Saturday, June 2, 2018

Wants the Yankees to pick up his motel bill

Little Rocket Man doesn't have the cash to pay his own motel bill in Singapore?  Wow.  Talk about cheap cheap cheap.  He wants us to pick up his tab.  So far all he has managed is to convince all the Americans that he is broke, cheap, and a shameless panhandler. 
    The NORKs are a nation state.  They can afford a nuclear program, a million man army, a ballistic missile program but they cannot afford their own motel bills?  Come on. 

Friday, June 1, 2018

All the News that fits we print

Fox News did a short peace on a new air vehicle, looked like an air car.  Talked about it's use evacuating the wounded from the battlefield, and speeding civilian auto accident victims to the hospital.  Mentioned that getting the wounded/victims to the hospital within one hour would greatly improve survival rates.  Probably true. 
  They failed to give any useful information about the vehicle.  They failed to give the name of this wonderful machine, or the name of the Israeli company developing it, or the name of the US company that might produce it.  They didn't tell us the range of the vehicle.  They didn't state the engine horsepower it uses to get airborne.  They didn't state the payload.  To be useful it has to be able to get off the ground with a single patient, and the pilot. 
   The thing might be a success if it had a 50 mile range, and could land and get airborne again with a 200 pound patient and and 200 pound pilot aboard.  No indication of the capability of the flying prototype shown in the TV piece.  The prototype might not have the range and payload to be a success, but if we knew how close it was to successful performance, we could form an idea of how far it has to go to make the grade and be a successful product.  I assume the flying prototype they showed was a full scale prototype.  But they didn't tell us that.  It could have been a small scale model, a drone, no way I could tell watching TV.  And the TV people didn't tell us what we were watching, full scale working prototype, or tiny model drone. 

Logan 2017

I missed it in theaters back in 2017.  I got it on DVD thru Netflix.  Not impressed.  Although we have Hugh Jackman playing Logan, not much else is right.  Logan has gone to seed, drinks too much and uses stuff.  Drives an airport stretch limo, nicely washed and polished, but still a stretch limo.  You would never catch me behind the wheel such an under powered, ungainly, hard to parallel park tank.  Logan spends a fair bit of his time taking care of Charles Xavier, played by Patrick Stewart.  Like Logan,  Charles Xavier has gone to seed too.  He no longer sees the whole of mankind's future, nor can he do anything about it.  The plot, if any, never became clear to me, the movie just kinda rambled along, and never getting anywhere.  If Logan or Charles Xavier was trying to accomplish anything, I never figured out what it might be. 
   Not the best X-man spinoff movie.

Thursday, May 31, 2018

military-still-wants-belly-gun-v-22-osprey

Full article here.  According to the article, Osprey fans and supporters have been calling for a research and development project for a belly gun for the Osprey for years.  Strange.  We figured out how to mount machine guns on aircraft back in 1915, Antony Fokker did the deed.  Bolt the gun to the fuselage somewhere, cut a hole for the gun muzzle to stick out of, and the job is done.  You have to steer the aircraft to lay the gun, but that's easier and more instinctive and more reliable than some kinda steerable gun mount.  No R & D required, just go do it.  We did it back in Viet Nam, the local boys managed to mount a 30 cal Gatling gun on an F4C, and Chuck Yeager scored a number of kills with it.   It worked so well that the next version of the F4, the F4D, was built with an internal gun.
   Plus, the mission of the Osprey is to carry troops and land them behind enemy lines.  Adding guns and ammunition costs range and payload, i.e. an armed Osprey is less effective at its primary mission than an unarmed one.  If the landing zone is hot, send some armed escort fighters along with the Ospreys to dust off any bad guys stupid enough to stick their heads up.  
    

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Obamas to do TV show. It will be non political

According to Variety the Obamas will get a TV show with Netflix.  Netflix claims the show will be non political.  Really. 

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Palestinians firing mortars into Israel from Gaza

That sort of thing has been an act of war since the invention of cannon.   Last time the Palestinians did this they provoked an Israeli invasion that did them a lot of hurt.  Seems pretty obvious that the Israelis are prepared to do that again.  How much hurt do the Israelis have to inflict to get their message across?  And how crazy is the Hamas leadership, asking to get their asses kicked again, for no reason?
   I know the Palestinians are still sore about Israeli victory back in 1948.  But they gotta learn that they lost, and it ain't likely that they ever will be able to beat the Israelis.  Keeping up the hostilities ain't gonna do the Palestinians any good, the Israelis are better educated, more unified, more dedicated, and generally tougher than the Palestinians will ever be.  

GDPR Notice on my blog

The blogger people tell me that they have posted some kind of message on the overseas versions of my blog, to comply with the new European data privacy law.  I cannot see this message.  I have no idea what it says.  It's a message from the blogger people, not me. 
   All I can say is that my posts, and your comments, stay on the blog pretty much for ever, and are visible to anyone who visits the blog.