Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Japan Developing Supersonic Anti-Ship Missile

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A translation from the Japanese would be appreciated


French ASMP from Wiki

The missile is supposed to have a 200 km range and supersonic speed.

Looks like the French ASMP, which has a similar range, and a Mach 3 speed at altitude, and Mach 2 down low, so my guess would be similar performance, though it appears to have a solid fuel, rather than a liquid fuel ramjet motor.

I have no clue as to what the blue windows are.

A Loophole in the Bribery Statutes

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So, Chris Dodd, after a disastrous run for the Presidency, and 2 banking scandals, one of which was created by Tim Geithner, acknowledged reality, and announced that he was not running for reelection.

The question would then be how would this change his positions on banking reform?

One possibility is that, no longer needing the campaign donations, he would get harder on banks, and the other would be that he would go easier on banks, because he would be looking for post-Senate employment.

Well, we have our answer, and it’s the latter.

The murmurs are that Dodd is looking at dropping an independent consumer financial protection agency entirely from the Senate banking reform bill the excuse is that he is looking for bipartisan support, but the fact is that anything that republicans will support will be completely toothless.

This isn’t just a “rearranging deck chairs” thing. If the agency is not independent, then it will be attached to another agency, most likely Treasury, which is largely an arm of the banks by design, and they will have no control over the budget and personnel requests.

So, Chris Dodd is well on his way to getting a high paying gig with a bank, or a law firm for the banks.

It’s depressing. He was my 1st or 2nd choice in the 2008 primaries, but much like Edwards, it appears that he has feet of clay.

Here’s a Shocker

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Monsanto’s genetically modified corn has been linked to organ damage:

In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.

When you give enormous guaranteed monopoly profits by allowing the patenting of genes and species, those profits guarantee that safety is a secondary concern.

Quote of the Day

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It’s from the “about” section of a blog called Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed:

Even further back in time, Dr. Kedrosky was one of the first technology equity analysts at a major brokerage firm. Back before there were such things as credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, and subprime mortgages, we vandalism-loving greed-heads on Wall Street were forced to take down capitalism the hard way — by selling over-valued technology companies to an unsuspecting public via initial public offerings. While it eventually worked out (c.f., the tech crash of 2000), the next generation of Wall Street-ers learned from our inefficiency and took down the global money grid in half the time it took us to mess up Nasdaq. Lesson learned.

Needless to say, I put him in my feed reader.

H/t The Big Picture for the catch.

Quote of the Day

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Courtesy of Stephen Colbert, but Colbert the person, not the character that he plays on his show.

He was at a reunion of Second City comedians, and they had a panel on comedy and politics:

As for Glenn Beck, the panel discussed the challenge of maintaining a separation between reality and satire when so many TV pundits are simply, premeditatedly over-the-top.

“I said, ‘Let’s start doing some Glenn Beck stuff but in praise of Glenn Beck,'” said Colbert. “But every time we do one, he will have done something dumber. He raised the stupid bar and now it’s nearly inapproachable.”

(emphasis mine)

Another Report on How We are Destroying Ourselves-

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It appears that methane is leaking from the arctic permafrost at rapidly accelerating rates, and methane is a significant contributor to the greenhouse effect.

Of course, it also includes one of my pet peeves:

The discovery follows a string of reports from the region in recent years that previously frozen boggy soils are melting and releasing methane in greater quantities. Such Arctic soils currently lock away billions of tonnes of methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, leading some scientists to describe melting permafrost as a ticking time bomb that could overwhelm efforts to tackle climate change.

(emphasis mine)

Frequently, you have people saying that methane is 20 times more effective at trapping greenhouse gasses than CO2, and while technically true, it leaves out an important fact, that methane’s persistence is far less than that of CO2.

Methane, CH4, has a molecular weight of 16, far less than that of the atmosphere, roughly 30, so it tends to migrate towards the upper atmosphere, where ultra-violet light breaks it down.

Here is the equation:

CH4 + 2O2 ⇒ CO2 +2H2O

Methane’s persistence is far less than CO2, on the order of a 1-2 decades, as opposed to the centuries for a CO2 molecule, which needs to go through the Byzantinely complex biochemistry that is photosynthesis.

So, basically, methane is something on the order of 10% worse, a short period in which that carbon atom part of a methane molecule, followed by a longer period in which it is CO2.

Global warming is real, and methane is an issue, though it is one roughly the same as CO2. There really isn’t a need to go all “20 times” (2nd link) do describe the issue. It is imprecise and disingenuous.

Our planet is going to hell in a hand-basket in either case.

Spot the Cancer Victim

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High heels and Bathing Suits? WTF?*

Actually, it’s a trick question, neither of the women have had cancer, they were just two contestants on the British reality show Make Me a Supermodel.

Guess which one the judges preferred?

Yes, they preferred the one on the right, Marianne Berglund, while the viewers preferred the 5’11” 154 pound Jen Hunter, who won the show, but then could only find employment with a “plus size” model agency.

As an FYI, their relative body mass indices (BMI) were 16.5, well into emaciated, and 21.5, slightly below the 21.75 mid point of the 18.5-24.9 normal index.

It should be noted that during the show, Hunter was rididuled by the judges for her being “too fat:

During its five-week run, Make Me a Supermodel provoked fury from health experts after Ms Hunter, a size 12, was repeatedly attacked, and reduced to tears, by judges who accused her of being too fat. But the last laugh belonged to the British public, who voted in their tens of thousands for her to be their female winner.

Jen hunter nails it when she says, “People need to realise that to be beautiful doesn’t mean you have to be the size of a 13-year-old boy.”

The problem is that for many years, a lot of designers have seen “13-year old boys” as their aesthetic ideals, and it permeates the media.

One final note, send the woman on the right a cheesecake.

*But that’s another rant.

JAGM Video Pr0n

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Intended as a replacement for the Hellfire, Maverick, and TOW missiles.

I’m still a bit dubious of replacing the Maverick with the missile, seeing as how the warhead for the Maverick is heavier than the whole JAGM, and so I cannot see how the JAGM won’t be at a disadvantage against fortifications and military naval vessels (i.e. bigger than drug-runner’s speed boats).

10%?

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That is the current charge-off rate for Capital One US Credit Cards.

This means that today, with no sign of unemployment abating, over 10% of their debt portfolio is deemed to be uncollectable:

Capital One Financial Corp’s U.S. credit-card charge-offs rose to double digits in December, showing consumers became increasingly stressed in the holiday shopping month.

In a regulatory filing on Friday, Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate — debts the company believes it will never collect — for U.S. credit cards rose to 10.14 percent in December from 9.60 percent in November.

I used to think that the banks couldn’t lose money when they paid 3% on savings accounts and got 18% on credit cards, but now that it’s 1½% and 28%, it looks like they are going under.

To quote The Hunt for Red October, “You arrogant ass. You’ve killed us! “

Somali Pirates Create Better Fishing

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Not surprising.

It appears that there is upside to Somali piracy. The pirates have scared off the people plundering the fishing grounds off of the Somolian coast:

MALINDI, Kenya–Kenyan fisherman are perhaps the only people in the world who have reason to be grateful to Somali pirates – they keep away illegal fishing boats.

In past years, illegal commercial trawlers parked off Somalia’s coast and scooped up the ocean’s contents. Now, fishermen on the northern coast of neighboring Kenya say, the trawlers are not coming because of pirates.

“There is a lot of fish now, there is plenty of fish. There is more fish than people can actually use because the international fishermen have been scared away by the pirates,” said Athman Seif, the director of the Malindi Marine Association.

One of the reasons for the popularity of the Somali pirates in Somalia is because they are perceived as going after foreign poachers.

If the external powers started policing the 200 mile limit for Somalia, or better yet, commissioned and supported a Somali Coast Guard, and pursued the people who are strip-mining their coastal waters, we might find some real improvement in the piracy problem.

Good Point

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When we look at Pat Robertson, and his delusional bits of wing-nut spew, it is important to note that he is, and remains a very significant figure in American politics:

You can sneer all you want at Pat Robertson. You can condemn him all you want. And I’ll join right in. He deserves everything you care to say about him, and much, much more. He is a seriously disturbed man.

But you dismiss and ignore him at your peril. Remember: this man used to call up the f@#&ing president of the United States. And he got through. And the president listened to him.

You ever had that kind of access to power? Got it now? Thought not. Me, neither. You got his hundreds of millions of dollars? Got millions of fans giving you hard-earned- bucks? Nope, I don’t have them either.

(emphasis original, @#& mine)

The fact that people do not take him seriously, even though he could, for many years, pick up the phone and in a few minutes have a conversation, or arrange a meeting, with the President United States is a not trivial thing.

People who should not be allowed to use a butter knife are achieved positions of outsize influence in the United States, and more often than not, these days at least, they speak to, and for, Republicans.

They Who Must Not Be Named

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Let us add Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas, as well as any other moron who decides that celebrity justifies their carrying a firearm in violation of the local laws:

Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, who was suspended from professional basketball, pleaded guilty to a felony count of carrying a handgun without a license.

Arenas, 28, entered the plea today before District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Robert Morin in Washington. Under a plea agreement, Arenas admitted violating a District of Columbia law on carrying an unlicensed handgun.

Under the agreement, he likely will receive a sentence much lighter than the five years he might otherwise face. The agreement calls for prosecutors to recommend a sentence of six months when Arenas is sentenced on March 26.

When the prosecution asks for 6 months, can they please also ask for the sentence to be served at the same time as the NBA season?