World in Chaos

It's August 2014 and the world is in chaos.  Russia invading Ukraine, ISIS/L wreaking havoc in the middle east, China bolstering their military and starting an apparent arms race, EBOLA spreading like wildfire in Africa, and of course the continuing of the century old conflict in Israel and Gaza.

Now that the US Military is in full swing of it's downsizing mode, one would have to ask if the US is ready to respond to the next event?

Thumper Bio Monitor

Making a Biosphere monitor for Turtle Thumper.  Wanting to view Air & Water Temp as well as humidity.  Also plan on adding a pH probe and Salinity probe.

Depression IS an illness

News broke that Robin Williams had passed away, due to apparent suicide following severe depression. As the vast majority of people will likely have already said, this was terribly heart-breaking news. Such aniconic, talented and beloved figure will have no shortage of tributes paid to him and his incredible legacy. It’s also worth noting that Robin Williams was open about his mental health issues.

However, despite the tremendous amount of love and admiration for Williams being expressed pretty much everywhere right now, there are still those who can’t seem to resist the opportunity to criticise, as they do these days whenever a celebrated or successful person commits suicide. You may have come across this yourself; people who refer to the suicide as “selfish”. People will utter/post phrases such as “to do that to your family is just selfish”, or “to commit suicide when you’ve got so much going for you is pure selfishness”, or variations thereof.

If you are such a person who has expressed these views or similar for whatever reason, here’s why you’re wrong, or at the very least misinformed, and could be doing more harm in the long run.

Depression IS an illness

Depression, the clinical condition, could really use a different name. At present, the word “depressed” can be applied to both people who are a bit miserable and those with a genuine debilitating mood disorder. Ergo, it seems people are often very quick to dismiss depression as a minor, trivial concern. After all, everyone gets depressed now and again, don’t they? Don’t know why these people are complaining so much.

Soldier injured on duty, now not getting paid.

The ARMY’s Soldier Creed is full of tradition and values that have stood for centuries and are at the core of each and every soldier. One of lines in the creed states that “I will never leave a fallen comrade”, but it seems that the ARMY has forgotten about SGT Marc C. Daniel and his willingness to place the mission first. SGT Daniel is a 42 year old ARMY reservist assigned to the 1-382d LSB at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and is married with children at home. He was attending his annual two week training when tragedy hit.