Tuesday Post

Quickly now....


Like a typical Liberal, Trudeau will troll hell for votes:

Justin Trudeau is being accused of "intellectual dishonesty" for visiting a Montreal-area mosque the U.S. military reportedly considers an al-Qaida recruitment centre.

The Al Sunnah Al-Nabawiah mosque sits in Trudeau's Quebec riding.

In April, the New York Times published it among a list of others found in classified military documents as places where "al-Qaida members were recruited, facilitated or trained."

The Liberal leader acknowledged last weekend he'd attended the Al-Sunnah Al-Nabawiah mosque, which follows the strict Wahhabist interpretation of Islam, then cast doubt on the veracity of the American government's designation.

"I think I've probably been to every single different mosque in my riding," he said. "I know a number of people who have been listed by the U.S. government on a no-fly list and we in Canada have our own determinations for those sorts of things because the U.S. is known to make mistakes from time to time."

(Sidebar: and yet he doesn't mind stealing American political talking points.)



Again, a lack of action on the part of a waning superpower:

 So we find ourselves in a place where the sanctions we’ve imposed are woefully insufficient to slow or stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, or to force it to negotiate away its nukes. Our State Department still says it isn’t interested in talks with a North Korea that rejects the premise of nuclear disarmament, and North Korea insists that it isn’t disarming. Intelligence estimates vary on North Korea’s capacity to miniaturize and deliver a nuclear weapon, but time clearly isn’t on our side. We also know that North Korea will sell any weapon it possesses to any willing customer, including helping listed state sponsors of terrorism with their nuclear and chemical weapons programs.

In his inauguration speech, President Obama promised to reach out his hand to rogue states if they would unclench their fists. In the years since then, the President has given North Korea the closest thing there is to immunity from sanctions for its attacks on South Korea, its missile tests, its nuclear tests, its arrests of harmless tourists and tour guides, and its proliferation and weapons smuggling.

Like Hillary Clinton's milquetoast commentary on Ukraine, the Obama administration is urging Japan to take the lead in squaring off with North Korea. This is less about Japan assuming a chief role in its own defense and more about the US just crumbling.

(Kamsahamnida)


One of these things is not like the other:

Waves rearing as high as the second-floor windows of a building have been detected in the Beaufort Sea for the first time.

Arctic waves are normally kept in check by sea ice, which has traditionally covered large areas of the Arctic Ocean even in the summer. But warmer temperatures as a result of climate change are melting away more and more of that ice.

**

The Canadian Ice Service published on 1 August the ice forecast for the next month. Although in general terms conditions in Arctic Canada are described as normal for this time of year, a transit through the Northwest Passage may only become possible sometime later than in other years....

We had a foretaste of being encumbered by ice a few days ago when we attempted to reach Arctic Bay, an Inuit settlement about 100 miles south of here. Soon after we had entered Admiralty Inlet that leads to Arctic Bay, we were quickly surrounded by ice.

Discuss.

(Merci)


And now, the South Koreans are using a non-Wolverine exo-skeleton:

If Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering gets its way, employees will be carrying out their duties while decked out in strength-enhancing robotic exoskeletons, according to New Scientist.

As one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, the company is investigating ways to make its workflow more productive. But after researching the use of such robo-suits on the job and finding them to be helpful, the company is now working on improving its prototype model so that the suits might soon see regular use on the job.

The prototype robo-suits weigh a tad under 62 pounds and can accommodate anyone from 5-foot-3 to 6-feet tall. Users can walk at their normal gait and get assistance from the suit in lifting and moving objects that weigh up to 66 pounds during the suit's three-hour battery life. Engineers have ambitions of eventually getting total lifting capacity to 220 pounds.

To don the exoskeleton, workers start by strapping their feet on to foot pads at the base of the robot. Padded straps at the thigh, waist, and across the chest connect the user to the suit, allowing the robot to move with their bodies as it bears loads for them. A system of hydraulic joints and electric motors running up the outside of the legs links to a backpack, which powers and controls the rig.

The only negative feedback received so far is employee disappointment that the suit can't move faster and is unable to lift heavier loads.

(Sidebar: yet.)


(insert own Robot Tae Kwon V joke here)