Back in July the new British government of Theresa May ordered a "review" of the project. Back then, the "review" was seen as an indefinite delay. Well, will wonders never cease? Today the Wall St Journal announces that the Brits have given the project a go ahead. The work will be done by Electricite de France, with financing by China General Nuclear Power Corp.
The Brits have imposed some restrictions on the builders selling out their shares in the plant without Her Majesty's government approval.
The announced price of $23.8 billion is way high. You can put up a 1 Gigawatt nuclear plant for $4 to $5 billion in this country.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Air Force bites off more than it can chew.
Or fund. The big three money suckers. The F35 fighter. Cost is outta sight. The software isn't finished. The gun doesn't fire, the engines cannot take more than 5.6 G. The KC-46 tanker project. The Air Force managed to gold plate a simple "put tanks inside a well proven airliner" project into an ongoing boondoggle that is running late and over budget. The new B-21 strategic bomber, this is going to be a somewhat smaller, and hopefully cheaper, version of the B2 bomber. It's just getting started, but the project did make it thru a bid challenge by the loser[s] (Boeing and Lockheed). Aviation Week did not offer much in the way of cost estimates on the big three. I'd guess $1 trillion over the next 10 years.
And, after the top three projects, we have a four projects in to the Request for Proposal, going out for bids, study project phase. We have a new jet trainer to replace the capable but ageing T-38 Talon. A new ICBM to replace the Minuteman III. The Long Range Standoff Missile to arm the new B21, and re arm the B-52, B1, B2 fleet. A new helicopter for VIP transport.
And even further out, an A10 replacement. Which is hard to think about. The existing A-10 is good at what it does. It's a ground attack fighter that can fly low enough and slow enough for the pilot to see and hit his ground target. Once the airplane can do that, it isn't fast enough to dogfight with mach 2 jet fighters. The answer to this short coming is to provide fighter cover for the A-10s as needed. Bombers have needed fighter escort ever since WWII.
The Air Force isn't going to be able to round up the funding to do all of this stuff at once.
And, after the top three projects, we have a four projects in to the Request for Proposal, going out for bids, study project phase. We have a new jet trainer to replace the capable but ageing T-38 Talon. A new ICBM to replace the Minuteman III. The Long Range Standoff Missile to arm the new B21, and re arm the B-52, B1, B2 fleet. A new helicopter for VIP transport.
And even further out, an A10 replacement. Which is hard to think about. The existing A-10 is good at what it does. It's a ground attack fighter that can fly low enough and slow enough for the pilot to see and hit his ground target. Once the airplane can do that, it isn't fast enough to dogfight with mach 2 jet fighters. The answer to this short coming is to provide fighter cover for the A-10s as needed. Bombers have needed fighter escort ever since WWII.
The Air Force isn't going to be able to round up the funding to do all of this stuff at once.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Trump proposes 6 week paid family leave for new mothers.
Not a bad idea. Birth of a child is the most important event in a person's life. New born infants require pretty much full time care. Mothers, and fathers, feel an enormous compulsion to gave that care. Any responsible employer ought to be willing to cough up six weeks wages to ease the stress on their valuable employees.
There were some other ideas from Trump, mostly making child care costs deductable. You could do that, but simpler, just as effective, and requiring less paper work is to raise the exemption taxpayers already get for each dependent.
There were some other ideas from Trump, mostly making child care costs deductable. You could do that, but simpler, just as effective, and requiring less paper work is to raise the exemption taxpayers already get for each dependent.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Vetting or "extreme vetting" of refugees
"Vetting" nice bureaucrat word, not defined in dictionaries. The word appears in my Webster's but the definition concerns veterinary care for animals. We think the bureaucrats mean checking a refugee's background with his home country authorities. You ask questions like "is this person really a citizen of your country?" and "can we see his police records?" and "Was he gainfully employed before he left your country for America?" and "Did he have a driver's license?" and "What are the names of his wife and children?" and "How far did he go in schooling?"
For real countries, for example England or Japan, this works. There are authorities over there, we know who they are, they have access to written records and they want to cooperate with the United States because of the 800 pound gorilla effect. (What do you say to an 800 pound gorilla? Ans: Sir!) We can believe what the authorities of real countries tell us.
This doesn't work for Syria and similar places. In Syria the authorities are either the Bashar Assad regime or the various rebel groups. Depends on where you telephone. We cannot believe anything that either group will tell us. The records may well have been bombed or shelled or burned.
So no matter what anyone says, admitting a refugee from places like Syria is a risk, they might be enemy agents looking to do us harm. We cannot get trustworthy information from their home authorities, mostly because there aren't any left. The best we can do is interview them, using sympathetic interviewers who speak their mother tongue, and know the area from which the refugee claims he is coming from. I'd say a good interviewer could catch many, but not all, enemy agents pretending to be refugees.
The refugees have suffered terribly, you don't flee your homeland unless things get really bad. I feel sorry for them and want to help them out. Letting them into the United States is a great big help out. And, we need young working age immigrants to keep our population growing.
And, I don't worry about enemy agents infiltrating as refugees. Was I ISIS or the like, and I wanted to get an agent into the US, I'd come up with papers and plane fare to Canada. Then he could walk across the border just about anywhere. More dependable than being a refugee who might or might not get admitted.
For real countries, for example England or Japan, this works. There are authorities over there, we know who they are, they have access to written records and they want to cooperate with the United States because of the 800 pound gorilla effect. (What do you say to an 800 pound gorilla? Ans: Sir!) We can believe what the authorities of real countries tell us.
This doesn't work for Syria and similar places. In Syria the authorities are either the Bashar Assad regime or the various rebel groups. Depends on where you telephone. We cannot believe anything that either group will tell us. The records may well have been bombed or shelled or burned.
So no matter what anyone says, admitting a refugee from places like Syria is a risk, they might be enemy agents looking to do us harm. We cannot get trustworthy information from their home authorities, mostly because there aren't any left. The best we can do is interview them, using sympathetic interviewers who speak their mother tongue, and know the area from which the refugee claims he is coming from. I'd say a good interviewer could catch many, but not all, enemy agents pretending to be refugees.
The refugees have suffered terribly, you don't flee your homeland unless things get really bad. I feel sorry for them and want to help them out. Letting them into the United States is a great big help out. And, we need young working age immigrants to keep our population growing.
And, I don't worry about enemy agents infiltrating as refugees. Was I ISIS or the like, and I wanted to get an agent into the US, I'd come up with papers and plane fare to Canada. Then he could walk across the border just about anywhere. More dependable than being a refugee who might or might not get admitted.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Shannara Chronicles
This swords and sorcery fantasy TV show hit the airwaves (cable waves?) back last fall. I caught a couple of episodes off the cable over the winter before they killed the show. It made it onto Netflix recently and so I signed up for the total season (just 3 DVD's) to see what it looked like.
The name of the show comes from the Terry Brooks fantasy novels, the plot borrows heavily from Tolkien. The unnamed world is threatened by an invasion of demons, ugly bad guys who look like Tolkien's orcs, but have magic powers too. . It stars three characters, Handsome Boyish Hero, Good Chick, and Bad Chick. Good chick, is an Elvin (NOT Tolkien's spelling of the word) princess. who volunteers/is selected for a mission to save the world. She starts off carrying a silver flower blossom (puts me in mind of the Ring of Power), with handsome boyish hero and Bad Chick for travel companions. Destination of her mission is never made clear to me. Bad chick is daughter of a human bandit chieftain and starts out doing banditry. As time goes on, she falls in love with handsome boyish hero, which does her good, and she stops doing bad, and starts doing good. What makes the show hard to follow, is that Good Chick and Bad Chick look so much alike it's hard to keep them straight. They are both brunettes, they wear their hair the same way, they both have very fair completions, they both have superb figures, they dress the same, they both do martial arts with the best of them, and they both are soon in love with Handsome Boyish Hero. Somehow, after quite a few episodes, they become friends with each other, rather than fighting it out for the attention of Handsome Boyish Hero. The only things distinguishing one from the other is that Good Chick is taller than Bad Chick, but Bad Chick is cuter.
Anyhow, it was good enough for me to watch all three discs and stay awake til the end of each episode. If you like fantasy this one is fairly OK.
The name of the show comes from the Terry Brooks fantasy novels, the plot borrows heavily from Tolkien. The unnamed world is threatened by an invasion of demons, ugly bad guys who look like Tolkien's orcs, but have magic powers too. . It stars three characters, Handsome Boyish Hero, Good Chick, and Bad Chick. Good chick, is an Elvin (NOT Tolkien's spelling of the word) princess. who volunteers/is selected for a mission to save the world. She starts off carrying a silver flower blossom (puts me in mind of the Ring of Power), with handsome boyish hero and Bad Chick for travel companions. Destination of her mission is never made clear to me. Bad chick is daughter of a human bandit chieftain and starts out doing banditry. As time goes on, she falls in love with handsome boyish hero, which does her good, and she stops doing bad, and starts doing good. What makes the show hard to follow, is that Good Chick and Bad Chick look so much alike it's hard to keep them straight. They are both brunettes, they wear their hair the same way, they both have very fair completions, they both have superb figures, they dress the same, they both do martial arts with the best of them, and they both are soon in love with Handsome Boyish Hero. Somehow, after quite a few episodes, they become friends with each other, rather than fighting it out for the attention of Handsome Boyish Hero. The only things distinguishing one from the other is that Good Chick is taller than Bad Chick, but Bad Chick is cuter.
Anyhow, it was good enough for me to watch all three discs and stay awake til the end of each episode. If you like fantasy this one is fairly OK.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Summer home shop project
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Price Inversions
Seen at my local grocery market, hot dogs $6 a pound, Chicken $1.29 a pound. Looks like good old beans and franks ain't cheap anymore.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Norks finally get the bomb
Took 'em five test shots before it worked right. The first four Nork tests had yields in the one kiloton area. That's a fizzle in most people's books. Where as the United States was able to produce TWO functional nuclear weapons in 1945 with only one test shot. The Little Boy gun type uranium bomb was so well understood that it was sent into action without a test, and produced a 20 kiloton yield that devastated Hiroshima. Fat Man, the far more tricky implosion type plutonium bomb, was tested once in Nevada before being dropped on Nagasaki. In action, it worked properly, with a 20 kiloton yield, and vaporized Nagasaki.
Getting a fission bomb to explode is tricky. You have to assemble a critical mass of fissionables, either by gun style assembly or implosion, and hold it together long enough (nanoseconds) for the neutrons to fission the fissionables. If the energy released in the first few nanoseconds blows the bomb to bits, you don't get a 20 kiloton yield, you get a fizzle.
We let the Norks run off five nuclear tests, and finally they got it together, achieved city smashing yield, and we did nothing to stop them.
Getting a fission bomb to explode is tricky. You have to assemble a critical mass of fissionables, either by gun style assembly or implosion, and hold it together long enough (nanoseconds) for the neutrons to fission the fissionables. If the energy released in the first few nanoseconds blows the bomb to bits, you don't get a 20 kiloton yield, you get a fizzle.
We let the Norks run off five nuclear tests, and finally they got it together, achieved city smashing yield, and we did nothing to stop them.
Bring back paper ballots
They cannot be hacked by the Russians. And they can be recounted should there be some irregularities, or challenges. And they don't suffer from hanging chads. We could do it. There is plenty of time to print ballots for the entire country before the election. Up here there is never a lack of public spirited citizens to count ballots on election night.
And the various ways of cheating on paper ballots have been around for centuries and are well known. Precautions against ballot box stuffing and other chicanery can be taken.
Them voting machines, which are small computers run by software, and we all know how trustworthy software is, can be hacked to change the election result, and there is no way to tell. No paper record, and nobody can decipher the software, so you can't prove a thing. All it takes is one party fanatic with access to the machines, and he can do anything, and leave no traces. And if the election committee is stupid enough to connect their election machines to the public internet, all bets are off. Anything can happen.
And the various ways of cheating on paper ballots have been around for centuries and are well known. Precautions against ballot box stuffing and other chicanery can be taken.
Them voting machines, which are small computers run by software, and we all know how trustworthy software is, can be hacked to change the election result, and there is no way to tell. No paper record, and nobody can decipher the software, so you can't prove a thing. All it takes is one party fanatic with access to the machines, and he can do anything, and leave no traces. And if the election committee is stupid enough to connect their election machines to the public internet, all bets are off. Anything can happen.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Epipens are only $20 in Europe
And we could have them over here for that price if we passed a federal law allowing duty free import of medicines from any reasonable first world country. Like Canada, the EU, Japan, a few other places. First world countries all have regulations on the sale of medicine. If they rule a medicine OK for sale to their citizens then it's OK for Americans too. FDA doesn't get to block imports. If it's legal in the country of origin, the law shall make it legal here.
The reason Epipens are selling for $600 here is that FDA shut down all the competitors. Nothing fancy in Epipen, its just adrenalin in an easy to use hypodermic needle. No patents, no nothing, but FDA kindly drove all the competitors off the market. Nice work for Mylan.
The reason Epipens are selling for $600 here is that FDA shut down all the competitors. Nothing fancy in Epipen, its just adrenalin in an easy to use hypodermic needle. No patents, no nothing, but FDA kindly drove all the competitors off the market. Nice work for Mylan.
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Battles that Changed History
An oldie but a goodie. First published in 1956 when I was in middle school. I saw it in a Harvard Square bookstore, and thought it was so cool. I begged and pleaded with the parents and somehow I received a copy for birthday and read it cover to cover. Pratt starts off with Alexander the Great, moves up thru Pyrrus of Epirus (from whom we get Pyrric victory), the siege of Vienna, the revolt of the Netherlands, and ending with the carrier battles of Midway. Although it concentrates on the military history of Western Civilization, the book is a good introduction to Western European history.
The writer, Fletcher Pratt is a helova good writer. He made his living dong decent science fiction, good stuff that sold, and he knows the periods of which he writes well, gives all sorts of interesting details. Pratt is a good fun read, and in this book the reader gets at good abet sketchy history of the Western world going back 2500 years. If you have a middle school child or grandchild, this book would be a class A gift.
The writer, Fletcher Pratt is a helova good writer. He made his living dong decent science fiction, good stuff that sold, and he knows the periods of which he writes well, gives all sorts of interesting details. Pratt is a good fun read, and in this book the reader gets at good abet sketchy history of the Western world going back 2500 years. If you have a middle school child or grandchild, this book would be a class A gift.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
What small children ought to know
And it's your responsibility to tell 'em about it.
1. Beware of going into the street. The cars will run right over you. Stay on the sidewalk. If a toy or a ball rolls into the street, don't go after it. Find a grownup to retrieve it.
2. Beware of going out on the ice. If the ice breaks, you are dumped into freezing water over your head. Your chances of pulling yourself out are poor, especially after the water soaks into your winter coat and snowpants making them very heavy. My mother required us kids to wack a hole in the ice with a pickax to see if it was four inches thick. Any less than four inches and we couldn't go skating on it.
3. Stay away from the stove. I still remember my mother touching a paper towel to a dark electric stove burner and watching it burst into flame.
4. Beware of electric sockets, light sockets and lamp cords. If the insulation is old or bad, they can kill.
5. Beware of power mowers. They can fling rocks and stuff with the speed and force of bullets. Stay away.
6. Beware of wild animals and strange dogs. Don't try to pet them, they may take it the wrong way, and bite you.
7. Beware of cars with engines running. They may be parked at curbside, standing in driveways, or parking lots. If the engine is running (smoke from tailpipe, and/or lights on) the car is getting ready to move. Stay well clear, since you are short and the driver may not be able to see you.
8. Dress for winter when going out in winter. Coat, boots, mittens and hat. Maybe snow pants too. Even if going by car. One dark Friday night the car engine lost power going up Franconia Notch with all three kids in the back seat. We might have had to walk out, four miles or more. Fortunately I was able to fix the problem by flashlight and we drove on. But we also had the needed winter gear to walk it should it have been necessary.
1. Beware of going into the street. The cars will run right over you. Stay on the sidewalk. If a toy or a ball rolls into the street, don't go after it. Find a grownup to retrieve it.
2. Beware of going out on the ice. If the ice breaks, you are dumped into freezing water over your head. Your chances of pulling yourself out are poor, especially after the water soaks into your winter coat and snowpants making them very heavy. My mother required us kids to wack a hole in the ice with a pickax to see if it was four inches thick. Any less than four inches and we couldn't go skating on it.
3. Stay away from the stove. I still remember my mother touching a paper towel to a dark electric stove burner and watching it burst into flame.
4. Beware of electric sockets, light sockets and lamp cords. If the insulation is old or bad, they can kill.
5. Beware of power mowers. They can fling rocks and stuff with the speed and force of bullets. Stay away.
6. Beware of wild animals and strange dogs. Don't try to pet them, they may take it the wrong way, and bite you.
7. Beware of cars with engines running. They may be parked at curbside, standing in driveways, or parking lots. If the engine is running (smoke from tailpipe, and/or lights on) the car is getting ready to move. Stay well clear, since you are short and the driver may not be able to see you.
8. Dress for winter when going out in winter. Coat, boots, mittens and hat. Maybe snow pants too. Even if going by car. One dark Friday night the car engine lost power going up Franconia Notch with all three kids in the back seat. We might have had to walk out, four miles or more. Fortunately I was able to fix the problem by flashlight and we drove on. But we also had the needed winter gear to walk it should it have been necessary.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Sunday afternoon on NBC TV is all about blacks and Hispanics
And, of course, how neither blacks nor Hispanics will vote for The Donald. Groovy, NBC getting in some licks for Hillary.
But, not a word about a much larger and much more important voter block, women. Hispanics are like 10% of the electorate, blacks are like 15%. Women are 50%, which is a whole lot more. Anyhow in a long period of talk, not a word about women, lots of words about blacks and Hispanics. I wonder why? Can it be that the newsies, or women, or both, find the traditional women's issue, abortion and birth control, to be repellent this year? And they don't know of any other issues? Or perhaps good old lefty NBC thinks it's better for Hillary to divvy up the voters into small special interest groups rather than one very big group?
It was the women's vote that sank Romney four years ago. Women favored Obama over Romney by 10%. That's Obama's winning margin right there. And I never did hear any discussion of why women liked Obama better than Romney. Was it because Obama is good looking, slender, and sexy? Whereas Romney just looks like a happily married husband? Could it be women liked Obamacare? Or Obamanomics even though both policies threw a lotta people out of work? Was it being Mormon? Something else? None of the pollsters did any polling on this, or at least they never published.
But, not a word about a much larger and much more important voter block, women. Hispanics are like 10% of the electorate, blacks are like 15%. Women are 50%, which is a whole lot more. Anyhow in a long period of talk, not a word about women, lots of words about blacks and Hispanics. I wonder why? Can it be that the newsies, or women, or both, find the traditional women's issue, abortion and birth control, to be repellent this year? And they don't know of any other issues? Or perhaps good old lefty NBC thinks it's better for Hillary to divvy up the voters into small special interest groups rather than one very big group?
It was the women's vote that sank Romney four years ago. Women favored Obama over Romney by 10%. That's Obama's winning margin right there. And I never did hear any discussion of why women liked Obama better than Romney. Was it because Obama is good looking, slender, and sexy? Whereas Romney just looks like a happily married husband? Could it be women liked Obamacare? Or Obamanomics even though both policies threw a lotta people out of work? Was it being Mormon? Something else? None of the pollsters did any polling on this, or at least they never published.
Sunday, September 4, 2016
World War II, nearly everybody lost
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France were invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in 1940. Yugoslavia and Greece got the same a year or two later. Poland, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania were invaded and occupied by the Soviets. Germany and Italy were heavily bombed and then invaded and occupied by the Anglo Americans. A few countries managed to stay neutral, but darn few.
We, America, won without taking too much damage. The British won but suffered a lot more. The Russians won at a terrible cost.
So on balance we have three winners, and a whole lotta losers. Right after the war, 1946, the survivors (losers all), determined never to do a World War again, set out to build a United States of Europe to prevent another catastrophe. It started small, just six members. It went thru a bunch of name changes, but it kept growing, and now everyone is in it, except the Russians. They set up a Common Market, the Euro, and a government of sorts in Brussels. Up until this summer it looked like a winner, despite some boondoggles like Greece.
This summer the Brits pulled out. That's a setback for the United Europe idea. Britain is the second biggest economy in the EU, right after Germany, they are very good diplomats, and they have the enormously strong American connection, far stronger than anyone else in the world. Britain will be missed.
It will take some years for Brexit to sort out. If no other country follows the Brits, then it's a minor setback. If some minor players bail out that's a bad thing. If a biggie, France say, bails out, that's a very bad thing.
Time will tell.
We, America, won without taking too much damage. The British won but suffered a lot more. The Russians won at a terrible cost.
So on balance we have three winners, and a whole lotta losers. Right after the war, 1946, the survivors (losers all), determined never to do a World War again, set out to build a United States of Europe to prevent another catastrophe. It started small, just six members. It went thru a bunch of name changes, but it kept growing, and now everyone is in it, except the Russians. They set up a Common Market, the Euro, and a government of sorts in Brussels. Up until this summer it looked like a winner, despite some boondoggles like Greece.
This summer the Brits pulled out. That's a setback for the United Europe idea. Britain is the second biggest economy in the EU, right after Germany, they are very good diplomats, and they have the enormously strong American connection, far stronger than anyone else in the world. Britain will be missed.
It will take some years for Brexit to sort out. If no other country follows the Brits, then it's a minor setback. If some minor players bail out that's a bad thing. If a biggie, France say, bails out, that's a very bad thing.
Time will tell.
Saturday, September 3, 2016
Lotta work needed on F35
The F35 is a flying computer. Software does everything. And the software is far from ready. Plus some other problems. The Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation set forth the "challenges" (bureaucrat speak for bugs or problems) still to be overcome.
First off is the 25mm Gatling cannon won't fire. This used to be a pure software problem and cannon firing software was promised sometime in the future. Which is a minor scandal. A gun ought to fire every time the trigger is pulled. All the software can do is correct the aim, but pilots can get plenty of hits without fancy software driven lead computing gunsights. But somehow they decided to route the trigger signal thru the computers rather then straight to the gun. Good design that. Now they discover that a little door that opens when the gun fires creates enough drag to throw the aim off. On the old F105, which I worked on for a year in combat, the muzzle of the 20mm Vulcan cannon stuck right out in the airstream, fired every time the trigger was pressed, and no silly little doors to get in the way. KISS (keep it simple stupid).
Second the project is running into difficulties getting the system to fire the AIM9L Sidewinder air to air missile and drop the laser guided Small Diameter Bomb. Sidewinder, an infrared heat seeker, has been around since the 1950's, and is still very effective, and cheap. SDB is newer, but it's been around for a while, it's a 250 pound smart bomb that you can put in a guy's bedroom window without leveling the entire apartment building. Neither require much electronic assistance by the launching aircraft. Did the F35 people bother to read the Technical Orders on either weapon?
Then there is the computer crash problem. In July the system crashed hard (blue screen of death hard) every five hours on average. With the last software update, that was improved to 9 hours between crashes. My Windows XP system does better than that. Here we are at Top Gun, closing on the enemy, when the system crashes. Instead of pulling some G's and nailing the enemy, we are pushing reset buttons trying to bring the computer back up.
And lastly the $400,000 a copy night vision helmet still doesn't work.
There is a bunch of other gripes about non essential systems, sensor fusion, date link, and some other stuff that doesn't belong on a fighter plane.
The test and evaluation people don't think the F35 program office has the funds to fix all this stuff.
First off is the 25mm Gatling cannon won't fire. This used to be a pure software problem and cannon firing software was promised sometime in the future. Which is a minor scandal. A gun ought to fire every time the trigger is pulled. All the software can do is correct the aim, but pilots can get plenty of hits without fancy software driven lead computing gunsights. But somehow they decided to route the trigger signal thru the computers rather then straight to the gun. Good design that. Now they discover that a little door that opens when the gun fires creates enough drag to throw the aim off. On the old F105, which I worked on for a year in combat, the muzzle of the 20mm Vulcan cannon stuck right out in the airstream, fired every time the trigger was pressed, and no silly little doors to get in the way. KISS (keep it simple stupid).
Second the project is running into difficulties getting the system to fire the AIM9L Sidewinder air to air missile and drop the laser guided Small Diameter Bomb. Sidewinder, an infrared heat seeker, has been around since the 1950's, and is still very effective, and cheap. SDB is newer, but it's been around for a while, it's a 250 pound smart bomb that you can put in a guy's bedroom window without leveling the entire apartment building. Neither require much electronic assistance by the launching aircraft. Did the F35 people bother to read the Technical Orders on either weapon?
Then there is the computer crash problem. In July the system crashed hard (blue screen of death hard) every five hours on average. With the last software update, that was improved to 9 hours between crashes. My Windows XP system does better than that. Here we are at Top Gun, closing on the enemy, when the system crashes. Instead of pulling some G's and nailing the enemy, we are pushing reset buttons trying to bring the computer back up.
And lastly the $400,000 a copy night vision helmet still doesn't work.
There is a bunch of other gripes about non essential systems, sensor fusion, date link, and some other stuff that doesn't belong on a fighter plane.
The test and evaluation people don't think the F35 program office has the funds to fix all this stuff.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Real Jobs
I was listening to NPR on the way home yesterday. They were doing a nice long piece on a dozen Maryland high school students who graduated high school back in 2012, and have mostly graduated college and found jobs. There was a teacher, an HR worker, an actor, couple of grad students, and I forget the rest.
None of them had taken a real job in industry, you know where they produce wealth. I'm glad to know that beaten up as the American economy is, it is still productive enough to carry all those fresh young faces doing nothing very important.
None of them had taken a real job in industry, you know where they produce wealth. I'm glad to know that beaten up as the American economy is, it is still productive enough to carry all those fresh young faces doing nothing very important.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Immigration (to the US)
We need it. To maintain the population, each woman in the US needs to bear 2.1 children during her lifetime. We aren't making that right now, it's like 1.9 or 2.0. And it would not be that high without immigrant women who bear more children than the native born do.
We need immigrants who are loyal to the United States. Not loyal to ISIS or Islam, of communism, or the old country, but loyal to the United States. Other the years we have done well in this respect, I have a number of immigrant friends who are intensely loyal to this country.
After loyalty, we need people who will become gainfully employed, stay out of trouble with the law, raise decent children, pay taxes, and contribute to the community. People like this strengthen the country, make the economy grow, and are good to have around.
We have 11 million immigrants in the country who haven't done the right paperwork to be here. Far as I am concerned, if they have been doing the right thing, (employed, clean criminal record, married, children) I say let em stay. Deporting them all would be brutal, and the TV coverage would look like the SS shipping Jews to Auschwitz. Let's not do that.
And, if we are gonna let them stay in the country, we need to grant them citizenship. All men are created equal is the core principle of the United States. That means everyone gets to vote. It's a violation of our principles to have two classes of people, real citizens and green carders.
I know, it lets the people who are here already get to the head of the line. Too bad. They showed courage in coming here, and have demonstrated that they are good citizens, why not let them go ahead? Plus the "line" is pretty much closed, it can take 20 years wait for a green card.
The newsies are having a lot of fun zapping the Donald on immigration issues. But immigration isn't all that important to the voters this year, not compared to the economy, jobs, Islamic terrorism and even Zika. The newsies like the issue cause it is simple enough for even their limited understanding, unlike say the economy which is complicated.
We need immigrants who are loyal to the United States. Not loyal to ISIS or Islam, of communism, or the old country, but loyal to the United States. Other the years we have done well in this respect, I have a number of immigrant friends who are intensely loyal to this country.
After loyalty, we need people who will become gainfully employed, stay out of trouble with the law, raise decent children, pay taxes, and contribute to the community. People like this strengthen the country, make the economy grow, and are good to have around.
We have 11 million immigrants in the country who haven't done the right paperwork to be here. Far as I am concerned, if they have been doing the right thing, (employed, clean criminal record, married, children) I say let em stay. Deporting them all would be brutal, and the TV coverage would look like the SS shipping Jews to Auschwitz. Let's not do that.
And, if we are gonna let them stay in the country, we need to grant them citizenship. All men are created equal is the core principle of the United States. That means everyone gets to vote. It's a violation of our principles to have two classes of people, real citizens and green carders.
I know, it lets the people who are here already get to the head of the line. Too bad. They showed courage in coming here, and have demonstrated that they are good citizens, why not let them go ahead? Plus the "line" is pretty much closed, it can take 20 years wait for a green card.
The newsies are having a lot of fun zapping the Donald on immigration issues. But immigration isn't all that important to the voters this year, not compared to the economy, jobs, Islamic terrorism and even Zika. The newsies like the issue cause it is simple enough for even their limited understanding, unlike say the economy which is complicated.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
The Donald does the right thing
He accepted the invitation from an important neighbor country. He flew down to Mexico. He had a talk with the Mexican president. I dare say the Mexicans have a few things they want from us, and The Donald has a few things he wants from Mexico. Since The Donald isn't president (yet) he is in no position to grant the Mexicans anything, and the Mexicans certainly cannot make any concessions to a man who may never be president. So they had a meeting. They issued bland but friendly communiques afterward. And that is exactly what they should have done. Even if they didn't achieve anything of real substance, just issuing a friendly press release and a friendly communique is a good thing. Don't knock it.
Hillary was on TV knocking it shortly afterward.
Hillary was on TV knocking it shortly afterward.
Asteroid Mission to Launch next week
A US built asteroid inspection vehicle named OSIRIS-REX is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral atop a Unitied Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. OSIRIS-REX will attempt a sample return to Earth. It has a robot arm to scoop up surface material into a return vehicle. It also carries every other imaginable scientific instrument, a laser altimeter, and IR thermometer, and IR spectrometer, three cameras, and Xray imaging and spectrometer gear. It's a long duration mission, lasting until 2023.
The samples returned will be analyzed for spores and any kind of biological precursor chemicals. There is an old old theory (Arrhenius) that life on earth originated from spores coming from outer space. Scientists will be looking, intensely, for such spores in the returned samples.
The samples returned will be analyzed for spores and any kind of biological precursor chemicals. There is an old old theory (Arrhenius) that life on earth originated from spores coming from outer space. Scientists will be looking, intensely, for such spores in the returned samples.
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Peeling the Apple with a dull knife
Apple set up an operation in Ireland. Probably because Ireland's corporate tax is only 12%. All of a sudden the EU, in Brussels, says that Apple ought to be paying $14 billion more in taxes. Both Apple and Ireland are appealing.
Couple of things I don't understand here. I thought the internal affairs of EU countries. especially tax law, was under the control of those EU countries, not under the control of Brussels. Nor did I think that Brussels has the authority to levy EU wide taxes. If this is the case, how does the EU get to demand an extra $14 billion from an American company operating in Ireland?
Then there was a chucklehead sounding off on Fox News. He said that Apple should never set up operations in Ireland, Apple should do all it's business back here in the USA, to avoid exporting American jobs. Sorry there my chucklehead, Apple management is required by law to maximize Apple's earnings for its shareholders. Anyone can see that doing business in Ireland with a 12% tax creates more earnings than dong business in the US with a 35% tax. Apple was doing its duty in maximizing its earnings. Maybe the US should think about lowering its tax rate to keep business in the country.
Couple of things I don't understand here. I thought the internal affairs of EU countries. especially tax law, was under the control of those EU countries, not under the control of Brussels. Nor did I think that Brussels has the authority to levy EU wide taxes. If this is the case, how does the EU get to demand an extra $14 billion from an American company operating in Ireland?
Then there was a chucklehead sounding off on Fox News. He said that Apple should never set up operations in Ireland, Apple should do all it's business back here in the USA, to avoid exporting American jobs. Sorry there my chucklehead, Apple management is required by law to maximize Apple's earnings for its shareholders. Anyone can see that doing business in Ireland with a 12% tax creates more earnings than dong business in the US with a 35% tax. Apple was doing its duty in maximizing its earnings. Maybe the US should think about lowering its tax rate to keep business in the country.
Monday, August 29, 2016
It's a free country
That football player doesn't have to stand for the national anthem. Freedom of speech and all that.
On the other hand, I don't have to like it. It's disrespect for the flag, and to the Republic for which it stands. I plan to avoid watching his team play, and I'll call him a scumbag. My free speech rights.
On the other hand, I don't have to like it. It's disrespect for the flag, and to the Republic for which it stands. I plan to avoid watching his team play, and I'll call him a scumbag. My free speech rights.
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Things I would like to hear Trump say.
1. Repeal Sarbanes-Oxley. It's a huge law on corporate governance. Requires corporations to furnish thousands of pounds of paperwork to the feds. It is so onerous that it decourages creation of new companies, startups.
2. Allow health insurance companies to sell policies in every state of the union. WithOUT having to do another thousand pounds of paper work for each of the 50 state governments. I can get a cheaper policy if I can choose from many companies instead of being limited to one.
3. Allow duty free import of any medicine from all reasonable first world countries. Starting with Canada and the countries of the EU and Japan. If the health authority of a first world country has approved the medicine for its own citizens then it is OK for American citizens too. FDA will scream and shout, but they don't vote. Many medicines are available overseas or in Canada for half the price changed in the US.
4. Stop the war on coal. It throws miners out of work and raises the price of electricity for all.
5. Lease federal land for oil exploration. Obama has totally shut off oil exploration on federal land at the behest of the greenies.
6. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline project. We need the oil. Pipelines spill less than oil tanker trains.
7. Repeal the "Corporate Average Fuel Economy" (CAFE) rules. Consumers will apply plenty of pressure for better fuel economy on Detroit. We don't need complicated and expensive federal regulation that establishes impossible-to-meet goals.
8. Repeal the alcohol mandate on gasoline. It takes nearly as much energy to make the alcohol as we get back when we burn it. The corn farmers will cry loudly but there aren't all that many farmers any more.
9. Close down the federal department of education. Let private lenders furnish student loans. State and local governments run and pay for all the schools anyway. We don't need to pay for a bunch of federal bureaucrats to look over their shoulders and get in the way.
There is probably more, but this will do for a start.
2. Allow health insurance companies to sell policies in every state of the union. WithOUT having to do another thousand pounds of paper work for each of the 50 state governments. I can get a cheaper policy if I can choose from many companies instead of being limited to one.
3. Allow duty free import of any medicine from all reasonable first world countries. Starting with Canada and the countries of the EU and Japan. If the health authority of a first world country has approved the medicine for its own citizens then it is OK for American citizens too. FDA will scream and shout, but they don't vote. Many medicines are available overseas or in Canada for half the price changed in the US.
4. Stop the war on coal. It throws miners out of work and raises the price of electricity for all.
5. Lease federal land for oil exploration. Obama has totally shut off oil exploration on federal land at the behest of the greenies.
6. Approve the Keystone XL pipeline project. We need the oil. Pipelines spill less than oil tanker trains.
7. Repeal the "Corporate Average Fuel Economy" (CAFE) rules. Consumers will apply plenty of pressure for better fuel economy on Detroit. We don't need complicated and expensive federal regulation that establishes impossible-to-meet goals.
8. Repeal the alcohol mandate on gasoline. It takes nearly as much energy to make the alcohol as we get back when we burn it. The corn farmers will cry loudly but there aren't all that many farmers any more.
9. Close down the federal department of education. Let private lenders furnish student loans. State and local governments run and pay for all the schools anyway. We don't need to pay for a bunch of federal bureaucrats to look over their shoulders and get in the way.
There is probably more, but this will do for a start.
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