Looks like they have a good little civil war going there. One side is on our side. We wish them well. We ought to give them diplomatic and public relations support. But we cannot give them military support. Ukraine is right next to Russia, and the Russians look on it as estranged Russian territory. They won't allow US military action in Ukraine. They will oppose us, with the full force of their army, fighting close to home, on home soil. We don't want to get into a fight with the Russians. They can probably beat an American expeditionary force operating so far from home. And if they cannot, they still have nukes. We don't want to go there.
It's like the East German uprising in the 1950's, the Hungarian uprising in the late '50s, the Czechoslovakian uprising in the '60s. We sympathized with the insurgents, but we didn't dare touch off a war with the Russians. So let let the Russians crush the uprisings. It's grin and bear it time, again.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Can a shoe bomb bring down an airliner?
I mean just how much explosive can you fit into a shoe? Really. And Boeing builds very rugged airplanes. They have been doing it since the legendary B-17 of WWII, one of which was tough enough to fly back to base after a mid air collision with a German fighter. The modern 737/777/787 jetliners are very strongly built. I think the best a shoe bomb could do is punch a smallish hole in the skin, depressurizing the cabin. This would be exciting for all on board, but the plane will keep flying.
TSA snoopers must love this. Another excuse to make life miserable for passengers.
TSA snoopers must love this. Another excuse to make life miserable for passengers.
Cannon Mt Ski Weather
We got maybe four inches of snow yesterday. Hard to be sure how much, cause we got a lot of wind that blew it everywhere. With four inches of new snow on top of last weeks nine inches, Cannon is in good shape right now.
Clouds on horizon. It's warm, 40 F right now. More precip is forecast for tonight. It might be snow, but it might be rain. The weather guys are non committal. Unless it cools down some, it will be rain.
Clouds on horizon. It's warm, 40 F right now. More precip is forecast for tonight. It might be snow, but it might be rain. The weather guys are non committal. Unless it cools down some, it will be rain.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
How dumb are American voters?
Listen to the pundits prognosticating the next election. They all think, the Republicans ought to win fairly big, win the Senate, increase their house majority, but they all are hedging on the the air. None of 'em are really sure what will happen, at least not sure enough to risk their reputation on a prediction.
So here we have a dreadful economy, going back five years. A $900 billion porkulus bill that didn't get the economy going again. The voters are out of work, or worried about losing their jobs. Obamacare is cancelling everyone's health insurance, and threatening to get even worse. The Obamacare policies cost more and cover less. People can no longer see their regular doctors. We have let the Taliban take over Iraq, and looks like we give them Afghanistan next year. The Iranians are building nukes. Obama has squandered taxpayer money on crony green schemes like Solyndra. He is closing down coal power plants to hike electric rates. He is stalling the Keystone XL pipeline project. He has turned the IRS into a political secret police. He is covering up the Benghasi scandal. He was passing out guns to Mexican drug runners. He has hiked everyone's taxes. He has run up the national debt to $17 trillion. He and his wife take expensive and frequent vacations on the taxpayer's dime.
With a record like that, even the dumbest voter ought to vote a straight Republican ticket. But will they? These are the same voters who re elected this turkey just a year ago, when his record was just as bad.
So here we have a dreadful economy, going back five years. A $900 billion porkulus bill that didn't get the economy going again. The voters are out of work, or worried about losing their jobs. Obamacare is cancelling everyone's health insurance, and threatening to get even worse. The Obamacare policies cost more and cover less. People can no longer see their regular doctors. We have let the Taliban take over Iraq, and looks like we give them Afghanistan next year. The Iranians are building nukes. Obama has squandered taxpayer money on crony green schemes like Solyndra. He is closing down coal power plants to hike electric rates. He is stalling the Keystone XL pipeline project. He has turned the IRS into a political secret police. He is covering up the Benghasi scandal. He was passing out guns to Mexican drug runners. He has hiked everyone's taxes. He has run up the national debt to $17 trillion. He and his wife take expensive and frequent vacations on the taxpayer's dime.
With a record like that, even the dumbest voter ought to vote a straight Republican ticket. But will they? These are the same voters who re elected this turkey just a year ago, when his record was just as bad.
Innovation is what keeps everyone employed
Innovation goes right back to the founding of the American Republic. Inland canals, cotton gin, steam railroad, repeating firearms, telegraph, mechanical reapers, telephone, electric light, motion pictures, motor vehicles, aircraft, radio, washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioning, radar, 33 rpm records, automatic transmission, microwave ovens, CD players, personal computers, cell phones.
Each of these products caught on, sold like crazy, and created industries, employed people, and made money. Every since the industrial revolution, a small portion of the population has been able to create all the food, clothing, housing and services that the country can consume. It takes an innovation to keep everyone busy. After a while, everyone has the innovation, and sales slack off. In the past, we took up the slack by yet more innovation, another new product that catches on, sells like crazy and keeps the economy moving.
What's the next big thing?
And what can we do to keep the flow of innovation coming?
Each of these products caught on, sold like crazy, and created industries, employed people, and made money. Every since the industrial revolution, a small portion of the population has been able to create all the food, clothing, housing and services that the country can consume. It takes an innovation to keep everyone busy. After a while, everyone has the innovation, and sales slack off. In the past, we took up the slack by yet more innovation, another new product that catches on, sells like crazy and keeps the economy moving.
What's the next big thing?
And what can we do to keep the flow of innovation coming?
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Can the US keep a secret?
We have insurrections in Ukraine and Venezuela which are on our side. We ought to be supporting them. We can furnish money, intelligence, internet access, paperwork (passports and such), favorable publicity, and drone strikes. And other things.
Trouble is, support like this has to be kept secret. Otherwise our supporters get called American stooges and worse. The insurrections have to be seen as legitimate native uprisings by the opponents, the natives, the EU, and just about everyone in the world, otherwise they loose legitimacy. Can the US keep support a secret? Can the US keep anything a secret? We had US assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, blow her cover over the phone just a couple of weeks ago. For that matter will Obama see these insurrections as something he should support? He was stupid enough to cold shoulder an Iranian insurgency a couple of years ago.
For that matter would insurgents dare talk to US agents? After CIA has leaked all sorts of stuff to the NY Times? Some years ago we were intercepting Bin Ladin's satellite phone conversations. CIA leaked that, and Bin Laden scrapped the sat phone and went back to couriers. Every one remembers that one.
Trouble is, support like this has to be kept secret. Otherwise our supporters get called American stooges and worse. The insurrections have to be seen as legitimate native uprisings by the opponents, the natives, the EU, and just about everyone in the world, otherwise they loose legitimacy. Can the US keep support a secret? Can the US keep anything a secret? We had US assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, blow her cover over the phone just a couple of weeks ago. For that matter will Obama see these insurrections as something he should support? He was stupid enough to cold shoulder an Iranian insurgency a couple of years ago.
For that matter would insurgents dare talk to US agents? After CIA has leaked all sorts of stuff to the NY Times? Some years ago we were intercepting Bin Ladin's satellite phone conversations. CIA leaked that, and Bin Laden scrapped the sat phone and went back to couriers. Every one remembers that one.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Near Earth objects, on Fox News
Astronomers have detected a small asteroid/giant meteor coming sorta close to Earth tonight. Sorta close is like 8 times the distance to the moon, which isn't really all that close. The object is a thousand meters across, which would make one heluva hole if it were to hit the Earth.
Then Fox dove off into magic, far beyond even the science of Star Trek. In the future, with enough funding, we could send a space craft to intercept (there have been movies, Armageddon, Bruce Willis, about this) and use the space craft's GRAVITY to deflect the rock. Not a chance. We have a space going rock the size of a small mountain. The gravitational pull between even a monster spacecraft, one the size of an aircraft carrier, and a mountain sized rock, would be a matter of ounces. A hundred ounces of pull ain't gonna move a mountain sized rock. Not ever.
Possible, even with today's technology, would be to place a large fusion bomb to one side. Detonate it, and I guarantee you that sucker will move. If it doesn't move enough, set off more nukes. Or, if the rock is not very strong, the bomb will blow it into gravel.
So far so good. There is one bad outcome. The bomb blows a huge rock, say a 10 mile rock, into dozens of one mile fragments. In that case, best have more nukes available to deal with each of the fragments.
For this to work, we have to build the necessary rockets, and bombs, and keep them on standby, ready to launch on maybe a day's warning. That will cost serious money.
Then Fox dove off into magic, far beyond even the science of Star Trek. In the future, with enough funding, we could send a space craft to intercept (there have been movies, Armageddon, Bruce Willis, about this) and use the space craft's GRAVITY to deflect the rock. Not a chance. We have a space going rock the size of a small mountain. The gravitational pull between even a monster spacecraft, one the size of an aircraft carrier, and a mountain sized rock, would be a matter of ounces. A hundred ounces of pull ain't gonna move a mountain sized rock. Not ever.
Possible, even with today's technology, would be to place a large fusion bomb to one side. Detonate it, and I guarantee you that sucker will move. If it doesn't move enough, set off more nukes. Or, if the rock is not very strong, the bomb will blow it into gravel.
So far so good. There is one bad outcome. The bomb blows a huge rock, say a 10 mile rock, into dozens of one mile fragments. In that case, best have more nukes available to deal with each of the fragments.
For this to work, we have to build the necessary rockets, and bombs, and keep them on standby, ready to launch on maybe a day's warning. That will cost serious money.
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