Month: August 2009

A Claude Rains Moment

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I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on here!

The New York Times is reporting that all though the bailout process, Hank Paulson was consulting daily, and in some cases hourly, with Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein, despite ethics requirements, and promises to Congress during his confirmation hearing, that would mandate that he keep the firm at arm’s length.

What’s more, he did not have similar conversations with any of the other investment firms.

It should be noted that many of these conversations were during the initial resolution of the AIG crisis, where the decision to honor what were clearly fraudulent credit default swap (CDS) contracts kept Goldman, and the rest of the Wall Street solvent, and out of government hands, protecting their high paying jobs.

Seriously, whether or not you want to go after Bush and His Evil Minions™ for things like torture, which we should, this is garden variety corruption, and not criminalizing policy, and should be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.

H/T The Big Picture.

Zimbabwe Update

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In a move that has “Epic Fail” written all over it, the Police are attempting to staff up by actively recruiting ZANU-PF youth militia members to the force.

As if the state security apparatus were not brutal, politicized and corrupt already.

We also have Arthur Mutambara, head of the MDC-M, stating the obvious, and noting that neither the MDC-M nor Tsvangerai’s MDC-T have any meaningful control of the government.

On the brighter side, we are now seeing divisions in the ZANU-PF over who should succeed late Vice President Joseph Msika, and it appears that the split is between the people originally from ZANU (Robert Mugabe) and PF-ZAPU (Joshua Nkomo).

One hopes that the MDC, both -T and -M, can use this discord to get some meaningful influence in this dynamic.

Just When You Thought that Wal-Mart Could Not Get Any More Evil…..

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They have made a corporate decision to attempt to destroy Girl Scout cookie sales:

What could Wal-mart possibly do to harm Girl Scouts?
Wal-mart has copied the Girl Scouts’ two best selling cookie types, Thin Mints and Tagalongs.

Wal-mart is selling Fake Girl Scout Cookies.
Wal-mart has fake Girl Scout cookies in ‘beta’ distribution, on their way to a national rollout. Because the cookies are ‘reasonable facsimiles’ of the authentic Girl Scout cookies (I sampled them myself at BlogHer ‘09 last week) and are being sold at an everyday low price, these cookies are poised to snatch cookie sales right out of the hands of the Girl Scouts themselves.

Remember, the funds from girl scout cookie sales go to their programs, things like camping trips, etc.

It must be the uniforms….It reminds Mal-Mart management of unions, so this organization must be crushed.

Ezra Klein Dead Pool

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This is at least the 2nd time in as many months that Ezra Klein has called the Washington Post Editorial Page, and by extension it’s execrable editor Fred Hiatt for printing clearly dishonest garbage in a guest OP/ED.

In this case, it was Danielle Allen, who put forward the “death panel” dishonesty.

I figure that if honest evaluation of the accuracy and truthfulness of the Washington Post editorial pages becomes a regular feature of his blogging, Mr. Kline will soon be looking for a new job.

In would be nice if they instituted even the mildest fact checking in their editorial page, though this would necessarily make Charles Krauthammer’s articles read like this:

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Vasimr Proceeds to Higher Power Tests

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30 kw first stage test


VX -200 Prior to entering Test Chamber


In vacuum chamber

The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr) is slated to enter higher power testing. (paid subscription required)

The first stage, a 30kw system, has been successfully tested, and they are now working on a 2nd stage, which will boost the power of the unit to around 200 kw.

The performance benefits, the ISP (basically fuel economy) is more than 10 times that of chemical rockets, would be very significant if this can be made to work.

For example, it could take the time for a transit to Mars from 180-200 days to about 40 days.

Prior posts here.

In an Outbreak of Sanity, India Seeks to Buy, Rather Than Develop Tejas 2 Engine

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The Indian AF recently rejected proposals for foreign aid to develop the indiginous Kaveri engine from the Gas Turbine Research Establishment, and now the India’s Aeronautical Development Agency has requested proposals for complete engines from both Eurojet (EJ200) and GE (F-414) for an off the shelf proposal.

All in all, this a good move, though I am kind of surprised that the IADA is nto also looking at the Klimov RD-33, later versuions of which are in the 20,000 lb thrust range, and is already in service.

Flying Saucers News

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Nothing particularly sinister or Area 51 here, it’s just that the former GFS (Geoff’s Flying Saucer, Ltd), now Aesir, is continuing to develop their Coanda effect VTOL UAV, which uses a blower and the Coanda effect (earlier post here) to get the desired characteristics, has come up with a 1000kg payload concept, the Hoder.

You can see more pictures here, and there is a video below.

It appears to be stable, and it has an advantage over a ducted fan in that the entire bottom of the aircraft could be used to hand sensors or weapons.

Hopefully Without Rinkles

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Airbus has released pictures of its carbon fiber fuselage proof of concept models, and it looks like they are going “whole hog” on this:

“The extensive use of carbon-fibre is a significant advance: the panels, frames, window frames, clips, and door are all made from it, with a hybrid door frame structure consisting of carbon-fibre and titanium being used for the first time,” Airbus adds. The barrel also contains some metallic components in the floor and in the highly loaded “test load introduction area”.

Hopefully, they will avoid Boeing’s problems with composite structures.

The Chinese Have It Right

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Mark Ames is on it.

China, it seems, has put a number of millionaire investment types to death, while in the US, AIG gets another $242 million in bonuses:

China has executed two people for defrauding hundreds of investors out of millions of yuan in beauty parlour, cosmetics and property scams, crimes which the government described as a serious blow to social stability.

The two executed fraudsters, Du Yimin and Si Chaxian, “seriously damaged the country’s financial regulatory order and social stability”, the supreme people’s court ruled.

I don’t support the death penalty, but throwing these guys in a very dark hole for the rest of their lives, and ensuring that every dollar they have is forfeit, would be a very good thing.

Israeli Air Force Test-Flies T-50 Jet

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Israel has neglected its trainers for a while, I think that their Fouga Magisters were retired as primary trainers only a few years ago, and that they still use the A-4 Skyhawk as an advanced trainer, so it comes as no surprise that the IAF has done some test flights in the supersonic T-50 trainer.

They are also looking at the BAE Hawk and the (also supersonic, but barely) Aermacchi M-346, which ironically started as a Russian design.

Still, it’s $25 million a pop for the T-50….Great googly moogly.

Boeings Airborne Laser Takes Shots

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I would note, however that these were nowhere near full power, and the program has been dropped from the 2010 budget anyway.

During the test, the modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air Force Base and used its infrared sensors to find a target missile launched from San Nicholas Island, Calif. The Boeing-developed battle management system aboard ABL then issued engagement and target location instructions to the beam control/fire control system, which acquired the target and fired its two solid-state illuminator lasers to track the target and measure atmospheric conditions. ABL then fired a surrogate high-energy laser at the target, simulating a missile intercept. Instrumentation on the target verified that the surrogate high-energy laser hit the target.

(emphasis mine)

I think that this program is a dead end for a number of reasons, the defense draw-down, the rise of the UAV, and the fact that there have been significant advances in high energy solid-state lasers, which makes the chemical technology used by the ABL an expensive, and highly toxic, relic.

Marine Corps Downselects to 2 Unmanned Cargo helos

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The Marine Corps is looking for a UAV cargo carrier that can handle the rigors of operation in Afghanistan, and the Boeing A-160T Hummingbird and the Kaman K-MAX. (paid subscription required)

The goal is to be able to carry 750-1000 lbs at a density altitude in excess of 12,000 feet.

Boeing probably has the edge on UAV operations, though Kaman’s partnership with Lockheed-Martin may close the gap on this, but the K-Max has a lot more in the way of flight hours under harsh conditions, both in firefighting and logging operations.

I lean toward Kaman, because with a twin main rotor design, it may handle better in high altitudes, like the Hindu Kush.

It’s Bank Failure Friday!

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

  1. Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, Pittsburgh, PA
  2. Colonial Bank, Montgomery, AL
  3. Union Bank, National Association, Gilbert, AZ
  4. Community Bank of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ
  5. Community Bank of Nevada, Los Vegas, NV

So, Colonial Bank, the largest failure this year, failed. I mentioned it earlier:

All deposit accounts have been transferred to Branch Banking and Trust Company, (BB&T), Winston-Salem, NC (“assuming institution”) and will be available immediately. The former Colonial Bank locations will reopen as branches of BB&T. Each location will operate by the same schedule it did prior to this transaction.

Full FDIC list

Goldman Says Curbing Speculators May Disrupt Markets

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Well, isn’t that special, Goldman Sachs thinks that we as a society owe them the right to rape us:

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the bank that makes the most money from commodities, fixed-income and currency trading, said attempts to curb speculation may be “disruptive” to energy markets.

“The role that is played by non-traditional participants such as index investors and other financial participants often has been mischaracterized,” Don Casturo, a Goldman Sachs managing director, said today at a Commodity Futures Trading Commission hearing in Washington.

Somehow, I think that your being hung from a lamp post when the revolution comes would be more disruptive.

Unfortunately, it appears that Timothy “Eddie Haskell” Geithner and Lawrence “Never Right in the Real World” Summers largely agree.