Year: 2008

Live and Learn: The Insane Makes Sense In Rock and Roll

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We live in a strange world when the bizarre demands and moods of Rock and Roll musicians make sense.

In the first case, it’s the musician Prince, who for a while simply went by that symbol, and was referred to as, “The artist formerly known as Prince.”

What we all discovered when he dropped the affect, and went back to being “Prince”, was that this was one of the ways that he was attempting to wrest back control of his career from Warner-Chappell, and once the contract expired, he went back to using his name.

Then we have the case of Van Halen, who as confirmed by Snopes, required in their, “standard performance contract,” that they be, “provided with a bowl of M&Ms, but with all the brown candies removed.”

Again, when one looks at what Paul Harvey would call, “The rest of the story,” it’s a lot more than just a bunch of self indulgent rockers, as related by David Lee Roth in his autobiography:

Van Halen was the first band to take huge productions into tertiary, third-level markets. We’d pull up with nine eighteen-wheeler trucks, full of gear, where the standard was three trucks, max. And there were many, many technical errors — whether it was the girders couldn’t support the weight, or the flooring would sink in, or the doors weren’t big enough to move the gear through.

The contract rider read like a version of the Chinese Yellow Pages because there was so much equipment, and so many human beings to make it function. So just as a little test, in the technical aspect of the rider, it would say “Article 148: There will be fifteen amperage voltage sockets at twenty-foot spaces, evenly, providing nineteen amperes . . .” This kind of thing. And article number 126, in the middle of nowhere, was: “There will be no brown M&M’s in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation.”

So, when I would walk backstage, if I saw a brown M&M in that bowl . . . well, line-check the entire production. Guaranteed you’re going to arrive at a technical error. They didn’t read the contract. Guaranteed you’d run into a problem. Sometimes it would threaten to just destroy the whole show. Something like, literally, life-threatening.

(emphasis mine)

So they had this provision to see if the proprietors of the arena actually read their contracts, because if they did not, there was a very real chance that things would go seriously wrong, and someone could get hurt or killed.

Live and learn.

Happy Dance!!! Lieberman Likely to Get Dumped!!!

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It looks like Lieberman will lose his position as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. (See alsohere)

Basically, between his unwillingness to do his job on his committee, he dismissed an investigation into the failures of Katrina as, “Water under the bridge,” and his pimping for John McCain, this should come as no surprise.

Additionally, it’s clear that Lieberman’s goal, should he retain the committee chairmanship, would be to generate the greatest possible discomfort for Democrats possible, because he is a vindictive SOB.

It appears that they don’t intend to throw him out of the caucus, yet, but it certainly sounds like he would be personae non grata in the caucus meetings.

I’m not sure that he would end up caucusing with the ‘Phants though….It doesn’t allow him to play the sanctimonious bipartisan wise man on Fox.

Oh, To Hell With It, Should I Just Register, “NotEnoughBullets.com”?

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So now, we find that Wall Street has lines it won’t cross, specifically, they consider obscene bonuses to be a matter of principle:

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — Wall Street’s chief executives will hunker down and pay bonuses this year in the face of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, a taxpayer bailout and mounting political outcry, industry veterans say.

…

How many yachts to you need to water ski behind?

Seriously these folks are well on their way to killing more Americans and harming the country in to a degree that Osama bin Laden could only dream of.

Let’s just declare them economic terrorists, and freeze their assets.

Shorter Ted Stevens: I’m Insane or a Liar

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In the Senate debates in Alaska, Ted “Hulk Smash” Stevens let this whopper fly:

“I’m not going to step down. I have not been convicted. I have a case pending against me, and probably the worse case of prosecutorial … misconduct by the prosecutors that is known,” Stevens said.

Yes, you have been convicted.

You may expect a reversal on appeal, but you were convicted.

C=MI*

*Conservatism = Mental Illness

Economics Update

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I guess the news from the central banks is as good a place to start as any.

It looks like the the Federal Reserve’s initiative to buy commercial paper is bearing fruit, to the tune of $145.7 billion between October 27 and October 31….Annualize it out, it’s about 7.6 trillion a year.

I also must note that the Bank of Japan cut rates for the first time in 7 years.

It also looks like the ECB will be cutting rates at their next meeting, because Euro Zone inflation numbers were low.

I’m not sure that it’s going to help when consumer spending is falling, by 0.3% in September.

Remember, even though it seems a very long time ago, the Lehman collapse was on September 15, halfway through the month, so the October will likely be worse.

In real estate, one of the leading indicators, the Architecture Billings Index, which presages construction by 9-12 months just dropped off a cliff.

This ain’t no ‘V’ shaped recession.

In any case, the oncoming recession has significantly lowered commodities prices in October, even oil, which posted a record drop, though it was up yesterday to $67.81/bbl.

GMAC is looking at becoming a bank and restructuring extensively.

Finally some historical chart pr0n, graphs or recent market crashes:

VERY scary image courtesy of Calculated Risk.

Click image for full size graphic.

When the F-15 Would be Better Than the F-22

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The USAF is looking at replacing all the mechanically scanned radars with electronically scanned AESA radars.

A dirty little secret is that this would make the F-15 superior to the F-22 in some of the missions that it is most touted in, particularly cruise missile interception, because of basic physics.

The F-15 has a larger space in the nose for a radar, so the aperture, and hence resolution and range, woudl be greater.

Picture pr0n below:

Coast Guard Stripped of Acquisition Power

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Following the Coast Guard’s Deepwater modernization program, I am not surprised that the Department of Homeland Security has stripped the Coast Guard of acquisition authority, so that now the DHS will have to sign off on, and supervise all contracts.

To be fair, this is not entirely the Coast Guard’s fault. Deepwater was managed under the Lead System Integrator (LSI) model, which is best defined as trusting the fox to manage the hen house.

Now, if only we could do the same with the USAF and Navy.

Neat Tech: Fiber Optic

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NASA is using Fiber-optic stress and strain gauges to evaluate dynamic loads on wings and other aerodynamic surfaces. (paid subscription required)

In addition to being lower profile than conventional strain gauges (see pictures) the technology looks likely to be small enough, light enough, and unobtrusive enough so it would be embedded in aircraft for real time structural health reporting.

It could also be used as a part of a wing that actively changes its camber, a “son of the mission adaptive wing” that NASA tested on the F-111 over a decade ago.

DARPA Looks at Riverine Submersible

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I think that what they want is extremely ambitious, and may be very difficult to achieve.

They are looking at the vehicle being able to semi-autonomously deploy in the treacherous waters of, “rivers, inlets, harbors and other shallow waters,” burrow in the mud, and conduct surveillance.

It would need to navigate its way quietly through the frequently murkey, with turbulent currents and things like sandbars to further complicate things.

Additionally they want to be able to sleep for an extended time.

I don’t think that this is going to happen, but the the pictures are wicked cool:

South African Rooivalk Attack Helo Still in Limbo

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I always thought that this was a promising project, particularly in an COINS application, as the SADF had that as its primary duty before the end of Apartheid.

It appears that I was wrong and the Rooivalk program is a mess (paid subscription required).

Only 12 production helos were delivered, there are no prospects for foreign sales, and they have dissimilar avionics fits across the fleet, and they are now talking about, “revised functionality within the existing allocated financial resources,” which means downgraded capabilities.

I Don’t Know About You, But I Just Love Aviation Pr0n

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No women, just aircraft, though I’m not sure how I would classify aircraft nose art.

In any case, this is about NASA cutting contacts with aviation manufacturers to set its aeronautics agenda for the next few decades. (paid subscription required)

What gets my blood going are the concepts, whether SSTs, that look like they came out of the Thunderbirds classic TV show:

Open rotor engines:

And new configurations:


New engine congfigurations


Lowspeed high efficiency aircraft with externally braced wings

$206 Billion Cost Growth: 5 Weapons Systems

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Yep, just five weapons gave us $206 billion in cost overruns:

  • Lockheed Martin Corp.: F-35 Lightning II, $66.8 billion
  • Boeing: Future Combat Systems, $69.7 billion
  • Lockheed and Boeing’s: Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, $18.5 billion
  • General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman: Virginia-class SSN, $27.3
  • Various: Chemical Demilitarization program, $23.4 billion

The last one covers a number of contractors, and is for destroying US Chemical warfare stockpiles.

How the hell do you go that far over budget incinerating nerve gas? Just how much of this stuff is lying around in arsenals?

Seriously DoD procurement is completely out of control, and it’s going to take us down the way it took down the USSR.

Hey, I Worked on This!!!!

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In 1996, I was brought in to work at what was then Loral Vought Systems to work on navalization issues for the VT1 missile, which was the missile for the Crotale NG system from Thompson CSF.

Now, they have adapted the missile for vertical launch, and made a successful launch.

It’s a fairly simple point defense system, roughly analagous to Seawolf, in that the launcher mounted fire control system guides the missile to the target, andt here is no seeker on the missile.

Since I’ve worked on the system, Thomson CSF become the French defense behemouth Thales.

Truth be told, I’m kind of surprised that they are still developing the missile. It feels like an awful long time ago.

It’s why I can claim to be a “rocket scientist”

Indian Navy Looks to Nuke Sub Lease Deal

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The Amur shipyard in Russia has started sea trials on the “kinda sorta new” Akula II boat.

It’s not completely new, construction was halted in 1991, but this is a very capable boat, and the Indians are getting for $650 million for a 10 year lease.

FWIW, I think that the cost has to be understated, even if the Russians are desparate to maintain their shipyards capabilities, this is a 10 cent sale.

JLTV Update

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The army had delayed the announcement downselection of proposals for the Hummvee replacement though the scuttlebutt is that there are three designs that will go on to the next , and they are buying interim mine resistant vehicles for Afghanistan.

The existing MRAPs are faring poorly on Afghanistan’s generally crappy roads and harsh terrain.

It’s either budget, or a problem with the program causing the delay.

Danger room has a report on the awards, but no link yet.

It’s confirmed. The winners for this stage are Lockheed Martin; a joint venture between General Dynamics Land Systems and AM General, and BAE Systems.

Of interest, no hybrid vehicles.