Category: Video

Sikorsky X2 Powers up Propulsor

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As you can clearly see, after a few months of testing with the aircraft powering just the coaxial rotors, they are not ramping up power to the tail propulsor.

The plan is to put drag-reducing fairings on the rotor, and then slowly transition to higher speeds, which would put more and more power toward the tail thruster, with the retreating blade stall being handled by offloading the blade as it moves aft.

They want to hit about 250kts by year’s end.

Video pr0n below:

Richard B. Cheney Will You Please Go Now!

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On July 30, 1974, Art Buchwald, with permission of Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), made a column of the book, “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!”

It appears that Mr. Geisel sent his friend Buchwald a copy of the book and replaced “Marvin K. Mooney” and with “Richard M. Nixon.”

Buchwald wrote, “It sounded like fun so I asked him if I could reprint it” with the suggestion that it be read aloud.

Needless to say, do not have the writing chops of either the late Mssrs. Geisel or Buchwald, but this has to be shared.

At the bottom, is Keith Olbermann’s special comment from last night, saying the same.

“Richard B. Cheney will you please go now!
The time has come.
The time has come.
The time is now.
Just go.
Go.
Go!
I don’t care how.
You can go by foot.
You can go by cow.
Richard B. Cheney will you please go now!
You can go on skates.
You can go on skis.
You can go in a hat.
But
Please go.
Please!
I don’t care.
You can go
By bike.
You can go
On a Zike-Bike
If you like.
If you like
You can go
In an old blue shoe.
Just go, go, GO!
Please do, do, do, DO!
Richard B. Cheney
I don’t care how.
Richard B. Cheney
Will you please
GO NOW!
You can go on stilts.
You can go by fish.
You can go in a Crunk-Car
If you wish.
If you wish
You may go
By lion’s tale.
Or stamp yourself
And go by mail.
Richard B. Cheney
Don’t you know
The time has come
To go, go, GO!
Get on your way!
Please Richard M.!
You might like going in a Zumble-Zay.
You can go by balloon . . .
Or broomstick.
Or
You can go by camel
In a bureau drawer.
You can go by bumble-boat
. . . or jet.
I don’t care how you go.
Just get!
Richard B. Cheney!
I don’t care how.
Richard B. Cheney
Will you please
GO NOW!
I said
GO
And
GO
I meant . . .
The time had come
So . . .
Richard WENT.”

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Giving the Fed What For

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An exchange between freshman Congressman Alan Grayson and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Donald Kohn, where the distinguished gentleman from Florida points out the Fed is spending around $4000.00 (actually, it total, it’s closer to $20,000.00 at this point when other programs are rolled in) of taxpayer money for every man, woman, and child in the US, and refusing to provide details.

The Fed is completely out of control, and has gone native, and believes that the financial industry is the economy, and Grayson shows just how corrupt the whole process has become in this exchange.

H/T The Washington Independent.

Gaza Update

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We are getting conflicting reports on how much longer the fighting will go on, with reports of 2 more weeks, that it may end tonight, and that Hamas has rejected the cease fire terms.

We’ll know its over when its over, I guess.

Part of the reason for this is that
there appears to be a rift between Hamas in Gaza and their nominal leaders in Syria, with the latter taking a much harder line….Which is easier for them, because they, and their neighbors are not in the cross fire.

On a tactical level, we now have reports of ubiquitous recording of events on video by the IDF, on the theory that this will be an effective defense against accusations of war crimes.

This means, at the very least, that there are elements in the IDF who believe that they are following טוהר נשק, because people who believe that they are committing war crimes don’t video tape it these days.

Additionally, we have reports of extremely close coordination between UAV’s and ground forces.

This is because they are under the direct control Army, and not AF units, which is something that the US Army should note, because the USAF wants direct control of anything larger than a seagull.

I would also note that IDF armor is doing very well, unlike in Lebanon in 2006.

I think that this is because there is no longer an Air Force man as chief of staff, and so they have moved away from the US “long range PGM” model, and back to maneuver warfare.

It doesn’t hurt that their APCs are the heaviest in the world (contra the direction of the US Army with its light weight FCS manned vehicles), and that the Merkava has a number of systems, remote machine guns and a 60mm mortar, that are very effective in urban combat too.

Finally, we have a video of a trip to a missile factory.

I will note that you can hear children in background at one point, and whether this is evidence of human shield use, or simply an artifact of living with 1.5 million people in a space the size of Washington, DC, is left to the reader.

H/T Danger Room for the vid.

Also, I will post on Jeffrey Goldberg’s NY Times OP/ED later.