Author: Matthew G. Saroff

AESA Radar Enters Flight Test on F-16

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Northrop Grumman is now flying its Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) on a USAF F-16.

The interesting question here is how much this will influence current F-16 operators who are currently considering purchasing the F-35.

I think that it is likely that the capabilities of an avionics suite installed on an F-16 can come close to that installed in a JSF: Even with an advanced sensor suite, it’s clear that the F-16 will be less than ½ the price, and less than ½ the direct operating costs.

Additionally, any avionics package is far more open to the development of national systems and upgrades, and the ability to operate 2-3 times as many aircraft, particularly if the nation expects to operate largely in coalition action or counter-insurgency scenarios, might very well deliver superior results on the battlefield.

Have I Mentioned that I Love Alan Grayson*

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He lays into Pat Robertson’s comment on Haiti and the devil, and further notes that the religious right, and particularly Pat Robertson’s supporters have achieved none of their goals, specifically a constitutional amendment against gay marriage, and a ban of abortion, and he asks, “What about your own pact with the Devil? How’s that worked out for you?” (3:07)

I don’t think that everyone should be like Alan Grayson, but I think that it’s essential that the Democrats have a few of these sorts of firebrands to describe the wrong that the Republicans do in stark and moralistic terms.

*In a 110% purely heterosexual kind of way, of course, as the General would say.

Signs of the Apocalypse

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First, and most visibly, it’s the fact that the New Orleans Saints are now the world champions, having won the Super Bowl.

Secondly is that fact that David Stockman, one of the young Turks at the core of the “Reagan revolution,” he was Budget Director during Reagan’s first term, is arguing that the government should tax the financial sector to shrink its size:

While supply-side catechism insists that lower taxes are a growth tonic, the theory also argues that if you want less of something, tax it more. The economy desperately needs less of our bloated, unproductive and increasingly parasitic banking system. In this respect, the White House appears to have gone over to the supply side with its proposed tax on big banks, as it scores populist points against the banksters, too.

Not surprisingly, the bankers are already whining, even though the tax would amount to a financial pinprick — a levy of only 0.15 percent on the debts (other than deposits) of the big financial conglomerates. Their objections are evidence that the administration is on the right track.

Make no mistake. The banking system has become an agent of destruction for the gross domestic product and of impoverishment for the middle class. To be sure, it was lured into these unsavory missions by a truly insane monetary policy under which, most recently, the Federal Reserve purchased $1.5 trillion of longer-dated Treasury bonds and housing agency securities in less than a year. It was an unprecedented exercise in market-rigging with printing-press money, and it gave a sharp boost to the price of bonds and other securities held by banks, permitting them to book huge revenues from trading and bookkeeping gains.

Stockman is suggesting that people who he saw in the 1980s as the epitome of the heroes in Ayn Rand’s fiction should be taxed with the explicit aim of shrinking their size, because the business they do does not serve the public good.

This is a refutation of the “Objectivist” philosophy at the core of much of Mr. Stockman’s public life, which saw the glorification of greed as a force for good, and a legitimate basis for public policy decisions.

People Who Don’t Get It

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He’s smiling because he’s taking your money.

About 4 weeks ago, Segway, the folks who make the geeky little scooter, was sold to a British investor, and as a result, the earlier investors will lose their money, to the tune of something over $150 million dollars.

Well, Mercury News Columnist Chris O’Brien looked at what happened, and waxed poetic:

In this case, though, what’s fascinating is not just the money, but who gave it. Jeff Bezos of Amazon chipped in. And closer to home, so did venture capitalist Doerr and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

I’m not gloating over their failure. Their successes have made them legends, and for good reason. It turns out, though, that despite their foresight and immense personal fortunes, they remain human and fallible. Just like the rest of us.

You see, they didn’t just think the Segway would be successful.

They expected it to change the world. In a hype-filled month such as this, during the lull between the Google Nexus One and the Apple iSlate, it’s good to be reminded how rare it is for such lofty expectations to be met.

Why did people believe this? Because Dean Kamen was a “Genius”.

He had at the time designed the AutoSyringe, an automated injection/infusion device, a mobile dialysis machine which was highly commercially successful, along with the iBot, an all-terrain wheel chair.

I remember when the Segway was called “It”, and later it was called “Ginger”, and when people like Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos were saying that it was going to change the world.

Then “It” came out, and it was just an electric scooter, and kind of a dorky one at that.

The turn of events with the Segway, where it is largely reduced to punchline (see Paul Blart: Mall Cop) is not surprising.

What is surprising is not that a bunch of people thought that it would be a commercial success, which didn’t happen, or the initial investors would have gotten their money back, but rather that somehow or other people came to believe that it would literally change the world.

If there is a lesson to all this it is that the folks who are giants in Silicon Valley and related industries are not any more likely to see the next big thing than anyone else, and that they are where they are because they got lucky.

I Lived There

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Middletown, Connecticut, that is.

I lived there for a year when I designed equipment to, among other things, cut new assholes on dead things (see bottom video), and now I’ve heard that there has been a massive explosion at a Kleen Energy Systems power plant under construction there, and there have been fatalities.

It appears that they were purging gas lines in an enclosed building, and the gas ignited.

News report is the top video.


Accident


“Bung Dropper,” which will be used on my daughter’s prospective suitors.

Sometimes, I Just Don’t Give a Sh%$

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I do this for shopping lists all the time!

And it aggravates me no end when the liberal blogosphere sends me marching orders* to talk about something that I really don’t give a sh%$ about.

Case in point, Sarah Palin’s use of notes scribbled on the palm of her hand for the softball Q&A following her speech at the Teabagger convention.

People make notes. People make notes in the palms of their hands, yours truly included.

Even if Sarah Palin were to memorize the Congressional Record, she would still be a moron with narcissistic personality disorder.

Yes, it reinforces the meme, but it really means very little.

*There are no actual marching orders, it’s satire. I am making fun over the entire tempest in a teapot aspect of this. There is so much wrong with Sarah Palin, it seems to me to be shooting fish in a barrel.

Stephen Andrew Wakefield Acted Unethically

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Medical regulators in the UK have now ruled that Stephen Andrew Wakefield acted unethically in the conduct of his study linking vaccinations and autism.

The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism acted unethically, the official medical regulator has found.

Dr Andrew Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet study caused vaccination rates to plummet, resulting in a rise in measles – but the findings were later discredited.

The General Medical Council ruled he had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly” in doing his research.

, Dr Wakefield said the claims were “unfounded and unjust”.

The GMC case did not investigate whether Dr Wakefield’s findings were right or wrong, instead it was focused on the methods of research.

During the two-and-a-half years of hearings – one of the longest in the regulator’s history – he was accused of a series of charges.

‘Callous disregard’

The verdict, read out by panel chairman Dr Surendra Kumar, criticised Dr Wakefield for the invasive tests, such as spinal taps, that were carried out on children and which were found to be against their best clinical interests.

The panel said Dr Wakefield, who was working at London’s Royal Free Hospital as a gastroenterologist at the time, did not have the ethical approval or relevant qualifications for such tests.

The GMC also took exception with the way he gathered blood samples. Dr Wakefield paid children £5 for the samples at his son’s birthday party.

Dr Kumar said he had acted with “callous disregard for the distress and pain the children might suffer”.

(emphasis original)

It’s likely that they will pull his certification to practice medicine, though this might not mean much, as Wakefield left the UK, and now practices in the United States.

His research, which was not merely bad, but corrupt, had sickened thousands of children who were either not vaccinated, or caught disease from their unvaccinated friends. (vaccines are not 100%, and the loss of herd immunity is a serious issue)

Additionally, Lancet has already rescinded the original article.

One hopes that he ends his life in jail, because he wasn’t just wrong, he pushed forward his bogus study in the hopes of making money from an equally bogus therapy that he had patented.

[on edit]
A sharp eyed reader noticed that I got his name wrong. I have corrected, but have left the original strike through to show what a complete prat I am.

Brazil Fighter Competition Update

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We have a report from the Brazilian Newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reporting that there will be 36 Dassault Rafales purchased at $175 million each, ($6.2 billion) and this constitutes a $2 billion price cut in the deal.

On the other hand, the Brazil defense ministry had denied that any formal decision has yet been made.

$175 million each? Great googly moogly, for a few bucks more they could buy the F-22, if it could be sold, and if the production tooling still existed.

Death Spiral, JSF Edition, Chapter 2 of Many

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Well, this week, SecDef Robert Gates has just fired the program manager for the JSF program, Major General David Heinz, and is withholding millions of dollars in performance fees to the prime contractor, Lockheed-Martin, because of schedule and budget slips, citing a “troubling performance record.” (see also here, here, and here)

Lockheed-Martin’s response has been nothing short of delusional, at least as described by Steve O’Bryan, L-M VP for “business development and customer engagement” for the JSF, “:

Gates’ actions, in O’Bryan’s view, “reflected the commitment of the U.S. government to the F-35… the program is fully funded, with more development funding and more robust leadership.” The decision shows that the aircraft is “relevant today, and that the customer wants the jet right now.”

I’m beginning to think that part of the reason that this program is over budget and behind schedule is that Lockheed Martin has, and so the tax payer is paying for, a, “vice president for business development and customer engagement on the JSF program”.

It seems to me that this is a rather high falutin, and likely highly paid, position for what amounts to a PR flack with heavy duty knee pads.

Misapplication of resources may be a part of the problem, and Mr. O’Bryan’s continued employment does not seem to me to be an example of “spending smart.”

Of course, the USAF chief of staff is similarly sanguine, suggesting that the delays in the pro will only raise unit cost in the immediate term, because, like no other program before it, the delays will increast the cost only, “for a period,” and he does not see a Nunn-McCurdy breach in the costs.

It makes me want to quote that Samuel L. Jackson speech from Pulp Fiction again, because it’s clear that they want to f%$# the taxpayer like a bitch.

There are people who recognize the truth, like the Director Of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E), who says that even with a flawless program, there will be a slippage of at least 18 months on the program, but that a flawless program is extremely unlikely, since things like the idea that modeling and simulation can reduce testing are unlikely to succeed.

Of note in the DOT&E report:

  • LRIP configuration is not yet defined.
  • Clutch heating on the STOVL variant
  • Increases in weight and landing speeds means that tires are running into their thermal limits for the carrier (F-35C) version.
  • Software instability
  • They aircraft is pulling out many of its survivability features, fuel check valves in the engine nozzle and fire extinguishers, to reach the specified weight.

Additionally, it now appears that the F-35C fuselage is under-strength:

Lockheed Martin Corp. is fixing a structural weakness in the Navy version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that limits the jet’s ability to launch from aircraft carriers, according to a company spokesman.

Engineers in July discovered a “strength shortfall” in an aluminum structure in the aircraft’s center fuselage that helps absorb stresses during a catapult takeoff, Lockheed spokesman John Kent said today in an e-mailed statement.

Additionally, it appears that the carrier model may be too hot, literally for carrier decks:

The Pentagon’s Gilmore said in his report that the engine and power-systems’ exhaust on the Navy and Marine versions is powerful enough to pose a threat to carrier personnel. The blasts also may damage shields used to deflect heat on the deck, including on the CVN-21 carrier, the Navy’s most expensive warship.

“Early analyses of findings indicate that integration of the F-35 into the CVN-21 will result in damage to the carrier deck environment and will adversely affect hangar deck operations,” Gilmore wrote.

<snark>Actually, it’s not a worry, since their new electromagnetic catapults don’t work anyway. </snark>

Another Reason for the Islamic World to Hate Us

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We are trying to poison them.

You see, Vegemite is now Halal:

VEGEMITE has gone halal in a bid by food giant Kraft to make the national “treasure” available to Muslim Australians.

The label on Australia’s most famous spread has changed in recent months to include halal certification in a move some have described as “ridiculous” political correctness.

“Islamic communities are proud Australians and they want to be able to eat our national icon as well,” Kraft spokesman Simon Talbot said.

I think that this qualifies as chemical warfare.

Why People Hate Bankers

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Because their systems are patently unfair.

Case in point, AIG, which is owned by the US government, gave retention bonuses to employees who no longer work there:

A substantial number of AIG’s Financial Products employees set to get some $195 million in retention payments no longer work with the bailed out insurer, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

It’s clear that such behavior not only does not serve society, but it does not serve the share holders or the company.

This is a crooked game, and it needs to be shut down.

I’m going long on pitchforks and torches.

Remember the Auschwitz Sign Theft

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In December, some Jamokes stole the sign over the gate of Auschwitz, the one that said “Arbeit Macht Frei,” basically saying (it was a lie) that work would set the inmates free.

I remember reading about it, and thinking that I would wait a couple of days until the full story played out.

I wasn’t sure if this was a stupid prank, something involving organized antisemitism, or something falling into the middle ground, where the history Polish anti-Semitism could be inferred from the incident, but there was no some grounds for doubt.

Well, 2 months later, and the story has played out, and Mithras has nailed what happened in just 28 words (+ title):

Turns Out, It Was Anti-Semites
The guy who commissioned the theft of the Auschwitz sign is a Swedish neo-Nazi. The Poles who stole the sign for him say They Were Just Following Orders.

(emphasis mine)

Ok, Maybe Not “Meh”

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That mound with the wiper blades is a 1996 Honda Odyssey


The lump in the center left is a trash can


Back Yard

When I wrote about the Snowpocalypse, I said, “meh”.

OK, not so much.

I managed to get the back door open by about a foot, and then had to shovel the stoop to get the door open the rest of the way, and it’s still snowing.

Also: this is not the light and fluffy snow. This is heavy and sticky.

Maybe the kids will do a snow man, but I’d give less than 50-50 that there will be school on Monday.

Again, apologies for the crappy cell phone camera pix.

We have plenty of food, and if it stretches on for weeks, a very fat cat who looks good for stewing.

(Not really, the cats are family, and besides, they are not kosher)