The Nissan Navara dual cab ute remains a very worthy vehicle. I know that ISIS prefers Toyota SR5 Hilux Dual Cab Utes, and that they are doing the hard yards now for ISIS in Iraq fighting America...both are made in Thailand. The Nissan runs about $20,000 more economical, per unit, than the Toyota because it is a more basic truck I guess...but the engine and the drive-train are still just as good and reliable. What the Toyota provides for ISIS fighters is a more comfortable and luxurious cabin, which is understandable, for the price. If you were fitting a 50 millimetre machine gun to the tray, the fact that with the Toyota you could run a trouble-free bluetooth set up and sit on more comfy seats ...then I guess the extra 20 grand is worth it. I still think that if you are fighting America in a Toyota, then, when you don't have the weight of a 50mm machine gun set up in the tray, you should still put 60 kgs of sand bags in the tray over the back leaf springs to give you a smoother better ride.

Aleppo: Those evil Russians. Mosul: It's all good. Nothing to see here.

The only problem I see with the combined forces of the US and "friends" 'destroying' ISIS in Iraq, and in Mosul, per se, is that ISIS is actually Iraqis...in Iraq...so when attacked by overwhelming forces, they do exactly what the Sunni Iraqis did with the US invasion, they simply go back into the Iraqi general population until the US has gone home again. Then we will get the Son of ISIS...even more embittered and more radical and a worse outcome after trillions of dollars are blown up. That's what comes from meddling. More terror. The only way to destroy an enemy is to impose yourself on them forever, even the Romans knew that. If you aren't going to do that, and if you can't afford to do that, well then invasion and war isn't really a reasoned decision. Dialogue is better. Interesting that bombing a city of a million people in Mosul...men women and kids... is called 'liberation' if we do it; but is called mass murder of women and children if the Russians do it in Aleppo...when the outcome, the massive killing of men, women and kids, of entire communities, is the same outcome. Then come the refugees. Never a good idea even if it makes Obama and the Democratic Party look good for a brief minute before a Presidential election. As with the Taliban in Afghanistan, it is a very hard thing to kill a whole third of the population due to their beliefs and say, somehow, that it is good for them. That it is somehow a good thing for Afghanistan that the median age of the population is 17...and all fired up (radicalised and brutalised by you) to hate you for good reason. You want it darker?

Iraq, you want it darker? Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker (Audio)

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's Presidential Debate as an event. As things are, by all the numbers, and not by my choice etc, but Hillary will absolutely and certainly become the President unless she drops dead.

Love is deep and irrational, and you can see this in a very special way in Thailand with the death of King Rama IX. 65 million people in mourning, profound mourning. Deeply Personal Grief. I think the Thai people are quite unique in this way. Yet the manifestations of grief are universally human...and do include lashing out, scapegoating, shooting the messenger, rebellion, etc so it is and will be a very difficult time. I expect there will be a long period of sadness and respect ...six months...and then the country will fall into 3 pieces and the instability will spread throughout South East Asia and there will be a decade of instability in that region, including Australia.

As far as i can work out / guess the impact of lunar phases on people...the effect begins about three days before the full moon and last three days after the first night. Interestingly there is a difference in gender responses to moon phases...thus...women are affected by the full moon whereas men are affected by the new (no visible moon) phase.