More than two dozen military blogs were added to the Milblogging index in the month of February --- many of them spouse blogs, several veterans, and more. Pay them a visit and tell ‘em Milblogging.com sent you.
FraNk The NCO, Bob Helms, United States, Mildly Disgrunted, Mostly Content, Military NCO
Bloggin' Scogin, Becca, United States, My foray into the life of a military wife and the ...
Cautious Crow, Amber Crow, United States, Carefully navigating through life as a veteran, mi...
Semper Familia Life, Suzy Leanos, United States, Living the Marine Corps family life through Latina...
Marrying The Army, MilliGFunk, United States, A strategic marketing and brand professional who's...
The Professional Army Wife, Rachel Tringali, United States, I'm an army (military) spouse working as a PR prof...
The Kidwell's | Our Life as Airmen, Breeanna, United States, Recents: Graduate from University of South Flor...
Red, White, & Marine Wife, Kym, United States, I'm Kym...a Marine Wife, Daughter, and Sister. I'm ...
More Than a Military Spouse, Jessica, United States, My name is Jessica and I am a military spouse. Her...
Military Wife Life, Carrie, United States, Send me (Carrie, owner of MWL) or another veteran ...
Warmemoir, J.E. McCollough, United States, A counterintelligence Marine's recollection of the...
Our Wounded Family, Pauliesgirl77, United States, I've been the wife of a medically retired Army vet...
Yellow Ribbon Diary, Alia, United States, Wife, Mommy, Lover of God. Writing about the thing...
Glimpses of the Military Life, Allison, United States, Thanks for stopping by! My name is Allison. I am a...
Soldier Girl's Thoughts, Not specified, United States, she's simply JUST a: veteran, mom, spouse and mult...
The Air Force Wife, Rachel, United States, My name is Rachel. I am 19 years old and currently...
My Crazy Life as a Navy Wife, Lashon, United States, TIME SURE DOES FLY WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE MAN YOU LOV...
Army Wives Club, Jennifer Ray-Stewart, United States, Army Wives Club brings you resources and informati...
My Life as a Navy Wife, Katie H, United States, Hi ya'll, thanks for stopping by and welcome to my...
Eight Days a Week, Abbie, United States, Hello, my name is Abbie, I'm 22 years old and rece...
Chairman's Corner, Not specified, United States, A category dedicated strictly to the Chairman of t...
Successful Military Wife, Kaye Putnam, United States, A site to empower & educate military spouses to cr...
Fallen Heroes Afghanistan, Not specified, Not Specified, This website is a tribute to all foreign military ...
Soldiers Magazine, Not specified, United States, Soldiers Magazine is produced by the Defense Media...
The Long War Journal, Multiple editors and contributors, United States, The Long War Journal is dedicated to providing ori...
Chronicles of a Navy Wife in Perpetual Motion, Sar Mon, United States, I am a well seasoned military spouse. I started th...
On The Fly, Jessica, United States, I'm a twenty-something Pennsylvania girl who curre...
Feeling bloggy., B, United States, i'm b. my huz is henry. he is so cool.
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(Boing Boing)
China says US regularly hacks its military sites. Two Chinese military Web sites received about 144,000 hacking attacks on average a month last year, of which about two-third had originated from the United States. In a statement published Thursday on China's Ministry of Defense Web site, spokesperson Geng Yansheng said the ministry's site as well as the Web site of China Military Online--which is operated the Chinese army--faced "serious threat from hacking attacks" since their establishment. The number of hacks targeting the two sites also had risen steadily in recent years, he said...
(ZDNet)
New Slaying Highlights Perils Of Journalism In Pakistan's Tribal Areas. The Taliban has dissociated itself; the Pakistan Army has extended its condolences; and government functionaries, politicians, and civil-society representatives have offered condolences as "unidentified" armed men took the life of another journalist in Pakistan's perilous tribal areas on February 27...
(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
Press Availability on Syria. SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon again. I just have a very brief statement, then I’m happy to take a few questions. I just got to look outdoors and actually see that it is a beautiful day here in Rome, and I want to again thank our host, the Foreign Minister, and thank Italy for bringing us here today. We’re enormously appreciative and I’m very grateful to them for that, and also to all of the partner nations who came here today. I have to tell you that around that table was a very important, competent, and powerful group of countries ranging through Europe down into the Gulf as well as Turkey and Egypt, and everybody was unanimous in their conclusions...
(U.S. Department of State)
Bradley Manning pleads guilty to being Wikileaks source, denies 'aiding the enemy'. US Army Private First Class Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty on 10 counts involving disclosing information to an unauthorized person, but has pleaded not guilty to 12 charges, including "aiding the enemy." On Thursday afternoon, military judge Colonel Denise Lind accepted Manning's guilty pleas, while prosecutors said they plan to pursue the 12 contested charges at trial. The guilty pleas cover less serious offenses of misusing classified information and carry a combined maximum sentence of 20 years. If convicted of aiding the enemy, Manning could be imprisoned for life...
(The Verge)
Bradley Manning court papers released after Pentagon bows to pressure. The Pentagon has acceded to pressure from news organisations and human rights groups protesting secrecy surrounding the prosecution of the WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, releasing 84 previously unpublished rulings and orders into the public domain. The Pentagon's decision to post on the internet scores of rulings made by the presiding judge, Colonel Denise Lind, and other judges involved in the court martial process, provides the first crack in the army's approach to public information in the trial...
(Guardian)
Book tells story of Alameda's woman family in World War II. On a July day in 1938, a young couple stepped off the dock at Pier 88 in New York City and boarded the SS Normandie, setting off for what they thought would be a six-week vacation in their native France. Instead, Alice and Emile Pothron were delayed more than a year and later separated as the Nazis swept across Europe. They then endured nearly two more years of hardship until they met again in Portugal and could return to the United States...
(Contra Costa Times)
Google, Facebook And Twitter Ordered To Delete Photos By UK Law Enforcement. It seems that, once again, the UK is going censorship crazy and not realizing how that only attacts more attention to that which they're trying to censor. This time, it involves some photos that were posted online of one Jon Venables, who at the age of 10, murdered 2-year old James Bulger, in a rather horrifying story. Venables was released from jail in 2001, at the age of 19 (though he has since gone back to prison). Photos of Venables, now 30 years old and apparently using a new identity to avoid his past, appeared online...
(Techdirt)
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The Atlantic Wire reports, "Around noon Eastern time, the photographs-only account of news service Agence France-Presse began tweeting images from the conflict in Syria. Except they were not only far below the quality levels of professional photographers, they were graphic images from the war, which the captions depicted as the handiwork of thuggish rebel armies, backed by Western conspirators."
The account @AFPPhoto was suspended by Twitter the same day, but as of yesterday the account is back online and AFP is in control.
AFP tweeted on Wednesday, "Finally! RT @AFP: Here we go, our @AFPphoto account is back up and running with great shot of Pope's farewell today."
The hacker posted graphic images and tweets, which have since been deleted.
The Atlantic Wire managed to capture screenshots of the messages.
Messages ranged from, "#Obama over turns ban against child sodliers while Syria|n rebels continue with the illegal practice" to "#Syria #Obama backed rebels use child to behead prisoners".
There are plenty more.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire (WARNING: GRAPHIC).
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It was over two months ago when I last wrote about the United States Marine Corps on Facebook.
At the time, their Facebook page had just passed 2,840,000 likes.
Well, here's another milestone in the military social media community...
On Monday February 25, the United States Marine Corps passed 2.9 million likes on Facebook.
According to PageData, in the last 7 days the page added nearly 7,000 likes and already has over 1,000 new likes today.
Where does the United States Marine Corps appear on the leaderboards?
As of today, they are ranked 1480th by Total Likes (Overall).
They’re ranked 1st in Total Likes among Government Organization pages.
They’re the 9th Most Talked about page among Government Organization pages.
The page is managed by Marine Corps Recruiting Command and can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/marinecorps
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Via Army Live:
There will be three 30-minute sessions so that Army subject matters experts can provide the most up-to-date information to Twitter users participating in the chat:
The first session from 11 – 11:30 a.m. will answer general questions about Civilian furloughs
The second session from 11:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. will focus on how the furloughs may affect Army Family services and programs
The third session from 12 – 12:30 p.m. will focus on questions about the sequestration’s impact to Soldiers and training
To join in on the conversation, go to https://twitter.com/search and search for the hashtag #ArmyChat.
More details on the Twitter chat here.
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Not a big fan I’d say…
However, JM Berger, a terrorism expert who writes for IntelWire, and who is often cited as an authority on the topic in the media, offers up some arguments for allowing the likes of the terrorist group Al-shabaab to remain on Twitter and other social media sites.
According to Berger, within the terrorism studies community, there are two common objections to “disruptive approaches”.
Berger writes:
“The first objection is that knocking terrorists offline "doesn't work", because when you eliminate one account, the terrorists just open up a new account under a different name - which is exactly what al-Shabab did after a little more than a week. And then, the theory goes, you're back to square one. It's a high-tech game of whack-a-mole.
The second objection is that forcing terrorists off the internet destroys a valuable source of intelligence, because government, academic and private sector researchers rely on these online operations for information about what distant groups are doing and who supports them.”
It’s certainly an interesting piece and worth the read. Berger also provides a lot of detail and analysis.
To read the full story, go here.
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(CNN)
DOD announces “fix” to gay Web site ban that doesn’t fix anything. The Pentagon yesterday issued a memo apparently intended to at least partly “fix” the problem whereby a number of Defense Department computers were banning access to gay and trans Web sites, in addition to other liberal political content, while not banning similar conservative and anti-gay Web sites. The problem is that the new Pentagon memo doesn’t really fix a thing.
(AMERICAblog)
Jonathan Davis of Korn Talks "Wounded Warriors" Short Film. Jonathan Davis of Korn, aka "J Devil", gives more than any other musicians—on stage and in the studio. That's why everything he does continues to resonate with fans two decades into his career. That also brings us to the new short film in which he stars, Wounded Warriors directed by Sébastien Paquet. The film won the "Audience Choice Award" at the 2012 GI Film Festival Hollywood, and it's a passionate, poignant, and powerful look at Davis's trip to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
(ARTiSTdirect)
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ investigation closed — mission accomplished? On Monday, just hours after “Zero Dark Thirty” missed winning best picture and a clutch of other awards at the Oscars, the Senate Intelligence Committee closed its investigation into contacts between the filmmakers and the CIA, Reuters reported.
(Washington Post)
Reporter writes book chronicling Missouri's Civil War history. "It's history -- with a twist," is what Rudi Keller, author and former Southeast Missourian reporter, said about his new book "Life During Wartime." In the soon-to-be-released book, readers relive the past with day-by-day chronicles of the Civil War in Missouri. The idea, said Keller, is to make the war "contemporary."
(Southeast Missourian)
Pentagon Will Open Networks to Apple, Google Devices in 2014. The U.S. Defense Department said today it will begin opening its communications networks by next February to mobile phones and tablet computers from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) The move may pose a threat to BlackBerry (BBRY)’s dominance at the Pentagon, which has more than 450,000 of the company’s devices.
(Bloomberg)
In Cannibal Case, Officer’s Wife Testifies About a Chilling Discovery. One day last September, the wife of a New York City police officer opened her laptop computer and discovered that her husband had used it to visit a fetish Web site on the Internet. She said she went to the site and saw a photograph of a dead girl. And that, she testified on Monday, was only the beginning.
(The New York Times)
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Via Red Bull Rising:
Entries will be judged on factors such as: originality, creativity, humor, and adherence to the specified haiku format.
"We chose the haiku not for any particular connection to Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Honduras, or any other country in which the United States has deployed the 'Forward Operating Base' ('FOB') concept," says mil-blogger Charlie Sherpa, "but for the simplicity and accessibility of the form."
"That," he says, "and it lends itself equally to both sarcasm and sincerity. I anticipate plenty of both."
Deadline is March 18, 2013. Only one submission per entrant. Entrants may, however, submit up to three haiku in a single entry. For entry methods, see below.
For the purposes of the contest, a haiku poem will:
Consist of three lines; each respectively comprising 5, 7, and 5 syllables each, for a total of 17.
Refer either to a character or characters, setting, music, and/or narrative of the TV show "China Beach," or to a similar real-life military setting, such as a Forward Operating Base ("FOB"), main operating base, Combat Outpost ("COP") or patrol base.
Ideally incorporate a reference to one of the four seasons, or to nature.
Note that the syllables of acronyms and initialisms are counted as they would be pronounced aloud. For example: "TV" is two syllables; "REMF" is one syllable.
Three prizes will be awarded:
First-prize: A boxed DVD of the entire "China Beach" television series, never-before-released on DVD or VHS. Includes 62 episodes on 21 DVD, and features 268 classic hit songs as originally broadcast—and more than 10 hours of bonus features, including a cast reunion with Dana Delany, Marg Helgenberger, Michael Boatman, and Robert Picardo and more. For previous Red Bull Rising coverage of "China Beach," click here.
To learn about the prizes and the different ways to enter, visit Red Bull Rising.
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The controversy over the nicknamed “Drone Warfare Medal” is still getting a lot of attention – although the Defense Department is standing behind its decision to not lower its precedence, allowing the new medal to rank higher than some awarded for valor in combat.
Helping to keep the discussion going among news sites and blogs is a Photoshopped image (pictured above) of the Distinguished Warfare Medal that was posted to The Duffel Blog Facebook page over a week ago.
It's been circulated all over the place.
While the image might make you laugh, there is some truth behind the image, as there is some truth behind many of the Duffel Blog’s stories.
And the image is still viral…
In a piece that appeared in The New York Times on Friday, the image was used again with a reference to the military satire blog.
Heather Murphy writes:
“It is only fitting that the announcement of a medal created for the digital age spawned its own Internet memes. As soon as Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced the creation of the new Distinguished Warfare medal — immediately dubbed the Drone Medal — images such as the one below began appearing on blog after blog; in tweet after retweet.”
Despite the Defense Department sticking to its guns, the controversy isn’t over yet.
As Murphy points out in her article, an online petition demanding that the status of the medal be revised is online and has over 13,000 signatures.
The petition reads:
The Pentagon is introducing a new medal to recognized the service of pilots of unmanned drones during combat operations. This medal will be placed in precedence order just below the Distinguished Flying Cross and just above a Bronze Star Medal. Bronze Stars are commonly awarded with a Valor device in recognition of a soldier's service in the heat of combat while on the ground in the theater of operation. Under no circumstance should a medal that is designed to honor a pilot, that is controlling a drone via remote control, thousands of miles away from the theater of operation, rank above a medal that involves a soldier being in the line of fire on the ground. This is an injustice to those who have served and risked their lives and this should not be allowed to move forward as planned.
In order to get attention by The White House, more than 80,000 signatures are needed by March 16 of this year.
You can read the full NYT story here.
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(FrontPageMage)
Dumbest Man on Internet’s New Paranoid Fantasy: VA Prohibits Veterans From Owning Guns! Insane paranoid fantasies gush out of the right wing like water from a firehose, and today Jim Hoft, the legendary dumbest man on the Internet, has received another link from Drudge Report for spreading a fear-mongering lie about the Veteran’s Administration...
(Little Green Footballs)
Marie Colvin Death Anniversary, And Syria One Year On. When Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin and photojournalist Remi Ochlik were killed in Homs, Syria, the bloody conflict had regularly been the front page of every newspaper, day after day, for many of the previous months. Evidence from eye witnesses, including Sunday Times photographer Paul Conroy who was working with Marie, said that they had been deliberately targeted. Journalists are no longer protected by a vest that says "Press"...
(Huffington Post)
Walking Wounded: Photographer Giles Duley returns to Afghanistan's frontline. When I met Giles Duley at a London hospital in October 2011 where he was recovering from the latest in a series of operations. Nine months earlier he had trodden on a landmine while embedded with American troops in Afghanistan and become the first, and so far only, British civilian triple-amputee to survive his injuries from the conflict...
(The Independent)
'Vet Ink' shares tales of battle, loss and life-long pride. The five men are not her brothers. But that’s what she calls them. The five initials are not for her children. But many who spot her non-sleeved left arm ask if the tight stack of black letters represents her kids. The question bothers her...
(NBC News)
At Arlington National Cemetery, "The Old Guard" Embraces New Technology. In a unique application of mobile technology, Arlington National Cemetery issued 60 Apple iPhones to more than 70 soldiers who spent three months photographing and mapping the cemetery’s entire 624 acres. Arlington made news in October 2012 when it launched the ANC Explorer app, which allows visitors to find the graves of loved ones using Apple iOS or Google Android smartphones, as well as the cemetery’s website or kiosks located at Arlington. Hard work over the preceding 18 months made the app possible...
(FedTech Magazine)
Afghan Coming-of-Age Film Is Oscar Contender. The Oscars will be presented Sunday night in Hollywood. One of the nominees for Live-action Short Film is Buzkashi Boys, a coming of age story set in Afghanistan. VOA's Mike O'Sullivan reports it shows a side of life in Afghanistan seldom seen outside the country...
(YouTube)
Drone Pilots Are Found to Get Stress Disorders Much as Those in Combat Do. In the first study of its kind, researchers with the Defense Department have found that pilots of drone aircraft experience mental health problems like depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress at the same rate as pilots of manned aircraft who are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan...
(The New York Times)
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The United States Air Force is close to reaching 1.2 million likes on Facebook.
As I’m writing this, the U.S. Air Force's official Facebook page is at 1,199,477 million likes.
In the last 7 days, the page added more than 3,500 likes and today it tacked on 400+.
By my calculations, the Facebook page should top 1.2 million likes within a matter of hours.
With over 1 million likes, the Air Force still isn’t the top U.S. military Facebook page.
That honor currently belongs to the Marine Corps page, which is managed by Marine Corps Recruiting Command, at nearly 3 million likes.
The #2 spot is the United States Marine Corps’ official Facebook page, which is managed by active-duty Marines, at over 2.6 million Likes.
# 3 goes to the U.S. Army with 1.7 million likes.
Next, is the National Guard in the #4 spot with 1.3 million likes.
Then, the Air Force is in the # 5 spot, with the U.S. Navy a distant # 6 with just over 800,000 likes.
If you want to help the Air Force reach 1.2 million, you can find them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/USairforce
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(The Columbus Dispatch)
One Month in Damascus: A Photographer's War Story. Rebel fighters in Damascus are disciplined, skilled and brave. In a month on the frontline, I saw them defend a swath of suburbs in the Syrian capital, mount complex mass attacks, manage logistics, treat their wounded -- and die before my eyes. But as constant, punishingly accurate, mortar, tank and sniper fire attested, President Bashar al-Assad's soldiers on the other side, often just a room or a grenade toss away, are also well drilled, courageous -- and much better armed.
(PBS News Hour)
Syria - Fighter Jet Downed (As It Happened). Multi cam footage of a Syrian war plane shot down by the FSA today 20/Feb/2013.
(YouTube)
When Terrorists Take to Social Media. At the end of January, Twitter suspended the account of the Somali-based Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab. The account was taken offline after the group posted a video on Twitter threatening to kill two Kenyan hostages unless the Kenyan government met its demands. Twitter didn't comment on the account deletion, but social-media experts reasoned that Al-Shabaab had violated Twitter's terms of service, which prohibit direct threats of violence.
(The Atlantic)
Post-Dispatch reporter, photographer on radio today talking Afghanistan. For the past month, Post-Dispatch reporter Jesse Bogan and photographer J.B. Forbes have been filing stories, photos and videos from their stint with the Missouri National Guard, 1138th Engineer Company in Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan. The company is made up of are combat engineers. Their mission is to clear IEDs from the roads.
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Wife defends accused urination video cameraman. The wife of a Marine charged with filming himself and his teammates urinating on Taliban corpses in Afghanistan claims her husband is a war hero who was about to receive the nation’s third-highest combat valor award when the scandal became public.
(NavyTimes)
Police use Facebook to inform mother of her son's death. What do you do if someone who isn't a friend sends you a Facebook message? Some people might not even know they've received one. It might well appear in their "Other" folder and who looks there? In the case of Anna Lamb-Creasey, it took her weeks to realize someone had tried to contact her. It turned out that the message -- with the profile picture of Atlanta rapper T.I.-- came from a lieutenant in the police force.
(CNET)
NKorea to allow mobile Internet for foreigners. North Korea will soon allow foreigners to tweet, Skype and surf the Internet from their cellphones, iPads and other mobile devices in its second relaxation of controls on communications in recent weeks. However, North Korean citizens will not have access to the mobile Internet service to be offered by provider Koryolink within the next week.
(Yahoo! News)
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Image credit: reddit.com/r/military
It looks like the theme this week on the military subreddit is “Badass”.
While there are plenty of “badass” photos to view and stories to read in the subreddit, the top story right now depicts a World War II-era photo of a medic rescuing another soldier (shown above). The wounded soldier fires his weapon as he’s being carried to safety by the medic.
The photograph looks authentic.
“Bad ass and tear jerking at the same time” reads the title of the user that submitted it.
Agreed...
Well, guess what? The image is actually a photograph of a miniature war scene. “While I have no doubt scenes like this may have happened in real life.. These are unfortunately miniature toys,” writes Reddit user meissner61.
Truthfully, when I quickly glanced at the thumbnail photo in black-and-white, it looked like a genuine WWII image to me.
The photo is actually one of many that you can see in "Marwencol”, a documentary about the fantasy world of Mark Hogancamp. Hogancamp built a 1/6th scale World War II-era town in his backyard he calls “Marwencol” and populates the town with miniatures and creates life-like photographs detailing the town's dramas.
Below is the original PEW PEW PEW! photo posted on Marwencol.com back in May 2011 in a post called Rescuing Major.
You can learn more about Marwencol here.
According to the website, "Marwencol" was released theatrically by the Cinema Guild and aired on PBS. It has won over 25 awards.
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Image credit: duffelblog.com
The Duffel Blog has done it again.
This time, the satirical military blog has tricked Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In October 2012, The Duffel Blog published “Guantanamo Prisoners To Receive GI Bill Benefits” which said the Department of Defense had begun allowing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to seek Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits.
Though the story was intended to be a joke, some took the bait.
According to Stars and Stripes:
The Duffel Blog alarmed one Kentucky resident so much that he or she was prompted to write to Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office forwarded the note to the Defense Department, asking officials to review and respond to the constituent’s concerns, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Stars and Stripes.
The Duffel Blog, which now has over 40,000 fans on Facebook, has made headlines several times over the past year for other pieces of satire that fooled readers, like the story of the DoD banning Tapout clothing for all military personnel.
In November 2012, as reported by the Examiner, thousands of Mitt Romney supporters demanded a recount after reading that military absentee ballots were delivered one day late. The story was first posted on The Duffel Blog.
Read more about The Duffel Blog’s latest adventure over at Stripes.
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(Twitchy)
How Social Networks Are Dealing With Terrorists. At the end of January, Twitter suspended the account of the Somali-based Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Al-Shabaab. The account was taken offline after the group posted a video on Twitter threatening to kill two Kenyan hostages unless the Kenyan government met its demands.
(RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty)
High School Students Help Document World War II Veterans' Stories. West Springfield High School students in Fairfax County are racing against the clock to preserve history by interviewing surviving World War II veterans. WWII veterans are passing away at an alarming rate. "The rush is we are losing, according to the Veterans' Administration, 600 to a thousand World War II veterans a day," Friends of the National World War II Memorial Director of Education Jim Percoco said.
(NBC4 Washington)
Military Poets Let Slip the Doggerel of War. In a recent guest-post on Tom Ricks' "The Best Defense" blog, military writer and U.S. Army officer Jason Dempsey laments that, unlike his poet-heroes of the Lost Generation of World War I, writers and artists no longer serve to help us make sense of the senselessness of war. The essay is headlined "Where are the poems that could help us grasp the meaning of our post-9/11 wars?"
(Red Bull Rising)
Somalia: $50,000 for Info on Journalists' Killers. The Somali government is offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to the convictions of those killing journalists, the country's prime minister said. Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said over the weekend that the reward will help ensure that such killers are brought to justice.
(ABC News)
Military invests in smart-phone reconnaissance. Imagine a smart phone that can record your facial features, identify a criminal suspect with voice recognition, and reduce fraud in welfare and other programs. In a few years, Smart Mobile Identity technology (SMI) may become an essential part of our daily lives, transforming everything from phone reception and online banking to identity verification of criminal suspects and enemies in combat.
(Christian Science Monitor)
Hackers hit Facebook and Apple; Chinese military suspected. Remember last week, during his State of the Union address, when President Barack Obama said he'd pass an executive order on cyber-security because "foreign countries and companies swipe our corporate secrets"? Sure you do, but you forgot all about it after that one guy ruined his speech by taking the hilarious, awkward gulp of water.
(allvoices)
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Image source: Instagram.com/ostrovskimor
This is a disturbing image that was posted to the Instagram account of 20-year old Israeli soldier Mor Ostrovski, who belongs to a sniper unit.
The photo, which shows a Palestinian boy's head in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, has sparked outrage, as you can imagine.
The Electronic Intifada first exposed photo in a story published on Friday, writing: “The image is simply tasteless and dehumanizing.” Shortly after posting the story, the photo went viral.
The IDF responded saying, “this is a severe incident which doesn’t accord with the IDF’s spirit and values. The issue was brought to the attention of the soldier’s commanding officers, will be examined and properly handled.”
According to the Guardian, Ostrovski told the Army he did not take the picture but found it on the internet.
Ostrovski’s Instagram account (http://instagram.com/ostrovskimor/) is no longer online.
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The United States Marine Corps’ official Facebook page, which is managed by active-duty Marines, has reached a milestone with over 2,600,000 Likes.
The Marines crossed the 2.6 million mark yesterday and currently sit at 2,600,418 likes at the time of this story being published online. They are ranked number 2 among all the military Facebook pages according to PageData, a website that provides information on Facebook page metrics and trends.
The number 1 ranking currently belongs to the Marine Corps page managed by Marine Corps Recruiting Command. The page is only 100,000 likes away from the 3 million mark.
The next closest U.S. military Facebook page in terms of Likes is the U.S. Army with 1.7 million likes.
The page with the “Most Total Likes” in any category belongs to “Facebook for Every Phone” which has over 200 million likes.
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(YouTube)
Back to hell: Photographer returns to Afghanistan after being blown up by a landmine. A British photographer who returned to Afghanistan after he was maimed by a bomb has told how he could not have done it without his loving girlfriend’s support. Giles Duley’s remarkable story is one of determination and survival after a landmine cost him his left arm and both legs, the Sunday People reports. Hours before the devastating explosion, Jen Robertson had sent him an email telling Giles she loved him – for the first time...
(Mirror)
Terror groups turn to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube to gain support, analysts say. If the last decade of the so-called “war on terror” was about boots on the ground and winning hearts and minds, the next 10 years may include a battle for retweets and “likes.” A growing consensus of counterterrorism analysts who track Al Qaeda’s use of social media say terrorist groups are embracing Twitter and Facebook in an effort to gain support. Although there is anecdotal evidence of social media’s role in recruiting, there are few empirical studies...
(Toronto Star)
Battered suitcase unlocks story of British World War One nurse who cared for German soldiers while her brother lay dying on the battlefield. The previously unknown story of a compassionate WWI nurse who cared for wounded Germans despite her own brother dying on the battlefields has emerged for the first time. Little was known about nurse Margaret Maule until a battered suitcase containing her mementos was discovered at the back of a cupboard at the University of Abertay, in Dundee...
(Daily Mail)
Duxford war museum's Spitfire work 'preserving history'. Curators at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford believe it was directly involved in destroying or damaging eight German aircraft during World War II combat. However, the biggest threat now to one of the first Spitfires ever to be built is old age - posing one of the greatest challenges to Chris Knapp and his team, who must ensure it is preserved for a new generation...
(BBC)
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Image credit: Facebook.com/duffelblog
There has been quite a bit of talk this week following the Wednesday announcement of the Distinguished Warfare Medal by outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
Many critics are upset about the medal, which is designed to recognize service members directly affecting combat operations who may not even be on the same continent as the action.
Critics compare it to being recognized for playing videogames.
Business Insider’s Geoffrey Ingersoll writes, “There's been a near unanimous outcry from the military "underground" since the Pentagon announced new medals for drone pilots. In particular, servicemembers find it unjustifiable that the medal would fall higher than a Bronze Star for Valor, which requires actual courage in the face of the enemy.”
Now a Photoshopped image (pictured above) of the Distinguished Warfare Medal posted to The Duffel Blog Facebook page on Thursday is going viral.
A comment below the image says, “If you haven't seen the new medal for Drone pilots, here it is.”
The image has received over 1,000 Likes and more than 2,000 shares at the time of this story.
Read more at Business Insider.
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Image credit: YouTube
#RussianMeteor is one of many related topics that quickly began trending on Twitter early this morning after a meteorite crashed into Russia’s Ural mountains.
Also trending is #метеорит (Russian for meteorite) and other topics like # Chelyabinsk, the region where the meteorite fell.
Not gonna lie, the video footage and photos that are being posted online are amazing, but that’s not the whole story.
If you check Twitter right now, what’s also being discussed widely is whether a Russian air defense unit shot down the meteorite.
According to the Russian news site RT, “a missile salvo reportedly blew the meteorite to pieces at an altitude of 20 kilometers.”
Nothing has been officially confirmed, but as you can guess, there are a lot of skeptics.
And “Yes”, as rad as it sounds, you can count me among the skeptics.
I don’t know the first thing about astronomy or missile defense systems, so I can’t offer any expert opinion. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but sad fact: all my knowledge on the subject comes from movies like Space Cowboys and Armageddon.
In lieu of commentary by myself, here are some of the comments being posted on Twitter.
Mark Follman @markfollman
So a meteor getting shot down by the Russian military? Really?
Bob Sentell @Commadore_Bob
Russian military claims it shot down meteor. In related news, large amounts of empty vodka bottles found near Russian military headquarters.
Cal Fire News @CalFireNews
#Russian military source claims they shot down #metor @newsbreaker @RT_com kinetic energies involved meteor wouldn't even notice a SAM
Psygnal @Psygnal
Russians claiming military shot down meteor? That's a HELL of a response system. The speed of an incoming bolide can be extreme.
Dmitry Merkulov @sotrix
Moscow's propaganda outlet @RT_com is reporting that the military intercepted the meteor and shot it down. A meteor... A METEOR! #ohreally
Adam @mycroft16
Reports that the Russian military shot down the meteor are UNCONFIRMED and super super nigh on impossible. We're talking MAJOR GRAIN OF SALT
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