Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B)
Aviation week had two opinion pieces (Commentary) on the LRS-B. Neither of them breathed so much as a word about the contract challenge that they emailed to magazine subscriber's last week. The two commentary pieces called the program well managed, the bids reasonable. Nothing about the contract award. They did say that the costing was based upon "Average Procurement Unit Cost" as opposed to "Unit Recurring Flyaway Cost". Av Week says the Average Procurement Unit Cost includes spares, support equipment and other essential stuff, which the Unit Flyaway did not. Spares can cost. Engines make up roughly a quarter of the cost of an aircraft. Back in the day, we had four spare J75 engines on base to support 20 single engine fighters. If LRS-B is spared to the same level, that increases the price of the engine buy by maybe 20% over the life of the program. Spare gyros, spare radars, spare landing gear, all that is expensive. Support equipment, we used to call that "ground power", air compressors, generator sets, hydraulic mules, tractors, bomb lifts, cockpit ladders, air conditioning sets, tow bars, it all adds up.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Taking Syrian Refugees to the US
You know, in that tidal wave of Syrian refugees, there has gotta be some good people, hard workers, people who want to become Americans and who would make good ones. We oughta skim the cream of the crop. Obama wants to take 10,000? Go for it.
Go to the biggest refugee camp, the one closest to Syria. Pitch a big tent. Raise the American flag outside. In side have cold CocaCola and hot coffee, courtesy of the house. Have a bunch of Syrian Americans, who speak Arabic do the interviewing. Ask for their family names, parents, siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews. Run family names against US blacklists. Reject those with Islamist terrorist family. Accept the obvious winners, medical doctors, engineers, technicians, businessmen. Accept married men (they must have wife and kids with them) Accept unaccompanied minors who look like they could get themselves adopted in America. Accept single young men who express a desire to become US citizens, and/or enlist in the US armed forces. Accept Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Jews and any other non Muslims that there might be.
Reject anyone suspected of ISIS leanings, or activity. Reject anyone who admits to criminal activity, drug running, and the like. Reject anyone educated in a madrassa. Reject anyone who looks, acts, talks, or dresses suspiciously. Reject anyone on US blacklists.
Issue a temporary US passport and air tickets to the accepted. Tell them we are offering them a chance to become Americans. Tell them if they show disloyalty to the United States, get caught communicating with Islamic terrorists, or get in trouble with the law, they will be shipped right back here, in handcuffs.
Wanna bet we could fill our quota of refugees with good useful citizens? And let the Europeans cope with the dregs we leave behind? And we could make some heart warming propaganda video showing happy refugees debarking on US soil, finding jobs and housing, sending their children to US public schools.
Go to the biggest refugee camp, the one closest to Syria. Pitch a big tent. Raise the American flag outside. In side have cold CocaCola and hot coffee, courtesy of the house. Have a bunch of Syrian Americans, who speak Arabic do the interviewing. Ask for their family names, parents, siblings, cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews. Run family names against US blacklists. Reject those with Islamist terrorist family. Accept the obvious winners, medical doctors, engineers, technicians, businessmen. Accept married men (they must have wife and kids with them) Accept unaccompanied minors who look like they could get themselves adopted in America. Accept single young men who express a desire to become US citizens, and/or enlist in the US armed forces. Accept Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Jews and any other non Muslims that there might be.
Reject anyone suspected of ISIS leanings, or activity. Reject anyone who admits to criminal activity, drug running, and the like. Reject anyone educated in a madrassa. Reject anyone who looks, acts, talks, or dresses suspiciously. Reject anyone on US blacklists.
Issue a temporary US passport and air tickets to the accepted. Tell them we are offering them a chance to become Americans. Tell them if they show disloyalty to the United States, get caught communicating with Islamic terrorists, or get in trouble with the law, they will be shipped right back here, in handcuffs.
Wanna bet we could fill our quota of refugees with good useful citizens? And let the Europeans cope with the dregs we leave behind? And we could make some heart warming propaganda video showing happy refugees debarking on US soil, finding jobs and housing, sending their children to US public schools.
Zap the Islamic Terrorist websites
According to Internet chatter and some input from the newsies, a lot of dangerous ISIS terrorists are recruited, motivated, and launched, via Islamist websites. For example that Major Nedal sp? who did the Fort Hood shooting, Richard Reed the shoe bomber, and others. The flow of young people to Syria to join ISIS is blamed upon Internet recruiting.
If this is so, we ought to shut these sites down. We can do it. The big backbone carriers that power the Internet are all US (last time I looked anyhow) and it would be simple for them to simply drop all traffic to or from Islamic websites into the bit bucket. Poof, no more Islamist website. All that is needed is to have the URL of the Islamic website and it's gone.
This will take some organization but it's doable. Best and nicest would be a court, to which evidence would be presented, condemning the website as Islamist terrorist. Then a court order to the Internet backbone carriers to black hole the website would follow.
The Islamist websites would change their names, or start up new ones as a counter measure. Even if the same offensive website pops up a day later using a different URL, a couple of such moves and they loose their audience. When the fruitcake's favorite hate site stops existing, how do they find it's new address?
And we ought to speak to the search engines. Tell 'em to never display anything from Islamic terrorist websites.
If this is so, we ought to shut these sites down. We can do it. The big backbone carriers that power the Internet are all US (last time I looked anyhow) and it would be simple for them to simply drop all traffic to or from Islamic websites into the bit bucket. Poof, no more Islamist website. All that is needed is to have the URL of the Islamic website and it's gone.
This will take some organization but it's doable. Best and nicest would be a court, to which evidence would be presented, condemning the website as Islamist terrorist. Then a court order to the Internet backbone carriers to black hole the website would follow.
The Islamist websites would change their names, or start up new ones as a counter measure. Even if the same offensive website pops up a day later using a different URL, a couple of such moves and they loose their audience. When the fruitcake's favorite hate site stops existing, how do they find it's new address?
And we ought to speak to the search engines. Tell 'em to never display anything from Islamic terrorist websites.
Monday, November 16, 2015
Massive air strikes.
The French flew a mission to Rakka, some burb in Syria that ISIS calls its capital, today. As retaliation for the Paris massacre on Friday, an air strike on Monday ain't too shabby. Ten fighters dropped twenty bombs. Massive this is not. Even if some Fox newsies call it massive.
In the old days, I would stand on the flight line in the early morning at Korat RTAFB as we launched the morning strike on Hanoi, always 60 F-105's loaded with six 750 pounders apiece. And I always watched the afternoon strike, another 60 aircraft with six bombs apiece take off around 1 o'clock. I'm not gonna call 10 sorties and 20 bombs "massive".
In the old days, I would stand on the flight line in the early morning at Korat RTAFB as we launched the morning strike on Hanoi, always 60 F-105's loaded with six 750 pounders apiece. And I always watched the afternoon strike, another 60 aircraft with six bombs apiece take off around 1 o'clock. I'm not gonna call 10 sorties and 20 bombs "massive".
Obama stays eloquent for 45 minutes on TV
The question all the reporters asked was "What are you gonna do about the Paris massacre?" Obama evaded gracefully, evaded the followup questions, and managed to spend 45 minutes on live TV saying that he isn't going to do anything on account of the Paris massacre. He still wants to bring in a LOT of Syrian refugees to the US. He isn't going to take any action, military or otherwise against ISIS.
Obama claimed that Syrian refugees would be "vetted" before they are allowed into the US. Hah. Tell me about how you gonna do that. Pick up the phone and call Baghdad? And ask if Mohammed so-and-so is an ISIS terrorist? Who's gonna answer that phone? Assad's flunkies? ISIS, the other rebel groups? And even if they wanted to, can they check public records in a country undergoing a civil war? I don't think so.
Syrian refugees are a gamble. Most of 'em are probably harmless refugees, some of 'em are ISIS, some of 'em are Al Quada, some of 'em are other bad things. And they all look alike.
Obama claimed that Syrian refugees would be "vetted" before they are allowed into the US. Hah. Tell me about how you gonna do that. Pick up the phone and call Baghdad? And ask if Mohammed so-and-so is an ISIS terrorist? Who's gonna answer that phone? Assad's flunkies? ISIS, the other rebel groups? And even if they wanted to, can they check public records in a country undergoing a civil war? I don't think so.
Syrian refugees are a gamble. Most of 'em are probably harmless refugees, some of 'em are ISIS, some of 'em are Al Quada, some of 'em are other bad things. And they all look alike.
Sword of Summer, by Rick Riordan
It's out, it has made the WSJ best selling hardback fiction. Subtitled "Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard". I enjoyed it. Rick Riordan started writing about Percy Jackson, a teen aged New York kid who gets mixed up with the gods of Greek mythology. Those were good enough to get the first two books made into fairly decent movies. This book has a teen aged Boston street kid get mixed up with the gods of Norse mythology. As a long time resident of Boston, I enjoyed the various local references, Longfellow Bridge, Charles St, Boston Aquarium, Bunker Hill, all places I have been to and know fairly well.
It's a "young adult" book but I liked it, even if I am no longer a young adult. The protagonist is a decent teenager, who is given (stuck with) a horrible problem, he rises to the occasion, and with some help from his friends, wins thru in the end. There is a gutsy girl friend, some strange relatives, and some difficult to handle gods. Good fun.
It's a "young adult" book but I liked it, even if I am no longer a young adult. The protagonist is a decent teenager, who is given (stuck with) a horrible problem, he rises to the occasion, and with some help from his friends, wins thru in the end. There is a gutsy girl friend, some strange relatives, and some difficult to handle gods. Good fun.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Picking a College
College is VERY expensive. Too expensive to waste. You go to college to improve your prospects of a good job after graduation, to learn something of value, and to graduate, actually get that degree.
You want to avoid colleges like Mizzou, which made nationwide headlines after it's president resigned under pressure from black radicals. No teaching or learning is gonna happen there, not for months, and a showing a Mizzou degree to an employer will get you laughed at now.
So how do you weed out the crazy places? Well, first off, visit their website. What activities do they take pride in? Opening a new laboratory or running off a climate change demo? Check the student groups on campus. Chapters of things like the American Physical Association or IEEE are good signs, chapters of ACLU or SDS are bad signs. Count the faculty, tenured professors and part timer "adjunct" professors. Count the student body. Divide students by faculty members to find the student faculty ratio. Count the number of courses offered. Sort the courses between real learning (English, physics, history, math, etc) and talky talky courses (gender studies, sociology, anthropology, ethnic studies,art history, etc.). Remember that professors of talky-talk courses are apt to egg students on to doing political demos with non negotiable demands.
Visit the campus and talk to students and faculty. Get the students to talk about the faculty. If the students are contemptuous of the faculty, that's a bad sign. If the faculty are contemptuous of students, free market capitalism, American exceptionalism, and first amendment freedoms, that's a bad sign. Read the posters on the bulletin boards. Find some college blogs and read them when you get home.
You are looking for a place with a reasonable campus attitude, like we are all here to learn stuff, and we understand that as American college students we have it pretty good in life. You want to avoid a place full of grievances, racism, class envy, and spite. If everyone is mad at something or somebody, the place may blow up either while you are there, or after you graduate, reducing the value of your expensive degree.
You want to avoid colleges like Mizzou, which made nationwide headlines after it's president resigned under pressure from black radicals. No teaching or learning is gonna happen there, not for months, and a showing a Mizzou degree to an employer will get you laughed at now.
So how do you weed out the crazy places? Well, first off, visit their website. What activities do they take pride in? Opening a new laboratory or running off a climate change demo? Check the student groups on campus. Chapters of things like the American Physical Association or IEEE are good signs, chapters of ACLU or SDS are bad signs. Count the faculty, tenured professors and part timer "adjunct" professors. Count the student body. Divide students by faculty members to find the student faculty ratio. Count the number of courses offered. Sort the courses between real learning (English, physics, history, math, etc) and talky talky courses (gender studies, sociology, anthropology, ethnic studies,art history, etc.). Remember that professors of talky-talk courses are apt to egg students on to doing political demos with non negotiable demands.
Visit the campus and talk to students and faculty. Get the students to talk about the faculty. If the students are contemptuous of the faculty, that's a bad sign. If the faculty are contemptuous of students, free market capitalism, American exceptionalism, and first amendment freedoms, that's a bad sign. Read the posters on the bulletin boards. Find some college blogs and read them when you get home.
You are looking for a place with a reasonable campus attitude, like we are all here to learn stuff, and we understand that as American college students we have it pretty good in life. You want to avoid a place full of grievances, racism, class envy, and spite. If everyone is mad at something or somebody, the place may blow up either while you are there, or after you graduate, reducing the value of your expensive degree.
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