Is Russia Friend or Foe ?

This week's stupid question on Meet the Press.  Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that the answer is "Neither".  Friends are countries like Britain or Canada, or Australia.  The Russians aren't in that league and probably never will be.  They don't speak our language, they are still "unhappy" about being demoted from world superpower to ordinary country,  and they are still working out internal differences with Chechens and Uzbeks and others in ways that we find appalling. 
   Back in the cold war, they were foes.  But the cold war has been over for twenty years, and there is no sign that the Russians want to start it up again.  They have some serious policy differences with us over things like which side to back in Syria, NATO expansion, Georgia and some others.  Their leader has sized up Obama as a large slow target and has enjoyed some zingers such as the Snowden affair.
   But that doesn't make 'em foes.  Unfriendly perhaps, but foe means the other side in a real war.  I see no signs that the Russians want to have a real war with America. 

The Economist, Dispensing bad advice for 100 years

The Economist has been printing "news" for a long time.  Apparently age does not bring wisdom.  Donald Kagan ("On the Origins of War") quotes the 1910 Economist thus:  "the German fleet which has struck such panic is largely imaginary, and the supposed danger is  entirely due to the fact that the [British] Admiralty invented the Dreadnought and fostered the impression that this type of ship superseded all others."
  This is writing a mere six years before the climactic show down between the Royal Navy and the Imperial High Seas Fleet at Jutland.  Had the Germans had a bit more combat luck they might have sunk the Royal Navy that afternoon.  They came close enough for the Kaiser to claim a great victory for German arms.  Real victory would have put the High Seas Fleet in the Atlantic, breaking the British blockade of Germany and sinking Allied merchantmen bound for England.  Which would have won the war for Germany in a matter of weeks. 
   Dreadnought was a break thru design, so effective that after her launch all battleships were described as "Dreadnoughts" or "Pre dreadnoughts".  She had new technology steam turbine engines that made her the faster ship afloat.  No enemy vessel could get away from Dreadnought if she wished to fight, and no enemy vessel could catch her should she decide to flee.  Her big guns were all the same caliber, which improves the the chances of a hit when gunnery is a matter of firing a salvo and watching for the splashes.  Dreadnought's gunnery officer did not have to sort out splashes from various sizes of guns to correct his aim.  He knew that all Dreadnought's splashes were from the 12 inch main battery, and aiming corrections would bring the 12 inch fire onto the target. 
   Dreadnought was launched in 1905, five years before the Economist's rant quoted above.  She fought in Jellicoe's battle line at Jutland in 1916. 

Aviation Week Sold

Aviation Week and Space Technology, the long time industry bible was sold by McGraw Hill to Penton Media.  Penton is an aviation publisher with mags such as Air Transport World, Aircraft Bluebook, and Air Charter Guide.  Let's hope this works out better than the Washington Post or Boston Globe sales. 
  Aviation Week is important because of it's savvy staff, who know aircraft, know flying, and know who to talk to in the Pentagon, in Congress, and in industry.  No journalism majors at Aviation Week.  They have an enviable record of revealing what's going on long before anyone else.  It's read in the Air Force, in the airlines, at FAA,  at intelligence agencies world wide, and in the airframe builders.  It's a weekly magazine that costs real money ($375 a year) to subscribe to. 
    Gregory Hamilton, current head of Aviation Week will take over Penton's Aviation Group.  It was an all cash deal, price not disclosed, and should have closed by the first of August.
    I guess Mcgraw Hill's business magazine people just didn't understand  anything that couldn't be expressed in an Excel spread sheet.

More about nose gear

The NSTB has been looking into that ground loop at La Guardia last month.  As in why did the nose gear collapse upon landing?  That ain't supposed to happen, and this is the first time I heard of it happening to a 737.  Or to Southwest, who is a pretty reliable operator.  About all they say is video from bystanders shows the nose gear contacting the runway BEFORE the mains.  That is unusual.  Normal practice is the ease the main wheels down on the runway, and then carefully lower the nose.  Carefully so as not to break anything.
  After the nose gear broke and the plane sat down on it, the gear was jammed up into the bottom of the fuselage, damaging an electronics bay.  Hmm.  Glad I don't have to fix that. 

So now I own a legacy newspaper

So what do I do now?  Both the Boston Globe and the Washington Post have a lotta name recognition, but they have been loosing money for years.  The owners let them go for really cheap, compared to what they sold for 10 years ago.  So what do the new owners do?  Surely they don't want to have their newly purchased toys die on them.
   Let's assume the proud new owners bought to gain social status and access to important people.  The owner of the Washington Post or even the Boston Globe gets invited to all the top notch Washington parties, and get even POTUS to accept their phone calls.  That's gotta be worth something, especially if you own Amazon which could get cut up real bad by federal regulators.  
   So what could be done now that we have owners with bags of money?  The Internet has torpedoed the legacy business mode, the sale of advertising.  Advertisers are going to the Web and doesn't look like they are coming back.  So what to do?   The newsrooms are still generating some decent content, but people don't pay to visit web sites.  So putting the paper on the Web doesn't make money.  The draw from the content isn't strong enough to pull in enough ad revenue to pay the salaries.  Besides, going on the Internet doesn't take much money, and the papers have famous names to draw customers. 
   Me, I think the papers will just continue to slide down the drain.  The new owners have enough money to cover the losses for quite a few years.  It will take a few years to see.                           

  

Al Quada ain't dead yet.

Doesn't matter what Obama says, there is still too much life in Al Quada.  Any outfit that can pull off three big prison raids freeing their fighters, close down US embassies all across the middle east, bomb the Boston marathon, and destabilize the Assad regime in Syria, is still to be reckoned with. 
   We might have killed Osama bin Ladin, but  the organization is still alive and dangerous. 

They don't make teachers like they used to.

After the Connecticut school shooting this winter, suggestions were made to arm teachers.  This idea brought forth gallons of wails and tooth gnashings.  Some said that teachers could not properly handle firearms.  Other's wailed that teachers would never soil their hands by picking up a gun.  Training would be impossible.  and on and on.
   I wonder about this.  I think back on teachers I had years ago.  Miss Shirley, Miss Gaudette, Miss Percy, Mr Convery, Mrs Falby, Mrs Mclauglan.  It's been a lot of years since grade school but these teachers are still clear in my memory.  They were all competent, forceful, and dedicated grownups, in whom we kids stood  in awe.  Should a homicidal maniac turn up one one of their classrooms, they would cope,  a firearm in their hands would do the job nicely.  Since graduating grade school, and serving in USAF in Southeast Asia, and some other dodgy places, I cannot say I ever met anyone who would be a better person to have in a menaced classroom with a gun in hand.  Teachers in my day were calm, courageous and careful.  Much better material than your standard rent-a-cop.
   Any school committee ought to encourage teachers to carry.  For that matter they ought to provide good student proof gun safes in the classroom.