Category: Video

VIDEO: Silent Eagle Bay Watch

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Click for full size

Top Bay Only in Prototype, Production will Have Bottom Bay as Well


Door Opening and Missile Extending


Launch of an AIM-120

Boeing has now successfully flown a demonstrator for its slelent eagle, the F-15E1 demonstrator.

It has both extended and retracted a missile, and made a successful launch of the AIM-120 AMRAAM.

While these are significant, it should be noted that the system is nowhere near combat ready, with the time for opening the door and extending the missile being at least 10 times what you would want in real air to air combat.

Still, the aerodynamics involved, at least when flying straight and level at around 15,000 feet.

More significant might the fact that Boeing has secured an export license of the aircraft to South Korea.

It’s a low cost solution compared to either the F-35 or F-22, which is more of an indicator of just how the costs of combat aircraft have gotten completely out of control, rather than an indication of how inexpensive the F-15 is as platform.

Putting Descartes Before the Horse

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Not entirely safe for work

It’s not entirely safe fow work, but it is very, very funny.

Me, my philosophy is driven by Marxism, not Karl, but rather the Marx brothers, most notably the brother who never appeared before the camera, though he was on stage, Gummo.

Why do I follow Gummo Marx?

Because if I didn’t who else would.

I will note that I have an affection for Zeppo as well, since he was actually involved in engineering and manufacture, bring the man behind the Marman Clamp, so he is a fellow engineer, after a fashion.

H/t The Big Picture.

MSNBC Last Night

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We have two videos here, the first is Olbermann’s special comment, which is good, but, as I said last night, not as good as he has been, and then we have Maddow’s clear and convincing demonstration about how the right wing media in general, and Fox in particular, play the game of, “find the big scary black man,” for political advantage.

I prefer Rachel’s approach and delivery.

That being said, they are both good segments, and well worth spending the 10-15 minutes each segment runs.

How a Sewing Machine Works

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I had to figure out how exactly this worked in 1982, when I borrowed my roomate’s sewing maschine, which he used primarily as a coffee table, and had to thread it and get it to work so that I could make medieval garb for an SCA event.

I thought that it was neat at the time, but I had since forgotten it.

I still think tht it is neat.

Click the pic for a slightly larger image.

[on edit]

H/t Roger Ebert.

How Does Shep Smith Keep His Job?

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I’m not suggesting that he is a bad journalist, but rather that is s frequently a square peg in Fox News’s round holes, as was the case over the past few days when he pointedly did not become a part of the baying pack of Foxholes.

I imagine that he must feel some days a lot like Oskar Schindler must have felt.*

In any case, here is a video of Mr. Smith saying that, “we did not and do not trust the source,” referring to professional bigot Andrew Breitbart.

H/t TPM.

*Yes, I know, Godwin’s Law.

You Cannot Negotiate With the Insane

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A hack writer once said that, “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.”*

Well, John Kyle just had a bit of a gaffe.

He just said that tax cuts never need to be paid for, just spending:

You cannot run a hospital with people who believe in bleeding and leeches.†

There is simply no basis for rational cooperation with moonbats.

[on edit]

I should note that insanity is the best spin on what Kyle said. A more likely interpretation is that the real goal here is to create deficits at such a level that cuts government, particularly to social services,‡ are inevitable.

It’s called, “starve the beast.”

H/t Ezra Klein.

*Michael Kinsley, who is evidence that mindless contrarianism is never a substitute for real insight.
†Yes, I am aware of the fact that there are actually medical treatments that involve bleeding and leeches,most notably iron poisoning and reattaching limbs, it’s a metaphor.
‡But of course, we must never ever reign in our bloated wasteful Pentagon.

Motivation, and What Works

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It Sounds good, but is it true?

I know that American, or more accurately Anglo-Saxon, management styles suck. We have no better examples than the economic meltdown, the collapse of 2 of the big 3 auto makers, BP, etc.

The overpaid masters of the universe model is a failure, and I would argue that it was eminently foreseeable.

Certainly the ideas and techniques suggested here are worth a try, and in any case, the cartooning on a white board is worth the 10 minutes 48 seconds.

H/t The Big Picture

Why Aren’t The Dems Hammering This Every Day?

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Georgia Democratic Gubernatorial candidate, and former Governor, Roy Barnes, is now explaining to the voters that wingnut Republicans are more than poor stewards of the public trust, but that they they are actually an embarrassment to the people, and the state, of Georgia.

Some text from his ad:

It’s hard for industry to take us seriously when the Legislature attempts to outlaw stem cell research, passes bills about microchips in the brain, and talks about seceding from the Union.

………

We can’t bring jobs to Georgia with the rest of the country laughing at us.

An appeal to civic pride, reminding folks that these folks are f%$#ing nuts, and that we should be embarrassed that they win elections, is a simple and easily understood: They are laughing at you, not with you because of these clowns.

This is a message that can, and should, be hammered at every day until election day.

Normally, I Do Not Give Investing Advice…

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“I’m beginning to think these are regular storms,” he added, “and we have a sh%$#y boat.”

But this proposed strategy actually sounds good:

It has been a profitable first half for Contrarian Partners. Our core investment strategy remains unchanged: to mine the research produced by investment banks every six months to establish consensus trading strategies. Then trade against them.

…………

In general, though, the advice was reassuringly poor. The markets continue to reward us for listening to the experts – then doing the opposite.

Needless to say, the proposal is tongue in cheek, but the the truth is in there.

The degree to which the “Masters of the Universe” have missed every warning out there, largely because their excessive salaries and bonuses depend on missing warnings, is stunning.

If we were to take the top 100,000 bankers in the world, and send them to North Korean reeducation camps, and pay the DPRK a million dollars to house each one, both the DPRK and the rest of the world would be far better off.

H/t Barry Ritholtz.

A Marxist Analysis of the Financial Meltdown

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It’s kind of like watching a dinosaur walking down main street

There is some things here that are right, and some that are wrong, and the hard part is determining which is which, but the white-board cartoons make it entertaining. (11:10)

To be true, I’m not sure just how “Marxist” the lecturer, David Harvey is.

I really don’t know him, and this lecture really sounds a bit more Fabian Socialist than full blown Marxist, but in any case it is a new way to look at what happened, and heterodoxy is what is needed here.

H/t Felix Salmon.