Year: 2010

Well, Here is a Blast from My Web Past

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Around 1995 0r so, I really do not recall when exactly, I decided that the web was just too useful for me to compete on utility, so I would compete on uselessness.

So I created, hand coded, because that was the way then, a web page dedicated to bad hair days.

Originally, it was just me, you’ve seen the picture, it’s in the right column, and Al (Einstein, that is, the patron saint of bad hair).

Well, I realized that not only did the Internet completely out-class me in useful things, but it completely outclassed me in useless things, so it never went that far.

That being said, I did add one other public figure, just 12 days before September 11, 2001, James Traficant, who had arguably the worst hair in the 200+ year history of Congress.

Mr. Traficant was subsequently tried and convicted for matters unrelated to his hair, corruption, and expelled from Congress.

Well, He’s back!!!!!!

After serving 7 years for bribery, he is running for his old seat as an independent in his old district in Youngstown, OH.

Same as it ever was……

Federal Reserve Continues Its Full Court Press Against Transperency

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Once again the Fed is trying to cover up its role in bailing out the financial bigwigs.

I think that they know that they will lose if it goes before the Supreme Court, so they are delaying in the hope of getting a “Get out of jail free” card from Congress in the financial regulation bill.

Their latest delaying tactic is that, after having lost at the Federal district and appeals courts, they are asking for an en banc (Full Appeals Court) review:

The Federal Reserve Board asked an appeals court to reconsider a ruling requiring the agency to disclose documents identifying financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest U.S. government bailout ever.

Attorneys for the Fed yesterday asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals in New York to reconsider a unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel. If the court refuses, the Fed can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The decision is of exceptional importance,” the Fed’s lawyers wrote in a legal brief. “The real-world consequence of the panel’s decision will be serious, perhaps irreparable harm to the institutional borrowers whose information will be revealed.”

Nope. Everyone knows this information by now.

What they don’t know is just how much the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, are in the pockets of the financial industry, and how far they went to protect their buddies in Wall Street.

It’s time for the Fed to man up and fess up.

Entering the Last Decade

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I’ve hooked up a webcam, and installed Skype.

I just confirmed that it worked with my brother, who uses both a lot, he has a D&D run that involves players from the west coast and China.

I’ll be having a video interview some time this week.

Daniel’s advice, “Remember to look at the camera.”

My Skype ID is “msaroff.”

More Evidence of Chinese Naval Ambitions

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The Chinese Navy is building a 2nd demagnetization facility at Maocao Nong.

This is significant, because while ships may be flashy and show the flag, you need support infrastructure in order to be able to maintain a reasonable level of operations, and this is yet another example of how the Chinese are building their naval power from the ground up.

On a related note, it’s amazing what you can find on Google Earth.

Greece Bailout Finalized

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The bottom line is €120 billion in loans and guarantees, along with some fairly brutal austerity measures.

Of course, the problem is not that the Greek government is profligate, it has amongst the most meager safety net in the EU, but rather that the populace aggressively evades taxes, and the tax collection authority is inefficient and corrupt.

Estimates have the Greek government, “losing as much as $30 billion a year to tax evasion.”

The solution here is very simple. While the German people may object to lending money to the Greeks, which is one of the reasons that Angela Merkel dithered, I don’t think that the German people would object to lending a few hundred to a few thousand of their nastiest most aggressive tax collectors to Greece.

As it stands not, Greek austerity is being carried on the back of the lower and middle classes, while the wealthy will continue to avoid paying their share. Only a few thousand of the 11 million Greeks claim an income above €100,000.00, and this is clearly not true.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: Car Bomb Found in Times Square

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Thankfully, it did not go off, but it was sitting there smoking away:

The police discovered a car bomb in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening.

There was no explosion.

“It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth” Avenues on 45th Street, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

The device, he said, contained “explosive elements” that included “propane tanks, some kind of powder, gasoline and a timing device.”

………

The explosive materials were discovered about 6:30 by a mounted police officer who saw a box with smoke pouring from it in the back of the Pathfinder, Mr. Browne said. The officer called for backup, and the Fire Department and bomb squad.

The Pathfinder’s back window was broken out, Mr. Browne said, and the police sent in a “robotic device” to “observe it.”

Mr. Browne said gunpowder had been found in the vehicle, but not a high-grade explosive. The timing device was a clock attached to wires. The gasoline was in cans and there appeared to be two or three propane tanks.

Apparently, had it worked, it would have been more of a woosh (followed by a weenie roast) than a boom, but still, it’s unsettling.

The composition was gunpowder, unclear if they mean black powder or modern smokeless powder, cans of gasoline, and propane tanks, which sounds to my, “Haven’t blown sh%$ up since I was in my teens,” mind to be a pretty amateur operation.

Still, WTF?!?!?

PAK-FA/T-50 Video and Photo Pr0n

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Click for full size

This shot shows that the fan face is visible.
(Note, full size pic is humongous)


Detail of inlet


A variable geometry radar blocking technology.


Russian with subtitles


A useful PowerPoint from public sources

In terms of the development of the aircraft, it appears that both the Salut and United Engine Corp. (UEC) will work jointly to develop the a 2ndproduction engine for the aircraft, (paid subscription required) in addition to the engine being developed by Saturn, the prototype is flying with a variant of Saturn’s AL-31-F.

This indicates I think that the Russians are placing a lot of importance on the timely service entry of this aircraft, and I think is a far more sensible course of action than the jihad the Pentagon has had against the F136 alternate engine for the JSF, which may lower development costs in the near term, but almost certainly raises costs, and risks in the longer term.

As to stealth, it’s clear from the top two pictures that the engine fan face is clearly visible from a fairly wide (15°+) angle, which implies that some sort of radar blocker must be present. (H/t whoever posted them online)

If you look at the first video (3rd item on right), it looks like they may have a variable geometry radar blocker, which would provide a helical path for air, and signal, under some circumstances, non-maneuvering subsonic CAP, for example, and would provide a straight path when more airflow is desired, such as during a dogfight or supercruise.

Additionally, the bottom video lets drop an interesting manufacturing technology at about 2:25.

The fixtures for composite construction that that they are using have a very different philosophy than those used with US aircraft.

With US aircraft, Invar, which has a low coefficient of expansion, is used, where the Russians are going with tooling that is made from the same composite that is used on the airframe, so it will expand and contract with the underlying structure during the autoclaving process.

I just find this interesting as an engineer.

H/t Bill Sweetman for both vids.

Finally, there is a PowerPoint, h/t Stephen Trimble, which assembles most of the publicly available data on the PAK-FA, and serves to paint a rather more complete picture of the program and its capabilities.

India Restructures MMRCA Competition

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It appears that because of an inability of the Indian defense bureaucracy to evaluate proposals in a timely manner has required that the schedule for the downselect to 3 competitors for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program be pushed back an indeterminate length of time, (paid subscription required) which, under the terms of the contract, requires a rebid from the competitors.

FWIW, my money is still on MiG winning, the Indians already fly the aircraft, and the Eurofighter, Rafale, and Superhornet are really too large to be “Medium,” the F-16 is also operated by the Pakistanis, and the Gripen, by virtue of being Swedish, does not have the requisite geopolitical pull.

Then again, the final selection still appears to be at least 3 years off, and my powers of prognostication are in serious doubt.

And the Tanker Saga Continues………

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It’s official

There was much hemming and hawing, but the Pentagon offered a 60 day extension for EADS to make the the bid, which will will slip the award of the contract to some time next year and French President Nicolas “Bling Bling” Sarkozy leaned on them to make the bid, so EADS moved forward.

They have entered into entered into negotiations with L-3 as a key supplier, which is basically a way for them to put a bit of a US front on the program tanker.

So, EADS has decided to go it alone, without a US partner, and bid for the contract.

I think that a lot of this is really about maintaining a presence, so as to keep lines of communication open with the members of Congress and the Pentagon staff for future bids, but as Stephen Trimble notes, they do seem to be doing their best to play to win, as evidenced by the talking points they are sending out to Congress, which are a harsh slam of Boeing, noting the fact that their plane is flying, and works, while Boeing’s proposal is not flying, and that the 767 tankers sold to the Italians and Japanese still have issues with their hose and drogue systems.

Because the new contract gives very little in the way of credit for exceeding the basic requirements, this means that their best chance to win this is to show that Boeing cannot be expected to fulfill a contract on time and on budget.

Considering Boeing’s record, this is probably true, but considering EADS’ record **cough** A400M **cough**, it is also true for them.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!!!!

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And here they are, ordered, and numbered for the year so far.

  1. Eurobank, San Juan, PR
  2. R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, Hato Rey, PR
  3. Westernbank Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, PR
  4. CF Bancorp, Port Huron, MI
  5. Champion Bank, Creve Coeur, MO
  6. BC National Banks, Butler, MO
  7. Frontier Bank, Everett, WA

An interesting note here is that there has been almost a year of of reports foreshadowing the Puerto Rican bank closures, and this is 22 bank failures over 3 Friday evenings, 8 on the 16th, and 7 last week and this week.

This ain’t pretty.

Full FDIC list

And here are the credit union closings, and I missed them:

  1. Kern Central Credit Union, Bakersfield, Ca
  2. Tracy Federal Credit Union , Tracy, CA

Kern was closed April 8, and Tracy was closed on April 27. I guess that the NCUA does not wait until Fridays, sorry.

Full NCUA list

So, here is the graph pr0n with trendline (FDIC only):

Good News, Everyone!

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Good news everyone!


I invented a device that makes you read this in your head using my voice!

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled that a lower court erred when it said that the Texas money laundering statute only applied to cash, which led it to dismiss the case against Tom Delay:

Co-defendants of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay suffered a significant setback Wednesday in their quest to avoid a trial on charges that the trio conspired to launder corporate money during the 2002 elections.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously ruled that the lower state 3rd Court of Appeals erred when it accepted the co-defendants’ arguments that the money laundering law did not apply to them because the funds involved were checks, not cash. The all-Republican court, in effect, said the lower court acted prematurely.

I always thought that the ruling that check cannot be used to money launder was a pretty good indication of just how f%$#ed up justice and the judiciary are in Texas, and it’s nice to see the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is the state supreme court on criminal matter (the Texas Supreme Court is the supreme court on civil matter), to recognize this.

The interesting thing here is that after his performance in Dancing With the Stars, I think that a Texas jury might be much more willing to convict.

Pass the popcorn.

Wanker of the Day:

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Reliably spouting right wing talking points since 2004

Barack Obama.

For claiming that there were no oil spills from platforms and as a result of Hurricane Katrina:

I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.

The problem here, as the folks at Media Matters so ably note, this is false. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil and distillates were spilled offshore as a consequence of hurricane Katrina.

It’s not true, it’s never been true, and he’s a smart guy, and he knows this.

Rachael Maddow Eviscerates Anti-Immigration Group

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I saw this last night, and now the video is out.

I am a hardliner on immigration. I think that the immigration laws should be aggressively enforced, that border controls should be strengthened, and that oft-abused visa programs (H1b, L1) should be fixed.

I also believe that the focus should be on the employers, because if the cost of employing illegals exceeds that of legal hiring, then it will stop. (My proposals are here.)

Unfortunately, most of the political groups out there, aside from labor unions, that want a hard line taken, are populated by racist nativists.

Case in point is Ms. Maddow’s masterful take-down of the crypto-racists at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). She runs down its history, and then interviews its president, Dan Stein.

He is left an oily smudge on the floor.

Just watch it, it is 19 minutes and 33 seconds well spent.