UAE Female Pilot...!!!..

The first female fighter pilot for the United Arab Emirates led the mission when that country joined the United States and other allies in airstrikes against ISIS over Syria earlier this week.
       

Maj. Mariam Al Mansouri graduated flight school in 2007 and was one of the first three to join the Emirati air force when it admitted women. She flew an F-16 Desert Falcon on Monday night.

“The U.S. tanker pilots called in for air refueling and asked for the UAE mission, and when they heard a female voice on the other side, they actually paused for about 20 seconds, radio silence,” he said.

Mansouri, 35, was born in Abu Dhabi and graduated from collage with a degree in English literature. Her love of country and a passion for challenge and competition drew her to aviation.  She is the first in this part of the world and a pioneer.

Just a [good] thought.

Un-Rest...

Three Afghan soldiers in US to participate in a military training at Joint Base Cape Cod went missing.

They visited Cape Cod Mall in Hyannis, MA, on an off-base trip meant to "introduce them to cultural aspects of American life,"

They were at a strip club called Zachary's Pub the night before they disappeared. Zachary's Pub touts itself as "Cape Cod's only Gentleman's Club."  "features all-nude exotic entertainment, pool tables, Keno, full menu and $4 draft beer. Open every day, with continuous entertainment from noon - 1 a.m. Couples are welcome!” 

The three soldiers were apprehended after trying to cross the border into Canada and presented themselves for asylum.

No Mall, beach, entertainment, music, dancing, movies, diversity, tolerance, certain cloths, walk safely in the street, girls' education or jobs,... may be the cause of all this hate and conflict in Afghanistan. So what is it?

Just a thought. 

Moral...?

“US military and partner nation forces have begun striking Isil targets in Syria using mix of fighters, bombers and Tomahawk missiles,” said the Pentagon press secretary. France has already openly joined the US strikes in Iraq.

"The Americans had informed the Syrian representative at the UN that strikes would be carried out against the terrorist organisation in Raqa," according to state television.

This wave of strikes is intended to weaken it, ensuring that it faces a pincer movement from both Syria and Iraq forces. Stopping the flow of money, eliminate its ability to move and counter its Media propaganda is the way to go.

Now some Arab Countries are providing money and support, others bombing them, in order to stop their advancement, so what is it?.       Just a thought.

Made in ...?!

It's the Hat.

As labor costs have risen and currency appreciated, China is slowly losing work to countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, etc. at least for cheaper, labor-intensive goods like casual clothes, toys and simple electronics.

For DBL Group, employs 9,000 people making T-shirts and other knitwear, business has been so good that the company is finishing a new 10-story building with open floors the size of soccer fields, planted with row after row of sewing machines.

The company that handles sourcing and apparel manufacturing for companies like Wal-Mart and Liz Claiborne, reported that its production in Bangladesh jumped 20 percent last year, while China, slid 5 percent.

Bangladesh is the third-biggest exporter of clothing after China, and Turkey [WTO] and could probably absorb many more of China’s 20 million garment industry jobs as the Chinese workers demand higher salaries.

With many counterfeit product from China, a small change in the label is a huge business to others " Made in Bangladesh."

Just a thought.

Faking Disability.... Shame.

Image is not related.

She alleged that an unknown male passenger spat on her and threatened her with bodily harm, causing her to fear for her life during her employment with the NYCTA as a bus operator.

She told a transit shrink she couldn’t work because of “anxiety and avoidant behavior when boarding and traveling on a bus”.  Claimed not doing any type of work and couldn’t exercise.

She posted photos of herself on Facebook and Instagram driving around a van with “Celebrities Mobile Boutique’’ painted on it, peddling necklaces, etc. in Harlem.

She was busted and charged with grand larceny after netting $84,000 in workers’ comp since her 2012 “breakdown.’’

After her arrest, she posted a photo of herself in one of her skirts bragging, “Today was grrrreaat!!!!!  “Shout out to all my #celebutants for your support. Now let’s see what tomorrow brings, I’m making a few skirts tonight, since I sold out today,” she wrote.

She could and should get 15 years on the grand-larceny of the public funds charge.

Just a thought.

Alibaba... Don't Buy it..!!

Buy Swim Suit.

Investors should steer clear of Alibaba, valuation expert Aswath Damodaran said.

Investors are not getting a piece of a company, but getting a piece of a shell that owns a company where a politburo, basically, sets the board of directors. To pay fair price and get treated as a second-class citizen  is not a good deal.

Investors marry companies and have to be in for the long term. But in this case it is scary that investors have absolutely no power over how this company run, or what happens in the future.

It's a merchandising company that does it really well, has made a lot of money in China, but can't attach a $250 or $300 billion value.

Alibaba became more China-focused in the last year than less China-focused.

It's never been a particularly innovative company.

Jack Ma has power for life?

Add to all this, the Chinese market is to a great extent ambiguous.

Just a thought.

Missing Student.

The family of missing University of Virginia student Hannah Graham pleaded for help in finding their daughter whose disappearance this weekend has left them "heartbroken."

Graham’s apartment is off campus and she and other students were drinking heavily that night and were “fairly well intoxicated." Graham was seen at a pizza restaurant before she and a classmate headed to another party, authorities said. They left at 12:15 a.m., with Graham appearing to be walking home alone, according to police.

The 18-year-old sophomore was last heard from after 1 a.m. Saturday when she texted friends saying she was on her way to a party but never showed up.

 

Unethical...!

Alzheimer Patient.

NYS attorney general filed an antitrust lawsuit seeking to stop a pharmaceutical company from forcing patients with Alzheimer’s to switch to a new version of a widely used drug. The lawsuit contends that the switch is designed to blunt competition from low-priced generic versions of the medication.

Forest Lab announced that it would stop selling the existing tablet form of the drug, Namenda, in favor of new extended-release capsules called Namenda XR that can be taken once a day instead of twice.

While the company said that patients preferred the newer drug, it has made little secret of its desire to switch all patients to the newer form, which has a longer patent life, before the old tablets face generic competition. The strategy would make it much harder for the generics to gain traction.

The step taken by Forest Lab. is intended to maintain its monopoly even after its patent expires.

“A drug company manipulating vulnerable patients and forcing physicians to alter treatment plans unnecessarily, simply to protect corporate profits, is unethical and illegal,” the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, said in a statement.

Remedies is very easy. Since the company abandoned their patent drug, the Generic should jump right into production before the patent expires. In addition, Walmart and the likes should be allowed to import the item from other Countries since US patients are left out in the dark.  Way to go AG.

Just a thought.

Separation-Scotland

Voters in Scotland will decide on Thursday whether to continue a 307-year partnership with England or declare independence from the United Kingdom. How did a seemingly fruitful union reach the breaking point? 

Business leaders and economists worry that an independent Scotland will not be able to prosper alone: its economy relies on revenue from North Sea oil, which has been falling sharply, and its per capita government spending is higher than the rest of Britain.

Scotland would not be able to use the British pound as its currency. And it would be “extremely difficult, if not impossible” for Scotland to join the European Union.

Major financial institutions such as the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group, and the insurance giant Standard Life, have indicated they would move their registered offices from Scotland and incorporate in England.

Around two thousand Londoners gathered in Trafalgar Square early on Monday evening in an effort to persuade Scots to reject independence when the country goes to the polls on Thursday.

The European Union has 18 Countries, big and small. The world is moving together and that would be the outcome.

Scotland will stay in the UK. Just a thought.

Humiliated...

Iraq forces and Peshmerga pushed ISIS out of few villages in Iraq. As they entered one village, a horror story of a woman, tied to a tree, naked, repeatedly raped by the ISIS fighters. Another woman was discovered in a second village, similar treatment. The ISIS fighters, it appears, are “rewarded” by having their way with captured women.

ISIS has received attention for its savage beheadings, executions of captured soldiers and men in conquered towns and villages, violence against Christians and Shiites, and the destruction of non-Sunni shrines and places of worship. But its barbarity against women has been treated as a side issue.

Arab and Muslim governments have been virtually silent on ISIS’s systemic degradation, abuse, and humiliation of women. To the men of ISIS, women are an inferior race, to be sold off as slaves.

From ISIS-captured territory in Syria, a photograph of a line of women, covered from head to toe and tied to one another by a rope, as they were being led to a makeshift slave market.  ISIS set up marriage bureaus in captured Syrian towns to recruit virgins and widows to marry fighters, and also called on fellow jihadists in other countries to recruit brides for the fighters. 

[Haleh Esfandiari, The Wall Street Journal]