Laser site and flashlight for a multi-shot rubber band gun?
It’s kind of neat, but still….too much free time.
Author: Matthew G. Saroff
Not Enough Bullets, Part 3
NY Magazine writes about the heart rending adjustments that have to be made by the until recently overpaid traders at Lehman.
The janitors, receptionists, etc., maybe I have some pity for them.
As for one of the examples, a woman engaged to a Lehman trader who dumped him once he was no longer a millionaire, he’s better off.
Worst Political Commentary Ever
You can almost visualize Rich Lowry masturbating to the debates:
A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It’s one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O’Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat. Palin too projects through the screen like crazy. I’m sure I’m not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, “Hey, I think she just winked at me.” And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ricocheting around the living rooms of America. This is a quality that can’t be learned; it’s either something you have or you don’t, and man, she’s got it.
And them, I guess, he cleaned off his keyboard.
I’m thoroughly squicked by this.
Why Am I Not Surprised?
Judge Refuses to Shutdown Troopergate Probe
His decision is not surprising. The Alaska state Lege has a constitutional right to investigate whatever they want.
This is So Undeniably Cynical and Dishonest
It appears that the McCain campaign wants Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston to have an October wedding, because they think that it would have a positive impact on their campaign:
In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one — the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.
Inside John McCain’s campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. “It would be fantastic,” said a McCain insider. “You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week.”
As Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.”
Unfortunately for John Sidney McCain III and His Evil Minions™, it appears that the love birds are looking at a Summer wedding.
What a Whiner
It appears that Sarah Palin says that she had a bad interview with Katie Couric because the anchorwoman annoyed her.
Katie Couric annoyed her? And she couldn’t cope?
Meta
I made a promise not to refer to They Who Must Not Be Named, and I intend to keep it.
Eisenhower’s Kid Speaks
John S.D. Eisenhower, Dwight Eisenhower’s son, notes that he is the only son of a president or vice-president who served in combat while their parents were serving, and he notes that Sarah Palin’s, Joe Biden’s, and John McCain’s sons should not be serving in Iraq:
As the time for my deployment approached, I discussed my intentions with my father. We met at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago, just after the Republican convention, and I explained my position. My father, as a professional officer himself, understood and accepted it. However, he had a firm condition: Under no circumstances must I ever be captured. He would accept the risk of my being killed or wounded, but if the Chinese Communists or North Koreans ever took me prisoner, and threatened blackmail, he could be forced to resign the presidency. I agreed to that condition wholeheartedly. I would take my life before being captured.
On looking back, however, I now feel that I was being unfair and selfish, and that my father was being far too conciliatory in giving me such permission. On the other hand, I don’t think that the army should ever have given me an option in the matter.
(emphasis mine)
This argument also applies to Prince Harry, by the way.
SEC Reauthorizes Faith Based Accounting
It looks like the banks lobbying the SEC has gotten the desired results. The SEC has relaxed rules on “Mark to Market” accounting:
The three-page joint statement today from the SEC and the Financial Accounting Standards Board does not do away with fair value accounting provisions altogether.
But it gives companies more leeway to employ estimates and their own judgment in many cases when they deem the market to be “disorderly” or seized by liquidity problems. It also gives companies room to determine whether the impaired value of their assets is no longer temporary, a conclusion that could trigger massive write-downs.
Not to get in to the minutiae of this, but it appears that they largely gutted mark to market.
This will make any final reckoning worse.
Pokeman Politics
DoD and Army Fight Over Tank Purchases
Basically, the Army wants to shift $1 billion from M-1 Abrams procurement to the FCS program, and the DoD is rather unimpressed at the concept.
As has been made clear here by me many times, I’m on the side of the DoD.
I think that the FCS Manned Ground Vehicles are not well suited to currently foreseeable conflicts.
To pay for this, the Army would drop plans to upgrade hundreds of Abrams tanks and scrap a last planned purchase of at least 30 new tanks, saving a total of $1 billion through 2013. As well, it would slash planned purchases of Strykers, saving $1.3 billion, and reduce purchases and upgrades of Bradley Fighting Vehicles, saving $417 million.
The DoD comptroller’s office is especially opposed to cutting Abrams funds, a senior Pentagon official said.
Of course, the army is arguing that the FCS, weighing just 25-30t to the Abrams’ 70 t, is more survivable:
“The MGVs will provide the soldier with an array of crew protection, to include advanced lightweight armor composites, crew mine blast protection, active protection systems, thermal management and radar. Most important, the FCS network provides better situational awareness, allowing soldiers to engage targets at greater distances,” said FCS communications manager Paul Mehney.
But this is crap.
In a counterinsurgency campaign, the insurgents always have better intel. They choose where and when to attack, and at that point, the network is not a substitute for armor.
Besides, the network can be retrofitted into existing vehicles for less cost.
VoteForTheMILF.com
It appears that John McCain purchased VoteForTheMILF.com a few hours after they announced Sarah Palin’s pick as VP.
Ummmmm…Ewwwwww?
Brazil Shortlists Fighters
Brazil is looking for fighters to replace it’s existing 1960s vintage fighter force.
It has now shortlisted the Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale and Gripen NG while dropping the Eurofighter Typhoon, F-16, and Su-35 from the competition.
If they are looking at lifecycle costs, the Gripen wins, being half the weight of the competitors.
If they are looking for an aircraft to operate of their carrier, the Rafale wins, because the F/A-18 is really too big for their rather small carrier.
Additionally, they have an existing relationship with Dassault, as they leased Mirage 2000s from them.
That being said, Stephen Trimble notes they are very interested in technology transfer, wanting to rebuild their defense industry, which, after all, was half of the effort to build the Italo-Brazilian team that built AMX attack plane in the 1970s, so it may come down to who gives them the best technology transfer.
My guess is that this competition is France’s to lose, but they have found innovative ways to lose export competitions recently.
More on the M4, M16, and the 5.56 Round
Well, first, it appears that as a part of a potential M4/16 replacement, the army is once again looking at the 25mm smart grenade launcher, now called the XM25 Individual Air Burst Weapon, which grew from the abortive Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW).
Incorporating this into a standard carbine or rifle is, I thin, a losing proposition. You add weight and complexity when only one person on the fire team really needs to have the weapon under most scenarios.
As such I favor a solution analogous to the M203, which can be installed on the weapon as needed.
There are two issues with the M4 and one with the M-16, they both require a lot of care and cleaning, and the M4 has lethality issues beyond about 50 or so meters.
As to the former, much of the issue is the gas tube system, in which the gas which it tapped to drive the bolt directly, and there is a drop in kit, basically a new upper receiver assembly, which adds a piston, the H&K 416.
While people talk about going with a heavier round, the real problem with lethality with the M4 is that its barrel, at 14-1/2 inches is just too short, and so velocity, and hence energy, suffers. Seeing as how bullpup rifles are shorter with a barrel typically about 4 inches longer, that solves the problem.
As an interim solution, going with the upper receiver replacement makes sense, while one looks at something more extensive.
BTW, good article on the H&K G11, which used a 4.85mm caseless round, which would have been a world beater.
My understanding is that they fixed the cookoff issues, but the rounds, and the weapon, were too fracking expensive.
Here is some gun pr0n, with the pictures from here:
DSRV Retired
The Mystic, the nuclear powered rescue sub, was retired on October 1.
It has been replaced by the ubmarine Rescue Diving and Recompression System’s (SRDRS), which is more easily transported.
NLOS-C Prototype Fires First Round
They have validated the concept with mockups and breadboards (It’s why you see the cables running out of the back of those vehicles) but this does represent a step forward for the howitzer variant of the Future Combat System:
The mobile cannon, which is crewed by two soldiers, has a fully automated ammunition loading system and on-board projectile tracking. Lieutenant Colonel Robert McVay, Army Product Manager for NLOS-C said in a statement that “This marks the first 155mm round fired from a fully automated howitzer mounted on an FCS hybrid-electric chassis and remotely commanded through its on-board computers and controls.”
You will note in the picture that this is not the full up model firing, but one of the breadboard models, note the cables out the rear.
Russia Has a Clue on the Ukraine
It appears that they are offering major shipbuilding contracts to the Ukraine, including the construction of their carriers, in order to better relations.
Unfortunately, it appears that Vladimir Putin is clueless on the Ukraine, or he got a severe attack of the stupids, because he just accused Ukraine of assisting Georgia in the war.
It’s reassuring to know that other nations’ foreign policy can be as f%$#ed up as ours.
Northrop Says DDG 1000 Deckhouse Hunky Dory
Northrop Grumman is denying that there are any problems with the DDG-1000 deckhouse.
It is a very large composite structure, so I would be surprised if there weren’t problems with the first one off the line…even though this line now appears to end at two ships.
Well, That Prevents the Space Station from Becoming an Expensive Door Stop.
Or more accurately, it prevents it from becoming a marginally less productive doorstop from where it is now.
Michael Griffin, NASA Administrator, is now saying that he is not seeing excessive Congressional opposition to the continued purchase of Soyuz flights to support the space station.
I’m of a mixed mind. This makes it easier to shut down the Shuttle, which is easily the most self destructive program that NASA has ever embarked on, but the Space Station is a pretty useless and expensive boondoggle too.