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| DownUnder | February 2005 |
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Short Circuit by Ian McPherson
The US Army has decided that robots will be used in Iraq. It is sending 18 SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems) "battlebots" there in the spring, marking the first time in history that robots of this type have been used in combat. These are nasty little suckers, equipped with tank tracks, night vision and mounted automatic weapons capable of firing more than 300 rounds at a burst. Do they work? Who knows. If they break down I'm sure that the troops can use the tank tracks to armor their Humvees... A Prius it's not...  The SmarTruck III, jointly developed by the US Army and International Truck and Engine Corporation, is the latest in military transport. The SmarTruck III weighs in at 8,000lb (compared to around 5,000lb for the second generation Hummer). It will be 3 inches higher than the Hummer and 4ft longer, with slightly lower fuel consumption. A planned commercial version would not be able to detect anthrax, and will lack the Kevlar armouring on the underside, the night-vision cameras and the 25-inch LCD touch-screen computer monitors. Nice grille... Al-Jazeera ranks above Coca-Cola  Who would have though it? According to the brand experts, Al-Jazeera ranks number 5 in the world for brand prominence. Here's a list of the Top Ten brands in the world, according to Brand Channel:
Legend  Clint Eastwood has been voted best director 2004 by the Director's Guild of America. Winners of the DGA award have won the best director Oscar at the Academy Awards 51 times in 57 years. Earlier this month, Clint won the Golden Globe award for best director. My guess is he'll pick up a best director Oscar on February 27. Voting in Iraq It's great to see the Iraqis voting for someone other than a dictator, but the situation there is a long way from stable. Veteran Middle East correspondent Richard Fisk makes the point in an interview with Amy Goodman at DemocracyNow! that the Iraqis have been told by Al Sistani (the Iraqi Shiite cleric) to vote, so that the elected government can ask the US to end its occupation. Unfortunately it's hard to see that occurring. The Pentagon has planning and budgets organised up until the end of 2006. Yet George Bush has said the US will leave if asked. Maybe leaving sooner is better than leaving later? I think it's time to leave the Iraqis to sort out their own problems... Well, that's it for me. See you all next month :) | |||
See you all in the next issue! Ian McPherson |
