This story is ummmm….Electrifying?

Lag caught with phone charger up jacksie

By Lester Haines
Published Wednesday 20th June 2007 11:07 GMT

A lag at Swaleside Prison on the Isle of Sheppey was caught with an entire phone charger up his jacksie after officers noticed his “discomfort” during a search of his cell, The Sun reports.

The appropriately-named Tony Pile, 22, serving a life stretch for “beating a man to death in a race hate attack in 2005”, was collared during a sweep aimed at cracking down on drug and phone smuggling into the Kent chokey.

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Yes, I know…cheap joke.

You are talking about people who can count. If you pay people with a math aptitude more, they will run the numbers when choosing a career path.

MAA study tackles projected skills dearth

Concern that the UK aerospace sector is slowly bleeding skills and experience has led the UK’s Midlands Aerospace Alliance (MAA) to develop a model for collaboration. MAA hopes this attracts the next generation of skilled workers into the sector.
Research by the regional UK group shows an alarming mismatch between expectations and reality throughout education, recruitment and employment. In industry, the worst affected are SMEs. An MAA study revealed little planning is done for evolving engineering skills requirements, including replacements for the 5-10% of the workforce expected to retire in the next five years. Companies instead rely on finding the skills they require, when they need them, in the general jobs market – more knee-jerk reaction than strategy.

Although recruitment of young people is seen as one of the solutions to this pending problem, the industry struggles with a poor image among students, which is compounded by gaps in the education system.

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Given its relatively low speed, less than Mach 2.5, this is much easier than some of the high supersonic (Mach 3+) and hypersonic vehicles (Mach 5+).

The lower speed eliminates a whole bunch of leading/bleeding edge technologies which are EXPENSIVE and time consuming.

Raytheon Studies Supersonic Tomahawk

Raytheon Studies Supersonic Tomahawk
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/18/2007, page 56

Douglas Barrie
London

Raytheon studies supersonic cruise missile within Tomahawk infrastructure constraints

Printed headline: High-Speed Shortcut

Raytheon is studying a “Supersonic Tomahawk” concept it believes could offer the U.S. Navy a quick path to fielding a comparatively high-speed conventional strike weapon.

After 18 months of company-funded concept development, Raytheon has submitted preliminary study work to the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR).

“We decided to look at what we could do from a Raytheon viewpoint. . . .Could you design a supersonic Tomahawk to fit . . . in the current tube,” says Harry Schulte, vice president of strike weapons at Raytheon Missile Systems.

One aim was to examine whether the constraints of fitting within the existing Tomahawk launch-tube would place unacceptable limitations on a supersonic weapon’s performance in terms of range. “Could we live with the constraints?” says Schulte.

The 1,000-mi.-range subsonic Tomahawk has a cruise speed of about 0.8 Mach. While a supersonic weapon based on the “same” airframe size would not give a similar range, Schulte says the figures came back suggesting 600-650-mi. ranges were achievable.

The Supersonic Tomahawk concept indicates a clear lineage to its subsonic origins. Credit: RAYTHEON

The company discussed with engine manufacturer Williams propulsion options for the design concept. The design studies suggested that a cruise speed of Mach 2 to Mach 2.2 was viable.
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I just think that this drone is wicked cool looking.

It’s a Predator-B class drone.

Alenia Aeronautic Unveils New Unmanned Aircraft

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/18/2007, page 112

Andy Nativi
Rome

Sky-Y prototype could clear the way for pan-European unmanned aircraft project

Printed headline: Unmanned and Unveiled

Alenia Aeronautica hopes its work on a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aircraft demonstrator will spur interest in a future European collaborative program.

The so-called Sky-Y has been underway in secret for several months, but this week the company is expected to lift the veil on the project. A Sky-Y model will be shown at the Paris air show, while the real version is undergoing trials at the Vidsel test range in Sweden.

Finmeccanica is trying to break into the medium-altitude unmanned aircraft market, building on work done with earlier UAV demonstrators. Credit: ALENIA AERONAUTICA

I would note that the basic science of stealth originates same Russian mathematics paper of the mid-1960s as it always had, so my money is on anti-Stealth in the medium term.

Radar Threatens Stealth (Subscription Required)

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/18/2007, page 132

David A. Fulghum
Washington

The debate continues over whose black projects are most effective

Printed headline: Stealth Rules

The stealth versus radar contest is making another of its periodic swings–this time in favor of new, advanced radars. But stealth specialists say it won’t be enough because stealth is improving even faster than the radars.

There’s a new generation of stealth on the way that will be seen in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Navy’s new Unmanned Combat Air System. It will provide protection against high-frequency radars traditionally associated with advanced air defenses. But stealth designs will also be tuned to evade low-frequency radars that can detect older stealth designs like the F-117.

Meanwhile, advanced radars are being developed by the U.S., France, Britain and Russia, with Moscow expected to share the technology with the Chinese military. The active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars are made up of thousands of efficient transmitter/receiver modules that produce a versatile, long-range radar. The F-22’s radar, which measures about 2 X 3 ft., has an estimated range of about 125-150 mi. The MP-RTIP radar–designed for the E-10 with a 4 X 20-ft. antenna to counter stealth–would have had an estimated range of perhaps 300 mi. or more. U.S. officials hint at ground-based radars with even greater ranges. It’s known that Israel’s Green Pine AESA radar is big and powerful enough to watch missile tests in Syria and Iran.

Even more intriguingly, if all the beams can be focused on a single spot–perhaps an enemy cruise missile, radar or a headquarters packed with computers–an electronic spike of electricity can be produced large enough to blind sensors, fill them with false targets and scramble computer memories. Raytheon has already tested an air defense system that uses radar transmitters to shoot down shoulder-fired air defense missiles.

Perhaps best of all for the U.S., researchers discovered how to take the products of electronic warfare effects generators and pump them through AESA radars on fighter aircraft–in particular, the latest F/A-18E/F and EA-18G models. That means electronic effects, such as false targets and other misleading data, can be fired as a data stream into the radars and other sensors of other aircraft, missiles and air defense arrays at ranges of a 100 mi. or more, farther than air-to-air weapons.

Air Force officials hint that the capability also exists in the F-22.

“We’re rapidly finding out the things the F-22 brings and how to use them,” says Lt. Gen. Chip Utterback, commander of 13th Air Force. “We are soon to integrate the F-22 and the [Marine Corps AV-8] in ways I would never have imagined. I’m talking about a joint team for a Harrier and an F-22 using the low observability of the F-22 and the ability of the AV-8 to identify and work targets while close to the ground–and while under a high-threat surface-to-air environment. We can put an F-22 in that environment and work some magic . . . in the electronic attack arena where we couldn’t before. With F-22, we can work our conventional forces much more aggressively in a high-threat area.”

Another clue comes from a longtime Pentagon stealth and radar specialist.

“The combination of the F-22’s stealth and electronic attack capabilities allows it to play both sides of the equation by being hard to detect and carrying the capability to generate false targets and jam enemy radars.”

This X-45C tailless flying wing represents the fourth generation of stealth that protects against detection by low-frequency radars as well as it does against traditional high-frequency air defense sensors.Credit: BOEING

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Damn, this guy is such a disaster.

He will make Goldwater’s run look like a walk in the park for the Republicans.

Rudy missing in action for Iraq panel

Giuliani’s campaign fundraising kept him from commitment to panel studying Iraq.

BY CRAIG GORDON
craig.gordon@newsday.com

June 18, 2007, 11:41 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — Rudolph Giuliani’s membership on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt end last spring after he failed to show up for a single official meeting of the group, causing the panel’s top Republican to give him a stark choice: either attend the meetings or quit, several sources said.

Giuliani left the Iraq Study Group last May after just two months, walking away from a chance to make up for his lack of foreign policy credentials on the top issue in the 2008 race, the Iraq war.

He cited “previous time commitments” in a letter explaining his decision to quit, and a look at his schedule suggests why — the sessions at times conflicted with Giuliani’s lucrative speaking tour that garnered him $11.4 million in 14 months.

Giuliani failed to show up for a pair of two-day sessions that occurred during his tenure, the sources said — and both times, they conflicted with paid public appearances shown on his recent financial disclosure. Giuliani quit the group during his busiest stretch in 2006, when he gave 20 speeches in a single month that brought in $1.7 million.

On one day the panel gathered in Washington — May 18, 2006 — Giuliani delivered a $100,000 speech on leadership at an Atlanta business awards breakfast. Later that day, he attended a $100-a-ticket Atlanta political fundraiser for conservative ally Ralph Reed, whom Giuliani hoped would provide a major boost to his presidential campaign.

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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? They use dolphins and sea lions?

U.S. Navy Fielding First of Many Organic AMCM Tools

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/18/2007, page 95

Amy Butler
Washington

U.S. Navy takes first of many steps to overhaul countermine capabilities

Printed headline: Going Organic

The U.S. Navy is planning to field its first organic airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) capability this fall with the introduction of the first of five of the MH-60S’s key mine-hunting components into the fleet by year-end.

The AN/AQS-20 Mine Hunting Sonar system is nearing completion of its technical evaluation phase and will be dispatched to the fleet by the end of the year. The device, designed by Raytheon, will be towed behind the MH-60S and is used to detect mines in deep water.

With the fielding of this device and a new semi-submersible mine-hunting vehicle also being deployed for the first time this year, the Navy is embarking on a years-long shift in handling the tricky and elusive task of finding and neutralizing mines. The central tenet of the Navy’s new countermine strategy is to remove its sailors, mine-hunting dolphins and sea lions and ships from direct contact with the mines during future countermine operations. Today, minesweeping ships operate in the minefield and Navy divers or sea mammals physically attach charges to neutralize each individual mine. This process is both time-consuming and dangerous.

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I can just see the ad: Wanted EOD^* expert. Must work for fish.

^*EOD=Explosive Ordinance Disposal.

Ten

What a clusterf%$#.

Two notes on this:

• For most of the time that I was at United Defense (later BAE Systems), Elmer Doty was Vice President & General Manager, Ground. Systems Division
• Boeing has VERY aggressively spread technally “bleeding edge” portions of 787 manufacture to outside vendors, where potential delays are largely invisible. I would expect the 787 deliveries to be delayed, though perhaps not as much as the Airbus a380.

Boeing supplier Vought outlines 787 challenges

Key Boeing 787 supplier Vought Aircraft Industries has disclosed it is facing “ongoing schedule slippage” in obtaining parts it is supposed to install before shipping fuselage sections to Boeing, a company memo obtained by the Seattle press reveals.

Shortly after it was reported the head of 787 operations at Vought, Ted Perdue, had left the company, Vought CEO Elmer Doty sent a memo to employees setting clear the firm faced challenges but noting it was acting quickly to address the issues.”

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I had them as my long distance provider for nearly 20 years.

When I heard about them breaking the law to turn over records to the NSA. I dumped them, and switched to QWest.

The only good that AT&T ever did was Bell Labs, and that is part of Lucent now.

AT&T willing to spy for NSA, MPAA, and RIAA

By Nate Anderson | Published: June 13, 2007 – 10:13AM CT

In a move that has executives from movie studios and record labels grinning from ear to ear, AT&T has announced that it will develop and deploy technology that will attempt to keep pirated content off its network. The move is spurred in part by the company’s decision to offer IPTV television service as part of its U-Verse package, AT&T senior VP James W. Cicconi told the Los Angeles Times.

The first step for AT&T is coming up with a technological solution that works: something that can effectively filter out illicit traffic while protecting its users’ privacy. That’s a tall—if not impossible—order. YouTube hasn’t managed to do it even for video yet, and that’s when customers are sending them entire files which they can scan at their leisure. Monitoring all the files sent through BitTorrent—which splits them into tiny pieces—could be even more difficult; doing it in real-time sounds both expensive and impossible.

Without human intervention, it’s also tough to tell if copyrighted content is even “piracy.” Fair use carves out exceptions for news reporting, criticism, and commentary (among other things) which is nearly impossible for a machine to understand in context.

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My guess would be that the US is expecting to see more cruise missile threats, and this upgrade is about dealing with this.

Then again, it may be that the F-22 is too damn expensive to buy enough to use in a meaningful defense of the US, and the JSF is behind schedule.

US Air Force to expand Boeing F-15C active radar upgrade with Raytheon

By Stephen Trimble

Raytheon is reviving a programme to upgrade the US Air Force’s Boeing F-15C fighters with active electronically scanned array radars, expanding on an initial phase performed on a single squadron of 18 Alaska-based aircraft in the late 1990s.

The emergency supplemental funding bill for fiscal year 2007, signed by President George Bush in late May, contains about $62 million to upgrade a small number of active duty F-15Cs with an enhancement of the ‘brick’ array APG-63(V)2 radar previously integrated to now use a tile design, says Mike Henchey, Raytheon business development director. Raytheon has previously designated this as the APG-63(V)3, but it is likely to enter service under a new designation in the APG-series, he says. The (V)3 variant refers to the active array of transmitter/receiver modules, with this front-end to be mated with the APG-63(V)1 radar processor already installed on most of the USAF’s active duty F-15Cs.”

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Snark of the day from Tom Schaller.

By way of background, Regent University, Monica Goodling’s alma mater, was founded by Pat Robertson as CBN (Christian Broadcast Network) University, and while its graduates seem to be good enough to run the DoJ and fire US Attorneys, it’s not good enough to cover GWB’s alcoholic ass.

TAPPED Archive | The American Prospect

SO HELP ME IVY. The Post reports that President Bush is beefing up his besieged White House legal team with some crack lawyers to defend the administration against a variety of congressional inquiries. As the Post’s Peter Baker notes, all eight [of the newly-hired attorneys] received degrees from Ivy League schools or from West Point.

So, when it comes to policy-making over at the so-called Justice Department, a Regent University law degree, like the one held by Monica ‘I may have crossed the line’ Goodling and a battalion of other fundies, suffices. But when it comes to protecting the president’s backside, apparently a divine legal degree is no substitute for an East Coast elite Ivy School pedigree.

–Tom Schaller

I am so not shocked.

First, speech recognition, a google video of Vista’s Speech Recognition:

Then there is the fact that it screws up its IPv6.

Vista not playing well with IPv6
Microsoft acknowledges some “compatibility issues,” but calls operating system its best ever

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World, 06/07/07

Early adopters of Microsoft’s new Vista operating system are reporting problems with its implementation of IPv6, a long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet’s primary protocol.

IPv6 supports a 128-bit addressing scheme, which lets it support an order-of-magnitude more devices that are directly connected to the Internet than its predecessor, IPv4. IPv6 also has autoconfiguration, end-to-end security and other enhancements.

Vista supports IPv6 by default. Vista runs a single-stack, dual-IP-layer architecture, which means it is IPv4- and IPv6-capable out of the box. It supports tunneling of IPv6 traffic over an IPv4 backbone and includes IPSec that works for both IPv4 and IPv6.

Network management software vendors and users are reporting problems with Vista’s IPv6 implementation.

“Vista is showing some serious deficiencies around IPv6 and IPv4 insofar as their compliance or the transparency of their compliance around IP behaviors,” says Loki Jorgenson, chief scientist for Apparent Networks, a provider of network assessment and optimization tools.

“For example, Vista doesn’t expose any of the [Internet Control Message Protocol] errors to applications running on Vista,” Jorgenson says. “The application can’t get access to that message, and subsequently all it sees is that the network connection is not working. This is a big challenge for us around Vista. It’s not clear at all why IPv6 isn’t properly supported in this regard.”

Duane Murphy, president of Managed Information Services in Long Beach, Calif., says he has experienced problems with Vista’s IPv6 implementation on the networks he runs for law firms. Murphy used Network Instruments’ Observer 12 application, which supports IPv6, to isolate Vista’s IPv6 problems.

“We are seeing a number of applications that are IP-based that do not like the addressing scheme of IPv6,” Murphy says. “We will send a print job to an IP-based printer, and the print job becomes corrupted. We’re seeing this with Window’s Vista machines. When IPv6 is installed, this happens without fail. As soon as we remove IPv6, all of our printer functions return to normal.”

Murphy says the printing problem has cropped up on 45 Dell Latitudes and Dimensions running Vista Business or Vista Ultimate.

“We’re also seeing loss of network connections on IP when you have both IPv6 and IPv4 loaded on the same machine with an IPv4-based network,” Murphy says. “As soon as we remove IPv6, we suddenly have connectivity to the rest of the local workstations.”

Murphy says he believes the problems stem from Vista’s IPv6 implementation.

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This is rather interesting, read the full article.

FindLaw’s Writ – Amar: The Wyoming Governor’s and the U.S. Senate’s Unnoticed Options, Under the Seventeenth Amendment, for Filling the Senate Vacancy Created By Senator Thomas’s Death

By VIKRAM DAVID AMAR
—-
Friday, Jun. 08, 2007

This week’s unfortunate death of Republican United States Senator Craig Thomas from Wyoming raises complex, if largely unnoticed, constitutional questions.

The consensus among the pundits is that Thomas’s departure from the closely divided Senate will have no short-term effect on the partisan balance there because although the Wyoming Governor is a Democrat, state law provides that when picking a temporary replacement to serve until an election can be held in 2008, the Governor must choose from among three candidates put up by the leadership of the state GOP – the party represented by the fallen incumbent.

This description of Wyoming law is accurate: The state elections code indeed directs that, in the event of a Senate vacancy among the Wyoming Senate contingent, the central party committee of the party represented by the prior incumbent is to submit three names of qualified persons to the Governor, who “shall” then choose one of the three to serve in the Senate until a popular election is held.

What is dubious, however, is whether this Wyoming statutory scheme is valid under the U.S. Constitution. Perhaps, in the spirit of bipartisanship or out of a desire to respect voter wishes, a Democratic Wyoming Governor should consider, and maybe even tap, a Republican temporary replacement for Thomas. But whether the Governor can legally be forced to pick one of the three persons served up by state GOP leaders is an entirely different matter.

The Key Provision: Section 2 of the Seventeenth Amendment

The key provision to consider is Section 2 of the Seventeenth Amendment, an alteration of the Constitution added in 1913 to guarantee direct popular election (as distinguished from state legislative selection) of U.S. Senators. Section 2 says:

“When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.”

There is a very strong textual argument that the Seventeenth Amendment prevents the Wyoming legislature from dictating the Governor’s choices in making a temporary appointment: The Amendment’s language differentiates between a state “legislature” and a state “executive” authority, and allows a state legislature not to make or constrain any temporary appointments itself, but rather only to “empower the [state] executive to make [the] appointment.”

In other words, the Amendment, by its terms, creates potential appointment power only in Governors; it does not authorize legislatures to participate in such appointment decisions, beyond simply determining whether the Governors should be allowed to make temporary appointments or not.

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Seriously. The Mirage 5, a Mirage 5 variant with simplified avionics and higher system reliability was basically co-designed by IAI and Dassault.

The French canceled the Israeli order, so they created the Nesher, which was a copy, which led to the Kfir.

Dassault and IAI in talks on future project partnerships

Israeli company keen to leverage experience with Gulfstream and other business jets

Dassault is talking to Israel Aerospace Industries about co-operation on future business jet programmes, as the French airframer looks to extend its risk-sharing partnerships.

The Israeli business – which builds rival Gulfstream’s smaller aircraft, the G150 and G200 – is keen to leveerage its experience in designing and manufacturing fuselage sections to a wider market, and sees business aviation as a big opportunity. IAI has been building business jets since the late 1960s, and past products include the Jet Commander and Westwind. Before its 2001 partnership with Gulfstream, it sold the G200 as the Galaxy and built the G150’s predecessor, the G100, as the Astra.

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It’s clear that this stuff needs to be eliminated.

The most valuable asset of the IRS is the fact that Americans as a rule pay their taxes, and the more the big players get away with stuff like this, the more ordinary tax payers will find the system unfair, and so will be tempted to cheat themselves.

IRS moves to close tax shelter used by IBM | CNET News.com

By David Cay Johnston Story last modified Wed Jun 06 22:06:46 PDT 2007

For the second time in 12 months, the government has moved to block a tax shelter that had been aimed at converting billions of dollars of corporate profits, on which taxes have yet to be paid, into profits that will never be taxed.

The move by the Internal Revenue Service came two days after IBM said that it used the technique to avoid paying $1.6 billion in income taxes.

As part of a $12.5 billion stock repurchase, IBM used a foreign subsidiary to buy back shares through foreign exchanges. The subsidiary then used the shares to pay its corporate parent in America for goods and services.

“It’s just a way to bring the profits into the United States without paying taxes by using the stock as currency,” said H. David Rosenbloom, an international tax lawyer at Caplin & Drysdale and director of the international tax program at New York University Law School.

On May 31, the Internal Revenue Service issued a notice declaring that the technique could not be used to eliminate taxes. The notice said it would disallow any transactions beginning on that day.

The technique “raises significant policy concerns,” the IRS said. The IRS shut down a simpler version of the same shelter in September.

Under a 1962 law, corporations can defer paying taxes on most profits earned abroad as long as the money remains outside the country. The taxes come due, however, if the money is returned to the United States.

The technique was believed to be in wide use by corporations that have substantial profits offshore and are also buying back large amounts of their own shares to return value to investors. IBM appears to be the only company that publicly disclosed its use of the tax shelter.

The tax shelter is known as “Killer B,” after the letter used to designate a provision in the tax code governing certain corporate reorganizations.

By avoiding the 35 percent federal tax on profit, a company can buy three shares for every two it would be able to acquire with profits that had been taxed.

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Once again, the right wing shows how it’s all about rules for thee, but not for me.

Suing over a bruise on your butt? Hypocrite.

Washington Wire – WSJ.com : Bork Files Slip-and-Fall Lawsuit

Our colleagues at WSJ.com’s Law Blog report on a lawsuit filed by Robert H. Bork against the Yale Club: One-time Supreme Court nominee Bork is suing New York’s Yale Club for $1 million, alleging he was injured when he fell at an event there last June. “When it was his turn to deliver remarks to the audience, Mr. Bork approached the dais,” the lawsuit said. “Because of the unreasonable height of the dais, without stairs or a handrail, Mr. Bork fell backwards as he attempted to mount the dais, striking his left leg on the side of the dais and striking his head on a heat register.” Bork, 80 years old, suffered a large hematoma in his lower left leg as a result of the fall, according to the lawsuit. Read more and comment at Law Blog.