Showing posts with label FSB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FSB. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Even while here in warm & rainy South Florida, I'm already thinking cool thoughts about our talented U.S. Olympic teams competing in Sochi, Russia in February, as these great WSJ vids shows how the Moguls, Bobsled and Biathlon teams practice without snow or ice up at Lake Placid. Plus, a classic iJustine video of our favorite vlogger in Norway climbing a glacier. Cool thoughts, indeed!: @USOlympic, #GoTeamUSA, @JeremyCota, @eamslider24, @tb_burke, @Lowellcbailey, @ijustine, @NBCOlympics


Even while here in warm & rainy South Florida, I'm already thinking cool thoughts about our talented U.S. Olympic team competing in Sochi, Russia in February, as these great WSJ vids shows us all how the Moguls, Bobsled and Biathlon teams practice without snow or ice at Lake Placid. Plus, a classic iJustine video of our favorite vlogger in Norway climbing a glacier. Cool thoughts, indeed!: @USOlympic, #GoTeamUSA, @JeremyCota, @eamslider24, @tb_burke, @Lowellcbailey, @ijustine, @NBCOlympics

WSJDigitalNetwork YouTube Channel video: Winter Olympics Training Without Snow: Moguls. "For Olympics-bound freestyle skiers, snow-free summer months don't mean a break from training. WSJ visited the Olympic Training Facility in Lake Placid, New York, where skiers utilized three ramps and a deep swimming pool to prep for Sochi. Freestyle moguls skier Jeremy Cota explains how the water training works." Uploaded October 7, 2013. http://youtu.be/aIVyxtpH_Kg




YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/cota3090/


WSJDigitalNetwork YouTube Channel video: Winter Olympics Training Without Snow: Bobsled. U.S. bronze medalist Elana Meyers explains how the dry bobsled training works at the Olympic Training Facility in Lake Placid. Uploaded October 7, 2013. 
http://youtu.be/Ex-U79MX5PA

























Elana's blog: http://www.elanameyers.blogspot.com/


WSJDigitalNetwork YouTube Channel video: Winter Olympics Training Without Snow: Biathlon. "The biathlon combines long-distance cross country skiing with precise .22 caliber target shooting. But for the U.S. Biathlon Team, Olympic training can't stop for the summer. WSJ video spent time with biathletes Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey to learn how they train for the Olympics when there is no snow in sight."
Uploaded October 3, 2013. http://youtu.be/5nFeYC0neT4





































Meanwhile, over in Germany, they've got some major fashion issues to deal with for the next four months...




Not even a German figure skater who looked like Elisha Cuthbert could look good wearing this gear, even with a Gold Medal around her neck.

And as everyone has seen for themselves the past few months, the paranoid, delusional and dis-connected people that run the Russian government these days are totally playing to old stereotypes and outsider's worst fears about the New Russian by seeming to do everything in their power to create a negative vibe around the Winter Olympics months in advance for athletes, officials, spectators and TV viewers.
Teaser Alert: NOT too many Americans are going to Sochi in February.





The Olympic Flame going out twice this past week is just part of the wave of bad karma for the Russians in Sochi. Plus, we're getting all their hard workers:
Ahead of Sochi, Former Russian Olympians become US citizens 
Michele Richinick, @mrich1201 10:47 PM on 08/16/2013
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/16/months-before-winter-games-fmr-russian-olympians-become-us-citizens/

The Guardian

Russia to monitor 'all communications' at Winter Olympics in Sochi 
Exclusive: Investigation uncovers FSB surveillance system – branded 'Prism on steroids' – to listen to all athletes and visitors 
Shaun Walker in Moscow The Guardian, 
Sunday 6 October 2013 10.31 EDT
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/06/russia-monitor-communications-sochi-winter-olympics

Speaking of cool thoughts and cool doings far from the sub-tropical heat and humidity of South Florida, with three more weeks to go in the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane season, here's a classic video set in Norway featuring iJustine, Justine Ezarik, cited and featured in so many blog posts here over the past six years, as well as lots of permanent 'anchors' on the blog for years, including this video.




iJustine YouTube Channel video: EPIC GLACIER HIKE! (In Norway). Uploaded October 27, 2011. http://youtu.be/pD0xXf9-_lI
Clips that didn't make final cut but worth seeing are at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5JAIrd8IFI and a good photo, too: http://followgram.me/i/276131095


Of all of her MANY videos, the ones she filmed in Norway in 2011 are my favorite, with this one being the best of them. 
While I realize that these sort of opportunities don't present themselves every week or month, compared to the tech exhibits/forums she's so frequently at, I wish that Justine could make more vids like this one showing her willing to go outside of her own comfort zone, because to me, she never seems more honest & appealing than when she's in these sorts of situations. #Norge

And why-oh-why isn't she and one of her sisters participating on CBS' The Amazing Race?

I'm convinced she'd be great and become a real breakout media star if she went more than a 4-5 weeks without being eliminated. 
Just saying... 

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Lib Dem MP assistant accused of being Russian spy says 'I will clear my name.' Sure, after you're back in Mother Russia. Adios!; DREAM Act



Channel 4 News: Westminster spy row
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid601325122001?bctid=699597927001

The accompanying news article is at:

http://www.channel4.com/news/i-will-clear-my-name-says-russian-aide-accused-of-spying

To this news in a part of England that has already seen a lot of gnashing of teeth this year, I can only say, just when you think things have already reached rock bottom this year in Pompey... boom goes the dynamite.

Back in late October I sent a lengthy email out to friends and former colleagues in far-flung parts of the world who love and appreciate high-caliber football (soccer) titled, simply enough, "Sacha Gaydamak's demand for a ransom payment may cause Premier League club to close down and be liquidated."

That dispatch was prompted after a weekend spent watching perhaps too many SkyNews Sports reports on Fox Soccer Channel, but reading even more of the more astute British tabs and football blogs/websites than usual, where the news for the beloved ball club and its loyal fans kept getting worse and worse by the hour.


Imagine traveling a few hours for an away Portsmouth game and then hearing on the radio that it might be the last game your team will ever play?

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11688_6462212,00.html

For the latest on what's going on with Pompey football, see the well-produced Pompey Pages at http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sectionhome.aspx?sectionID=12295

Here's the latest:

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/Pompey-financial-report-to-be.6647296.jp


Lib Dem Mike Hancock's website for his constituents in South Portsmouth and Southsea:
http://www.mikehancock.co.uk/

On that site are these comments about his legislative assistant of over two-and-a-half years,
Katia Zatuliveter:
http://www.mikehancock.co.uk/news/555/24/Statement-from-Mike-Hancock-about-Katia-Zatuliveter/

Not mentioned here, though, for obvious reasons, is that more than a few other MPs, even other liberal members, feel that Mike Hancock is too "soft" on Russia, and far too often, too uncomfortably close to the official Russian government position on certain issues, like what's been going on in the Republic of Georgia.
These very facts make Hancock's denials, however heart-felt and truthful, seem to some well-informed observers, perhaps a bit disingenuous, and I suspect that you will be hearing more about this as the week goes on.

The last thing in the world that members of Parliament want to consider is the possibility that there might actually be foreign intelligence agents or sympathizers working around them, with aims considerably more dire than simply bloggers or paparazzo taking snaps of embarrassing personal situations.


If you think about it logically from the perspective of the
Federal Security Service, the FSB, ФСБ, the successor to the KGB, the day-to-day schedule and hours of tedious tasks on behalf of a staffer in Parliament, esp. for a member on a Defence committee like Mike Hancock, would be the perfect position for an FSB mole to gather useful info on members, staffers and myriad agency liaisons they deal with on a daily basis.
Perhaps you've heard - loose lips sink ships.




Channel 4 News: Russian spying has 'absolutely' not gone away
says Lord West.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid601325122001?bctid=699578293001


The Beatles - Back In The U.S.S.R [HQ] RARE PROMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Qk-mZjwhA

See also 'Britain is under attack from Russian spies'
http://www.channel4.com/news/lib-dem-mp-denies-his-assistant-is-a-russian-spy
and
UK Border Agency http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/

From the UK Border Agency website: "Every week, our frontline officers are locating and removing migrants who flout the UK's immigration law or pose a risk to the community."

If we only had such marked vigilance here in South Florida, where the print and electronic news media is ardently pro-amnesty for all illegal aliens, especially the editorial board, columnists and reporters at the Miami Herald.


And FYI, no, I haven't forgotten about my promise here a few weeks ago about posting some very accurate and measured analysis of Herald reporter Alfonso Chardy and his consistently one-sided, factually-flawed and self-evidently biased stories about illegal immigration, so recently seen the past two weeks with seemingly daily pro-amnesty stories about the DREAM Act.


You know, those over-the-top stories of
Chardy's that ALWAYS leave out inconvenient facts that hamper the story that he and the Herald want to peddle to their beleaguered readers, almost as if they really are stupid enough to think that if he doesn't mention those pesky facts that contradict what he says, nobody will be the wiser.

The same condescending way they seem to assume that nobody ever notices the compelling stories in South Florida that they have consciously ignored for years or give short-shrift
to now, like
SO MANY of the interesting ones that first appear at
Bob Norman's Daily Pulp blog. http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/


But fortunately, there are a lot more well-informed people like me who pay close attention to issues and public policy than you might otherwise think in South Florida, and we not only have technology on our side, in the form of blogs and websites and social media, but from past experience, we are totally hip to the tricks that
Chardy and certain other reporters have long played with pesky inconvenient facts in their so-called news articles in the Herald.

PLUS, CHARDY JUST HAPPENS TO BE MORE OBVIOUS ABOUT IT, NOT TO MENTION, RIDICULOUSLY PREDICTABLE!

Those tricks of his don't change much on his stories re the South Florida transportation scene, either, the most egregious of which will also get their own analysis blog posts here, since
Chardy has a LOT to account for with them, too.

Trust me, when you know the true facts, Chardy's so-called 'reporting' is even worse than you think.

It's not so much journalism as it is old-fashioned, biased stenography.

No matter how many times the Herald's management and editors tell Chardy to write about it, the DREAM Act bill in Congress is deader than dead -and rightfully so.

No matter how many times Chardy tries to insinuate that Florida's U.S. Senator George LeMieux might support it, somehow, he's a NO vote, comprende?

No means no!