Some simple tips:
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
TSA- "If You Protest, We Will Fuck You Up."
Marko is right, that is the only reason why the TSA will go after the guy who would not let the TSA gropers feel him up. Note that the TSA removed him from the secured area, he got his ticket refunded, and then the TSA insisted that he return to the security area to be groped. He refused.
It has nothing to do with security. It has everything to do with keeping the sheeple in line. Which is one reason why the bozo in charge of the TSA at the San Diego airport is questioning the patriotism of anyone who does not want their bodies X-rayed. It is why the Chief Thug of the TSA is reaching out to reporters to spread the message that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear and that everything will go smoother if everyone shuts up and does whatever the TSA demands.
On another email list, one of the members said that while they would like to speak out against the outrages being perpetrated by the TSA, to do so meant running the risk of being flagged for fucking with at any TSA checkpoint or being put on a no-fly list.
Not speaking out for fear that the organs of state security are going to fuck with you is a hallmark of an authoritarian state, not a free nation.
It has nothing to do with security. It has everything to do with keeping the sheeple in line. Which is one reason why the bozo in charge of the TSA at the San Diego airport is questioning the patriotism of anyone who does not want their bodies X-rayed. It is why the Chief Thug of the TSA is reaching out to reporters to spread the message that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear and that everything will go smoother if everyone shuts up and does whatever the TSA demands.
On another email list, one of the members said that while they would like to speak out against the outrages being perpetrated by the TSA, to do so meant running the risk of being flagged for fucking with at any TSA checkpoint or being put on a no-fly list.
Not speaking out for fear that the organs of state security are going to fuck with you is a hallmark of an authoritarian state, not a free nation.
W(h)ither NATO?
NATO is an organization that, as far as I can see, has largely outlived its usefulness.
NATO, when it was formed, had one clear objective: To unite the nations of western Europe militarily in order to prepare for and deter an attack by the Soviet Union. It also had one unstated objective, which was to ensure that Germany did not become militarily dominant.
The prime reason for NATO's existence became obsolete two decades ago, when the Soviet Union crumbled and the Cold War ended. Nations of both the old Warsaw Pact and some of the new nations that were formerly Soviet republics have joined NATO. At the same time, the Russian defense establishment fell apart under its own weight.
Most of the old Soviet navy has rusted away at anchorage. What warships remain in service are largely ships build in Soviet times. Russian shipyards cannot build a reliable nuclear submarine, as the fiasco of the construction of the K-152/INS Chakra has shown. Russian shipyards cannot build a serviceable amphibious landing ship, which is why the Russian navy is buying them from the French.
The Russian army is not much better. The Russian army reportedly has both poorly-aid and barely trained draftees (draft-dodging is a large-scale sport in Russia) and better trained volunteers, who are in different units. Supposedly it was the volunteer units which rather effortlessly rolled up the Georgians two years ago. Their equipment is largely Soviet-era design.
More to the point, the Russian army (except for the forces in Kaliningrad), is 800 miles further to the east than it was two decades ago. The Russian army does not have the capability to roll across the Northern European Plain. Still, the old "Cold Warriors", largely conservative men who cannot accept the reality that the Soviet Union had collapsed, have hung on ever since, hyping the so-called Russian threat.
The so-called Russian threat, at least to the core nations of NATO, has not existed for two decades.
So why does NATO survive? What is its reason for being?
NATO, when it was formed, had one clear objective: To unite the nations of western Europe militarily in order to prepare for and deter an attack by the Soviet Union. It also had one unstated objective, which was to ensure that Germany did not become militarily dominant.
The prime reason for NATO's existence became obsolete two decades ago, when the Soviet Union crumbled and the Cold War ended. Nations of both the old Warsaw Pact and some of the new nations that were formerly Soviet republics have joined NATO. At the same time, the Russian defense establishment fell apart under its own weight.
Most of the old Soviet navy has rusted away at anchorage. What warships remain in service are largely ships build in Soviet times. Russian shipyards cannot build a reliable nuclear submarine, as the fiasco of the construction of the K-152/INS Chakra has shown. Russian shipyards cannot build a serviceable amphibious landing ship, which is why the Russian navy is buying them from the French.
The Russian army is not much better. The Russian army reportedly has both poorly-aid and barely trained draftees (draft-dodging is a large-scale sport in Russia) and better trained volunteers, who are in different units. Supposedly it was the volunteer units which rather effortlessly rolled up the Georgians two years ago. Their equipment is largely Soviet-era design.
More to the point, the Russian army (except for the forces in Kaliningrad), is 800 miles further to the east than it was two decades ago. The Russian army does not have the capability to roll across the Northern European Plain. Still, the old "Cold Warriors", largely conservative men who cannot accept the reality that the Soviet Union had collapsed, have hung on ever since, hyping the so-called Russian threat.
The so-called Russian threat, at least to the core nations of NATO, has not existed for two decades.
So why does NATO survive? What is its reason for being?
Monday, November 15, 2010
Israel's Price is 33 Million Dollars a Day
That is the proposal: Israel will freeze settlement construction for 90 days if the United States gives it a bribe, er, gift of $3 billion in additional military aid.
You might recall that the Turks recoiled from a similar "gift" proposal from the Bush Administration, which the Bush Administration proffered to get Turkey to let the U.S. Army stage part of the Iraq War from Turkish soil. Many Turks rightly considered the offer of additional aid to be a bribe and it wasn't accepted.
It would appear that the Israeli government has no such scruples.
You might recall that the Turks recoiled from a similar "gift" proposal from the Bush Administration, which the Bush Administration proffered to get Turkey to let the U.S. Army stage part of the Iraq War from Turkish soil. Many Turks rightly considered the offer of additional aid to be a bribe and it wasn't accepted.
It would appear that the Israeli government has no such scruples.
Progress in Alabama, or
What Is the Life of a Civil Rights Protestor Worth?
Six months in jail on a misdemeanor charge, apparently. That's progress from 45 years ago, when a grand jury then refused to indict the cop that killed Jimmie Lee Jackson.
The story doesn't mention it, but the cops were beating his grandfather, who was 82. The cops beat Jimmie Lee Jackson and threw him up against a cigarette machine, where Alabama State Trooper James Fowler shot him twice in the belly at very close range. Then the cops beat Mr. Jackson some more.
Maybe in another half-century, it might even a felony for an Alabama policeman to murder a Black man.
The story doesn't mention it, but the cops were beating his grandfather, who was 82. The cops beat Jimmie Lee Jackson and threw him up against a cigarette machine, where Alabama State Trooper James Fowler shot him twice in the belly at very close range. Then the cops beat Mr. Jackson some more.
Maybe in another half-century, it might even a felony for an Alabama policeman to murder a Black man.
The Wisdom of American Corporations
They are giving China the knives for which to slice their own throats. Many American companies are "partnering" with China as the Chinese build a competitor to the 737.
They should ask the Russians how the Chinese "partner" on such projects. The Chinese blatantly reverse-engineer the foreign technology and then produce a shitload of copies without ever paying any license fees.
Any American company that expects anything less from China has shit for brains.
They should ask the Russians how the Chinese "partner" on such projects. The Chinese blatantly reverse-engineer the foreign technology and then produce a shitload of copies without ever paying any license fees.
Any American company that expects anything less from China has shit for brains.
Qantas A-380 Engine Explosion
This list of damage from the Qantas A-380 which had its #2 engine blow up is circulating around the aviation lists. I've added things from more than one of the posts to make a single list:
You can see the stains of fuel leaking from the tanks in this photo:
There were five pilots on the QANTAS flight; three were the normal crew (pilot co-pilot, relief pilot) and there were two additional pilots for line checks. All five were busy handling the emergency. I've heard that during some emergencies on Airbus aircraft, the ECAM can generate so many warnings that a two-pilot crew cannot keep up with them.
Word around the aviation community is that damage from the explosion cut the controls to the #1 engine, which was operating at or near full-power. #1 engine could not be shut down after landing; firefighters trained their hoses on the intake of the engine and shut it down by flooding it with water. This photo shows water streaming into #1 engine, though neither the photographer or the editors recognized what the photo showed. (That's not a slam at them; one would have to be pretty familiar with aviation to understand why it was necessary to flood an apparently undamaged jet engine with water.)
Because it was generating power, the flight and data recorders kept running. The flight recorder only records a set period of sounds, overwriting as it goes, so the initial audio from when the engine shelled itself was lost.
Large airliners maintain their center of gravity during long flights by transferring fuel. Having the CG out of limits does nasty things to the effectiveness of the controls.
One engine blown to bits, one engine screaming at full power, aircraft overweight for landing, half of the hydraulics out and the crew landed it with no additional damage and no casualties. That's a pretty good bit of flying.
* massive fuel leak in the left mid fuel tank (the beast has 11ECAM is the "Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor".
tanks, including in the horizontal stabiliser on the tail)
* massive fuel leak in the left inner fuel tank
* a hole on the flap canoe/fairing that you could fit your upper body through
* the aft gallery in the fuel system failed, preventing many fuel
transfer functions
* fuel jettison had problems due to the previous problem above
* bloody great hole in the upper wing surface
* partial failure of leading edge slats
* partial failure of speed brakes/ground spoilers
* shrapnel damage to the flaps
* TOTAL loss of all hydraulic fluid in the Green System (beast has 2
x 5,000 PSI systems, Green and Yellow)
* manual extension of landing gear
* loss of 1 generator and associated systems
* loss of brake anti-skid system
* unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using normal method after
landing due to major damage to systems
* unable to shutdown adjacent #1 engine using using the fire
switch. Therefore, no fire protection was available for that
engine after the explosion in #2
* #2 engine fire protection system was disabled
* ECAM warnings about major fuel imbalance because of fuel leaks on
left side, that were UNABLE to be fixed with cross-feeding
* fuel trapped in Trim Tank (in the tail). Therefore, possible major
CofG out-of-balance condition for landing
* left wing spar damaged
You can see the stains of fuel leaking from the tanks in this photo:
There were five pilots on the QANTAS flight; three were the normal crew (pilot co-pilot, relief pilot) and there were two additional pilots for line checks. All five were busy handling the emergency. I've heard that during some emergencies on Airbus aircraft, the ECAM can generate so many warnings that a two-pilot crew cannot keep up with them.
Word around the aviation community is that damage from the explosion cut the controls to the #1 engine, which was operating at or near full-power. #1 engine could not be shut down after landing; firefighters trained their hoses on the intake of the engine and shut it down by flooding it with water. This photo shows water streaming into #1 engine, though neither the photographer or the editors recognized what the photo showed. (That's not a slam at them; one would have to be pretty familiar with aviation to understand why it was necessary to flood an apparently undamaged jet engine with water.)
Because it was generating power, the flight and data recorders kept running. The flight recorder only records a set period of sounds, overwriting as it goes, so the initial audio from when the engine shelled itself was lost.
Large airliners maintain their center of gravity during long flights by transferring fuel. Having the CG out of limits does nasty things to the effectiveness of the controls.
One engine blown to bits, one engine screaming at full power, aircraft overweight for landing, half of the hydraulics out and the crew landed it with no additional damage and no casualties. That's a pretty good bit of flying.
A Nation of Pants-Wetters, or
Flying While Tattooed??
A man was briefly pulled from a Delta Airlines flight because another passenger didn't like his tattoos.
British civilians in the war kept their sanity while Luftwaffe aircraft were raining down bombs. They carried on while V-1s and V-2s came crashing down on them. They didn't crap their pants when the Irish Republican Army began detonating bombs in english cities.
Americans panic over the sight of a tattoo.
Get a fucking grip, people.
(H/T)
British civilians in the war kept their sanity while Luftwaffe aircraft were raining down bombs. They carried on while V-1s and V-2s came crashing down on them. They didn't crap their pants when the Irish Republican Army began detonating bombs in english cities.
Americans panic over the sight of a tattoo.
Get a fucking grip, people.
(H/T)
Saturday, November 13, 2010
A Beautiful Day to Fly
Clear skies, great visibility, no real wind to speak of, temps in the upper fifties. It couldn't have been much nicer for a day in November.
Some of the small valleys and hollows were misty, though. At first, I thought it was too warm and dry for ground fog. Then I realized what it was: The smoke from burning leaves. I didn't know that people still did that.
The line of trees in this photo that looks as though a scalpel was drawn down the line are the trees lining an old railroad right-of-way. It was once an alternate route for the 20th Century Limited. Much hay and produce for New York City traveled down that railroad.
The tracks were probably pulled up sometime after the Second World War.
Contour plowing:
This appears to be a private boarding school. It is of the kind that a kid might regard as "some goddamn hellhole at the corner of No and Where."
It's probably a very good school, for all I know. But it still might as well be on Mars as far as the kids are concerned.
Finally, a short-wing Piper at the end of its flying day:
Some of the small valleys and hollows were misty, though. At first, I thought it was too warm and dry for ground fog. Then I realized what it was: The smoke from burning leaves. I didn't know that people still did that.
The line of trees in this photo that looks as though a scalpel was drawn down the line are the trees lining an old railroad right-of-way. It was once an alternate route for the 20th Century Limited. Much hay and produce for New York City traveled down that railroad.
The tracks were probably pulled up sometime after the Second World War.
Contour plowing:
This appears to be a private boarding school. It is of the kind that a kid might regard as "some goddamn hellhole at the corner of No and Where."
It's probably a very good school, for all I know. But it still might as well be on Mars as far as the kids are concerned.
Finally, a short-wing Piper at the end of its flying day:
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