In Iran, a controversy is building and nearly boiling. Mahmoud misbehaved! Now, I know what you’re thinking : President Ahmadinejad misbehaves on a quasi-quotidian fashion, right?
I agree but this time he went too far. He is under attack for a picture taken at Hugo Chavez’ funeral service in Venezuela. A picture showing him offering solace to Hugo’s mother.

The act of holding hands and hugging an unrelated woman is not acceptable to the folks back home in Teheran. They did after all retouch a photo  of USA’s First Lady Michelle Obama as she took part in the Oscars last month to cover the arms her sleeve-less gown left showing? So that in essence, Mahmoud and Berlusconi, same thing now! Who would have thought?

The NY Times has a good article on the matter here :
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/11/image-of-ahmadinejad-clasping-hands-with-chvezs-mother-doctored-by-his-supporters/

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But hey, as long as we are nearby, in neighboring Iraq, a recent confirmation was had regarding an attack last month on an army convoy. Everything but that initial statement is murky though. It was an Iraqi Army convoy, yes … but carrying Syrian Army soldiers. Why? Because they had been literally ousted from their land by the rebels. The rebels fighting Hafez El-Assad grabbed a border outpost and the soldiers fled towards Iraq. The Iraqi convoy sending them back home was then attacked by the rebels. Which? Why, the Iraqi rebels of course! Islamist State of Iraq, the local Al-Qaeda branch claimed the assault on their website and that call is what was confirmed yesterday. How does it link to Mahmoud? Well, Iran supports anti government rebels in both countries! And Hafez is Shiite so an enemy for Sunnis both of which are represented in Iraq too?
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/767250.shtml#.UT5uVUZE4T8

I know it is not clear. The uncertainty factor is actually why no one is coming to help the Syrians.

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Next, still related to Islamist is France. The government of François Hollande was elected in May and thus relatively “new” in January when action began in Mali. The intent to veer away from traditional FrançAfrique, the term that describes the old-school mix of politics and deals between the country and its ex-colonies, was sincere. And yet, despite members of cabinet being experienced enough, discord sprang in Foreign Affairs between the proponents of action and those of controlled help and development, some civil servants left over from the previous right-wing gang mostly.
So that Foreign relations minister Laurent Fabius cleared things up and a few people too.

The strange part here is that on account of the success had by the troops, Defense officials ( MinDef to the locals ) are running most of the show? And it’s in Affaires Étrangères that heads are rolling?

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http://news.discovery.com/earth/rocks-fossils/viking-sunstone-shipwreck-130311.htm
Above is our next mixed-up information. If you have the time, do read the Discovery piece but in a nutshell, a British wreck revealed a Viking stone!
Although from 1592, long after the Nordmen’s heyday, the Alderny had a crystal onboard that for long was only a rumor, a folklore bit. It is made of Islandic Spar, the very calcite crystal preferred by the Viking for navigation tools called Sunstones. The refraction “powers” of a properly carved crystal allowed one to find the Sun even on foggy days or soon after sunset. That made them incredibly useful to navigators before compass was popularized and Vikings were exceptional seafarers, having reached North America so … The strange part then reads thus : a British ship carried a sunstone hundreds of years after the Vikings, even though the magnetic compass invented in China had reached Europe 2 to 3 centuries prior. And it is only since that we even found incomplete remnants of such stones in a Viking settlement? Of course, the research was done by French scientists so it links back to our precedent info? Did someone say strange?

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http://www.tgdaily.com/software-brief/70056-robots-get-their-own-internet
And last but not least, Robots! Robots that are awarded Internet connections to allow them to share knowledge of their environment and behaviour? Amongst themselves of course but also with humans!
The main idea behind this robocloud called Rapyuta is to have a virtual space for heavy computing processes. Robots can free their own systems from the biggest jobs. It would mean that those that are mobile would not have to lug such big storage units and rely on the cloud. They will be able to use it for teamwork too. Even teamwork in mixed robots-humans cases. And humans hope to learn about speech from it and other complex “mental” accomplishments.
How is that strange? Well, it is another of the essential bricks towards Artificial Intelligence of course! So that if you happen to witness the Sci-Fi staple of robots versus humans war à la Terminator et al in your lifetime, you now know who’s fault it will have been and … remember,
you heard it here first! 8-)

There goes today’s trivia; I hope you found something to suit your taste, Tay.

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