can boldly and comfortably speak to someone with whom I have nothing in common with—except for the book in their hands.  And in the buttoned-up-eyes-diverted-locked-up-in-my-personal-metro-space-and-throw-away-the-key existence in which most of us live every day

(except of course for the ubiquitous “OMG-Beth-this-guy-was-so-rude-to-me-on-the-escalator-today–when-alls-I-was-doing-was-minding-my-own-bizwax-standing-on-the-left-side-Julie-from-Ohio”…who never learned about ‘inside voices’ or little miss “hey-hey-I-don't-like-your-girlfriend-this-song-was-so-cool-5-years-ago-that-I-think-everyone-in-the-metro-car-should-also-listen-to-it-through-my-headphones-girl-power!”)

the common ground of a physical book is just the fresh air we need in our lives (either that or better a/c in the metro).