Saturday, February 16, 2013
SIGN OF THE TIMES
A sign I photographed outside the Coventry Village library yesterday.
What the hell does it mean? Is that not the most stupid sign you've ever seen?
CIVIL WAR
I have a number of letters written by one of the family who fought in the Civil War a long time ago. Tonight I thought I'd try to post some of the scans I made of them over Christmas. It may work. This was written to his sister fairly early in the war and comes from the first file of the letters. His unit was posted to a camp outside of Silver Spring, Tenn. Hopefully, the pages will embiggen if nudged. Wow, they look great on iPad.
Here is smooth copy of the letter. transcribed as he wrote it one hundred and fifty years ago,
Here is smooth copy of the letter. transcribed as he wrote it one hundred and fifty years ago,
Camp near Silver Springs Tenn.
Nov 16th 1862
Dear
Sister
Emma I have got back to my tent just now from hearing a good sermon
given by our Chaplain and having nothing else to do but read or write I
concluded to write letter to you and give you some little account of what we
have been doing for the last week and if you will send me a blank book I will
keep a full account of all the important things I see or see during the rest of
my time in the army which will be very interesting to look at in the future. We
arrived at this camp about a week ago but did not do any thing until yesterday
when we went on a reconnaissance to Lebanon, Tenn which about 11 miles a little
south of east of this camp. We started from our camp at 9 in the morning and
got into the town about 1 in the afternoon by fighting some of the rebs cavalry
but none of our men was hurt. We destroyed the works in a large grist mill and
left the town on road to camp but had not got far until we heard the women and
children calling for us to come and put out the fire that the mill was burning
with all the flour in it but we (the enemy) told them that it was not our
intention to burn the mill but that scoundrel had set fire to it but that
perhaps it was all the better for it to burn so we would not put it for them
but if their husbands and sons and fathers and brothers would come home from
the confederate army we would give them a chance to do so but we would
not do so for the rebs might come and repare the mill again and use it which we
did not want them to do. They then told the Gen to put a guard over the mill
and not let the rebs use it. The reply of the Gen, was that it was not the
intention of the commander of this army to leave troops at every town but to
destroy what would do them any good and keep the army together, after making the
above reply he gave the order forward and arriving at camp just 15 minutes
after 12 P.M. I have heard cannonading for some time but I do not know who it
is but it is off toward Murfreysburough Tenn which is 18 miles south of here. I
am going to write to Ma this afternoon and will give her the rest of the knews.
Give my respects to all and still will I be remaining your affectionate
brother.
Luther Beaver
SOMETHING SHINY
Exile in Portales provided an interesting opportunity to test the incredible writing of this site. He pointed us at: http://www.readability-score.com/ This clever little site takes text from a blog site and computes all manner of smart intelligent shiny things. So I did it anyway.
The numbers are in:
Reading Ease
A higher score indicates easier readability; scores usually range between 0 and 100.
Grade Levels
A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. Scores over 22 should generally be taken to mean graduate level text.
I'm happy with that. Clear and concise prose is what I was trained to write and pretty much what I write with the odd bit of snark thrown in --- always. I read a graduate level paper last week waxing lyrical about layered polymers of all things and my eyes were bleeding midway through. I shudder to think what would happen to them if I tried to read anything coming out of the MLA's chapped little hands. I pasted in some of that polymer paper and the results were too horrible to reveal.
I am going to post some Civil War letters followed later by stupid signs.
Oh, and if you use the shiny web site on your own blog do try to select the longest winded and most turgid prose you can find if you want to get your numbers up there in graduate level territory. Lots of syllables and stuff like that.
The numbers are in:
Reading Ease
A higher score indicates easier readability; scores usually range between 0 and 100.
| Readability Formula | Score |
|---|---|
| Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease | 58.4 |
Grade Levels
A grade level (based on the USA education system) is equivalent to the number of years of education a person has had. Scores over 22 should generally be taken to mean graduate level text.
| Readability Formula | Grade |
|---|---|
| Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level | 11 |
| Gunning-Fog Score | 13.8 |
| Coleman-Liau Index | 11.2 |
| SMOG Index | 9.9 |
| Automated Readability Index | 12.1 |
| Average Grade Level | 11.6 |
I'm happy with that. Clear and concise prose is what I was trained to write and pretty much what I write with the odd bit of snark thrown in --- always. I read a graduate level paper last week waxing lyrical about layered polymers of all things and my eyes were bleeding midway through. I shudder to think what would happen to them if I tried to read anything coming out of the MLA's chapped little hands. I pasted in some of that polymer paper and the results were too horrible to reveal.
I am going to post some Civil War letters followed later by stupid signs.
Oh, and if you use the shiny web site on your own blog do try to select the longest winded and most turgid prose you can find if you want to get your numbers up there in graduate level territory. Lots of syllables and stuff like that.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND
An article today from Investors Business Daily describes the latest Gallup poll that finds that 92% of Pakistanis dislike US. That sounds fair. We are after all the ones behind the drone strikes that kill hundreds of our enemies in Pakistan. OK and we also shell them on their side of the border when their army gets frisky and shoots at ours in Afghanistan. Oh OK, we also launch full scale raids into their country with the aim of killing our enemies holed up there.
Well, that worked out well: 92% of Pakistanis dislike America
The writer enjoys twitting the regime here for their "smart diplomacy" but I think we have common ground with our friends in Pakistan; all 800 of them. Americans despise Pakistan. Pakistan created the Taliban and it created Al Queda and it deliberately with malice aforethought moved its forces to destabilize and topple the regimes in Afghanistan. I don't doubt that it supported the vicious attack carried out by Pakistani extremist haters in Mumbai a couple of years ago. More disgusting than that: Pakistan knowingly played host and protector for bin Laden after 9/11.
Well, that worked out well: 92% of Pakistanis dislike America
The writer enjoys twitting the regime here for their "smart diplomacy" but I think we have common ground with our friends in Pakistan; all 800 of them. Americans despise Pakistan. Pakistan created the Taliban and it created Al Queda and it deliberately with malice aforethought moved its forces to destabilize and topple the regimes in Afghanistan. I don't doubt that it supported the vicious attack carried out by Pakistani extremist haters in Mumbai a couple of years ago. More disgusting than that: Pakistan knowingly played host and protector for bin Laden after 9/11.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
IMPERIAL WAR REVIEW
This is a hoot. Take a look at the link and the first comment. It reads exactly like the usual comments to military blog sites discussing the incredible damage budget cuts and blindfolds will do to our military by short-sighted non-thinking anti-myrmidons. Pesky anti-myrmidons.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/battle-of-hoth/
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/02/battle-of-hoth/
Monday, February 11, 2013
ABYSSAL DARKNESS
I hadn't known any murderers in my life.
I'm pretty sure that I met LT Dorner a long time ago back when he was a member of Squadron 34. I met most of them as they went through their workup after mobilization before heading overseas to Kuwait. I was initially thrown by reports that he was with a riverine unit in Bahrain but other reports indicated that he was in MIUWU 105 and I knew almost all of them at and around that time. In 2006 what we had in Bahrain was Mobile Security Detachment Bahrain and it worked for Mobile Security Squadron Three under Navy Coastal Warfare Group One and I'd forgotten that they played host to our reserve Embarked Security Detachments that were created out of and manned with a lot of the Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare personnel immediately after Operation Enduring Freedom began. The ESD deployed to the Persian Gulf and elsewhere to provide embarked security teams for ships of the Military Sealift Command in the Mediterranean and Central Command areas.
The events since the murders at Newtown have concerned me because some forces are trying to use that violence in an effort to shape a confrontation best avoided and one that is completely unnecessary. Words like 'confiscation, seizure and ban' enacted into law by vote or executive fiat is asking for violence.
People who see no options are faced with two stark choices; the path Aaron Swartz opted for rather than spend the rest of his life in jail because the federal prosecutor was on a personal jihad or Dorner's way out. The end result is the same. Judges, District Attorneys and the various people who routinely get away with wounding dozens of innocent bystanders are generating incoherent rage. It's not truly incoherent but once all the legal alternatives have been exhausted the option remains for those that believe they have been denied justice. Picking a fight that the other guy can't win doesn't always mean that the stronger party survives to witness victory. We see it every day where death IS the victory.
I think it's safe to say that Dorner is headed for the clearing at the end of the path. According to his lights he was mortally wounded by people he has taken the trouble to name. If they thought that he couldn't hurt them because they are armed and guarded I'm afraid that he is reminding them of what it means to have 'hostages to fortune.' Those police officers made and left a live enemy behind them and didn't care at all. They made a terrible mistake.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
I'm pretty sure that I met LT Dorner a long time ago back when he was a member of Squadron 34. I met most of them as they went through their workup after mobilization before heading overseas to Kuwait. I was initially thrown by reports that he was with a riverine unit in Bahrain but other reports indicated that he was in MIUWU 105 and I knew almost all of them at and around that time. In 2006 what we had in Bahrain was Mobile Security Detachment Bahrain and it worked for Mobile Security Squadron Three under Navy Coastal Warfare Group One and I'd forgotten that they played host to our reserve Embarked Security Detachments that were created out of and manned with a lot of the Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare personnel immediately after Operation Enduring Freedom began. The ESD deployed to the Persian Gulf and elsewhere to provide embarked security teams for ships of the Military Sealift Command in the Mediterranean and Central Command areas.
The events since the murders at Newtown have concerned me because some forces are trying to use that violence in an effort to shape a confrontation best avoided and one that is completely unnecessary. Words like 'confiscation, seizure and ban' enacted into law by vote or executive fiat is asking for violence.
People who see no options are faced with two stark choices; the path Aaron Swartz opted for rather than spend the rest of his life in jail because the federal prosecutor was on a personal jihad or Dorner's way out. The end result is the same. Judges, District Attorneys and the various people who routinely get away with wounding dozens of innocent bystanders are generating incoherent rage. It's not truly incoherent but once all the legal alternatives have been exhausted the option remains for those that believe they have been denied justice. Picking a fight that the other guy can't win doesn't always mean that the stronger party survives to witness victory. We see it every day where death IS the victory.
I think it's safe to say that Dorner is headed for the clearing at the end of the path. According to his lights he was mortally wounded by people he has taken the trouble to name. If they thought that he couldn't hurt them because they are armed and guarded I'm afraid that he is reminding them of what it means to have 'hostages to fortune.' Those police officers made and left a live enemy behind them and didn't care at all. They made a terrible mistake.
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Dover Beach
Matthew Arnold
Sunday, February 10, 2013
SPATIAL DELIVERY
The first link is just a few seconds of film from the second link. Thanks to Goodstuff.
This is the full 2 minute video:
THE MOST INTERESTING SWO IN THE WORLD
I have copied this from Broadside Blog by Jeff Bacon and it's from Military Times. I included the original comments.
It's all true!
This was sent to me by my buddy Ernie, a Navy veteran and former shipmate. The author of this is unknown, but whoever wrote it is brilliant. May I present…
The Most Interesting SWO In The World
(Navy.mil)
He is always the stand-on vessel.
Stars navigate by him.
He always eyeballs it.
He wears wash khakis under his NWUs.
The equator crosses him.
He has sailed the eighth sea.
He got his SWO pin in two days. The first was spent checking in.
Detailers ask him about their career progression.
He doesn’t dead reckon…he dead knows.
He maintains a permanent no-shave chit signed by Adm Zumwalt.
His ship’s aren’t INSPECTED by INSURV, they are ADMIRED.
He won the annual TYCOM Shiphandler of the year award in 1996…twice.
He doesn’t call them Battle Orders, for by the time someone reads them, the Battle is over.
The carrier does plane guard for him.
Marine mammals avoid him.
Clocks retard and advance to conform to him.
He once conned a ship alongside an oiler…….while aboard the oiler.
The CNO asks him for permission to carry on with duties assigned.
He has caught a leviathan and a mermaid. He released them both, of course, and wished them well.
Aviators ask him for stories.
His NMCI account works flawlessly.
He invented the MOBOARD.
He is always on station.
Dolphins taught him the sonar equation.
He maintains the Secret Billet List.
Lights the plant off by himself… from the bridge.
His sea stories have changed foreign policy.
He once won the Battle E for three different classes of ship in one year…while on shore duty.
He caught a cold once. His ship sent a CAT-4 CASREP.
He can carry an open coffee cup from shaft alley to the pilothouse without spilling a drop.
CO’s call him to report contacts.
The Rules of the Road read, “Whatever this man wants”.
He is… the most interesting SWO in the world!
It's all true!
Broadside Blog
The most interesting SWO in the world
Posted by Bacon on January 30th, 2013 filed in Broadside momentsThis was sent to me by my buddy Ernie, a Navy veteran and former shipmate. The author of this is unknown, but whoever wrote it is brilliant. May I present…
The Most Interesting SWO In The World
(Navy.mil)
He is always the stand-on vessel.
Stars navigate by him.
He always eyeballs it.
He wears wash khakis under his NWUs.
The equator crosses him.
He has sailed the eighth sea.
He got his SWO pin in two days. The first was spent checking in.
Detailers ask him about their career progression.
He doesn’t dead reckon…he dead knows.
He maintains a permanent no-shave chit signed by Adm Zumwalt.
His ship’s aren’t INSPECTED by INSURV, they are ADMIRED.
He won the annual TYCOM Shiphandler of the year award in 1996…twice.
He doesn’t call them Battle Orders, for by the time someone reads them, the Battle is over.
The carrier does plane guard for him.
Marine mammals avoid him.
Clocks retard and advance to conform to him.
He once conned a ship alongside an oiler…….while aboard the oiler.
The CNO asks him for permission to carry on with duties assigned.
He has caught a leviathan and a mermaid. He released them both, of course, and wished them well.
Aviators ask him for stories.
His NMCI account works flawlessly.
He invented the MOBOARD.
He is always on station.
Dolphins taught him the sonar equation.
He maintains the Secret Billet List.
Lights the plant off by himself… from the bridge.
His sea stories have changed foreign policy.
He once won the Battle E for three different classes of ship in one year…while on shore duty.
He caught a cold once. His ship sent a CAT-4 CASREP.
He can carry an open coffee cup from shaft alley to the pilothouse without spilling a drop.
CO’s call him to report contacts.
The Rules of the Road read, “Whatever this man wants”.
He is… the most interesting SWO in the world!
7 Responses to “The most interesting SWO in the world”
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
THE WAR MACHINE
A lot of Americans wearing uniform forget or don't know that our war machine was created and allowed to balloon to enormous size because of the immediate threat to the country posed by the Soviet Union from 1950 until 1989. The USSR literally collapsed overnight as any kind of existential threat to the United States but we have kept and maintained an Army, Navy and Air Force capable of defeating the USSR at its military zenith for over 20 years now. We can look back and find that this was a worthwhile accomplishment given how well our forces engaged the enemies of the US in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Grenada, Panama, Libya, Lebanon, Mali, Somalia, Libya again, Iraq, Iran, Iraq again, Iran again, Haiti, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan.....I'm sensing a trend here.
So anyway, let's take a look at our avowed and declared enemies around the world. Those who hate America. Al Quida and the nORKs. The War Machine, it must be admitted, is overkill for the likes of Al Quida. Maybe we can trim a few ships, men and aircraft from the arsenal of democracy ~ or sell them abroad. The nORKs are pretty darned insular; not like the muslims. The nORKS bleed 'leave me alone.' I think we should just leave them alone. Everybody agrees. They're not like Syria with thousands of bleeding hearts in America and the West just thirsting for the US to send in the Marines and kill Syrians so no more Syrians get away with killing Syrians. Nope. Nobody on earth cares about what happens in nORKland.
Perhaps we are overdue to consider that the war machine we built in 1941 and lovingly maintained since then is no longer appropriate for the world of the 21st century. There are no more 'isms' out there that must be toppled or countered for the sake of humanity. Nation building is a fool's game. Ali A Mazrui did a wonderful series: 'Africans: A Triple Heritage' on the results from hundreds of years of trying to impose western civilization in all of Africa. It is one of the saddest things you will ever see how all that love and labor lavished on Africa was in vain for nothing.
Miscalculation was its ruling star.
Mutatis mutandis. Let us leave them to play with their own devices in their own way. Leave Us Time To Get Away.
So anyway, let's take a look at our avowed and declared enemies around the world. Those who hate America. Al Quida and the nORKs. The War Machine, it must be admitted, is overkill for the likes of Al Quida. Maybe we can trim a few ships, men and aircraft from the arsenal of democracy ~ or sell them abroad. The nORKs are pretty darned insular; not like the muslims. The nORKS bleed 'leave me alone.' I think we should just leave them alone. Everybody agrees. They're not like Syria with thousands of bleeding hearts in America and the West just thirsting for the US to send in the Marines and kill Syrians so no more Syrians get away with killing Syrians. Nope. Nobody on earth cares about what happens in nORKland.
Perhaps we are overdue to consider that the war machine we built in 1941 and lovingly maintained since then is no longer appropriate for the world of the 21st century. There are no more 'isms' out there that must be toppled or countered for the sake of humanity. Nation building is a fool's game. Ali A Mazrui did a wonderful series: 'Africans: A Triple Heritage' on the results from hundreds of years of trying to impose western civilization in all of Africa. It is one of the saddest things you will ever see how all that love and labor lavished on Africa was in vain for nothing.
Miscalculation was its ruling star.
Mutatis mutandis. Let us leave them to play with their own devices in their own way. Leave Us Time To Get Away.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
TWO POIGNANT VIEWS
The first today came from Ninme's site. It is a fascinating look at another culture in another time translated over the centuries. It's possible that the Amish and Mennonite cultures are viewed by others as I view this story and worth keeping in mind if one reads the link. It is easy to ask throughout why the geologists didn't do more and harder to understand that the answer lay with the family. The photo is their home on the Taiga in Siberia shot from a Russian Reconnaissance plane in 1980.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html
The
next is from Maggie's Farm and you will kick yourself if you don't take
the time to look. There were parts of Paris from photos a hundred years
old that look like Paris the last time I was there. They didn't have as much artillery scattered around but it looked the same.
http://www.paris1914.com/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-Russian-Family-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html
http://www.paris1914.com/
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
TIME ENOUGH
There will be time enough it seems for me to enjoy these aspects of winter in Ohio....except the downhill parts there not being a hill for miles in any direction.
Let's be careful out there.
Let's be careful out there.
Monday, January 28, 2013
ON MY MIND
I've been thinking about this place as the cold and wet days of winter advance into Spring.
Courtesy of Powerline.
It's quite true and accurate.
Courtesy of Powerline.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
A COMPENDIUM OF DOING IT RIGHT
This video shows the awesomeness of the human body as people achieve what they set out to. This is the reverse of all the painful to watch fail videos. Enjoy.
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
TWO IF BY STAMP
Inspired by Anne Bonney at Gunsmoke and Knitting I am going to look for more of these.
There are some others that I like which will appear here. I had in mind some blueprints but I'm finding them difficult to render as acceptable fodder for the blogmaw. .pdf won't do at all.
There are some others that I like which will appear here. I had in mind some blueprints but I'm finding them difficult to render as acceptable fodder for the blogmaw. .pdf won't do at all.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
TIME MOVES LIKE THE SEA
I wake up each day and check to see if anything momentous has happened. I sometimes hope that something profound happened overnight but usually I'm content to read the news.
Courtesy of Vanderleun,
"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him
Courtesy of Vanderleun,
"Do not blame Caesar, blame the people of Rome who have so enthusiastically acclaimed and adored him
and rejoiced in their loss of freedom and danced in his path and given him triumphal processions. Blame the people who hail him when he speaks in the Forum of the new wonderful good society which shall now be Rome’s, interpreted to mean more money, more ease, more security, and more living fatly at the expense of the industrious." -- Marcus Tullius CiceroWe all know what happened to Caesar.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
GUARDIAN ON THE REEF
Here is a ship stranded on a reef. Usually when that happens very bad things are done to the captain. Supposed to know better than that. Staying and keeping afloat tends to require that one does not rip the bottom out of the ship. But now it appears that perhaps the ship found itself there because the National Geospace Intelligence Agency had plotted that reef 8 miles from where it really is and distributed that wrong incorrect unbelievably stupid misinformation to the fleet in Digital Nautical Charts which were endorsed signed and approved by any number of admirals as being 100% reliable go to sources for all charting and navigation matters.
Oops.
Are any admiral heads going to roll?
Oops.
Are any admiral heads going to roll?
Thursday, January 17, 2013
FARTHEST HORIZON
Curiosity prepares to drill on Mars
View from Rocknest, Mars. My place is just on the other side of the hill on the right.
Monday, January 14, 2013
THIS IS IT
Some people are like Slinkies ... no purpose, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
IRONY
Found at Patterico's. He claims to have it from George Takei's page,
I would watch this phenomena at dinner.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
STRIKE WARFARE
Yesterday's post has me thinking a bit more about drones and their employment by the US government in this century to snuff the life out of people without warning. The government has found that it has the power, authority and means to legally terminate not just enemies of the state but also Americans it disagrees with. I think that we will come to regret both the act and any smear of legal validation our courts have given to this practice once enemies of the government determine that anybody with a drone can be sovereign for a day and start using them against the ruling elite in this country.
It's not that hard to make the devices since most of the components can be purchased off the shelf. Guidance systems, once the most difficult aspect in weapon system design is as simple as ordering up a GPS unit. Stealth is practically forced on modern drone builders looking for larger payloads by reducing the weight of the airframe and power plant and therefore turning to composites. Traditionalists always opted for high explosive ordnance but the subway attack in Japan using nerve gas shows that just about anybody can make lethal neurotoxins and a few gallons of pure evil go a long way.
Drones can be launched from just about anywhere. They don't need airfields and runways since all they need is a space wide enough and long enough to get off the ground. Returning is not in the plan. There is no particular reason to launch the drone close to the target. A drone built along the lines of Rutan's Voyager which had a crew of two and fuel enough to go all the way around the world without refueling in 1986 would easily have a 1000 pound payload.
Enemies of the United States would have no shortage of kamikaze pilots without any need for fancy electronics. Enemies of the government of the United States would have little difficulty putting together unmanned versions. Consider that these drones may not be considered dangerous by the ruling class in Washington but that is because the skies over DC are patrolled by armed aircraft and there are active ground based defenses scattered around it. However, drones intercepted and shot down before reaching their intended target have a characteristic common with all aircraft; there's just enough time and fuel remaining to get to the scene of the crash/explosion/chemical release. Anybody in the projected flight path to the target is at risk whether from an unplanned crash or from the deliberate destruction of the drone by other means.
USMC F-18 ran out of engines 2 miles short of the runway.
I thought about this as I read General McChrystal's remarks today about how much hatred there is in the rest of the world for the US by those who oppose drone strikes. The first time I saw a reference to this was in "The Moon Goddess and the Son" by Donald Kingsbury. In the book the drone was built and targeted by disaffected Soviet hating young terrorists from Afghanistan protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
All of this makes the utter waste and stupidity of the TSA and HLS more painful to put up with. Consider that the same effects can be achieved more easily with a truck bomb.
This was Khobar. Those that know swore blind that there was absolutely no evidence of ANY high explosives in the Kingdom before the attack. One needs to get the explosive much closer than one would think to have the desired effect. Having watched semis push Jersey barriers out of the way with their front bumpers in order to negotiate the turn into my office complex in the days, months, years after 9/11, I'm not sanguine about keeping such things at a safe distance, never mind the drone variants.
It's not that hard to make the devices since most of the components can be purchased off the shelf. Guidance systems, once the most difficult aspect in weapon system design is as simple as ordering up a GPS unit. Stealth is practically forced on modern drone builders looking for larger payloads by reducing the weight of the airframe and power plant and therefore turning to composites. Traditionalists always opted for high explosive ordnance but the subway attack in Japan using nerve gas shows that just about anybody can make lethal neurotoxins and a few gallons of pure evil go a long way.
Drones can be launched from just about anywhere. They don't need airfields and runways since all they need is a space wide enough and long enough to get off the ground. Returning is not in the plan. There is no particular reason to launch the drone close to the target. A drone built along the lines of Rutan's Voyager which had a crew of two and fuel enough to go all the way around the world without refueling in 1986 would easily have a 1000 pound payload.
Enemies of the United States would have no shortage of kamikaze pilots without any need for fancy electronics. Enemies of the government of the United States would have little difficulty putting together unmanned versions. Consider that these drones may not be considered dangerous by the ruling class in Washington but that is because the skies over DC are patrolled by armed aircraft and there are active ground based defenses scattered around it. However, drones intercepted and shot down before reaching their intended target have a characteristic common with all aircraft; there's just enough time and fuel remaining to get to the scene of the crash/explosion/chemical release. Anybody in the projected flight path to the target is at risk whether from an unplanned crash or from the deliberate destruction of the drone by other means.
I thought about this as I read General McChrystal's remarks today about how much hatred there is in the rest of the world for the US by those who oppose drone strikes. The first time I saw a reference to this was in "The Moon Goddess and the Son" by Donald Kingsbury. In the book the drone was built and targeted by disaffected Soviet hating young terrorists from Afghanistan protesting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
All of this makes the utter waste and stupidity of the TSA and HLS more painful to put up with. Consider that the same effects can be achieved more easily with a truck bomb.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
January 31st, 2013 at 12:56 pm [...] via Broadside Blog – Military Times – The most interesting SWO in the world. [...]
February 1st, 2013 at 10:56 am - Stay angery my friend.
- Stay tired my friend.
- Stay sleepless my friend.
- Stay on station my friend.
Who can come up with the best closing quote?
February 1st, 2013 at 11:06 am He slept once, just to see what it was like to be a Supply officer.
February 1st, 2013 at 11:07 am - He tells OTSR where to route ships.
February 6th, 2013 at 10:08 am Something I made:
http://qkme.me/3svkby
Enjoy!
February 7th, 2013 at 3:42 am The Supply Officer comment is an absolute classic! I heard from a reliable source that it will be forwarded on, destined to live on within the Supply community.
February 8th, 2013 at 4:20 pm [...] well, I didn’t write. It was a poem, except it didn’t rhyme, and was called, “The Most Interesting SWO In The World.” It was hilarious and well-written, and like I said, I did not write it. I hate it when that [...]