Darkoshi

I do not understand what the first photo on this page shows:
AP monthly photo contest (September 2024); the photo with description "Israeli shelling hit an area in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)".

What are all the parallel glowing vertical streaks in the sky? Is it a single bomb that explodes in the sky, dropping burning pieces of something (what?) over such a large area? Or what?
Can someone point me to an explanation of this weapon?

I am reminded of horrific photos from the Ukraine war, of burning... I don't remember what it is called. Which causes fires everywhere it lands. But this seems to be something different.

Update, 4:04am:
It occurs to me now that perhaps the vertical trails of light aren't things falling from the sky, but rather flares being released from many places on the ground around the same time, as a countermeasure against the aircraft doing the shelling? Or to confuse guided missiles (but would guided missiles be considered "shelling" as mentioned in the description?)
When I search on "flares against aerial bombardment", all the articles are about flares being released from aircraft, not shot up in the air from the ground.

Update, 2025/01/08:
I am still not sure what the photo depicts.

I found another photo of the same scene on a Croatian website (the photo seems to be by photographer "Atef Safadi"):
https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/izrael-obecao-odgovor-na-iranski-napad-imamo-plan-bit-ce-posljedica-foto-20241001

This is a photo of a different daytime scene from that photographer, which based on two of the streaks seems to show they are going from the ground upwards, if I am interpreting it correctly:
https://www.instagram.com/atefsafadi/p/C30bq6ytg7L/

I haven't been keeping close track of the local face mask mandates. But I'm of the impression they've been suspended for the time being. When I went shopping today, I expected not to see anyone else wearing face masks. I planned to wear mine anyhow, and figured people would think I was odd. So, like usual, right?, I thought in reply. But I decided to wear my not-as-tight KN-95 instead of the most protective one.

There were actually a lot of people wearing face masks; not only store employees but other customers too. It seemed like more people were wearing face masks today than last year or the year before.

I bought a can of mushy peas to see what they are like, in spite of the ingredients including artificial color. That would have been a fitting thing to eat on St. Patrick's Day. And if I'd thought of it earlier in the month, I could have put my green fairy lights on the porch.

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Among the things I've read about Ukraine was a comment by a local, "The fasting has started", in reference to food supplies being tight. It's a grim thought, in addition to everything else.

An old post of mine got three linkspam comments today. The comments were posted by a Ukranian IP #, and include the URL of "Custom Software Development Company RexSoft".

Per Norton SafeWeb and Google, the site doesn't have unsafe content.

Per the Wayback Machine, the site has existed since at least 2017.

Per the web site itself, the company has locations in the USA, the UK, and Kyiv, Ukraine.

It seems the entity that left the comments was unclear how to make their URL get posted as an HREF link on my journal, as the 2nd and 3rd comments, posted several minutes after the first, had only the URL. So I'd guess it was a person posting the comments, not a bot.

It seems an odd time, during a war, for someone in Ukraine to post linkspam. That's why I checked if the site might have malicious content.

It also occurred to me that maybe Russia, not that Rexsoft company, could be behind the linkspam. As this page says, "not only are Google getting better at devaluing spammy links, the repercussions from Google can be devastating if caught."

Linkspam like that could hurt the company rather then help it; maybe Russia wants that. It seems an implausible action, but who knows. I will delete or screen the comments eventually.

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Random thought from yesterday, regarding how some of the Russian soldiers were told Ukrainians would welcome them, and were surprised by the resistance:
Maybe Russian (and other national) intelligence agencies have a hard time gauging the sentiment of people due to all of their own (and other) disinformation campaigns that they've been waging. Maybe they can't easily tell which and how many social media posts are by their own disinformation agents versus the actual population.

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Another random thought from yesterday:
Take your kid to work day must be very boring for kids whose parents work from home.

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Out of curiosity, I looked into that Rexsoft linkspam some more.

There have been several recent and similar linkspam posts and comments on other sites. These were all posted with a user name of "ann2022":
forums.tarot.com
kboards.com
vivecraft.org
ragezone
cracked.io

Four of those same pages also have linkspam for another site, develux.com. That is a company with locations listed in Kyiv, Ukraine; Malta; and Kissimmee, Florida.

Here's another page with posts from last year that link to both sites:
caclubindia

So it seems there may be a relationship between those 2 companies, or in the people posting the spam for them.

The Kissimmee, Florida address is referenced on other pages as "Devellux Inc".
The same address and Devellux name is used on this site: essayservice.com.
Amusingly, they have a page that discusses their "Honor Code". Given all the things that (as I would expect) go against their listed honor code, I wonder if there are any situations for which someone could honorably use an essay writing service for?

Rexsoftinc's NYC address (347 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1009) is referenced on other pages as N-IX USA INC, and Hoshovsky Law Firm ("Mr. Hoshovsky has practiced law in Ukraine...".

This xing.com page says that "Alexander Volt" is a vice president of rexsoft.
This Alexander Volt fellow is also listed as working at IntellectSoft. IntellectSoft is a company with locations listed as in the US, the UK, Norway, and (you guessed it) Kyiv, Ukraine.

What ISIS really wants - interesting article. I hadn't known that ISIS had declared a caliphate, or even the implications thereof.

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R2D2 and Darth Vader shower heads - Of all the things, shower heads? Personally I wouldn't want R2D2 or Darth Vader streaming water down on me, in the shower or anywhere else.

U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners

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Premonition:
Someday, there will be drones as small and quiet as mosquitos. The mosquito drone will be able to suck the victim's blood and compare it against a database of DNA samples to determine if it's found the correct target or not. When the correct target is found, the mosquito will inject the person with lethal poison or perhaps with biochemical matter designed to kill that specific person.

No matter which candidate or party wins the presidency, does pretty much the same military, CIA, and FBI leadership stay in power? Exerting influence on whichever president is in place? Acting as though they have unlimited, unchecked power to do anything they feel is necessary to "protect the government against its enemies"?

I didn't know that my university has a Pastafarian group. They probably weren't around in my time at the uni. But yay! for them.

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I may have found a solution to Zorro's jumping and biting. I was skeptical after seeing it demonstrated on a dog-training video, but it actually seems to work. Drop a few pennies into an empty soda can, and tape closed the opening. Then shake it at the dog, when the dog is doing something you don't want it to do. It makes a loud clattery noise, and Zorro jumps away from it, startled. And then she actually behaves well for a while!! So I haven't even been needing to shake it at her very much. Then can doesn't fit well in my pockets though, and it is inconvenient having to hold it in my hand all the time. So I've found 2 other smaller metal containers which do fit in my pocket, and I shall try them out tomorrow.

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Despite all my working extra long hours, I've been getting a fair amount of sleep lately. When I work late in the afternoon/evenings, it seems quite reasonable to me to start work late the next morning, to partially make up for it. So instead of feeling like I have to get up at 6:30am regardless of what time I make it to bed, I've been setting the alarm clock for 7 to 8 hours sleep, based on whatever time I go to bed. Working from home a lot, and not having to spend time driving to/from work helps too.

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I liked last week's episode of Boston Legal. The characters are such a curious mixture of conservatism and liberalism.

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WikiLeaks releases video of U.S. military incident wherein 2 reporters (among others) were killed and 2 children wounded. Watching the video is somewhat fascinating, relieving, and disturbing. It was relieving to me in that it didn't appear to be a blatant massacre - the soldiers did appear to believe the people they attacked and killed were armed and dangerous. I saw at least one person with a rifle, and after scrutinizing the video based on the comments on this page, I finally saw what the soldiers were referring to as the RPG (rocket-propelled grenade). It's disturbing to me in that even the soldiers shooting at people trying to rescue the one survivor of the initial attack didn't seem too incomprehensible to me... it merely reminds me of seeing videos and reports of Israeli troops firing on Palestinian ambulances, and of the U.S. military bombing Al Jazeera news offices. If it's acceptable for the military to knowingly target ambulances and members of the press, why should anything else seem surprising?

I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others. That's
why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I feel the less
harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart. And when I know I'm
causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it. It's a physical pain. So
it's self-interest that I don't want to cause harm. -Alice Walker, author
(b. 1944)

from AWAD

I saw a truck yesterday with a sign on the back... an American flag with some text, which (approximately) said "Support our troops. No aid or comfort to the enemy".

The Enemy? If the person who designed that sign really thinks there is a group of people who are so distinctly the enemy that they don't even need to specify who those people are, do they really believe anyone would need to be told not to give aid and comfort to those people? Who exactly do they think the enemy is? It boggles me, the world-view the person who created that sign must have had (as well as the people who put such signs on their vehicles).

And it makes me wonder, if I was desperately looking for a job, and was hired to drive a vehicle, but then found out that the vehicle had some such disturbing sign on it like that, what I would do...

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"Support our troops". That sign is on so many vehicles. In a way, that message by itself doesn't bother me as much. Because, yes, American troops are just people, like any other people, stuck doing difficult things which they might not even want to be doing, and they need support just like everyone else does. And maybe that's what the people (friends and family of troops, etc.) who display those signs mean to imply.

But the blind patriotism that slogan can also seem to imply does bother me. Our troops are just following orders. Do the people who use that slogan want us to support our troops, no matter what orders they are following? Do they not question those orders? Do they not question the people in charge, who are giving those orders? Do they not care what kind of a war those leaders start, or why? Do they really have such an us-versus-them mentality, in that everyone on "our side" is good, no matter what they do, just by virtue of being "on our side", and everyone on the "other side" is bad?

Reminds me a bit of the pep-rallies when I was in high-school. Why were we supposed to be cheering our team so much, and jeering the opposing team, just because they were our opponents in the game? Sure, those were just games, and supporting one side of a game was supposed to be part of the fun, and why not support the side your school's team was on. But I never could understand that mentality, that "we are better than you, just because we are us and not you".

went to see Return of the King finally.
watching the last one, i was rather annoyed by gender issues...
with the men all being expected to fight,
and the women all being expected to wait it out while the men fought.
as well as the minority of female characters.

but today, it didn't much bother me.
because...
i am not a man.
i am not a woman.
in this story, men fight, and women do whatever they do,
but that's their thing. maybe that's how they like doing things.
it has nothing to do with me, because i'm not one of them.

but Legolas is still so fucking cute... ahhhh.
Orlando didn't look nearly as good to me in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
It's odd how long blond hair can make such a difference on him.

and what's with scottish accents always being used for gruff characters like that dwarf?
why not ever use a scottish accent for a cute and gentle character?
or does the scottish accent itself lend gruffness to a character?

another issue i have which this movie highlighted for me,
a contradiction in my mind,
is the idea of fighting and war as being an honorable/glorious/exciting thing
versus it being a bad thing.
an exciting fight between good and evil versus boring pacifism.
so much of our culture, so many of our stories, are based on the idea of fights between good and evil.
people proving their strength, skill, and courageousness by fighting.
people living exciting lives by fighting.
risking your life is exciting.
it's just a game.
without any fights, without struggles, things would seem dull.
yet war is bad.
those thousands of non-main-characters who yelled their battle cries and charged and got killed by orcs don't seem very glorious, do they? or do they?
if one has a cause important enough to fight for, one should fight, right?

so many orcs fighting together, their cause must have seemed important to them too. even if it was just the chance for a glorious fight. does that make the cause any less valid?

fiction versus real life.
war is bad.
there is no glory.

just because you've been convinced you're fighting for a noble cause,
doesn't mean you really are.
is your conviction an illusion?
does it matter?
will your victory or your death be any less glorious
as long as you believe you're fighting for a noble cause?

something about such excitement, such intensity,
only being there
when you're truly in a life-and-death situation like that.
that intense joy/fun which is only possible playing such a game at such stakes

but real life doesn't work that way.
you'd just die.

things used to seem exciting
now they seem dull.
that pride/strength/effort thing...
(even that dom/sub thing)
that was there in tae kwon do classes.

ach gosh damn words.
this is too hard to verbalize.