Picture of the Day - 138

"And Time Stood Still" Photography by Leica Arado

If you wish to see more of Leica's photography, please visit her Flickr photostream here.

The European Union & The Malaysian Jetliner (Updated)

On Thursday May 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 (en route from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) crashed in Eastern Ukraine, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew members.

The tragedy has since lead to many speculations concerning what caused the airplane to crash, among other theories so far it is believed that the plane could have been shot down by a missile.

John Aravosis, over at the AMERICAblog, yesterday posted an interesting analysis of the event and it's political ramifications involving Russia, the European Union and the United States, see Destruction of Malaysia Airlines flight poses huge conundrum for Obama, Europe.

At this point, US intelligence thinks the Russian-backed rebels in Ukraine shot down the Malaysian airliner, and they suspect it was with a Russian (Soviet) “Buk” missile. And the Pentagon said today that it was basically inconceivable that the rebels could have learned to operate the missiles without Russian help. There’s also a serious question as to where the Russian rebels got their Russian weapons from (take a guess).

But it’s worse than that. CNN was saying yesterday that while it would have been obvious to the Russians that this was a civilian airliner, it would have been next to impossible for the Russian rebels in Ukraine to know the difference between a Ukrainian military plane and a civilian airliner. The Russians knew they couldn't tell the difference, the Russians knew they were providing weapons and training to people who were planning on shooting down planes in an area that was a major corridor for international civilian air traffic. And the Russians went ahead and trained them to shoot down the planes anyway (if, everything we now suspect ends up being true).

That’s not an accident. And it’s not simple negligence. It borders on premeditated murder.

You train someone to shoot down planes, in a zone full of civilian airliners, knowing full well that the people you’re training have no way of knowing which planes are civilian and which are military. You know they’re going to be killing innocent people, and you simply don’t care (or perhaps even want them to). That’s not a “mistake.”

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Although we are still at an early stage, and there has been no formal inquiry into the cause of the crash yet, I believe that Mr. Aravosis is on the right track. 

It will now be very interesting to see if - and how - the European Union and the United States decide to take action against Russia and "Little Father" Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, in the latter's attempts  "to reconstitute the Soviet Union in all its deadly glory".

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Update
Malaysia Airlines has released the full names and nationalities of every person on board. There were:

• 192 Dutch, including one who had a dual Dutch/U.S. citizenship
• 44 Malaysian
• 27 Australian
• 12 Indonesian
• 10 British, including one who had dual U.K./African citizenship
• 4 German
• 4 Belgian
• 3 Filipino
• 1 Canadian
• 1 New Zealander

SP Annual Meeting 2014 Today

The annual meeting of Second Pride will be held today, July 19, 2014, at 11.00 AM SLT, and will take place in the auditorium on the Second Pride sim (SLurl).

The agenda of the annual meeting (as posted on the Second Pride website) has been amended (changes are shown in bold) and now reads as follows:

1. Call to Order
2. Department reviews
3. Plan for Second Pride donation to real life (a.k.a. first life, my comment) charity
4. Election Time Table and procedures
5. Proposed By-Law Changes
6. New Business 
7. Adjourn

Picture of the Day - 137

"Embrace The Silly" Photography by Nigel Riel

If you wish to see more of Nigel's photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

Picture of the Day - 136

"They look really dapper tonight!" Photography by Valois

If you wish to see more of Valois' photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.

Upcoming Improvements to Second Life

My friends at Linden Lab have been busy. From the SecondLife blog:

"At Linden Lab, we’ve recently been reviewing the long list of improvements and enhancements we want to bring to Second Life, weighing priorities, and scoping out important projects for the next few months. We wanted to share a few highlights from the list of projects we’ll be working on so that you can know what improvements to expect in the coming months. This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, but here are a few of the initiatives we think will have a big impact on improving all of our Second Life experiences."
(Tipped by BiSL reader Tomais)

Read all about the new improvements here: Upcoming Improvements to Second Life

Picture of the day - 135

"Strolling through the waves" Photography by Rhys Scurlock

If you wish to see more of Rhys' photography, please visit his Flickr photostream here.